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Post by drmanhattan on Jun 10, 2021 19:00:52 GMT
I have owned all the books but to my shame have not even played half of them, so looking for your top tips, say 5-10 that you think are the best, and why. In order to help, let me describe the books I have played and what I like, since those of you who have played them all will know which of the books will best fit
I would describe myself as a nostalgiac old school FFer, so have played most of the original IL / SJ books, and very few of the "presents" books. I'm not a big fan of overly difficult, "one true path" books, unless it's the kind of adventure you can have fun mapping, since I fondly remember drawing maps of the originals and that made the repeating of sections a lot more fun, one of the reasons I find the iPad versions a bit boring (tried Bloodbones). I did appreciate that SJ did new twists for each of his books whereas IL was more your traditional D&D type adventure, even if I tend to prefer the IL genre all my favourite books are actually Steves (Sorcery, Citadel, House of Hell, Creature of Havoc in particular). For IL of course Deathtrap, City of Thieves (Warlock as well).
I have read
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
The Citadel of Chaos
The Forest of Doom
Starship Traveller
City of Thieves
Deathtrap Dungeon
Island of the Lizard King
Scorpion Swamp
Caverns of the Snow Witch
House of Hell
Talisman of Death
Freeway Fighter
Temple of Terror
Appointment with F.E.A.R.
Trial of Champions
Creature of Havoc
Bloodbones Blood of the Zombies
I might have read
Space Assassin
The Rings of Kether
Seas of Blood
Demons of the Deep
Armies of Death
Return to Firetop Mountain
So this lot is the leftovers
Rebel Planet
Sword of the Samurai
Robot Commando
Masks of Mayhem
Beneath Nightmare Castle
Crypt of the Sorcerer
Star Strider
Phantoms of Fear
Midnight Rogue
Chasms of Malice
Battleblade Warrior
Slaves of the Abyss
Sky Lord
Stealer of Souls
Daggers of Darkness
Portal of Evil
Vault of the Vampire
Fangs of Fury
Dead of Night
Master of Chaos
Black Vein Prophecy
The Keep of the Lich Lord
Legend of the Shadow Warriors
Spectral Stalkers
Tower of Destruction
The Crimson Tide
Moonrunner
Siege of Sardath
Island of the Undead
Night Dragon
Spellbreaker
Legend of Zagor
Deathmoor
Knights of Doom
Magehunter
Revenge of the Vampire
Curse of the Mummy
OMG thats 37 to choose from! plus I have not read
Eye of the Dragon Howl of the Werewolf (which I know is highly rated) Stormslayer Night of the Necromancer Assassins of Allansia Port of Peril Gates of Death Crystal of Storms
45 to pick from. Anyone care to pick 5 of the best that would resonate with a bit more "old school" feel (not necessarily traditional IL, but not overly complicated and tricky, anti cheating stuff and overly elaborate "trying to do something different".
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jun 10, 2021 23:37:39 GMT
I have owned all the books but to my shame have not even played half of them, so looking for your top tips, say 5-10 that you think are the best, and why. In order to help, let me describe the books I have played and what I like, since those of you who have played them all will know which of the books will best fit I would describe myself as a nostalgiac old school FFer, so have played most of the original IL / SJ books, and very few of the "presents" books. I'm not a big fan of overly difficult, "one true path" books Overly difficult stats-wise or banging your brain against what's going on, or both? Avoid Crypt of the Sorcerer for the first (IL's most ridiculous until Blood of the Zombiee) and The Crimson Tide for the latter I'd take another look at Demons of the Deep to make sure. It's a particular favourite of mine, but in general the worst people tend to say about it is that it's a bit easy. It's definitely more likely to be described as fun than a slog. Ones out of that lot that I've enjoyed:
Sword of the Samurai - two routes, pretty good use of Japanese mythology
Portal of Evil - inventive adventure with zombies (sort of) and dinosaurs and an unusual antagonist Vault of the Vampire - a very successful attempt at a horror-themed adventure which gets the atmosphere right
Master of Chaos - features a greatly celebrated sidekick and an unusually honourable secondary villain The Keep of the Lich Lord - fun, atmospheric undead adventure (though a bit too easy if you take the direct route) Spectral Stalkers - inventive world-hopping adventure clearly influenced by Dr Who Moonrunner - a very different, near universally acclaimed horror themed adventure (all the Stephen Hand books are highly rated, this is just the one I know best)
(there are a lot of those I haven't played)
Edit:
I'm not sure I've stuck very closely to your brief, but hopefully the descriptions help. I don't have a lot of patience for books where the average person still won't have won after 10 playthroughs (for whatever reason) though so that probably speaks to the last bit of your preferences.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jun 11, 2021 8:17:28 GMT
I'd echo most of what Mudworm says in his recommendations to you. You like mapping? Then you'll probably like the books by Keith Martin [actually Carl Sargent in real life].
With regards to Crypt of the Sorceror... you saying you like IL's books and an 'old school feel' I would recommend the book to you. Just don't play it by the rules as written. If you see SKILL bonuses in the text, add them to your Initial SKILL, and if you die it's up to you if you go back to the start or just carry on regardless like many of us tended to do when we first read these books as children.
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Post by drmanhattan on Jun 11, 2021 10:23:32 GMT
thanks! Yeah I don't mind hard stats wise because if I get fed up I'll happily fudge those, but it's good to know in advance if it's going to be impossible with a weedy stat block.
Also, is there a list of all books that have actual mistakes in them that prevent you from finishing? I will find that quite annoying!
I actually hadnt realised until I posed that I have only properly played a fraction of the books, so in that sense I'm very happy there are so many books left for me to try.
and I am definitely into the mapping and jotting down, that was a huge part of the fun for me, having "well developed story" / Reading isn't as important for me, I primarily want the gamebook with just enough story to tie it together than loads of massive sections that take ages to read, but then again I am a lot older now so maybe I will find the exact opposite and the story stuff is a lot more important.
such a shame that once again, a fond nostalgiac hobby turned into a collectors thing, selling books for hundreds of pounds, sod that, I have given away thousands of pounds worth of stuff I now realize, I live in hope that one day the series will be reprinted, maybe via kickstarter with the ORIGINAL covers and art, perhaps unified slightly in style, maybe even mini hardbacks like WoFTM25, but I am not holding my breath. Print on demand maybe? I feel so annoyed that the reprints get progressively worse in terms of art, but I guess its all about trying to "market it as new". Bah.
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Post by The Count on Jun 11, 2021 14:28:52 GMT
So this lot is the leftovers Phantoms of Fear Chasms of Malice Vault of the Vampire Master of Chaos Moonrunner I think these five. Phantoms has a couple of different paths, though an early puzzle can be frustrating, and interesting to map due to the latter part Chasms is interesting for mapping as its not constructed round right angled corridors, and has multiple paths to get to the end Vault and Master both have hub designs with multiple options so you don't need to find the true path but it helps, and good to map Moonrunner has a few different paths and is good to map
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,462
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Jun 11, 2021 15:30:44 GMT
Of your leftovers, I think these five might cater most to your old school/ mapping desires:
- Stealer of Souls (dungeon adventure with mostly orcs and goblins and the like but with a finale that's a bit different) - Robot Commando (very non-linear so fun from a mapping point of view and working out the best routes to take between the cities) - Beneath Nightmare Castle (creepy dungeon adventure though not as devious as House of Hell) - Vault of the Vampire (a spooky castle to explore filled with optional nooks and crannies) - Midnight Rogue (a quirky opening leads into a very old-school dungeon crawl)
I wouldn't say these are the best 5 by any means but I think you might enjoy them.
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Post by drmanhattan on Jun 11, 2021 18:29:41 GMT
awesome cheers!
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jun 13, 2021 9:42:00 GMT
I actually hadnt realised until I posed that I have only properly played a fraction of the books, so in that sense I'm very happy there are so many books left for me to try. In that respect I'm a bit envious of the position you are in. A book can can read [or in the case of these ones read and played] for the first time only once. I've got quite a good memory when it comes to these books, decades after reading them, so there aren't any plot surprises. If you have the time and inclination you could always drop us a few lines here on this forum and tell us what you think of the books you are reading for the first time and from an adult's perspective. such a shame that once again, a fond nostalgiac hobby turned into a collectors thing, selling books for hundreds of pounds, sod that, I have given away thousands of pounds worth of stuff I now realize, I live in hope that one day the series will be reprinted, maybe via kickstarter with the ORIGINAL covers and art, perhaps unified slightly in style, maybe even mini hardbacks like WoFTM25, but I am not holding my breath. Print on demand maybe? It's the way of things I suppose. Supply and demand and the whole thing gets turned into a business. Ideally, printings of the rarer later books would get them in the hands of those who actually want to read them and incidentally lay waste to that business. We will see what the coming reprints of later Lone Wolf will do to the online prices of Hunger of Sejanoz and Vampirium. The good thing about Lone Wolf is that the books can all be found on Project Aon. I myself have had to access three of the books online there otherwise I'd not have had the pleasure of reading them. Yes, why not print on demand? I can't see any drawbacks to that at all.
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Post by drmanhattan on Jun 13, 2021 10:07:47 GMT
I will try to keep active here even though it seems like there are not so many people posting regularly, I’m quite excited about experiencing these books 1st hand, even as an adult, just trying to work out how to do it, like selections from above, or all in order, or by author. I will definitely post sorcery updates to get feedback on if I missed critical stuff for next books, I will probably play fair a time or two but then I will likely use some cheats, I.e. rewind from Instagram deaths but note that as a +1 attempt. Use some python code to get a % roll to win a combat or calculate expected stamina loss etc. then later attempts even branch back to map out some of the other paths. I would like to explore all the books at some point with sketches, maps and lists of items and creatures. I’m sure this has been done many times by many of you! I am also planning to pick out favourite illustrations from each book, maybe that would be a fun poll.
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Post by novarupta on Aug 13, 2021 12:55:23 GMT
I would recommend Jonathan Green's FF books, those being: Spellbreaker Knights of Doom Howl of the Werewolf Bloodbones Stormslayer Curse of the mummy As they are my favourite gamebooks mainly due to the premise, however these books are insanely hard and at times literally near impossible to complete, (KoD has rly powerful enemies with skill 12 yet you need to fail a skill test early on for a vital clue)
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Post by a moderator on Aug 13, 2021 14:26:42 GMT
Howl and Stormslayer aren't nearly as harsh as Jonathan Green's earlier books, and if you're any good at codebreaking, there's no actual need to fail that Skill roll in Knights.
I'd recommend the following:
Beneath Nightmare Castle Slaves of the Abyss Vault of the Vampire Dead of Night Siege of Sardath
While Slaves and Siege don't entirely line up with your stated preferences, I think they're good enough to be worth checking out anyway - but pay attention when reading.
All are by different authors, so if you particularly enjoy any of them (apart from the one-off Siege), you might want to check out the other books by the same writer(s).
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Post by drmanhattan on Aug 14, 2021 14:03:56 GMT
excellent, thanks. I somewhat enjoyed revisiting the books I'd read before but as a 50 year old I don't have the patience or indeed interest to keep returning to the start so I mostly read through them, skipped combat dice rolling and backtracked here and there. Sketching the maps was quite fun again. I will look into some of these recommendations but wonder if FF had its time when I was a wee lad, a lot of the "game" in them is pretty silly what with the random items you sometimes need to collect and the need to replay them many times to win. I did very much enjoy replaying Deathtrap Dungeon and Trial of Champions, Citadel of Chaos and City of Thieves but Lizard King was a bit dull, Starship Traveller dull, though House of Hell was fun again.
I am going to start with Sorcery now though, since I only vaguely remembering completing the 1st one, and getting stuck in the 2nd one, but I might try to do it properly, mapping it out, combat rolls, even memorizing the spells and taking my time with them.
As an 11 year old I couldn't get enough of these and loved restarting, mapping, taking notes, rolling the dice. But I think that kind of dynamic worked a lot better in the 80s when we didnt have internet, smartphones and next gen video gaming and computers in every household. Would be fun to try some RPGs probably, but again, relative to FF, the concept of being forced to randomly choose directions and items then getting to the end and you lose, it's just not an appealing idea any more when I'm not going to get the joy of replaying the book/scenario over and over as the highlight of my evenings after school and weekends.
Dunno if that makes sense.
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Post by pip on Aug 24, 2021 9:57:54 GMT
IMO, these stand out particularly:
Slaves of the Abyss Siege of Sardath Dead of Night Phantoms of Fear Legend of the Shadow Warriors
Crypt of the Sorcerer is also a good book and it's worth reading, but if you don't want to have to cheat with the dice, I'd stay away from it.
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Post by drmanhattan on Aug 25, 2021 11:05:44 GMT
I don’t bother with the dice as I find that very tedious now.
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