CharlesX
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Post by CharlesX on Aug 27, 2021 17:37:03 GMT
What are some of the best gamebook parodies (published or amateur)? I read a very skilful take on CYOA, Lose Your Own Adventure, where you are a kid detective in the 60s trying to solve the Kennedy assassination. Most of the endings have you losing, and the artwork, research and writing are high quality.
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Post by vastariner on Aug 27, 2021 21:00:21 GMT
Grailquest?
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Post by philsadler on Aug 28, 2021 7:12:50 GMT
Believe it or not, there was a funny FF adventure about sprouts (I'm not making this up). I can't remember the name and I can't find it online anymore.
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Post by a moderator on Aug 28, 2021 20:23:22 GMT
The lamentably unfinished Yellow Snow saga comes to mind.
Multiple authors (a few of whom are members of this forum, myself included) collaborating in a series of mini-adventures (two complete, one almost finished, one set up but never properly started) that parodied numerous gamebook series (predominantly FF), as well as assorted films, TV shows and other random absurdities. More in-jokes than you can shake a Y-shaped stick at.
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Post by slloyd14 on Dec 6, 2021 21:37:20 GMT
The lamentably unfinished Yellow Snow saga comes to mind. Multiple authors (a few of whom are members of this forum, myself included) collaborating in a series of mini-adventures (two complete, one almost finished, one set up but never properly started) that parodied numerous gamebook series (predominantly FF), as well as assorted films, TV shows and other random absurdities. More in-jokes than you can shake a Y-shaped stick at. Where can I find this and can we resurrect it? |
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Post by a moderator on Dec 6, 2021 21:50:49 GMT
It was on one of the Yahoo! gamebook groups, but the posts there don't seem to show up any more. However, I did archive everything that got written, so it could theoretically be revived here. And, given the festive setting of the original adventure, now would be an appropriate time. ETA: It's here. |
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Post by a moderator on Dec 7, 2021 16:44:16 GMT
As regards professionally published gamebook parodies (which are supposed to be parodies, before Charles X starts up about Eye of the Dragon again), Tunnels & Trolls' Solo for the Intellectually Challenged is a lot of fun. Almost all of the available options are the sort of thing that would obviously be a fatally bad idea in a normal gamebook, but in this adventure there are usually quasi-logical reasons for their turning out not to be so bad after all - for example, drinking the contents of the bottle marked with a skull and crossbones doesn't poison you, but temporarily transforms you into a pirate, so you spend the rest of the adventure burying treasure.
The Date With Destiny gamebook Night of a Thousand Boyfriends is a bit frustrating. It looks similar enough to a Choose Your Own Adventure book to make the parody obvious (while distinct enough to head off legal threats), and the spurious list of other books in the series at the front is hilarious. Regrettably, the bulk of the actual gamebook just isn't that funny. Too much of it seems to be relying on the false premise that having a gamebook be all about looking for romance is inherently comical. Still, the inescapable loop that has you stuck listening to your flatmate reading out her angsty poetry for the rest of time is an inspired bad ending, and the 'there's no way for you to reach this page, so you shouldn't be reading it' page is amusing.
While the premise of The Regional Accounts Director of Firetop Mountain shows promise, the book itself is spoiled by sloppy implementation of the rules. If you need to roll above a stat to succeed, a bonus should not increase that stat. It'd be okay if this were a critical dig at the way some workplaces favour mediocrity over efficiency, but the way it's written suggests that it's more a case of 'the authors didn't think it through'.
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Post by a moderator on Dec 10, 2021 13:25:52 GMT
It's occurred to me that this thread would be a good place to go into a bit more detail about the gamebook parodies in Oink comic that I recently mentioned on my blog. The Unfair Funfair has you playing Barry the Butcher (as in someone who sells meat products - and the comic had a strong anti-butcher stance), and involves exploring a sinister fairground until you inevitably get dropped via a chute into a huge vat of pigswill. Turns out the fair is run by the same pig who edits the comic. Nothing special. There's a bit more of a satirical edge to The Sword of Blatterlee, which has a dig at needlessly complicated rulesets for gamebooks. Armed with the eponymous sword, you seek to vanquish the dragon which guards a treasure hoard. I shan't recap the absurdly convoluted randomisation process for playing through combat here, but it leads to one of three outcomes. You spend so long messing about with dice and associated nonsense that the dragon eats you. You take so much time faffing around with dice and related silliness that the dragon falls asleep and topples onto you, crushing you to death. You fiddle around with the dice and unnecessary additional factors until the dragon gets bored, and just gives you the treasure so you'll leave it in peace. But as you drag the loot away, the King who actually owns it spots you and shoots you dead with his bow. And the groan-inducing moral of this exercise in doomedness? Blatterlee will get you nowhere. |
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