Three Dragon Ante, Tales of the Arabian Nights
Friends came over, and we played a couple of games. There was a long game of Three Dragon Ante, we went through the deck three times, as one of the players, despite going into debt so many, many times. He was a scrappy one, but eventually he was knocked out, and I won through the steady use a few good hands.
Then, after an unfair amount of grousing on my part, we played Tales of the Arabian Nights, and I must admit, I had a pretty good time. There was much running around the Middle East, and the completely and totally awesome defeat of the grand sultan of the djinn by Sindbad, who clearly won. My hesitance was based on the fact that while it can be a fun time, it’s not a game. It’s an activity, one that is so clogged with gameplay rhetoric that it tricks people into thinking they are making meaningful choices. You’re not, you’re at the whim of the book the entire time, and you better hope that you happen to have all the right chits.
I do enjoy the stories that are woven and the interesting things that happen to you, and I had a good time tonight, but the game just has so many issues that can make the game not fun...like being hit with a sex change spell and never being allowed to win, or given a quest that requires you to just run around the map listlessly in hopes that you might, maybe, achieve the objective. I also don’t like that it makes you choose what score you want to end on, but it’s foolish to choose any score besides 10 and 10. It just doesn’t engage me as a game...it’s a lot of fun to read and experience, but it’s not something I want to rush to play.
Friends came over, and we played a couple of games. There was a long game of Three Dragon Ante, we went through the deck three times, as one of the players, despite going into debt so many, many times. He was a scrappy one, but eventually he was knocked out, and I won through the steady use a few good hands.
Then, after an unfair amount of grousing on my part, we played Tales of the Arabian Nights, and I must admit, I had a pretty good time. There was much running around the Middle East, and the completely and totally awesome defeat of the grand sultan of the djinn by Sindbad, who clearly won. My hesitance was based on the fact that while it can be a fun time, it’s not a game. It’s an activity, one that is so clogged with gameplay rhetoric that it tricks people into thinking they are making meaningful choices. You’re not, you’re at the whim of the book the entire time, and you better hope that you happen to have all the right chits.
I do enjoy the stories that are woven and the interesting things that happen to you, and I had a good time tonight, but the game just has so many issues that can make the game not fun...like being hit with a sex change spell and never being allowed to win, or given a quest that requires you to just run around the map listlessly in hopes that you might, maybe, achieve the objective. I also don’t like that it makes you choose what score you want to end on, but it’s foolish to choose any score besides 10 and 10. It just doesn’t engage me as a game...it’s a lot of fun to read and experience, but it’s not something I want to rush to play.
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