A quick plug today for Andrew Wright's interesting critique of my gamebook Heart of Ice, which has been running in four parts this week on his Fantasy Game Book blog. If Andrew's analysis makes you want to try the adventure for yourself, you can pick it up from the sidebar at the right, or go get it here. It's diceless and fully hyperlinked, so you don't need a pencil; you don't even need to turn the pages. Oh, and did I mention that it's free?
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Saturday 8 January 2011
Once upon a time in the Sahara
A quick plug today for Andrew Wright's interesting critique of my gamebook Heart of Ice, which has been running in four parts this week on his Fantasy Game Book blog. If Andrew's analysis makes you want to try the adventure for yourself, you can pick it up from the sidebar at the right, or go get it here. It's diceless and fully hyperlinked, so you don't need a pencil; you don't even need to turn the pages. Oh, and did I mention that it's free?
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Now that's generosity! Not just to make a great work available for free, but to point us in the right direction. Thank you very much!
ReplyDeleteWe can say that Dave himself hasn't a "Heart of Ice" !
ReplyDeleteA magnificent gamebook and one that I continue to pick up and play from time to time. In fact, the whole Virtual Reality gamebook series were a revelation when they were released around 1993-95...I was at university at the time and gamebooks were becoming sadly moribund. And then Dave Morris and friends came back to revivify the genre; between Blood Sword, Fabled Lands Virtual Reality I think we're looking at the finest gamebooks ever created.
ReplyDeleteIt's an amazing book - blew me away when I first read it as I was by the pool in tropical Bangkok physically, but mentally off in some frozen wasteland. :-)
ReplyDeleteLove the post title BTW! I think the Sergio Leone reference was the only part of the interview I couldn't fit in the four parts of the review.
cheers
Andy
Thanks, guys! And Andy, special thanks for your great review - and well spotted with the Leone reference :)
ReplyDeleteIf only we could have a gamebook using the Virtual Reality game system set in the land of Legend with the same atmospheric writing as the never-to-be-matched "Blood Sword" series...now that would be a perfect alignment of all the celestial bodies in the fantasy gaming cosmos!
ReplyDeleteOne thing I would change if we ever reprint the Blood Sword books would be to ditch the baroque tactical game system in favor of something clean n simple like VR. Having said that, if Blood Sword ever does return, I think it's far more likely to be in the form of an iOS game (or other phone/tablet/operating system) than as printed books.
ReplyDeleteThat's heartening to hear. Blood Sword had everything; an epic quest with an over-arching storyline, a deep and immaculately crafted world, masterful exposition of that plot and details of that world (history, legends, religion all fed to the reader in a manner that immersed one in the experience and yet internally consistent with the lives and experiences of the player characters up to that point) and the highest standard of writing (dramatic, dialogue and description) of any gamebook I had read or have read since. Plus it was refreshing to fight unambiguously on behalf of the True Faith and experience the end-of-days without being forced down some arbitrary and post-modern agnostic path!
ReplyDeleteApologies for veering off topic but which RPG system would Mr. Morris recommend as the one mostly closely able to convey the 'feel' of adventuring in Legend purely in gaming terms? GURPS, RQ or other? I believe that the recent A Song of Fire and Ice RPG borrows a lot from GURPS, I'm not sure if you are familiar with it?
We've used our own rules (or house versions of commercial systems) for years so I'm not much familiar with modern RPGs. We used 7-stat GURPS but it's not ideal, and I have a feeling that RuneQuest might come closest to the feel of Legend. That's RQ combat, stealth, etc - not magic. In fact I don't usually allow PCs to be spellcasters, though if I did they wouldn't look anything like the mystics, warlocks, etc of Dragon Warriors.
ReplyDeleteThanks for those words of praise for Blood Sword! In Legend the True Faith really is true - which avoids that whole question of vampires recoiling from different symbols of faith. It's the cross, that's the one true holy symbol. Nice n simple :)
Have you had any further thoughts of compiling an open-system RPG sourcebook of "Legend"? I can only imagine the sheer volume of source material that you and your compatriots have created over the years and it would be a joy to have a weighty tome consisting of the lands of legends of, um, Legend.
ReplyDeleteHow much of the folklore of Legend has arisen from your gaming sessions? I'm aware that Tobias de Vantery started out as a PC; was Sa'aknathur a player character, for example, or did you create such characters and the lore surrounding them at the world generation stage (pre-generated background) rather than fashioning them through play and then deciding to build them into the world for the rest of us to see?
The mind boggles at the thought of player-characters with the power of somebody like Sa'aknathur! Nope, he was strictly an NPC dreamed up in the world-building phase.
ReplyDeleteI would love to do an open-system Legend book, but while the DW license is operative I think it would be unfair to the new company handling that. Also, it may be that Dragon Warriors has more fans than "real" Legend - much as that baffles me...
Dragon Warriors more popular than the rich and vibrant world of Legend?? Surely not, egads! Actually I have a great fondness for DW and ran several entertaining campaigns in my youth using what is still an excellent and streamlined system for heroic adventuring...but I think it is the setting of Legend (ably assisted by some truly atmospheric artwork by Leo Hartas and Russ Nicholson) that really raised DW into a realm of it's own.
ReplyDeleteAs fond as I am of DW I think it's Legend that is the real star...properly marketed to the RPG community I'm confident that "Legend" can be a great success...but please can we recruit Leo and Russ to contribute the artwork? To me the setting, the quality of writing of the original DW team (and again this is something which cannot be taken for granted) and the original artwork (courtesy of Messrs Hartas and Nicolson) all perfectly compliment each other to make a harmonious whole.
I was re-reading Blood Sword 3 last night (the Demon's Claw) and was wondering whether the trenchant dialogue of the redoubtable Tobias De Vantery would be allowed to pass into print in this day-and-age as opposed to the mid-80s. This is no-holds-barred and totally authentic dialogue by the protagonists which really contributes to the sense of a living medieval world. The value of 'real' personalities in roleplaying, true to the internal values of the milieu, really cannot be overstated!
As an aside, the Dying Earth RPG which was released a few years ago gave scope to play characters of the Sa'aknarthur epic level of power. Basically the game has three types of campaign power levels and players generate their characters accordingly: Cugel-level (low powered rascals and mountebanks), a heroic mid powered Turjan-level and finally Rhialto-level in which players can play the role of legendary/myth level archmages and the like. I would envisage Sa'aknathur as that kind of character; in essence, characters from superior myth levels generally cannot be harmed by those of an inferior level (due to the game mechanics) so a Cugel-level PC has to use his wits and wiles to avoid danger rather than relying on brute strength or magical power. A potentially interesting system to handle myth levels which I think you have discussed in earlier topics.
ReplyDeleteThe Dying Earth RPG would be perfect for running characters of that kind of myth level, and actually it could work as long as you have adversaries (preferably other PCs) of like power - rather like Rhialto and his contemporaries, in fact. (Though even they were not on a par with the likes of legendary mages such as Phandaal.)
ReplyDeleteIf the Dragon Warriors license had not found a new taker so quickly (and such an impressive and experienced team, to boot) then I was toying with the idea of doing a new rules-light book called Jewelspider that would have served as a sourcebook of Legend as it is in our own campaign. But I do get the feeling that wouldn't have been entirely to the tastes of many DW fans - though, as James Wallis has said on several occasions, there really aren't many of the old-skool DW players, so perhaps a more modern approach emphasizing Legend would meet with more commercial success. One day, maybe...
Tobias was quite the fanatic. Really, publishers should be able to grasp that beliefs held by a character do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the author, but nowadays they can kick up an awful fuss. When Mark Smith wrote Coils of Hate, the third VR book, one editor got in a tizzy saying the book was anti-semitic. Seeing as Mark's family are Jewish, fled Germany in the 1930s, and he quite obviously wrote the book specifically as an examination of racial intolerance, that editor's attitude struck me as particularly dense.
Heart of Ice is one of the best gamebooks I've read, certainly ranking really high. And it's not like I haven't read enough gamebooks, the number being in the triple-digits! Yet I agree with the review - an wonderful setting, great exposition, wonderful plot. And the fact that I still don't know whether there is a "right" choice in the end only helps this feeling. In fact, I'm not sure there is even a "wrong" end, other than dying, and I can even think of an end where dying might be better.
ReplyDeleteI really dig the "eternal watchman" ending though. You can probably say I replayed it quite a few times.
I'd like to have that setting for, well, a setting - even if it's systemless. I can always run it with, well, something.
Maybe a light system might work here?
Back to gamebooks, most of the books that can compete with Heart of Ice for the first place are from series that might seem familiar to you - Fabled lands, Bloodsword, Virtual Reality and Way of the Tiger. The rest wouldn't be as familiar, but still, it's an impressively short list, given the total amount of books I've read. And Heart of Ice is probably somewhere in the Top 10. The number 1 is something even I can't determine, though. I like many books for many reasons.
Again, thank you very much for sharing it with us, mr. Morris!
Also, the editor of "Coils of Hate" really should have known better. A book where you play a fantasy Jew who can defeat the monster of Hate to save his people and gets the crown in the end is anti-semitic? What would be pro-semitic enough for this guy?
As an aside, you mentioned that you usually ban spellcasters from your games. There is right now a thread on RPG.net discussing the "reasons to hate martial characters". After reading it, I think I'm going to follow your example and ban spellcasting PCs from my future games, too. (You can say that the thread's author really failed to convince me). Can I quote you as an example when announcing this to my group?
Yes, the question is mostly serious. I don't need this to impose a decision when I run a game, but they'd like to hear a message from you.
You're very welcome to quote me - though mine is, of course, another opinion like any other. Mainly I exclude PC spellcasters because magic needs to be mysterious (in Legend, at any rate) and lists of spells work against that. So if you do allow a player to be a sorcerer, you have to give him a lot of latitude to come up with interesting ways to work magic. But that makes him view his character authorially - in effect, he just becomes your co-umpire/GM. And I dislike any attempt to view the characters authorially as it breaks immersion and makes the role-playing stilted.
ReplyDeleteThere are ways around it. In John Whitbourn's Continuum RPG (based on his novels such as A Dangerous Energy) PCs could summon up magical powers; they just couldn't control them. I remember the first time I called on the Wild Hunt. I was being pursued cross-country by foes and fondly imagined I could sic Herne and his horde on them. Instead, I heard the thudding of hooves, the blaring of horns, I was seized by the scruff of my neck and carried pellmell over miles of fields at terrifying speed, finally to be dumped in a ditch as slavering red-eyed hounds barked around me. The Wild Hunt departed, leaving me bruised and muddy, but far from my enemies. That was real magic - it raises hairs on my neck just remembering it now!
You have more experience, putting it mildly, and your books contributed to us playing RPGs nowadays. I think that's reason enough.
ReplyDeleteThe good part about viewing the character authorially is, my players refuse doing this. I wanted to try a system where it's almost required, and they were clearly bored.
What I dislike about magic is that it often becomes the go-to solution for every problem. Unless we are playing Ars Magica, I don't want that, and we don't simply don't play Ars Magica. I want them thinking, weighing their options carefully or risking recklessly - not simply looking for the right spell for the situations.
So far, I've used "magic is dangerous" and
"magic has a price", to make it more mysterious, or at least scarier and only used as a last resort. Of course, it helps if the mechanics reinforce that, but I usually use systems that help in this.
No magicians in the group should help hammer the message "magic is mysterious" in another way, though. Sure, I've run games with no magic, but these were modern or purely historical ones. Now is time to see how magic would influence the characters that don't have access to it!
I should check the Continuum RPG when I get a chance, if it helps provoking such strong reactions. But for now, I'm just taking a rest from having spellcasters in the group, no matter how much magic exists in the setting. This might change in the future, or we might stick to this way if we discover we like it better!
AsenRG: What I like about this book is that there's no right ending, you pick the one that you prefer (if you can). It's interesting you prefer the 'eternal watchman' role! I tend to prefer the 'rejection' role, but I think it's the trickiest ending to get to.
ReplyDeletecheers
Andy
Actually, I don't prefer any given ending, my point is that they are all "cool", and any can be considered the right one.
ReplyDeleteI just mentioned one that's not easy to get, and is really well-written. The one where the character goes off to change the wrold is not better or worse, it's just different. Actually, even losing in the final battle sagainst the warlord is a win, if there are only the two of you. I think if anyone deserved the Hearth, it was him, so in a way, this is a fight you cannot lose. Well, I still prefer some other endings, with the character surviving, but even this one is interesting.
As I said, the multiple "correct" endings are a strength of this book to me, not a weakness. I prefer non-linear stories. I guess Fabled lands and RPGs in general were just a natural fit.
Of all my books, Heart of Ice is the one I think would make the best movie. In a way it was envisaged as a movie even before it was a book. I remembering walking back after our first role-playing game of the Heart scenario in December 1976. Nick Henfrey, one of the players, and I were talking about how the Heart movie would play out. But now I realize the problem: in a movie version there would have to be just one ending, and as you guys have pointed out there is no "right" ending. So it's better that I did it as a gamebook, I guess.
ReplyDeleteMy movie take would be to have 2 characters in addition to all the NPCs - perhaps a jaded bounty hunter like Angela Bassett in Strange Days or Naomi Harris from 28 Days Later, who rejects the chance for power (after blasting away Chaim, Kyle, and Vajra), and a roguish dude who becomes part-cyborg on al-Lat, and ends up, after an argument with the bounty hunter, stasis bombed as an eternal guardian armed with a mantramuktas cannon. That way you get two different endings...
ReplyDeleteThere's certainly no shortage of good scenes and set pieces!
cheers
Andy
"There's certainly no shortage of good scenes and set pieces!"
ReplyDeleteDefinitely - although there still would be disappointed fans, even with the twin ending.
Fans are always disappointed by the movie version, that's true!
ReplyDeleteDo we have any details yet about the new DW license holders and when new material will be available for release? I am confident that I am not the only person waiting with eager anticipation for new DW material (although I did feel that "Friends and Foes" was a weak release, in my opinion, with characters not as finely drawn or as imaginative as one has come to expect from the original DW series/Blood Sword/Golden Dragon). Do we have any idea of what releases to expect from the new team? I do hope that we do NOT see a Priest character class as it would be a shame to see the clergy of the True Faith simply 'converted' into an old school D&D cleric and faith turned into no more than a few game mechanics and 'spell' effects. For me, religious faith should be handled in the same way as sorcery; it ought to be mysterious and unfettered by game mechanics and let the referee be the arbiter.
ReplyDeletePlayed through several times, and I've come to enjoy the book. It's a deep book and really encourages you to think through your problems instead of just beating them down, and when you get to Du-En, you realize that you're one of the weakest dudes there. The only encounter I think was badly written was the Beam Phantom, and that's just because it punishes you hard for not taking the Gilgamesh route. I'd make it less fatal on a remake; compare just how many ways there are to pass the Heart chamber.
ReplyDeleteNP, I haven't heard anything about the new DW releases but as soon as I do I'll get a post together. Not really sure how a Priest profession would work myself, as a priest or monk could be a knight or mystic or (as Tobias was) a warlock. But if the new team do it... wll, I know these people and they are creative and talented guys. They will surprise us with whatever they do, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteRamidel - good point. I haven't played through the book recently but I suspect you're right, as I remember getting squeezed for space towards the end of HOI - I really needed another 100 paragraphs. If I rework it as an e-gamebook I'll take another look at that encounter.
I received the Heart of Ice book reprint last Christmas, and it has easily become my favorite gamebook since! While the story itself is nothing special in my opinion (fetch quest in post-apocalyptic world), the simple game rules, the importance of most choices, the mature setting, the way the various events are presented and unfolded, the deep NPC character development and the ambigious-yet-resolved endings truly makes this adventure apart from the rest, even in video games. (The closest I can think of is Mass Effect, but Heart of Ice has a better design in my opinion.)
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if there were going to be more rereleases of the Virtual Reality Adventure series in the future after all (book or ebook). I had the French translations when I was younger, but I was foolish enough to sell them because I wanted to read them in the full glory of its original language. Little did I know that the books were out of print and impossible to find anywhere in good condition. It's a shame because I really enjoyed Necklace of Skulls and Down Among the Dead Men. As for Twist of Fate, it was never released in French back in the day, so I miss it even more...