The power of 44 strikes again.
Fantasy
I’m proud to announce my good friend and author Mark Lain has launched a follow up to his Destiny’s Role gamebook on Kickstarter. With a colour cover art by the legendary Alan Langford and interior art by modern illustrator Mike Tenebrae, you can help fund this amazing interactive project by CLICKING HERE.
Check out the great rewards on this chart.
So the fabulous Olly McNeil (pictured here with the equally fit and young virile one) has brought out his third tabletop game after an uber successful Kickstarter funding. The Storymasters Tales – Weirding Woods.
Jam with Olly McNeil, the games creator.
So how did the game bear up? Restricted by time due to two under 3y.o’s, we had to wait for an alloted window to turn up. Tonight we opened the box, familiarised with the rules and to keep it simple my Mrs, Victoria, played solo and I was storyteller. She created a character called Gladys who was a witch. I chose the Night Of The Dead storyline as I’m a Romero fan lol.
We soon picked up the gist of the game, it’s easiness being in not having too many stats to worry over. The cards for the game are beautifully illustrated and help conjure up an atmosphere. Each turn, Vic took a card and I read out the plot, at one point she was very happy to have purchased a dog from a trader. She then proceeded to choose one of four options and Gladys the Witch was swiftly torn to shreds by a dreaded Blood Wolf only a few turns in. (If only she had a squeaky tennis ball)
Just swigging some mead between FATE rolls.
As a player of D&D back in the 80s, Vics only gripe with the game is there are only four options per plot. She wanted to stay their, craft arrows, set snares, etc so I had to say it wasn’t a saga of a game to that scale. Nonetheless she still loves it so we had another go. It was meant to be my go but as Vic was felled so soon I gave her another chance. Same quest, different character. This time, a Soldier called Bwian. She did much better this time but still fell foul of a monster. This time the Devil himself. (fancy fighting him… duh?).
All in all we have become rather attached to this game after only a couple of goes and will be swapping rolls tomorrow night so I get to play. Well recommended, easy to pick up, and beautifully presented. The only thing I’d say is add a wee slip case or rubber band for the card deck.
Go on, get yours here!
Seek and aquire a copy!
Nightshift.
Remember how excellent some gamebooks actually were back in the 80s? The ones with mostly fresh ideas that we couldn’t wait for the release of? This is also a very impacting game book based largely on brainwork as there are no combat systems. Typically, this is everything Choose You Own Adventure should have been. Creepy, paced, atmospheric and relies heavily on cerebral skill to get you through. It literally doesn’t need dice or card systems to work whereby the aforementioned CYOA were dreadfully easy.
Set within the confines of a creepy hospital (that’s enough to shit some people up alone), you awaken in a very surreal version of your world. You realise quite early on some lunatic (liking it already) is stalking you to chop you up like other victims. These turn out to be witches and the author has cleverly interlaced witch folklore into the story, with the looney taking different body parts from each in order to gain special powers. But things take a turn for the worse when you discover a higher power in control of this seemingly willing slave. All throughout the adventure you feel everything is being manipulated around you from room to room, and you don’t know what random and usually gory thing is going to happen next.
All the classic Fighting Fantasy esque conundrums are here, from riddles and letter codes (like in Ian Livingstone’s Deathtrap Dungeon) , to cryptic deciphering and numbered items (Steve Jackson’s Creature Of Havoc perhaps). It’s even 400 references long. For a first gamebook from Victoria Hancox, this is an excellent debut. She has certainly drawn from her familiarities with gamebooks and experiences which have added backbone to the game and I have also been in contact with Victoria and begged that she’ll write another. She replied to me and… I’m not going to say the answer 😜.
This is what many modern gamebooks should be like, and if you like the Horror gamebooks like me… it should be the very next book you buy.
Attempts.. 6 🙂
*proudly became the first known player to complete it successfully according to the author.
Get your copy HERE.
September has seen the release of Fighting Fantasy game book Assassins Of Allansia by the Guv himself, Ian Livingstone.
Assassins Of Allansia
I recently picked up my hardback copy of the book at the Fighting Fantasy Fest 3 from the authors son, Jack. I mentioned my weirdo number 44, and asked if that copy was available as all 400 copies were numbered. He dug it out for me also mentioning it’s Ian’s weirdo number as well. Nice. Anyway Ian signed it later on with a personal message.
So, with all that aside… what do i think to this entry in the popular gamebook series?
It’s a lovely adventure to come back after the series sending up that was Gates Of Death and the fair but fatally flawed Port Of Peril. I’m old school FF and thus have noticed that this and especially Gates seem to have alternative lore to the Fighting Fantasy book many of us have read. The DECAYER in Assassins for example, is nothing like the undead looking creature inked by Tim Sell in Out Of The Pit. SEE HERE. We are also getting Earth christian names now, like Florence, Henry and Samuel. This isn’t detrimental to the book in itself but it is a thorn in an old school fans side. Makes it feel like there’s a dimension crack and reality is seeping into our beloved Titan. Hold on, 20GPs to stay on a dangerous island for how long? You can find that just bumming around for a day.
The art by Robert Ball is somewhat nicer than Vlado Krizans and given Scholastic seem to avoid the more detailed illustrations of yesteryear in favour for dummied down jagged angular repro’s I finally feel a sense of actually being on Titan again. Not much, just a bit.
I think we need to stop comparing what FF was and accept it is going to be different now a bit like any other series reboot. (Doctor Who, James Bond etc). Definitely a Livingstone book. Youll know what that means after a couple of nights on the island. The story itself is packed full of dangers and the Guv has gone out of his way to make you not want to try things out in case it causes stat penalties. Also, you could call this FF5and a half as it takes place between City Of Thieves and Deathtrap Dungeon. Not to mention an appearance of a familiar much loved character from one of them…and I dont mean Azzur or Sukumvit.
Overall, if we brush away the old school cobwebs and altering Titan lore, this is the best since the Scholastic FF revival. I hope more come out like this rather than the previous couple.
For about 23 years now I have been toying with the idea of getting tattoo’s based on the amazing illustrations from the Fighting Fantasy game book series. Well this month I finally went beserk. Starting off with the Iain McCaig filler illustration of the villainous Zanbar Bone from the book City Of Thieves.
Fighting fantasy Zanbar Bone City of Thieves
The tattooist did such an amazing job barely three weeks later I nuked some credit and had two more done. The first being Martin McKenna’s unused filler intended for FF40, Dead Of Night. Puffin rejected it though because of the religious iconography. Cowards.
Fighting fantasy dead of night
The next would be John Blanches filler from the Sorcery series which I simply call sun-orc. Sorcery was the epic four book Fighting Fantasy quest which introduced me to the entire series.
Delve into gothic folklore in this enchanting game steeped in mythological creatures. Can you survive a walk through The Storymasters Tales:Weirding Woods?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/legendphotography/the-storymasters-tales-weirding-woods
