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Gamebooks

Started by Funt Solo, 19 October, 2021, 02:40:32 AM

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karlos

Quote from: Barrington Boots on 17 November, 2022, 10:28:37 AM
Quote from: karlos on 16 November, 2022, 03:15:32 PM
Thanks for the info, BB!

I'm going to try and get the WotT reprints as my original copies have long since vanished.

Top man! I have a couple of the reprints going spare if you like.

Oh, and if anyone plays the prequel and wants to give a verdict on it...

Very kind of you, sir!

I really fancy getting my hands on the prequel (as well as the final book) - something to ponder come payday!

karlos

Random thought - why were there never any 2000ad-related gamebooks back in the day?

The closest we had was the brief awesomeness that was Dice Man and the Dredd RPG, but that was it, wasn't it?

Richard

At the time, yes. There was a gamebook in the form of an app a few years ago.

karlos

Quote from: Richard on 17 November, 2022, 02:04:22 PM
At the time, yes. There was a gamebook in the form of an app a few years ago.

Interesting!  Had no idea!

Richard

It was called Countdown Sector 106, and you spent the first part of the game on patrol dealing with random incidents, and then eventually a plot developed where you had to foil a terrorist group's nuclear attack on the sector. The text was fine (can't remember who wrote it) and the app interface worked well, but the art was dreadful.

Barrington Boots

Masks of Mayhem

I was sure I've played this before, but I didn't remember any of this book whatsoever, so perhaps I haven't!

I'm the king, which is awesome until my court wizard tells me another wizard is about to unleash destruction on my land (and indeed the world) by means of twelve magical sigils attached to stone golems. Someone should do something about this, I say. Yes, you should, says the wizard. So, against all reason, I set off ON MY OWN, on foot, with nothing bar a backpack full of sandwiches, a single potion of luck and my sword and special kingly helmet.
It is clear I am not a wise king.

Off I go, nodding to peasants and such and saying 'jolly good' and 'what ho' until I reach the foreboding monster filled and horribly named Lake Nekros. I build a raft, push off and something immediately hauls me into the water and kills me. That's a record for a FF book surely - dead in three paragraphs and on my first choice? Fuck that. I go back and try again.

This time the king decides to go around the lake via Affen Forest. It grows dark so I set up a jolly little camp and try and get some shuteye but some beastly kraken snakes up out of the lake and tries to have me for supper. It's a long fight as I have to fight each tentacle individually, but thankfully I am a skilled swordsman (all those fencing lessons paid off) and soon put paid to the rotten thing. What should happen next but a load of ghosts rising up out of the lake and offering to help me out should I but say the name of the top ghost fellow. Turns out the poor blighters' souls were held in thrall to the kraken and with it's death they're free. Odd eh?
Bouyed by the aid of my new chums I continue north where I'm accosted by some Wood Elves and taken to their delightfully rustic little village where I explain why I'm on my quest to vanquish Morgana and her masks. The elves agree to help and show me a mystic vision in their magical mirror, which is rather rum. "We could help you more but that would remove free choice which is what determines a hero" they say and whisk me away with their elf magic. Vague chaps, these elves!

(at this point I tried asking about the ghost and of course, when I mentioned his name, he appeared and destroyed all the elves. I was killed immediately by a magic vortex after so ignored this path, but this was actually pretty funny especially as the ghost was extremely cross)

I find myself in some mist shrouded hills on the far side of the lake. Top work elves, that's saved me a spot of boot leather! It's dashed cold here but I settle down and wait for the mist to clear, revealing an uninhabited mine of some kind. As a king I'm very interested in architecture, so I poke around in a ruined outhouse, fall through the floor and have to fight some jolly unpleasant rats and things to get out. I then meet some hermit chappy who gives me a rather nice royal sceptre before he falls asleep! One supposes it must be hard work being a hermit and all that. I then trot down into the mine itself where I pick up a nugget of copper ore and a pickaxe handle, which will make fine souvenirs of my jaunt. Spotting a hole in the ceiling I stop and look up through it and some chap above looks down it and shoots me dead!

One last go. I decide not to look up at the hole, retrace my steps, fight some bally smelly bats, then stop for a sandwich and a bite of fruitcake whilst I consider my position. I've been stuck in this rotten mine for some time and the old kingly sense of direction has failed me a bit. I keep going left till eventually I arrive at an entrance where some beastly great bear is waiting for me. It gets quite a few licks in too, and I have to stop for another lunch after the battle, I can tell you. Then it's a simple task to toddle on to Fallow Dale where I am to meet with this chap Hever and pick up his magic horn (Kevin told me to do this earlier. Did I mention Kevin? Splendid fellow. Made my helmet don't you know)
Before meeting Hever I stop off at the inn for an absolutely splendid lunch. Hever says he can't give me his magic horn unless I hand over a magic mirror - I don't have one of those, so he suggests I head back into bally Affen Forest and deal with some great filthy tiger that's running around there eating his cattle and whatnot. I head into the forest with some hounds and blunder into a pit trap - dug by Hever's own men, worse luck - and that's it for my adventure. Bad luck old bean!

This book is incredibly hard! It's Deathtrap Dungeon-esque in it's instant death choices it seems with many of them being very arbitrary. There's also a lot of luck and skill tests, and it looks like failing a lot of them is fatal too.
I haven't got far enough into this yet to really get into the plot, but the setup with me being the king but wandering about on my own without even a horse or a couple of aides is ridiculous. What is great is Russ Nicholson's wonderful illustrations which are full of atmosphere and also very evocative not only of the first two books in the series (which he illustrated, of course) but also old Games Workshop art of yore, which all adds to it being very cool indeed.
The sequence where I had to hunt the tiger was rather unique as well, it being a grid with both tiger and myself moving around in it randomly. Would have been better without an 'enter this square and you auto-die' bit though!

Despite the difficulty I've enjoyed this so far, so I'm going to stick at it!
You're a dark horse, Boots.

JohnW

Russ Nicholson is very much the man. I'd forgotten about him until I read your post.
Why can't everybody just, y'know, be friends and everything? ... and uh ... And love each other!

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Barrington Boots on 23 November, 2022, 12:17:13 PM
That's a record for a FF book surely - dead in three paragraphs and on my first choice?

My personal record is death in paragraph 1 - [spoiler]in Stormslayer you immediately meet a rampaging manticore.[/spoiler] I've attempted the book twice and never made it to paragraph 2! 😅
@jamesfeistdraws

Barrington Boots

Well that'll take some beating!
Is Stormslayer any good? My wife asked if she could get me a FF book for Christmas and pretty much all the others I don't have are £30 and up on the secondary market..
You're a dark horse, Boots.

Richard

I love Russ Nicholson's artwork. He did a private commission for me nearly ten years ago:



Barrington Boots

Oh that is fantastic!
You're a dark horse, Boots.

JayzusB.Christ

That's lovely, that.

I loved his stuff too, especially when printed in what was presumably something like its original size in Warlock magazine.

He's very much influenced my window painting style, in which I try to include as much gnarled wood and as many lanterns and drinking vessels as possible. But beyond that he's influenced my life in general - the very small house I live in is also full of gnarled wood, lanterns and drinking vessels.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Dr Feeley Good


Barrington Boots

There's some very nice Blanche-esque art from the Hungarian edition of Crystal of Storms up for sale here:
https://lakatos.bigcartel.com/products
Even if you're not into original art, go and check it out because they look great and far better than the art in the UK edition, lovely old school Warhammer / FF feel to them.

Anyway, I haven't posted here for a couple of weeks and that's because I still cannot beat Masks of Mayhem.

Anyone else playing this? It's insanely difficult, and that's all the more frustrating because once you get over the 'king wanders off on his own to do a quest without any stuff' premise the plot is actually quite good.
Looking forward to finishing it and playing something easier <checks which book is next the series> oh right.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

Richard

That really does look the business!

I've been busier than usual lately so haven't had time to start FF23 but will aim to get round to it before Christmas. (Whether I can finish it before Christmas remains to be seen...)