Last 10!

[King Gillibran]

Into the last 10!

Choose your five FAVOURITE.

[CharlesX]

Is it weird I am choosing and very nearly choosing gamebooks I voted to eliminate before? Think having as few as 20, 15, 10 gamebooks is a factor.

All these gamebooks have a few things which probably make me hate them:

City Of Thieves has the Nicodemus ingredients mix-up, the Moon Dogs, and lots of Livingstone Skill bonuses which do nothing because you're normally at Initial Skill. Still really good and almost voted for it, but not perfect.

Deathtrap Dungeon I voted for, an is very, very good, but old-school and hard.

House Of Hell is definitely really good but I don't think it's as big an adventure as the others here, I don't like you having to start with a 3+ Fear, or the Kris Knife rules.

Creature Of Havoc I voted for, but is very Steve Jackson. And I don't care if Steve Jackson meant the missing reference as cleverness, to me its an error.

Vault of The Vampire, likewise voted for but is difficult and has the odd bug (like Creature Of Havoc). Keith Martin is a good writer at times but his gamebooks can be too game and not enough book, maybe compared with Jackson or Green.

Dead Of Night surprisingly I voted against before but am back voting for this time. I say this is nuance not hypocrisy - Dead Of Night is a very dark adventure that is easy to dislike but also easy to enjoy. It has a few instant deaths which seem harsh but it can be fun if generic.

Legend Of The Shadow Warriors is extremely good and well-designed and really has few failings at all. I don't always like adventures with shopping and some linearity but I thought the world of this book.

Moonrunner is at least as good as Legend Of The Shadow Warriors but I never got into it whether it's because it's too easy or something else. However this is voting for not voting against so out goes Moonrunner, in comes Dead Of Night.

Howl Of The Werewolf is really good and has my vote even though it has many Jonathan Green tropes. I like the darker atmosphere, the challenge and description.

Night Of The Necromancer is technically extremely good, but just not good as the others here. I'm pretty sure it has at least one bug. I personally don't like the way the fights become easy asfter you acquire Captain Cador's body.

[misomiso]

Stephen Hand is suffering from split voting...

[kieran]

Quite a scrap for 5th place

[misomiso]

Should have done 5 LEAST favourite like the rest of the votes, then do a top 5 ranking vote!

[CharlesX]

Haha FIVE gamebooks on third place (at time of writing) - City Of Thieves, Creature Of Havoc, Legend Of The Shadow Warriors, Moonrunner, Howl Of The Werewolf.

   Perhaps your next poll could be between those five?

[Gabe Fandango]

My taste seems to be the opposite from the majority. I love the current bottom-ranking 3 (Vault of the Vampire, Dead of Night, Night of the Necromancer) way more than the current top 2 (Deathtrap Dungeon and Creature of Havoc). I would have voted the former for top 3 and ranked the latter at the bottom out of these 10.

[CharlesX]

So Creature Of Havoc is knocked out - I wonder whether it was the missing reference sentence that swung it, or what other reason, because in terms of storytelling, difficuly level, atmosphere, writing and artwork this is a masterpiece. If it wasn't perhaps a protest vote about the missing reference link (or the missing vital number on Rhino-man 29 in the illustration in the later edition), maybe it was the very Steve Jackson tropes, the Stephen King-esque surface-level absence of characterisation and wanting narrative development (just compare it with the nuanced worldbuilding of others here), to me it still should be at least in top 5.

   I'm definitely not an unconditional fan of SJ but Secrets Of Salmonis is not only longer but better Shadow Of Giants (and OTOH, one reason Starship Traveller doesn't work is because it's too short).

[trialmaster]

I too am surprised Creature of Havoc was not in top 5. Brilliant, epic gamebook, SJ was on top form with this one.