Gamebooks

[Barrington Boots]

I'm excited to get onto IotLK though as it's another one I could actually complete as a kid - I think it's fairly linear and whilst you need some items to win it, they make the final fight easier rather than kill you outright if you don't have them. I may be misremembering.

WFH today and playing it in quiet moments. This book is very combat heavy and there's a lot of nasty (Skill 9+) fights - I got killed by the very first one I had in the book. Skill to maximum for this one, I think!

[Barrington Boots]

I've finished Lizard King now. I did write it up but I won't post it here yet in case people are still playing Deathtrap Dungeon / don't want spoilers on IotLK / don't want to read another wall of FF-gamebook text.

It's a really hard book, and not in the way DD is where the place is full of lethal traps and then if you don't have all the stuff at the end you die: it's stuffed full of unrelentingly tough fights with Skill 10 or above. Skill 10 or more is pretty essential and even then I was killed a few times just through attrition until I learned how to avoid a couple of them. The path through the book is actually reasonably straightforward and if you can handle the fights then you can probably finish the book.
The final fight can be made significantly easier to the point of pushover with a couple of items, one of which I think is impossible to miss (although you can just not pick it up) and whilst anticlimatic is quite a nice touch although it does lead to the Lizard King himself being a bit of a joke, especially given how derpy he looks in the picture.

I really liked the feel of the book though with the environments changing as you navigate the island and the various hazards feel thematic to each environment. I also liked the story it tells - rather than just being a random thug out killing and looting in the hope of a prize like Warlock and FoD, here you are on a proper errand of mercy to free the prisoners and avenge poor old Mungo (I don't think this is a spoiler given how any adventuring buddies usually wind up in FF books)
The interior art is from Alan Langford who I feel is one of the 'classic' FF artists and draws some lovely creatures although as mentioned his Lizard King is unfortunately not scary or cool at all especially when compared with the one on the cover.
Probably the third best one I've played so far (after CoT and DD).

[Barrington Boots]

Whilst waiting to start Island of the Lizard King I've been playing Nightshift (not Nightshirt) as recommended by SBT upthread. It's quite a different experience to FF and a lot trickier - I like the emphasis on puzzles rather than combat / shopping lists of items, and it's an atmospheric experience. It is bloody hard though. I've been getting lost a lot, so I've ended up downloading the map from the authors website and I'm going to start using that to take notes.

Much easier with a map and notes - I'm in the [spoiler]victorian hospital[/spoiler] now but this place is huge. It's definitely a book with a lot of puzzles and I like that. It's also very much a horror work - some pretty grotesque stuff in here. The cat is useful though!

I'm going to finish this and then play Scorpion Swamp.

[Barrington Boots]

I finished Nightshift yesterday. Would recommend to anyone who likes horror and puzzles and I'd definitely read another book by the author.

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

I finished Nightshift yesterday. Would recommend to anyone who likes horror and puzzles and I'd definitely read another book by the author.

Haha! You've had more luck than me! I've not had much time to go through it, but after six attempts I was prepared to throw it against the wall and shoot it. But yes, highly recommended if you have patience. I've got the next one as well- I expect I will get to it in 2025 at this rate.

SBT

[Barrington Boots]

Ha! I did it over a couple of days home working during quiet moments. Definitely map it as it makes it loads easier - I downloaded the maps from the authors website and made notes on it: puzzle and item locations and where to definitely avoid as there's a couple of insta-death rooms. Thanks for posting about it here as I'd never have heard of it otherwise!

I'd like to play the next one, but I have about 18 more FF books to go through first. I might pick it up when I've done another 4 or 5.

[Barrington Boots]

Scorpion Swamp

Again haven't done a detailed writeup on this one as I'm not sure if anyone else is still playing and I don't want to spoil things too much.

I found this one pretty easy, in that I completed it at first try. It's pretty unique (I think) in FF in that it has three seperate missions you can undertake, giving you three possible ways to tackle it. I chose to do the mission for the good wizard and after I used both my spells of friendship early, charming a hunky wolf-themed wizard and an angry unicorn, my plan of taking the left hand path where able backfired nastily by forcing me into three horrible fights - the third of which was a repeat of the first - which would have almost certainly killed me had I not been rocking maximum stats.
After that I got a lift with an eagle, chatted with more friendly wizards, friendly bandits, friendly rangers and friendly giants before picking up the magic berry I had been sent to find and making my way back via a different route (avoiding an enemy that battered me earlier). My only real issue was the combat - after my bad start I had a number of fights with low skill high stamina things, and then a surprisingly tough encounter with an evil bloke eating cheese.

Given I'd mapped out a good chunk of the place I went back and tried the evil mission, which essentially involves killing a load of wizards, but it was less fun and the ending kind of chastises you for being a dick.

Overall - I remember not being too into this book and it was better than I remembered, but it's not a classic. Having three choices of mission is a good one, meaning you can play it three times: it actively encourages you to map the swamp and it's the first book to give you the option of going back to areas you've already been to, with a mechanic in place to stop you encountering things twice like you do in Forest of Doom. This means you can wander around to your hearts content, and most hazards don't respawn and you can't ever end up down the wrong path. It makes it all much closer to a classic RPG and that's all a very good thing, and it allows you to explore the setting thoroughly.

On the downside, and this might seem petty, it's kind of lacking in atmosphere. The prelude bigs up the swamp as some kind of awful place where none come out alive but it never really comes across as this, especially as a lot of the encounters I met were pretty friendly, chatty types. I think the modular nature of the map and the varaible quests - being able to wander about at will - also removes some of the story aspects from the book: a lot of the encounters felt rather self contained.

Art is by Duncan Smith and it's really good, mainly monsters and characters, although it's more generic in tone than some of the quite twisted and interesting images from the earlier books.

Not a bad one but ranks low when compared to most of the first seven. Next up is Caverns of the Snow Witch which I have never, ever played so looking forward to that.

[Richard]

You'll like Caverns!
I still intend to do Lizard King soon.

[Dark Jimbo]

You'll like Caverns!
I still intend to do Lizard King soon.

Me too. Deathtrap Dungeon broke me for a while, but I'll be back...!

[Barrington Boots]

Hurray!
Idly reading about Scorpion Swamp this morning and it's written by a Steve Jackson but not the Steve Jackson...
I also found the art from the book on sale here, along with the art from the Fighting Fantasy roleplaying book: https://duncan183.wixsite.com/fantasy-art
Bit dear for me, but I must admit I was tempted.

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/fightingfantasy/permalink/10160098378536407/

[Barrington Boots]

These would have been great. I have hardback versions of Joe Dever's Freeway Warrior and they're ace.

I have Covid, so I'm going to do a run through Way of the Tiger: Avenger and then have a bash at Snow Witch.

[Richard]

What a cruel April Fool!

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

For those who want to know why I posted those two images, it's because Ian says that they may be planning something like this for ALL 59 original books for it's 45th Anniversary.

[Dark Jimbo]

For those who want to know why I posted those two images, it's because Ian says that they may be planning something like this for ALL 59 original books for it's 45th Anniversary.

He doesn't quite say all 59 - and honestly, a lot of those really aren't deserving of it. Whereas some of the best books in the series - Howl of the Werewolf, for instance - weren't published as part of the original run.

Massively exciting news, (potentially) though!