Long Ago, In A Galaxy Far, Far Away (Wandsworth)

[sleepyscholar]

I was just doing a bit of tidying up, and I found a box of photographs (remember them? Those pictures on thin card that people used to take using machines called cameras?).

One of them caught my attention. It must have been taken during the 90s, and my memory suggests that it was taken at a café on Wandsworth Common. Three of those pictured are gamebook writers. Yours truly on the right, then Steve Williams and Dave Morris. On the left another role-playing gamer who started in Dave's game shortly after I left to come to Japan. He still plays (and runs) in it. Gent by the name of Tim Harford, OBE. He may not have written any gamebooks, but his books, broadcasts and podcasts come highly recommended. At the very least, take a look at The Undercover Economist.

[bloodbeasthandler]

Got any more? Photos of the people behind the books, or notes or sketches linked to the books you wrote?

[sleepyscholar]

Jan 23, 2021 12:03:56 GMT bloodbeasthandler said:

Got any more? Photos of the people behind the books, or notes or sketches linked to the books you wrote?

I've probably got a lot of very boring photos. I thought this one was interesting, because I wouldn't have thought that Steve knew Tim. My recollection of that day was that my wife and I were visiting, staying with Dave, and we met Steve and Tim by coincidence. I've actually seen Tim more than Steve since then, as he and his family came out to Japan.

As far as notes of my own books are concerned, most of my stuff disappeared when I came to Japan. So the only one I have paper about is Magehunter. I think Fighting Fantazine (may its name be blessed etc) included a photo of the 4 notebooks that comprised the original Magehunter.

I was thinking about The Wailing World in the light of some of the discussion of books on this forum. Of course, in my head it's the pinnacle, the great gamebook that I never got to write... But I've been thinking that it might well have been a dud. My bait and switch tricks were probably already past their sell-by, and readers might not have been as enthralled by my tricksy variant on the maze theme as I was.

Dave Morris posted on his blog a link to a guy reviewing the Critical IF books (the successor to Virtual Reality). It was interesting, as the reviewer mentioned Sylas of this parish as instrumental in getting him to buy Heart of Ice (which I briefly published, and still maintain is a paragon of the gamebook art). Rather than The Wailing World, I think the book I regret never getting published was Red Dragon Pass (my Virtual Reality book, which died when the series was cancelled. One motivation for me in trying to republish the series was the hope that, if it was successful, I could do Red Dragon Pass. As the box of books in my office testifies, the series wasn't successful!).

[kieran]

Jan 23, 2021 16:05:10 GMT sleepyscholar said:

One motivation for me in trying to republish the series was the hope that, if it was successful, I could do Red Dragon Pass. As the box of books in my office testifies, the series wasn't successful!).

Any possibility of it being released as a Critical If?

[sylas]

I second that suggestion. Plus new generation, new outlook. Gamebooks are becoming more and more popular nowadays.

[sleepyscholar]

Jan 23, 2021 19:17:02 GMT kieran said:

Jan 23, 2021 16:05:10 GMT sleepyscholar said:

One motivation for me in trying to republish the series was the hope that, if it was successful, I could do Red Dragon Pass. As the box of books in my office testifies, the series wasn't successful!).

Any possibility of it being released as a Critical If?

I'd have to finish writing it. And it would be in the queue behind my Outlaws game (which is not a bad thing, as they share a background to some extent).

And I'd have to persuade Dave.

A third point is this: as discussion on Black Vein Prophecy revealed, I used to write gamebooks by more-or-less keeping the whole structure in my head. I couldn't do that nowadays. My mental RAM is a lot lower, and my hard disk is considerably more full and fragmented (and as you may have noticed, my metaphors have got a lot more prosaic). So I'm by no means certain of my ability to achieve what I wanted with that book. Sure, I'd probably be better at solving problems with heuristics, but my experience is that modern gamebook fans are pretty good at spotting when something has just been bodged together with a trick. And I worry that using critical path analysis to get the system part to work would butt up against the aesthetic stuff I wanted to do, which is mainly concerned with the creative use of the 'jump' between paragraphs -- in other words the meaning of a paragraph changes depending on where you've come from.

Put up against republishing Slaves of the Abyss, I think finishing Red Dragon Pass would be my preference. But I'll need a bit more time. If there were some sort of global catastrophe that led to Japan going into lockdown, that might work...

[bloodbeasthandler]

This picture showing GW staff including some gamebook writers, found on the Fabled Lands website:

[bloodbeasthandler]

And below I think I've found the location as it is today, though there seems to be a disparity with the address - we are looking at 31-33 Sunbeam Road but Games Workshop's address was 27/29 Sunbeam road. 

[sleepyscholar]

Feb 22, 2021 22:06:25 GMT bloodbeasthandler said:

And below I think I've found the location as it is today, though there seems to be a disparity with the address - we are looking at 31-33 Sunbeam Road but Games Workshop's address was 27/29 Sunbeam road. 



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I distinctly recall replying to this the day it was posted, but clearly I omitted to press the Create Post button.

That is the former GW, and the apparent disparity in addresses arises because it was taken over by the business next door. So the address plastered on it is not the actual address of the building, but the postal address of the company that owns the building, if you see what I mean. It's easy to check on Google Map, as the next building along is 23/25.

I have to say, taking a trip there via Google Street View brought home what a miserable area it was -- I distinctly recall the stink that wafted over from the Guinness Park Royal brewery (and I like Guinness) if the wind was in the wrong direction. And yet I, like Steve W and most other staff there (the exception being Marc G), nevertheless chose redundancy over the prospect of a move to Nottingham.

[Moi Aussi]

All these stories might be told if The Dice Men book ever comes out -- though apparently Jamie Thomson is no longer going to be writing it as his style was considered too "characterful".

fabledlands.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-dice-men-cometh.html

[bloodbeasthandler]

That is a pity because though I had not backed the book on kickstarter (in fact I never back anything on kickstarter) I was looking forward to reading it as soon as it came out.
What is to become of the book, then? Who is writing it instead, is it Jackson and Livingstone? Does anyone know when the book is heading to the printers? Steve J has to finish his gamebook first does he not?
My hope was that it would be a combination of straight history [the company was set up on such and such a date, it sold this that and the other then moved to wherever and expanded here, there and everywhere ... etc] plus interesting and amusing anecdotes either scraped from the various interviews online or better still things remembered in interviews between the author [JT] and the employers and employees themselves - ie the "characterful" stuff.
I read an account somewhere that in the days when Bryan Ansell was in charge and they were looking to get Realm of Chaos written and out the door, he was observed to be walking past the writers' room where Graeme Davis was, popped his round the door, said simply, "We need more maggot-ridden pus, you know" and then carried on walking. I want to hear about stuff like that. What was it like working there, warts and all.