Shadow Chaser (Simon Tudhope, 2021)

[Zhu Bajie]

Just noticed Shadow Chaser by Simon Tudhope has been announced from Usbourne Publishing.





The Character-sheet / Log Book:




One of Tom Knights Illustrations:




There's a sample of the adventure here:
issuu.com/usbornepublishing/docs/middle_grade_digital_sampler_single_pages/144


Pre-order here:
www.waterstones.com/book/shadow-chaser/simon-tudhope/tom-knight/9781474960489

Looks interesting. Obviously aimed at "middle-schoolers" than middle-aged gamebook fans, it looks quite cool to me, and great that a big publisher is making a new gamebook series.

[The Editor (Alex B)]

Review is coming in the next issue!

[stevendoig]

Got this book for my Christmas. Certainly a much nicer looking book than the scabby scholastic ff releases.

Will have a go the morn when I'm not so knackered and share some thoughts.

[stevendoig]

OK, two shorties so far.

I like the simplicity of life points and your attributes - which are fixed at the start bar a single extra point on one of your skills. As the book progresses, in theory in should get easier as there are quite a lot of skill boosts.

I'm not in love with the combat. You have a fixed number of rounds to dispatch your enemy and you have to guess beforehand what you will roll over. Because of the lack of time, you have to guess a high number eventually. (9 or 11). And that's exactly why I diedin my second playthrough.

I like the story however, you have a distinct character and u meet lots of interesting people in interesting places.

I also liked the puzzle pictures which you had to work out so you knew which reference to turn to (although I failed one of them)

I have a feeling the game is very, very linear, which means after another couple of shorties it may get rather tiresome.

Still, a decent game book with a lot of thought put into it.