Brian Hazzard, host of the Instadeath Survivors Support Group podcast, recently devoted an episode to interviewing Jamie. You can listen to it here. The discussion includes: Fabled Lands, Falcon, Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger, Dirk Lloyd, and of course Vulcanverse.
The Dark is Rising is one (well, five) of those kids' fantasy classics that I haven't read. In my defence, the books came out when I was already in my teens, but they have been recommended by younger friends whose judgement I trust, so if you have children you might want to get hold of them.
The general tone of dark rural British folk fantasies with a psychogeographic tinge includes much of Alan Garner, John Masefield, and others. They tend to be set in the depths of winter, steeped in tales of the landscape, with lengthening shadows of mythic figures like Herne or Merlin bringing a chill of delicious danger to the sometimes stiflingly cosy world of childhood.
You feel as if all of these books should exist in 1970s BBC television adaptations, even if most of them don't. Which is why Handspan has produced this album of tracks from the non-existent adaptation of The Dark is Rising and this theme from "In From The Fields", an imaginary kids' series in the manner of Garner or Masefield.
And for grown-ups who want to revisit the comforting nightmares of younger days, there's always Becky Annison's powerful one-shot game When the Dark is Gone.
This year's Christmas scenario (which is not set in Legend; the clue is in the picture) is over on my Patreon page. But if you don't want to shell out for that and all the other stuff to be found there, you can select from the specials of previous years. Tomorrow there's a free boardgame here, and that's followed by a surprise extra on Christmas Eve. Ho ho ho.
“First it’s: get me So-&-So. Then it’s: get me somebody like So-&-So. Finally it’s: who’s So-&-So?”It even happened to Fitzgerald:
“In Pickwick Books on Hollywood Boulevard he asked for anything by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The clerk said they had none in stock. Fitzgerald asked whether there was any call for them. ‘Oh, once in a while, but not for some time now,’ he replied. He tried another store – with the same result. The proprietor of a third bookshop asked which titles he was interested in and, promising to track them down, requested a name and address. ‘I’m Mr Fitzgerald,’ he replied. The man was shocked; he had believed that F. Scott Fitzgerald must surely have died years ago along with his era.”
‘If you were wounded, untick that box on your Adventure Sheet, but add 1 to your total scars because none returns from the land of death without being marked.’
‘Add 1 to your total scars and, if you were wounded, untick that box on your Adventure Sheet.’
'Despite my title, there is one wolf I do not rule...' leading into telling you about Wolfshadow and, 'Hey, take one of these arrows of Artemis to King Midas's tomb in Hades to maybe get gold-plated so you can kill that nasty thing why don't you? Oh, and don't forget to fetch along an actual bow, either.'
The Coils of Hate was one of the two books that Mark Smith wrote for our Virtual Reality gamebook series. Even thirty years on, my feelings about it are conflicted. By the time Mark handed it in, I’d moved on to another project for another publisher. Then the editor at Mammoth Books, who published VR, called me to say the book needed some work. Actually, a lot of work. Some links were missing. Others were doubled up. Some of it wasn’t typed, just handwritten on bits of paper. You could get a découpé sense of what was meant to be going on by just reading through the manuscript, but you couldn’t actually play it.
I spent the next two weeks trying to reverse engineer the flowchart and fill in the missing sections. I had my other deadline to worry about, so you can bet I was fuming, but it wasn’t all Mark's fault. The flowchart-planning side of gamebooks had never been his forte, and during the writing of this book he had the additional problem of two young kids who had been thought to be merely boisterous but had recently been diagnosed as autistic. Given the pressures, he produced a marvellous piece of writing. The characters came alive with their own hopes, fears and weaknesses. The setting was so vividly evoked you could taste the fog rolling in at night, smell the river-water lapping against lichen-spotted stone bridges, feel the fear lurking down narrow alleyways. And the theme was serious and meaningfully explored. It would have made a superb fantasy novel.
Mark is a big fan of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover (as I did quite recently) that The Coils of Hate was inspired by Fritz Leiber Jr’s short story “The Cloud of Hate”. But although Leiber may have had the original idea, Mark did it better. Leiber’s story is really just about anger and violence. Mark drew on his own family’s horrifying experiences in the ‘30s and ‘40s to show what hate is really like once it takes hold of people’s minds.
I said that Mark struggled with flowchart design. Jamie tended to take care of that in their Way of the Tiger and Falcon books, just as I took more of the weight of game mechanics and logic off Oliver Johnson's shoulders for our collaborations. But to be fair to Mark, the structure of The Coils of Hate was especially ambitious. You can undertake multiple activities: opportunistic thievery, investigation into what’s going on, organizing the victims of the pogrom, making sure your friends are safe, and so on. And all that while events are unfolding over time. It’s even more complex than Can You Brexit.
While I was writing a new gamebook for Jamie’s Vulcanverse, I got to thinking how I’d have structured The Coils of Hate. To start with, you’d need keywords that would “remember” how far you’d got through the overall story arc. Say the action is split into four acts. So Keyword_Act_Two tells the book you’re in the second act. (It wouldn’t be called that, obviously; it would be Libation, say. Something that didn’t draw attention to the fact that it’s a time-counting logic flag.)
After completing a subquest, you’d be directed back to a “time counter” paragraph that would then route you to the current act. Something like this:
What about those subquests? The book needs to remember how far you are through them, but that might not (often will not) be linked to what’s going on in the overall arc. For example, maybe you’re calling on your friend Lucie. The first time you meet her she is blithely dismissive of danger. The second time she’s had a bad fright and wants your help. The third time there’s a chance she might betray you to the Overlord’s secret police. So that could work something like this:
And within each option there could be a filter that checks which act you’re in. For example, Lucie might conceivably betray you in the third or fourth act, but not before that. So entry 180 in the example here would then ask, “Do you have the keyword Proteus or Kindly?” and if so you’d get routed to the betrayal storyline; if not there’d be a different encounter with Lucie.
Keywords are needed when something has changed globally that needs to be checked for in multiple places. For example, if the Judain (the persecuted community in the book) are all ordered to wear yellow patches on their clothes, that's something you might see or discuss in several different branches, so I'd use a keyword.
Tickboxes on the other hand track local changes. For instance, the first time I visit an informant some militia come in and smash up his shop. On subsequent visits the book needs to know that the shop is shuttered and there's broken glass on the floor, but a tickbox will do because that's not a condition that makes any difference anywhere else. (We try to minimize the number of keywords because the reader has to check through a whole list every time one is called.)
What triggers the next act? That could be accomplished by tickboxes like we saw in the last example. So the hub section for one of the acts would look something like this:
Taking the prison option, for instance, you’d get into a series of adventures, at the end of which you’d reach a section like this:
Thus, after undertaking four subquests in the current act you're routed through to the next act via section 499 where you'd be given the keyword for that act*. If you were already in act four (as you are in this example) that would lead into the endgame for this book, which involves a showdown with the embodiment of hate as depicted on the cover. Various items and keywords acquired during the adventure would steer the outcome of that battle.
I'm not planning to rewrite The Coils of Hate (Stuart Lloyd already did that) but I am occasionally tempted to revisit the Shadow King storyline that Jamie and I cooked up over twenty years ago. That has the main character trying to stay alive in a world devoid of life but infested with vampires -- sort of an H G Wells take on I Am Legend. I'd definitely need keywords to globally track the passage of time, and tickboxes to record how far you are through various subquests. But is there enough demand for gamebooks these days? Not like there used to be, certainly.
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| Image by Pulp-O-Mizer |
I keep whingeing about how exhausting it is to write the Vulcanverse gamebooks, work on which has taken me most of the year, and meanwhile Red Ruin Publishing have been steadily releasing top-class Dragon Warriors gamebooks with no fuss whatsoever. I feel chastened.
The latest in the series is Icon of Death by David M Donachie, it's completely free, and it's set under the blistering sun of Outremer. Watch out for mirages and forsaken lazars.
"As he smoothly lowered me into the gloom, I held forth my lantern and gazed at the cold, wet stone..."
Also just out and also free: a new Cedric and Fulk adventure, "The Well of All Tears", in a chapbook that also includes pieces on zombie beasts and gallows wood (the material, not the place, though both are ominous).
Mirabilis, my fantasy graphic epic with Leo Hartas and the late Martin McKenna, originally appeared in The DFC, a short-lived forerunner of The Phoenix comic. A friend of mine read it on the sleeper train out of Moscow as he was travelling home just before Christmas -- pretty much the perfectly immersive experience.Dear human savants
Following a motion of no confidence in the prime minister, I find that my Martian Party has enough seats in the House of Commons to form a new government in coalition with the Liberal Unionists. The only sticking point is that, as you may know, my prospective allies are committed to a very specific agenda. Their three-point plan entails establishing a minimum wage, giving women the vote, and maintaining the unity of the British Isles - whereas the Martian Party is pledged to subjugate the planet Earth, replace corn with red weed as the staple carbohydrate dietary supplement, and ship a million slaves to the helium mines of Phobos.
As a compromise, I have agreed to defer mass enslavement for the term of the current Parliament, concentrating instead on domestic transport policy as an area of common ground on which our two parties can agree. For example, to alleviate the growing problem of “rush hour” congestion at the major London rail terminuses, we propose loading commuters onto massive catapults which will fling them across the city to land in collection nets near to their place of work. We estimate this would save at least seventy thousand man-months of labour per year. However, some of our advisors believe that it will not be a popular measure and could lose us votes at the next election. What do you counsel?
Yours, the Right Honourable Xangovar the Merciless, OBE, c/o the Palace of Westminster
Prof Bromfield replies: It would be very popular with small boys. Unfortunately, they don’t have the vote. Might be a better world if they did, if you ask me.
Dr Clattercut: Oh yes. Because resolving international disputes with conkers matches is obviously the way to go. Pulling girls’ pigtails when they demand enfranchisement. Declaring the whole of January a national tobogganing holiday. Making marbles the official currency of the Bank of England…
Prof Bromfield: You think you’re being wittily scathing, Clattercut, but in fact you’re just proving my point. So that’s what I’d suggest, Mr – er, Xangovar: shake up the Cabinet a little. Bring in some schoolboys and artists and poets and whatnot. Be more radical with your reforms, if anything. This is the Year of Wonders, so what’s wrong with sprinkling a bit of magic on the tired old machinery of politics? Trust me, the electorate will thank you for it.
Dr Clattercut: Those that land in the nets, anyway.
Just right out of
the gate let me say this: I don’t recommend taking a character from Fabled
Lands into the Vulcanverse books. They’re different worlds and you’ll enjoy the
experience better if you stick to characters intended for each world. But after
all, I would say that because I’m a purist and I always say less is more. I don’t
think Professor Challenger inhabits the same London as Sherlock Holmes, nor
that the Dollhouse exists in the Buffyverse. As for Doctor Who or Babylon 5 being
compatible with Star Trek – ugh, that’s the worst kind of clodhopping fan indulgence. These fictional worlds are crafted to be their own thing, not a great
swirling mass of tropes mixing like paint colours till all you’re left with is mucky brown.
Also, the Vulcanverse books start out with your character's childhood in that world and there are callbacks later to your family, even encounters with family members. None of that will make sense if you're playing somebody who has dropped through from a different universe, so transporting a character across is entirely unsupported.
Still, with that
warning ringing in your ears, if you really want to throw a Fabled Lands
character into the Vulcanverse, here’s how.
Start with abilities.
Add up all the contributions from your Fabled Lands abilities (which range from
1-12) to find your scores in the Vulcanverse attributes (which range initially
from −1 to +3).
For example, if you have Combat 8 and Scouting 9 in FL then your Vulcanverse Strength score is +1 +1 = +2.
Shards can be converted into “pyrs”, which are what coins are called in the cryptic world of the Vulcanverse. However, you can only take a maximum of 300 Shards as “pyrs” when you travel between the universes.
Rank in Fabled Lands translates to Glory:
Lastly, you can translate ability-boosting items into attribute-boosting items as follows:
Laurel
wreath any +1 or +2 Charisma-boosting item from FL
Golden lyre any +3 or better Charisma-boosting item from FL
Recurve
bow any +1 or +2 Scouting- or Thievery-boosting item from FL
Winged sandals any +3 or better Scouting- or Thievery-boosting item from FL
Hornbook any +1 or +2 Magic- or Sanctity-boosting item from FL
Abacus any +3 or better Magic- or Sanctity-boosting item from FL
Hardwood
club any FL weapon with a Combat bonus of +1 to +3
Iron spear any FL weapon with a Combat bonus of +4 or more
You
can convert one such item per attribute – so, for instance, even if you own a
dozen +6 weapons in Fabled Lands you can only go across to the Vulcanverse with
one iron spear.
God? The FL gods are unknown in the Vulcanverse. The Greek gods mean nothing to somebody who has travelled between the planes from Harkuna. So if you're doing this you will start out with no god to call on.
What about Stamina? One of our readers, James, pointed out there are no rules here for converting FL Stamina into some other form of hit points. That's true, and it's because the Vulcanverse rules do not have anything like a Stamina score. The player-character is either healthy, wounded or dead.
And where would you start? Try 222 in any of the first four Vulcanverse books. And don't say I didn't warn you.
[VV and D&D] are built around -4/+4 modifiers, with +5 being "peak human" in the sense of Batman or Captain America, or a Greek demigod. Once we know that:
— Teofilo Hurtado - War of Ashird (@hurtado_teofilo) October 28, 2021
Strength = STR and CON
Grace = DEX
Ingenuity = INT and WIS
Charm = CHA
An big announcement today from Stuart Lloyd, one of the leading bannermen of British gamebooks. I'll just hand over to him. Take it away, Stuart!
Hello all! I'm really excited to announce the Lindenbaum award for
short gamebook fiction.
The award is inspired by the Windhammer competition which ran from 2008-2015. I loved entering my books,
seeing other books, voting and getting feedback. To be fair, I loved every
aspect of it.
So, when it was discontinued, it left a hole. Between 2016 and now, I was
very busy. However, I have a bit more time now and I was also shocked when I
was on an online gamebook meetup to learn that almost no one there had heard of
the Windhammer competition.
If you look at the list of Windhammer entrants, you will see a few familiar
names. This is basically what kickstarted a lot of careers for the new gamebook
writing crew.
I would love for that to continue with the new fans we have picked up along
the way so that they can have a gateway into the gamebook community. I found
the chance to meet new people and get lots of expert feedback invaluable.
So, without further ado, here are the details for the Lindenbaum
competition:
Entry requirements for the 2021/2022 Lindenbaum competition
All entries must be in English.
All entries must be original works incorporating unique characters and world
settings. This can include real world settings, people and events as long as
they aren't the property of someone.
All entries must be previously unpublished works.
All entrants must state clearly on the first page of their entries that they
are the authors of the work submitted.
All entries must be provided in rich text format (rtf) and sent as an email
attachment to lindenbaumprize@gmail.com.
All character or status sheets provided with entries must be presented in a
simple layout that does not include complex table formats.
All entries must be spell-checked and thoroughly tested prior to submission.
The total length of the entry does not exceed 100 sections and a word count
of 25,000 words.
Illustrations will not be accepted as a part of an entry except in two
specific circumstances.
Exception 1: Maps that are integral to navigation within the gamebook.
Exception 2: Graphics necessary as a part of puzzles or clues integral to
the entry's narrative.
Graphics provided for these purposes must be in either BMP or JPG format and
be included as a part of the RTF entry forwarded.
Graphics purely of an illustrative nature will not be accepted.
The entry may either be a complete stand-alone story or a self-contained
excerpt from a larger gamebook adventure of your own creation.
The entry can be of any genre except erotica.
There is no entry fee.
All rights remain with the author and the author can withdraw their entry at
any time during the course of the competition.
An entrant can submit one entry only.
All participants must have a valid PayPal account at the time of submission. For reasons given below you must have a valid PayPal account if you wish to receive a cash prize. Account information is not required by the organisers of this competition unless you are one of the winning entrants. Only at the time of winning a prize will you be asked for your PayPal details.
Competition deadlines for 2021/2022
3rd October 2021: Competition guidelines released
1st December 2021: Entry submissions begin
1st February 2022: Entry submissions close.
8th February 2022: Voting begins.*
22nd March 2022: Voting closes.*
31st March 2022: Winners announced.*
* If there are more than 14 entries, these dates will be extended.
Voting
The prize is awarded to the entrant who receives the greatest number of
reader votes. This prize relies on votes provided by readers who have read
enough of the entries to make a considered choice as to the relative merits of
the gamebooks submitted. It is expected by the sponsor of this competition that
votes will be provided on this basis. For 2021/2022 the voting system applies
as follows:
A valid vote must be forwarded by email to lindenbaumprize@gmail.com. A
valid vote must nominate the three gamebooks most favoured by the voter from
the competition entrants. A vote with less than three nominations cannot be
accepted. A vote forwarded with more than three nominations will only have the
first three accounted for in the voting tabulation.
Only one voter email is allowed per reader. All votes will be checked for
duplication of email addresses.
Feedback to the authors may be forwarded to the competition sponsors at
lindenbaumprize@gmail.com. All feedback given will be provided to authors at
the end of competition as a part of the email notification of results.
Prizes
Winning entrant
A cash prize of £100 GBP (Great British Pounds) to be paid within 48 hours
into a PayPal account of the winner's choosing. If you do not have access to a
valid PayPal account the cash prize cannot be paid.
A First Prize certificate memorialising their success in the competition.
Merit awards
Two entries are chosen for Merit awards. These entrants receive:
A cash prize of £30 GBP (Great British Pounds) to be paid within 48 hours
into a PayPal account of the Merit Award winner's choosing.
A Merit Award certificate memorialising their success in the competition.
Commendation awards
If there are 10 or more entries, there will be 3 commendation awards. The
entrants receive:
A Commendation Certificate memorialising their success in the competition.
Gamebook writing help
If you haven't written a gamebook before, you might think that arranging and randomising the sections might be a problem. However, there are now good gaembook writing programs out there. One is The Gamebook Authoring Tool, which has a free version specifically designed to write a 100 section gamebook and export it to Rich Text Format. You can try it here: AboutThe GameBook Authoring Tool – Crumbly Head Games and Crumbly Head Games are offering a free licence to the top three winners.
