Gamebooks

[Richard]

I suspect the Hungarian version of AoA could be written in Hungarian

Damn, I didn't think this through did I?!

[Fortnight]

I'll be at Fighting Fantasy Fest this year, but I think the book is being released after the date. If it's available there I can pick up copies of the limited version for people that want it, potentially. They're expensive though!
I have the hardback AoA and Shadow of the Giants: they're nice, but not really worth the money over the paperback versions if I'm honest with myself. AoA has nicer cover art than the paperback but SotG is identical.

That would be fantastic. I don't mind the cost so much, but it's annoying to have to pay well over the odds for ebay-seller markup. I have the hardbacks of Port of Peril, Assassins of Allansia and Shadow of the Giants, so if there are further hardbacks I'd like to get them. So far I've had to find them all on ebay, so getting one at cover price would be something of a novelty

[Barrington Boots]

Cool, lets see when it's released and we'll sort it out. I have scouted hardback Port of Peril but the price is mental and I have heard the book is poor: if I'm throwing silly money at eBay I'd rather buy Howl of the Werewolf!

Damn, I didn't think this through did I?!

Buy a copy of each, tear out the better art and glue it over the existing art. Sorted!

[Barrington Boots]

Funnily enough, I was just skimming the PDF of You Are The Hero from the recent Kickstarter and there's mention of the Hungarian art being comissioned because the publishers felt the art for the UK editions was aimed at the YA market, but the market in Hungary was for adults on a nostalgia trip (like us)

[Richard]

I wish publishers would move away from this idea that children want all their art to be cartoony and dull! We had Russ Nicholson doing our books when we were growing up and it never did us any harm (*suddenly spasms and drools*).

[Fortnight]

the publishers felt the art for the UK editions was aimed at the YA market, but the market in Hungary was for adults on a nostalgia trip (like us)

I also saw that when skimming through my PDF (not going to read it properly until the print version arrives though). They seem to be aiming at the children's market. Playing it too careful.

I wish publishers would move away from this idea that children want all their art to be cartoony and dull! We had Russ Nicholson doing our books when we were growing up

If the fundie Christians aren't getting their knickers in a twist about it, they're not doing it right.

[Barrington Boots]

Master of Chaos

Another new one to me. Took me a while to get round to this as the title / plot all sounded a bit generic and cool as the cover art is (a great Les Edwards two headed crocodile man) it all sounded a bit meh. I was a fool to think this. It's by Keith Martin, who is of course Carl Sargent, and its just as good as his previous two.

Interesting set up in this one: you play a badass adventurer of some renown, called in by some council or wizards to help retrieve a powerful magic staff: the staff of rulership that can unify the normally warring forces of evil and thus raise an army than threatens the world etc etc. This is all generic FF stuff, but the wizard councils awesome plan is to send me to the continent of Khul (an evil place!) to find the staff in the lost city of Kabesh, and to send me there by having me pressganged as a galley slave aboard a slaver ship. All I have to do is survive the voyage, then escape, gear up, cross a desert to find Kabesh and then find the staff / kill off Shanzikuul (the evil wizard dude who stole the staff) and save the world.
There's some nonsense about how Shanzikuul would detect a wizard getting near his base so an attempt must be made in stealth and so on but seriously, this is the best idea the wizard council can come up with? Absolute pants. No wonder they lost the staff.
To show my heroic stature at the start of the book I can choose three of six skills. I go with Animal Wisdom, as it mentions I can use it to ride camels, and tracking as it seems thematic with the former choice. Lastly I choose Blindsight as that sounds incredibly useful.
There's a new stat in this one too called notoriety, which I have to stop getting too high in case anyone gets wind of my plan.

Anyway, the book starts with me chained up in the hold of the slave ship whilst a brutal overseer is whipping one of my fellow slaves to death, and with me losing 3 points of stamina in paragraph one due to the poor conditions. I try and keep my head down over the journey and endure regular kickings. The first time I respond I am, of course, immediately executed.
Second attempt: I endure my beating without responding, which slowly erodes my stamina but ensures remain non-notorious (and alive). Eventually the ship is attacked by a kraken: I have the option of running away but instead I leap to the aid of the villainous captain Shagrot and with the Kraken fought off I am rewarded with some slightly better treatment and stop losing stamina points every paragraph. Once within sight of land I and another slave take the opportunity to do a bunk and pretty soon I'm standing in the port of Ashkyros, ready to begin my quest!
Or sort of ready, anyway. I've got no weapons or armour and only 8gp (half of which from the sale of the purloined rowboat we escaped on) and whilst I have two meals worth of hardtack, there's a strong implication this won't get me far.

The city itself is a hub of six districts, each of which I can visit as many times as I like, which is a nice RPG-ish way to plan things. Here I'm told my notoriety (currently zero) ever hits 8 I have started to draw to much attention and have to leave at once, so I need to be careful about what I do. I foolishly decide to start off in the docks, as that's where I am, and immediately run into Captain Shagrat who draws steel on me. I have no weapon, and I'm also being attacked by a parrot at the same time. Death ensues!

[Barrington Boots]

Third attempt: I head instead to the Warehouse district as that sounds adjacent to docks, but less full of people who might recognise me. Here I'm able to use my tracking skills to help a merchant recover his lost goods - he rewards me, and then offers me a days labour moving crates about, which earns me 10 gold in total and a place to rest for a nice stamina boost (needed, after the journey).
Sticking in this district I'm approached by a dodgy looking dude called Vesper who wants me to help him out with a heist. I'm not sure about this: I need money badly, but I also need to avoid any undue attention. In the end I decide to risk it. He gives me some coins to hang out in the afternoon drinking tea at a cafe and then in the evening my blindsight skill comes in very useful for avoiding patrols as we break into a warehouse and steal a load of saffron. Vesper invites me back to his place for some wine - he also feeds his cat, which makes me well inclined to this guy as nobody who has a cat can be bad surely? We hang out a bit and he tells me not to go back to the warehouse district, but if I wanted to I could find work with a Necromancer in the Old Quarter - a job he himself turned down as it seemed a bit off. Finally he says a Dark Elf was seen in town yesterday trying to buy passage to the exact same place I am going. Hmmm. Looks like someone wasn't keeping their notoriety in check.

Leaving Vesper I head to the markets and flog my stolen sacks of saffron for 15gp so now I feel pretty loaded and ready to buy gear. The market is very much a stereotypical fantasy-desert bazaar, full of exotic races selling exotic wares. Wandering the markets in search of a weapons dealer I instead find a guy mistreating a little mongoose on a leash, kicking it and cursing it. He says it's supposed to do tricks but doesn't do any for him no matter how horrible he is to it, and he then offers to sell it to me, saying I could make it into both a pie and a pair of gloves! Obviously I buy it along with a whistle to summon it. "Thanks, I'm a talking mongoose" says the mongoose. Seems legit! The mongoose introduces himself as Jesper and says we're sure to be great friends unlike his previous owner and then suggests we explore the markets together.
Jesper is a great companion, both chatty and helpful. For starters he suggests we buy a couple of manky looking eggs and stick them in the sun: of course, they hatch into some little birds than we then sell on at great profit - although my notoriety ticks up as I hang about in the bazaar chatting to a mongoose. Jesper then suggests we go to Entertainers Square where he'll do some tricks for cash, and then he'll head off alone across town to visit a lady mongoose and I can link up with him later using the whistle. This seems fair, but he seems so glum about doing the tricks when we arrive that I tell him we don't need to (we have a good amount of cash now) and he shoots off, but not before biting a merchant on the leg and causing him to drop his purse which I scoop up.
There's nothing else to do hear but fight a gladiator, which seems the sort of thing I should avoid if I want to stay undercover, so I depart for the shop district and buy a sword, armour, a crossbow and assorted adventuring tat, plus a camel (expensive, but I'm able to haggle the price down with my animal knowledge skill). I'm now pretty broke but also geared up so I head to the docks and kick the daylights out of captain Shagrat and nick his magic scimitar - although this boosts my notoriety up again.
I need more money, so I try the Old Quarter where Vesper tipped me off about the necromancer job, picking up a small cash reward en route for helping a stevedore with his anxious mule. There's a gambling hall here but I don't fancy it (in retrospect, this is where Vesper told me where to go to meet the necromancer) and the first pub I try is rowdy and contains some guys obviously trying to drug and mug me. The second bar is more high class and I'm sitting awkwardly in it when I see something dodgy happening out back. I nip out and take on some thieves but eventually the militia arrive and lacking the climbing skill to bunk over the rooftops I get arrested and it's game over again.

Fourth attempt: I start again in the bar, ignore the robbers, but there's nothing else happening here besides earning a small bit of coin for helping a drunk guy get home. The next day it's back to the shops where I can flog my sword, buy a few herbs and some food and then i head to the magic shop - it's packed with cool stuff but I generate notoriety just for entering it, which pushes my notoriety to eight and the book states I have to leave the city at once. There's just time to link back up with Jesper, who dances excitedly at the prospect of an arduous trip through a desert to a horrible lost city, and then it's time to mount up the camel and get out of there!

To be continued...

[Richard]

Jesper is brilliant isn't he?

Your write-up is reminding me of how much fun this book is, I should give it another read soon. I'm looking forward to seeing how you do next!