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  • Up Your Game
  • Tales of the Arabian Nights - The Sultan's Quest Variant

Tales of the Arabian Nights - The Sultan's Quest Variant

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U Updated
Tales of the Arabian Nights - The Sultan's Quest Variant
There Will Be Games

When Z-Man published Tales of the Arabian Nights, they left out the Adventure Variant from the original game. In my personal opinion this means they left out the game part of the game. As Zev has pointed out to me, it's my own fault, since when he was asking for input on how to overhaul the game, my peeps and I never spoke up. I'm making up for that now by giving you this variant so you can put the game back into Tales of the Arabian Nights

Maybe someday Z-Man will release this as a small card expansion. If that ever happens, I will take down this article and the attached file. It's a pretty ugly looking file anyway, and it would be nice to have pretty cards instead. Plus, I left out one quest, so it is not complete. I hope Zev doesn't mind this being up here. I also hope that it will add a bit more zing to your game of Tales of the Arabian Nights and lessen the whining about there being no meaningful choices in Tales of the Arabian Nights.


Print out the attached page of Sultan's Quests (#1300 - #1323). (It's at the very bottom of this page just above the comments section) Cut it up into individual quests. Slip the quests into opaque card sleeves. They are only about half the height of a regular card sleeve, but that's not a problem because when you use them, you are going to be staggering them face up on top of each other. Obviously if you want to put more effort into making nice cards, you can.

 

Tales of the Arabian Nights - The Sultan's Quest

The Sultan of Bagdad has sent each player on a great quest for a magical treasures, or a cure for his dying daughter, or a wife, or his lost puppy (use your imagination, it's a story telling game). The first player to complete 2 Sultan Quests (1 for a shorter game) and return to Bagdad wins the game.

Play by the normal rules in the Z-Man edition of Tales of the Arabian Nights except as follows:

  • Story Points and Destiny Points have no bearing on winning the game. Skip the part about deciding your Victory Formula.
  • Don't use the Quest Cards included in the Z-man edition. (Okay, if you want to use them you can, but keep in mind that they are Personal quests, and have nothing to do with the Sultan's quests. Personal quests don't count towards winning the game).
  • To gain Master Level Skills, you must have at least 7 Destiny Points.
  • At 5 Story points, gain Storytelling instead of 1 talent level skill of your choice.
  • At 9 Story points, gain 1 talent level skill of your choice.
  • Shuffle the Sultan Quest cards. Deal one to each player and place the remainder in a face down draw deck. Each player puts their Sultan's Quest card face up in their player area.
  • If the Sultan Quest draw deck is ever exhausted, shuffle the discard pile to replenish it.

 

Each Sultan's Quest card has:

  • A die roll result table on the bottom half. You will be rolling ONE 6-sided die against this table to attempt to get a Q:S (Quest Success) to complete your quest.
  • A character printed in bold at the top. This character might have what the Sultan seeks or may be able to refer you to a character who does.
  • SPECIAL followed by a die modifier, such as Piety +1 Tal/+2 Mas. This means that when rolling against the results table on the card, you add 1 to your die roll if you have Piety skill at talent level, add 2 if you have Piety at the Master Level.
  • FOUND IN followed by the names of cities or type of space. This is where you will find the this character. (Note: the numbers on the Z-Man are white, instead of black).

 

Travel to any one of the locations listed next to FOUND IN on your Sultan's Quest card. When you arrive at that location, do NOT draw a card from the encounter deck. Instead you will encounter the character on your Sultan Quest card. You may either roll ONE six-sided die against the quest table printed on the card to try to complete your quest, or you may choose to extend your quest.

Choosing to Extend your Sultan's Quest

  • Do not roll a die.
  • The character on your Sultan's Quest card doesn't have what you seek, but instead refers you to someone else.
  • Draw a card from the top of the Sultan's Quest deck.
  • Put this new card on top of your current Sultan's Quest card(s). (Stagger it slightly so you can see how many cards you have in your Sultan's Quest pile).
  • This new card is now your current quest. You are now seeking the character on this new top card.

 

As noted on the Sultan Quest cards, you receive +1 to your die roll when attempting to complete a Sultan's Quest for each card in your quest pile in addition to the current (top) one. So if you have three cards in your pile (current quest card plus two underneath it) you would add +2 to your die roll. You will also note that the lowest possible modified die result to get a Q:S (Quest Success) result is a 6. You will also note that results 1-5 are nasty. Therefore choosing to extend your quest rather than roll the die might be to your advantage.

Attempting to Complete your Sultan's Quest

  • Roll ONE six-sided die
  • Add any applicable modifiers (the SPECIAL on your current quest card and +1 for each additional card in your pile)
  • Look up the results on the results table and apply them.
  • If the results include a Q:X (quest extend) you were unsuccessful. Extend your quest. Immediately draw the top card from the Sultan's Quest deck and put it on top of your quest pile.
  • If the results include a Q:S (quest success) you have completed your quest. Put all the cards in your quest pile into the discard pile. If this is your first quest, draw a card from the top of the Sultan's Quest deck to start your second quest.

Don't forget, after completing your second quest, you have to return to the Sultan in Bagdad to win the game.

Variants:

For a shorter game: The first player to complete ONE quest and return to Bagdad wins the game.

For a slightly more difficult game: Whenever you draw a Sultan's Quest card, you must immediately choose one of the locations listed on the card as the space where the character will be found. Place your destination marker on that location.

For a nasty and more difficult game: Whenever you draw a Sultan's Quest card, your opponents must immediately choose one of the locations listed on the card as the space where the character will be found. Place your destination marker on that location. (Warning, this can result in a very long game)

For a moderately more difficult and only slightly more nasty game: You pick the locations when on your first quest. Your opponents pick the locations when on your second quest.

Hope this all makes sense. If you have any questions just ask.

Note: You must be logged in to see the files to download. They are located in the down loads section just above the comments section, but below the ads.

 

There Will Be Games
Shellie "ubarose" Rose  (She/Her)
Managing Editor & Web Admin

Plays boardgames. Drinks bourbon. Writes code.

Articles by Shellie

 

Shellie "ubarose" Rose
Managing Editor & Web Admin

Articles by Shellie

 

Attachments:
Download this file (TotAN_Sultans_Quest_Cards.png)Sultan Quest Cards[ ]1769 kB
Log in to comment

Timobe's Avatar
Timobe replied the topic: #201888 05 May 2015 15:30
I fail to see the files to download, can someone help me ?
ubarose's Avatar
ubarose replied the topic: #201890 05 May 2015 18:28
The files got moved when we upgraded the site. I'm on vacation for about another week. I'll get them back up when I get back, and message you when they are up.
Timobe's Avatar
Timobe replied the topic: #201909 06 May 2015 07:30
Thank you very much ! (The french version of that game just came out, so many people are going to test that sultan quest)
ZMan's Avatar
ZMan replied the topic: #201941 06 May 2015 15:45
I do not mind, Uba. Glad to see it still alive - and the interest in Tales is still high which is fantastic.

Unfortunately the Merchant variant was left out as well: I asked for help on that one as well and the person who was supposed to help with the project bailed. And as I stated elsewhere, I had to jump in and finish the project, including writing a bunch of paragraphs and then going through every paragraph to make sure they fit, even peripherally (I couldn't change too much without the possibility of causing a major break somewhere else and I didn't have to recheck again and again after each possible change). So if I thought the paragraph worked I left it or made a slight character reference change.

Zev
gjaros's Avatar
gjaros replied the topic: #202892 24 May 2015 22:49
I'd also love to have the files for this. I hope they're available again soon!
ubarose's Avatar
ubarose replied the topic: #202904 25 May 2015 12:53
The card file is up on the article and in the first post of the discussion thread.
iguanaDitty's Avatar
iguanaDitty replied the topic: #218496 29 Dec 2015 10:53
So my wife and I played this the other day for the first time and had a great time. The only confusion was that a lot of the quests refer to spaces with "black numbers" and we couldn't figure out what that referred to.
It went very quickly but we didn't pick each others' locations so maybe we'll do that next time.
Thanks Uba!
PapaJosuke's Avatar
PapaJosuke replied the topic: #305245 18 Dec 2019 20:16
Hello,

Is the download for these quest still available? The one attached to the forum post is incredibly small and unreadable.
ubarose's Avatar
ubarose replied the topic: #305259 18 Dec 2019 22:54
The attachment should be visible to you now on the article page. You can download it from there.