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Post by sleepyscholar on Nov 6, 2021 0:00:54 GMT
Interview with him in the forthcoming issue. I hope D. Morris writes more FF, he is a talented writer, and if anything his preference for his own gamebook style over the Titan universe enhances the quality of his work. As Tyrion mentions, he's been slaving away producing doorstopper VulcanVerse books for the last year. I would estimate the chances of him ever writing an FF book again as 0. What would be the incentive? When he did Keep of the Lich Lord he retained copyright. Now all FF writing is work-for-hire he wouldn't even keep that. He would just get a small royalty, and the knowledge that his effort is also rewarding Ian Livingstone. Looking forward to the interview, by the way.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,458
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Nov 6, 2021 9:12:08 GMT
Now all FF writing is work-for-hire Didn't realise that but just checked the copyright for Gates of Death and Crystal of Storms and you're absolutely right - Steve and Ian own the text and illustrations. And if relatively famous writers like Higson and Pratchett have to accept that, I doubt anyone else could push against it.
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Post by The Count on Nov 8, 2021 15:55:24 GMT
I suppose you could just pull out of the overall book ranking list but iirc even there the best of SJ IL imo are artificially low. IL wrote some rubbish and wasn’t very original but DD to me is the absolute definition of what FF was all about. And SJ was pushing the envelope in styles and settings but Sorcery as a whole is mind blowing so it’s nonsense imo to see the books ranked both individually and so low. Nobody else has come close to the sorcery series. Yet others think Sorcery! is just nonsense. If you take Sorcery! and the other FF books that aren't really FF, I suspect that Steve would overall be ranked lower...
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Post by CharlesX on Nov 8, 2021 16:03:09 GMT
Of course this ranks the FF gamebooks, not FF material in general.
I think Titan is very good, Out Of The Pit is good, interesting as well as good RPG material, and Trolltooth Wars is heavily mediocre.
I haven't read The Zagor Chronicles but I've heard they're not worth the candle.
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Post by The Count on Nov 11, 2021 20:42:55 GMT
Is there going to be a new ranking thread this year?
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Post by CharlesX on Nov 11, 2021 21:13:31 GMT
Is there going to be a new ranking thread this year? Good question, someone would have to 'do a Wilf' and take it upon themselves to ambitiously, arbitrarily and suddenly organise a ranking thread. I imagine that wouldn't happen unless there were at least two new FF gamebooks (or something like them) published, as well, although that is pure guesswork - the last few years have been unusual in that there has been a lot of new FF published * cough * some shovelware * cough *.
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Post by sraut on Dec 23, 2021 18:00:29 GMT
Y'know, I come back to this forum all the time to check out what to reread, and it's my first time commenting here. I'd just like to praise you guys a lot; I've been reading everything here for years, and it's great fun. Thanks.
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Post by Wilf on Dec 23, 2021 19:18:17 GMT
Is there going to be a new ranking thread this year? Not from me. Too soon, and no new books published in the interim. Never intended it to be more than a one-off, but if someone else decides there's enough reason or demand to do another one, I'll happily take part.
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Post by petch on Dec 27, 2021 11:39:48 GMT
Is there going to be a new ranking thread this year? Not from me. Too soon, and no new books published in the interim. Never intended it to be more than a one-off, but if someone else decides there's enough reason or demand to do another one, I'll happily take part. A while ago, I did have the same idea as the one drmanhattan proposed earlier this year, to do a series of polls establishing the forum's favourite book of each author (culminating in an overall winner voted for from the winners of each sub-poll). I didn't go ahead with it, because 1) I wasn't sure if it had been done before, and 2) I didn't know if there would be any appetite for it given how recently this rankings thread was done. However, if the appetite is there, I'd be more than happy to go ahead and do this. It might be interesting to see if we get a different winner based on the different voting methodology and the slightly different active posters we have now, and how the results compare to where the best of each author ended up in this ranking thread. Certain aspects of running this would be a little problematic (the amount of options in each poll would be very lopsided depending on how prolific the author was, and I'd have to find a way around how to handle co-authored books), but I'm sure there would be solutions for these. If there is sufficient demand, I'd be only too happy to kick this off in a couple of days - if it is too soon, or just not a popular idea, please let me know though, and I won't go cluttering up the forum with my nonsense!
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Post by CharlesX on Dec 27, 2021 11:51:35 GMT
I say yes!
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Post by petch on Dec 28, 2021 19:16:08 GMT
Thanks Charles. I'm going to interpret the lack of objections from anyone else as a tentative yes and give this a go, then. Apologies in advance if it ends up being a bit rubbish.
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Post by CharlesX on Feb 8, 2022 20:12:46 GMT
Interesting The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain is in the bottom half of FF gamebooks. I imagine it's mainly the maze, as well as the fact both the series and the authors were heavily new. Strangely enough, their solo efforts were generally more successful (aside from Livingstone's recent ones). I've heard really good things about the PC Steam Tabletop-style TWOFM App, in which the board encounters are randomised, as well as bigger, you play different characters, you can achieve different endings, combat is more sophisticated, and probably more.
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Post by paperexplorer on Jul 30, 2022 0:06:20 GMT
This was a really interesting read. I did not expect to see Slaves of the Abyss win here. A book I generally hated until I completed, and then completely flipped my opinion on and loved it. I love the Stephen Hand books, glad to see them rank so highly. Again I see the real mixed views on IL coming through. At least Deathtrap Dungeon ranked high. And more evidence I should not bother with the new scholastic titles.
So what happens once the new two books are released? A complete do over?
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Post by sleepyscholar on Jul 31, 2022 8:14:20 GMT
This was a really interesting read. I did not expect to see Slaves of the Abyss win here. A book I generally hated until I completed, and then completely flipped my opinion on and loved it. I love the Stephen Hand books, glad to see them rank so highly. Again I see the real mixed views on IL coming through. At least Deathtrap Dungeon ranked high. And more evidence I should not bother with the new scholastic titles. So what happens once the new two books are released? A complete do over? Well Slaves of the Abyss has already been toppled from its position, and in subsequent polls has sunk down a little closer to its traditional 'sucks seawater' rating. I doubt it will be possible to form a reasonable opinion of the two new books for about 10 years, as the reaction to them will be so extreme (on the one hand the bias factor of 'New FF! At last! Great!' and on the other hand the bias factor of 'Oh god, more sloppy IL stuff, and hasn't Steve lost it?').
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Post by CharlesX on Jul 31, 2022 9:38:47 GMT
This was a really interesting read. I did not expect to see Slaves of the Abyss win here. A book I generally hated until I completed, and then completely flipped my opinion on and loved it. I love the Stephen Hand books, glad to see them rank so highly. Again I see the real mixed views on IL coming through. At least Deathtrap Dungeon ranked high. And more evidence I should not bother with the new scholastic titles. So what happens once the new two books are released? A complete do over? Well Slaves of the Abyss has already been toppled from its position, and in subsequent polls has sunk down a little closer to its traditional 'sucks seawater' rating. Why would people reckon Slaves Of The Abyss 'sucks seawater' - the difficulty level in particular is great, as are most things about it. It's a traditional Fantasy, but a well done one, more like Phantoms Of Fear than Deathmoor. Longer epics like Island Of The Undead have some following but there's something to be said for Slaves Of The Abyss.
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,678
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Jul 31, 2022 9:41:55 GMT
Which polls are we talking about where Slaves of the Abyss has not done well?
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Post by sleepyscholar on Jul 31, 2022 9:48:31 GMT
Which polls are we talking about where Slaves of the Abyss has not done well? I was exaggerating. There was that subsequent poll using a different methodology, which it didn't win. That's all I was referring to. To be honest, I can't remember more details. 'Sucks seawater' is an old joke based on the Usenet gamebook newsgroup, which could at times be a little 'robust' in descriptions of my books.
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Post by Wilf on Jul 31, 2022 10:06:21 GMT
So what happens once the new two books are released? A complete do over? Are you offering?
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Post by Wilf on Jul 31, 2022 10:07:09 GMT
Which polls are we talking about where Slaves of the Abyss has not done well? Inaccurate ones.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,458
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Jul 31, 2022 13:01:47 GMT
Which polls are we talking about where Slaves of the Abyss has not done well? It came: - 23rd in the Fighting Fantazine Survey - 4th in Tyrion's contest - 1st in Wilf's poll - 6th in Petch's contest. Not a bad average!
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Aug 1, 2022 7:39:46 GMT
- 23rd in the Fighting Fantazine Survey Probably should run another of these after the 40th anniversary. It has been over ten years since the last one!
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Post by time4tea on Sept 4, 2022 2:00:54 GMT
This is a really cool poll and I agree with most of it in general. My main disagreements are:
On the low side, Warlock of Firetop Mountain is far too low for me. It would be close to my top 10 (I would easily give it an 8/10). To me, it comes across as being one of the FFs that had the most thought and care put into it, and one of the most polished. I really like the balancing and the difficulty is just right. It gives the impression that it was well playtested. I like the way it has very few instant-deaths (I believe it has the fewest of any FF) and it tries to wear the player down more gradually instead. It allows the reader to experience most of the book fairly easily, but takes a few tries to beat it (and requires some mapmaking). It has very few problems or mechanical errors. Although, obviously the plot and premise are very simple, so I can see why that might cause some people to rate it lower (for those who prioritize those).
On the high side, the one that stands out as being rated too highly for me is Sword of the Samurai. I've been playing it recently and it strikes me as quite a combat-heavy book, to the point of being a bit of a slog. There are some pretty tough combats from early on and it seems very unlikely a character with skill <10 is going to get very far. I like the samurai skills and the writing and Japenese-style setting are nice, but still too high for me.
I would probably switch those two, then bump Warlock up to somewhere around 10-12.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Sept 4, 2022 2:27:34 GMT
This is a really cool poll and I agree with most of it in general. My main disagreements are: Glad you liked it. Be sure to vote in the next one!
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Post by a moderator on Sept 4, 2022 11:38:27 GMT
Warlock of Firetop Mountain is far too low for me. [...] I like the way it has very few instant-deaths (I believe it has the fewest of any FF)
I think The Forest of Doom has fewer. Depends in part on precisely what you consider an 'instant-death', but it'd take a very convoluted definition for Forest to not at least tie with Warlock.
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Post by King Gillibran on Nov 12, 2022 8:55:25 GMT
"Masks of Mayhem" is a prodigy. I always loved this book. The atmosphere of reality is very, very high. Nice to see a first person ranks it as the favourite. I remember that when I came here and I realized that among all the members, I was the only one who had "Crypt of the Sorcerer" as my favourite book, I was stunned and amazed. I don't get what most people have against Crypt. I mean yeah it is jusst about utterly impossible but the storyline is good you have some nice friends and you get to really hate Razaak. My favourite books include Deathtrap Dungeon (the best) Shadow of the Giants, Secrets of Salamonis, Island of the lizard King, Return to Firetop Mountain, Bloodbones, Crypt of the Sorcerer, Creature of Havoc, Sorcery, Legend of Zagor, Temple of Terror, and Sword of Excelisar. This is not mentioning the countless ones I have forgotten while writing this and so many other ones (only ones I dislike are non fantasy themed ones(other than House of Hell))
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Post by King Gillibran on Nov 12, 2022 9:01:18 GMT
- 23rd in the Fighting Fantazine Survey Probably should run another of these after the 40th anniversary. It has been over ten years since the last one! I would definitely like to see another Survey I wasn't in the last Survey but I would like to be in the next one.
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