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In Tales of the Arthurian Knights, you are a hero or heroine in a story of adventure and awe! You and your fellows will travel the land at the behest of the renowned King Arthur. Through a series of quests, you will make impactful choices that will steer the course of your journey. Secure your place in history by achieving glorious feats, lest your efforts be doomed to obscurity. Gather your band of Knights around the table to enjoy your own epic tale as it unfolds!
Building on the mechanisms from the classic storytelling game Tales of the Arabian Nights, you now find yourself in the age of chivalry alongside Lancelot, Merlin, and many other characters from Arthurian lore. Quests will lead to glorious battles, daring rescues, and the discovery of such marvels as the Holy Grail.
As you navigate through this paragraph-driven experience, an updated victory point system will track your success. Tales of the Arthurian Knights eliminates matrixes and charts in favor of a streamlined method of dictating the paragraphs that will shape your adventure. After making your choices, a single roll plus skill bonuses will determine success or failure.
Choose your actions carefully, and you will be rewarded with skills, renown, and nobility. Choose poorly, and be scorned, cursed, or made a pariah. Bring the age of King Arthur to life in this incredibly replayable board game with a plethora of tales that are sure to challenge, amuse, surprise, and entertain!
—description from the publisher
- Effortlessly fun and quick to learn
- Excellent for solo or cooperative play with a dedicated deck
- Narrative direction is more focused and tailored than the predecessor
- Compact components with streamlined rules
- Map can look dull in pictures; larger table footprint
- Characters have no unique abilities; limited differentiation between knights
- Heavy reading load for multiplayer sessions
- No web app integration to link paragraphs directly (book of tales still paper)
- destiny, renown, chivalry
- Camelot, Round Table, Arthurian legend
- branching, paragraph-based Book of Tales
- Tales of the Arabian Knights
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Encounter deck and quest markers — Events drawn from an encounter deck; track quests with markers and tokens.
- Grand Quests and Era-based structure — Optional endgame quests and era progression that add depth.
- Locations and map exploration — Fixed map with regions and location cards that influence encounters.
- Narrative book of tales (paragraph-based choose-your-own-adventure) — Story events and outcomes are read from the Book of Tales with paragraphs guiding decisions.
- Narrative choice — Story events and outcomes are read from the Book of Tales with paragraphs guiding decisions.
- Renown and status tracks — Renown, Divinity, and Romance/Villainy tracks influence movement and scoring.
- Skill trees and leveling — Four skill groups with progression and focus, allowing upgrading a skill.
- Solo/Co-op support with dedicated decks — A deck of cards tailored for solo and cooperative play to introduce randomness.
- Tech trees — Four skill groups with progression and focus, allowing upgrading a skill.
- Time-limited afflictions — Status effects that last a limited number of turns to avoid endless penalties.
- Treasure cards and equipment — Deck of treasures granting bonuses; rarer finds are possible.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's effortlessly fun
- the stories are more directed and tailored to what you are actually expecting to encounter
- I am very happy to own both of them
- this game is effortlessly fun
- I think the stories are more directed
References (from this video)
- Story-driven decisions reminiscent of Witcher-style narrative
- Potential high replayability due to branching outcomes
- Rule complexity and learning curve
- Possible heavy setup for cruise play
- narrative consequences drive progression and rewards
- Fantasy realm with story-driven, choice-based events
- story-driven, branching outcomes
- Tales of Arabian Nights
- The Witcher
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- story/decision cards — Player decisions determine outcomes and rewards; narrative flow drives play
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- If we get enough votes, maybe we'll get a chance.
- Our bottom five, numbers 10 through six of our top 10 games we want to play on the Dice Tower cruise this year.
- No Thanks is referenced as a benchmark in the bidding/auction space.
References (from this video)
- flavorful storytelling and humor
- clear mechanism for advancing stories and character arcs
- easy to pick up with a collaborative vibe
- heavy reading/reading aloud may slow play for some groups
- could feel like a Choose Your Own Adventure-lite if flow is not managed
- narrative-driven choose-your-own-adventure style
- Arabian-inspired storytelling with mythic adventures
- story-driven with character stats and progression
- Tales of Arabian Nights
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Character progression — Characters gain stats and abilities that influence outcomes across sessions
- Choose-your-own-adventure storytelling — Cards convey story excerpts the players read and respond to as the narrative unfolds
- Narrative choice — Cards convey story excerpts the players read and respond to as the narrative unfolds
- Social/reading-paced play — Reading aloud of story text and collaborative storytelling shape outcomes
- Storytelling — Reading aloud of story text and collaborative storytelling shape outcomes
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- flowcharts are amazing
- it's not a trick taking game it's just an action resolution system using playing cards
- it's basically a Choose Your Own Adventure
- the technology tree is layered
- Moving Wild is fast, it's quick