Gamebooks

[Barrington Boots]

I've just wrapped up Bloodbones and it's a fantastic book. It hits all the main pirate beats including a a pirate port, revenge, treasure, a ghost ship, zombie pirates, a shipwreck, jungle island, sharks, parrots, sea monsters, voodoo, a castaway and a boarding action. It's structured in four main parts, so you move from port to pirate ship to jungle to voodoo temple, keeping your interest and moving the story along in a rapid and interesting way. It's written by Jonathan Green so it uses keywords, but not excessively, and his atmospheric and evocative writing.

It's also very, very hard. There's very few auto-death paragraphs and only a couple of essential items but it does feature a lot of Skill 10 and above opponents, a time limit on one part where the time limit isn't revealed to you until you've already potentially failed it, and loads of skill and luck tests, so high stats are essential. Even with max stats I couldn't finish this, falling to either the penultimate or final opponent.
Horrible fights aside, the book isn't hard in a Luke Sharp kind of way (although there is a Luke Sharp-esque test that I suggest skipping) but more in a way that you need to learn it, and it's well written and engaging enough to keep you going back again and again to get that little bit further. Even the pirate enemies are given unique names most of the time, so it doesn't just feel like you're battling endless pirates.
Art by Tony Hough who does some lovely monsters but there's something a bit off about his humans (the main bad guy looks like an angry gnome, and a few other characters are a bit moon-faced) but everything is suitably grotesque and dark looking.

This would be an epic writeup if I did it, but I heartily recommend this one. Max stats though!

[Richard]

Bloodbones is good fun. I'd forgotten Tony Hough did the art, I'll have a look at that now!

[Barrington Boots]

After a very, very long time I've finally finished Armies of Death. I'm not sure if I'll write this one up because it would be huge. The book is incredibly hard, mainly due to the vast list of items you need to have found to get anywhere, and compounded by the fact that it's virtually impossible to recover any stamina at any point. At one point I was asked a question that I guessed right, which was a good job because the answer isn't actually in this book at all but a different one. There's also a key item that is only available on a 50% dice roll, and another one that you acquire in a very understated way which meant I actually forgot I had it.

The army commanding aspect is pretty rubbish tbh - there's no tactics, and the battles you do fight with them are all more like tiny skirmishes. I didn't think much of the bad guy either. There are some nice encounters but overall I found it a bit of a slog, mainly due to the constant replaying.

[Richard]

"Fuck you, Sir Ian!"

Oh dear, that sounds like a very Livingstone-y book! Do tell us about a couple of the fun encounters though.

[Richard]

I had a nice surprise today: my local underground station has a book shelf where people can donate and collect books, and I just picked up Grey Star the Wizard, a spin-off from the Lone Wolf series.

It looks pretty good: there's some excellent art by someone called Paul Bonner, whose work looks very much like John Blanche's style in the FF Sorcery! books. It's not written by Joe Dever, though he does get an "edited by" credit, but by Ian Page, so it might be quite different to the Lone Wolf books. It uses the same combat system.

I don't have time to start it this weekend unfortunately, but I'm looking forward to trying it soon!

[Funt Solo]

The first Grey Star book has a good story, as I recall, and an interesting set of powers to choose from in character development. There is no way to actually succeed without cheating, though.

[Barrington Boots]

I've never played that, but the cover image is great. I know Paul Bonner from all his orc artwork in White Dwarf in the 90s, so if the book has plenty of orcs and dwarves in, it'll look superb. Let us know what its like!

I've flagged a bit on gamebooks of late due to various IRL factors, but I was thinking of having a go at Stormslayer this week.

[Barrington Boots]

Stormslayer

Part 1

So I've not had much gamebook time of late due to a mixture of things including work, holiday, a dose of Covid and Baldurs Gate 3 but I've just had a bash at Stormslayer.

This is the another of the new Wizard books I'm trying - I think there's four in total: this, Bloodbones, Night of the Necromancer and the sadly priced-well-out-of-my-range Howl of the Werewolf. All by Jonathan Green, who wrote the excellent Dracula and Beowulf gamebooks, among others. This book differs in that it has the instructions at the back - which is, to be frank, stupid and annoying - and also provides three pre-generated heroes you can pick from.
It's also got Jon Green's codeword system in play - which I quite like - as well as the need to track the day of the week as certain days boost up certain enemies. This is thematic but also fiddly and annoying. The book covers a lot of ground and there's a constant need to move the day on x days.
The background to the book is that you're playing an already infamous hero and begin with two legendary items. One of them is absolutely terrible, having very low skill and luck. I chose the lucky hero for their Conan / Red Sonja vibes, but in retrospect the high skill hero is the best as luck points are as easy to come by in this book as high skill enemies. But anyway.

I'm Erien Stormchild, a child of the frozen north, come south for fame and adventure. Blessed by the goddess of luck, she wields the sword Wyrmbiter, a legendary weapon recovered from the bottom of Lake Eerie, and carries the sun talisman, an ancient relic stolen from a tomb in Kakhabad, as well as the fang of  a great tiger I slew in the mountains of Mauristatia. All of this detail has me already feeling in-character!

The book opens with me in the Travellers Rest in the village of Vasterin, knocking back pints and boasting of how I defeated a giant king, or of the time I bested the crimson witch of Tannatown, to an adoring audience. When my old rival / enemy Varick Oathbreaker enters - his face bearing a vicious scar from when we once crossed blades - I taunt him and he merely glowers at me. But I'm just about to start chatting up a barmaid when a mighty crash of thunder shakes the inn and throwing open the door I'm confronted with a terrible storm - thunder, hailstones, lighting , the works - hammering down onto the village, causing destruction and chaos on what was a minute ago a lovely spring day. Anxious to look good in front of my public I charge out to shepherd people to safety. Finding my way to the centre of the storm I'm assaulted by a towering humanoid figure of solid ice - a rogue ice elemental! The magic of the sun talisman aids me here and I quickly dispatch it and as I do the storm fades away, moving rapidly north. As I stare after it my sharp eyes make out something within the clouds - like a huge metal fish...
Vasterin has been trashed by the storm, so as the people stumble about in shock I loudly proclaim I'll track down the source of this mysterious storm and put a stop to it. I am a braggart, after all, as well as a mighty hero!
Given the choice of chasing the storm north or following its trail south I choose the latter, hoping to find a clue. The storms trail eventually crosses the borders of the kingdom and goes into the hostile territory of Lendleland, which is full of mongolian-type horsemen. I get a hint that crossing the river border might not be wise and although I contemplate doing it anyway - Erien Stormchild fears no man - I eventually decide to head North to the capital of Chalannabrad to consult the college of mages there.

At Chalannabrad I make my way through packed streets to the soaring towers of the college of wizards but promptly get the brush off by a disinterested council. I'm leaving in a rage when I run into an old wizard mate of mine (who helped me defeat the ogre shaman of Lendleland) who spills the beans - the storm is the work of the crazed elementalist and meteorologist Balthazar Sturm, who was exiled from the college for fusing magic and science and now (to paraphrase) has built a giant weather machine, enslaving four great elementals to do so, and is flying around trashing everything. I must venture to four elemental places of power to gain the power to defeat him. Quest on! There's a lot of exposition here and it's all very well done, if deeply contrived: why aren't the wizard council doing this? Why not send a few extra guys with me? Pah! Erien Stormchild works alone! But she does accept a potion of giant strength, just in case.

Given the choice of four locations to visit, I start off with The Witchtooth Mountains. Trekking down to Lake Eerie I find a group of hunters looking for the legendary Stormdrake and decide to join the hunt, as I am a fearsome tracker. I team up with a fellow named Sylas and his big dog and we track the Wyrm high up to a mountain lair where we find its mighty hoard and split it 50/50 (I take a rope and grapple and a potion of levitation, both of which sound like classic FF essential objects, letting him take most of the gold) before we're set upon by some ravenous hatchlings - no match for Wyrmbiter - but the great drake itself is not present so I bid Sylas farewell and push on to the Witchtooth mountains. Here the land has been totally devastated by terrible earthquakes and the people are in a bit of a state. Obviously I announce myself as a mighty hero and get directions to a dwarf mine - the greatly named 'Fathomdeep' - where the villagers fear the problem may be stemming from - the dwarves have delved too deep, as is their way. I'm offered the chance to hire a guide, but Erien Stormchild needs no bearded weakling crawling in her shadow and I proceed into the abandoned mine alone.
Fathomdeep is a dark, wet, miserable spot - exactly as you'd expect from dwarves. I follow the old mine tracks for a while but balk at the idea of actually traversing them in a cart, and without a guide am soon lost in a maze of passages. After an encounter with a sentient, metal dissolving ooze that I make short work of, I use my rope to scale down a mineshaft figuring any elemental nexus will be at the bottom of the mine. There's another straightforward skirmish, this time with IotLK rubbish monster favourites Grannits, before the mine ends and a natural cave system begins. I creep downwards carefully, sure-footed on the uneven floor. After crossing a narrow stone bridge over a great chasm - complete with giant bats - I evntually discover a chamber scattered with uneven stones and glittering crystals, in the centre of which upon a plinth rests a small figure, a clay model of a humanoid bound with strips of green copper and bearing the words 'Break the bonds that bind me'.
I figure this is the earth elemental I seek - but breaking it out now, hundreds of feet underground, may not be the wisest course, so I put it in my pack, noting as I do the name of the creature carved into the rock. It's time to leave, but as I do so two creatures emerge from the rock in front of me: smaller earth elementals, no doubt charged with protecting this place. The magic sword Wyrmbiter is proof against their stone hides although this is a tough fight and I'm eating provisions as I clamber out of the pit. Behind me, Fathomdeep mine collapses, sealed at last. First elemental down!

My next stop, I think, is water: The Eelsea, which can only be reached by traversing the terrifying Eerieside Marshes. I push on through the stinking mire and eventually arrive.. back in Chalannabrad, which sits on the shore of the Eelsea. WTF indeed. Could I have not just retraced the route I took to the mountains?
First order of business here is finding a way to breathe underwater. I head to the guild of artificers, where they're happy to loan me an experimental breathing helmet free of charge. The helmet is essentially one of those old giant copper fishbowl jobs and I later discover is only good for a certain number of paragraphs below the water before it conks out. Oh and it restricts my skill too.
Hiring a ship to take me out is less easy - all vessels are in harbour due to the fierce storms that keep suddenly rising up out at sea. Eventually I encounter the redoubtable Captain Katarina, a one-eyed pirate, who agrees to ship me out in return for 50% of what I recover. I readily agree and we set sail. The horizon remains thankfully free of storms but on the second day we are enveloped in a thick, unnatural fog courtesy of a fog elemental: again easily dispatched by me. Eventually we arrive at Blackcoral Reef, beneath which lies Devilfish Rift and the sunken temple of Hydana, god of the sea.. from which very few have ever returned.
Donning my stupid helmet I drop off the gangplank and sink link a stone to the seabed below. It's a slog from there to the edge of the rift, a huge fissure down into blackness. At the edge of the rift lies the wrecked remains of a ship, a vast hole in its side. Feeling curious I venture within, avoiding the sharks that swim above decks, and find only the grisly skeletal remains of the old crew, long dead and eaten by fish, and a heavy iron door. The door is shut, but by kicking off the ships timbers I'm able to boot it open and find within a rusted iron chest - but I have no key to open it. Cursing my luck I must descend into the rift.
The deeper I get the darker and gloomier things get until I am barely able to see through the murk. With my air running low I avoid a cave and pass the huge, half eaten corpses of whales and other vast creatures until I reach the edge of a vast precipice upon which, just visible in the darkness, is a fallen column - surely the remains of the temple!
I'm just about to hurry towards it when the rockshelf shakes and the water surges as a vast monster - half octopus, half lobster, all cthulhu nightmare - hauls itself out of the dark. Do I have item A, says the book? Never heard of it. And so the monster promptly eats me! Game over.

Part 2 to follow!

[JohnW]

I'm Erien Stormchild, a child of the frozen north

Oh really?
Then why not Erien FrozenNorthChild then, eh? Eh?
I'm seeing plot holes already.

[Richard]

Thank you Bootington, I haven't read Stormslayer but I had wondered about that one. Mr Green has written some excellent FF books, and this one seems to have some good art too.

[Barrington Boots]

I'm Erien Stormchild, a child of the frozen north

Oh really?
Then why not Erien FrozenNorthChild then, eh? Eh?
I'm seeing plot holes already.

Erien Stormchild sneers at your pedantry.

[Barrington Boots]

Thank you Bootington, I haven't read Stormslayer but I had wondered about that one. Mr Green has written some excellent FF books, and this one seems to have some good art too.

Yes and yes! There's some lovely art in this one, quite an old school feel.
I reckon this book is worth your time. It's recognisably Jon Green's work and a good one: it's also reasonably forgiving in that it takes a non-linear approach and a lack of key items makes your life harder but isn't insta-death. There's a LOT of fighting in it though so a decent skill score is essential.

[Barrington Boots]

Stormslayer pt. 2

Having perished on the 'water' segment due to lacking some seemingly useful items, I just restart back after I beat earth and this time elect to go to the Howling Plains to pursue air instead. I pass through Tannatown, where I get a big hero welcome and a full stamina refresh, and then it's onto the inhospitable windswept deserts of the plains. Dust storms are a constant hazard here so I set out wrapped in cloth about my face and wary of the need for shelter. I've been plodding along for less than a day when the first storm appears on the horizon, and as it grows closer, I can make out a brightly coloured object being tossed about in the gusts, and that soon resolves into a balloon, complete with basket and helpless rider, their voice just audible above the wind calling for aid. To my horror and complete lack of surprise the storm itself contains a sand elemental, forming itself out of grit and dust and attempting to swallow the balloon and its inhabitant. I rush to aid them, battling the very storm itself - not sure how that works, but I put it out of commission and once it has dissipated the balloon rider introduces himself as Corbo Rundum, an inventor from a nearby town who had taken it upon himself to investigate the rumours of the skyship after strange weather, droughts and so on began ravaging his land. He says he owes me one and gives me some fairly useless advice, but I'm a big hero so I suggest he head on to Chalannabrad to petition the college of mages for aid whilst I press on with my quest.
Leaving Corbo fixing his balloon I push south for several days until I arrive at the delightfully named Screaming Canyons, so named both for the wind that howls through them, and the warlike tribes of birdmen that dwell within. The canyons are a bit of a maze and I wander here for a while aiming to get to a towering spire of rock. A vicious encounter with a pair of birdmen who ambush me in the narrow passages leaves me near dead and scoffing provisions. Eventually I arrive at the spire which I ascend with my rope, navigating crumbling ledges and sharp overhangs to reach a natural arch near the summit, within which awaits a red-cloaked figure.
As the wind stirs up, the figure asks my purpose and I beg for aid. After answering a straightforward riddle the figure decides my riddle-skills make my worthy and offers the aid of the Air Elemental Zephyrus, the West Wind, to defeat Sturm who has captured the North Wind, Boreas. It then gently drops me back to the floor of the canyon. Second elemental is done!

I've no desire to attempt the sea segment again so its off instead to Mount Pyre for a spot of fire-themed adventure. I head south and find the land blighted by drought and earthquake, with refugees fleeing west. I boldly press on into the desolation, battle a giant worm, and arrive at the shores of Lake Cauldron where I can take a boat up the River of Fire to Mount Pyre itself. Now here I get a bit sneaky: it's nearly Fireday on the calendar, and I don't fancy facing any powered up fire enemies, so I opt instead for a long walk upriver to move the days of the week on a bit and past Fireday. I do have to fight a bunch of Hobgoblin bandits enroute, but they are no match for my skills and I leave them bleeding out in the dust.
Eventually I arrive at Mount Pyre itself, belching smoke and flame into the sky, and find my way to the entrance to the fabled Fire Tunnels that lead into the mountain itself. Inside, the tunnels are blisteringly hot and the air thick with smoke. I get attacked by some kind of batwinged monster, and when I go to look at its nest I get badly bitten by more of them.
It's a bit of a maze in here and the oppressive heat is making it hard to breathe, let alone fight. At periodic points I discover crystals with letters engraved upon them - I collect a few of these as I go along, crossing chasms with my rope, avoiding gas pockets and skirmishing with the strange denizens of the tunnels including one very difficult fight with depleted skill against two magma-creatures that again left me low on stamina. Due to a misreading here, I thought I couldn't recover stamina in the tunnels due to the heat (I actually couldn't utilise the 'free' stamina healing you get on the passage of days) so between that and the need to navigate maze-like tunnels this wasn't my favourite part of the book. This was followed by a horrific looking fight with a firewyrm, but thanks to the bonus Wyrmslayer gave me against drakes and the like, I jammily won it without losing a single attack round.
Flush with firewyrm loot but also pretty much on my last legs I emerge into a vast chamber containing a lake of boiling magma, on the shores of which is a blackened altar with six alcoves within it, about the shape of the... five.. crystals I carry. As I lean on the altar contemplating my next move a fire elemental explodes up from the magma and bellows in rage at my impudence in daring to come here. Do I have six fire crystals? Nope. Is it time for Erien Stormchild to meet a fiery death? Yep. I have to fight the elemental and in my weakened state he burns me to ash in moments.

So basically, I start again at the volcano entrance and re-work my way through here. It takes me two attempts to get all six crystals, at which point you can invoke the name of The Burning One to stop it attacking you and ask for the means to gain power over a greater fire elemental. It tells me I must know its name - and I don't know what elemental Sturm has bound, so instead I ask this fire elemental for its name, which it provides and then goes bananas with fury, diving back into the magma lake and triggering the volcano to erupt. In horror I turn for the entranceway only to see it collapsing into molten lava and instead charge up another tunnel in desperation, dodging falling rocks and erupting geysers of magma. There follows a neat little sequence of choices which all contribute to a 'time' stat and once I reach the entrance I'm asked how much time it took me... I have a time of 6 and the death threshold is 7, so after passing a couple of luck checks I finally stumble sweat-drenched, battered and beaten (and on 3 stamina) out into the fresh air as Mount Pyre erupts behind me. All I can do is run like hell until I reach a safe distance.

that's three down so its back to Eelsea for me to re-attempt the water segment. But who is this stopping me upon the road? None other than my old rival Varick Oathbreaker from the introduction, and four hired thugs. They close on me with weapons drawn as Varick spits out his anger and desire to finally see me in the grave. I could plead with him for leniency, claim the importance of my mission - but why waste words on a dog like this? With a howl I launch myself into combat - and die again. Five to one odds are not favourable!
The issue here isn't high skill enemies, but fighting several reasonable skill enemies at once. I die here twice more before I decide to use my potion giant strength, which powers me up sufficiently to deal with Varick and his gang. Oathbreaker is the last to fall and after chugging his potion of healing and stealing his loot I leave his body for the vultures and press on to Eelsea.
I'm now flush with gold, so after loading up on provisions at the market, this time I skip the guild of artificers and instead go to the Academy of Naval Mages where I'm able to hire the grandly named Prospero Seacharmer to aid me in my undersea adventures. Then its the same routine as before - out with Captain Katarina, only this time Prospero is on hand to deal with the fog elemental. When we reach the reef he casts an enchantment upon me to temporarily give me gills, enabling me to breathe underwater and also increasing my skill (beyond maximum!) underwater instead of reducing it. Prospero rules!
Now charged up I investigate the pirate ship but head to the deck first, beat up the sharks and in the captains cabin find a key that unlocks the chest below, within which I find a human skull wearing a crown of red and white coral, which I put on. It's also got tons of loot so now attired as the queen of the sea or something I scoop all that into bags before heading down to the rift.
My previous failure fresh in my mind and with no time limitation, this time I explore a cave on the side of the rift, fighting through various reef-dwelling crustaceans and eels as I do. The cave itself has a curious spongey quality to it - its no cave - as I swim desperately out it begins to close, the mouth of some huge sea-dwelling monstrosity. Luckily I slip between the jaws of the thing and am away before it can notice me.
My only way forward now is to the temple, where once again the Cthulhu-thing emerges and once again I do not have the item the book asks for. I know this battle is beyond even I, so I try to flee into the temple - and as the thing pursues me what should loom out of the dark ahead but the huge sea-monster I just slipped from the mouth of! Hungrily it crashes into Cthulhu and as the battle it out to the death I'm able to nip inside the temple.
Within stands a statue of the sea god, Hydana, and at his feet rests a trident of gold and vast conch. I can take one, so go for the conch. Two Naiads appear and ask my purpose: they don't care about Sturm and happenings on land, but when they see I wear the crown they agree to give me the Shell of the Sea to aid my quest. Done! Now it just remains for me to reach Sturms weather machine and defeat the man himself...

[JohnW]

Eventually I arrive at Mount Pyre itself, belching smoke and flame into the sky,

My God, man! What had you been eating?

[Barrington Boots]

Stormslayer 3

It's time to take the fight to mad science-wizard Balthazar Sturm on his airship, but how to get there? Before I can assess the various options here comes Corbo Rundum in his hot air balloon and he handily gives me a lift. Before we get there though we have to fight the Stormdrake, which is here for unknown reasons. Is it thrall to Sturm or does it just like hanging out in storms? This is another very hard fight but I have Wyrmslayer, and Corbo also joins in. The Stormdrake is dispatched and I leap aboard the airship!
It's all standard steampunky stuff here. My goal is apparently to increase the ships damage score as high as possible. Eager to start breaking stuff I basically go through the first door I see, which leads to a cabin: there's some codes here for activating or deactivating a giant robot, which seems ominous. I keep rifling around until I get attacked by a robotic homunculus which then explodes and sets the cabin alight, which is kind of a good thing? Leaving the cabin ablaze my next stop is a room with some bellows / windmill setup so I slice the bellows to pieces and then continue my vandalism rampage by finding some kind of lighting generator room and setting that alight too. Then its onto the engine room to fight some rubbish monsters and discover the engine itself within which the four greater elementals are bound. I smash up the engine and release them, which damages the ship and also me when I'm blown up. Staggering out of the cabin I run into the aforementioned giant robot. I can deactivate it if I win two consecutive attack rounds, which is not easy as its Skill is higher than mine and it absolutely pulps me to death.

Restart from boarding the airship. This time I start in the bilges, where there's a second, disused giant robot with a big empty space in its head but I've nothing to put in there. I retrace my steps but this time after getting the golem deactivation notes I nip into another room which has some sails in it, so I chop all the ropes. Then its back to the trail of destruction that ends up with me fighting the robot golem again, only this time I very jammily do manage to win two attack rounds and shut it down. After eating the last of my provisions its time to face Sturm himself on the bridge. There's a nice scene where he does a big monologue and I respond by listing all the monsters I've vanquished and saying I doubt I'll have much trouble with a mad weather wizard and then he kicks off.
We start with a sword-in-the stone-style bit of one-upmanship. Sturm transforms himself into a human torch, so I counter by summoning the air elemental and dousing him. He then armours himself with rock and earth, so I call upon the water elemental to wash away his protection. Finally he transforms into a being of water, but the fire elemental turns him to steam. He then blows out the fire elemental with winds, so I summon the earth elemental to crush him.
Finally its mano a mano. Sturm draws into himself the powers of the storm and attacks from above with lightning bolts. I still have the potion of levitation so I'm able to fly up and match him in a battle to the death (his)
As Sturm drops dying to the deck his weather machine finally starts to come to bits, exploding and collapsing in on itself. He falls screaming hundreds of feet above the ground, and Erien Stormchild falls with him to her doom. Its a bit of pyrrhic victory tbh but it turns out I can use the air elemental to get out of it if I hadn't previously used it to extinguish Sturm's fore form and just fought him twice - so lets do that - and summoning the air elementals power I am safely whisked back to earth.

All seems well - but before I can catch my breath a distant rumble fills my ears. To my horror, across the plain I can see the charging army of the Lendleland, a barbarian horde, allied to Sturm (apparently) and rushing straight for the border - and more importantly, me! Are my efforts in vain?
As I prepare to sell my life dearly a vast shadow falls across the plain. The barbarian horde looks up in disbelief - and the remains of Sturms weather machine drops heavily onto them, crushing them to death with an almighty splat for a hilarious end to the book.

"And that" finished Erien Stormchild "Is the story of how I saved the kingdom not once but twice in one afternoon. Bring me another beer, and I'll tell you how I conquered the Portal of Evil.."