Gamebooks

[Richard]

I like that write-up! It's clear that you enjoyed this one.

[Richard]

Grey Star the Wizard

After some delay, I finally had time to start this book today, and I'm pleased to say that it exceeded my expectations. I had had some doubts about it because Joe Dever co-wrote this one with someone else (Ian Page), but it's just as good as Lone Wolf, and in one respect it's even better! It has two companions, two anti-Mungos who come along with you for a big chunk of the book, which adds a real sensation of an actual story, almost a novel, to an extent that most gamebooks fail to accomplish.

There's some pretty decent art by Paul Bonner, whose style reminds me a bit of John Blanche's work in the Sorcery! books. And there is a full colour map inside the front cover, which looks quite a lot like North America (but it's not). I always appreciate a full colour map in a gamebook!

The premise is that as an orphaned human baby, I was washed up on the shore of an island (essentially Cuba on the map) which is exclusively inhabited by non-human wizards who are forbidden to interfere in the affairs of humans. They do however wish to assassinate an evil emperor who is spreading tyranny around the world, so they spend 16 years teaching me wizard skills and then send me, on my own, to sort-of-Texas in a small boat. I'm supposed to find a lost tribe of people who are going to help me find a magical item with which to destroy the evil emperor, who is also a powerful necromancer.

Playthrough

Instead of dice, there is a table of numbers at the back of the book which you stab a pencil at with your eyes closed to generate a random number between zero and nine. I begin by generating literally the lowest possible character scores possible, saying "fuck that," and trying again. This time I get some respectable scores. There are three: Combat Skill, Endurance, and Willpower. The first two speak for themselves, and Willpower is how much magical power you have.

I am asked to choose five magical skills from a list of seven, which seems pretty generous. I go with Prophecy, Psychomancy, Evocation (which is speaking with the dead!), Alchemy, and Enchantment. I forego Sorcery (which is a powerful one but seems to deplete your willpower quickly) and Elementalism (the power to invoke the aid of unpredictable elemental creatures, which seems a bit ... unpredictable).

Arriving at the mainland for the first time in my life, I am offered the choice of sailing straight into a busy harbour or waiting for night to fall so I can stealthily slip into port undetected, under cover of darkness. Since I'm supposed to be on a clandestine secret mission, I naturally opt for the latter. This turns out to be a sneaky trap set by the writers, who knew I would do that. I have been observed waiting for the sunset, and that looks very suspicious! I am blackmailed by the harbour master, who threatens to grass me up unless I sell him my boat for half its worth. That's not as bad as it sounds though, because I don't need the boat anymore but I do need money, but it is a sign that I will have to make my choices a bit more carefully from now on.

The harbour master also gives me directions to a pub where I might be able to find out information about my quest. I go there, and promptly lose a quarter of my money bribing a totally uninformative barman, before sitting at a table with three customers and choosing the right one to speak to. He doesn't say much but he gives me some stuff which I  assume will come in handy later (it does), and then when soldiers show up I elect to leave at once so I don't get arrested. I still get arrested a short while later though (but it turns out that this is actually unavoidable, because the next section of the book takes place in a prison).

I survive a magical interrogation by a witch, who promises me that they have other ways of making me talk, and I'm taken to a cell. My new cellmates are a man I saw in the tavern, and a priest (of the same religion as my wizard friends). The priest tells us he has been here for 20 years, and then dies!

The guy from the tavern is a merchant called Shan, who I didn't speak to the last time I saw him, but I enjoyed meeting him again, because I like recurring characters in gamebooks since they're so rare. I don't know it yet, but he's actually going to be my new sidekick and a major character in the book. We are given rice to eat by a young girl who is working for the jailors and appears to be an apprentice of the nasty witch who interrogated me. She casually mentions that the witch will re-animate the dead priest's corpse as a zombie slave, which is quite a chilling scene as this child has no conception of how evil that is, given her upbringing, and just mentions it in an off-hand way like it's nothing. Her name, I learn later, is Tanith.

Tanith tells me that I am to be horribly tortured, so I begin plotting my escape. I have to choose which of the seven magical skills I'm going to use to do that. I nearly choose Evocation, because talking to the dead sounds like the coolest skill, when I realise that's actually a bad idea because if the dead priest couldn't escape for 20 years then what can he possibly tell me that's going to be of any use? (It's a shame I didn't choose this one though, because when I went back and looked at this after my playthrough it really was the coolest option! He tells you how to free the spirits of all the dead prisoners who were executed or tortured to death in this prison, and these vengeful ghosts destroy the whole fucking place and kill everyone inside it except Grey Star, Shan and Tanith!)

So, regrettably, I chose Enchantment instead. I make one of the guards think the cell is on fire, so he opens the door and lets us out, and then I kill him, take his keys and release the prisoners. Under the cover of a mass breakout, I lead my new friend Shan down a corridor and directly into the magical torture chamber they were going to take me to anyway! We are aghast to find that there are literally hundreds of corpses covering the entire floor! The room is the home of some powerful, evil magical entity which attacks me psychically. This encounter is written in such a way that I really despair of surviving it, and my adversary has some impressive stats ... but I easily slay it in the first round! What a combat system! In FF I would have been toast!

So we both run down another passageway and bump into none other than Tanith, who seems to have taken a shine to me and has brought me all my possessions which were confiscated from me when I was arrested. She shows us the way out, and I escape. I now have two companions, and they are both useful allies! Tanith turns out to be an accomplished huntress who uses her magical powers to lure unsuspecting forest animals to their doom, and Shan cooks them. Also Tanith, despite her tender years, is a professional killer who makes Arya Stark in season 8 look like Arya Stark in episode 1.1. And Shan, despite being just a merchant, still turns out to be brave and quite handy in a fight.

So I am now part of a cast of three plucky adventurers, and we're off to a good start!

This is only about half as far as I got tonight, but this entry is getting a bit long, so I'll do the rest tomorrow. I am really enjoying this book though!

[Barrington Boots]

Really enjoyed reading this, and this book sounds great! Thanks for taking the time to write it out and definitely would like to hear how the rest goes. I really like Joe Dever and Paul Bonner, so it sounds well worth me reading it.
Totally agree that companions who do not do a Mungo can really elevate a gamebook.

[Funt Solo]

Really enjoyed reading this, and this book sounds great! Thanks for taking the time to write it out and definitely would like to hear how the rest goes. I really like Joe Dever and Paul Bonner, so it sounds well worth me reading it.
Totally agree that companions who do not do a Mungo can really elevate a gamebook.

Me this also.

[Richard]

Thanks guys!

Grey Star part 2

Following our daring escape from the prison, we are pursued by two soldiers in a chariot. I fight them and kill them both, not needing any assistance from my new friends because I kill them at a distance with bolts of lightning or whatever from my wizard's staff. It's cool being a wizard!

We leave the road and trek through the forest. We spend the night in a clearing, and my grateful companions offer to let me sleep throughout the whole night while they take turns keeping watch. This feels like a trap, in that I assume I will probably be punished for sleeping when I should be doing my share, so I decline and take first watch. My punishment is that I have hardly rested by morning. Looking at what would have happened if I'd chosen to accept their offer, it turns out I would have been fully rested and would have restored some lost points. This reminds me of the start of my adventure, when I thought I could second guess the writers and was wrong. I have to remind myself that this is not a Fighting Fantasy book.

In the morning we have to decide where to go. This is where the stuff I picked up in the tavern comes in useful. It's a not very challenging puzzle (but it's a children's book), and I learn that I need to head south. But I still have to choose between two southerly routes: along the road (presumably being watched by the authorities) or along a river (I choose that way). We are ambushed by soldiers along the way, and I win, but it's a harder fight than the previous ones and I lose a few endurance and willpower points.

The next encounter is a big set piece, which takes up quite a few paragraphs in the book as there are so many options. We come across a wagon which is being attacked by 20 evil soldiers. It is defended by six brave knights who Shan informs me are identifiable from their shields as hailing from a remote kingdom aligned to good. These knights have given a good account of themselves, but they are so outnumbered that they can't possibly prevail without our help. It looks like a fools' errand really, 9 against 20, but gamebooks rarely reward discretion, so I create an illusion which makes some of the soldiers look like knights in the eyes of their comrades, and they turn on each other. It's a fun moment, but now my willpower has become dangerously low. Withdrawing is not an option however, and I have to rush into the fray and finish of the survivors; my only choice is my target. With the help of my companions (and especially Tanith, it's fair to say), the rest of the soldiers are soon dispatched. The grateful (and rich) merchant whose wagon the knights were protecting showers us with gifts.

[BIG SPOILER!]

We make some progress on our journey, and it feels like I'm really getting somewhere, but then there is a serious setback. I awake in the night to find Tanith behaving suspiciously. I've grown accustomed to her being an ally, and forgotten that she has been raised by evil people throughout her whole life (and it's not as if there haven't been clues!). She seems to be in some kind of magical communion with someone, and that someone turns out to be the witch who interrogated me when I was brought into the prison! To give Tanith her due, she does seem to be reluctant to participate in my murder, and she even apologises to me (but fuck her all the same). The witch remotely attacks me with her magic via the campfire, and then she summons a Soul-eater to kill me.

The Soul-eater is by far the deadliest opponent I have yet encountered. Its stats alone tell me that I am not likely to survive this fight, but then the text tells me that in addition to the normal combat rules, I will automatically lose 1 willpower point and 2 endurance points every round in addition to regular damage!

I'm on a hiding to nothing here. My endurance and willpower scores are already too low, and I just can't afford this kind of attrition. And that's a moot point anyway, because the monster's combat skill is NINE POINTS higher than mine, and that's a lot! I sigh, knowing the outcome is inevitable, even though I only have to survive four attack rounds before something is going to interrupt the fight, and begin combat. I am killed in the fourth round.

Oh well! I still think I got pretty far on my first playthrough, since there are so many ways you can die before you get to this point, and the book didn't feel like it was too easy. As I've said before, it felt like a proper story, not just like a series of unconnected encounters, like so many gamebooks do. Out of curiosity, I read what would have happened if I had survived four rounds of combat, and it turns out that Shan shows up (where had he been?) and pleads with Tanith to save me, and she has a last-minute change of heart and sacrifices herself by throwing herself into the fire to break the witch's connection to our location! So maybe she wasn't so bad after all. She is certainly an interesting character.

I'll keep on reading the book, but I don't think I'll try to do a legitimate playthrough, as that fight seems unfairly tough (you lose quite a few more endurance points as collateral damage when Tanith dies, so it is basically unsurvivable). I'll do a third and final post about this book when I've finished it. But I've already seen enough to highly recommend it. I think it's actually better than the three Lone Wolf books I've read (1, 2 and 10). You certainly won't be disappointed!

[Barrington Boots]

This does sound brilliant, despite the appalling difficulty. And a very enjoyable read! I'm totally looking it out now.

[Richard]

Grey Star part 3

It turns out I didn't have much further to go. I avoid a carnivorous tree, and then the next encounter is a big one, with seemingly dozens of paragraphs describing our very hazardous attempt to get past scores of hostile flying frog-creatures. No matter what we do -- run, fight, try to sneak around -- it is impossible for Shan to survive, and my choices only affect the manner of his demise and whether or not I die with him. Poor old Shan!

Escaping, I arrive at a lake of acid which gives off toxic fumes that deprive me of one Endurance point for every paragraph I linger here. I can take a hint, and I don't waste any time trying to get past it. I start climbing a sheer, smooth cliff, and just when it's impossible to climb any higher I find a small tunnel and go down that. The book keeps asking me if I want to stop, which feels like a trap (it is) so I keep going.

The tunnel leads to a labyrinth occupied by giant mantis insects, who immediately try to eat me. I fight one and then there is a sequence where I have to make the right choices as I try to escape from their nest without dying, in the course of which one of them spits acid at me which strips my calf to the bone at a cost of eight Endurance points! When I make it outside and on ground level in a jungle, I assume I'm safe, only to find that a horde of the little bastards are still in pursuit! I blast several of them with a lightning bolt but it's no good, and I have to sprint through the trees and then climb a tree.

(There's a really sneaky trap set by the writers during this bit, which I won't spoil because it's a good one. I managed to avoid this auto-death choice!)

The insects follow me up the tree, and others get ahead of me on another branch, and I'm surrounded with no hope of escape...

Then the lost tribe I'm searching for find me, rescue me from the insects and carry me to their king! Turn to 350!

There's a double-page illustration for the final paragraph, and a cliff-hanger ending where I have to convince the tribe I am who I say I am (although I can see where it's going because the answer to the shaman's riddle was in paragraph 1). I'm quite tempted to track down book 2!

[Funt Solo]

Anyone interested in the Grey Star and Lone Wolf sagas can view them as web versions at Project Aon (which was something Dever was involved in - as in, he allowed it).

The Grey Star books are listed under "World of Lone Wolf".

[Richard]

Thanks Funt!

[Richard]

Jimbo, did you ever finish Sorcery 4?

No, I never did!

Sadly, around the same time I fell off the gamebook wagon I went and bought a Nintendo Switch, sealing my own doom. My unfinished quest for the Crown of Kings nags away at me, though. Must make some time to complete it before the year is out...

*coughs voluntarily*...

[Dark Jimbo]

Jimbo, did you ever finish Sorcery 4?

No, I never did!

Sadly, around the same time I fell off the gamebook wagon I went and bought a Nintendo Switch, sealing my own doom. My unfinished quest for the Crown of Kings nags away at me, though. Must make some time to complete it before the year is out...

*coughs voluntarily*...

I know, I know...!

But after the Switch I went and made sproglet #2 (with some admitted help from my partner), who has proven equally distracting.

[Richard]

Congratulations!!!

(That's still a poor excuse though)

[Barrington Boots]

Congrats on another sprogling dude! It's nice to know people still want to sleep with gamebook nerds.

[Fortnight]

It's nice to know people still want to sleep with gamebook nerds.

That's a massive relief to me.
Though it hasn't resulted in much action lately...

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Jimbo, did you ever finish Sorcery 4?

No, I never did!

Sadly, around the same time I fell off the gamebook wagon I went and bought a Nintendo Switch, sealing my own doom. My unfinished quest for the Crown of Kings nags away at me, though. Must make some time to complete it before the year is out...

Sorcery, you say?

Switch, you say?

Why choose when you can have both, I say.

Sorcery - the Switch version