Copincollo qui sotto, con il permesso di Meg, alcuni degli interventi presenti sul thread che ho linkato sopra. Sono in inglese, ma ora non ho modo di tradurli in italiano. Ci sono anche alcuni interventi interessanti di altre persone, ma non ho il loro consenso esplicito a postarli e, soprattutto, vedo che già stanno partecipando quasi tutte a questa discussione.
Matteo:
So, basically, I love the whole idea of a game of enticing stories, in which you get to describe sensual scenes, tasting the raisins on your tongue, burning your skin with the hot sun of the desert, marvelling your eyes in front of the coulours of the gems and the silks, breathing in cinnamom and sandal, listening to sweet voices and soft music... I really love it.
Problem is, there's a way of playing 1001 Nights, that is widespread at least in Italy, in which you play it in a very competitive mood, because you want to win (get your desire), or at least don't want to lose (get your head severed). So, there are APs of people boasting about some of their games, in which they never (for example) described the colours of things during a story, because somene bid a gem on the fact that one of the characters ended up blind after having looked directly to the sun (or something like that).
Though I find this way of playing the game also very entertaining in some ways, I noticed that it rarely makes for really enticing stories: the main focus is on the competition, so it's mostly important getting gems or preventing the others from getting gems, or strategizing to who would be better to give them.
So, what I wanted to ask is: is one of these two ways the one in which you prefer to play it? I think that the game itself could support both withouth any kind of problem, but I also think that if the players don't agree beforehand if they're playing it to win, or instead to savor the stories, it could become rapidly a mess, because they are playing for different reasons at the same table.
(Part of this problem may spring out by the fact that in a lot of games I've played in or read of people tended to focus more on the told stories and less on the life at court, so that winning or losing became a personal challenge, and not a way to explore their characters.)
Meg:
I MUCH prefer the way you intend. I have noticed play reports like you mention, and yes, one can play cut-throat social politics with the game and play to win. My hope and goal in the design, however, is to encourage stories more as you describe. Done in one way, the Court can be very martial and dangerous; in another, very comical and clownish; and in another, very sensual and lush. The key is in the description and the poetry of the players, so yes, some agreement beforehand could be useful, as could choosing who you play with. I like to play with people I can risk a little bit of actual heightened senses with, but rarely get to do this, because of convention play with unfamiliar players, often in tight time-slots and less than ideal places.