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Thursday 17 March 2022

The mystery at the desert's heart


Why do people roleplay? For as many diverse reasons as they indulge any other activity. Somebody on Twitter was discussing the best way to include traps in RPGs, citing the example of a curse of fire and ice inscribed on a tomb. That’ll be interesting, I thought; how would a curse of fire and ice manifest? How would it take its toll on the violators of the tomb, whittling them away, pushing each to abandon his comrades and selfishly try to save his own hide? It wasn’t like that. It was just a fireball followed by a treasure sealed in ice and protected by extreme cold. So the players had to figure out a way to chip the treasure out before they froze to death.

Well, I enjoy lateral thinking problems, just not usually as part of my roleplaying games. Not that I have anything against the dungeoneers who like traps and secret doors and wandering monsters and rooms with puzzles. Whatever floats your boat. If you adventure in Legend, though, it’s likely to be because you prefer your fantasy to feel more real, peopled by adversaries with nuanced motives and allies who could in extreme circumstances abandon or even betray you. You want credible storylines, complexity of relationships, and richness of character interaction. If there are puzzles they shouldn’t feel like something in a game show but will arise organically out of the dynamics of the world and the society. 


If that sounds like your thing, take a look at David Donachie’s superb Outremer gamebook Icon of Death, which plays out like a real Dragon Warriors adventure with mysteries and uncertainty, fully rounded NPCs, and action that’s all the more exciting and involving for arising out of a completely convincing background. You get a 320+ section gamebook with superb artwork that brings the characters to life, and it’s entirely free.

David Donachie also has a strong contender for the Lindenbaum Prize with his gamebook The Garden of Earthly Regrets. For me it felt like Max Payne crossed with The Romance of the Rose and directed by Jan Švankmajer. You can try it along with all the other entries and vote for your favourites. And those too are all free.

I began by talking about fire and ice. If Icon of Death provides the desert fire L'Hiver des Hommes, Akonost's new release in the Destins series, brings the ice. It is of course the French version of Heart of Ice, now out in a beautifully produced edition with a couple of all-new illustrations by Russ.

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for the link to "Icon of Death", Dave ! (though no time to play it for now...)

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    1. I haven't yet have time to explore it in full myself, Olivier, but even on a couple of quick play-throughs it looks more impressive than most gamebooks that publishers charge money for.

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    2. Those are mighty words indeed! I would say that Icon has three main paths in the first half, and then another three main ending sections, so it's sort of 6 main paths, but there's a lot of optional elements, and a lot of places in the investigation section where you can only look into one or two options out of five or six, so there's a lot of complexity there.

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  2. Hi Dave, can I just register my pleasure at the re-opening of the common room of St Aldred's College, i.e this comments section for all students of your blog!

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    1. It's good to have the old place back, John. Pass the port.

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  3. Whilst we are on the subject of Legend, I don't suppose you have any inside information on a release date for the cursed kings or brymstone? Originally they thought Feb 2021, then in July 21 they said September, then in December they said the end of the year, and its now nearly April 22!

    I'm not complaining too loudly, I know covid's happened and you did put up a link to the original brymstone back in July 2020 (which was fantastic and free!) and it's not even as if I'm part of a role playing group (two kids, a marriage and a job mean that at best I am a passive consumer of this material). I just really like legend.

    Anyway, just thought you might be able to shed a little light on what's going on over in that neck of the jewelspider wood....

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    1. I wish I knew. Robert Dale was writing some new Brymstone material, but that was a year ago and still no news.

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    2. SKG just got in touch to say that Cursed King should be out in a few weeks, and that Brymstone is next on the agenda after that.

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