[Fighting Fantasy] Gamebooks -- anyone else?

[Joshua Randall]

TolkienQuest was based on a slimmed up version of MERP (which in turn was a slimmed up version of Rolemaster.) As a gamebook, it certainly had a much more detailed "system" than Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks; more along the lines of Lone Wolf.

Considerably more complex than Lone Wolf, in fact. LW has only two stats: Combat Skill (CS) and Endurance Points (EP); fights are resolved by comparing your CS to the enemy's, rolling d10, and cross-referencing the result to see how much EP each combatant loses.

In TolkienQuest you have various maneuvers you can make, from a simple attack, to "running past", to casting a spell. You could even use the full MERP rules to play the gamebook! I never tried that, however.

Also, you carry over your stats and equipment from book to book (similar to Lone Wolf). This means that by the second or third book in the TolkienQuest series, you are considerably more powerful.

And naturally, they were set in Middle-earth -- I had one in which I was sent by some rangers at Bree to Hobbiton right about the time Frodo was leaving Hobbiton

I think that one is called Night of the Nazgul. If you play it as your first book, it is hard. You're on a time limit for reaching Hobbiton before the Nazgul get there. You've also got to cross the Brandywine, preferably not via the main bridge as it's guarded by (another?) Nazgul. You can actually fight the ring-wraith, and if you win, the book asks you to check your math because what you've accomplished is well nigh impossible. (I actually did beat the bastard once by repeatedly "running past" and then casting fireball on him.) Alternatively you can go through the woods and meet up with Tom Bombadil, who will shepherd you to a safe crossing.

and I had one in which I was investigating Weathertop

Secret of Weathertop or somesuch. My favorite of the three. You start out in the ruins outside, and first have to find a way into the dungeon. You can go down the hill and consult with some friendly dwarves, or you can just wander around fighting bandits and wild animals. Eventually you enter Weathertop and meet up with a hobbit fellow-adventurer. There's a lot to explore, and plenty of enemies to fight. You can even swap riddles with a wight!

and there was a third that I had in which I was wandering around in Mirkwood meeting Radagast, wood-elves, and the villages of woodmen. I can't remember the details of that one, but I think I was supposed to be rescueing someone who was lost?

Yup, a bitchy elf princess wants you to help her find her brother, who has been abducted by the forces of eeeeevil. I believe he is found enwebbed by the giant spiders, but only after tons of searching. The best part of this book is repeatedly fighting the rabid squirrels who attack in about every other passage.

you mostly progressed by moving along a hex-map and looking up the corresponding section for that hex.

Right. There was a section of the book with passages corresponding to each hex (e.g. 3A or 7E), and another section of the book with numbered passages (e.g. 103 or 88). Sometimes the hexes would send you to a numbered passage, and the numbered passages would send you to another numbered passage or back to the hex map. It was kind of aggravating, but also fun. You were supposed to use the (included?) grease pencil or crayon to track your path, but I usually just stuck a penny on the map. Of course, many times I jostled the penny away from its location and had to spend several minutes figuring out where I was supposed to be....

I still have all three of the TolkienQuest books described above. Were there any others?

 

[Desdichado]

I painfully regret that I no longer have any of those three, but I used to have all of them. I believe there may have been more; the series changed to Middle-earthQuest at some point, and I do have ISBNs for 7 books with the Middle-earthQuest subtitle. Because three of them are the ones I used to have, I think they must be the same series, but I alternatively, they could be some other type of I.C.E. module.

1. Race From Rivendell ISBN: 0425090930
2. A Spy in Isengard ISBN: 0425112314
3. Pirates of Pelargir ISBN: 0425090841
4. Treason at Helm's Deep ISBN: 0425086909
5. The Mines of Moria ISBN: 0425089932
6. Search for the Palantir ISBN: 0425114694
7. Rescue in Mirkwood ISBN: 0425086879

 

[Henry]

The Sorcery series got to me the most, because it was the closest to a full-on RPG I had ever seen in book-form; you even worshipped a Deity, for crying out loud.

I particularly enjoyed the passage in the fourth book where someone could possibly trick you into speaking blasphemy against your god, and lose her favor for the rest of the adventure! I also loved the spell and components system, the riddles and puzzles - it was something I never got the same feeling with until I stumbled on to the Lone Wolf Series.

 

[Arnwyn]

Fighting Fantasy

Anyone else have any fond memories of these books?

Memories, schmemories - I'm still using them! I've converted a few to 3e (Beneath Nightmare Castle, Seas of Blood, Trial of Champions, Keep of the Lich Lord), and am working on others. Horribly fun.

 

[Eternalknight]

I loved Seas of Blood as a kid. I always had trouble with Beneath Nightmare Castle; I could never get any where near to completing it.

Trial of Champions d20 is actually Myriador's next module scheduled for release, as well as Khare - Cityport of Traps. It would be interesting to here how your conversion and theirs differ.

 

[Arnwyn]

I loved Seas of Blood as a kid. I always had trouble with Beneath Nightmare Castle; I could never get any where near to completing it.

Trial of Champions d20 is actually Myriador's next module scheduled for release, as well as Khare - Cityport of Traps. It would be interesting to here how your conversion and theirs differ.

Oh, significantly, I'm sure.

My conversions are designed for a party of adventurers (and the original Trial of Champions was for a single "champion"). So therefore, I've added to and expanded the trial games as well as the dungeon.

All my Fighting Fantasy conversions have used all the source material, as well as expanding the location(s). (For example, I designed and detailed Nightmare Castle in it's entirety, so the PCs aren't just restricted to the locations in the book.)

For Myriador's FF conversions, I'm buying the ones of the gamebooks I don't have - which aren't many (Caverns of the Snow Witch was one, and same with the Sorcery! series, which I sadly never had the chance to buy). For the others, I'm sticking to my conversions, since mine are far more detailed and comprehensive... plus I'm a FF wacko (since I've entirely converted all the monsters in Out of the Pit for 3.5).

 

[Eternalknight]

plus I'm a FF wacko (since I've entirely converted all the monsters in Out of the Pit for 3.5).

I had the pleasure of doing this for the FFRPG... though not all the monsters Some of the Out of the Pit monsters make great D&D monsters.

 

[Derulbaskul]

There was another series of gamebooks in the mid 90s called the Fabled Lands. The books were larger and the rules slightly more complicated but not much so. You could own a ship, trade cargoes and the six books in the series all had links (ten were planned, IIRC).

More information here:

http://homepages.tesco.net/~parsonsp/html/fabled_lands.html

and

http://www.geocities.com/~athorne/gamebook/fabledlands.htm

 

[Eternalknight]

I have Over the Blood Dark Sea (book 3) but sadly never managed to get the rest. For many, these are considered the best gamebook series. Also, supposedly they are going to come back in an online format, much like Lon Wolf has with Project Aon.

Another good series was Way of the Tiger. Anyone remember that?

 

[Derulbaskul]

Fabled Lands Gamebooks

This thread got me thinking so off to Google I went. There's a Yahoo group for the Fabled Lands books and the text of books 1 and 3 are available as PDF downloads. Go here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fabled_lands

I'm looking forward to the rest being posted.