Tabi or not tabi

This is one of Bob Harvey's original pictures for the classic '80s ninja action gamebook series Way of the Tiger. All of Bob's pictures are being repainted in full colour by Megara Entertainment's team of talented artists, ensuring that the new hardcover copies of the books currently being offered on Kickstarter should be truly gorgeous collector's editions.

I'm just going to take this opportunity to explain a little about why Fabled Lands LLP has licensed to Megara the right to run this Kickstarter. We know that Megara will do a fantastic job of editing the books, commissioning new full-color artwork, and producing fine hardcover editions that diehard collectors will cherish forever. There's a win-win in this deal, because Fabled Lands LLP then gets to use the edited text and the artwork to publish our own paperback versions of the books next year. Collectors will want the limited edition hardcovers, and that's what the Kickstarter is for, but a successful campaign now (as it is shaping up to be) is also an enabler for the series to continue.

I think that's worth mentioning because some Kickstarter comments have fulminated about Fabled Lands LLP "limiting" the Kickstarter. Well, OK, that's the problem with the internet. Nobody even takes a deep breath and counts to ten, much less actually troubling to find out the facts of a case. But just so you know: Fabled Lands LLP are not putting limits on the Kickstarter. FL controls the print, ebook and app publishing rights and, thanks to this deal with Megara, will be able to release paperback and app editions of WOTT books 1-6 next year. The paperbacks will likely be around the same price as the Critical IF books. So if you can't afford the hardback edition: don't get mad. Just hang in there. I had to wait five years for the end of Breaking Bad, you know.

(Fabled Lands LLP doesn't have the publishing rights to the prequel or books 7 onwards, though, so if you want those I guess you're going to have to take a hammer to the piggy bank.)

The WOTT campaign only runs until the end of this month, then it'll vanish like a ninja in a cornfield. Or indeed a ninja anywhere, I guess, since that's pretty much the job description. If you're still on the fence, then (a) I hope it's more comfortable than the fence in the picture and (b) you ought to take a look at Megara's site, as I'm sure the goodies on show will convince you to pledge a few mon.

Incidentally, the authors (Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson) have been trying for quite some time to get in touch with Bob Harvey, but he too has vanished without trace. If you know where he is, please ask him to email Jamie at the address in the sidebar. Arigatou gozaimasu.

Your wish is my command

If you already own a copy of the Virtual Reality gamebook Twist of Fate, a couple of things... First, let me shake your hand. Not a lot of those babies made it out into the world. The original '80s gamebook boom was dying out (well, it was 1994) and this was last in the series, too.

Secondly, I'll understand if you don't want to shell out for the recent Critical IF edition (now titled Once Upon A Time In Arabia) just to read the new prologue. The rest of the book is slightly revised, but substantially no different from the 1994 version.

At the same time, if you're a collector you won't want to miss that new prologue. Here's the solution. You can download a free PDF version right here. That'll give you the prologue, the character sheet and Jon Hodgson's vertiginously amazing new cover. Those were the three wishes you had in mind, right?

You wait for a gamebook and then four come along at once

I think we pitched the Virtual Reality books as "like novels only you get to make choices". Mark Smith certainly wrote his that way. The Coils of Hate in particular has some beautifully evocative descriptions and sharply tuned dialogue, though even after struggling from dawn till midnight for weeks on end I don't think I managed to fix its dysfunctional flowchart.

My own VR books were not so much novels as role-playing adventures. Heart of Ice in particular was based on a Tekumel campaign that I ran many times, except that for the book I moved it to a near-apocalyptic future where the world may end with a bang or a whimper, and which of those fates it will suffer is largely up to you. I always saw it as a Sergio Leone movie with operatic sweep and pragmatically amoral heroes. In the new edition, I've corrected one logical flaw and in the process added yet another possible ending with the obligatory nod to Blade Runner.

Down Among the Dead Men is an adventure with pirates, magic and the undead. Pirates of the Caribbean in those days was still just a ride at Disneyland, and I don't know if I'd even heard of On Stranger Tides. If this one were a movie it'd be directed by Tim Burton. The setting is about a century before the powdered wigs era popularized by Hollywood. Think Drake and Raleigh and Doctor Dee.

I researched Necklace of Skulls while on honeymoon in Mexico and Guatemala following the Maya trail. Spirtually it owes a debt to Professor M A R Barker - as do all my books, really - but there's nothing there that came directly from our Tekumel role-playing games. There are two main routes through: one the underworld of Pre-Columbian myth, where I aimed for the logic of dreams, and that's contrasted with the "reality" option of the everyday world of the hero's clan and the historical backdrop of the collapse of Teotihuacan. Director of the movie? Jan Švankmajer or Terry Gilliam, maybe.

For the new edition, I've retitled Twist of Fate as Once Upon a Time in Arabia and I've given it a completely new prologue. The core of the adventure is unchanged, though: a whirlwind of encounters with a 1001 Nights flavour involving ghouls, djinn, flying carpets, magic rings, lost palaces, strange lands, devious villains and brave comrades. Well, you've seen the movie and played the boardgame I'm sure.

All four of my VR books return to print this week as Fabled Lands Publishing's new Critical IF series. These are completely re-edited versions, in many cases with new sections, and with brand spanking new covers by Jon Hodgson. All but Once Upon a Time in Arabia have the original illustrations, and they are formatted to fit on the shelf along with the new edition Fabled Lands and Golden Dragon books.

And if you're into the digital era of reading, all four books are also out on Kindle. Even better, they're included in Amazon's new Matchbook bundling program, meaning that if you buy the print book, you get the Kindle version for no more than 99c extra.

And, and, and - this weekend only, you can pick up a FREE Kindle edition of Down Among The Dead Men. This is what heaven is like for e-gamebook fans. But just till midnight on Sunday, mind you.

These are some of my very best gamebooks, so I'll hope you'll check them out - or, if you already read them, maybe you'd like to go put a review on Amazon? If so, may your barysal gun never want for charges.



Sorry about all these covers. I know it looks like a supermarket shelf, but I wanted to be sure everybody had easy access to at least the US and UK links. (Hey, I could have added Italian, German, Canadian...)

Wrap up warm

Talking about Kickstarter projects, here's an interesting-looking game from Canadian developers Hinterland. The Long Dark is a post-disaster survival game with ethical and social dimensions. Here's how the Kickstarter page describes it:

An exploration-focused survival simulation set in the Arctic wilderness in the aftermath of a global disaster. Brave the elements and other survivors, hunt for supplies, explore the world, uncover the mystery, answer the question: How far will you go to survive?

I guess I'm bound to be a sucker for something like this because the developers go on to say that it's for fans of atmospheric, exploration-focused games like Fallout 3 or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - a patch of Venn diagram that also surely contains Heart of Ice.The campaign has already raised $120,000 as I write this, but it still needs $80,000 and it only has a week to go.

Videogames are a good fit for Kickstarter because the money raised actually goes into paying for development - although normally when I pick something like this and stick my "interesting" label on it, the campaign taps out, so let's hope I haven't just jinxed this one.

In the meantime, the Way of the Tiger campaign is still here and is thundering on towards stretch goals that include an all-new fantasy city map by Leo Hartas. So take your pick - or hey, why not back both?

What dread hand and what dread feet?

Way of the Tiger fans can't have too many reminders that their black-pyjamed hero - I mean, alter ego - is making a bid to return from the misty swamps of gamebook history. If Megara Entertainment get the backing they need, Avenger will leap, tiptoe, somersault and forward roll his (or her) way into the 21st century in a series of full-colour hardback books.

Depending on this Kickstarter campaign, you'll be able to play through the early life of everybody's favourite peace-loving assassin in David Walters's prequel book Ninja and then undo the hero's demise at the end of book six in Redeemer, written by David Walters in consultation with original WOTT authors Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson.

I've seen David's plot outline for Redeemer and it's by no means the sort of "with one bound he was free" solution that would have Annie Wilkes shouting at the screen. Instead it really moves the series on into a more mature, novelistic, character-driven direction as befits the fact that the typical WOTT fan has to be at least thirty-five years old by now.

But perhaps you are not so long in the tooth as that. Or perhaps you were never bitten by the '80s ninja-and-nunchuks craze. Not familiar with Way of the Tiger? No need to fret, as those generous chaps at Megara have come up with a demo comprising about half of book one:

• Download the full-size version here
• Download the compressed version here

And to think, Megara didn't even have to kidnap and hobble Mark and Jamie to make this happen. Not so far, anyway.

How to deal with Doomsday

More kung fu hullabaloo coming up on Monday. If you can't wait, take a look at these Way of the Tiger style shenanigans c/o Andrew Drage. You'll believe a man can catch an arrow.

In other news, late last night I came across this interesting brief exchange on Twitter:

Something to think about.

Nice rice baby

The balloon went up a few days early, but officially it's today. As Master Po would say, "Slice like a ninja, Grasshopper. Cut like a razor blade. But quit your jibberjabber and don't let no fool get between you and the Way of the Tiger Kickstarter campaign."

Maybe I'm mixing up my trash TV shows there, but make no mistake, it begins today. You have one month to pledge $50 for each full-colour hardback WOTT book you want on your shelves - including the all-new prequel book, Ninja, and maybe even book seven, Redeemer. (To call that one "long-awaited" is an understatement; people died of old age waiting for it to be written.)

So your mission, should you choose to accept... Oh, there I go again. Better wax off before I get to cowabunga.