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Post by daredevil123 on Sept 20, 2019 18:05:09 GMT
Seven of this forum could drive efforts to make a new ff book, possibly this new improved book, a veneration to evil, based on the task of Grimslade. I think the seven should be: platogue, greenspine, hynreck, kieran, wilf, champskees, and masterchief. The background should be of sylas. I'm slightly annoyed I'm not in your list of possible authors. I recommend you have a go at my gamebook as I think you'd give it a note of at least 16. Fighting Fantasy Wight Christmas.docx (67.61 KB) It's magickal.
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Post by a moderator on Sept 20, 2019 18:47:49 GMT
Seven of this forum could drive efforts to make a new ff book, possibly this new improved book, a veneration to evil, based on the task of Grimslade. I think the seven should be: platogue, greenspine, hynreck, kieran, wilf, champskees, and masterchief. The background should be of sylas. I have no intention of venerating evil, and I think it highly unlikely that Scholastic would risk the negative publicity that could result from such a project.
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Post by Wilf on Sept 20, 2019 19:29:00 GMT
Seven of this forum could drive efforts to make a new ff book, possibly this new improved book, a veneration to evil, based on the task of Grimslade. I think the seven should be: ... wilf ... NOPE.
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,679
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Sept 20, 2019 23:20:59 GMT
Thoughts are good (even though this one is bad) but it will never work.
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Post by A turnip on Oct 7, 2019 11:18:48 GMT
Just back from my conference with Vagsancho in Sao Paulo. Big FF things are in the offing! That's all I can say now, although I am "Greene" with envy at what the future holds! Allow me to check my notes, the crayon is sometimes difficult to read.
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Post by The Count on Oct 20, 2019 22:09:17 GMT
I had a look at the new edition of Caverns of the Snow Witch the other day. I quite liked the illustrations in it and considered buying it. Then I remembered that I didn't like playing it back in the day so put it back on the shelf.
Assuming they continue to reissue older books I hope they don't just stick to the same ones released by Wizard (the world really doesn't need Crypt to get another printing...) and that a few of the more obscure titles get mixed in.
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Post by a moderator on Oct 20, 2019 23:41:02 GMT
Knights of Doom is the only previously un-reissued book that could be brought out unless Scholastic manage to agree terms with more of the authors.
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,679
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Oct 20, 2019 23:55:58 GMT
If Crypt of the Sorcerer does get reprinted it would do well to include the bare minimum of:
Including a choice of one of the main Potions at the start. Yaztromo's Healing Potion restoring 6 Stamina instead of 4. Make the Harpoon Flies, Chameleonite's blood, and Clay Golem less problematic. Increase the Hellspawn to Skill 10. Razaak's sword gives a bonus of 4 to Attack Strength against the Hellspawn and himself.
Optional extras: Symm and Borri inflict 1 Stamina damage on the Gargantis each round. Yaztromo gives you 10 Provisions instead of healing potions.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,469
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Oct 21, 2019 9:49:00 GMT
Knights of Doom is the only previously un-reissued book that could be brought out unless Scholastic manage to agree terms with more of the authors. I imagine if Scholastic can convince a fairly established author like Charlie Higson to write for them they have the money to offer the other authors a decent deal. They also appear willing to put the actual author's name on the front of the books. So a deal could probably be struck with most of the authors if they were approached. The question is would Scholastic think them worth approaching? They seem to be marketing the books to new readers who would probably rather read something by someone like Higson than read a reprint of a 30 year old gamebook by an author they haven't heard of. Even Jonathan Green, Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson's books haven't been reprinted yet despite Wizard working out a deal with them previously.
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Oct 21, 2019 12:26:27 GMT
Im actually somewhat surprised the original authors have any say in it. I would have thought if you wanted to write an FF book then you sign over the rights for now and always.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,469
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Oct 21, 2019 13:27:23 GMT
Im actually somewhat surprised the original authors have any say in it. I would have thought if you wanted to write an FF book then you sign over the rights for now and always. No, the authors retained the rights, at least initially (you can see the copyright is in the author's name if you look at the Puffin printings - Legend of Zagor is an exception since Keith martin ghost wrote than for Ian and so Ian owned the rights despite not writing it himself). However, Jamie Thomson revealed that at one stage (probably around the time of the Wizard reprints) Steve and Ian tried to buy the rights for several (perhaps all) FF books so they could republish them as they saw fit. Thomson and Mark Smith sold the rights to Sword of the Samurai and Talisman of Death, but Dave Morris refused to sell Keep of the Lich Lord - so he and Jamie Thomson were able to publish an altered version of it themselves with no legal repercussion. If I recall correctly, other authors have remarked that they were approached, but refused due to the amount of money offered and Wizard not agreeing to feature their names on the front covers. Perhaps Scholastic could offer a better deal now, but they may not be so keen. Wizard seemed to rely more on nostalgia of older readers, Scholastic less so. And there are other issues - as mentioned above Keep has already been republished as a Fabled Lands book so it would be tricky for it to be rereleased as an FF book. Andrew Chapman seems to have had a somewhat acrimonious split from Steve and Ian over the lack of credit he received and his Inland Sea setting being absorbed into Titan. And of course, sadly Keith Martin is no longer with us which would mean Scholastic would have to negotiate with his next of kin.
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Oct 21, 2019 13:48:51 GMT
Oh I realize the authors retained the rights, Im just surprised that was allowed in the first place.
Not having their names on the cover would probably tick me off too though. Im not sure why that has always been an issue? I mean, Steve and Ian would still have their names on the cover as well. At the top even. Then the author at the bottom. They didnt seem to mind giving Charlie Higson credit on the cover. After seeing that, I would definitely insist on having my name on it too. Otherwise, it really does make it look like Steve and Ian wrote it which seems kind of dishonest to me.
He isnt my favorite author in the range by any means but I really felt bad for Andrew Chapman after reading about his experiences. He seemed pretty bitter about how things went down with Clash of the Princes and Steve and Ian's Bill Gates-like business practices.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,469
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Oct 21, 2019 14:04:16 GMT
They didnt seem to mind giving Charlie Higson credit on the cover. I think that was probably due to Higson being fairly famous in his own right already - pretty much all the other FF authors were relative unknowns at the time of publication (slight exception would be the other Steve Jackson, but even he'd be fairly niche. Dave Morris had a lot of other gamebooks under his belt by the time of Keep but by then the practice was well established and I doubt he was well known outside of gamebook fans). But yes, it would be hard to justify not granting any future authors in the Scholastic range the same courtesy offered to Higson.
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Post by vastariner on Oct 21, 2019 14:39:12 GMT
Wonder if Scorpion Swamp will have its author name on the cover...
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Oct 21, 2019 18:23:16 GMT
More reprints of old titles released decades ago which are available second-hand on ebay or Amazon for three or four quid. For Heaven's sake why can't they open the field up to new or established authors writing new stories? Or make the ratio one 'old' title published for every three brand new ones?
Ok, so we've had three new titles since 2017, but since Wizard restarted printing in 2002, we've had, what?, nine new books in seventeen years?
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,469
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Oct 21, 2019 18:56:39 GMT
More reprints of old titles released decades ago which are available second-hand on ebay for three or four quid. For Heaven's sake why can't they open the field up to new or established authors writing new stories? Or make the ratio one 'old' title published for every three brand new ones?
I guess there's less work involved in releasing a book that's already been written, proofread, playtested, edited etc. Hopefully there are more new books still to come though.
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Post by a moderator on Oct 21, 2019 19:27:37 GMT
I guess there's less work involved in releasing a book that's already been written, proofread, playtested, edited etc. Or, at least in the case of Crypt, just written, proofread and edited.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Oct 21, 2019 19:59:44 GMT
That's something they could do - playtest and tweak the reprints. Some LUCK boosts and Attack Strength bonuses in Caverns of the Snow Witch, maybe make sure Creature of Havoc has the right keywords at the right place. Make Crypt actually winnable without cheating. It's not too much to ask...
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Oct 21, 2019 20:23:25 GMT
More reprints of old titles released decades ago which are available second-hand on ebay or Amazon for three or four quid. For Heaven's sake why can't they open the field up to new or established authors writing new stories? Or make the ratio one 'old' title published for every three brand new ones?
Ok, so we've had three new titles since 2017, but since Wizard restarted printing in 2002, we've had, what?, nine new books in seventeen years?
I would guess its because they dont see a penny from second-hand book sales. Do they not playtest their own books? I mean, if you wrote the thing and therefore know the way through and even you cant beat it, that would seem to indicate a serious problem. (ie. the book is broken) I find it a bit unfathomable that you wouldnt even test out your own game.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Oct 21, 2019 22:02:27 GMT
Do they not playtest their own books? I mean, if you wrote the thing and therefore know the way through and even you cant beat it, that would seem to indicate a serious problem. (ie. the book is broken) I find it a bit unfathomable that you wouldnt even test out your own game.
I find it unfathomable too. It's meant to be a game as well as a book, why would you not even play it or re-read it? Surely at least let a colleague or other party play it through. How else to get feedback? With some of these books maybe the overriding aims were 'get it written, get it printed, and get it on the shelves' and playability and the game aspect were not prioritised. Reminds me of those bugged computer games that used to come out in the 80's and 90's.
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vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
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Post by vagsancho on Oct 22, 2019 18:09:21 GMT
Sometimes i ask myself If this is a forum of nerds Am i the king of the nerds?
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Post by a moderator on Oct 22, 2019 22:05:33 GMT
If you're the king of the nerds, this forum is a republic.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Oct 26, 2019 11:31:51 GMT
Sometimes i ask myself If this is a forum of nerds Am i the king of the nerds? Or perhaps from your picture, the pharaoh?
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Post by jmisbest on Nov 9, 2019 20:09:54 GMT
As for Ian Livingstone, while Crypt and Blood may be the only virtually impossible books he's written, everything from Deathtrap Dungeon onwards (and arguably also City of Thieves) made a lie of the claim that 'any player, no matter how weak on initial dice rolls, should be able to get through fairly easily'. When you say Blood do you mean Blood of The Zombies? or another 1 that I've never heard of?
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Post by a moderator on Nov 10, 2019 0:39:27 GMT
Yes, by Blood I did mean Blood of the Zombies. Even with the increased starting Stamina that was recommended when the excessive difficulty of the book was pointed out, the chances of winning are negligible.
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vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
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Post by vagsancho on Nov 26, 2019 15:41:43 GMT
Only to say that i am in this precise moment writing a new fighting fantasy book. The title is not yet totally decided, but it will probably be something like: "Appointment with Jesus". In my thoughts, the last villain will be in the possession of magical powers, and with stats like skill 16, stamina 25. And it will be for sure necessary to discover some very powerfull demonic artefacts ir order to be possible to kill him.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Nov 26, 2019 15:59:17 GMT
Wow.
I've always thought the days of the religious lobby campaigning against FF were long over, but if anything would start them off again it would be that.
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Post by elnombre on Nov 26, 2019 21:15:04 GMT
This is amazing. How about "Anointment with Jesus"?
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,679
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Dec 15, 2019 1:19:48 GMT
Pretty sure he meant Appointment With Razaak.
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Post by The Count on Dec 17, 2019 2:16:51 GMT
Does it go something like:
1: do you worship razaak? Yes go to 75 No go to 319
14: you are trapped listening to some inane twattering. Your brain leaks from your ears to spare you the horror and is hoovered up by the cleaners. Your adventure thankfully ends here
75: every diety that has ever existed is offended and decided to SMITE you with lighting bolts! Roll 6D6 and multiply the result by 20. Deduct the score from your stamina. If you survive turn to 157
157: clearly you are a cheater! How else could you complete the 26th book? A massive boulder with the number 98 decends from the heavens to pulverise you into smithereens! Test your luck. If you are lucky, -6 Skill and turn to 223. If unlucky, turn to 14
223: lose 47 luck points. Turn to 14
319: someone unearths your last attempt at writing a FF book. Hilarity ensues. Turn to 399
399: no really, its that bad. Turn to 14
400: razaak smells of poo
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