vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
|
Post by vagsancho on Sept 10, 2020 10:18:45 GMT
It is not that what i am saying. A two players gamebook means nothing to me. It is a wrong path from the beginning. A zombie is almost the oposite of "a lucid one".
|
|
|
Post by sleepyscholar on Sept 10, 2020 15:52:53 GMT
It's taken a very long time, but thanks to the wonderful Diana Rigg and your OHMSS tribute I have finally made the connection with Guardian BTL. Respect.
|
|
|
Post by vastariner on Sept 10, 2020 20:43:16 GMT
To be fair, Ian Fleming deserves the credit for that one. It just seemed right for now. She was a terrific actress.
|
|
|
Post by sleepyscholar on Sept 11, 2020 16:47:50 GMT
To be fair, Ian Fleming deserves the credit for that one. It just seemed right for now. She was a terrific actress. I have to admit, I literally shed a tear when I learn she'd passed away. And couldn't understand why more people weren't mentioning Detectorists.
|
|
|
Post by Pete Byrdie on Sept 11, 2020 20:30:29 GMT
To be fair, Ian Fleming deserves the credit for that one. It just seemed right for now. She was a terrific actress. I have to admit, I literally shed a tear when I learn she'd passed away. And couldn't understand why more people weren't mentioning Detectorists. I love that show, and, of course, Diana Rigg brought the same excellence to that as to everything she did. A dark Fighting Fantasy book is what i want! With an evil task. Maybe inspired in Grimslade's task. I ask for a book where the hero needs and desires to kill indiscriminately, desires to steal indiscriminately. A sadistic book, where the "good ones" are killed without a repentance. And very important, a book where all kind of bad deeds do not result in the loss of luck points. A book where the hero is not an insane guy but a "lucid one". A book where in the end there is not a "turning point" for good. A book where the ultimate success is the result of the hero achieving his ultimate sadistic goal. Edgy. Disturbing. A 'hero' who's an indiscriminate killer bent on evil ends, but is not insane but 'lucid'? Someone needs to dig up Vag's patio. FF has already ventured into superhero territory, but modern superhero memes are often darker and subversive (not to mention ubiquitous). Perhaps as a sequel to Appointment with F.E.A.R., I'd like to see a present Titan City, 35 years on, with edgier, more ambiguous super powered characters.
|
|
Klea
Wanderer
Writing Lyssia Ulmer's marriage for Camp NaNoWriMo (based on King's Heir: Rise to the Throne)
Posts: 57
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy (Sorcery!)
|
Post by Klea on Sept 15, 2020 8:51:58 GMT
The cover for Crystal of Storms is great, I love it and so do the two small Zhus. The author has made several comments about it being written 'for children' so I think there is a deliberate move being made with this book. Just hope we get to make friends with the Aakor rather than fight it! OMG, it looks Disneyfied. By the way folks, my intention is to raise a smile or otherwise create some amusement in these times. I'm not pouring scorn or venting my spleen on anyone or anything, just a gentle sending-up of a trend we're seeing in FF... Which is best? The first one immediately brings to mind the immortal line of dialogue from "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown": "I got a rock." The second immediately brings to mind the Quest For the Pic-a-nic Basket. As for the Caverns of the Snow Witch one... it's cute. But I've got my own biases about that one, since it's the first of the FF gamebooks I managed to novelize from start to finish, and fleshed out the characters of Redswift and Stubb (I actually have a side story planned for when Redswift's brother, Ash, goes home to tell the rest of the family about Redswift's death; I really enjoyed writing for those two characters). As I read somewhere else, that gonna be more Rihanna than Pratchett. First FF book for girls, well, why not ? Yeah, since girls aren't capable of enjoying FF books if the protagonists are guys... Back when the Sorcery! books first came out, I was partway through Khare when I suddenly decided that I wanted my characters to be more than a collection of stats and lists of stuff. I gave my characters names, and decided which books they would have as their adventures. Then it just seemed natural to have some of them be related or acquainted... and damn the 'official' timeline. I really don't care. Therefore, my own headcanon says my CotSW character, Ranok, is married to my Sorcery! character (Klea), and they met in Port Blacksand after she'd been wandering the world, adventuring for quite a number of years. She's a mage, he's an adventurer, and at the time of CotSW, they have settled down in Port Blacksand where she runs a magic shop and he hires himself out as a caravan guard and guide. They have a 6-year-old son named Farin, who in about 20-something years will be the one to make it through Deathtrap Dungeon. As Ranok is walking to Stonebridge after surviving his ordeal in Caverns (this is original filler material), he passes through a village and happens to meet the daughter of a blacksmith. The girl is about the same age as his son, and her burning ambition is to become an adventurer like the men and women who buy weapons from her father and uncle. She proudly announces that SHE will one day go to Firetop Mountain and defeat the Warlock. And 20+ years later, she does. (no, she and Ranok's son don't end up together) Also there were gamebooks specifically aimed at girls [admittedly not FF though] and at the height of the gamebook craze. Starlight Adventures. There was also the HeartquestTM series, Endless QuestTM-style fantasy potboilers with explicitly female viewpoint characters, romance sub-plots, and holes in the front covers. As regards Crystal, I'll wait until the book is published, and then judge it based on the text, rather than make assumptions based on the cover illustration. I found the female-specific books profoundly ridiculous and boring. They're like a cross between CYOA, Harlequin Romances, and the movie of the week in which a woman is in peril and is only saved by the male lead. The CYOA books sometimes had drawings of the protagonist in them - and sometimes it was a girl. Yes I was thinking that. For example there was one where you were a girl trained as a ninja trying to help a boy who was mixed up with the yakuza. That sort of aiming it at girls is one thing (as I recall you/she could break down plasterboard walls with headbutts – there was a picture and everything). The cutesification is entirely different. FF's protagonists have usually been theoretically gender-neutral anyway, which is the way it should be imo, but I wonder if having more significant female characters would have helped. For the great majority of the books if you try to describe the plot in three sentences, you'll mention 1-3 male characters and no female ones. There are very few women depicted on covers or in blurbs, or even background sections. I'm talking villains, allies and all the rest. If you start listing off all the most memorable FF characters (Zagor, Dire, Marr, Nicodemus, Yaztromo, Sukumvit, Azzur...) you get a bit of a sausage party. My impression (that's all it is) from reading around forums including hynreck 's review on here is that if girls did get to own FF books they often started with Caverns for obvious reasons. I'd be all for that sort of attracting female readers: more sorceresses (friendly or murderous, it's all good) and amazon warriors (perhaps even with armour not held together with tit tape) on the covers. Less so the whimsical world of wonder feel. Something I noticed about the female FF characters: They're either witches (good or evil), fantasy characters who are usually evil, an old crone (usually evil, but occasionally good), or a warrior with no redeeming personality at all (if she's even given one). Or she's a damsel in distress. Take Scorpion Swamp, for instance. The character is, for no real reason, given a magical bracelet that will be critical to his succeeding in Scorpion Swamp. What a fantastic coincidence, and why would the woman give away something that valuable to a complete stranger? I wrote an expanded introduction. The character is the brother of the aforementioned Klea (his name is Taren), and they've been estranged for many years. There's a very good reason why he's given the bracelet - he saved the woman's life and escorted her home to her family in a village I invented, and she's grateful. His personality is a bit more in the moral grey area, which is why it's plausible that he might take on Grimslade's quest. I decided that no matter if the character chooses Grimslade or Selator, it just makes sense to map the swamp, thus fulfilling Poomchukker's quest anyway. Guy's gotta make some money, and Taren is a bit down on his luck. This quest comes along at exactly the right time. I haven't finished writing this one. I ultimately decided he would do Selator's quest and combine it with Poomchukker's. But Grimslade finds out, and isn't pleased... (as mentioned, I tweak these to make the story more coherent and to avoid giving the reader the impression that this is where you roll for luck and that is where you roll for combat, and so on...).
|
|
|
Post by Zhu Bajie on Sept 28, 2020 20:54:15 GMT
Got my copy of Crystal of Storms today. 12 y.o swiftly confiscated it. Apparently the creature on the cover is a sheep-dog for cloud spirits. It's not totally fluffy. Of the illustrations, there is a giant squid-shark and an octopus headed guy and a giant crab holding up a guy in his pincers. Not again! Mungo, nooo! Looking forward to getting my hands on it.
|
|
sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,678
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
|
Post by sylas on Sept 28, 2020 21:59:06 GMT
How did you manage to get it so early?
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Sept 28, 2020 23:58:46 GMT
Pre-ordered it on Amazon. They've given me a delivery date in late November. Unhappy.
|
|
|
Post by bloodbeasthandler on Sept 29, 2020 14:50:01 GMT
when is it out in the proper bricks-and-mortar bookshops? 01 October?
|
|
|
Post by Zhu Bajie on Sept 29, 2020 19:44:57 GMT
How did you manage to get it so early? Pre-ordered from Waterstones, with pick up rather than delivery, and got a note to collect it on Monday, so did that. Not that I've had chance to read it. Little Zhu seems to be enjoying it, having fought off a monster or two already.
|
|
|
Post by bloodbeasthandler on Sept 30, 2020 15:44:55 GMT
I went into town and picked it up from the shelves of Waterstones today. Not pre-ordered. Just there and available to buy for anyone.
|
|
sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,678
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
|
Post by sylas on Sept 30, 2020 19:48:12 GMT
I really shouldn't bother pre-ordering in the future.
|
|
|
Post by Zhu Bajie on Oct 1, 2020 9:40:41 GMT
Visted about 4 different book shops trying to find Port of Peril when it was published, none of them had it in stock, so pre-ordering made sense. Was a tiny bit annoyed that after I'd pre-ordered from Waterstones, they announced a special custom die would be available from Aligators Mouth (an independent childrens book-shop in London) www.thealligatorsmouth.co.uk/product-page/crystal-of-storms-rhianna-pratchettAll for supporting independent shops rather than WS or Amazon, so would have been nice to know about it sooner.
|
|
kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,457
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
|
Post by kieran on Oct 1, 2020 18:18:44 GMT
Visted about 4 different book shops trying to find Port of Peril when it was published, none of them had it in stock, so pre-ordering made sense. Was a tiny bit annoyed that after I'd pre-ordered from Waterstones, they announced a special custom die would be available from Aligators Mouth (an independent childrens book-shop in London) www.thealligatorsmouth.co.uk/product-page/crystal-of-storms-rhianna-pratchettAll for supporting independent shops rather than WS or Amazon, so would have been nice to know about it sooner. I cancelled my Amazon pre-order and switched to Alligator's Mouth. Of course, you needed to order Return to Firetop Mountain as well to get the two dice.
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Oct 2, 2020 1:17:34 GMT
Visted about 4 different book shops trying to find Port of Peril when it was published, none of them had it in stock, so pre-ordering made sense. Me, too. In fact, I've had trouble finding most of the post-Puffin original titles in bookshops. Me, too. This is the first I've heard of it. My November 23rd delivery date has been changed to October 3rd this evening, though, so I should get to play Crystal before the weekend is out.
|
|
vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
|
Post by vagsancho on Oct 29, 2020 18:34:13 GMT
There are two books only, that for being absolutely uninteresting to me, I do not want to play or to feel never again: Appointment with FEAR & Star Strider.
|
|
|
Post by philsadler on Oct 29, 2020 21:06:22 GMT
There are two books only, that for being absolutely uninteresting to me, I do not want to play or to feel never again: Appointment with FEAR & Star Strider. Well, the only sci-fi one I like so far is Freeway Fighter. guess that says something about the futuristic books (or maybe just us).
|
|
|
Post by tyrion on Oct 29, 2020 21:55:27 GMT
Rebel planet is my favourite sci-fi book. I do like freeway fighter, it is fun. Also very close to the mark in these times! Star strider bores me, especially the underground bit at the end. There's so much of London we could have seen, but no, we'll do the tunnels.
|
|
|
Post by johnbrawn1972 on Oct 30, 2020 15:07:33 GMT
Are we all coming out of the woodwork?
I always enjoyed Space Assassin, I am not saying it is Night of the Necromancer or Slaves of the Abyss, as it has a strange sense of humour, the weapons are interesting and the philosophical pilot is just on the right side of enjoyable rather than irritating.
|
|
vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
|
Post by vagsancho on Nov 2, 2020 19:25:55 GMT
LEGEND Of The SHADOW WARRIORS VS CHASMS OF MALICE
Two good books. 5 evil defensors in Legend, 7 evil defensors in Chasms of Malice. Legend much more well made than Chasms. Chasms with ridiculous rules and ridiculous things, like that ring and that stupid spell life. Having said all that, am I the only one here who prefers Chasms of Malice?
|
|
|
Post by bloodbeasthandler on Nov 2, 2020 20:13:16 GMT
Having said all that, am I the only one here who prefers Chasms of Malice? If by 'here' you mean the Fighting Fantazine Forum, then yes, you probably are the only one who prefers it. And if by 'here' you mean this universe and all the parallel universes accompanying it throughout the various multiverses stretching into infinity .... then yes, you are probably still the only one.
|
|
kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,457
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
|
Post by kieran on Nov 2, 2020 21:31:45 GMT
Having said all that, am I the only one here who prefers Chasms of Malice? If by 'here' you mean the Fighting Fantazine Forum, then yes, you probably are the only one who prefers it. And if by 'here' you mean this universe and all the parallel universes accompanying it throughout the various multiverses stretching into infinity .... then yes, you are probably still the only one. Well, there is that mysterious member who gave it 10/10...
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Nov 2, 2020 23:30:01 GMT
LEGEND Of The SHADOW WARRIORS VS CHASMS OF MALICE Two good books. 5 evil defensors in Legend, 7 evil defensors in Chasms of Malice. Legend much more well made than Chasms. Chasms with ridiculous rules and ridiculous things, like that ring and that stupid spell life. Having said all that, am I the only one here who prefers Chasms of Malice? If these two titles end up close to each other in the Rankings, you'll know you're not alone.
|
|
vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
|
Post by vagsancho on Nov 3, 2020 0:51:18 GMT
LEGEND Of The SHADOW WARRIORS VS CHASMS OF MALICE Two good books. 5 evil defensors in Legend, 7 evil defensors in Chasms of Malice. Legend much more well made than Chasms. Chasms with ridiculous rules and ridiculous things, like that ring and that stupid spell life. Having said all that, am I the only one here who prefers Chasms of Malice? The atmosphere is darker in Chasms. Champskees solutions to chasms is extremely weak, we can not feel the book through that. I need to meet the 7 khuddams before meeting his "father".
|
|
|
Post by a moderator on Nov 3, 2020 2:10:37 GMT
Champskees solutions to chasms is extremely weak, we can not feel the book through that. I need to meet the 7 khuddams before meeting his "father". I don't believe that to be possible. You can 'complete the set' by repeatedly hitting Orghuz in the wrong place and then re-fighting him as many times as there are Khuddam you missed, but I'm sure I've heard that there isn't a route on which you can encounter all 7 on the way.
|
|
vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
|
Post by vagsancho on Nov 3, 2020 7:19:10 GMT
Champskees solutions to chasms is extremely weak, we can not feel the book through that. I need to meet the 7 khuddams before meeting his "father". I don't believe that to be possible. You can 'complete the set' by repeatedly hitting Orghuz in the wrong place and then re-fighting him as many times as there are Khuddam you missed, but I'm sure I've heard that there isn't a route on which you can encounter all 7 on the way. Yes. It is possible. There is one path that permits fighting the all Khuddams in this sequence: Gurskut, Geshrak, Churka, Fiankara, Barkek, Griffkek, and Kahhrac. The paragraph 331 links to 253 instead of 99, thatbis an official admitted editor error. With that it turns possible to fight the seven khuddams, instead of six, making the book finally meaningful.
|
|
|
Post by johnbrawn1972 on Nov 4, 2020 13:13:12 GMT
I don't believe that to be possible. You can 'complete the set' by repeatedly hitting Orghuz in the wrong place and then re-fighting him as many times as there are Khuddam you missed, but I'm sure I've heard that there isn't a route on which you can encounter all 7 on the way. Yes. It is possible. There is one path that permits fighting the all Khuddams in this sequence: Gurskut, Geshrak, Churka, Fiankara, Barkek, Griffkek, and Kahhrac. The paragraph 331 links to 253 instead of 99, thatbis an official admitted editor error. With that it turns possible to fight the seven khuddams, instead of six, making the book finally meaningful. I do not know if this is true but it is amazing when you pull a rabbit out of the hat like this.
|
|
|
Post by johnbrawn1972 on Nov 4, 2020 13:15:02 GMT
Does anyone know what will be released next?
Sword of the Samurai?
Crypt of the Sorcerer?
The Seven Serpents?
|
|
sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,678
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
|
Post by sylas on Nov 4, 2020 14:59:28 GMT
Yes. It is possible. There is one path that permits fighting the all Khuddams in this sequence: Gurskut, Geshrak, Churka, Fiankara, Barkek, Griffkek, and Kahhrac. The paragraph 331 links to 253 instead of 99, thatbis an official admitted editor error. With that it turns possible to fight the seven khuddams, instead of six, making the book finally meaningful. I do not know if this is true but it is amazing when you pull a rabbit out of the hat like this. Vags might be re-writing the books again to his own benefit. And I though re-writing the books was my job.
|
|