Become a Destiny angel

I'm filled with envy and admiration for what gamebook author Michael J Ward is doing with the crowdfunding campaign for the DestinyQuest world sourcebook. I couldn't produce such a beautiful-looking book and I certainly couldn't whip up that sort of exciting marketing frenzy. 

The book is an illustrated hardback and the campaign goes live on Kickstarter on May 17. It includes:

• A detailed history of the world, from its creation by the celestial Fates, to the current End Times of crumbling empires and war-weary kingdoms.
• A comprehensive timeline that charts the key events that have shaped the world of Dormus, right up to the present-day narratives of the gamebook series.
• An overview of the magic system, detailing the chaotic forces of the Shroud and the effects of its demonic taint, as well as the runic magic of the dwarves and the dangerous arts of elemental sorcery.
• Character stories and biographies, exploring some of the key characters who have influenced the DestinyQuest world, including the legendary witchfinder, Eldias Falks, and the enigmatic archmage, Avian Dale.
• Descriptions of the main factions that vie for power and influence within the kingdom of Valeron, from the secretive enclaves of the Arcane Hand to the scheming masters of shadow, the Nevarin.

The blurb promises: "Whether you are a fan of the DestinyQuest gamebooks or a referee looking for a new and immersive setting for your homebrew roleplaying campaign, the World Companion promises a wealth of exciting secrets and discoveries – everything you need for the epic adventures ahead."

This also seems a good opportunity for some of what Sam Harris calls housekeeping. First up, gamebook fans of a certain vintage may have already noticed that booking for Fighting Fantasy Fest 4 is now open. Jamie Thomson and Paul Gresty will both be there, along with Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, Martin Noutch of Steam Highwayman fame, Rhianna Pratchett, Jonathan Green, and other FF stalwarts.

Even more exciting (in my book, anyway) is that you can now sign up for the Fabled Lands CRPG beta build. That includes the whole of the northern continent and coastal waters -- with more to come.

Lastly, I was at Surrey University this week and somebody mentioned they'd had complaints about the lack of story nudges in an open-world game they had written. It's not just me, then. In days of yore, adventures began with an old guy running into a tavern to hand you a quest, and some players of Vulcanverse were irked to be just left to explore the world and find their own adventures, others were happy to uncover those stories for themselves. So as to cater for the former players I'm making sure that the fifth Vulcanverse book, Workshop of the Gods, has plenty of those proverbial old guys (or equivalent of other age/gender) to guide you on your way. If you prefer to be assigned quests and given plenty of hints, then, just be sure to start your adventures in VV book 5.

Dive into the Dune Sea

Fans of fantasy gamebooks will certainly have encountered Destiny Quest, Michael J Ward's epic adventure series. The latest instalment, The Raiders of Dune Sea, is currently on Kickstarter until February 11. See if this teaser whets your appetite:

"A lost race returns from the shrouds of time, armed with the powerful magics of Ragnarok to unleash their bitter vengeance on an unsuspecting world. The shifting sands of the southern desert will run red with blood as the robbers and pirate captains of the Dune Sea are dragged into a deadly war – one which could unravel time and change the destiny of all."

I don't normally get behind Kickstarters - well, not successful ones anyway. But I'm intrigued by the new character profession of aeronaut, having always liked the idea of piloting an airship of my own, as you'll have realized if you found the manta car in Heart of Ice. Blame Edgar Rice Burroughs and Mike Moorcock for that. And, all unbidden, Paul Gresty included some airship travel in The Serpent King's Domain, so don't miss that when it comes out in a week or so, will ya? Still, not to get sidetracked... the Fabled Lands team bearded Michael Ward in his lair and asked him about the new book (or maybe two books -- see below) in this exciting series.

"Michael, can you start by telling us a bit about what makes Destiny Quest unique?"

Like traditional gamebooks, you play the main protagonist and make decisions for that character throughout the story. However, in Destiny Quest, the choices you make also extend to the items and abilities that you choose for your hero. It has the familiarity of a typical gamebook but with the depth of a more involved role-playing adventure.

The Destiny Quest system takes its main inspiration from modern online RPGs (such as World of Warcraft) and hack-and-slash action games (like the Diablo series). In each book, you engage in multiple strategic battles, using your varied abilities to help counter those of your opponent. If you are successful in combat, then you get to choose from a selection of rewards (loot drop, yay!). These rewards will typically come in the shape of armour, weapons and trinkets, all of which can be ‘equipped’ onto your hero to boost their attributes and give them new abilities.

Each book has hundreds of unique items and abilities to discover, giving readers a huge amount of choice when it comes to outfitting and customizing their hero.

"How about other things that distinguish the series? Can you share your creative 'mission statement' for these books?"

As I’ve already touched on, I wanted this series to have a ‘videogame’ feel, with more strategic combat and a heavy emphasis on customization. In addition to that, there is also the quest map system, which again harkens back to open world CRPGs such as World of Warcraft.

Readers use the maps in each book to select their quests (which are colour-coded for difficulty). There are also other locations you can visit, such as towns and cities, and legendary monster encounters – which are tougher opponents you can take on for extra special rewards.

There is also a career system, based on the three paths that you can choose for your hero – warrior, mage or rogue. By discovering career trainers or unlocking careers through special achievements, players can further customize their hero by specializing them in certain professions. As a rogue for example, you could become an assassin or a witchfinder – and each career has its own inherent special abilities which may influence the way you play and the items you choose to equip.

"Players take a new character in each book. Does that mean their former characters are done with, or might he/she return in later books?"

Each book has its own unique hero and story to tell, so they are essentially standalone adventures - so there is nothing stopping anyone jumping into the series at any point. However, when read together in sequence, they do tell a grand over-arching story with returning themes and characters. And yes, you might even encounter your hero from a previous adventure in a later book, but as an NPC who you will be interacting with.

In Book Two, there are also team battles, where you can team up with a hero from another book (either your own or perhaps even a friend’s creation) to battle a super tough boss monster!

"We've often heard DQ likened to Warcraft or Diablo. To what extent have videogames influenced your design decisions, compared to say tabletop roleplaying?"

Destiny Quest was very much born out of my obsession with World of Warcraft (and games of a similar ilk). I became so addicted to the latter that I was playing nearly fifty hours a week and it was starting to consume my life. I don’t regret a minute of it, but sinking all those hours into that experience made me wonder why no-one had really tried to capture that in a book format (admittedly, I wasn’t aware of the Fabled Lands series at the time!). So that’s why I sat down and planned how I was going to approach that type of experience – and the gamebook format was the obvious choice.

Of course, I’m a huge gamer and enjoy all types of gaming experiences, from CCGs to tabletop dungeon crawls. I love exploring different game mechanics and am constantly soaking up ideas and systems that I can tweak and incorporate into gamebooks. Destiny Quest is very much a melting pot of all my game experiences.

Sadly, I don’t really do any roleplaying nowadays, basically due to time and the difficulty of getting people together for that kind of sustained play – but I do remember my AD&D days fondly, and have spent far too much time than is sensible watching Pathfinder sessions and other RPG games being played on YouTube. Again, all fuel for the creative fire.

"Are there any plans to convert Destiny Quest into a videogame?"

Because Destiny Quest is so hugely influenced by computer RPGs, I feel as though the system would offer the perfect blueprint for a multitude of gaming experiences, from card and board games to a fully-fledged open world Diablo ‘hack-a-thon’. Sadly, I’ve not had any offers yet (!) but it’s certainly something I would be immensely passionate in supporting and contributing to.

"How do you map out the books? Do you do a full flowchart first or plan in sections as you go?"

Everything starts with the story, which may sound obvious – but worth stressing I think. Knowing where you want your story to go and the various key stages/moments of that journey, will make everything else a lot easier. Then I usually focus on the maps and the type of environment that will feature in each act of the story. From there, I work on each quest one by one – then add the choices into my master document once each one is complete.

I do create a rough flowchart as I plan up each quest, which helps with keeping me on course – but I rarely stick to it, and often drift off into a multitude of decision trees. I think you have to work quite organically and adapt, as you can never second-guess where your narrative can take you. But having that original road map to come back to is always useful, otherwise you can go overboard and suddenly your 5000 word quest just became a 20,000 word behemoth.

“What sort of work goes into balancing the game system? How do you balance the dozens of special abilities a player might use? (As well as the various possible player builds that emphasise, say, durability rather than speed?)"

A huge amount of work goes into the playtesting – almost as much as writing the book. During the actual writing of each story, I add in items, abilities and monster stats but there is a lot of guess work involved. It isn’t until the writing is done and I am happy with the text, that I actually sit down with a bunch of dice and get stuck into the game.

Some people are surprised when they discover I have no elaborate algorithms or programs that test the combats or streamline the itemization. I literally play through the book as a reader would – and simply do that again and again and again. It can drive you slightly mad, I won’t deny it, and there are frequent times when you just want to throw the manuscript out of the window! But there is also a huge amount of satisfaction in getting it right, when things click into place and everything becomes polished.

I’ve always preferred not to give out my book to others to test (well, I did have a friend briefly test some sections of Legion back in the day) as it would just become too difficult to manage all the feedback and opinions. I feel, with three books under my belt now, that I have a pretty good handle on what works and what doesn’t, and a sense of the right level of difficulty to ensure the adventure is challenging but fun.

"A purely creative/writing type question. What are the main inspirations for your fantasy world?"

I’ve always been fascinated with history. I did two history A-levels (the equivalent of high school diplomas for those in the US) and a history Bachelor’s Degree, so I’ve had a varied experience of different time periods. Also my day job, when I’m not creating gamebooks, is writing educational materials for schools and I was quite heavily involved in designing creative lesson plans linked to the recent National Curriculum changes – most of which were history focused.

So, I think when designing worlds and telling stories, I always try and draw from the events, people and cultures that I have learned about. Perhaps less so with Legion of Shadow, which I’ll admit was quite a generic take on fantasy (owing to a lot of pressure to give the book as much mass/age appeal as possible), but later books have delved much deeper into themes such as religion, segregation, war, politics and so on. 

“On the theme of creative inspiration, what made you decide to base the new book in a desert environment – the Dune Sea?”

I’ve wanted to tell a story in a desert setting for some time. As previously mentioned, I have always loved history, and at one point in my life I was even considering becoming an Egyptologist – so I’ve always wanted to draw on my love of Egyptian culture and mythology at some point. Who wouldn’t want to imagine being Howard Carter or Indiana Jones, discovering a lost tomb or delving into a mysterious pyramid!

Interestingly, one of my biggest influences for the new book was the sci-fi film Hardware (1990, Palace Pictures). [Based on "Shok!" by Steve MacManus and Kevin O'Neill -DM.] For me, back in the day, it was a truly ground-breaking movie, which took a refreshing art-house style approach to the genre – and had a huge impact on me creatively (when I was considering a career in screenwriting and direction). I will never forget its evocative opening sequence of a Mad Max style scavenger trudging through an apocalyptic desert, a lone figure swept up in the crimson haze of a sandstorm. The character, known as the nomad, ends up discovering a piece of military hardware – the head of a robot, which he takes back to a ragtag settlement which passes for civilization in this post-war environment.

Amusingly, I actually misheard the line of dialogue in the ensuing scene when the desert nomad is asked where he found the parts. To me, he always sounded as though he was saying ‘Dune Sea’ but later, when I discovered a copy of the screenplay, he is apparently saying ‘Judas Sea’, which would tie in with the religious iconography and themes of the film. Nevertheless, in my ignorance, I was like ‘wow, Dune Sea… that’s cool’ – and always wanted to somehow incorporate that concept into a story.
 

"Previous DQ books have been notable for their dramatic, high-quality artwork. How closely do you get involved with that side of production?"

The stunning cover for Book Four [see above -DM] was created by a good friend of mine, Paul Cheshire, who did much of the artwork that you will see on the Destiny Quest website.

"When does the Kickstarter campaign run until?"

The Kickstarter is running until 11 February. I’ve been completely blown away by amazing support – a huge thank you to all those who have already pledged. We managed to reach our funding goal within just a few days – but now it’s all about the stretch goals and unlocking extra goodies, so if you are still on the fence, then now might be the time to take the plunge!

"There's always somebody who'll say they're interested a week after the campaign closes. For those who miss it, will the book be available on Amazon?"

First off, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a late pledge option, so that those who missed the Kickstarter can still pledge for a book. Going forward, the book will be primarily available from the Megara Entertainment website (in both softcover and hardcover format). I also plan to sell some copies myself – perhaps through Amazon UK and/or eBay. Certainly, the book will be in plentiful supply after the Kickstarter so no-one need worry.

“And do you already have plans for Book Five?”

Book Five will actually be the continuation of the story told in this one, so I do have it mapped out in some detail. I ended up splitting the story across two books because I was simply running out of space and wordage to do the story justice.

That being said, I’m not sure when I will get around to starting Book Five. These books take a huge amount of time to write – and it’s difficult to fit other work around them, so inevitably I take a bit of a financial hit during the months when I am focused on DQ. So with Book Four near to completion, it will be back to the day job to hopefully swell the coffers again, so I can afford to write the next one. If only I could win the lottery or discover a rich gamebook benefactor.

“And if you could pitch Destiny Quest in one sentence?”

An epic open world videogame in a book – explore, battle and loot your way to victory!




And that Kickstarter link again. But don't drag your feet -- there's just one more week to go.

For whom the bell tolls

I was sorry to hear the news about Destiny Quest. After putting out books two and three with quite a bit of fanfare and nice production standards, publishers Gollancz found the series wasn’t selling as they’d hoped. There will be – from Gollancz, anyway – no book four.

I’m sorry because Destiny Quest was meticulously designed, brilliantly plotted, vividly written, and imbued with genuine passion. If it had come out back in the ‘80s it would have been one of the classic gamebook series that everybody talked about today.

But I’m not surprised. Even by 1995, the gamebooks tide was ebbing so fast that we couldn’t convince Pan Macmillan to let us finish Fabled Lands. What happened? Videogames happened. They can do just exactly what old-style gamebooks did and, let’s be honest, they do it better. If I have an evening to kill and it’s between The Witcher and Deathtrap Dungeon – no contest.

Wait a moment, though, because what I’m talking about here is ‘80s-style adventure gamebooks. That is, a multiple-choice format Dungeons and Dragons game – or, these days, World of Warcraft. And in print. All that Gollancz’s announcement has confirmed is that in 2014 you can’t put a gamebook series like that into bookstores, with all the pressure of finding a wide, deep market that implies, and make a go of it.

That doesn’t mean there’s no room for gamebooks any more. Gollancz's experiment possibly shows that dungeon-delving gamebooks with highly detailed rules don't sell well in bookstores. But they should have tested the water with several different types of gamebook - some rules-lite, some non-fantasy. That's the only way to find out if there's a broad market for interactive fiction out there. The success of Inkle's Sorcery and 80 Days suggests there is, and don't tell me a publisher couldn't figure out any way to get similar success in print or ebooks. They just didn't try a wide enough range to get any kind of statistically significant result.

And in any case, Destiny Quest was a success long before a publisher tried to take it out to the mass market. (There are various magnitudes of mass market, but that’s a detail.) The series’ creator, Michael J Ward, built it all up on his own and established a solid fanbase. That’s still there. I expect we’ll see more books in the series before too long. Think of Marillion albums. And regardless of the fate of gamebooks in print form, Destiny Quest itself will be back as a browser gamebook-meets-CRPG called Destiny Quest Infinite from Adventure Cow.

And then there are apps. I think this will be a narrow window, and one that’s already closing as far as those traditional DnD-type gamebooks are concerned. It helps to have the phone or tablet handle the stats for you, but in the long run people want their eye candy. A big chunk of text and three choices isn’t going to hold its ground against animated combats. So let’s not see the future there as book apps but as mobile entertainment in general.

Fabled Lands Publishing is reissuing series like Way of the Tiger and Blood Sword in print, not because we expect them to usher in a new Golden Age of gamebooks, but because we want them to always be there for the fans who’d like to collect them. Those fans may be small in number but they are devoted and this is something we owe them. But we’re a business, and we couldn’t reissue all those books if the only revenue was from print sales. We also want to see what we can do with those adventures in new formats. I don’t mean book apps (possibly a closing window, as I said) but something more. Blood Sword would make a great tactical adventure game along the lines of Warhammer Quest. We tried Fabled Lands as book apps and they didn’t work, so now we want to turn them into full-on CRPGs. Inkle have begun this process with their brilliant Sorcery adaptations – the book part of those, let’s face it, is like a placeholder waiting for the graphics and audio. It’s poetic justice, right? Videogames killed off gamebooks, so now we’re aiming to move on over and elbow us some room there.

Every crisis is an opportunity, anyway. There may not be much demand for dungeon-bashing and +3 swords in text gamebooks, but there are plenty of interesting avenues for the medium to explore. Look at Versu, or Inkle’s 80 Days, or the interactive Frankenstein I did for Profile Books using Inkle’s engine. Look at how Cubus Games evolved Necklace of Skulls into something new, with its roots in books but its branches stretching to the firmament of a new medium. (And I happen to know that's just the starting point for Cubus, because we're working on some even more exciting things with them.Watch this space.) If gamebooks are going to survive in text form they have to play to the strengths of prose – deep characterization, unreliable narrators, different points of view, relationships between reader and character. You know, literary stuff. Ironically, Jamie and I offered something like that to Gollancz a couple of months before they signed up Destiny Quest. A shame they didn't do it, as there'd have been plenty of room for both.

And if you really absolutely gotta have print, that can survive too. Not thirty thousand copies sold in Waterstones at a tenner each, but lovingly produced, full-colour hardbacks like the editions that Megara are producing for hardcore collectors. In an ebook era, hardbacks are the new vinyl. As Marillion probably could have told us all along.

And then two come along at once...

Somebody at Gollancz must be a real gamebook buff, as they've put up this Fighting Fantasy style marketing piece on their blog. It's to mark the launch of the Destiny Quest book The Legion of Shadow, which (to give you the quick, non-interactive version) is being published as a hardback in May - although this product page says it's a paperback. Hmm. Hardback or paperback? I'm pretty sure the blog entry must be right...

What with that and Ian Livingstone's new FF book, Blood of the Zombies, which is due out in August (certainly in paperback, and maybe on a bunch of digital platforms too), old school gamebook fans will have a bumper year.

The biggest gamebook ever

I mentioned a little while back how UK author Michael J Ward is single-handedly aiming to turn the tide in favor of print gamebooks with his impressive epic new series Destiny Quest. And Andrew Wright, genre historian and writer of the latest Gamebook Adventures app, has an in-depth interview with Michael Ward over on his Fantasy Game Book blog, covering how the DQ series was conceived and written as well as (of equal interest to many of you, I suspect) the inside dope on its publication. If that whets your appetite, Destiny Quest 1: The Legion of Shadow is available on Amazon and there's a wealth of material on the DQ website.

And talking of gamebooks, this seems to be a good place to link to the Slate article about the origin and (possible) future of gamebooks, flagged up in a recent comment by Mike Mielke. I noted this bit

"Researching interactive books," Demian Katz, gamebooks archivist, says, "There's pretty much the same pattern in every country. A few come out, they become explosively popular, a flood of knock-offs are released, they reach critical mass and then drop off into nothing. When I first started cataloguing them, around 1998, it was happening in the Czech Republic. That was one of the last booms."

and couldn't help wondering if China has had its gamebook craze yet...

Not your father's gamebooks

Are gamebooks making a comeback? As regular readers of this blog will know, I'm more inclined towards the possibilities of e-gamebooks than print, but every so often something comes along to remind me that embracing the future doesn't have to mean booting out the best of the past. This month it's Destiny Quest, an impressive new gamebook series from author Michael J Ward.

When I say this series takes its inspiration from computer role-playing games, I mean that as high praise. The reader chooses locations from the map, which dispenses with the need for lots of bespoke linking paragraphs while also hinting at upcoming quests. The game system is uncluttered, modern and simple, with considerable thought put into the range of character types you might want to play.

Most of all, the Destiny Quest series bears the mark of having been created by someone with real passion for the genre. Just browse around the Destiny Quest website for a few minutes and you'll see what I mean. There is masses of stuff there to show how Michael Ward is building an immersive world. The only thing that could stop him from creating the next-gen successor to Fabled Lands is if Blizzard snap him up to work on WoW.

Destiny Quest book one is available from Amazon and WHSmith in Britain. The US price tag seems a little steep at$15.51, but if it gets good sales then maybe future books will be cheaper. There are plans for a Kindle edition too. It's not iPad but at least it's digital.