The first ongoing gamebook series ever (nearly)

I can tell you the where, when and who. Mike Polling, author of the Dragon Warriors adventure “The Key of Tirandor” (recently collected in In From the Cold) had a flat in Edgeley Road, Clapham, where we all gathered for twice-weekly games of Empire of the Petal Throne, RuneQuest and Questworld – the last of which was later to mutate into the Ophis campaign world. Along with Mike there was Jamie, Oliver Johnson and Mark “Min” Smith.

One autumn afternoon in 1983 we sat around the kitchen table. Jamie was working at Games Workshop and must have mentioned that The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was selling better than anyone including its authors (Livingstone and Jackson) could have expected. “Other publishers will be looking for their own gamebook series,” realized Mike, always the most astute of our group. It dawned on us that maybe we should forego that day’s gaming in order to put together a proposal. Min will have been the one to insist on that; Jamie and I would surely have rather just played a game.

What we came up with that day was a proposal for The Sword of the Silver Dawn. The title was probably Mike’s, and I think I detect an underlying Campbellian framework that will have come from him too. I remember him insisting that the old mentor figure should depart at cockcrow – the first inkling that he might be a ghost. Doubtless more would have been made of that fact later in the series. (Heroes prefer their mentors to be ethereal as it means they’re conveniently available in a crisis, most fantasy worlds lacking mobile phone coverage.)

Galador, the Council of Paladins, Castle Blight – those are classic Oliver Johnson touches. The magic sword is almost certainly Jamie’s. The betrayal of Sussurian (ah, so that’s where I first used that name!) by the champion must have been my idea; I love reversals in unexpected places. The notion of a deeper evil lurking in the castle dungeons, prolonging the curse even when you think you should have triumphed, that again bears Mike’s fingerprints. The actual nature of the final foe as a pure manifestation of hatred and evil I’m sure was Min’s. Always a fan of Leiber’s stories, he particularly liked the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser story “The Cloud of Hate” and later elaborated on the theme in his gamebook The Coils of Hate (soon to be re-released if negotiations work out).

The Sword of the Silver Dawn wouldn’t have been the first gamebook series. Inspired by programmed learning books, the Choose Your Own Adventure series was already going strong by 1983. The American Steve Jackson (of GURPS fame) had extended the concept into role-playing with his Fantasy Trip solo books in the late ‘70s, and of course the UK Steve Jackson and his partner Ian Livingstone had transplanted that variant to high street bookstores with Fighting Fantasy. Joe Dever and Gary Chalk both worked at Games Workshop back then, so Jamie may have got wind that they were planning a series of their own. Nonetheless, Silver Dawn would have been the first ongoing, narrative-driven gamebook with a specific lead character.

It didn’t happen because Jamie and Min got sidetracked by The Talisman of Death, their entry in the Fighting Fantasy series, and then by the Falcon and Way of the Tiger books. Oliver and I were wooed by Philippa Dickinson to write The Lord of Shadow Keep for Fighting Fantasy, but I went off instead to write the Golden Dragon Gamebooks (less money, more control) and Oliver soon joined me there, bringing Shadow Keep with him. And then Dragon Warriors, Blood Sword, and so on.

Perhaps The Sword of the Silver Dawn would have been a bit too generic and D&D-ish to hold our interest over any more than three books, but having found the original proposal just today – a couple of crumpled, typewritten sheets stuffed into one of the Ophis folders – I feel a twinge of regret that we didn’t try our hands at a five-way collaboration. Between us we had the talent to make something truly memorable. Well, that's something I hope we did anyway.

The Sword of the Silver Dawn

This is another never-was gamebook proposal but, unlike the ones I've posted before (eg here and here), this dates right back to the early 1980s when the gamebook craze was just beginning. If we had gone ahead with this, it would have pre-dated Lone Wolf, Grailquest and Falcon to be the first ongoing gamebook series with a specific lead character. I'll explain the context on Friday, but first here's the original three-book proposal as written by me, Jamie Thomson, Oliver Johnson, Mark Smith and Mike Polling.

Background to the adventure

In former times, the land of Thalassa was ruled by the High King, a good and wise monarch who brought peace and prosperity to his subjects.

But the High King died, and his son, the evil wizard Prince Sussurian, came to the throne. The Council of Paladins was dissolved and its members scattered to the corners of the kingdom. While those who opposed the Prince were beheaded or cast into his dungeons, the cruel and ruthless became Sussurian's knights, and thus he closed his evil grip on the land.

Your father, Galador, was chief of the Council of Paladins. Now he lives in retirement on the only lands which were not taken from him. You have never known a life different from the simple country ways you and your family have been forced to adopt. But you have always dreamed of the glorious days when your father 'wielded the sword Whitefire.

One night you are visited by an old man, Aurelion, who persuades your father that he must once again take up arms and oppose Sussurian, whose tyrannical reign must be ended. As your father reaches for the sword, the fire dies to a flicker and all the lamps and candles go out. At once, Aurelian shouts a mystic word and the fire leaps up. In the flickering gloom, you see a dark shadow reaching out to touch your father.

Instinctively, you seize the sword. A nimbus of light shines from the blade as you swing it at the Shadow, which begins to shrivel but,even as it does so, fades into your father, who slumps to the floor. Aurelion does his best; after some time he turns to you. He explains that your father is a victim of the Prince's evil necromancy, and that there is little he can do. He tells you that the sword Whitefire has chosen you as its wielder, and that in order to save your father's life you must undertake the quest in his place.

Your first objective must be to prevent the wicked Baron Korstang, who rules this area through his band of robber-knights, from returning to the Court of Prince Sussurian with the dread Sceptre of Doom. With this artifact, the Prince's power would to such that none could stand against him. At this point, the cock crows and Aurelion hurries away.

You set off on your adventure...

General outline

Although all three books form a single adventure, each is entirely self-contained and can be read/played on its own.

The Sceptre of Doom
In this book, the hero's objective is to prevent Baron Korstang from taking a magical artifact of great power to the evil Prince Sussurian. After many adventures, the hero finally catches up with Baron Korstang and defeats him. He destroys the Sceptre of Doom, and in so doing attracts the attention of the forces of darkness.

The Black Knight
Prince Sussurian's champion, the Black Knight - who appears only peripherally in the first book - is sent with orders to slay the hero and capture his enchanted sword, Whitefire. The Black Knight has other ideas. With the power of the sword he hopes to supplant Sussurian. Early in the book, the hero loses Whitefire, upon which he has come to depend. He has to overcome the obstacles facing him without the aid of its magic. Thus he begins to learn that he can rely on his own inner strength. Eventually he retrieves the sword. In the final battle with the Black Knight it is his own courage and resolve, as much as the power of the sword Whitefire, that wins him victory.

The Court of Prince Sussurian
The final book takes the hero into the heart of Sussurian's domain, Castle Blight. The many rooms and towers of the Prince's court are inhabited by dissolute courtiers, brutal men-at-arms and creatures of the night, attracted by the citadel's aura of evil. The hero has to find his way past these, and the Castle's many traps and magical wards, to get to Sussurian. The ensuing battle pits the determination and valiant heart of the hero against the sorcery and cunning of the evil Prince. However, even with Sussurian defeated, the hero realizes that the curse laid on his father in the first book is still not lifted. So he penetrates the Castle's deepest depths where he finds a monstrous demon, the pure manifestation of evil. He hurls his sword at it, and the sword becomes a shaft of white light which pierces and destroys the demon.