Friday Night Gaming: Tales of the Arabian Nights, Neuroshima Hex!
August 7, 2009
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Merwin was psyched to play the new, improved edition from Z-Man Games. In addition to updating the graphics, the main difference in game play was adding a "destiny die," which is basically a Fudge die (two sides are blank, two are marked with "+", and two with "-"). This modifies the paragraph number you read, essentially tripling the number of different paragraphs and reducing the chance of getting a repeat. This is nice, but even in our one game, we got close to repeating a paragraph when two of us in succession encountered a "crafty sorceress." My favorite edition is the Status card, so that when your character becomes Blessed or Married or Wounded, the card clearly says what the effects are and you don't have to look them up and it reduces the chances you'll forget about them.
But I still don't like the game.
1) The paragraphs don't line up geographically with the game. In the final turn of the game, I was in Baghdad and drew the Ape Island card and suddenly I was being read a story about an island. Other players encountered lions in the middle of the sea, volcanoes in cities, etc. In a game this random, I'm willing to overlook this point.
2) They added quest cards, which give the players clear, optional goals. For example, you might have to visit three locations (chosen by other players) or find a treasure and bring it back to Baghdad. I like this. But some quests are clearly easier than others while giving the same or greater rewards in terms of earned story or destiny points, wealth levels, or status(es). In a game this random, I'm willing to overlook this point.
3) While there are optional "player versus player" rules, it's basically several players (5 in our case), sitting around a table, and passing around a giant "choose your own adventure book." It's a text adventure turned board game. But at least those books/games have a coherent story line, rather than thousands of random paragraphs that bear no connection to each other. I'm willing to overlook the randomness, but the game is too long, the stories too boring, and there is no reason (or desire on my part) to even pay attention to what someone else is doing.
The game ended up being very long and fairly close. I entered Baghdad two story points short of my goal and hoped I got a good encounter; otherwise, Ian would win on his turn. I got a lucky result, got my 2 points, and won. I've felt more accomplishment in games of tic-tac-toe.
Neuroshima Hex!
We didn't really have much time for a final game of the evening, but we pulled this out anyway. It was another 5-player free-for-all. I got a very unlucky when my base was poisoned by the Neojungle in the first turns. This meant that every time a battle started, I took a point of damage. There is no defense or cure against this. And based on the tile draws, there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. Figuring that I was doomed, I spent much of my game taking revenge on Robert. Ian and Brian did very well, using Merwin as a shield. But after I died, Robert stopped taking damage, Brian started getting hit, and Merwin was able to pull out New York's rocket launcher which did some righteous damage to Ian. As the three of them pounded on each other, Robert lasted to the end with the strongest base at 7 points (out of 20). The others were at 6, 5, and 4 hit points left. But I was still dead.
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Merwin was psyched to play the new, improved edition from Z-Man Games. In addition to updating the graphics, the main difference in game play was adding a "destiny die," which is basically a Fudge die (two sides are blank, two are marked with "+", and two with "-"). This modifies the paragraph number you read, essentially tripling the number of different paragraphs and reducing the chance of getting a repeat. This is nice, but even in our one game, we got close to repeating a paragraph when two of us in succession encountered a "crafty sorceress." My favorite edition is the Status card, so that when your character becomes Blessed or Married or Wounded, the card clearly says what the effects are and you don't have to look them up and it reduces the chances you'll forget about them.
But I still don't like the game.
1) The paragraphs don't line up geographically with the game. In the final turn of the game, I was in Baghdad and drew the Ape Island card and suddenly I was being read a story about an island. Other players encountered lions in the middle of the sea, volcanoes in cities, etc. In a game this random, I'm willing to overlook this point.
2) They added quest cards, which give the players clear, optional goals. For example, you might have to visit three locations (chosen by other players) or find a treasure and bring it back to Baghdad. I like this. But some quests are clearly easier than others while giving the same or greater rewards in terms of earned story or destiny points, wealth levels, or status(es). In a game this random, I'm willing to overlook this point.
3) While there are optional "player versus player" rules, it's basically several players (5 in our case), sitting around a table, and passing around a giant "choose your own adventure book." It's a text adventure turned board game. But at least those books/games have a coherent story line, rather than thousands of random paragraphs that bear no connection to each other. I'm willing to overlook the randomness, but the game is too long, the stories too boring, and there is no reason (or desire on my part) to even pay attention to what someone else is doing.
The game ended up being very long and fairly close. I entered Baghdad two story points short of my goal and hoped I got a good encounter; otherwise, Ian would win on his turn. I got a lucky result, got my 2 points, and won. I've felt more accomplishment in games of tic-tac-toe.
Neuroshima Hex!
We didn't really have much time for a final game of the evening, but we pulled this out anyway. It was another 5-player free-for-all. I got a very unlucky when my base was poisoned by the Neojungle in the first turns. This meant that every time a battle started, I took a point of damage. There is no defense or cure against this. And based on the tile draws, there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. Figuring that I was doomed, I spent much of my game taking revenge on Robert. Ian and Brian did very well, using Merwin as a shield. But after I died, Robert stopped taking damage, Brian started getting hit, and Merwin was able to pull out New York's rocket launcher which did some righteous damage to Ian. As the three of them pounded on each other, Robert lasted to the end with the strongest base at 7 points (out of 20). The others were at 6, 5, and 4 hit points left. But I was still dead.
Labels: Other Games
posted by Patrick at 8:35 PM
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