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Post by petch on Jan 9, 2022 22:53:14 GMT
If the rankings thread is anything to go by, Chapman is one of the lesser regarded writers to contribute to the series, with all of his books finishing in the bottom half of the rankings list. A chance for a redemption of sorts for one of them, then, with an opportunity to go through to the final vote-off in this series of polls - which is the best of the bunch?
Poll closes at 10pm Weds 12th.
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Post by CharlesX on Jan 9, 2022 23:06:31 GMT
While I didn't go for Clash Of The Princes, A. Chapman's three more well-known gamebooks were original and 100% fitted their roles. Voted Seas Of Blood, which is really good if a touch difficult.
Interesting decision to split Clash Of The Princes, because I think they were originally sold in a box set together.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,472
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Jan 9, 2022 23:53:04 GMT
Rings of Kether for me. Chapman's terse writing better suits a detective thriller than a voyage around exotic lands. It's also pretty well designed and, unusually for FF, actually allows for a bit of role-playing: you can play it as a tough cop who roughs up suspects or can investigate in a much more circumspect way. Uncovering new leads and seeing how they play out is good fun too. Of course, you are provided with so many opportunities to crack the case that it doesn't feel that rewarding when you do and even though the writing works better in this setting, it's still far from great. So overall it's good but nothing special.
Space Assassin has fun rules and a few quirky encounters but it all feels a bit basic and it never really feels like you're on a spaceship. Some annoying puzzles and a long and dull maze don't help.
Seas of Blood should be a fun loot-a-thong but instead it's tediously unforgiving and unrewarding with most areas you explore being underdeveloped locales awash with instant death and precious little gold. Overly tough Crew Strength checks don't help.
Clash of the Princes was a nice idea, didn't really work. The abundance of instant deaths kill the fun as much as the player and the writing is no better than Chapman's other books despite the more verbose Martin Allen being on board this time. As can be expected with these two authors, there are plenty of amusing absurdities to make it worth a try at least. Just expect a lot of waiting around if playing in two player mode. I slightly prefer Warrior's Way of the two as the other is filled with tedious mazes.
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Post by terrysalt on Jan 10, 2022 0:56:23 GMT
Easy choice for me. I never liked any of the FF books set in space which only leaves me with one option!
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Post by CharlesX on Jan 10, 2022 8:31:58 GMT
Easy choice for me. I never liked any of the FF books set in space which only leaves me with one option! I definitely don't blame you, but you're ignoring Clash Of The Princes. You've never seen it, right? You're not missing anything (no, it's way worse than Chapman's more well-known ones). |
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Post by linflas on Jan 10, 2022 10:38:25 GMT
Voted for Treasures of the Briny Deep. Oh wait...  |
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Post by petch on Jan 10, 2022 10:53:45 GMT
Seas of Blood should be a fun loot-a-thong Should Sisqo ever fancy writing a gamebook, I imagine this is the direction he would take. Set in a leisure centre's changing rooms, perhaps. (sorry, hate to be the irritating pedant who picks up on minor typos, which my own posts are usually littered with, but this one did make me grin ) |
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Post by terrysalt on Jan 10, 2022 10:58:25 GMT
Easy choice for me. I never liked any of the FF books set in space which only leaves me with one option! I definitely don't blame you, but you're ignoring Clash Of The Princes. You've never seen it, right? You're not missing anything (no, it's way worse than Chapman's more well-known ones). I actually own both of them. I had a half-hearted attempt to play through them but lost interest pretty quickly. I tend to forget they exist though. I mostly think of FF as just being the mainline entries and Sorcery. |
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,472
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Jan 10, 2022 11:24:31 GMT
Seas of Blood should be a fun loot-a-thong Should Sisqo ever fancy writing a gamebook, I imagine this is the direction he would take. Set in a leisure centre's changing rooms, perhaps. (sorry, hate to be the irritating pedant who picks up on minor typos, which my own posts are usually littered with, but this one did make me grin  ) Ha, good catch. |
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jan 10, 2022 11:40:12 GMT
Andrew Chapman comes up with some good ideas in terms of gameplay in his books.
Rings of Kether - The car chase, the cyclops fight in Seas of Blood, the tank fight in Space Assassin, and we always get extra stuff like armour, shooting combats, ships combat etc.
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Post by nathanh on Jan 10, 2022 17:53:42 GMT
I liked the rules of Space Assassin but I found the book quite dull. Seas of Blood was nicer, although I accidentally made some rules mistakes that made it fun. I think playing by the rules would be a bit miserable. But I went for that anyway. I haven't played the others, I quite like the sound of Rings of Kether.
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Post by vastariner on Jan 10, 2022 21:31:42 GMT
I went for Space Assassin, as it's weird enough to reflect that you'd never be able to have a long enough life to understand everything going on in the universe and have to take a punt from time to time, but not so weird to have you lose all anchorage. Plus, looking at the titles, it's the most memorable.
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Post by The Count on Jan 11, 2022 1:38:19 GMT
Rings for me. Not because it is particularly good, more because it has a certain (misplaced) atmosphere that Blood and Assassin don't have.
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Post by petch on Jan 12, 2022 23:00:13 GMT
With Seas of Blood maintaining a comfortable lead throughout and sailing through to the next round with ease, the real drama here was the competition for Chapman's second best book, with The Rings of Kether just edging it over Space Assassin.
No votes at all for Clash of the Princes - but those books will get a second chance in the Martin Allen poll coming up later.
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