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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Dec 5, 2018 22:49:25 GMT
Some themes I feel I’ve picked out in Steve Jackson’s books. Feel free to agree or disagree or add to them.
1) Constantly tries new genres and settings – sci-fi, modern-day horror, magic, superheroes, FF as roleplaying game, an epic quest of four linked books. 2) Misdirection and 'things being not what they seem' – the one who was really in charge in the House of Hell; the Sham from Sorcery!3; the aggressive creature from Sorcery!4 which has some sort of heart attack when you stand up to it; the Creature of Havoc itself, among others. 3) Hidden paragraphs and abilities – rather than say ‘do you have item X? If you do turn to 123’, his books will have you use the item in such a manner as the Serpent Ring … or at paragraphs starting with certain sets of words - ’You cannot see a thing’ , or remembering what to do when under the stairs in House of Hell etc.
4) Pathways not on the ‘one true path’ are still absorbing, even if they turn out to be roads to your ruin.
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Post by a moderator on Dec 6, 2018 0:17:52 GMT
5) Occasional choices where both options are equally fatal.
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Post by daredevil123 on Dec 6, 2018 20:58:15 GMT
6) Generally fair gameplay with ways of avoiding combats (or at least making them easier).
Could we make a version of this thread for every FF author? I'd love to see what Ian Livingstone's page would look like...
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Post by Wilf on Dec 8, 2018 14:22:56 GMT
Steve Jackson's books continually push the envelope and come up with new ways of exploiting the FF framework. He was the first author to give the player magic abilities, to take the range into space, to write a linked cycle of books, to do an outright horror story, to use secret references, to venture into the world of superheroes, to write a book with four different parallel solutions, to have the player be a monster, to hide instructions and references in secret codes (and what a code), and so on.
Every book he writes is a genuine challenge, and all of them (bar the slip with the FEAR stat and Skill bonus in House Of Hell) are winnable on minimum stats.
Steve Jackson's FFs are also extremely well-written and constructed, with great attention to detail, and come across as a labour of love each time.
He is not only FF's co-founder, but he remains the range's finest author. No-one else quite gets FF the same way he does.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Dec 8, 2018 14:28:08 GMT
He seems quite partial to mazes too - WOFTM, Starship Traveller, 'the cave demon's maze' in S!1, the Creature of Havoc dungeon feels like a maze...
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Dec 11, 2018 19:36:23 GMT
7. Integration of text and illustrations...
..most notably in Sorcery! - you find the illustrations playing an active role in the story. The locket dropped by the Captain of the Guard, the sign in the Temple of Courga, Lortag the Elder's puzzle, the weakness of the bronze statue, the items for sale in the caravan, the swamp goblins' anti-serpent scroll. (Is the picture of the guillotine death-trap in Khare 'work-out-able'?) Outside of Sorcery - The Rhino man in the Testing Grounds from FF24. And the entirety of Tasks of Tantalon. Steve Jackson seems to like a good puzzle.
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Post by a moderator on Dec 11, 2018 23:12:32 GMT
(Is the picture of the guillotine death-trap in Khare 'work-out-able'?) I worked it out at the age of 13, so indications point to 'yes'.
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Post by Wilf on Dec 12, 2018 23:02:06 GMT
(Is the picture of the guillotine death-trap in Khare 'work-out-able'?) I worked it out at the age of 13, so indications point to 'yes'. Yes - definitely work-out-able.
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Dec 13, 2018 0:19:02 GMT
I worked it out at the age of 13, so indications point to 'yes'. Yes - definitely work-out-able. Unless you're me!
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Post by Ed on Dec 15, 2018 13:46:30 GMT
Agreed that he was the range's finest author and also its greatest loss when he stopped writing new adventures.
I'm cautiously optimistic about his new forthcoming FF book.
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CharlesX
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Post by CharlesX on Feb 6, 2022 21:32:27 GMT
Given some of the heavy recent criticism of Livingstone - albeit justified - in spite of his knighthood, status as an FF founding father, and appearance on the Apprentice, I'm posting criticism of Jackson here, noting the very positive tone in the thread, which again is definitely justified. Not all the new things Jackson tries are successful, Starship Traveller was a rare misfire, while Appointment with F.E.A.R. was very one true path and arguably one of the average entries (like most SF FF with just a couple of exceptions). Jackson is a slightly artistic writer who emphasizes description, sometimes dark description, where Livingstone more emphasizes gameplay. Something about Sorcery! doesn't work for me. I've never liked one true path books, I think the warrior way isn't a patch on the wizard way, and I think Shamutanti Hills isn't as strong as the later entries. I've heard very good things about the App, though (isn't it much bigger than the original series, or something else?). For me, Fighting Fantasy The Role-playing Game is really good, it combines simplicity with adventure, and has a lot of good, original ideas. I would say SJ is a versatile writer who succeeds more often than fails when he tries new things.. But we will find out when we turn to our keyboards to order his new book.
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Feb 7, 2022 11:02:41 GMT
Something about Sorcery! doesn't work for me. I've never liked one true path books I'm not sure I would consider Sorcery one true path. Certainly Books 1 and 3 aren't. 2 and 4 are pretty narrow, but they allow a bit of freedom if you've done certain things in previous books (eg Vik and Flanker can help you out in Khare if you stumble off the correct path). It has a little bit of extra content but not much. The main differences are you navigate via a beautifully presented map (which doesn't make any practical difference to how they're played but still looks very nice) and the battle system is completely different being based on a sort of risk-reward approach which is pretty fun (at first anyway).
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Post by misomiso on Feb 7, 2022 17:14:56 GMT
The main theme of Steve Jackson books is that he was an innovater who liked to push the envelope and experiment with the genre, as opposed to Ian Livingstone who seemed to prefer perfecting a single type of adventure.
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Post by terrysalt on Feb 7, 2022 21:27:00 GMT
Something about Sorcery! doesn't work for me. I've never liked one true path books I'm not sure I would consider Sorcery one true path. Certainly Books 1 and 3 aren't. 2 and 4 are pretty narrow, but they allow a bit of freedom if you've done certain things in previous books (eg Vik and Flanker can help you out in Khare if you stumble off the correct path). It has a little bit of extra content but not much. The main differences are you navigate via a beautifully presented map (which doesn't make any practical difference to how they're played but still looks very nice) and the battle system is completely different being based on a sort of risk-reward approach which is pretty fun (at first anyway). The combat system is what put me off those games. If I play an FF game, I want it to play like FF. That aside, the games seemed to be pretty faithful to the books but I only played the first one.
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Feb 8, 2022 0:12:16 GMT
The combat system is what put me off those games. If I play an FF game, I want it to play like FF. That aside, the games seemed to be pretty faithful to the books but I only played the first one. I played the first two but the battle system became a bit tedious after a while - I seem to remember I stumbled upon a strategy that lets you win every single battle.
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Post by scouserob on Feb 11, 2022 15:34:25 GMT
8) Infinite Loops The slowly dawning realisation that you are going to be fighting until you drop (Such as with Quimmel Bone or the summoned Chaos Warriors in Creature of Havoc) or have wasted resources chasing a reward that will always be just out of reach (those gold pieces thrown down the well in Kharé).
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