Tales of Arabian Nights Review - with Tom Vasel

[@rkcpek]

I've played this game. It was fun.The verbal component was a blast. I honestly believe that implementing this storybook concept to Jumanji could put the 'movie magic' back into the game. Where the initial dice roll isn't how many spaces you move your piece, but what questions are asked in the story book. That and you could make the visual game board more true to the movie.

[@rkcpek]

I would love to see this style of game applied to H.P. Lovecraft's universe.

[@Irraptured]

That would be everything I ever wanted!

[@MommaofLukas]

Betrayal Legacy comes close

[@singingsimon]

This is so similar to Eldritch and Arkham Horror! 😃

[@Haldurson]

I really was a fan of the original game, so when I heard it was reprinted, I had to pick it up. As Tom said, it's 90% story and atmosphere. If you are really into strategy (which I am, sometimes), it's not going to satisfy you. But sometimes I want something that is just plain fun without the competitiveness of most other games, and I think this fits the bill.

[@Straddllw]

Holy crap. This game will be a whole lot more better with an app. All those matrices really slows the game down.

[@barbarak1850]

I really enjoyed this review, thank you for taking the time to do this! (I am so picking this game up)

[@Wishmastoras]

I just got this game to. It's absolutely original and enjoyable. I suggest this to every one who loves telling stories and wants to get out of the standard RPG board games and try something more adventurous.

[@Beckikaze]

OMG. I am from Germany, but this game is a must-buy. My playing-group has to deal with the language issues. :P But this simply looks fantastic. It seems that this game will beat Runebound, Talisman, WoW - Boardgame and Prophecy.

[@heatherNtexas]

This is the only game I've ever played that the theme actually immerses me. Love it.

[@Loehengrin]

I have the 1st edition, it is an excellent game. There is no other game like it and the new edition really adds to the production and the replability.

[@Gamingnight]

i just got this game just reading the rules. and figuring it out before we play. doesn't seem to complecated. and I think it should flow well if other players understand how it works too.

[@plmnw]

one of your best "fun" expressions here at the end :D perfect review.

[@Funcore]

🧞‍♂️ Pinball Arcade - Tales of the Arabian Nights playlist kzbin.info/www/bejne/d52cqGt6h8qEfZo

[@Stormsson]

Thank you for your reviews, i find them really useful

[@MechaJoezilla]

We finally played our first game this past weekend. In the end, 2 of the players were gonna tied but one got a sex change and he lost. A very fun time.

[@CryinJesus]

who's from 2017 laughing their ass off looking at the mustache? XD

[@TrevM]

this sounds like a pretty cool game. Are there any other notable "story-games" of this type I should be aware of?

[@KeysInSofa]

How many pages IS that book? Great review by the way, 5 stars.

[@mezzerin]

Thx for this great review. When will you post HD movies btw?

[@tobyr21]

Tom, with apologies, I shall ask you a question about this game that you played TWELVE YEARS ago. It sounds like a "make a decision and see what happens" game, something perfect for my extended family to enjoy. But: Is there any skill? Is this a game where, as you get experienced with it, you can pay it better? Thanks, - toby

[@JaKamps]

Sounds like quite the lengthy, & maybe slow moving, game! I think Once Upon A Time (3rd Edition) would be more of a group party game.

[@josiahmuckey4955]

Link to buy the game is broken...

[@MarkClarkJr]

You know, watching this video it sounds a lot more clunky then it really is. It's amazing how well the game flows once you get how it works.

[@singingsimon]

This needs to be pinned at the top😂

[@LeMayJoseph]

Sure, look into Once Upon a Time. It's a card game of making up stories to try to get to your own Happily Ever After. Also, Aye, Dark Overlord! is great fun as well, with everyone as the Overlord's goblin toadies trying to invent a crazy story as an excuse for why they failed him.

[@brandbell2927]

Ca

[@josephknightcom]

Is it fun Tom?

[@Cyberplex]

Thanks... another great review.

[@supersiamesisk]

Well, you convinced me. Now of to hunt down some arabic styled miniatures!

[@Zwiezwerg92]

Is this game published in German, too?

[@Medsas]

story telling kinda reminds me of runebound... might be totally off

[@kingplayer14]

i want this gane!!!!!

[@DarthMessias]

Okay, so is this game good or not? Comments seem to devide into people who thinks it is too clunky and people who thinks this is great and fun.

[@jonofpdx]

+DarthMessias Lmao--you just hit the nail on the head there. Is it a good game? A bad game? Well...it really is both. And I'm not even sure it IS a game in the traditional sense. The thing with Tales of Arabian Nights is that it's FANTASTIC. And I mean that literally--imaginative, fanciful and divorced from reality. And it's absolutely hilarious, with moments of incredible laughter and comedy and occasionally real drama and tension. And I have probably laughed more playing this game than I have in any other single board game I have ever played. But...not EVERY game is like that. Or perhaps worse, It's not like that for YOU every game. See, all the games mechanisms are ultimately driven by random chance. Tales gives you the FEELING of having a plethora of choices but gives you no real agency in deciding your own fate. Say you encounter a an trapped Djinn in the desert--what do you do? Well, you'll look at your list of choices and decide on...something. But it doesn't really matter. Something will happen and while it usually makes some sense in relation to what you chose to do, the outcome of your actions are almost always completely random. You may end up being zapped away across the board to the Cave of Wonders or captured by nomads and thrown in jail or cursed by an evil sorcerer. Or sex-changed. You will ALWAYS be sex-changed... And that's fine because these random experiences are happening to everyone equally and the game creates the most hilarious situations as it plays its players. This isn't a game of skill. It's barley a game at all so much as an activity. Someone will win eventually but that's just a way to end the experience and will have no baring at all on who "played better" (if that's even possible in Tales). The problem is that the game isn't JUST random. It can be unbalanced to the point of being mean. Let me give you some examples: The last time I played Tales, my girlfriend gained two conditions. One gave control of her movement to another player. Well, that was hilarious as we would all just take turns moving her away form her objective. But then she got another condition that meant that another player made her encounter decisions for her. Again, this was HILARIOUS...at first. But in practice she went two or three rounds doing NOTHING as other people played her turn for her. Or another time where I was playing and my character was thrown in jail. I tried EVERYTHING to get out. I bribed, I seduced, I pleaded, I tried to escape...nothing worked with the dice. And that was again hilarious...for a while. But in practice I was stuck in that jail for almost an hour and after a while it began to get a little frustrating. Not because I wasn't going to win (I think I DID end up winning that game, showing you how random the experience is) but because after a while it stopped being fun. And what's worse, it can stop being fun for ONE PLAYER, while everyone else is still having a great time meaning that you just have to kind of smile and pretend to have fun so you don't bring your whole group down. So is it good? Bad? I don't know. It's unbalanced as hell. And maybe a touch too long. It's also the most fun I've EVER had with a game...sometimes.

[@TheSnoopyclone]

+DarthMessias Didn't you here his tone when he said, this is a book at the 37 second mark of the video. his tone basically says, i thought this was a board game, not a damn reading session :)

[@PCOSJess]

ok you sold me

[@lextalionis2001]

but its FUN !

[@housewife2housewife93]

s😂

[@kooamon]

Very Fun game!

[@Reshme77]

i've read the real book and its really not for kids. its an arab version of kama sutra.

[@adamstewart247]

240p - wow you still exist?

[@thedicetower]

Well, I'll see if I can go back in time and give myself in 1080 in 2009. :)

[@Lufttygger306]

Lol chased by genies

[@zbmayk]

Didn't you think the arabian nights was a little racey as a kid?

[@teamgh0ul]

FFunnn

[@Lasolimu]

I hate this game. It takes forever to go around the table because your spending so much time looking things up in the book that you can walk away for 30 minutes and not miss anything. My first time playing I ended up crippled and in jail early and nothing I did could get me out. So not only was I waiting forever for my turn to come around, I couldn't really do anything on my turn either. I just wanted the game to end. I did give it another try and it was a little better, but the game was still just too random. You're encouraged to play to a certain type of character, but it doesn't matter. If I'm playing like a thief and so I have skills you'd expect and try to use them, they still don't have an impact. This game is so random, in the two games I played of it, we had an encounter with a whirlpool at the top of a mountain, it made no sense.

[@jonofpdx]

+Joseph Laser I get that. It IS super random. I kind of think it's best not to really think of it as a game with winners and losers but as a group story-telling experience. Kind of a group Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. The imprisoned status is broken. About three-quarters of possible options (factoring in dice rolls) leave you in prison without a specific ability. One of the more imbalanced effects in the game unfortunately, and this is from someone who likes it. This is one I think you really have to understand what it is going in to like it. If you go in thinking of it as a typical strategy board game you'll hate it. It's not a game at all.