You may not have noticed, but the Way of the Tiger gamebooks recently got a mini-makeover. All six of the original books are now available in ebook format as well as in paperback, and there's a new series page on Amazon.
What's unique about the Way of the Tiger books is the range of gameplay styles covered. In the early books you're a stealthy assassin. Then you have to conquer a kingdom -- but not just that, in the next book you have govern it. Enemy city-states move against you, making the next book a complete wargame, firstly of strategic choices as you manoeuvre to bring your adversaries to battle, then a contest of nerve and tactics as you try to break them once and for all. The last of the original series circled back to solo adventuring, but this time in the form of classic dungeon delving.
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The dungeoneering made sense because the glittering centrepiece of the series is the world of Orb, Mark Smith's setting for the D&D campaign he ran for his friends at school. There were no ninja in Orb in those days, just classic sword-&-sorcery tropes. Many of the NPCs who pop up in the books were player-characters in Mark's campaign, which was still getting talked about (and occasionally run) when I met him at college the following year. I remember holding the Book of the Gods of Orb, a school exercise book in which he'd detailed all the temples and cults of Orb. There were other books too, and more material got added as the campaign progressed over the years. We played long-term in those days, not just a dozen sessions and on to the next thing. Orb was a genuine epic loved by everyone who was privileged enough to play in it.
The good news is that you can get a taste of that brilliance by playing the gamebooks that Jamie Thomson wrote with Mark in the 1980s. And if the downbeat ending of Book 6 bothers you, there's a very good sequel by David Walters (Redeemer) that lets you get Avenger out of that web.
The Way of the Tiger was my favourite gamebook series from childhood, Dave, but I've grown up somewhat since then. I now spend my time on far more important matters, such as who would win in a fight. Avenger, Sho Kosugi or Zool?
ReplyDeleteMy money would have been on Chuck Norris, Andy. Now that he's dead -- well, that'll slow him down, but it's still fifty-fifty.
DeleteIt was only after Chuck Norris passed did it occur to me I haven't seen any of his films, Dave. Other than The Way of the Dragon that is. His legacy will live on in that and the hilarious related scene from The Office (UK).
DeleteIt's great The Way of the Tiger is getting another spin anyway. The David Walters prequel book 'Ninja!' was pretty good as well. You just need to dig up Jamie from your patio and get him to re release Falcon and Duelmaster now!
Same here, Andy. and it's so long ago that I saw The Way of the Dragon that I don't even remember his scene(s).
DeleteIt's a pity Falcon book 1 didn't sell better, as I was hoping the whole series would be re-released. Recently Jamie has been muttering about ideas of Fabled Lands book 12... I'm not sure if I'd bet money on him getting to work, but we can always hope.
Is it worth another punt with Falcon given a decade has elapsed since the re-release of The Renegade Lord, Dave? The last book in that series and Duelmaster both fetch fancy prices on the internet these days. I'd have thought those at least would sell a fair few hundred, if only to people wanting to complete their collections from first time around. I'd suggest release the last in the series first, but I suppose wouldn't work with Falcon, although with Duelmaster as self contained books it might do.
DeleteAll good ideas, Andy. I've even offered to help Jamie and Mark with 2-player app versions of the Duel Master books. But given that Jamie has been sitting on a very good and 90% complete comedy kids' novel for five years now, and not getting around to finishing it, I think the chances of getting him or Mark to give Falcon and Duel Master the push they need are about on a par with me running the next London Marathon.
DeleteThe opening few bars of a Vangelis film theme popped into my head just then, Dave. p.s. Not Blade Runner.
DeleteWith a slo-mo running sequence that would be perfect, Andy. Very slo-mo in Jamie's case.
DeleteHi Dave, have a nagging feeling that this is not the correct forum for this but what the heck. Thank you so much for Bloodsword. It was an absolute education when I was growing up, and I now play it with my kids on long plane / train rides, to show them what good descriptive writing and world building looks like, and it has aged wonderfully!
ReplyDeleteHi Req -- I'll take any forum for compliments, and thank you for those kind words. There's nothing more heart-warming than to hear about a new generation getting pleasure from my books. (And wouldn't it be something if your kids grow up to play Blood Sword with their kids?)
DeleteA bit late to the party on this post/topic, but I just wanted to reiterate how much 'Way of the Tiger' (along with 'Duelmaster', 'Fighting Fantasy', 'Lone Wolf', 'Bloodsword', and of course 'Dragon Warriors') was my soloing 'bread and butter' back in my Primary School days, and even when I largely abandoned AD&D for GURPS, 'Shadowrun', 'Earthdawn', and the 'World of Darkness' games in my late teens/early 20's, I would still find myself replaying WotT as much as LW, BS, and various FF titles when the mood struck me... and yet, it always puzzled me why Orb never got a "rebirth" like the other titles did - I mean, we've had both d20 FF Adventure Modules *and* 'Advanced Fighting Fantasy' 1E & 2E releases; both Mongoose's d20 and Cubicle 7's Adventure Game versions for Lone Wolf (and a new 'Dragon Bane' edition in the works); a 5E compatible edition for Bloodsword; and a revived edition of Dragon Warriors... but aside from the ill-fated "World of Orb" RPG from Megara Entertainment (which seems to have sunk without a trace - possibly for the best, given the circumstances re: Megara) and the WotT reprints, Orb seems to have been largely left to the void - a damn shame, IMHO, as I would have thought there would have been enough nostalgia for at least one attempt to Kickstart a d20/5E or AFF Campaign Guide for Orb, or at least for WotT specifically... though I guess dealing with the Megara situation may have sinced soured Mark and Jamie to the idea of bringing such a thing to the masses (more's the pity)... 🤔
ReplyDeleteAgreed re: the fate of 'Falcon' too, though I didn't hear anything about book 1's reissue until long after the fact (I only had Books 3,4 and 6 at the time, and was trying to locate the others at a good price, so I would have been interested in the reprint of Book1, if I had known about it...) - a pity it doesn't get as much love as WotT, but Sci-Fi Gamebooks always seem to be less popular than fantasy ones, for some reason 🤷♂️
As Mark ran his Orb D&D campaign for several years, there's abundant material for an RPG, but neither Mark nor Jamie have shown much interest in reviving their old series. Mark's gamebook Coils of Hate would make a great fantasy novel, the Duelmaster books were ahead of their time and would lend themselves to conversion to digital form, and Way of the Tiger ought to be one of the bestselling classic gamebook series. Instead, strangely, it's half forgotten.
DeleteI really liked the Falcon series, but you're right that there's much more demand for fantasy gamebooks, and usually the D&D/Fighting Fantasy style of fantasy at that, than for SF. The exception might be Heart of Ice, which is my bestselling gamebook by far despite being a world away from orcs and dwarves.