Gamebook "rules"

[andyste123]

I've only ever read FF books, and was wondering if other book series implement their own rules, or do they tend to adopt the FF rules to some extent. By rules I mean stuff like the FF fighting system, skill, stamina, luck, escaping, etc.
 
I guess what I'm asking is, could I use the tried-and-tested FF rules in my own adventure, more or less as-is, or would readers expect something original?

What are readers' expectations here - are you happy to get your head around a new set of rules if you pick up someone else's book? How complicated can you get away with making the rules? Would you even want to make up your own rules, which could become an industry in itself! Personally I feel the FF rules are "about right", but I guess it depends on the target audience age.

[lordomnibok]

Each Gamebook series has its own rules. Some are simple like Golden Dragon whilst others have complex character building elements (Destiny Quest's 'special abilities glossary' alone is nine pages long.)
I think what you do with your own story depends on your ultimate intentions. 1. If you are writing fan FF you will want to adopt FF rules. 2. If you want to craft your own unique world, you should invent your own rules. 3. If you want to get a book published by a company, well, that's a different can of worms. I'd advise reading a few different Gamebooks; Crypt of the Vampire by Morris first (the edition with the dark moody cover with the tree in the foreground), then Fire on the Water by Dever, then Heart of Ice by Morris again. I only suggest those ones because they aren't time eaters and will give you a sense of variety (plus they are all great.)

[thealmightymudworm]

Jul 28, 2017 8:29:25 GMT andyste123 said:

I've only ever read FF books, and was wondering if other book series implement their own rules, or do they tend to adopt the FF rules to some extent. By rules I mean stuff like the FF fighting system, skill, stamina, luck, escaping, etc.
 
I guess what I'm asking is, could I use the tried-and-tested FF rules in my own adventure, more or less as-is, or would readers expect something original?

What are readers' expectations here - are you happy to get your head around a new set of rules if you pick up someone else's book? How complicated can you get away with making the rules? Would you even want to make up your own rules, which could become an industry in itself! Personally I feel the FF rules are "about right", but I guess it depends on the target audience age.

This is a slightly odd question because of course it depends on you and what you want to achieve.

Supposing you're thinking of writing an amateur adventure like the ones on this sub-forum or many other places...
Well you say that you're mostly familiar with FF rules (me too really) and you feel they're about right, so you should probably stick to those (with maybe the odd tweak) when writing your adventure. If they're not going to get in the way of what you're trying to do, why give yourself the huge headache of designing fresh rules for the hell of it?

Obviously if you're intending to write something commercial you probably shouldn't use FF rules because you'd have to negotiate over the copyright issues with Livingstone/Jackson and/or Scholastic.

My general impression is that gamebook obsessives consider FF rules towards the simpler end of what's out there, but quite robust for what they are. It's all too easy to produce a set of rules which just don't work or are overly complicated for what you can do with them. See for example hynreck's reviews of the Horror Classics series for which the rules are apparently mostly incomprehensible yet extremely harsh. Worse they generate absurdities such as Dracula being unable to look round a few rooms without collapsing from exhaustion, which ruins the story as well as making the gameplay unfair.

In short: If you come up with your own set of rules you might put people off if they're very complex even if they're very good. But the much greater danger is coming up with a set of rules which is just not very good. Don't do it unless you have some really well worked out ideas.


PS After all that, welcome to the forum.