PLAYED FOR YOU

Winter Tales

ALice versus Snow white

Winter Tales is a story-telling game; as a player you are a member of one of two faction and either represent one of the characters fighting for the return of Spring or you are one of the Soldiers of Winter who wants to extinguish all remnants of Hope.  Each game is different, as you always tell a new story with a jointly created story line. Players should weave the stories of their characters into a joint sequence of events and accept and integrate ideas and suggestions.

At the start you decide on a faction, in case on an odd number of players one player takes up the role of Writer who represents characters from both factions.

Each chapter is divided into turns, in which players activate characters and try to complete quests; for this you play cards and use the images as fonts for ideas; for a completed quest there must be more cards played for the faction of the active player than for the opposing one; other players can step in, initiate battles or spring traps in order to hinder the active player. Each completed quests becomes a Memory which influences the course of the game. When there are enough Memories the Epilogue is triggered and who wins the Epilogue wins the game.

This is a game that you must try out, to describe the rules or the game itself would result in another story; components and details are overwhelming, familiar characters like Pinocchio or Dorothy, come back from Oz, populate Wintertown and you need quite some gaming experience and a lot of creativity to tell a coherent, successful story. One cannot really tell about the game, the game will reveal its flair only properly when you play it!

Players: 3-7

Age: 10+

Time: variable

Designer: Matteo Santos, Jocularis

Artist: Hide, Jocularis, Fab

Price: ca. 40 Euro

Publisher: Albe Pavo 2012

Web: www.wintertalesboardgame.com

Genre: Story telling game

Users: For experts

Special: Many players

Version: multi

Rules: en it

In-game text: no

Comments:

Exceedingly beautiful design

Hard to describe, best experienced by playing it

Drawings on the card provide material for stories

Game play depends on the players

Compares to:

Fabula, Role Playing games, Once Upon A Time, but basically first game of its kind

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 0

Tactic (turquoise): 1

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 3

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 3

Communication (red): 3

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0