What have I been missing? FF books unpublished in Portugal

[crookeddice]

Hi there. First time poster, long time guest. 

I'm Portuguese and I have been a fan of the Fighting Fantasy series since I was a kid. Unfortunately, as some of you may know, only 40 of the 59 titles of the original Puffin run were ever translated and published in Portugal. 

What follows is the full list of unpublished titles in Portugal:

- 16 - Seas of Blood
- 28 - Phanthoms of Fear
- 29 - Midnight Rogue
- 35 - Daggers of Darkness
- 37 - Portal of Evil
- 39 - Fangs of Fury
- 40 - Dead of Night
- 42 - Black Vein Prophecy
- 43 - The Keep of the Lich Lord
- 45 - Spectral Stalkers
- 48 - Moonrunner
- 49 - Siege of Sardath
- 51 - Island of the Undead
- 52 - Night Dragon
- 53 - Spellbreaker
- 54 - Legend of Zagor
- 56 - Knights of Doom
- 57 - Magehunter
- 58 - Revenge of the Vampire

I would like to slowly complete my collection, though I know I will have to sell an arm and a leg to buy some of the rarer ones. Still, I would love to hear your thoughts on which of these gamebooks I should try to get first. What gems have I been missing?

Thanks in advance.

P.S - I am not sure the thread sits best here or in the "Translation" board, so apologies to the mods if this is the wrong place for this discussion.

[kieran]

If the recent polls have taught us anything, it's that there's a lot of disagreement over which books are gems and which are less so (apart from the fact everyone loves Moonrunner). Here's my views, but with all of these, your mileage may vary. Books marked with an asterisk are ones I'd particularly recommend.

- 16 - Seas of Blood - Terse writing and very unforgiving. Plenty of paths to explore.
- 28 - Phantoms of Fear - Very evocative with very creepy illustrations. Has quite a few design flaws but nothing too serious.*
- 29 - Midnight Rogue - Fun opening where you burgle your way through Port Blacksand but eventually turns into a generic dungeon crawl
- 35 - Daggers of Darkness - Very replayable with tons of viable paths to explore, mazes to attempt and powers to experiment with. Abrupt transitions and a pace that's a bit too hectic let it down. One of the most fun books but not one of the best reads*
- 37 - Portal of Evil - Brilliantly written with lots of interesting things to uncover and some great scenes.*
- 39 - Fangs of Fury - Like Daggers of Darkness but less engaging
- 40 - Dead of Night - Plenty of paths to explore and some good use of horror tropes.
- 42 - Black Vein Prophecy - Extremely imaginative, even quite poetic in places. Some find it thought-provoking, others pretentious. Overly difficult.
- 43 - The Keep of the Lich Lord - Fun adventure with lots of sub quests to do. Probably too easy with some badly designed extra rules.
- 45 - Spectral Stalkers - One of a kind book where you hop between weird and wonderful dimensions. A few minor design flaws.*
- 48 - Moonrunner - Lots of memorable encounters, deviously designed, yet utterly fair in its way. Plenty of paths to explore too so very replayable.*
- 49 - Siege of Sardath - Extremely tough in terms of finding the solution, but very rewarding when you do. Designed like an intricate puzzle with top-notch writing to boot.*
- 51 - Island of the Undead - Very long, though the interesting mystery and atmospheric locations just about keep tedium at bay.
- 52 - Night Dragon - Like Island of the Undead only without the mystery or atmosphere. Does have a good sense of the epic at least.
- 53 - Spellbreaker - Great writing and encounters but ridiculously hard to the point of borderline impossibility.
- 54 - Legend of Zagor - Explore every nook and cranny of a large castle, fighting enemies with high Stamina scores and annoying special abilities. Lets you choose between four different characters, but three are too similar and the fourth is just rubbish.
- 56 - Knights of Doom - Great writing, but goes on a bit. Almost as ridiculously hard as Spellbreaker.
- 57 - Magehunter - Extremely creative with lots to see and do, even if the solution is a bit too narrow.*
- 58 - Revenge of the Vampire - Some creepy locations and a strong villain stop the tedium setting in in another long book. Has a LOT of errors.

[Wilf]

Get ready for a lot of often contradictory opinions...

Seas Of Blood is morally dubious (you play a slave-trading pirate) and bloody difficult, but a lot of fun with many different places to go on each successive attempt. Very replayable, especially if your dice are loaded or left behind.

Phantoms Of Fear is blessed with Ian Miller's superlative artwork. It's a well-written book, but a tough one, even with two paths to victory, and you'll find yourself confused quite often as you flip between reality and the dream-world in the final phase.

Midnight Rogue is morally dubious (you play a thief) and really one for die-hard Port Blacksand fans only. Nice as it is to see the city of thieves again, this book is badly-written fanwank with appalling gameplay. Personally, I wouldn't be in a hurry to get this.

Daggers Of Darkness has some interesting ideas and scenarios, but it's very random - lots of left-or-right choices - and characters come and go after barely two or three references, meaning no-one sticks around long enough to make an impression. That said, if you don't get arbitrarily killed along the way, it's not a difficult one to win, and all the paths (and there are many - you can play this half a dozen times in succession and still not have the same adventures twice) eventually lead to your goal.

Portal Of Evil is extremely well written, and a minor classic - especially if you like dinosaurs. It's one of the wordier books in the range, and there's lots of substantial encounters that are easy to miss if you go the wrong way.

Fangs Of Fury is a dull uninteresting trudge.

Dead Of Night is wonderfully atmospheric - there's a real horror movie feel to it (this is true of Shadow Warriors and Moonrunner, too). It adheres rigidly to a map, so you rarely get lost on the way, and there's lots of gruesome encounters to be had. Beautifully written and illustrated - recommended.

Black Vein Prophecy is a sort-of prequel to The Crimson Tide - if you like that book, this one's a must-have. You start by knowing literally nothing (not even your own stats), and it's a very strange adventure that follows, but if you can survive long enough (and good luck with that - but not good Luck...) it all makes sense in the end. In fact, it opens out into a very fine piece of worldbuilding - clearly a lot of thought has gone into this book's setting and key characters. It's flawed in parts, and the ending is a bit strange, but it's still a very enjoyable book. 400 is not the victory paragraph.

The Keep Of The Lich Lord is a pointless waste of paper.

Spectral Stalkers is a whole series of mini-adventures in one, each set on very different worlds. It's not perfect, but it holds together OK, and it's a great one if you like variety in your stories.

Moonrunner is a minor classic - the pace rarely lets up, the characters (even the minor ones) are beautifully written and thought out, and the setting is very atmospheric. The only niggles I have are that your choice of special skills may doom you in the final stages, and the artwork is very rushed in places. But there are so many wonderful set pieces in here, it's an absolute must-have. 400 is not the victory paragraph.

Siege Of Sardath is my favourite FF. It's perfect. It's (very nearly almost) bug-free, it's extremely bloody difficult, but it's also winnable on minimum stats. Basically, get this one the first chance you get. It'll keep you busy for days, mind!

Island Of The Undead is very lengthy and although it comes across as a hub-style book, the various locations really need to be visited in a certain order. It's a latter-day Keith Martin book, so expect gameplay errors, but it's actually one of his better ones. Russ Nicholson's art does a lot to lift it.

Night Dragon is another Keith Martin epic, although this time you've got a lot more freedom of movement. There's lots of items which boost your stats, and you'll need every single one of them if you didn't roll sixes when you generated your character. Again, there are gameplay errors all over the place, and it reads like an RPG campaign, but it's a damn good one - probably Martin's best book (though that's damning it with faint praise).

Spellbreaker is way too tough on the dice rolls, which is a pity because in all other respects it's perfect. It's superbly written, with much incident and lots of essential items/knowledge that's well-hidden throughout the very lengthy adventure. Get this, but make sure your dice are crooked...  oh wait,they are.  You'll love this, then!
 
Legend Of Zagor... might work as a boardgame, but it sucks as a book. If you have to play it, don't be the wizard - the penalty for using magic is a low Skill, but casting spells successfully requires a Skill test... Ill-conceived, dreadfully written, and the epitome of a bad hub-style adventure. No wonder the author let Livingstone take the credit for it!

Knights Of Doom is way too tough on the dice rolls, and has an unfair Skill Test in one section, but otherwise... basically, see Spellbreaker. If you play it without the dice, and know when to fail, it's an absolute classic.

Magehunter is a very odd experiment indeed, from its premise (that you're unfamiliar with Titan) to its central conceit (don't worry about rolling ones for your stats) to its very off the wall path to victory. There's a lot of people who don't rate Magehunter, it seems, and the word to describe these people is "wrong". It's a brave and imaginative take on the FF world, and if you can forget everything you know from the other books and pretend it's your first FF, it succeeds beautifully. My one niggle is that there should be additional opportunities to learn how to... do The Thing. Sorry, can't be more specific than that!

Revenge Of The Vampire is way better than its overrated predecessor, but it's also probably the most error-riddled book in the range. A pity, because it has bags of atmosphere, reads more like a book than Keith Martin's earlier works, and is stunningly illustrated by Martin McKenna. Recommended, if you can overlook the mistakes... and if you can actually find it!

But that's just what I think, and I'm the guy who likes Gates Of Death, so what do I know?

[bloodbeasthandler]

Kieran and Wilf have given good advice.

Crookeddice, let us know which of the 40 books you enjoyed the most and we could guide you further, if you wish.

[crookeddice]

Thanks for the replies! I will eventually try to get them all so I really appreciate your comments. I am not sure I have a favourite type of FF. I love Ian and Steve's classics (Deathtrap, City of Thieves, House of Hell, Citadel) but I also enjoy books by other authors, such as Paul Mason and Keith Martin.

I am curious about Black Vein Prophecy since I love Crimson Tide and Wilf mentioned a connection between the two books. Maybe I should start here.

On a completely different note, Phantoms of Fear has sparked my curiosity, so I may try to get that one too. And I have heard nothing but praise for Sardath, so that one is also probably a must-buy.

Finally, for some strange reason, Tower of Destruction holds a special place in my heart. Something about the book's atmosphere, I guess. Maybe I should try other Keith Martin books? I am torn between Undead and Dragon, so if anyone else has any comments on those two books I would love to read them.

[Wilf]

If you like Tower Of Destruction, then Island Of The Undead and Night Dragon should both rise up the list, as they have similar structures and the same epic feel to them.

Whilst I'm not a fan of it at all, Midnight Rogue is probably the closest you'll get to an Ian Livingstone style book from that list.

[The Count]

I'd recommend my top 3:

Phantoms of Fear - amazingly atmospheric, paragraph 1 is an epic FOUR pages of the most wonderful prose, really pulling you into the story, and it has multiple paths with two main ways of winning - great to replay as you can always uncover something new.

Black Vein Prophecy - a tricky one to grasp as you need to get near the end to understand what is going on the first time you read it. It is very surreal at times, sometimes outright bizarre, yet incredibly rewarding to piece together. What makes this book particularly difficult is a cheat proofing mechanism very early on that will result in you doing everything right yet losing if you ignore the dice. So play it with honesty and don't expect to be as lucky as you would be in other books...

Siege of Sardath is an exquisite game book. It has a very tight true path, similar to a Livingstone effort but without the deranged shopping list. Despite this, you can still explore the beautifully written locations to an extent, and you don't have to solve the most difficult puzzle to win (I prefer to avoid it completely). There is even a delightfully twisted moment of black comedy if you buy a certain potion... As a gamebook, it is an absolute masterpiece!

As an aside, Revenge was apparently published in Portuguese, in Brasil I believe, but in very limited numbers.

[elnombre]

Aug 13, 2020 16:31:42 GMT crookeddice said:

Finally, for some strange reason, Tower of Destruction holds a special place in my heart. Something about the book's atmosphere, I guess.

YES. And if you like Pete Knifton's artwork then Sardath is the only other fighting fantasy he illustrated.

Also, if you can find pdf's of the books then you can read into them a bit and see if they interest you in the early stages or not, and then decide if it's worth the price to get a physical copy from somewhere like ebay, for example.

[vagsancho]

Aug 13, 2020 16:31:42 GMT crookeddice said:

Finally, for some strange reason, Tower of Destruction holds a special place in my heart. Something about the book's atmosphere, I guess.

Tower of Destruction has one of the best and more aphoteotic endings/final part of all FF Books.

[tyrion]

Aug 14, 2020 16:48:58 GMT elnombre said:

Aug 13, 2020 16:31:42 GMT crookeddice said:

Finally, for some strange reason, Tower of Destruction holds a special place in my heart. Something about the book's atmosphere, I guess.

YES. And if you like Pete Knifton's artwork then Sardath is the only other fighting fantasy he illustrated.

Also, if you can find pdf's of the books then you can read into them a bit and see if they interest you in the early stages or not, and then decide if it's worth the price to get a physical copy from somewhere like ebay, for example.

Wait, what? There's pdfs of the books?

[elnombre]

Yes, but not official ones, and it's no fun traversing a pdf for very long.

[tyrion]

Aug 15, 2020 9:23:18 GMT elnombre said:

Yes, but not official ones, and it's no fun traversing a pdf for very long.

Oh, ok, thought I was missing out on something! I'm assuming somebody has just scanned their books in then.

On topic, I will second the votes for night dragon and island of the undead if you are a fan of Keith Martin. Fairly expensive to get hold of though. Legend of zagor is a bit of a slog but will be cheap enough as it was republished by wizard books.

Phantoms of fear is another hidden gem, and second hand prices aren't prohibitive.

Magehunter costs a fortune so it's really only for those who want a full collection.