It was a winter night in 2006. I remember I was driving back home, after spending an evening with friends. I don't remember exactly what board game we tried that night, maybe some Avalon Hill game. I was used to spending some evenings every month with Gomez and Teo, two dear friends: it was pleasant to share our cold winter hours in the Po Valley warmed up by the gas heater in a disused premises at our disposal.
It must have been one of those nights that I first thought of a board game in which players built a collaborative story using characters of the traditional fables revisited in a “twisted” way (though I have prior memories, even if vague and lost in my childhood past).
The initial idea couldn’t have been so particularly brilliant, but reading the chosen fables again (Pinocchio, The Wizard of Oz, Alice, etc..) I suddenly realized that we could go even higher: events narrated in the stories were often cruel and sad, sometimes joyful, but always intense and never predictable. I watched Tim Burton’s movies again to try to catch a style. In the same period the TV played a series of documentaries on Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, and the main theme was always the incredible power of control and coercion wielded by regime propaganda and their force to suffocate hope and liberty. WT elements were all present already, though the shape was confused and unclear.
I decided to stick down a draft of the game: at first it was a Narrativist cooperation in which players could control Fables fighting against the Regime. As to components, the idea I'm most proud of is Narration cards: it was one of the first ideas that came into my mind and was subject to very few alterations. I must thank first of all the two young drawers (ages 8 and 5) who designed most of the cards. Their contribution is still today the heart of the game.
Concerning the game, the narration part has always been the pulse of Winter Tales. I can't even say how many plots we narrated during play testing, but I can say for sure they have become more and more intense, involving and efficient while we strengthened and enriched the narrative part of the game. It is fantastic that the game developed depending on the mood of that particular evening and especially on the character and cultural “style” of each player: some preferred the “dark” side, others the “pulp” one, others concentrated on the romantic aspect, others on war and regime oppression; some couldn't even avoid a humorous implication, creating unusual but extremely funny sessions. The Plot was always a perfect mixture of the players' narrative styles. This has always been good to me. However, among all the most vivid memories I have in my mind, still today there is that car trip in that winter night, on a dark provincial road while it was snowing, through the window: from that night, the snow didn't stop falling. The last thought about this new adventure goes to my dear friend Gomez, as usual.
It must have been one of those nights that I first thought of a board game in which players built a collaborative story using characters of the traditional fables revisited in a “twisted” way (though I have prior memories, even if vague and lost in my childhood past).
The initial idea couldn’t have been so particularly brilliant, but reading the chosen fables again (Pinocchio, The Wizard of Oz, Alice, etc..) I suddenly realized that we could go even higher: events narrated in the stories were often cruel and sad, sometimes joyful, but always intense and never predictable. I watched Tim Burton’s movies again to try to catch a style. In the same period the TV played a series of documentaries on Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, and the main theme was always the incredible power of control and coercion wielded by regime propaganda and their force to suffocate hope and liberty. WT elements were all present already, though the shape was confused and unclear.
I decided to stick down a draft of the game: at first it was a Narrativist cooperation in which players could control Fables fighting against the Regime. As to components, the idea I'm most proud of is Narration cards: it was one of the first ideas that came into my mind and was subject to very few alterations. I must thank first of all the two young drawers (ages 8 and 5) who designed most of the cards. Their contribution is still today the heart of the game.
Concerning the game, the narration part has always been the pulse of Winter Tales. I can't even say how many plots we narrated during play testing, but I can say for sure they have become more and more intense, involving and efficient while we strengthened and enriched the narrative part of the game. It is fantastic that the game developed depending on the mood of that particular evening and especially on the character and cultural “style” of each player: some preferred the “dark” side, others the “pulp” one, others concentrated on the romantic aspect, others on war and regime oppression; some couldn't even avoid a humorous implication, creating unusual but extremely funny sessions. The Plot was always a perfect mixture of the players' narrative styles. This has always been good to me. However, among all the most vivid memories I have in my mind, still today there is that car trip in that winter night, on a dark provincial road while it was snowing, through the window: from that night, the snow didn't stop falling. The last thought about this new adventure goes to my dear friend Gomez, as usual.
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