Unearthing the Lich Lord

Oliver Johnson’s Lord of Shadow Keep was supposed to appear as a Fighting Fantasy book, but it got switched to the Golden Dragon series at the thirteenth hour. I wonder if that was why, when I finally got around to co-writing a Fighting Fantasy book, I called it The Keep of the Lich Lord...?

Probably not. Jamie and I submitted a whole bunch of concepts to the editors at Puffin, and Keep was a long way from being our favourite. It was rather odd that they picked it, come to think, as a quick glance on Wiki suggests that, Black Vein Prophecy excepted, the surrounding books in the series were all horror-inflected fantasy built on the very similar premise of raiding a monstrous super-villain's secret base. I guess Jamie and I aren’t the only ones who spent our formative years steeped in 007 and Hammer movies.

The deal with those FF books was that the authors got 60% of the royalty and Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson got 40%. Or possibly it was the other way round. You can’t really copyright a concept, but they established the brand and the split struck us as more than fair. When Icon Books picked up the series from Puffin (which, incidentally, is a bit like the BBC throwing Doctor Who to Canal+ in the early ‘90s) authors were offered a deal to sell their rights. Jamie and Mark Smith gave up Talisman of Death and Sword of the Samurai, but I make a point of never parting with copyright unless I’m paid crazy money. So Jamie and I kept Keep.

When I was prepping The Castle of Lost Souls for re-release, I briefly entertained the notion of relocating it to Golnir. The tone of the book just felt too whimsical for Fabled Lands, so that plan got dropped, but Jamie and I continued tossing around some other ideas. And we kept coming back to The Keep of the Lich Lord.

Obviously Fighting Fantasy fans would rather see Keep re-released using the FF world and system. I appreciate that. We can’t because we don’t have the rights, and anyway we have a gentlemen’s agreement not to make a big deal about it having been an FF book when publicizing the new edition. Not that we ever do any publicity per se, but you get the picture.

All of which is why Lord Mortis is now rising from the dead on an obscure but strategically important archipelago close to the Unnumbered Isles. You can start the book with a new character, or you can get an existing FL character to Dweomer and pick up the story there. We’re calling these single-story specials Fabled Lands Quests – though I admit to being slightly at a loss as to which other books could be adapted in the same way. Maybe a new version of Castle of Lost Souls, or the long-awaited reworking of Eye of the Dragon? Suggestions welcome!

To fit the adventure into the Fabled Lands, I wrote a new introduction set in Dweomer. But what to do with the old intro..? Recently on the blog, MikeH was asking about extras in our books. Well, Mike, you’ll be pleased to know that we have shamelessly swiped your idea and stuck our own names on it. This new edition of Keep has a wealth of cool stuff including the original introduction as an appendix, a section describing all the other concepts that could have become Fighting Fantasy #43, and a foreword in which I talk about the process of adapting the book from Titan to the Fabled Lands.

Anything else you want to know? Oh, artwork, of course. We don’t have the rights to the original FF illustrations so we couldn’t use those. Obviously, this being a sort-of Fabled Lands book, some new pictures by Russ Nicholson would have been great, but all-new art is expensive. We have the next best thing: thanks to the generosity of our friends at Megara Entertainment, the new edition features artwork from their Keep of the Lich Lord app of a few years back. Leo Hartas kindly let us use his gorgeous map, which appears in its full-colour glory on the back cover. And the front cover painting is courtesy of Kevin Jenkins, being the inside flap detail (as if you didn’t know) from the triptych of Over the Blood-Dark Sea.

From Fighting Fantasy to the Empty Quarter

There were supposed to be eight Virtual Reality books. Mark Smith had written most of the first draft of his third, called (if memory serves) The Masque of Death and inspired in part by a Fritz Leiber Jr short story, but it was proving complicated and Mark was getting a lot of feedback from the series editor, Ian Marsh. By the time I’d handed in Heart of Ice there was a yawning gap in the schedules and I had to write a book in a hurry to fill it.

Heart of Ice had been a lot of fun, but it wasn’t easy to write. By basing it on a Tekumel role-playing campaign I’d run with several groups of players over the years, I thought I’d save myself some work. Not a bit of it, as the world and the characters had to be created from scratch and that had knock-on effects on the story. So coming off that I really wanted a rest, and most definitely didn’t want to turn around another gamebook from scratch in eight weeks.

I had a vague outline hanging around from the late ‘80s, when Jamie Thomson and I had pitched a number of ideas to the Fighting Fantasy editors at Puffin Books. One, which had begun life as a storyline for a novel called, at various times, A Thief of Cairo or The Best Thief of Baghdad, and was then reworked as The Thief of Arantis, now got dusted off. I found it was a very scanty outline indeed. Oh well, I’ve always been a pantser. And in any case it was supposed to be loose and shapeless and picaresque. An Arabian Nights homage can’t look like Tolkien, you know.

So here’s what I had to start out with:

The Thief of Arantis

This gamebook takes as its setting the ports and coastal waters of Arantis, in Titan. Its flavour, however, is derived from the Thousand and One Nights. It deals with the protagonist's picaresque adventures as he or she rises from being a common sailor to the exalted rank of adviser to the Sultan.

Stopping off in one of the richer ports of Arantis, the protagonist hears talk of a marvellous egg bigger than a house. This egg, laid by the fabulous giant Roc, is prized for its qualities of good fortune and rejuvenation. A single piece chipped from the shell could be worth 10,000 gold pieces or more. Naturally, as with most tavern stories, the details are hard to pin down. Everyone knows of the Roc's egg, but no-one has much idea of where it might be found. Nonetheless, the protagonist is sure that it truly exists (he saw it on the cover of the book, after all) and sets out in search of the Roc's eyrie.

Along the way his ship is wrecked on an inaccessible stretch of shoreline. Luckily he alone survives and is brought before a wizard, who listens to his story with great sympathy. Moved by his plight, and taking his survival as sign of the favour of the gods, the wizard gives him some magic slippers that allow the wearer to levitate - once only. These should enable him to reach the Roc's eyrie.

Soon after arriving at the next city, however, the protagonist is mistaken for a notorious thief and is thrown into gaol, charged with having stolen a magnificent ruby from the Sultan's treasury. There he is befriended by a beggar who tells him a story about the legendary Roc. In return, the protagonist might choose to tell the beggar about his magic slippers. If he does, his trust is rewarded with treachery: he awakes the next day to find the beggar has escaped using the slippers, leaving behind only his mangy cat.

Unless he still has the slippers and uses them to levitate to freedom, the protagonist is still in the gaol a week later when the real thief is caught. This fellow, Azenomei, is thrown into the same cell, but the gaolers make no move to free the protagonist, assuming that even if he did not steal the ruby there must be some other crime he should pay for. That night the protagonist mentions his obsession with finding the Roc's nest. Much to his surprise, Azenomei agrees to help him on condition that they first go to the rescue of his sister, who has been carried off by a sinister Jinni to a citadel on the western edge of the Plain of Bronze.

Assuming the protagonist agrees, they escape from gaol that very night and within a week they have reached an oasis in the Desert of Skulls. The protagonist is summoned to the tent of a nomad princess who turns out to be a hideous ghoul. Although he should be able to survive this encounter relatively unscathed, it forces him and Azenomei to flee into the desert without filling their water-bags. A few days later, weakened by thirst, they stumble on another oasis at twilight. A stranger they meet here tells the protagonist he has found the Oasis Beyond The Mirage, and reveals a vision where the protagonist's reflection in a pool seems to be accompanied by an evil, gold-eyed man. When they awake the next morning there is no sign of the oasis or the stranger, though they now have full water-bags.

After a few further adventures they reach the Jinni's citadel. It seems deserted. With pounding heart the protagonist begins to search for Azenomei's sister, but somehow he loses Azenomei in the maze of corridors. At last he finds a scented chamber where the girl reclines on a divan to which she is bound by a golden chain. He is about to free her when the Jinni appears. It is his former companion, the one who called himself Azenomei! This is the meaning of the vision at the oasis. The Jinni reveals that he truly believes the protagonist to be the notorious jewel thief that the Sultan's guards mistook him for. The same thief once stole a great gem ("as big as the egg of the Roc that perches in its eyrie atop the Isle of Palms") from the Jinni's own hoard, and that is why he has lured the protagonist here. The protagonist's protestations of innocence are ignored and he is forced to fight for his life. Various items must have been gathered to stand any chance against the Jinni, but in fact the protagonist is helped by the girl, who reveals a knowledge of combat sorcery. After the battle she tells him she is actually the Sultan's daughter. Her magic was taught to her by her old nurse. However, she was not taught any spell to unlock the enchanted shackles binding her. For this, she says, the protagonist must get a jewelled key from the eyrie of the Roc.

Fortunately the Jinni has mentioned where the Roc can be found: on the highest peak of the Isle of Palms, which lies in the Gulf of Shamuz. The protagonist travels there and must use his magic slippers to levitate up to the nest. If he has already made use of the slippers, it is possible to succeed if he has bothered to keep the beggar's mangy cat. This miraculous animal has the property that its tail grows longer whenever an outrageous lie is spoken in its hearing. If the protagonist has treated the cat well and has learned of this power, he can cause the tail to reach right up to the Roc's nest and can climb up to get the jewelled key...

The protagonist might not have met the Sultan's daughter, of course, in which case he can just take part of the egg as he originally intended. This will make him rich beyond the dreams of avarice. If he takes the jewelled key instead, though, then his reward is even greater. After freeing the girl and returning her to her father, he is rewarded with a Robe of Honour and becomes the Sultan's vizier. Throughout the city he is lauded as the most daring thief in the world, for he stole the jewelled key from the Roc's nest and the princess from the Jinni's palace. Thus, one who began by being mistaken for another ends by becoming the one he was mistaken for.

I felt it needed more of a route in, but not the enforced quest of most single-story gamebooks. The story needed to be set in motion by the kind of arbitrary twist of fate (aha!) that characterizes the Arabian Nights. After that, the protagonist is cast around the world like a pinball by happenstance, coincidence and enemy action until it all ends happily ever after.

What I didn’t account for – or didn’t have time to correct – was that the original outline was predicated on you playing a thief. But in Virtual Reality books, the whole point is that you get to customize the kind of character you want. You might be a thief, but equally you might be a merchant or a nomad or a holy man. In a sandbox environment like Fabled Lands, it wouldn’t matter. You could bypass the thievish narrative, or come at it from another angle. In a single-story gamebook, the picaresque structure risked seeming unfocused.

When, last year, I came back to the book released as Twist of Fate (never liked that title - another area where time ran out on me) and got to rework it as Once Upon a Time in Arabia, the biggest change I made was to give it an entirely new prologue. The bad guy is now badder, his villainy toward you more egregious, and the stakes are higher right from the start. This goes somewhat against the fairytale dream-flow of the Arabian Nights – but it makes for a better gamebook, and on the question of foolish consistencies, I’m with Emerson.

The Keeper of the Seven Keys

Well, this is odd. In all the posts about "lost" Fighting Fantasy books, I've never actually featured the write-up for The Keeper of the Seven Keys. Correspondence at the time seems to indicate that Jamie and I submitted this to Puffin Books twice, first in April 1988 and then again the following year alongside the Fabled Lands prototype concept Knights of Renown.

Why two submissions? I think there may have been a change of editor at Puffin. At any rate, neither of them bit, and of all the proposals we came up with, the one that they plumped for was possibly the least interesting (Keep of the Lich Lord). I was recently asked in an interview by Jonathan Green why I didn't write more Fighting Fantasy books, and I think that answers the question.

We must have done quite a bit of work on this one, when you consider that the written proposal that gets sent to the publisher is just the tip of the iceberg. Certainly it was a concept that Jamie and I were pretty keen to do. Around the same time, I had the idea of doing a computer game called Dungeon Builder where one player would design a dungeon with a set number of points - 5 per orc, 10 for a pit trap, or whatever - and then a friend could try taking on the dungeon with a character based on the same points score. You could put allies into the dungeon for the contending player to find (those cost negative points) and even get tricksy by dropping an illusion spell (2 points) of an imprisoned knight onto an orc (5 points) so that it could tag around with the contender and backstab him when he least expected it. A gamble, of course, as he might have spent 15 points on the Detect Illusions skill. I mention that because Keeper of the Seven Keys would work pretty well as a boardgame or videogame, so maybe we'll resurrect it one day in another form.

Enough chat. You came here for the gamebooks, right? Thus, without further ado, the original pitch to Puffin from April 1988:

THE KEEPER OF THE SEVEN KEYS

This gamebook is intended as something original, markedly different from all previous gamebooks, and with a vein of humour running through it. The pattern of all gamebooks to date has been hero setting out to destroy the evil lord/demigod/demon, battling against great odds. The Keeper of the Seven Keys sets out to reverse that role. The reader plays the so-called Evil power beset by the fanatic forces of good. The book presents things from the viewpoint of the poor persecuted Lord of Darkness! So as to avoid any moral dilemma for younger readers, the so-called "Lord of Darkness" is actually no villain but a much maligned hero.

Introduction
You are Karabane, Master of the Seals and Runes, Knower of the Way and Member of the Honoured Society of Sages, an ancient and venerable society now all but extinct. Many years ago you set out on a quest to defeat a powerful demon lord who threatened the continent of Khul. Unable to completely destroy this entity, you were forced to bind it with powerful spells into a dimensional cage. Since then, you have dedicated your life to maintaining its imprisonment and have been forced to take up residence in the ancient castle of the demon lord. Through the intercession of divine forces of Good you have extended your life to carry out this mission. Each year for the last two centuries you have performed the rituals of binding.

Unfortunately the people of the land have come to view you as a force of Evil, the fearful inhabitant of the Tower of Doom, for your home is a fell forbidding place. They know you as Bane, or the Banelord, the Evil One, He who Sits in Malice, the Purveyor of Terrors, and so on. They call the old castle the Tower of Doom, The Place from which None Return, the Citadel of Illimitable Agonies, and the like. They call your servants the Creatures of Hell, Banebeasts, Servants of the Dark One, Fanged Horrors of the Tower of Doom, etc. Well, most of your servants are the original inhabitants and are indeed evil beings - but you have bound them to your will and thus the service of Good. After all, they are more reliable then mere humans.

For a time you played along with popular belief. You caused illusions of evil magics to light up the night sky around your home. You sent demons, flapping and cawing, to circle your tall towers and baroque battlements. This suited your purpose, for you wished to remain undisturbed by prying eyes, to execute your mission alone. Better for the safety of others that they continue to regard you as evil, and thus keep their distance. But now it seems that policy has backfired.

The nearby city of Arkand lives in fear of you. Poor harvests, blighted crops, disappearances, murders and so on - all are laid at your door. Crazed prophets, eager for congregations and donations, talk of your rise to power and the threat to civilization you are supposed to represent, and of how you must be destroyed, excised from the land like a canker. Kings and lords offer rewards for your death. Several times in the past you have had to fight off fanatic heroes and adventurers who sought to penetrate your citadel and slay you. Most failed to get past your wards and servants, but some have won through to your Inner Sanctum and you were then forced to use your sorcery to defeat them. This saddens you for they are great and good heroes, but you have been unable to reason with them. Many times you tried but they would clap hands over ears, yelling things like "Avaunt ye, spawn of Hell! I will not listen to your vile blandishments and devious words, O Lord of Lies!" You have never ceased to marvel at the determination and courage of these heroes. By your sorcery they are all kept safely in a millenial slumber, bound inside blocks of adamantine crystal. Regretfully you cannot free them, as they would merely attack you once more. All you have ever wished for is to be left alone. But it is not to be.

This time, things are bad. The beautiful Princess Araminta, fancying herself a scholar, scoured the Great Library of Arkand in her quest for knowledge. She discovered the history of the Society of Sages and the truth about you - who you really were and your real purpose. Curiosity aflame, she set out to visit you. Many tried to dissuade her but she crept out of the city at night, in secret. She came to you and you welcomed her, not only out of courtesy but because you were eager for the company of another human after so long. She loved your books and ancient artifacts and has spent days studying in the castle library where she is even now. But she is outstaying her welcome. The townsfolk say that you bewitched her and that foul demons spirited her away to your tower. The King of Arkand has promised her hand in marriage or a reward of fifty thousand crowns to the hero or heroine who will rescue her from your "evil clutches". Many heroes and adventurers flocked to Arkand and, in fear of your life, you went to Princess Araminta and begged her to return to her father's court. Absently she refused, patting you fondly on the head while she studied an ancient mirror that reflects the enhanced image of those who look in it so that they appear ten times more beautiful than they really are. She said she was enjoying herself too much and was not ready to leave. What could you do - short of throwing her out by force? And that, of course, would be quite wrong...

Some of the most powerful heroes and heroines of the age, mighty warriors and skilled sorcerors, have gathered at Arkand to pursue the quest. Their vow: "to slay the evil Banelord who has cast a dark shadow across the land for too long." Even now your outer defences have begun to sound the alarm. Winged Homunculi and Lesser Imps have come to you bearing messages. Groups of adventurers are heading towards the citadel and they look tough. And worse still, tonight is the very night you must perform the Rituals of Binding that must be performed each year to seal the demon lord Gagrash, Devourer of the Living, Bestower of Death, Giver of Unimaginable Sufferings, in his prison once more. If he escapes, the whole land could be destroyed! What are you going to do?

Special rules for The Keeper of the Seven Keys

The player will generate his or her character as normal for Fighting Fantasy (Skill, etc). Then some additional preparation is necessary. Essentially, the reader examines the map of the castle and places the defences and snares at his or her disposal so as to prevent the entry of three groups of heroes. Some of the heroes will inevitably win through to the Inner Sanctum for a climactic battle, but with skilful choice of defences the reader should be able to minimise the threat.

At the same time that this is going on, the reader must perform the rituals to bind the demon lord. Thus he or she also faces a race against time. There are also various other options and puzzles that must be solved - the reader will not just be sitting in the Inner Sanctum directing things. The demon lord must be bound by hourly rituals involving the use of the seven keys and thus the book will be divided into seven chronological stages. During these stages the rituals must be performed, the heroes will be penetrating further into the castle, and the reader will be taking defensive steps as needed. Passage of time is recorded by crossing off hours when directed to do so in the text:

Hour of the Wolf
Hour of the Dragon
Hour of the Bear
Hour of the Wyvern
Hour of the Tiger
Hour of the Unicorn
Hour of the Moon (midnight)

A map of the castle will be provided, as below:

The Tower of Doom, or The Place from which None Return, or The Citadel of Illimitable Agonies, or "Home Sweet Home".

A list of the reader's servitors will also be given, as below.

20 Demonkin
Winged gargoyles from another plane. You travelled there and bound them to your service a century ago.

50 Orcs
You must dress as a hideous demon and constantly display your powerful magics whenever an orc is about. They believe you to be a demon and worship you. You must bind them to your will with fear, for fear is all these filthy orcs understand.

2 Hellgaunts 
Demons of the Abyss. You have bound them to you - in your Sanctum you have two vials containg their smoking black hearts. Whoever possesses the hearts controls the hellgaunts.

4 Winged Homunculi
Little creatures like tiny winged old men. You created them in your laboratory using secrets of alchemy you found in an old parchment. The homunculi are useful as spies and messengers.

4 Lesser Imps
Slightly larger than the homunculi. Hideous little winged beasts that you won to your service using sorcery when you first defeated the demon lord Gagrash. Again useful as spies and messengers, although some also know rudimentary attack spells.

2 Automata of the Wizards of Qor
Two mechanical warriors that you created following ancient texts from the legendary land of Qor. Soulless creatures of ivory and iron with visors that spit lightning-bolts.

Beasts
In the Beastpits you keep various hideous beasts you have created or captured and enslaved. They can be released in certain areas but are equally likely to attack anyone (including you and your servants) who enters their assigned area.

The Enchanted Gate
The gate of the keep. Anyone who passes with evil intent against your person triggers the gate. It screams a warning that can be heard throughout your Citadel.

The Castle Defences
At the start the reader is provided with a chart to fill in, placing his defences as he wishes.

AREA
Wall A:
Wall B:
Wall C:
Wall D:
Tower of Night:
Tower of Stars:
Tower of the Moon:
Tower of the Sun:
Maingate:
Postern Gate:
The Well:
The Rivergate:
The Orc Barracks:
The Demonkin Barracks:
The Hall of Ancient Artifacts:
The Beastpits:
1st floor of Keep:
2nd Floor of Keep:
Inner Sanctum:
Cellar:

To place:
• 2 Hellgaunts (separately, one in each area)
• 2 Automata (separately, one in each area)
• 2 units of 25 orcs each
• 2 units of 10 demonkin each
• 2 groups of 2 homunculi
• 2 groups of 2 imps
• The beasts

Also the following, set to patrol area, will attack all comers:
• The Manticore
• The Gorgon
• The Wyvern

The reader will also have the following creatures in his Sanctum at the beginning of the adventure: 1 orc messenger, 1 demonkin messenger, 1 homunculus and 1 imp.

Artifacts
In addition to three Potions of Strength and one Potion of Fortune, the reader will also have several wonderous items at his disposal:

The Orb of All Seeing
This enables you to examine any area of the citadel at will, though it takes some time to examine an area.

The Staff of Might
Adds 1 to skill and 1 to damage done in combat.

The Ring of Excellent Defence
Subtracts 1 from any Stamina loss that results from a wound taken in combat.

Book of Spells
Enables Karabane to cast various spells:
• Lightning Bolt - an attack spell that inflicts the loss of 1-6 Stamina points.
• Battleskill - adds 1 to Skill for the duration of a single encounter.
• Healing - restores one die's worth of lost Stamina.
• Confusion - reduces the target's Skill by 1.
• Teleport - enables Karabane to teleport back to his Sanctum.

These spells will generally be usable when indicated in the text.

Other items are held either in the cellar or in the Hall of the Ancient Artifacts. Karabane will have to take time fetching these if he thinks they might be needed. Such items are those whose name and general function is known, but whose precise powers must be tested (possibly with unexpected results) during the course of play. They include the Mirror of Reflecting Thunderbolts, the Iron Bell of Meragren, the Shield of Ice (said to absorb flame), and so on. These things may become useful depending on how the plot develops.

Heroes
The reader will also be provided with a list of the heroes gunning for him and some useful information about them. These are:

Barak Arakyn the Berserk
A berserker warrior in light armour who wields his two-handed battleaxe "Slayer". A peerless fighter of heroic strength and endurance.

Sir Gondris of the Order of Knights Errant
A paladin of an order dedicated to destroying evil everywhere. Wears full plate: the Armour of Purity, the Shield of Truth and the Sword of Wrath. A renowned knight of unswerving purpose and redoubtable might.

Kalara of Arkand
A noted adventurer and suspected thief. Has a reputation of being a rogue. She wields the Longbow of Qor and the Arrows of Flame.

Arcos Arcanus
Master of Magics and Doctor of Marvels. A powerful wizard of great power and repute.

Mogresh
Alchemist of Fernor and Priest of the Holy Ones. A famous 'smiter of evil'. A fanatic priest and creator of many herbal potions which can be used in combat.

Uldarik Hsao
Master of the Martial Arts and Supreme Sensei of Unarmed Combat. A martial artist from Hachiman, skilled in all forms of unarmed combat.

Fudoshin Raiko
A lordless samurai from Konichi in Hachiman. This famous master of the sword has sworn to destroy Karabane even at the cost of his own life.

Syrena, Amazon of Kelados
A mighty fighter, she is known to wield the Helm of Thunderbolts, and the Sword and Shield of Chrysos (an ancient legendary hero).

Prince Chemcho of Sariandor
A noted warrior-mage. Wields a slender sword of night-black steel. This dashing roguish adventurer is said to know some powerful spells.

During the book the reader will have the opportunity to consult his library about the heroes and their weapons and abilities.

The heroes are divided into three groups of three:

Group A - Sir Gondris, Mogresh and Fudoshin Raiko
Group B - Kalara, Prince Chemcho and Barak Arakyn
Group C - Syrena, Uldarik and Arcos

Events
The following would not be known to the player, but it demonstrates the general course which the book would take and is divided into stages, corresponding to the hours:

Of course, some heroes may not even get all the way through, depending on the reader's actions.

The optimum conclusion leads to the remaining heroes witnessing the start of Karabane's battle with the demon lord. If Karabane can convince them where the true evil lies, they will help destroy the demon lord forever and Karabane will have succeeded in clearing his name. This conclusion requires the reader to act with restraint, putting himself into danger at some points in order to achieve a non-violent resolution to his battle with the nine heroes.

*  *  *

A few notes of mild interest: Gondris was the name of a player-character in my Tekumel campaign at Oxford. Serena was a very fit instructor at the gym Jamie and I used to work out at. Arcos was a character Jamie played in the RuneQuest campaign that I and Oliver Johnson ran for a while to playtest the Questworld scenario pack that Games Workshop had commissioned us to write. (I say commissioned, but no money ever changed hands nor did they go so far as to give us a contract.) Uldarik was the name of one of Jamie's NPC bodyguards in the Tekumel campaign that I and Steve Foster ran in London. Mogresh may have taken his name from Mogs, the nickname of one of the players in that campaign. You get all the trivia here, eh?

The origin of the Lich Lord

I've previously posted the various FF gamebook proposals Jamie and I made to Puffin. Though I preferred some (actually, most) of the others, the one they went for in the end was Keep of the Lich Lord. I don't remember a whole lot about it. As it was set in the Fighting Fantasy world, it wasn't personal to us and we treated it as just a job. Hopefully we made a decent fist of it, but I guess the right people to answer that one are the collectors of FF books.

The proposal that the Puffin editors picked is here exactly as we originally submitted it:

You have journeyed to the Arrowhead Islands east of Khul, where you signed on for a short time as a mercenary in the famous White Tiger Regiment. Now your term of service is up, but just as you are packing your belongings to leave Port Vernale, word reaches you that you have been summoned by the Triumvirs - the Council of Three who rule the Varadian Alliance. You arrive at the Council Chamber to find old General Dolon waiting for you. He explains the situation as you wait together for your audience with the Triumvirs.

"Even though you're a foreigner, you've learned a bit about our country while you've been here," he says. "You know that the various city-states of the Varadian Alliance are the outer bulwark of civilization against the reavers of Blood Island. Our fleets hold those chaos-pirates in check, and have done for centuries. Now that could be changing. Our main eastern fortification is Bloodrise Keep, on Stayng Island. We've lost contact with the Keep and the outlying villages."

Before General Dolon can tell you any more, you are called into the Council Chamber. The Triumvirs are studying a glimmering image that hangs in the centre of the chamber - a V-shaped line of verdant islands set in an azure sea. You realise it is a strategic map of the Arrowhead archipelago fashioned by means of mirage-spells.

One of the Triumvirs points to a bright red dot on the shore of the easternmost island. "This shows the location of Bloodrise Keep," he says. "The General will have filled you in on the background details. We have here the last report filed by Castellan Braxis, and it sheds a rather sinister light on recent developments there."

You take the report and quickly scan it. Bloodrise Keep will shortly fall, it reads. The troops I sent to investigate the strange lights in the sky above the village of Menela have now returned. They have marched back to within sight of the walls but refuse to answer signals. A runner sent out came back shivering with dread. He got close enough to see that the men have grey mask-like faces and their eyes are the staring eyes of zombies! In place of their old battle standards they now carry ragged black pennants - the symbol of plague. Even as I write it is close to dusk and the camp is active. Troops are massing, and people from the villages are also milling about the camp as though hypnotised. I can see a man in tarnished silver armour who appears to be in command. Now he has given the order for his troops to advance. There are too many, and the small garrison I have left cannot hope to hold them off for more than a few hours. I will send this report by messenger pigeon and hope it is not shot down by the enemy's archers. Now it only remains for me to take up my weapons and go out onto the battlements for the last stand. I regret having failed in your service, my lords. I am your dutiful vassal, Braxis, Castellan of Bloodrise Keep.

"A brave man..." you say grimly as you hand the report back. "Do you have any information on who the silver-armoured warlord might be? And how he took control of Braxis's troops?"

"It is all too clear," says one of the Triumvirs. "The black plague-standards and tarnished silver armour are the trademarks of Lord Mortis of Balthor, who was formerly Tyrant of Stayng Island and who tried to conquer the eastern provinces of our nation. It took the combined strength of all the Varadian armies to defeat him, for he was a mighty necromancer as well as a warlord, and it is said that he recruited his own army from the bodies of fallen foes."

Baffled, you turn to General Dolon. "How is it I've never heard of this Mortis?" you ask. "I didn't know there'd been any wars within the archipelago for centuries."

"There haven't," he says. "This all happened two hundred years ago. Mortis died in battle and was buried in a black granite tomb near the village of Menela. Now it seems that he has returned from the grave to take his revenge."

The Triumvirs nod in agreement. "He is even now turning the people of Stayng into undead," says one. "His evil will eat at our good empire like a cancerous wound until excised. For this we have need of a sharp knife. You."

General Dolon takes you straight to the harbour, where a ship has already been prepared for you. Although he is hardly a young man, even you have difficulty keeping up with his brisk strides. On the way he explains that most of the military strength of the Varadian Alliance is currently tied up fighting the reavers of Blood Island. "That means you're on your own," he says. "In any case, because assassinating Mortis would immediately neutralise his entire army of zombies, the Triumvirs feel it makes more sense to send one capable individual than a body of troops."

On arriving at the ship, Dolon introduces you to the captain and then accompanies you to your cabin for a final briefing. He gives you a map of Stayng Island and a Ring of Communing. "The ring will allow you to telepathically communicate with us for information or advice - but over such a large distance it will only function a limited number of times, so use it sparingly."

A whistle from on deck signals that the ship is ready to cast off. Dolon turns in the doorway of the cabin for a last word. "Don't forget," he says grimly, "it's vital that you stop Mortis before his undead army can join forces with the reavers. All our lives are in your hands."

"Rest assured, General," you reply as you slip the Ring of Communing onto your finger, "I'll return Lord Mortis to his grave."

It is only after he has saluted you and left that you find an inner voice adding: "...or die trying." Now turn to 1...

NOTES

Since most of the military strength of the Varadian Alliance is currently tied up fighting the reavers of Blood Island, the protagonist is on his own. The Triumvirs feel in any case that, because assassinating Mortis would immediately neutralise his entire army of zombies, it makes more sense to send one capable individual than a body of troops. It is vital that he stops Mortis before the undead army can join forces with the reavers.

The protagonist is given a map of Stayng Island and a Ring of Communing. The latter item allows him to telepathically communicate with the Council for information or advice - but only a limited number of times during the adventure. Once having reached Stayng, he can travel to one of the three villages mentioned. It is most sensible to go to Menela, where Mortis was buried - in the tomb he will find an ivory spear which was thrust into Mortis's chest by a hero of old, and which still has the power to destroy him. The other two villages contain some useful clues, though it is important that the protagonist does not waste so much time looking for these that Mortis leaves with his undead fleet. In Menoa there is an old wizard hiding in the sewers who may give the protagonist a useful potion to bolster his resolve against necromantic hypnosis. In the third village, Keladon, the protagonist may encounter a centaur who will act as a steed, allowing much faster movement around the island. It is also possible for the protagonist to meet up with some villagers in a "refugee camp" in the woods. Among them is a minstrel whose songs of ancient heroes contain several clues as to how to overcome Mortis.

The book features two special rules systems. First is the Resolve characteristic, which is rated from 6 to 12. It is a measure of the protagonist's ability not to panic when confronted with undead, and his resistance to hypnosis. Resolve is used in a similar way to Luck, except that it increases each time it is used - because the protagonist gradually gets inured to the horrors he will encounter on Stayng. A clever player will exploit this fact, allowing himself to get used to minor encounters first rather than charging straight in to tackle Mortis with all his undead legions.

The second rule feature is completely unique and unlike anything tried in other gamebooks. When in the Keep, the protagonist will have to avoid undead patrols. Patrols which he does fight will fail to report in after their tour of inspection, and the central security of the Keep will tend to note this and despatch more patrols to the area to investigate. This is represented by a cunning rule technique. Each encounter the protagonist has gives him an Alarm Value to add to a running score. The Alarm Value is reduced by 1 each time he turns to a new entry without encountering something. If he turns to an entry that does involve an encounter, however, then the current Alarm Value is doubled and the new Alarm Value is added to that. The total Alarm Value determines the strength of the encounter: the higher it is, the more zombies he must fight. The impression given is of an intelligent security network operating inside the Keep. The protagonist must try to avoid patrols - and, even more importantly, he must get out of areas of the Keep where he has seen several patrols in a short time, otherwise the security system will begin to home in on his location and will send ever-tougher patrols to capture him.

Aficionados may like to compare that to the proposals for The Mists of Horror, Knights of Renown (the precursor to Fabled Lands), The Curse of the God Kings and Dinosaurs of Death. (There's actually one more, but I think we'll save that for a special occasion. Tantalizing or what?)

Jamie and I split the work right down the middle, with him doing the 200 paragraphs up until you enter the keep, and me taking over from there. But editor Marc Gascoigne, now at SF publisher Angry Robot, took exception to about fifty sections that were devoted to wandering around a cemetery on the cliff tops, a classic gamebook maze set-up where you had to know the sequence of directions to get out. I added an extra series of encounters in the keep to replace the cemetery sequence outside, so in the end you got about 60% me and 40% Jamie - though he jumped in and contributed part of Blood Sword book 5 when Oliver got too busy on other things, so in the grand scheme of things it probably all evens out. And if there is anything more you could possibly wish to know about this Fighting Fantasy book, you'll certainly find it in this very comprehensive write-up!

We have a real gamebook scoop coming up in about two weeks. But plenty of other cool stuff before then, never fear.

The language of the gods

We are running out of Jamie's and my old Fighting Fantasy pitches that have proved so popular, but here is another one. It was based on one of our Empire of the Petal Throne campaigns, though with the exuberantly imaginative setting of M.A.R. Barker's Tekumel tamed down instead to fit into the committee-designed comfy quilt that was FF’s “Titan”. The Puffin editors preferred Keep of the Lich Lord so that is what posterity got.

CURSE OF THE GOD KINGS

Because your journeying has brought you, without any particular plan on your part, to the city where your friend Aramanthis the wizard lives, you decide to pay him a visit. However, on arriving at his home you are shocked to discover him lying on his bed surrounded by worried servants. When he sees you, he tells them all to leave. His voice is very weak, and it looks to you that Aramanthis is not long for this world. Once you are alone together, he struggles to hold off death long enough to tell you something of great importance.

"I have been beyond the world's edge," he says. "To the unknown land beyond Marpesia. You do not know Chargan the Golden, I think, but he is a sorcerer who has studied occult matters for as long as I. Together we undertook a voyage to the uncharted land, for Chargan had found ancient scrolls that told of a great empire that ruled there a hundred centuries ago. This empire was called Kamada Varrentis, and its rulers learned the Language of the Gods, whose nouns are worlds and whose grammar speaks with the force of natural law. Any wish or whim of the Emperors of Kamada Varrentis would instantly be gratified, as long as they phrased it in the Language of the Gods."

You can see that your old friend is fading fast. "Save your strength," you tell him soothingly.

"For what? I will be dead before the sands have run through yon hourglass. Listen to what I say, my friend. Chargan and I struggled through terrible hardships - ice jungles the like of which I have never seen in any part of the known world, three eyed savages who chased us with weapons of living liquid, pinnacles that rose a thousand feet sheer out of bleached salt marsh... But we found it. We found the ruins of Kamada Varrentis. And we found the books containing the Language of the Gods. Overcome with a lust for power, Chargan read three pages, and whatever it was he learnt has driven him mad. He no longer knew who I was, and as he turned from the book he spoke a syllable that made the sky shake! I fled from him in terror, and by some miracle I managed to get back here to tell the tale. But I am an old man, and the arduous voyage has proved too much for me. I must leave matters in your hands. You must stop Chargan before he tampers with the very fabric of our world. The mountains, the seasons of the year, the course of rivers even the motion of the stars - all of these can be altered as easily as a child builds a sandcastle, by someone who knows the Language of the Gods."

And our accompanying notes to the Puffin editors:

Probably this has the scope to be the toughest Fighting Fantasy book ever! The dangers of the uncharted continent are, as Aramanthis said, unlike anything in any other part of Titan. For the protagonist it is a case of sink or swim. He or she will have to quickly find out how to survive while trying to locate Chargan.

The protagonist will not recognize Chargan when they do find him. He has lost his memory and will attach himself to the protagonist's expedition in the belief that he is a travelling priest. Only as they penetrate further inland towards the ruins of Kamada Varrentis will Chargan begin to remember who he is and what has happened to him. His power to alter reality manifests itself in short bursts, and the protagonist will have to be alert to such clues in order to find out the truth.

Obviously Chargan is much too powerful a foe to overcome in a straight fight once his amnesia has gone. The protagonist will have to try and outwit him. There are several ways that this can be achieved, but none of them are easy. One alternative allows the protagonist to learn the Language of the Gods himself and engage Chargan in what must surely be the gamebook battle to end them all. The best way to win is to use the Language of the Gods to neutralize itself - thus depriving both Chargan and the protagonist of this "ultimate power" - but there are other ways.

Once bitten

Another never-was gamebook today. This one might have eventually been pitched to Puffin Books's gamebook editor, Marc Gascoigne and could have ended up as a Fighting Fantasy title, except that Jamie and I got sidetracked by working on a number of computer games at Eidos - for Fighting Fantasy originator Ian Livingstone, as a matter of fact, who was then Eidos's creative director, and may indeed still be.

The title of the book/game was either going to be Slurp or Thirst (the latter an hommage to horror author Gerald W Page, as explained here) and the idea was that you played a Victorian vampire lord called the Count. Casting a glance over the design overview today, the only feature of any real originality was that, instead of a power bar, you got to see your current health by the color of the images. Full strength was to be shown by vivid saturated color with strong reds, fading towards sepia monochrome as the Count went without blood. A common enough trick today (eg The Witcher) but new at the time.

The concept of player-as-villain was something Jamie and I were toying with a lot in those days. I've already discussed our gamebook proposal for Keeper of the Seven Keys, and we also had a proposal for a PC strategy game in which good fought evil, which we called Light & Dark. (Yes, Black and White was a much better title - but we came up with ours first, so there.)

Slurp would have been okay as a gamebook, but was rather too vanilla-flavored to work as a videogame. Pea-soupers, hansom cabs, gaslight - needs more, something to make it brandable and unique. A year or so in the industry stripped the scales from our eyes and we reworked it from the grave-soil up as Shadow King. But, just for those completists out there, here's the original book blurb:

Fog swirls thickly, blurring the wan gaslamps that line the narrow London streets. Underfoot, the cobblestones are slick and dark. From far away, beyond the maze of alleys that is Seven Dials, comes the muffled clatter of hansom cabs. The theatres on Shaftsbury Lane are emptying. There is a distant ring of laughter, made eerie and forlorn by the fog.

Here, among the shadows, is another world. A haunted labyrinth of thieves and opium dens, where figures lurk in the dark doorways and human life has little worth. It is a jungle of rain-streaked glass and soot-blackened brick, a jungle teeming with prey whose warm rich blood excites your senses like a drug.

A girl turns the corner, footsteps echoing off the alley walls as she hurries on her way. She glances at you as she goes past. You did not need to see her eyes to sense the fear. It is obvious from the nervous posture, the quick life-scented breath, the triphammer of her heart.

You turn to watch her, her shadow scurrying across the bleak shuttered facade of the street. There is no-one to see her fate. If you had lifeblood of your own you might feel it quicken with excitement, but your own veins are dry and dead. It is the blood of others that you crave to stir your shrivelled heart and give another night of almost-life.

The girl reaches her home - a squalid bedsit. She looks behind her as she fumbles for the key, but she does not see you. You have merged with the fog. The hunter and the jungle are one. You study your prey coldly, as if from a gulf of eons, waiting for the moment to strike.

She closes the door behind her and leans against it. Now, when she thinks she is safe -

The door is no barrier. Like mist you seep around it, taking shape again as the girl lights her lamp. From behind the dead hands seize her - hands that tamed falcons, slew a thousand Turks, played chess with Voltaire, made love to the most beautiful women of Europe. The same hands now hold your prey like a vice and the long white fangs slide into her.

The girl makes the slightest of moans and then goes limp. You stand there with her in your arms, immobile as a statue. As the life drains out of her and into you, your arid veins rush with blood. The sensation is the closest you will ever come, now, to pain or pleasure.

Too soon, there is nothing left. You let the empty carrion fall from your grasp. Your heart throbs again, vigour restored, but the bitterness and frustration are like bile within you. A parched desert washed by sudden rain, the life you gain each time is potent but short-lived. This victim was poor, too underfed to yield much sustenance. Tomorrow you must hunt again.

The door splinters inwards. You turn with a snarl. Engrossed in feeding, you did not sense their approach. There are three of them. The reek of garlic flowers surrounds them and there are lethal hawthorn stakes in their hands. The silver crucifix you sense before you see it, its deathly power is so great.

Van Helsing steps forward, pushing the crucifix towards your face. "Dracula!" he cries. "Fiend, you have slain your last victim."

The fool! Does he think himself well-armed? To challenge you now, in the dead of night, when your strength has just now freshly been renewed? Despite his bluster, you can see the terror behind his eyes.

"The blood is the life, Van Helsing. And now I will drink my fill of yours!"

Dinosaurs of death!

Another of our "lost" Fighting Fantasy books. Jamie and I submitted this proposal on April 13, 1988 - golly, that's a while back. I can't remember why they rejected it. Possibly not in keeping with the subtle themes and high literary standards of the FF series. We must have sat down with a copy of the FF world guide to draft the pitch, because otherwise we would never have known the names of the cities and suchlike. (I thought Vymorna was a brand of wall covering.) Anyway, without further ado:

Dinosaurs of Death

This book takes place some time after the lifting of the siege of Vymorna. Rebuilding is under way, and many who had fled to the mountains or across the sea for refuge are now flocking back with their belongings. The people of the city are looking forward to a new era of prosperity.

You are summoned to the palace. There, the Queen and her generals tell you of a merchant who has recently arrived in Vymorna. This man had been shipwrecked on the coastal flats fringing the Silur Cha swamp. By some miracle he was able to evade the retreating Lizard Men forces and make his way north - on the way gathering valuable information about the enemy's plans. It seems that the Lizard Men have been preparing an entire army of dinosaur-cavalry for a desperate, all-out assault on Vymorna. The generals' assessment is that this assault will be launched quite soon, as the Lizard Men need a breakthrough to restore the shattered morale of their troops.

As captain of one of the long-range patrols that was operating out of the mountains during the six years of the siege, you are used to sustained activity deep behind enemy lines, and have proved time and again that you can act with initiative and courage. Queen Perriel gives you a crystal talisman before personally briefing you for this new mission. You are to skirt the swamplands and penetrate the camp on the edge of the Plain of Bones, where the new army and their dinosaur-mounts are gathering. The camp covers a strip of land nearly fifty miles long - indicating a troop strength of at least twenty thousand. Vymorna's best sorcerers and sages have determined that a vast fault line runs through the rock strata below the camp. At present this fault line is dormant, showing itself only in the occasional slight tremor or hot spring. If you find no other way to disrupt the Lizard Men's plans, you must enter the volcanic caves above the fault and drop the crystal talisman into the main fissure. This talisman will act as a focus for the combined efforts of Vymorna's sorcerers, hopefully allowing them to project sufficient magical energy to break the fault line open. This will drop the entire Lizard Man army into the lava-filled pits deep in the earth's bowels - but you will die, too, if you cannot find an escape route in time!

One unique feature of this book is the aerial joust which takes place at one point between the protagonist and a Lizard Man champion. Special rules allow for a 3D battle where altitude is also a factor to consider. We will flowchart the position and possible manoeuvres of the joust and incorporate these into a sequence which loops until one combatant has been defeated or forced to crashland. The Lizard Knight's tactics are determined by a dice roll at the start of each loop sequence, so that in one case he might decide to dive straight down in attack while at a later point he might spiral upwards to get into a better position. The dice roll is modified by numbers that take account of how the battle is progressing. (In other words, rather than just acting at random, the Lizard Knight acts like an intelligent opponent.) The range of actions the Lizard Knight might take means that quite an extensive battle can be simulated using only twenty or thirty numbered paragraphs out of the whole book.

We also feel it would be interesting to refer to the various dinosaurs by their literal names: Thunder Lizard for brontosaurus, Three-Horn Mask for triceratops, and so on. This reimbues the dinosaurs with a fantasy flavour that their scientific names tend to detract from, as well as giving the reader the fun of working out which is which from the descriptions given.

In days of old

I already posted about the various proposals Jamie and I made to Puffin for a late entry in the Fighting Fantasy series. The one they picked was Keep of the Lich-Lord, but we really liked some of the others. Here’s one with an Arthurian slant, something we had been interested in exploring in gamebook form for some time. And therein lies a tale – but first, take a look at the proposal we submitted to Puffin in 1989:

Knights of Renown

This is presented either as a Fighting Fantasy gamebook or as the basis for a separate series like the Robin of Sherwood gamebooks.

The story is set in Arthurian times with the reader taking the part of a young knight. His or her quest is to perform some great deed to win a place at the Round Table. Throughout the adventure the young knight will encounter other famous knights and characters from Arthurian myth like Lancelot, Gawain, Guinevere and Mordred.

The tale begins with the reader making a declaration of intent to King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. In response, Arthur tells him of a strange Grey Knight, a giant, who has slain many a worthy knight. His tower is on a bleak moor in a remote corner of the kingdom of Logres. If the young knight can rid the land of the evil Grey Knight he will win himself a seat at the Round Table. The young knight sets out, but is not the only one undertaking the quest. Others also seek glory and fame, including one or two established knights of Arthur's court. Everyone hopes to be the first to encounter and best the Grey Knight, so speed is of the essence.

On the journey, the knight comes across an enchanted marquee in a lonely glade. This is the Pavilion of Dreams. If the knight successfully survives an attempt by evil forces to bewitch him, Merlin will appear and tell him about the Lance of Longinus. This sacred artifact would be of great help in defeating the evil Grey Knight. It is said to lie in the crypt of the ruined Abbey de l'Ombre which the knight must find somewhere in the Forest of Caerleon.

After a series of adventures the young knight will at last confront the Grey Knight of the Wastes – only to discover he was once a human knight who has been ensorcelled by Morgan Le Fay. If the hero has earlier obtained some oil taken from the Holy Sepulchre it will be possible to anoint the Grey Knight and alter him back to human size and disposition. Before this can be done, of course, the Grey Knight must somehow be subdued. The reader will certainly need the Holy Lance and to recall Merlin's advice in order to achieve this.

Returning to Camelot, the young knight can claim his reward, a seat at the Round Table. The fact that he also denounces Morgan will vex her, and allows her to become a recurring figure if there is a sequel.

Special Rules for Fighting Fantasy

The knight will have some extra abilities as well as the standard FF ones:

RENOWN
Starts at 2. Renown is a numerical rating of the knight's fame and can increase or decrease as the adventure unfolds. It will govern things like whether a knight would be willing to joust with you or how likely you are to be recognised from your coat-of-arms. For instance, during the game you may be lost and wounded in a remote forest. Finding a castle, you approach the gate. If your Renown is above a certain score the lord of the castle will let you in and aid you, pleased to have so famous a knight as a guest. If it is too low, he might decide you’re just a wanderer of dubious intent and turn you away.

CHIVALRY
A representation of how honourable and knightly the player is. Chivalry will decrease or increase as the adventure continues. In certain situations your Chivalry score might influence or even dictate your actions. For instance, you come across a princess imprisoned in a tower and guarded by a very powerful knight. If your Chivalry score is very high, you are obliged to attempt a rescue. If it is low you would have free choice in the matter, but failing to try and help her would cause your Chivalry to drop even further. Thus a Knight with high Renown and low Chivalry would be seen as a mighty fighter but not a man of honour – perhaps an evil knight. In Arthurian myth, characters like Sir Agravaine, Breunis Sans Pite and Tarquin would be of this sort.

JOUSTING
An ability that functions just as Skill in combat, except that it would apply only in jousts. The techniques of the joust make it a way for knights to settle disputes with the maximum use of expertise and the minimum chance of fatality. Some evil knights refuse jousts, preferring to go straight to the business of melee and slaughter. Whether it is possible to ignore a challenge to joust depends on the result of a Chivalry roll.

PIETY
A characteristic generated at the start in the same way as Luck. Piety reflects the knight's ability to perform acts of devotion such as an all-night vigils in a chapel. A high Piety score also allows the knight to drive back evil spirits and break enchantments. When required, the player would throw dice exactly as if making a Luck roll but using his Piety score. (Piety does not decrease with use, but may decrease or increase as a result of special events during the course of the adventure.)

Knights of Renown as non-Fighting Fantasy

MELEE
Generated at the start by rolling one dice and adding 3. This is used in combats when the knight wields a sword, mace, morning star or other melee weapon. In combat, roll 2 dice and if the score is equal to or less than your Melee rating you have scored a hit. You then roll another dice. This is the number of points your opponent loses from his Endurance score. Your opponent then does the same. Combat continues in this manner until someone yields or is slain. Opponents will vary widely in their Melee ratings. Different weapons have different damage ratings. The knight may also find items that increase the damage he inflicts or that enhance his Melee score – for example, if Excalibur is lent to the knight it increases his Melee by 2 and allows him to add +2 to the dice score when rolling for damage.

ENDURANCE
The knight begins with 30 Endurance points. When these fall to zero he is dead. Lesser degrees of wounding will slow him up and affect his Melee score.

ARMOUR
The knight begins with chainmail armour, a helmet and a shield. This deducts 2 from all damage rolls made against him (or 1 if the shield is lost). Better armour may be found during the course of the adventure.

JOUST
The knight may be required to joust against other knights. This involves the use of the lance on horseback, and is a very different skill from Melee. The character’s Joust score is generated by rolling one dice and subtracting 1. A joust is conducted in 'runs'. Before each run, you must decide whether you are aiming for your opponent's head or his shield. The reader rolls 2 dice, and adds his Joust skill (which could begin at zero). He then does the same for his opponent. A total of 12 or more means your opponent has been unseated. (Thus it is possible for both contestants to be unseated simultanouesly.) A roll of 2 on the dice means your lance has shattered whether or not the final result unhorses your opponent.An unseated knight may take damage from falling to the ground. Someone whose opponent aimed at his shield takes 1 dice damage. A hit on the head inflicts 2 dice, and a roll of 12 when aiming at the head kills the knight outright! For this reason most decent knights go for a foe's shield rather than his head. Success in a joust allows a knight to improve his Renown and Joust scores.

CHIVALRY
This works as described for the Fighting Fantasy variant, except that the knight may be required to make a Chivalry roll. A roll of on or below the Chivalry score on two dice forces the reader to behave according to the strict rules of honourable conduct, while a roll above the Chivalry score permits him to try a more devious approach. High Chivalry is much admired and may help in gaining boons from the King, but it often forces the knight to take a straightforward and careless approach to danger.

RENOWN
This is the same as in the Fighting Fantasy variant except that a Renown roll may have to be made, as detailed for Chivalry above.

PIETY
As the Fighting Fantasy variant, except a roll may be made as for Renown and Chivalry.

Further books in the series would involve the Knight, now fully fledged, undertaking adventures based on Arthurian myth such as the search for the Holy Grail, the hunting of Questing Beast, the encounter between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and so on.

Okay, so that was the pitch to Puffin. The book sounds like it would have been a fairly typical gamebook, probably influenced by the Pendragon campaign run by Ian Marsh that we were occasionally playing in back then. (And the Grey Knight..? I know, I know - but remember that when you're making a pitch that may end up getting hammered into a slot somewhere in the world of Puffin's FF books, you're not going to pull out all the creative stops.)

But now look at this earlier proposal, dating from 1987, that Jamie and I sent to several book publishers. See if it reminds you of anything:

HERO QUEST
A quantum leap in the evolution of gamebooks... and a new way of presenting the old favourites of folktale and myth

This proposal combines elements of gamebooks, role-playing and board games. Hero Quest is set in a mythic landscape (perhaps the worlds of the Norse legends, Arthurian myths or the Arabian Nights) and allows the reader to participate in the stories.

To give some idea of what is involved, consider what the book looks like. It consists of a number of large colour maps which might depict, say, Britain in Arthurian times. The reader begins by deciding whose eyes he or she wants to experience the story through; in this case, it might be Lancelot, Gawain, Morgan, Mordred or Balin. Areas on the map are marked with numbers, and after travelling to an area (moving a counter across the map) the reader gets to turn to the corresponding numbered paragraph. This then guides him or her on through other paragraphs, in the manner of a solo gamebook, until it is time to move on to a new location. The reader discovers missions and goals while playing. For instance, a reader playing Lancelot might disgrace himself at Camelot and be told by King Arthur that he must atone by finding one of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain and returning with it to the court before New Year's Day.

How does it differ from traditional gamebooks? First and foremost, since the reader is creating the overall narrative for himself, there is no need for the long linking passages and purple prose found in a conventional gamebook. Paragraphs would be quite short, as the emphasis is on exploring the episodic form of the story (why a knight behaves honourably, what it means to refuse a challenge, why one must be wary of elves, etc). Each possible character will have different skills and shortcomings, and the reader must be aware of these when deciding how best to act. Gawain will find it easy to behave honourably, for example, but almost impossible to tell a lie. En route from place to place, a matrix and dice roll would give the reader random encounters that might range from a disputing knight at a crossroads to a haunted priory by the roadside.

All episodes would be drawn from the original sources, so in a sense this is just a new way to tell the old stories. This way of discovering legends by "living" them, though, has a number of advantages over traditional narrative form. It clarifies the reasons why a protagonist makes the particular decisions and choices that he does. It shows the consequences of alternative courses of action. And for a modern reader accustomed to the lure of television and computer games, it makes the stories infinitely more vivid and exciting than in a traditional third-person narrative.

Leaving aside the need to couch our proposal in respectable literary terms (ie the emphasis on being true to existing legends, which was necessary to sell to editors who were even then quite hostile to what they regarded as “trash” fantasy) what’s interesting is that this was essentially a proposal to create a series like Fabled Lands – a full eight years before we actually got to do “The War-Torn Kingdom”. Had we got FL started in 1987, when gamebooks were at the height of their success in Britain and Europe, I am quite sure we would have been able to complete the twelve-book series and probably carry on and do more. That Tardis is going to be busy if I ever get the fluid link fixed.

A lost Fighting Fantasy gamebook

I keep saying, "Here's a curious little fragment" so by now you know that's par for the course around here, right? Today we've got one of several proposals that Jamie and I submitted to Puffin as ideas for Fighting Fantasy books.

The book the Puffin editors went for in the end, The Keep of the Lich Lord, was actually our least favorite of the bunch. The one reproduced here, The Mists of Horror, might have been fun to do but we were keener on four others: Curse of the God Kings (based on one of our epic role-playing campaigns with Oliver Johnson, Mark Smith and others), The Best Thief in Arantis (which I was very very glad to eventually write, located instead in its correct Arabian Nights setting, as Twist of Fate), The Keeper of the Seven Keys (very ambitious that one; you played the bad guy in what would have been a gamebook precursor of Dungeon Keeper) and Jamie's favorite, Dinosaurs of Death, which did exactly what it said on the tin and surely would have pleased boys everywhere. Including us two boys who wanted to write it.

Maybe we'll run some of the others later, but for now here's the pitch we made to Puffin Books for...

The Mists of Horror

You are a journeyman-sorcerer travelling to a new College of Magic where you intend to continue your studies. Your journey takes you from the city of Harabnab across the wild moors of Ruddlestone's hinterland. Full of high spirits, you decide to ride on ahead of your retinue to arrange lodging at an inn along the road. As you return to join them, you find yourself riding into gathering fog banks. You can find no sign of your servants, nor of the books and travelling-chest that were on the mules with them. You go on to the inn, expecting your servants to turn up there, but night falls and still they have not arrived.

Outside, the fog has closed its grip on the countryside. You can see it sitting along the ridges of the moor like the ranks of a phantom army. You realise you would have no chance of finding your servants now, so you return to brood by the fire. It is nearly midnight when a man staggers in, his clothes torn as if by brambles and his face white with shock. The landlord recognises him as the miller from the next village down the road. He mutters a few cryptic remarks about "the Faerie King" and "the Unseelie Court" before collapsing in delirium.

The next day, you look out of your window to see the village encircled by fog. Stray wisps creep across the ground outside, and it seems the fog is closing in.

You go downstairs to find the villagers gathered in the common room of the inn. There are mutterings about an old stone circle out on the moors, and the village priest fearfully relates the ancient story that this was a portal leading to the Otherworld, where the spiteful fays of the Unseelie Court reign supreme. The ancient tradition was that a blood sacrifice should be made once in every hundred years to keep the portal closed, but since the locals turned to the worship of the benevolent Hamaskis, God of Wisdom, they have not kept up the rituals of their forefathers.

Now the mutterings in the inn begin to grow, and soon panic at the thought of Otherworld magic turns the villagers into a crazed mob. Fearful for their lives, they seize the innkeeper's daughter - a friendly girl who served you food and drink the night before. They mean to sacrifice her to the callous Old Gods in the hope that the magical portal to the Otherworld can be closed again. You are horrified at such a suggestion, though you realise that their terror is such that you cannot hope to reason with them. Along with the priest, you manage to persuade them to at least let you have one day in which to find the stone circle and try closing it with your own magic. What you do not tell them is that you are only a journeyman-sorcerer, and you have scant hope that your own power will be enough. Still, you must try - or else an innocent girl will go to her doom, and her blood will be on the hands of these honest but frightened villagers.

Having crossed the circle of mist around the village, the protagonist finds himself in the Otherworld - a magical envoironment where events follow a strange dreamlike logic. His success will be decided in part by his ability to adjust to the different ways of thinking that this environment demands.

The protagonist's task is to find the Unseelie Court, which corresponds in the Otherworld to the stone circle's position in the real world. His missing servants are being held captive oat the Court. There he must battle the Faerie KIng to drive the Otherworld back and close off its contact with the real world. Throughout the adventure, a major worry for the protagonist (as expressed in the narrative) will be the need to conserve his magical power for the initiation tests he expects to face at the College of Magic.

In fact, victory will only be won by attacking the Faerie King with no holds barred - seemingly giving up on the hope of entering the College later. However, this in itself merely constitutes a moral choice for the protagonist: in order to win he has to forget his own selfishness. Making the correct choice in this situation means the reward of a second victory on returning to the village: not only are the villagers (including the girl) safe from the threat of the Otherworld, but the fellows of the College of Magic have learned of the trouble and now deem the protagonist worthy to enter their ranks.