The Palio

An edutainment storygame by juggler

Player Rating4.48/8

"#389 overall, #16 for 2001"

Based on 141 ratings since 12/14/2004
Played 1,710 times (finished 193)

Story Difficulty3/8

"Trek through the forest"

Play Length2/8

"So short yo' momma thought it was a recipe"

Maturity Level3/8

"Must be at least this tall to play"

Contains content that may not be suitable for persons under age 10. If this were a movie, it would probably be between G and PG.

Tags

Historical

Serious

The year is 1882. The event is the Palio, a spectacular horse race that has been held annually in Siena, Italy, for hundreds of years. In the Palio, ten of Siena's neighborhood organizations (called "contrade") sponsor horses in the race. In this game, you are the leader of Chiocciola ("Snail") contrada. As the leader of the contrada, it is your responsibility to make sure that your district wins the Palio.

For hundreds of years, another contrada, the Tartuca ("Turtle"), has been your district's archrival. Tartuca will stop at nothing to make sure that your district's horse loses the race. You must not let them succeed. In the world of the Palio, sportsmanship is a relative term. Bribery, sabotage, secret alliances, and intimidation of opponents are standard operating procedure. You are playing to win. Any necessary means may be employed.

Player Comments

This was some pretty good writing. It was engaging and I didn't encounter any obvious errors with the grammar, so good work on some rather precise and cohesive writing. The choices were interesting, requiring some thought and strategy as to what would be the more favorable choice to pick for victory.

But something that I did notice were how similar the paths were overall,I would have liked to see all of my choices leading towards the race having a bigger impact on the day of the race. It seemed like only the last few choices determined the result of the race, so it really feels like there's an illusion of choice in this storygame and that's somewhat unfortunate, because the writing is quite enjoyable.

I enjoyed the use of pictures in this storygame, they fit well with both the setting and story. And although this isn't the longest story by any means, its definitely one that feels complete in its presentation.

My only suggestion would be to make the choices feel more impactful at the end of your story, because as far as the technical sense goes with writing and setting up a tone for the story, you indeed do those things well.

Overall, this was an enjoyable storygame in my opinion.

— TharaApples on 3/27/2017 12:13:48 AM with a score of 0

It was pretty good. I definitely learned more about The Palio than I ever needed or wanted to know. Now I just need to find a situation to ever apply this newfound knowledge

— Yummyfood on 11/5/2024 4:06:16 AM with a score of 0

This was an enjoyable quick game! I like the variety of choices along with learning about something new. 6/8

— bondogggle on 11/3/2021 6:29:55 PM with a score of 0

This was honestly pretty fun. Very short but a fine five minute diversion.

— ugilick on 4/11/2021 9:27:06 PM with a score of 0

This was a fun story

— H1GH_C0NF3SS0R on 12/5/2019 1:53:02 PM with a score of 0

Yaay! I'm the bomb diggety! I won. Lotta fun! Ty, game auhor!

— Quorrah on 1/12/2017 12:25:54 AM with a score of 0

very enjoyable. it wasn't at all obvious what answer to pick. I had a lot of fun playing this

— annaisawesome on 6/28/2016 5:20:00 PM with a score of 0

That was great. I won!!!

— koolkat2023 on 2/14/2016 6:54:20 PM with a score of 0

It was a lot of fun and I loved it. I think that maybe you could have added the player to be a little bit more involved in the actual race.