Forbidden Gateway

[a moderator]

I'm slightly surprised to find that this two-book series hasn't yet got its own thread.

Written by Ian & Clive Bailey, this mini-series was about as Lovecraftian in tone as gamebooks get, with plenty of opportunities to go insane, as well as a variety of gruesome deaths at the appendages of hideous entities. While not Crypt of the Sorcerer-level in difficulty, they were pretty tough when played by the rules. I still remember the time I rolled up a character with maximum stats, who proceeded to die in the very first encounter owing to a couple of unfortunate rolls.

The first book, Where the Shadows Stalk, is set in a remote Welsh village, where a long-buried menace has been awakened. Set pieces include a dream sequence in which you confront the folkloric Wild Hunt (and, of course, dying or losing your mind in the dream has game-ending consequences in the waking world), exploration of a mine inhabited by various nasties, a nocturnal attack by zombies on the house where you're staying, and a struggle to rescue kidnapped villagers from the aliens responsible for all that is happening.

Towards the end of Stalk, you acquire a curious item which is then stolen, leading into the second book, Terrors Out of Time. This is a more wide-ranging adventure, taking in a museum in London, a mansion that has been taken over by various of the villain's minions, a flight in a plane with something lethal lurking on board, a brief sojourn on an airship, a hazardous interlude in the villain's castle, and a climax beneath an Egyptian pyramid. It includes one of the more bizarre deaths I've ever come across in gamebooks (hypnotised and drained of life by a table), and one of the more spectacular bad endings (hydrogen-filled airship plus out-of-control dragon equals epic fireball).

Across the two books there's only one instance of a left/right decision where choosing the wrong path guarantees failure. Apart from that, some courses of action are more likely to cause harm to you than others, but failure is more likely to be a consequence of the fall of the dice than a 'gotcha' decision.

Anyone else remember these?

[a moderator]

Reproducing Per Jorner's reviews of the two FG books from the gamebooks Yahoo! group, since the originals have been hurled into the Outer Darkness.

Forbidden Gateway 1: Where the Shadows Stalk

Note: This review is based on the Swedish translation, meaning any oddity or error described may or may not be the result of an IKEA conspiracy (assembly required). Furthermore it contains some plot and structure spoilers, but no significant gameplay spoilers.

Wales, for most of us, is practically synonymous with horror, depravity, and Welsh people. Hence it comes as no surprise that it is here you are summoned to investigate strange goings-on involving hungry mist and whatnot. Apparently even after people disappear and fall prey to a mysterious disease, it doesn't occur to anyone to call in the police or any outside medical help. The Welsh handle their own Stygian abominations, thank you very much.

There's no real reason to go further into the plot except to say that I like the blend of Lovecraftian, mythological and classic horror elements - just how well they fit together here could be a matter of opinion. The scene at the beginning where you walk along a hedge in the darkness has personal significance for me that goes beyond the page. I was delighted to find out that the villages in the book are real and the area is in fact noted for its slate quarries. I'm not sure how likely it is that you'd find a set of limestone caves right next to such a quarry, but I'm willing to believe it.

I am not so forgiving when it comes to the gamebook design. This is a very linear book with a lot of padding, or at least that's what we'd call it if there were a fixed number of sections to fill. The various stages are clearly divided, with few truly important choices and more than a few that are purely cosmetic. Often when you are given a choice of paths this means the difference between having a fight and not having one, not between different encounters. Items are acquired in between stages, never as a reward for solving an optional encounter or taking a particular path.

Approximately half of the book's paragraphs are used for combat. Instead of leaving the player to deal with a set of numbers in a single section, here you flip back and forth as you strike a blow, the enemy strikes a blow, and so on. The benefit is that combat can be designed to reflect special circumstances and fighting modes, and that each encounter feels like a significant part of the proceedings. The drawback is that it uses up a _lot_ of space that could have been used for exploration, investigation, variety of encounter etc.; that unless your memory is exceptional you cannot blitz through the book to the point of your last demise, but must go through each mandatory fight alternating between flipping and rolling; that each encounter still can't cover all attack modes; and that inconsistencies and oversights creep in easily (apparently) .

I did not actually play the book this time around, but just read through all the options. Winning using stats and rolls could be fairly tedious, I think, as you will find yourself going through the exact same sequences over and over again, and finding the "true path" to a reasonable chance of success is just a matter of finding out which options bypass combat - in other words, trying to make as large a portion of the book as possible irrelevant to your progress. This is a shame because there is potential in several of the set pieces, but on repeated readings most of them will be revealed to be shallow in terms of choice, and tension is seldom allowed to build for more than a few paragraphs at a time. There are some minor variations to the ending, but they don't follow logically from your actions. Except for those who collect horror gamebooks, or gamebooks, or horror, I wouldn't recommend anyone to go out of their way to get this, but if you spot it in a charity shop for a penny by all means make a dive for it.

The notes bit, where all the fun is:

* The rules say you restore half of your lost Stamina and Endurance each night. However, the instructions in the paragraphs mostly tell you to restore half of the points lost on the previous day (or night), which will probably not be the same thing, and which also leaves you scratching your head trying to remember just how much you had at the start of the time period in question. A very literal reading means you won't get back any of the points you might have lost in the events of the first day, since the first rest period is said to cover the first night.

* In 150 you are told to note that you've been caught in the open, but there are no further references to this.

* There is some lack of clarity regarding light sources. You are said to bring a flashlight along, but later descriptions seem to indicate you are using a lantern. When you hide in a cavern from some mutants, it must be assumed you're not giving yourself away by leaving your flashlight on, but only in one outcome is it said that they have a lantern of their own. During fights or chases in dark tunnels it is sometimes unclear how you can light your way and manage combat or other stunts at the same time.

* At one point you add salt and acid to your inventory before setting out on a trip. You can then find more of each, and when you arrive at the points you can use these items, you are needlessly asked if you have them. (Parenthetically I think it is hydrochloric acid, not sulphuric acid, which is noted for its acrid smell, though I guess sulphuric acid may not smell like roses either.)

* A possible source of inspiration for the wandering monsters is Gene Wolfe's monumental science fantasy work The Book of the New Sun; I base this observation primarily on the appearance of a creature identified as a salamander, whose muzzle opens up like the petals of a flower to reveal an internal inferno. In the books, deadly alien creatures were periodically unleashed by a starfarer who apparently carried them around in poké balls or something.

* 343 says you manage to run past a creature safely, then forwards you to 244 where it says you run past it again, taking damage.

* If person A shouts at person B to duck, and then, when person B fails to do so in plain sight, shoots person B right in the chest with a shotgun, could that be a subtle indication that person A has actually been itching to do that for quite some time? Or just that person A really, really hates people who can't take orders properly?

* In 331 you are asked if your damage is enough to kill a creature, but you haven't been told its Stamina. When fighting that enemy there's also no reason given for why you can't just run away; one of the strategies you can employ pretty much involves doing that but then returning to kick it in the shins.

* At one point you are asked if you want to bash the enemy with your walking stick or try some other tactic. The "other tactic" turns out to be bashing the enemy with your walking stick, but holding it in two hands, and making use of the pointy metal end. It turns out this way you do more damage. Great, but how and why were you using it differently before?

* No matter the lighting, range, size or speed, it is always equally as difficult to hit something with a gunshot - or for that matter with a walking stick.

* One of the monster types can be identified as controlling the others and are consistently designated as "aliens" after a certain point. Yet it is possible to miss the relevant exposition and not know exactly what is being referred to.

* There must be some sort of Law of Selective Advancement: the psi-powered aliens have a techno-organic ship that travels through space and time, but they haven't considered the possibility that someone might walk up to them and shoot them in the face.

* The aforementioned ship is said to have been buried for "millions of years", which is not an overstatement. Slate is typically _hundreds_ of millions of years old, the Welsh slate specifically about 400 million years old - i.e. from a time when Wales was not really Wales at all. Maybe we should cut the aliens a little slack if they spent all that time playing Freecell.

* At one point you are given the opportunity to use a dagger. This refers to the weapon used by the man you defeated in paragraph 8, where there is no mention of what happened to the dagger.

* 367 makes a brief reference to getting villagers onto a carriage, even though you had opted not to do that.

* In 341 you are hit, but not told how much damage the blow does. It should be 6, as mentioned in 250.

Notes that are clearly peculiar to the Swedish edition:

* The series was made to tie in very superficially with the Swedish edition of the horror RPG Chill, just like the name of a fantasy game was tagged onto the Swedish Lone Wolf and World of Lone Wolf editions. The term used for Endurance - Willpower - is borrowed from the game and actually sets the physical and mental stats apart more clearly, but that's about it for influences as far as I can tell. Flavourwise the game and the books are a close match.

* Neither book lists an original title or a cover credit.

* A Swedish illustrator who had done a lot of work related to the RPG in question was also hired to make new art for these books. I'm not entirely unbiased here, but I can say that although he definitely has his own style, which is not a bad thing, if he were an FF illustrator this work would hardly have earned him a reputation as one of the most accomplished ones.

* The picture of one of the main aliens has been inserted into another encounter with a creature that shouldn't look anything like it - but the piece hasn't merely been misplaced, as you can tell from the special attack of the other creature being evident in the picture (the aliens do not have this). If you look closely the alien also appears to walk along on its tentacles, and another small picture featuring an alien (for 30) shows it clearly doing this, even though they should be floating.

* From the information available to me, it could be guessed that the protagonist is gender-neutral in the original. The Swedish edition undermines this especially in the illustrations, which frequently include shadowy figures representing the main character, with decidedly male-looking hands. The creature which is mimicking you, though only half-formed, looks more male than female, and there are also some minor grammatical indicators that could have been avoided.

* 335 instructs you to go to 3215, which should be 315. The higher number is only used in the special edition, which I'm told goes to something in the order of 3500 paragraphs (roughly half of which is combat).

Forbidden Gateway 2: Terrors Out of Time

Note: This review is based on the Swedish translation, meaning any oddity or error described may or may not be the result of bad meatballs. Furthermore it contains some plot and structure spoilers, but no significant gameplay spoilers.

The second and closing book of the series turns away somewhat from the otherworldly angle in favour of dark fantasy monsters. Again the action is very clearly divided into set pieces, where you may fight none, one or two creatures (which may or may not mean getting some exposition in return) and then move on to the next. This is good for the plot I guess, but not so good for your personal contribution to it, and from a gamebook perspective the flaws of the first title - linearity, padding, railroading, redundancy - only become more evident. The first two "turn to" choices you get to make are completely bogus. Depending on the outcome of a stat roll, you will then have either a fairly brief struggle, or a fight that spans no less than 22 sections (6% of the book) yet amounts to little more than an annoyance on repeated readings. There are rolls against Mentality leading to sections which only differ in the instruction at the top to deduct 1 or 2 Endurance, and functionally identical combat sections occasioned by minor differences in narration ("the creature starts attacking you" - "the creature keeps attacking you"). When approaching an airfield you are offered the choice to land in secret or to call the radio tower, but all options lead to the same Dexterity roll which - with blatant disregard for its stated justification - determines whether you land unnoticed or are headed off by the police. Still, there are some meaningful path choices towards the end of the book, and there's an element of item hunting this time.

The first few locations are logically connected and fairly atmospheric, but once you get on board the zeppelin depicted on the cover, logic and continuity breaks down a bit. Even if you win a minor victory against the villain, you are whisked away to a castle somewhere - since the villain has a German-sounding name, we can only assume this is his home base in Germany or Austria or one of those countries. There he stashes you, unharmed, unfettered, and with all your possessions - including a magical artefact that you may have just beat him over the head with - in a somewhat escapable room. Once you escape you have the opportunity to surprise him while he's doing whatever was more important than destroying the world (which he was seemingly en route to in the zeppelin), and to knock him out, after which you give him a sound beating... no, you actually rifle through his pockets for fags and change... no, in fact, despite having chased the guy halfway across Europe for stealing your new paperweight, you just run away ("THIS should confuse him good!"). And that makes no less sense than what happens if you _don't_ knock him out, namely that he shouts that he doesn't have time for this crap, after which, despite having repeatedly wanted you dead earlier in the book, _he_ runs away (this tactic is catching on). Whereupon you have the chance to run from a mob of monsters, make a heroic stand in front of a doorway, and _after_ killing all the monsters, hop through the door, close and bar it.

And still none of those represents the biggest "wtf" of the book, which is this: After reaching the villain's final destination ahead of time, the intrepid Brits, having hired a bunch of "native guides", hang a big sign saying "kill me please" on one of them, drench him in gasoline, paint a target on his forehead for good measure and post him outside the entrance, then go and make camp some way away. After a distracting ruckus, the villain has snuck inside and the guard has to no one's great consternation been killed. Now, the disturbing thing is that _this was all according to plan_. The villain was _meant_ to enter first. THE PLAN INCLUDED THE WANTON SACRIFICE OF AN UNKNOWING INNOCENT. It is possibly the most disgusting thing I've read in a gamebook.

Guillermo says the dice rolls are more reasonable than in the first book, and I'll take his word for it. But again, completing the book may require flipping to the same paragraphs over and over again or making good use of save points, trying to avoid the extensive combat sequences that make up at least half the book. If you think a brief showdown on top of a zeppelin in a thunderstorm is the coolest encounter imaginable, and I suspect most of us have at one point or another, then you should equally briefly consider the acquisition of this title. It is not badly written and probably manages to build one of the better gamebook villains around (if only because he doesn't just pop up at the end), but depending on what you look for in a gamebook you may still be up for disappointment.

In the end I would like to commend the authors for showing signs of wanting to play around with gamebook innovation in a few cases beside the combat system. Section 1 is written from the villain's POV and chronologically takes place before the end of the first book. A few paragraphs are marked with asterisks meaning special instructions should be carried out. It's possible to die in the very last paragraph! As Guillermo noted in his review there are also some interesting consequences to your choice of weapons to employ, consequences whose dark irony elevates them above simple gotchas.

Pointing out oddities for great justice:

* Should you be able to grab your "trusty walking stick" at the start if it was destroyed in the first book? Regarding its "upgrade", it is perhaps not far-fetched to assume you have downgraded it again for use in civilized areas.

* If you go from 266 to 280, you will never be told the stats of your weapon.

* It's possible to deal lethal damage in 353, but the book doesn't address this possibility.

* 344 points to 342 which is partially on the same page.

* 24 says you lose Stamina, should be Endurance.

* In 73 summoning the Wild Hunt takes off 1 Endurance, whereas in the first book it always cost 5.

* In 369, I assume you have to choose one weapon if the other was destroyed (no time for shopping!). Also, should it be inferred you are restricted to firing 18 shots for the rest of the adventure?

* When you leave one location you're told it has "stopped raining", although there was no reference to rain or getting wet when you arrived.

* The events of the books can be determined to take place in the 30s, more specifically between the year 1931 (first year of triple-engine Junkers 52) and 1937 (last year of zeppelins). The first book is just said to take place in the 20th century and refers to the 1880s as quite some time ago, but has no good time indicators, and neither book gives a current year.

* 170 and 195 have no reason to ask how many bullets you fired, since you couldn't have fired any. Similarly, in 230 you couldn't have fired none at all.

* Again when resting you are told to restore half of the health lost on the previous day only.

* 19 should say 7 instead of 76.

* On the zeppelin, it is possible to go back and forth between the two cabins, with ridiculous consequences. However, the possibility of doing this is the only thing that motivates the question in 78 whether you still have the lockpick.

* What is the reason for the difference in reaction between 171 and 296? Is it just that person C really, really hates people who bungle lockpicking jobs?

* 87 should point to 192, not 45.

* Paragraph 15 implies your gun is already drawn and gives you the option to fire, but in 52 you draw the gun, then try to leave, and only fire if that fails.

* Why does 176 point to 250 instead of 317?

* 365 should probably say you reload your gun, like the end of 338. The idea of only reloading at certain points made sense in the first book, where you did so in your base of operations and it was never said that you brought spare bullets along (silly as that may be), but here there's no explanation for why you wouldn't reload at any opportunity.

* The universally constant accuracy of weapons is even sillier here than before, since the book openly acknowledges there are circumstances where you cannot reasonably miss, yet still has you making the exact same roll to see "how well you hit". Isn't that already represented by the highly variable damage of established hits? You can also acquire pots that are used as thrown weapons, and you make the usual Dexterity rolls to see whether they break (i.e. hit); presumably if you wanted them _not_ to break you'd be making the same rolls for that!

* Why can you throw another pot in 309 but not in 207?

* When fighting one monster with your gun, one paragraph makes reference to a flaming brand being knocked out of your hand, even though the gun and flaming brand strategies don't intersect and the flaming brand strategy has no similar outcome anyway.

* At first glance 79 seems to be missing an instruction that you can start over at the beginning of the paragraph if the creature fails it first roll, instead of having to go back to 231. It's possible they meant it always manages to turn around, it just doesn't always manage to attack as well.

* How do you know a body of water is a river if you can't see the other side?

* Why isn't 77 pretty much an instant win for the player? And shouldn't it more reasonably point to 289 instead of 269?

Specifically Swedish notes:

* In the first book, the monsters were said to come from the Outer Darkness and the Outer Void, the latter possibly referring to space and the former to a metaphysical and/or symbolic dimension of evil. This book refers to the Outer Darkness as well but also uses the term "the Unknown", which is central to the Chill RPG. There's a different translator this time around, and the quality of the translation is better, though I want to point out one amusing mishap: 260 says you tackle someone who then "does a backflip over the altar and falls screaming into the abyss". Well, I thought it was funny.

* Again it is said that your main source of light in the early stages of the adventure is an electric torch; yet one of the illustrations clearly shows the character holding a burning torch.

* Paragraph 126 is labelled 125, meaning there are two 125s in a row.

[stevendoig]

I used to have both of these books, now I only have the second one! - annoying! (about a dozen of my game books from my childhood went astray)

Haven't played it in years, think it's time to dig it oot!

[jdmitchell]

Sounds interesting. There are so many more gamebooks out on the world than I imagined!

[terrysalt]

I was hoping Forbidden Gateway would be a story about failing to access a website.

[outspaced]

With each book having exactly 404 paragraphs.

[roidhun]

I thought these were pretty great too.

Any french speakers here who can tell us anything about the (?) two later books that were apparently only published in that language?

[alziel]

I certainly DO remember these! I think I played the first one (Stalk) when I checked a copy out from my local library, but I recall very little of it except that the atmosphere was great (and I loved the rural setting). I also vividly remember the cover illustration of the second one, which I believe portrayed the airship and a beastie? I'd love to have another read/play of these, so I might have to hunt them down! 

[dragonwarrior8]

"Terrors Out of Time" is a wonderful gamebook in my opinion. Whenever I think Indiana Jones-style globe-trotting adventures, I think of this one for reasons outlined by Greenspine in his initial post. (The plane flight in particular gave me chills). There are admittedly a couple of do-or-die rolls that need to be made that could prove frustrating, but I am often likely to be much more forgiving of these if the rest of the book is such a fun ride (as was also the case with the earlier Way of the Tiger books), which this one is.