Gamebooks

[sheridan]

I had a local bookshop which had a lot of FF books about five years ago.  I probably had just over half the books before that and all but four or five afterwards.  Though looking online those four or five reach very high prices.

I've also not played any of the latter books, as I was going to do what we're all doing now, but didn't get around to it (so thank you, this thread).

[Dark Jimbo]

Scorpion Swamp

I've played this one before, somewhere back in the mists of time (I know because I found two old maps of the swamp in my handwriting tucked inside the front cover) but I honestly don't remember anything much about the book, or how I did; except that when you make your choice of which three wizards to serve, I always went with Poomchukker (because his name made me laugh). So I'm essentially embarking on a new adventure, with two of three wizards unplayed and no idea of the ending...

Playthroughs 1, 2 & 3
Well, these go laughably badly. My first adventurer is Skill 8, Stamina 19 and Luck 11. That's right – Skill 8. Sigh. Anyway, my first decision is which of the three characters – good wizard Selator, evil sorcerer Grimslade and neutral trader Poomchukker - I'm going to serve on my meanderings through the swamp. I've been serving the forces of good for six gamebooks now, and I'm not going to lie – the idea of cutting loose and being evil massively appeals. So it's off to the Spooky Castle™ of Grimslade I go. My magic Ring immediately warns me that he's evil. Well, yes. That's why I'm here. He enquires how I plan to get through the swamp, and as soon as I mention the Ring he starts an incantation. In retrospect, I was clearly meant to stop him, but I naively assume he's weaving a protection spell for himself, standing idly by and watching as he summons a Skill 16 DEMON. Skill 16! Against Skill 8! It goes as well as you might expect – although I amaze myself by getting two hits in before I go down.



I won't lie, that left a bad taste in the mouth, so I choose to serve, respectively, Selator and Poomchukker for my next few attempts. Both abortive playthroughs follow the same path – in my fourth clearing I meet evil sorcerer THE MASTER OF SPIDERS. First I try to talk to him. He has a spider bite me. I die. Next I cast a friendship spell. It doesn't work, but he fakes friendship long enough to have a spider bite me. I die.

Playthrough 4
Right. I am done, done, done with evil wizards. From now on, I'm just going to kill on sight anyone who looks even the tiniest bit like Ming the Merciless. This time I roll up my first halfway decent adventurer of Skill 10, Stamina 24(!) and Luck 8. No deliberations this time, I choose good wizard Selator immediately. I'm instantly rewarded for my good judgement (this time, anyway. Ahem...) with an increase of +2 to my initial Luck score. Selator wants a berry from Titan's last remaining Antherica bush, rumoured to grow deep in Scorpion Swamp. Seems simple enough.

The first encounter of note (I meet the MASTER OF WOLVES, but exactly nothing happens) is a gaggle of SWORD TREES. They're a Ronseal enemy if ever there was one – a whole bunch of trees, waving swords. Huh. The natural thing to do seems to be to let a Fire spell take care of them, but it's totally ineffective, so I wade in with my own sword. They aren't as fearsome as they look, but... they are already starting to grow back. So I have it away on my toes, and flee West. In the next clearing is a DIRE BEAST – an enemy so fearsome, so foulsome, that artist Duncan Smith was forbidden from depicting it, lest he warp a generation of impressionable minds. (He would take his revenge years later, after adding an Iain to his name, when he ushered in sweeping cuts to disability benefits and Universal Credit). The beast proves less fearsome than the erstwhile Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, though, and eventually I manage to slay it without much trouble. The only exit is East, so I head back into the Sword Tree clearing and – oh, fiddlesticks. The bastards have already grown back. I hack them to matchwood for a second time and flee North, hoping not to have to come back this way again.



I use my Friendship spell to placate a wounded UNICORN, and to be honest I'm expecting a reward, a clue or perhaps an ally for a future battle. Nothing happens, and I suspect that's yet another spell wasted. Further North still, and I find myself overlooking the mighty Foulblood River (great name, Steve!) This stymies further progress, and in looking for a way across I run into a THIEF. He seems an affable sort, but my Ring says otherwise – so I've no compunction in cutting him down. His corpse has curiously little to loot – just a red cloak – but I take it anyway. Fording the Foulblood soon afterward, I plunge straight into some quicksand. I survive, but only by shrugging out of my trusty leather armour and abandoning it to the swamp – lowering my respectable Skill of 10 to a lowly 8! This could be the worst thing that's happened to me since entering the Swamp, particularly as in the next clearing a GIANT looms above the treeline.



My ring isn't warning me of danger, so I swallow down my trepidation and hail him in a friendly fashion. Surprisingly, he bursts into tears. Erm... The giant's upset because he's lost his prized red handkerchief (you'd think he'd keep crying to a minimum, then...) 'Does it look something like this?' I ask, whipping out the red cloak I took from the thief. He's overjoyed; I think I've made a friend for life, here. Perhaps I should find this all a bit silly, but it's actually a curiously sweet encounter in a series known for a 'chop heads off, ask questions later' mentality. If this was an Ian Livingstone book I'd already be bathing in his blood! He says he thinks he saw an Antherica bush due North of here, so I duly head off to investigate. And sure enough, there it is – guarded by a brace of WOLVES. Unusually, I kill one of them during the initial text preamble, without having to roll for Luck or Skill or anything, leaving me only one to deal with – and even with my lowered Skill of 8 he doesn't present a challenge. And then there's nothing to do here but walk over to the Antherica bush and pluck a berry. Nothing happens. Was that it? Was a single wolf really my final boss?

The thing is, of course, that I've now got to get back out of the swamp in one piece... But having killed or befriended everyone I met on the way here, it's a fairly easy stroll back, with only a bite by some leeches and a third encounter with the bloody Sword Trees to speak of. And then... that's it. Selator thanks me, we have a cup of tea and... the end. It's all curiously subdued, but then, I suppose I wasn't trying to save Titan from destruction or anything this time. To be honest, it's just nice to still be on my feet for once. I need to take the wins as they come. Pass the sugar, would you, Selator, old chap?

The Verdict
Seventh gamebook's a charm – finally I get a win! The series has gotten comfy lately, so it's nice to have a book which tries to innovate and shake things up a bit, but not everything works the way I suspect it was supposed to.
The three wizards/missions is a great idea, and rewards replayability; but to say Selator's mission fizzles out at the end is an understatement, and Poomchukker's (mapping the Swamp) is something you'll end up doing whoever you serve. I should give Grimslade's mission another go and see how that plays. It's great to have the spells back (last seen in Citadel of Chaos), but they seem a bit of an afterthought, not hugely affecting the gameplay (or at least not on this playthrough).
Scorpion Swamp itself, as noted earlier by Barrington, is hardly the no-go zone that it's made out to be in the blurb. Lots of the encounters seem a bit safe, a bit tame. And I don't think the art helps here – it's perfectly good, occasionally more than that, but something about it's a bit... I don't know, twee?

Enjoyable, and high replay value, but after four attempts to get to the end, it didn't really feel worth the effort once I got there. 6.5 combat dice out of 10

[Barrington Boots]

Great writeup as ever DJ!

[sheridan]

Interesting fact about Scorpion Swamp.  It's written by Steve Jackson.  Big deal* you may think, don't all the Fighting Fantasy books have Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson's names on the covers?  Well, yes, but no.  This one was written by Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games (from the US of A), not Steve Jackson of Games Workshop, Citadel Miniatures, White Dwarf and Fighting Fantasy fame....


* chop party?

[Barrington Boots]

I've finally finished Snow Witch. In order to do so I had to cheat and skip all the fights - even with max stats I was unable to get through to the end. I won't spoil it here for others as there's a nice twist to the tale about halfway through.

This book is insanely hard: it feels tougher than DD although that may be due to familiarity with the latter. Some of it is very cool - I love the artwork, the split into 3 seperate little quests - but some of it is a bit lacking. The second encounter with the Snow Witch herself is pretty rubbish, and the final quest segment does feel a bit tacked on, even if the concept is quite unique: I think it might have even worked better as two seperate volumes. I did really like the nods to continuity with other books - Bigleg and Stonebridge, Firetop Mountain, Fang and so on - you can see the world of FF starting to take shape over the last couple of books.

House of Hell up next. I know this is a well-regarded book, but I when I played it as a kid I really didn't like it: the art, the theme, and the difficulty level all put me right off. I feel a little trepidation about revisiting it. 

[Funt Solo]

House of Hell up next. I know this is a well-regarded book, but I when I played it as a kid I really didn't like it: the art, the theme, and the difficulty level all put me right off. I feel a little trepidation about revisiting it.

It's not just me, then.

[Richard]

Good write-up, Jimbo.

BB, you can always use spoiler tags!

[Dark Jimbo]

House of Hell up next. I know this is a well-regarded book, but I when I played it as a kid I really didn't like it: the art, the theme, and the difficulty level all put me right off. I feel a little trepidation about revisiting it.

It's not just me, then.

Nope, me three. I'm tempted to skip it.

I've not played any of the newer ones I've got - Assassins, Blood of the Zombies etc. I am quite tempted by Bloodbones, because I like pirates. Any strongly recommended ones (besides Moonrunner) from book 29 onwards?

You can't really go wrong with anything by Jonathan Green (Spellbreaker, Knights of Doom, Bloodbones, Curse of the Mummy, Howl of the Werewolf, Stormslayer, Night of the Necromancer). Those latter three in particular are just superb - some of the best FFs full stop.

The Stephen Hand trilogy is also highly recommended - Dead of Night, Legend of the Shadow Warriors, and Moonrunner.

And Vault of the Vampire might just be my favourite-ever FF.

[Richard]

Night of the Necromancer is brilliant!

(I've also heard that Howl of the Werewolf was voted best FF book by fans, although I've not read it myself.)

[Dark Jimbo]

Started this purely for my own amusement as I play through the books I own, but thought it'd be of interest for some here:

[Barrington Boots]

That is awesome. I also have a FF spreadsheet but this puts mine to shame: I'm tracking what I own per edition and if I've beaten it, tracking what actually killed you is some next level stuff. I'd be interested to see if you have a nemesis across all books.

[Barrington Boots]

So this September it's Fighting Fantasy Fest 4, which is also the 40th anniversary celebration thing.

I've never been to once of these before - it's being held in Ealing and tickets are not cheap, but you get a load of gubbins with entry (programme, dice), it sounds fun and I'm really into the books at the moment so I've got myself a ticket. Right now it looks like I'm forcing my wife to tag along, but it'd be great to meet up with some of you guys there if you fancy it!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fighting-fantasy-fest-4-tickets-331387457807

[Dark Jimbo]

...tracking what actually killed you is some next level stuff. I'd be interested to see if you have a nemesis across all books.

Me too! That's basically why I started the spreadsheet. 😆

If you PM your email address I'll send you my template (and that goes for anyone else who fancies it).

[Barrington Boots]

Incoming in a sec!
I'm been impressed with your restraint on giving up after death - I've finished all of mine so far, even if I've had to skip fights to do it (Snow Witch) or die over and over again until I have a good map (Dungeon)...

[Dark Jimbo]

Incoming in a sec!
I'm been impressed with your restraint on giving up after death - I've finished all of mine so far, even if I've had to skip fights to do it (Snow Witch) or die over and over again until I have a good map (Dungeon)...

The thought of maxing stats or skipping fights causes me physical pain! I'm determined to do it all as God Ian and Steve intended, which means admitting I might not complete some in a hurry (if ever - like the imminent House of Hell!)

And I own so many gamebooks I've never yet played, I want to make sure I get to have a go at all of them before my enthusiasm wanes.