Games
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The Bazaar is not so much a sea of humanity as a raging river in flood. The torrents of people flow through the breakwaters of the stalls and tents, spilling into eddies and still pools, overflowing into side streets and dank alleys, always in motion.
The rush of commerce is all about as sellers and buyers haggle over the prices of worthless baubles as well as exquisite rarities. Tears rain down from the eyes of merchants who, by their own confession, are dooming their families to lives of poverty by allowing themselves to be talked into selling their wares at such an unfair discount.
On a rooftop terrace, three recline upon couches among the cultivated greenery. They ignore the roar of the humanity below as they sip from delicate cups. They like their coffee as they do their themes, strong and dark.
It's F:AT Thursday.
Our number was three this week. Uba, Al, and I met at the Rose Secret Lair for gaming. Where was Josh Look? Unknown. He was quite vague as to his whereabouts but I don't think I'm alone in suspecting that he was out in his makeshift Batman costume riding around the streets on his 3-speed "Mary Poppins" bicycle bringing dark justice to the ne'er-do-wells of the farm town where he lives.
Tales of the Arabian Nights was the game of choice tonight. I was Ali Babba. The unwitting bane of the Forty Thieves. I was on a journey to a far away city to claim the inheritance I had been promised by an unmet relative. It was a rough journey for as soon as I set sail the captain of the ship attempted to enslave me. In the ensuing battle I was crippled by a sword cut to the leg.
The captain then threw me overboard where I thought I would perish but Allah, his name be praised, saw fit to wash me up on the shores of the very shores of the city I wished to reach.
Imagine my surprise when I was told that there was no inheritance here for me and that I should "make like a tree and get the hell 0ut of here", as they executor of my relative's estate put it.
So I headed back towards Bagdad when I was captured by Fire Worshipers who locked me in a trunk but I was rescued by the timely appearance of a young soldier in service to the Pasha....
Meanwhile, Uba as Scheherazade was traveling through Alexandria where she ran afoul of the local authorities and was thrown into the dungeons of the city. She attempted to sweet talk a wicked guard and received a beating for her trouble. She attempted to play sick so that a foolish guard would free her but only earned herself a whipping. She attempted to chat up a friendly guard and he nattered on with his stories until she went insane. Finally with her sentence served she was given one final beating which crippled her and she was set free...
Al, playing as Aladdin, started the game, for some reason, eating potstickers in an Irish Pub. He needed to get back to Bagdad with gifts for the Pasha so that he might be allowed to take the Princess out on a date. Things went well for Al as he found fabulous treasures including the coveted Brass Horseman. However, he fell in love with a gangster's girlfriend. So much so that he abducted her only to find out she was really a self absorbed jerk. So he ditched her and proceeded to Bagdad where he won the favor of the Princess and the game.
Tales of the Arabian Nights is often called an "experience" game which I suppose means that you have little direct impact on whether you win or lose. To an extent that may be true but as Uba, who has played this game many many times, said, once you get to know the game you can guess which actions are more likely to result in certain outcomes.
I don't think I'll ever get to play the game enough to reach that level. But it doesn't really matter. I like this game. It's fun to play and always results in laughing and joking and elaboration on the horrible things that have happened to you.
I always thought that the game was a little long when I had played it before and Al mentioned that the bidding for story/destiny points at the beginning of the game was a little lame. We quickly house ruled that combined story/destiny points in any combination equaling 15 would result in victory. This eliminated both gripes and made the game just the right length.
In the bull session portion, the conversation stumbled onto the subject of Castles of Burgundy. The only fun this game has ever provided me is an opportunity to creatively mangle it's original German name into such bastardizations as "Blagle fon Blugleblart".
Not to say it's a bad game. Certainly it gets played a ton by friends of ours who adore games with no soul. But to me, it is an embodiment of all that is wrong with spreadsheet, multi-player solitaire, smug smiling, efficiency optimization, games. It's a drag. A boring boring drag.
This led to a discussion about what is the most horrid Euro game ever. Contenders where Manchu Pichu, Leonardo Divinci, and Bohnanza. This last is not technically a Euro but when the words "game" and "hate" come into close proximity, Al unconsciously blurts out the name of this bean farming extravaganza.
