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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 q...
Tales of the Arthurian Knights is a charming, cooperative storytelling game with an excellent storybook and satisfying character progression. It's perfect for groups who want an immersive, narrative-focused evening and don't mind dice swings. The main drawbacks are heavy luck dependence and limited strategic interaction, so it's less suited to players seeking competitive tactics or deep planning. Worth a play for fans of narrative co-ops, but replay value is moderate.
Tales of the Arthurian Knights is a cooperative, narrative-heavy adventure for 1–4 players designed by Eric Goldberg and Andrew Parks and published by WizKids (I). We played it as a two-player session with both of us brand-new to the game, and we even scheduled an extra gaming night specifically to give it the time it deserves. The box promises quests, exploration, and medieval storytelling, and that's exactly what you get: a board to move your knight around, a large story book where the scenarios live, dice to resolve tests, and a stack of cards that link locations to story passages.
If you like Tales of the Arabian Nights, this scratches a similar itch. The mechanics are straightforward: move, draw a card, read the corresponding passage from the storybook (often by another player), pick a skill to test, roll the die, then read the outcome and any rewards. It's a game for people who want a shared narrative experience. The target audience is players 12+ who enjoy cooperative storytelling, immersive theme, and light-to-medium complexity. For groups that want tense competitive tactics or deep engine-building, this isn't the right match. For groups that want to role-play and build a little legend out of a quiet, focused evening (we played in a very quiet, focused setting), it's a delightful, if occasionally luck-swingy, experience.
Setup was refreshingly quick — we were through everything in about 5–10 minutes. Most of the setup time was just sorting the cards and finding the right place in the storybook when a card pointed us there. The learning method was a combination of reading rules and learning by doing; because we were all new to the game, having the storybook and a reference helped us get going without heavy rule-lawyering.
Component quality is solid. The standout component is the large, well-produced storybook: thick paper, clear printing, and a satisfying heft when you lift it. The artwork is good and functional; it supports the theme without being overloaded. There were no component issues in our session. Iconography was mostly clear with only minor accessibility hiccups — occasionally the card-to-book references take a second to match up, but nothing that derailed a turn. Setup felt like preparing a play, not assembling a complicated engine, which fits the game's goal.
Gameplay revolves around moving your knight across the map to encounter locations, drawing a card that points to a story passage, and then resolving that passage through a skill test and die roll. One fun social twist: often the book passage is read by another player, which encourages listening and keeps everyone involved even when it's not their turn. We had several moments when the narration made everyone laugh — a few passages are unexpectedly humorous — and those moments became our favorite shared memories.
Mechanically, the game is simple: choose a skill, roll the die, and read the outcome. Passing tests lets your character grow — you gain new skills, renown, and sometimes tangible rewards that change future tests. I particularly enjoyed the sense of progression: passing a string of tests and watching a knight get stronger felt genuinely satisfying. However, this also exposes the game's main tension: it's heavily luck-driven. Our session featured a handful of unlucky rolls that felt deflating because there's little you can do tactically to mitigate bad luck. The designers included variable player powers and a contracts system that can direct the team's goals, but in practice the results still hinge on dice.
Player interaction is present but modest. You're cooperating, sharing the story, and celebrating successes, but there's minimal back-and-forth decision warfare or negotiation. That suits the theme — the game is about tales and exploration, not betrayal or tight competitive maneuvering — but it also means players who crave strategic depth or inter-player tactics may find it thin. Downtime is moderate: while one player is resolving a lengthy story passage, others wait and listen, which can be rewarding because the narration is part of the point, but it can also lead to lulls if the group prefers nonstop, interactive turns.
Theme integration is excellent. The book and the act of reading passages make the medieval fantasy feel alive. Every decision feels like it forward-steps a story rather than a set of abstract mechanics. We encountered passages that hooked us emotionally and others that were just plain funny; passing skill tests and seeing your knight earn renown perfectly matched the Arthurian feel.
Overall I rate Tales of the Arthurian Knights a solid 7/10. The game delivered on its promise of immersive storytelling and cooperative adventure. We scheduled an extra night specifically for this game and didn't regret the time; the session ran almost three hours but felt just right for what the game aims to be. The strongest elements are the storybook (excellent production), the satisfying arc of character growth, and the social moments that come from reading and reacting to weird or funny passages.
On the downside, the game leans heavily on chance. A few bad die rolls can make an otherwise promising arc feel disappointing because there's little tactical depth to recover from bad luck. Replay value is moderate — I suspect you'll enjoy it a few times, but after repeated plays some quests and characters might start to feel familiar. If I could change one thing, I'd like more meaningful choices or tactical options that reward planning rather than pure luck.
Who should play it? Play this if you want a cooperative storytelling session with strong theme, a well-crafted storybook, and a relaxed focus on narrative over mechanics. Skip it if you want competitive play, deep strategy, or tightly controlled outcomes. I'd play it again — probably once more with friends who enjoy storytelling co-ops — but it's not an every-weekend title. For the right group, on the right night, it makes for an evocative, fun evening of Arthurian tales.