RANKINGS
1. The Battlepits of Krarth - Score = 7.7 Tier = Good
Attempts to Beat: 12
On to a series that I have heard a lot of good things about, so have been looking forward for awhile now to giving this Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson creation a spin. However, I feel like I should point out a couple of things before beginning the review. First, I have included the shot of the original cover of the book above for historical purposes, as I am not actually playing the original editions of these books, but the reprinted versions that came out in 2014. I probably could have gotten my hands on the originals, but I often find myself going for reprints should they be available for the reasons of: a) I am hoping any errors, bugs, or imbalanced gameplay may have been fixed, and b) I'd like to see at least some money go to the original authors, which obviously doesn't happen when purchasing used books. As such, there could be differences between the original editions and the 2014 versions of which I am not aware. Second, as with any gamebook series that also comes with a multi-player option, I am reviewing these completely from the perspective of a solo player. For all I know, the gamebooks could be much better (or worse for that matter), if played alongside others.
The rules begin with an explanation of the combat system, and what a doozy this is! The system here is akin to a much lighter version of fantasy boardgames such as Gloomhaven that I found myself playing during COVID (before conceding that I had to give up solo boardgaming, as it took up far more time than I was anticipating, and I found I could not have both boardgames and gamebooks as a hobby at the same time, although I would like to get back to them in the future). Each combat that you find yourself engaged in will come with a tactical map, which is a small grid representing the room or area you are in, showing the starting position of all the members of your party along with that of any enemies in the vicinity. You then need to determine the combat order, or the order in which everyone involved in the showdown gets to act, with all the characters, both yours and the enemies, ranked by their Awareness attribute, with the highest getting to act first, and then so on down the line until everyone has had a turn, at which point a new round begins and you return to the top of the order. The combatants have several different options to choose from, including: Attack, Defend, Move, Flee, or Cast a spell in the case of magic users. Ranged attacks from certain characters can occur from anywhere on the map (although curiously there is no mention made regarding line-of-sight if you have a character trying to fire an arrow through a blacked out grid square, which is meant to represent a pillar or some such obstruction. Are you banking an arrow off a wall?), with melee attacks obviously requiring the attacking character to be adjacent to their target on the grid map. While this is all more time consuming than the usual gamebook combat systems, I had an absolute blast with this, carefully planning out my strategy in each situation depending upon the layout and the types of enemies I was facing. Well, at least until I acquired a certain spell, but I will get to that later.
The act of Attacking itself is fairly simple, as you roll 2D6 and compare the result to your Fighting Prowess stat. Roll equal to or under and you score a hit, and you then roll for Damage to see how many Endurance points to take off the attacked character, which will depend on the weapon being used and who is wielding it. Many of the characters in the combats will also be wearing Armour, which will mitigate the Damage scored against them by the indicated amount in their provided stats. Defending is an interesting strategy which I did not start to use until later in my playthroughs, and should you choose to employ it, you do not get to attack anyone, but anyone attacking you now must roll under their Fighting Prowess with 3 dice as opposed to 2. Move is fairly self-explanatory, as your character can spend their turn moving to any unoccupied grid square on the map, providing they have a clear path to get there. The Flee option is one I found myself using more times than was probably honorable in my initial attempts, and this requires you to first move to a "Flee" square on the grid before being able to then escape at the start of your next turn. This isn't quite as easy as it sounds, as if you currently have an enemy adjacent to your character, you will need to Defend for one round first before you are able to move toward the Flee square. You will also need to control the movement of your enemies as well, although you are given basic instructions on how to do so, with the enemies always moving towards or attacking the closest player to them (with a dice roll determining who they go for should two or more of your characters be the same distance from the enemy). Some enemies will also be capable of using magic against you, and when and how they do so will be explained at the time of the fight. I will get into the Cast Spell options later in the review, but other than that, and just to reiterate, I was very impressed by the combat system here, and it is definitely a cut above just about every other system that comes to mind of which I have experienced so far. Well done lads!
So after the rules explaining combat, we get to the rules regarding Character creation, and what's this? No randomly generated starting stats? Hallelujah! This book already gets a big thumbs up just for avoiding that nonsense. Playing this solo, I figured I would be controlling just one character, and while you can certainly do that if you wish, you also have the option of playing as a party of up to 4 different characters at once. There are 4 different character classes to choose from: the Warrior, the Trickster, the Sage, and the Enchanter, with each obviously having their own strengths and weaknesses. Each character has the attributes of Fighting Prowess and Damage (for attacking), Psychic Ability (for offensive spellcasting and repelling enemy spells), Awareness (to determine who acts quickest in a combat), and Endurance (ie. Stamina points). Also, with the exception of the Warrior (who has the advantage of better Fighting Prowess, better Armour, and higher Endurance), each of the characters has special abilities that can be called upon in certain situations when the book asks if you wish to use them. The Sage can use their powers of ESP for example to try and determine possible future outcomes, or the Enchanter can summon a small creature to see what havoc it can wreak. The authors attempt to balance the discrepancy of playing through the adventure using just one character as opposed to four by starting your character(s) at higher Experience levels based upon how many of them are in your party. The higher your Experience level, the greater your starting stats. I'm still not sure how I feel about this though, because choosing to play with just one character will give you higher starting stats sure, but I found it to be more important to have more "turns" in the combats, which means the more characters in your party, the better off you probably are. This is because, unlike boardgames such as Gloomhaven, the number of enemies found in a room is the same regardless of how many characters you have in your party. Where that boardgame would have the number of enemies determined by a formula such as "Enemies = Number of Player Characters x 2", in this book you will need to beat those 4 Barbarians in that corridor whether you have only 1 character in your party or 4. Not only that, the enemies will have the same Endurance scores regardless of how many are in your party as well. Overall, I didn't think that the bump in stats for fewer characters made up for the decreased number of options and attacks you could make with an increased character count, but other gamebook players may have had a different experience. The game also includes a nice inventory system, called Encumbrance in this case, where each character has 10 slots in which to store any items they come across. Unlike some other gamebooks which use such a system, your weapons and armour, and even your money pouch, take up slots here as well, so you may need to think carefully about what to drop should you wish to pick up an important item and are already at your maximum Encumbrance limit. Granted, this wasn't too much of a factor in this first book, but I can see it weighing more and more heavily on inventory choices moving forward in the series as more items are acquired.
With the above said, you would think I beat the adventure with 4 characters in my party, and although I did attempt some playthroughs that way as I was constantly experimenting with different character counts and combinations, (which is another wonderful aspect of the gamebook, probably even more so than the combat system) I actually ultimately beat the adventure with a two-character party consisting of a Warrior and an Enchanter (who I named Kraxos and Devilicus respectively. I'm not sure why. I may have subconsciously heard the names somewhere!). And while the Sage character has a very useful Healing ability, special mention needs to be made of the Enchanter, who for me, was far and away the most intriguing of the lot. This is because he comes with a plethora of spells that he can cast, with the spells ranging from the lower Complexity Level 1 spells up to the much more powerful Complexity Level 5 spells. Before you can cast a spell, you first need to "call it to mind", and for each spell you have in your mind, your Psychic Ability is temporarily decreased by 1. This is important, because in order to successfully cast a spell, you need to roll two dice, add to the result the Complexity Level of the spell you are trying to cast, and this final number needs to be equal to or lower than your current Psychic Ability score. This makes the higher level spells more difficult to cast (as they should be), and I found myself carefully weighing the pros and cons of trying to hit with a more risky, yet higher damage spell, depending upon my current situation in any given combat. There is an additional rule that I found a little bit unclear though, which states that should you fail to make the required roll when attempting to cast a spell, you can try again next round but you then get to take -1 off of the number required to roll. Should you fail again, next time you get to take -2 off the required number. But then the example ends there. So is -2 the most you get to deduct or does it keep decreasing with each failed attempt? I was initially finding this an important distinction, so decided to go online to see if I could get a more precise ruling. And lo and behold, right on Dave Morris' own Fabled Lands blog, someone else asked him the exact same question! Dave Morris responded by saying that the "fail bonus" does in fact keep increasing with each subsequent roll, so right from the horse's mouth (no offense Mr Morris!), there you have it. I'm not sure how I feel about that though, as it means the Enchanter will eventually hit some pretty powerful spells guaranteed.
I've been heavily singing the praises of the book so far, so you may be wondering why it received "only" a 7.7 score from me. Well, that would be due to an aspect of the adventure I haven't talked about yet, which would be the story. Yeah, it's, uh, not that good. The book takes place in the fantasy world of Legend, and the plot here begins with your party of adventurers trekking across the plains of Krarth towards the citadel of Kalugen's Keep to participate in a contest. Every year, the various magi of Krath select champions to represent them in this contest, with the chosen adventurers descending into the caverns underneath the plains to seek out the Emblem of Victory located on the other side. First team to get this Emblem wins, earning treasure and glory for themselves, and prestige and land for the magi that sponsored them. So, it's an underground contest eh? Is it full of "Deathtraps" by any chance? The comparisons to that earlier Fighting Fantasy classic are unavoidable, and unfortunate too, as despite coming out several years later, this adventure comes off the worse in that matchup. The adventure here actually starts out quite well, giving you several different things to try as you seek out a magi to sponsor you in the contest. When you arrive in the citadel, there are three magi remaining who are still seeking their champions, and you get to choose among them. However, two of these three magi are complete lunatics, and I have to believe it is the remaining one that you are "supposed" to be championing. After that decent opening though, once you enter the underground area (or the "Battlepits" as they are known), things become decidedly ordinary. It's not bad by any means, but as you make your way through the corridors and caverns, nothing really stands out, and I am struggling to note anything of much interest. The path through these Battlepits also felt like it became increasingly linear the farther you went, with the first areas having some different options and paths you could try exploring, then the middle sections having less to choose from, then finally the last stretch which felt like one long straightaway where I kept being asked over and over again if I had a certain item in my possession. This final sequence I thought was the weakest of the adventure, as a new plot element is thrown in right near the end, but can also be missed or left unresolved, in which case players of the reprinted books would probably be wondering just what the heck is the creature being depicted on the cover supposed to be. Much like the "Way of the Tiger" series though, it did introduce a villain who I presume will be an ongoing threat throughout the series, so that was something positive, if even he was portrayed a bit one-dimensionally here. Once you make it to the end and grab the Emblem, you find yourself back in the citadel and are rewarded with stat boosting items along with Experience points to level up your characters (those that survived anyway) for the next book.
There are a few mini-games to be found here and there in the adventure, although I did not think they worked all that well. Case in point, on my very first time at making it to the room containing Grandmaster Klef (who is apparently some sort of contest steward) at roughly the halfway point of the adventure, instead of fighting him he challenges you to a game. I won't go into the details of the game itself, but I was ultimately asked to pick a number between 1 and 6, then turn to the next section. Dutifully doing so, I turned to that next section to find that Klef had picked the exact same number as me, and I was asked to pick another number between 1 and 6. Not wishing to feel bullied off of my number, I picked the same one, only to turn to the next section to find out that once again Klef had also picked that number. Gee this is fun! At this point, the game was declared a draw, and I was awarded an important magical item that would come in very handy later. There really wasn't much point in me trying anything different on repeated playthroughs, knowing now how to get that very useful item. There is a similar mini-game that can be played against one of the magi in the opening sections of the book that involves you picking cards, where upon playing it once, you will know exactly what cards to pick every time after that. These mini-games really need some kind of randomness injected into them to keep them from being one-and-done affairs.
The writing here, while solid overall, wasn't as good as I have come to expect from a Dave Morris adventure, although that may be because of Morris' fantastically written The Temple of Flame setting an extremely high bar. The fiery atmosphere of the caverns was well done, and I particularly enjoyed the touches of the sewage from the foundations of the citadel above dripping down into them. However, the whole thing seemed a bit on the empty side considering the stakes involved here. I thought this was a huge contest, so where are all the other contestants? I only came across a couple of other parties looking for the Emblem, and I think the story would have benefited from more interactions with fellow competitors, although this isn't a huge complaint. Another thing that struck me as odd was that the adventure was mostly written as if I was playing as only one character. There was one moment for instance where I flew across a moat of lava on the back of a birdman creature. Easy enough to picture 1 or 2 characters doing this, but did a party of 4 all pile on the back of this guy? There was probably no way around this, but still, going through this whole quest with a party of 2-4 characters where none of them ever speak to each other could be a bit immersion breaking. I have no doubt this is the aspect of the book where having multiple players controlling the characters would greatly increase the enjoyability factor, as they would no doubt be bantering amongst each other. Playing solo though, the only banter I was going to get was if I sat at my desk talking to myself in different voices while I played. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time!
After all the above........I come to the Sommerswerd-sized elephant in the room, which I have been leaving for last. After playing a handful of times, I eventually uncovered a room called the Scriptorium. This room contains several scrolls that can be taken which convey various bonuses. Far and away the most notable of these is the "Adjust" scroll, which can be used to "re-spec" your characters by transferring an attribute point from Fighting Prowess, Psychic Ability, and Awareness amongst each other. Only one character can enter this room, but they can grab as many of these scrolls as they can carry (needing to leave one inventory slot open to hold the item required to enter and leave the room), and then bring them out for any of the members of your party to use. The problem here is that there are no limits placed on how many an individual character can use other than how many can be carried. It took me all of 5 seconds to realize that the best option would be to transfer as many points as you can from the Fighting Prowess stat to the Psychic Ability stat for your Enchanter. Why? Because one look through his more powerful spells (which require a high Psychic Ability score to have any chance of successfully casting), and one spell in particular jumps off the page. Anyone who has played this probably knows exactly which one I mean, that being the Nemesis Bolt, which causes a massage 7D6+7 points of damage!!! This makes him the ultimate death dealer, and you could probably just have everyone else in your party move in close to the enemies to draw their fire, then "Defend" while waiting for your Enchanter to obliterate everything on the tactical map. He is all but guaranteed to hit with this spell multiple times in every combat, especially with the rule regarding spells becoming easier to cast after each failed attempt. He has some other powerful spells as well such as Vampire and Sheet Lightning, (along with Immediate Deliverance, which I found useful in avoiding lots of dice rolling in rooms that you learn are safe to just Flee from), but Nemesis Bolt seemed to be his best option by far. It took me a few more tries to work out how to get all my party alive through the endgame, but the combats themselves gave me very little trouble after learning this, and I was reminded of what the acquiring of the Sommerswerd did to the Lone Wolf combat system in that series. I dearly hope this isn't the same case here moving forward, but time will tell.
Ranking: As an entry-level book to the series, or a "tutorial" book if you will, this is great. There are plenty of opportunities to experiment with various combinations of characters in different sizes of adventuring parties, and the combat system is one of the better ones I have come across, maybe even THE best one. Judging it solely on its own merits however and irrespective of it possibly setting up for expanded adventures in the future, I can't say it quite reaches the great level. The main reason for this is the story, which I found to be rather generic, with almost no encounters really standing out in an interesting way, and with the final sequence in particular being rather lacking. I also have something of a pit in my stomach wondering if the presence of the Nemesis Bolt is going to severely unbalance the combat system, but I guess the only way to know for sure is to begin the next book!
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2. The Kingdom of Wyrd - Score = 9.0 Tier = Great!
Attempts to Beat: 14
Now that's what I'm talking about! If my biggest problem with the first book was with its story, that was certainly fixed here. Oh sure, the overall plot of having to gather together several items in order to prevent some evil Magi returning to the land isn't exactly untrodden fantasy ground, but it still works so well here because of the inclusion of several great encounters and in how well it is all told. The adventure picks up not far from where the previous book ended, with your party trekking eastwards and away from the citadel of Kalugen's Keep from that last entry. This book doesn't mention any of the deeds you accomplished in Krarth so as not to leave in the dark any players who might have skipped the previous book and are starting with this entry in the series, but for a player who went through that first book, it's not hard to imagine your party having only recently completed that adventure. This second installment gets off to a really good start too, as you find your party is now travelling through a forest alongside a caravan of merchants, with you all having decided to join forces while within the dangerous forest thanks to the old "safety in numbers" adage. So much for those plans though, as you start to come to the realization that not everything is as it seems with these merchants, and this leads to a wonderful opening sequence as you learn the truth about your travelling companions. It is also within this opening that you are given your goal for this adventure. You learn from a dying man that the incredibly powerful Five Magi are set to return to the world of Legend, which would spell disaster as they would presumably seek to conquer. As fate would have it, there is a magical artefact (because of course there is) known as the Blood Sword which is the only thing that will be able to stop them. Unfortunately, this sword is currently broken apart, with its various pieces scattered across Legend. This dying man provides you with the scabbard for the sword, and also tells you where the hilt of the sword can be found. Bad news there though, as the hilt is currently possessed by the evil Warlock King (because of course it is) who rules over the icy northern island Kingdom of Wyrd. So your quest then is to travel to this kingdom, somehow make it inside the Warlock King's Palace of Eternal Dusk, and take the hilt of the sword from him by any means necessary. I did question the wisdom of taking the one extremely valuable artefact you already possess, the scabbard, deep into enemy territory, but I guess you have nowhere safe to leave it either. I also once again got a strong "Lone Wolf" vibe from all of this, with the beautiful map of the area in which the adventure takes place at the front of the book, along with the similar inventory system used in the game, and also in that presumably we will be assembling pieces of the sword for a few books, much like the gathering of the Lorestones in "Lone Wolf". This is all a good thing though, as it makes you feel like you are only just getting started in what will become a world-spanning adventure.
The adventure doesn't let up after that opening sequence either, as much like in the great 1987 movie "Predator", you immediately find yourself being hunted through the forest by an extremely dangerous creature that falls from the sky and is known as the Stalker, which apparently has some ties to the Five Magi and is pursuing you for the scabbard. Once you manage to make it past him, you are on to a grizzled harbour town, where lo and behold the adventure begins to include several honest-to-goodness sidequests you can undertake, and these are done in such a way that I am not sure I have seen up to this point. You can find yourself aiding an old knight in getting revenge on the witch who killed his comrades, or join an Ahab-like ship captain as he vows to hunt down a mythical sea creature, or even travel on a flying carpet to investigate a wizard's tower. The completion of these quests will usually result in some kind of reward that will come in handy later in the adventure, but are not required to beat the book. I would highly recommend giving them all a go at least once though, as not only are they a heck of a lot of fun, they also provide some nice background and colour to the world itself. I even began to question myself upon aiding that old knight, as it occurred to me that I was possibly going to kill someone based purely upon the word of this one guy. That could have turned out badly!
There are a couple of different routes you can take to get to Wyrd, including a sea voyage followed by a trek across the pack ice surrounding the island, or perhaps even by travelling to it via the aforementioned flying carpet. Once ashore, you find out with just how much of an iron fist the Warlock King has been ruling these people. The island at one time thrived, but that all changed when the Warlock King took power centuries ago, and the people now live in abject fear and misery. Many would like to escape, but in order to prevent that there is an incredibly dangerous Kraken-like creature that guards the coastline. Revolt is out of the question also, as the Warlock King has the ability to see the dreams of his subjects, and is thus able to quash any rebellion before it can ever take root. There are a few individuals to be encountered that are willing to risk it all to help you though, wishing nothing more than to see the King overthrown. You then need to make your way inland towards the King's Palace of Eternal Dusk, passing through another dark and snowy forest with killer wolves hot on your heels. I did think this sequence could have played out a bit better, as these wolves seem like almost an afterthought after how they were built up. Although it was still quite atmospheric, brief as it was. Perhaps the authors felt they had already played the "hunted through the forest" card earlier in the adventure with the Stalker, and didn't want to repeat that experience.
Once that forest stretch is covered, you arrive at the Palace of Eternal Dusk itself, which proves to be yet another highlight of the adventure. The Palace is located on an island in the middle of a lake, and has three distinct corridors that lead from the shore towards it. You can then choose to enter by the Gate of Carnage, Gate of Confusion, or Gate of Fear. Each one of these three paths comes with its own dangers to face, and more importantly, rewards to be had. These routes eventually all join up again as you approach the end game, and this is unfortunately where I found some design decisions creep in that I wasn't fond of, despite how much I was enjoying the Palace overall. First of all, there is a near-essential item that you are going to need to collect after making it through one of the three routes, but I personally found the means by how you do so somewhat counter-intuitive. There involves a scene where you need to revive a character of yours, and it was only after several unsuccessful tries at the book that I realized it was even more important as to WHEN you revived this character. Do it at the wrong time and you are not even given the option of collecting the needed item, and are shuffled off in the opposite direction, none the wiser on the key items that you missed. This is the second book in a row now that has seriously tested my "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to my playthroughs, and I can see I am going to have to re-evaluate that stance. I will say that at least the authors don't outright kill you for not having this item, but your odds sure are long, especially if you want to get all members of your party through to the end in one piece. Second of all is the final confrontation with The Warlock King himself. He can be beaten incredibly easily, as if you have a certain item (a different item from the one just talked about), it's an auto-win. This would be perfectly fine if this item was tough to get or well hidden, but it seemed to me kind of hard to miss, and there is a very good chance you are going to know to have it, and also for it to be the item you choose to use, by the time you finally make it to the Warlock King, as the person who gives it to you is obviously important. Once again in fairness to the authors, should you not have this item, you still have a chance to defeat The Warlock King in combat, but the process for doing so, which involves you crossing an electrified grid, seemed like suicide. This is especially true for a party of four characters which would have lower Endurance scores. But hey, it is appreciated that at least these authors are giving you a chance, no matter how slight, even if you are missing important items, which is a lot more than you would get from most other gamebooks!
However, the real saving grace to my final encounter letdown is the arena battle that immediately precedes it. This is very well handled, as the Warlock King has an army of skeletons rise up from underneath the dirt of an arena to attack you. Your odds of surviving are determined by what kind of forces you have amassed yourself as you played through the book. There are many items that can be collected that will provide you with a group of warriors to aid you at this key moment. If for example you have an enchanted checkers set (don't ask), this will grant you aid from a group of elfin warriors, while the heart of that demon you slew earlier, should you have it, will provide you with some shadow warriors to add to your ranks. Each of these warrior groups come with an associated score, and you add them all up to see how difficult it will be to get past the Warlock King's guards and finally make it to the big bad himself. The higher the score the better obviously, and if you score high enough you won't even need to get into a combat at all, and can proceed straight to the King. I've always loved this kind of thing, as it incentivizes exploration knowing that the more stuff you can find, the easier you might make it on yourself when the chips are down. I will say though that the majority of these items used for the final battle can be found right near the end of the adventure, and I wish they had been scattered across the journey a bit more. But I guess we all know how bad guys in gamebooks like to keep stuff that can harm them lying around in their own lair. After the skeletons are defeated and the Warlock King destroyed, we claim the hilt of the Blood Sword which the King kept on his person, and return outside to find the Kingdom of Wyrd already recovering as we make our plans to find the next piece of the sword, that being the blade, in the next adventure.
I've touched on it throughout the review already, but the very first thing I noticed as soon as I began reading this book is that this is much better written than the previous entry. Everywhere you go here, from snow covered forests, to dingy harbour towns, to an island whose inhabitants have become completely bereft of hope, the atmosphere drips from every seam. Although there was one oddity where you can find your characters possibly becoming seasick, at which point they would lose 2 Endurance points, only to have those 2 points immediately recovered in the next section, which had me wondering what the point was other than making me adjust my character sheet for no good reason (the book even points out you can't die from the seasick Endurance loss should you have only 1 or 2 points remaining). That said, this had nothing to do with the writing itself, as this adventure was a pleasure to read and I enjoyed every section of it. One thing I do wonder though, being unfamiliar with the world of Legend before beginning this series, is in how the title of the book is pronounced. Is Wyrd spoken as "word", "weird", or perhaps even "wired"? I could have sworn there was a section that heavily suggested it was "word" (Wyrd to your mother?), but now after finishing the book, I can't find it.
One final thing I will say, is that you are doing yourself a disservice if you do not include a Sage in your party, as having one allows you access to some terrific backstory and information about the lands across which you travel along with its inhabitants, because the Sage has studied such things in the past and can thus fill the reader in. As soon as I learned this, and because having all four characters in your party gives you so many more options and allows you to see more of the book, I was determined this time to get a full party of four characters across the finish line as opposed to just my Warrior and overpowered Enchanter with which I beat the first book. I then eventually decided to get both groups through to the end, as who knows, I might need that Enchanter should an unfairly difficult and unavoidable combat arise in a future book. I'm also not really sure how it's handled if you have a two character party from beating the first book, but want to add the other two to that existing party. The rules here say if you have four characters, they each start at Level 3, but my two characters that beat the first book finished that adventure at Level 6, so how would this work? Would those two decrease in Level? Ultimately, I decided to set up something of a "Hero's Guild", and to treat them as two separate teams, and then give both teams the chance to make it through to the end. Which I'm happy to say they did.
Ranking: I had an excellent time with this, and found it superior to the first book in just about every way. The story, while perhaps not the most original, easily overcomes this thanks to the wonderful encounters and atmosphere all throughout. A boatload of things to experiment with, alongside several side-quests to undertake which, while a blast to play, are not required to beat the adventure either, meant that before I began each playthrough I was constantly strategizing on what I wanted to try doing on that particular attempt. Combat takes a back seat here as you are often better off just not fighting, which is a bit unfortunate in some respects, but I do very much enjoy adventures that are one big puzzle to be worked out, and this accomplishes that very well. I did feel there were some design decisions near the end of the adventure that could have been done better, but even those weren't enough to knock it out of the Great tier for me. I already can't wait to begin the next book and get my grubby mitts on the next piece of the Blood Sword. My stable of heroes is ready to rock n roll!
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3. The Demon's Claw - Score = 9.7 Tier = Great!
Attempts to Beat: 11
You know how every once in a blue moon you will be playing a gamebook and realize partway through that you have gotten a hold of something special? That was my feeling progressing through The Demon's Claw as I began to uncover what a truly great adventure this is. This book picks up a couple of years after the events of The Kingdom of Wyrd, as your party of adventurers is still wandering the lands of Legend in their quest to find the blade of the Blood Sword, which also happens to be the last piece of the sword we are missing. After all this time of fruitless searching, we have finally picked up a possible clue as to the blade's whereabouts, as a wise woman we encountered heard tell that the blade can be found in the "Arabian Nights" inspired lands of Outremer. So, the adventure itself begins with us arriving in the very large port city of Crescentium located along Outremer's coast. It was at this point, as our party enters Crescentium, that I thought perhaps I should look a little deeper into the land of Legend that the authors have created, because the similarities between this city and Crusader-held Jerusalem of the 12th Century cannot be ignored. There are several references to Earth mythologies throughout the book as well, which all left me wondering if Legend is meant to be a fantasy-altered version of Earth? Although the once again beautiful map provided at the front of the book does not look much like the Middle East, so perhaps there is a limit to that theory. Even so, this is another wonderful region the authors have created, and a joy to travel through.
And the joy starts right off the bat with your journey through the city of Crescentium, which is marvelously realized. You begin the adventure by deciding which of your characters' contacts within the city you wish to approach to see if they can help you in finding the blade. This gives each character class a different route through the city, and these vary greatly in their length and complexity, with one character's route only taking the blink of an eye, while another will possibly lead you on an in-depth mini-quest to stop an evil witch. You will likely need to play the book enough times to be able to try them all (assuming you are using a 4 character party that is), but there are actually even more than just 4 routes, as there is a way to chain a couple of them together to allow you a very detailed trip through the city. Crescentium itself gives gamebook port cities such as Port Blacksand and Khare a run for their money too, as it's one of those great fantasy urban settings where nefarious characters abound and there are interesting things to discover in seemingly every corner. It was once famously said of New York that there are "8 million stories in the naked city", and Crescentium would seem to fit that description as well. I would really love to see a whole gamebook just set here, as I felt the book was only scratching the surface of its possibilities. Regardless of which route you take, you will eventually end up visiting the house of a doctor within the city who says he can connect you with a certain individual who happens to be searching out The Blade of Death, and as this blade is closely linked with the Blood Sword (otherwise known as the Blade of Life), there is a good chance they can both be found in the same location. He gives you directions to find this person, an exiled Prince called Susurrien, and once you find him, you decide to join forces. Susurrien claims that both swords can be found in the nearby city of Hakbad, and you agree to meet him there once you have collected some magical emeralds known as the Eyes of the Hatuli, which apparently act like homing beacons for the swords.
Now the hard part begins, because these emeralds just so happen to be in the possession of a ghostly pirate captain! Before you departed Crescentium, Susurrien was able to use his mystic knowledge to determine when and where this ghostly ship, known as The Devil's Runner (think The Flying Dutchman), will next appear. It is then put to you to find a way aboard, steal the emeralds, and make your way safely off the cursed ship before it leaves this plane of existence once more. There are several different ways to get to the ship, and my only real complaint with the sequence itself is that it is over far too quickly. A cursed pirate ship is yet another fantastic setting for a gamebook, and I would have loved to see this fleshed out far more than it was.
Perhaps the reason why the ghostly ship sequence was so short however was because the author had more great stuff he wanted to cram in, and that he does! From here you go on to an encounter with a Jinni, who you will need to skillfully make your way past, and who will even grant you 3 wishes. You can choose among various wishes such as vast wealth, or increased strength, but you need to be very careful here too, as I found out the hard way that you might want to use these wishes rather strategically to increase your odds of finding the Blood Sword blade. The Jinni is another great inclusion in a book chock full of them, and he becomes more relatable the more time you spend with him. After this, are we almost at the end? Aw hell no, we still have an encounter with a Cyclops which can lead to yet another side quest in which we have to help save the world (which makes it something more than a side quest I suppose) from a different threat than the one we ourselves are trying to save it from. From there we are on to the city of Hakbad to meet up with Susurrien, where we then need to escape from three incredibly powerful god-like creatures who pursue us relentlessly, much like the Stalker from the previous book, before finally heading into an underground area where the swords can hopefully be found. Phew!
I have to admit that the first time I made it to this underground sequence, I found myself thinking "oh no, after all that, is this adventure going to conclude with a standard dungeon crawl?" Well, a little bit, but fortunately it is on the brief side, and is made up for by the final battles of the adventure, which are quite thrilling. On my final winning playthrough of the book, I was able to get all four of my characters safely to the end, however three of the four had only 5 Endurance points or less remaining. This made for a very tense final battle, as I dearly wanted to get everyone through alive, and this then provided an increased level of satisfaction for winning. But even after reclaiming the Blood Sword blade and defeating the bad guys, Dave Morris still wasn't done, as he ends the adventure on a fantastic cliffhanger ending that rivals The Dungeons of Torgar from the "Lone Wolf" series in terms of "Whoa! I didn't see that coming!". This sets up the next book incredibly well, and I had to employ considerable willpower in not beginning that next book the very same night.
Do I have any criticisms of the adventure? Not many, and the ones I do have are minor at worst. More so than the first two books in the series, it felt like you really need the synergy that arises from having a 4 character party here. It just opens up so many more options for you (and having a Trickster seems particularly key in this adventure), and I have to agree with the commenters on this review page about this being their preferred way to play. And while I think it would be possible, I wonder how difficult it would be to beat this adventure using just a solo Warrior, or a solo Enchanter. For the record I did not beat this adventure with my Warrior/Enchanter combo from back in book 1, as I was having way too much fun in using all the characters together. I guess I have retired that duo for the time being. I only hope I don't need to un-mothball them later! There was also one particular combat that had me scratching my head a bit. While it is very well described, it involves you having to attack and defeat several Acolytes who are channeling their power into their High Priest. The High Priest himself is currently attacking an ally of yours, so is not a threat to you. But the thing is, the Acolytes themselves are also not a threat, because they are too busy in sending power to the High Priest, so that they do not attack you either. Thus, you are left to attack with impunity, rolling dice until you destroy a few of them, which then breaks the flow of power and instantly leads to winning the combat and defeating them all, along with the High Priest. I'm not sure what the point of this was, but to be fair, the combat immediately preceding this one was a well laid out battle, so perhaps that one was meant to be the "real" combat. One last thing as it relates to the underground sequence near the end of the adventure, but you are very likely to have uncovered directions on exactly which way to go in order to avoid all the dangers in this area before you even get there, which removes some of the feeling of discovery and exploration. Fortunately though, as mentioned earlier, this area is brief in any case, so you aren't really missing all that much.
I'm on my third review for this series and one thing I haven't mentioned yet is the size of these books, with the first two entries containing 540 and 570 sections respectively, and then this third entry clocking in at a whopping 590 sections. Granted, much like in the "Sorcery!" series, they are going to need extra sections to account for the different options that the characters can try, but even saying that, these are very lengthy adventures should you wish to explore them all fully. While other gamebooks I have played might have had more sections, (with the "Catacombs" series having the highest section counts so far, even though they contain many sections that only have a sentence or two), looking at my bookshelves The Demon's Claw appears to be the thickest I have yet played, for whatever that is worth. Although that will eventually be shattered by some of the ridiculous phonebook-sized gamebooks that have been released in more recent years. Due to the length of these Blood Sword books, which almost never kill you early on, along with the bookkeeping required in tracking all of your characters combined with the combat system, which though enjoyable, also takes some time to set up and run through, means that these books are taking me longer to play through than most. Normally I can get anywhere from 2-4 attempts at a gamebook done in an evening (and possibly more if I have played it enough times and I am now just trying to pass some unlikely dice rolls), but here I am only getting in 1 or perhaps 2 attempts a night at most. This is actually a good thing, as I feel I am really getting full value for these, and am savouring the experience.
As far as reprints go, I found this entry in particular to be a beautiful book. It's thick and weighty with a nice glossy cover, and holding this book in your hand you just know you are in for an epic adventure. I enjoyed the interior illustrations very much also, and found them to be very immersive for the setting. Before I even opened the book itself, I noticed that while the first two books in the series were attributed to "Dave Morris & Oliver Johnson", this entry (on the reprinted edition anyway) lists only "Dave Morris" on the cover as the author. I have started to feel a bit guilty lately in that it feels as if I am often picking on Oliver Johnson, but that is certainly not my intention, as I have enjoyed most of the gamebooks by him that I have played. The problem is, he has been involved with Dave Morris at least a couple of times now (Golden Dragon and Blood Sword), which are going to bring about the inevitable and immediate comparisons to Morris, who is quickly proving himself to me as being one of the all-time great gamebook authors (and is flying up my list and well on his way to perhaps being THE greatest in my opinion). This is a bit unfortunate and unfair for Johnson, as almost anyone involved in that situation is going to suffer by comparison.
On that subject, Morris' writing here is once again incredible. How is it possible that he is not only one of the best gamebook designers out there, but also one of the best gamebook writers as well? The whole adventure just drips with atmosphere and immersion from start to finish. There are no wasted encounters here (if even I wish the pirate ship sequence had gone on longer), with everyone and everything you meet getting proper attention paid to them and then some. The Jinni was a highlight, and our nemesis from the first book, Icon, also makes an impressive appearance here, but for me in terms of characters, I think Susurrien was my favourite (once I stopped stumbling over his name). I gotta love a guy who has no problem in referring to us, the heroes of the adventure, as "righteous prigs". And the thing is, he isn't really wrong, as Morris does a nice job here in not always having your player characters being portrayed as the typical all-around good guys, and you can find yourself telling people off for no apparent reason other than they are standing in the way of your goal. I liked this aspect a lot, as it made sense that after a couple of years of searching for the blade, you might be getting somewhat impatient, edgy, and frustrated.
Ranking: Fantastic! An absolute rip-roaring adventure that crams in as many wonderful set-pieces and encounters that you could ask for, and I had a smile on my face from start to finish. As I was playing through this, I knew it was going to easily rank as the best of the first 3 books for sure, but more than that it was going to be up there with the best gamebooks I have played so far period. Another great big puzzle to solve, and while it once again de-emphasizes combat overall, there are still a few really good intense fights sprinkled about so that you don't feel robbed of that aspect either. It's difficult to compare gamebooks from different series (which is why my scores are based on my own personal "fun factor"), and I would probably still have Creature of Havoc and The Crown of Kings slightly higher due to the increased challenge, and also in the case of Creature, the unique story. That said, The Demon's Claw might very well be the most "well told" gamebook I have played so far. One thing all these top-echelon books have in common is the pure joy and sense of wonder I experienced while playing them, and The Demon's Claw fit that to a T. A no-doubt Hall of Famer for me, and obviously very highly recommended.
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4. Doomwalk - Score = 8.0 Tier = Good
Attempts to Beat: 6
Ooooo so close to making it three Great ones in a row, but ultimately Doomwalk couldn't quite get there. This entry opens in stark contrast to the previous book, as unlike the passage of time that occurred between books 2 and 3 of the series, where we are told we have spent two years searching for the final piece of the Blood Sword, book 4 picks up immediately after the conclusion of book 3, with our party staggering back to an ally's house in Crescentium after the battle against our nemesis, Icon, which ended that previous adventure. After undergoing some healing, we are informed that in order to reclaim the Blood Sword that was ripped from our grasp last book, we will need to travel to the realm of the Underworld itself (called "Sheol" here), where we will need to find Icon once more and hopefully defeat him for good. We also learn that there is only one man, known as Entasius, who holds the knowledge of how to enter Sheol and still be able to come back alive. This Entasius lives on an island far out in the Deorsk Ocean to the north, so our first order of business will be to head down to the port and locate a ship captain who would be willing to take us there, and so off we go.
I have to say that I was not all that impressed with the opening act of the adventure, as chartering passage on a ship is something I felt we had already gone through in The Kingdom of Wyrd. The wonderful city of Crescentium itself also didn't have quite the same "feel" as in The Demon's Claw, and there is much less to do here on that front. There are a couple of different ships you can attempt to book passage on, but you are likely going to require a hefty sum of gold coins in order to do so. A sum which my party did not quite have. Fear not though, as the Trickster and the Enchanter have ways of "earning" the required cash, and while the Trickster's method of cheating at gambling is far quicker, it didn't take me long to learn that the Enchanter's method proves to be far more useful in completing the adventure. The Enchanter is able to generate as much gold as you can carry by making a deal with the faltyn (the little mischevious imp that he can summon), who agrees to show him where unlimited treasure can be found in exchange for something valuable of the Enchanter's. You won't know exactly what you have to give up until you actually agree to the deal, which seems a bit unfair, (and it turns out it costs you permanent use of one of your spells, but personally I don't think it's a spell you will need after making the deal anyway), but the good news is that in order to obtain the promised riches you first need to travel to a cave just outside the city where the gold can be found.
I also have to say, that for me, the existence and location of this cave felt very out of place for the adventure. Is it just sitting out there in the open and no one goes in? Did the faltyn create it out of nothingness? But still, in addition to as much gold as you can carry, you also have the opportunity for every character in your party to obtain magical items, which come in the form of masks that weld themselves to your face should you put them on. While that doesn't sound pleasant, these masks are a huge find, because each character that is wearing one (and again, there are enough for everyone) from now on gets to take TWO actions in every round of combat as opposed to just one. That's massive! True, there is a tradeoff in that while wearing the masks you also take double damage from any melee or missile hit scored against you, I found the ability to have all characters act twice each round to far outweigh that, and once I found these masks, I went back to get them every playthrough after that. Not only that, there is an additional item you can find later in the adventure that halves any damage you take, effectively cancelling out the penalty from the masks, which is probably why this item is there. To be honest, these masks may have ended up making several of the combats in the book a little too easy, but again, combat is not a huge focus of this adventure, at least not until the very end.
So once you have obtained enough gold to book your passage, you have two different options of ships that are willing to take you to Entasisus' island. Each of these ships take a different route and provide you with a different "mini-adventure" along the way. One of these routes will see you land on the island of the enchantress Circe, well known in Greek myth as the tempter of Odysseus, and while this whole sequence is well written as always with Morris being the author, I found that should you have a Sage and a Trickster in your party, then not all that much is required of the player. Both of the routes across the ocean are over relatively briefly, as is the encounter with Entasius when you reach his island. No searching for him required. You land, are immediately met by his servant and taken to see him, where you then make a bargain with him. He will agree to show you how to enter and return from Sheol should you swear to find and bring back a loved one of his, his long dead wife Cordelia, to the land of the living when you return. Your party then drinks a potion (or poison?) that sends you to Sheol but in a still-living state. At this point in the quest, I was starting to get a bit worried. While the adventure was certainly "ok" up to now, I was feeling like I had already done many of these things in one form or another in previous books in the series, and it was on its way to being the lowest ranked one so far.
What propelled the score of the adventure upwards and then some are the sequences that take place when you make it into Sheol, and this whole area is wonderfully handled all the way through to the end of the book, with the stakes, and especially the gameplay elements, being raised considerably. As you search through this Underworld location looking for the Blood Sword, you will get to encounter many of its inhabitants as you make your way across plains, through swamps, and even into villages where those who have died, but cannot quite "pass on" for various reasons, now dwell in sadness. Danger abounds everywhere too, and there are several very lethal adversaries that you will need to find a way to get past. Even with those handy masks acquired near the beginning of the adventure, some of these combats could prove difficult, however there are helpful items scattered around Sheol that can help you bypass them. Something of a complaint here though is that they are not quite as "scattered" as I would have liked, as several extremely useful items are all to be found in the exact same section. You even get a travelling companion while in Sheol in the form of a mysterious individual known only as "The Traveller", who joins up to aid you in your quest, if even though his motives and reason for being in Sheol are, at least initially, kept somewhat murky.
Once you have ferreted out all the items you need and what you need to do in order to obtain them, you find your party at last closing in on the Blood Sword, and a final confrontation with your nemesis, Icon. Immediately before this though, the book throws a curve at you (or it did to me at least), by asking you a question regarding all you have seen in Sheol up to this point. This question caught me off guard, and I didn't know how to respond, as I had come across many possible answers to the question. I was fairly certain I knew what was really going on, but was by no means 100% about it, figuring that Morris may be trying to fool me. And how you answer this question determines just how difficult the final battle with Icon will be. I will say though that this final battle can be a let down, because if you are correct in your answer to the question, and combined with the abilities of those magical masks along with the extremely overpowered Blood Sword itself which can be picked up and used in the fight, this final combat did seem a bit too easy. Icon's actions are determined by random roll, and you can easily find him futzing about with spells rather than attacking you outright. I'm not sure it would have mattered though, as thanks to the Blood Sword, the first time I made it to him I thoroughly whooped his ass. What's more, the final words he utters when he is ultimately vanquished I found puzzling, as it would seem to contradict what we have learned about him up to this point. This had me then beginning to wonder, why was this guy our "arch-nemesis" in the first place? Because we beat him in a contest back in book 1? I felt somewhat robbed in the final satisfaction of sticking it to him at the end of the adventure based upon how he goes out, but maybe that is just me. Even after defeating Icon, you are not out of the woods yet, as you must pass one final test from the Angel of Death, the all-powerful being who rules over Sheol. I have to confess to failing this test the first time I made it here, as I ignored my own rule about asking myself "what would my honorable Warrior do?" when confronted with a moral dilemma. The adventure then concludes on a surprisingly bittersweet moment involving Entasius when you return to the land of the living, but you at least now have the Blood Sword again and are ready to confront the Magi once and for all.
So yes, as you can probably tell, I greatly enjoyed this Underworld area which thankfully takes up most of the book, and this is coming from someone who generally doesn't like adventuring in "different planes of existence" or some such nonsense, as they usually seem to me just to be an excuse to have random stuff thrown at you which makes little sense. There was at least one moment of that here in the form of Lei Kung, a giant disembodied flying head that appears out of nowhere to attack you (WTF was that about??), but other than that, I thought Morris did a nice job of maintaining an internal logic to the landscape you are travelling across. He does seem to like to mash up different myths mind you, as Sheol contains encounters that appear to draw on Greek, Norse, and Eastern cultures (and maybe even some others I missed), and I have now given up trying to determine what the realm of Legend is actually supposed to be. It does kind of make sense in this context though, as you might expect the Underworld, where those condemned in death dwell, would indeed contain different cultures and mythos, as Death apparently would not discriminate. I should also mention that the Sheol area is chock full of the use of codewords, where you are told to write down a specific word should you experience a particular event, and having or not having that codeword at a later point will then determine what happens next. These were used in the previous book also, but much more sparingly, and they are now on full display in this adventure and elegantly handled as well. I have heard this is something Morris will make use of later in his "Fabled Lands" series, and I look forward to seeing how they are implemented there also. Speaking of which, this is the second book in row attributed solely to Dave Morris on the reprinted version I was playing, but I couldn't help but already notice that Oliver Johnson's name returns on the last book in the series along with Morris.
Ranking: Doomwalk doesn't quite reach the greatness level of the previous two books, but it's still pretty darn good. I didn't think it started off all that well, but it got better as I went along and concluded with a very strong finale. It didn't have the "wow" factor of those previous two books, and I even found the prose itself to be a step backwards from The Demon's Claw, although that might be due to the fact I did not find the overall setting and encounters here to be as good as that prior excellent effort. I did perhaps also find it just a bit too easy, and in fact thought this was by far the easiest adventure of the first four books. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I do prefer a bit more of a challenge. Still another strong overall effort though, and with one more book to go, I look forward to seeing on what kind of note the series goes out on.
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5. The Walls of Spyte - Score = 7.8 Tier = Good
Attempts to Beat: 5
I've not carried out a detailed comparison between editions, but I do know that the reissue of the final book fixed the most egregious error in the series (placeholder text where a rather important number was supposed to be).
ReplyDeleteAs for the first book, I'd agree with most of what you have to say. Though your 'stick with what works' strategy against Klef did keep you from discovering that you gain two useful items if you manage to beat him rather than just force a tie.
Blood Sword is my favourite gamebook series, but I get why the first book on its own doesn't wow you, as the main plot hasn't yet started (though that doesn't make Battlepits irrelevant to the overarching story). Things should seem a good deal more epic by the end of the saga.
A strategy that I use in my daily life as well! Hopefully the item I missed out on doesn't turn out to be essential down the line.
DeleteI was hoping to ask if you had a preferred makeup of your party when playing solo? Did you find playing with just one single character to be more difficult?
I almost always played as a party of four, using index cards to keep track of everyone's stats and equipment. A larger group meant greater carrying capacity and, often, a wider variety of options.
DeleteI definitely felt like playing with a party of four was the way to get the most out of the book. It does mean added record keeping however, which is one of the reasons I found myself switching up the party count with most playthroughs. I like the index cards idea though, I might have to steal that one.
DeleteThanks, John. As Ed says, your score seems about right for the fun but slightly unmemorable "Battlepits". Hopefully you'll find that the series is just cracking its knuckles before getting down to business.
ReplyDeleteAs for 'borrowing' from Ian Livingstone, I don't know whether this is in the updated version, but in section 279 of the original Knight edition, you can overhear the following exchange between the Barbarian party:
'This is a walkover,’ says another bellowing voice. 'Not half as dangerous as Deathtr...Wait! Someone up ahead, lads!’
Perhaps it's all a loving homage to Sir Ian after all?
Yes the section 279 of the reprinted version has the same line. Although I admit I don't think I put it together while reading it. I was starting to get the impression that other gamebook authors were not big fans of IL, but maybe that was an erroneous assumption on my part. Or maybe they were just taking the piss regarding Deathtrap Dungeon's excessive difficulty!
DeleteDid you have any party composition preference?
Good question. I have played some of them as a souped-up solo character, and enjoyed doing so, but found playing as a group of four more satisfactory. To an extent, having a single character is more immersive than flitting between multiple adventurers (and starting at Eighth rank definitely provides a big leg-up), but there are a couple of moments when the text automatically assumes that you're controlling a group, and you just generally get more to do as a quartet. Plus, one of the big draws of being a Trickster (*obviously* the best character-type!) is that you can screw over the other characters here and there, something that obviously doesn't work when flying solo. So, it's another, predictable vote for the full party of four from me.
DeleteThis is a series that I only found recently , but had a great time playing (solo with all 4 characters). It took me an embarrassing number of attempts to beat this first entry though.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I totally missed that reference to Deathtrap Dungeon!
Did you try pumping up your Enchanter's Psychic Ability using the scrolls Mike? It likely would have taken me a fair more number of attempts otherwise.
DeleteIt's funny: I was aware before starting of the potions that change stats, but decided I wouldn't use them. But after multiple failures I instead gave each character an extra level, which was enough to let me barely scrape through.
DeleteSo essentially I ignored the legal option to change stats and did my own cheat, which is a bit odd now that I think about it. I blame Ian and Steve at FF for turning me into a compulsive gamebook fraudster!
Either John is on holiday or book 2 is proving very hard to complete !
ReplyDeleteThere’s one very tough combat in The Kingdom of Wyrd that proved quite a stumbling block to the rpg.net Let’s Play of Blood Sword. I’m wondering if that could be the issue here, too. If so, I would advise checking out some untried paths earlier on in the text, because there are at least two ways of avoiding the near-impossible fight (and an unjustified 'broken' rating for the book) altogether.
DeleteStill here! Book 2 was so nice I played through it twice. Really enjoyed this one.
DeleteDefinitely learning my lessons about checking out untried paths with these for sure!
Hooray! And the Hall of Fame gets to admit another member too (presumably after you hacked all the cobwebs off the doors and fought through several layers of dust).
DeleteIt probably won't surprise you to learn that Wyrd was exclusively the work of Dave Morris (along with books 3 and 4), which might account for the uptick in writing quality you noted. He has some interesting comments about the Blood Sword books he didn't write on his Fabled Lands blog. As usual, the shared credits on the covers seem to be for purposes of copyright rather than reflections of actual labour.
Oh, and 'wyrd' is almost certainly pronounced like the Present-Day English 'word'. It's borrowed from the Old English term for 'fate', 'providence', or 'what will be' (see Beowulf, lines 572-73, 455 etc.), and -yr generally represents an 'ur' sound in OE orthography. But now I'm boring even myself...
Thanks for the info Ben! I have to admit I did not know any of that. What did I do in school anyway? lol. Not that I go around saying the names of the books out loud or anything, but that's two in a row with odd sounding titles to these ears, because "Krarth" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue either if you ask me.
DeleteAnd it has been a bit of time since I last played one I thought was Great now that you mention it. Dave Morris to the rescue!
If it was anything like my school, then its most enduring lessons will have been how to smoke without getting caught. Looking at these books again with adult eyes, though, I'm quite impressed by the subtle, surprisingly highbrow allusions that some authors include. They were obviously well-read guys. 'Krarth' has defeated me so far, though, unless it's just a German surname Oliver or Dave picked up from somewhere.
DeleteI assume the fight against the Eislaken is the tough combat you are referring to Ed? I lucked out somewhat there as very early on I tried an option available to the Warrior that led to completely bypassing the whole travelling across the ice pack business, including the Eislaken. Good thing too because the couple of times I actually tried to fight it straight up I had my lunch absolutely handed to me.
ReplyDeleteYes, I was referring to the Eislaken fight.
DeleteOn one of my first attempts at the book I discovered that a certain item could be used to avoid the combat, so I tended to stick with that (even after discovering that doing so meant eliminating one way of avoiding a mildly tedious but not overly lethal sequence of combats in a later book).
It wasn't until the rpg.net Let's Play of Kingdom that I realised how bad an opponent the Eislaken really was. IIRC, after a string of TPKs, the person running the thread overruled the players so as to force them onto one of the paths that avoided the fight.
Did you ever have to fight the Seven-in-One, or had you managed to acquire one of the items that can be used to immolate it by the time you got as far as that encounter?
ReplyDeleteI had to fight it the first time I got there as I lacked the required item and fared just about as well as I did against the Eislaken. At that point I knew finding that item was a must. Were you able to beat the Seven-in-One in straight combat? Talk about a long fight!
DeleteA long fight, definitely, but I don't remember it being all that dangerous. Mind you, by that stage I did have a superhuman Trickster (thanks to one of the Jinni-granted wishes - which is why I lacked the item that could have averted the whole sequence of battles), so he had little trouble keeping each successive iteration of the Seven-in-One occupied until the Enchanter was able to fire off something sufficiently destructive.
DeleteDang, maybe I should have stuck out that path a little longer then. It would have been nice to carry that overpowered Trickster into the next book. The sequence to acquire that item you mention was good fun though. Have you ever thought about trying to beat the books using just one character? At some point I would like to try the challenge of beating the books solo with each class. Assuming that is doable of course. With Morris at the helm I would like to think it is.
DeleteThere’s one of the paradoxes of gamebooks – it’s generally a positive thing to have multiple viable routes, it’s great to have good stuff on each workable path, and yet it can be frustrating having to choose between the awesome set piece on one route and the phenomenal rewards to be gained on another. There are obvious benefits to having a superior being on the team, but when I go that way, I always feel a bit bad at missing out on the Jinni’s character development.
DeleteTrying to complete the series with a single character would definitely be a challenge. Probably more so for the Warrior and the Enchanter (the latter largely because securing the Jinni’s assistance is so much trickier for the Enchanter than for any other character type).
For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I can’t go into any detail yet, but there’s a moment in the fourth book that plays out very differently for a single adventurer rather than a team. If you’ve taken a party through the book, you can probably figure out how the dilemma might be resolved for a lone hero, so from one perspective it would be better to try a one-man quest before playing book 4 with your quartet, but I’d understand if you were reluctant to put off the next stage of the saga in order to repeatedly replay the first three books on difficult mode just to experience a nuance you’d otherwise miss.
While playing through Doomwalk I was keeping an eye out for the moment you mentioned. I am thinking you were referring to the final offer put forth by the Angel of Death? There certainly could be other moments as well as I did not play with a solo character, and I imagine this adventure in particular has a far different "feel" if playing with only one character compared to the other books.
DeleteI am thinking you were referring to the final offer put forth by the Angel of Death?
DeleteCorrect. If you're not aware of what happens shortly afterwards, the choice offered appears more problematic for a lone character.
Never owned or played one of these but I'm now sorely tempted to get a copy of book 3 based on your review. Quite a few available on ebay - not crazy about the cover but the interior art by Russ Nicholson looks very impressive.
ReplyDeleteI believe the reprints are still available fairly inexpensively on the usual online sites. Funny thing about the covers, from the Fabled Lands blog it doesn't sound like Dave Morris was all that thrilled with some of them either, even referring to the Battlepits cover as "Slimer". That comment gave me a laugh I must say.
DeleteYes I can see the resemblance to Ghostbusters ! At least there is a uniformity in the cover designs although I'm not quite sure why the monsters are so large and the hero is so small.
DeleteYou did not include Dezra Despain in the Hall of Fame author count (she is the author of Shadow Over Nordmaar). There may be other mistakes in that page as well. I haven't looked in detail.
ReplyDeleteThe information I have is that Dezra Despain was the pen name used by Tracy Hickman for the book, who I did include in the author count. Is that then incorrect?
DeleteSome online sources list the name as a pseudonym for Hickman while others say she is a real person. There is circumstantial evidence to suggest a person named "Dezra Despain", who was actually married to a TSR writer, actually existed. I cannot say for certain whether she is the person who wrote the book. If you are interested in following up on the topic I suggest you contact Demian Katz from gamebooks.org. I also suggest reading this blog entry: https://descansodelescriba-blogspot-com.translate.goog/2014/05/los-paramos-de-nordmaar-y-el-misterio.html?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=wapp
DeleteOut of the sun
ReplyDelete(Under the Doomwalk) We'll be havin' some fun
(Under the Doomwalk) People walking above
(Under the Doomwalk) We'll be fallin' in love
(Under the Doomwalk) Yeah (Doomwalk!)
Sorry!
I have to admit to never having played these later books as I've never got past Book 1. Seems like I'm missing out! I wish I could get into the battle system - always seems like a monumental faff.
Did you ever read the playthrough of Book 1 on the FF Fantazine Forum. We didn't do too well for which I bear a lot of responsibility! https://fightingfantazine.proboards.com/thread/441/blood-sword-campaign-battlepits-kraarth
I was thinking we might have a new Number 1 series but it's now looking likely that Sorcery will just about retain its crown (of kings) now.
(Under the Doomwalk) We'll be going to hell
Delete(Under the Doomwalk) Where things aren't so swell
Going back aways for that song Kieran haha!
The battle system definitely takes up more time to play I will give you that. I am enjoying it however even though I think the "Defend" option might be a little too easily abused. Still seems like against the tougher opponents your best strategy might be to have everyone Defend while your Enchanter prepares their most powerful spells.
Fighting Fantasy will always be my favorite series but yes I would say Sorcery and Blood Sword have been the two best series "quality-per-book" wise. Sorcery had the advantage for me of playing it very early on in my run, and I am likely expecting a bit more from gamebooks with each passing year.
And no I was not even aware there was a playthrough of Book 1 on the Fantazine Forum. Thanks for letting me know! I will check it out for sure. I like to compare experiences.
Doomwalk either sold out with remarkable rapidity in my home town, or it failed to reach the shelves of the local bookshops for some reason. What with Warlock magazine having ceased publication a while back, I had no source of info on publication dates, so the first I knew of Doomwalk's being out was when Blood Sword book 5 turned up in WHSmith's. So I bought a copy of that, and used the shop's system for ordering books in print but not in stock to plug that exasperating gap (even though a friend had previously spoken contemptuously of people who ordered books rather than buying them off the shelf - no idea what his issue was, but his scorn was nothing compared with the prospect of not being able to complete the series).
ReplyDeleteI wonder what your friend would think now? I can't even remember the last time I bought a book in an actual physical store. I used to make the rounds of local used bookshops a few years ago but never found even ONE single gamebook. That always seemed a bit odd. You would think I would have come across a copy or two or Warlock of Firetop at least, but nope. And not that I was interested in them, but I don't recall even seeing any CYOA's either. I wonder if their collectability, perceived or otherwise, prevents them from ever seeing the shelves. Otherwise it's a bit spooky.
DeleteI still find the occasional gamebook in charity shops – indeed, over the course of the past year or two such discoveries have prompted the acquisition of over a dozen titles of which I had previously been unaware. Nothing that impressive, but inexpensive enough that I don’t regret any of the purchases.
DeleteFF titles also turn up from time to time. Mostly Scholastic reissues, which don’t particularly appeal to me, but I did comparatively recently get a first edition Puffin Creature of Havoc in significantly better condition than the copy I’ve had on my shelves for the past two decades.
That was quite a find - much harder to come by these days. Add 2 Luck points !
DeleteEd has certainly had more success than I have. I am particularly jealous of his finds of Revenge of the Vampire in charity shops over the years. I think I might actually cry aloud in the shop if I ever came across one!
DeleteAt least I channelled the extra copies on to fellow fans rather than hoarding them.
DeleteGood of you to share them. What are the odds of finding one of those now ? Roll the dice !
ReplyDeleteI agree. Very good of him indeed to share them with other fans. The odds are probably better of finding an actual vampire in a book shop now!
DeleteYou never know so be careful out there ! My own copy was bought from an amazon seller many years ago. Just realized that you have yet to review Revenge Of The Vampire on this blog.
DeleteIIRC, Dave Morris was originally intending to do a substantial rewrite on Walls for the reissue, but then felt that that would be disrespecting his co-writers, so he stuck more closely to the original publication. Thankfully he did at least replace the 'XX' on the green rod with the number that was meant to be there...
ReplyDeleteThe changes to the characters' capabilities were always there, and were previously mentioned and explained in section 405 of Doomwalk.
Your review implies that you never figured out one strategy that greatly improved my odds of survival during the rod-collecting phase: using the Presentiment spell when consulting the homunculus.
Not sure if it's a matter of the approach you took, the vagaries of memory, or an edit in the reissue, but I remember preventing the sacrifices being a more significant element of the climax than you make it out to be.
What are you covering next?
Still to go:
DeleteCrossroads
Sherlock Holmes Solo Mysteries
Freeway Warrior
You Are Maggie Thatcher
Earth Brain
Combat Command
Prince of Shadows
Doctor Who
The two High Fantasy gamebooks
Tunnels and Trolls
Narnia Solo Games
The Slaine Adventure that was serialized in 2000 AD
You Party Needs You
Starlight Adventures
Amazing Stories
Yes that would have been a much better strategy now that you mention it. Embarrassingly, there were several times I completely forgot I even had the Presentiment spell, or else convinced myself to save it for the "final choice", which wasn't needed as it turned out.
DeleteI did remember the character changes near the end of Doomwalk mind you, I just wondered if anyone missed out on them if they skipped that book and didn't go over the rules again here. I also wasn't totally convinced (until you just told me) that they were not just an add-on to the reprints, as the authors, ie Morris, attempting to make the newer editions easier would not have surprised me at all.
I flicked around the book a bit after winning, and came across something called "Sacrifice Strength" which sounded most intriguing. Unfortunately, I guess it was a case of being careful what you wish for, because solving the rainbow puzzle grants you the horn, which leads to what seems to be the easiest, but maybe least interesting, final showdown. You blow the horn and the sacrifices bolt down the stairs and that's that as far as they are concerned. Full credit to the book for having several different final battles that you can get to, but I beat the adventure the very first time that I collected all the rods, so didn't get to experiment much.
On the subject of the rods, I wanted to ask you how you handled the whole green rod situation when playing the originals. Did you go searching through all the sections that totaled more than the 4 numbers you did have until you found the one that looked right? I also wonder how long you stared at the book thinking "are you freaking kidding me?". Haha! That one would have chapped me pretty bad.
Next up are the Sherlock Holmes books, which is a series that has been sitting on my shelf for a few years now, completely untouched since the day I received them. Here's hoping none are broken!
Thanks Guillermo. There might be exceptions, but I was trying to only play those series with game systems, and I don't believe Amazing Stories uses one? You have a couple of others listed there that I don't believe I have heard of however, so I will take a look, thank you for pointing them out. Affordability unfortunately plays a factor with some of the rare books as well!
DeleteYou have included Fantasy Questbooks and Webs of Intrigue which only include minimal game elements so I guess you can include this intriguing series as well. Or not. It is up to you. And yes, finding some of these for a reasonable price could take a while.
DeleteA correction from my perfectionist self: there are actually three (not two) High Fantasy gamebooks, though the third one was first released much later (2016). The series also includes a short solo adventure which was included in the main boxed set. Just in case you ever think of giving these a go.
DeleteI wanted to ask you how you handled the whole green rod situation when playing the originals. Did you go searching through all the sections that totaled more than the 4 numbers you did have until you found the one that looked right?
DeleteSort of. Given that two of the numbers I did have were identical, and a third was a multiple of that number, it seemed worth starting with the hypothesis that the missing number was similar, so it only took a couple of educated guesses to find the right one. I'd have had much more of a headache if the number on the white rod had been missing, as that's the only real outlier.
Another correction: the above should say "Your Party Needs You". This one is from Farrell and Sutherland.
DeleteSome very obscure titles in that list compiled by Guillermo but if there's one blog where you would find such titles, it's this one ! 1985-87 seem to have been the most prolific and productive years for the gamebook genre.
DeleteYour Party Needs You strikes me as a bizarre suggestion for this blog. It's a noteworthy curio, being an interactive guide to the state of UK politics 40-odd years ago, but with just two (non-)endings it's not much of a gamebook.
DeleteAmazing Stories sounds quite similar as in - not much gameplay involved, just reading long passages of text.
DeleteYou may also want to include He-Man and the Memory Stone in that list. It's probably not a terribly interesting book but still worth looking into for completeness' sake.
DeleteThanks! Will do!
DeleteIs there a rule in these books for recruiting new adventurers to your team in between books if one or more died in the previous book? I seem to recall there's a fight in Book 1 where you're very likely to lose at least one party member and avoiding it leads to an even tougher fight.
ReplyDeleteWell done in getting through the series anyhow and glad you enjoyed them so much. The series didn't quite top Sorcery! but achieved a very solid second place:
1. Steve Jackson's Sorcery! - 8.63
2. Blood Sword - 8.44
3. Catacombs - 7.23
4. Lone Wolf: The Kai Series - 7.20
5. Golden Dragon - 7.10
6. Way of the Tiger - 7.08
7. Forbidden Gateway - 7.05
8. Clash of the Princes - 6.85
9. Diceman / Webs of Intrigue - 6.8
11. Falcon - 6.78
12. Fighting Fantasy (1-40) - 6.77
13. Robin of Sherwood - 6.65
14. Lone Wolf: The Magnakai Series - 6.63
15. Advanced D&D - 6.51
16. Marvel Super Heroes - 6.45
17. World of Lone Wolf - 6.43
18. Cretan Chronicles - 6.37
19. Fatemaster - 6.30
20. Car Wars - 6.21
21. The Last Battledroid - 6.10
22. Middle Earth Quest - 6.05
23. Horror Classics - 6.00
24. Swordquest - 5.68
25. Crossroads (1-7) - 5.64
26. Hard Boiled / Warlock Magazine - 5.20
28. Fantasy Questbook - 5.17
29. Sagard the Barbarian - 5.00
30. Proteus - 4.85
31. Grailquest - 4.70
32. Legends of Skyfall - 4.60
33. Double Game - 4.38
34. Sniper! - 4.20
35. Dragonquest - 3.60
36. Real Life - 3.34
37. Combat Heroes - 3.25
38. Virgin Adventure - 1.65
39. Sagas of the Demonspawn - 1.05
Thanks Kieran! I assume you would just draft in a new character at the rank prescribed for the number in your party at the front of the book, but I always played through until everyone survived so didn't need to worry about it thankfully. I wonder how it would go if you tried playing through the books with a party made up of different combinations, such as 4 Warriors for example. Hulk smash!
DeleteWait. There is a series which actually scored lower than the Virgin books? That's hard to believe.
DeleteWell that's thanks to the completely broken Demonspawn books. Book 4 in that series might be the most infuriating I have ever played.
DeleteBTW you have The Demon's Claw down as Book 1 rather than Book 3 in your rankings table
ReplyDeleteWhoops! Good eyes. Looks like I recorded the book number with the same number I gave it for the ranking. That's what I get for typing it out late at night! Fixed now. Thank you for the heads up.
Delete