In last year's Kickstarter for The Walls of Sypte, the apocalyptic finale to the Blood Sword gamebook series, the top reward was for a personalized piece of artwork by Russ Nicholson. The price tag was €600 -- which might sound steep but, trust me, it's a bargain for a Nicholson one-off. Teófilo Hurtado obviously thought so too, because he snapped it up almost as soon as the Kickstarter was launched. The original artwork now presumably hangs in his home, but Russ has kindly given permission for me to show it here. (The Magus in the middle has Teófilo's own face, which must make for a spooky sensation when he's eating his cornflakes.)
Over to Yeats for some lines that didn't in fact inspire me when I created the Magi of Krarth, but easily could have done:
Now as at all times I can see in the mind's eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depths of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of silver hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary's turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.
Speaking of all things Bloodsword, are there kindle or other e-reader app versions? I have the books somewhere in storage but would prefer e book versions if I can get them as it’s less time consuming and painful than digging thru boxes...
ReplyDeleteThere ought to be Kindle versions, Nigel, but I balked at the tactical grids. There are plans in principle for Prime Games to develop Blood Sword as a CRPG after they release their version of Fabled Lands, but ebooks will probably have to wait until I've converted the series to simpler rules that do away with the need for tactical maps.
DeleteSounds good! I read one of the FF app books recently and it was quite fun to play through. Lone Wolf has something similar too, which wasn’t quite as slick but still fun.
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