Is there a place for Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf style gamebooks outside of the realm of mere nostalgia?
I ask because a recent podcast interview with Ian Livingstone put me in mind of that curious period in history, circa 1983-1993, in which such books were at the height of their popularity. I was at the perfect age (being born in 1981) to enjoy them at their zenith. So it is impossible for me to objectively assess their quality as games or reading experiences; to page through one is simply to be overcome with wistful memories of youth - trekking to the local library every Saturday morning, saving up pocket money to spend at WH Smith, swapping snow witches and lizard kings for appointments with fear and houses of hell at school lunchbreak, jumpers for goalposts - and immediately abandon critical discernment as I slide into a blissful, hazy, memory-swamp wherein I am blinded by rose-tinted mist.
Put more succinctly: would people still read and play gamebooks with a straight face? Is there a market for gamebooks for grown-ups?
One interesting practical application of the gamebook is what you might call the ground-up explication of a game world or setting. Both the Fighting Fantasy world of Titan and Lone Wolf's setting of Magnamund were notable for, over the course of many iterations, gradually building up a picture of an entire fantasy landscape. Titan did not exist before The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Deathtrap Dungeon, Creature of Havoc and so on created it; the exercise of mapping the world almost literally took place through the writing of the books themselves. This gives the setting a freshness and immediacy which is only accentuated by the second-person format of the narrative: these are not dry gazetteers that simply lay out the characteristics of a fantasy world, but settings which are almost experienced first-hand through the eyes of the reader.
There is in fact no imaginative experience that is quite like a gamebook, then, in that it provides a way to experience another reality that is not depicted by somebody else (as it would be in a video game), or described to the reader for them to encounter passively (as it would be in a novel) but in which the reader is invited to partake in the conceit that they are exploring it for themselves. This in itself is an idea which I think has permanence, and permanent value, if taken seriously and done well. Probably the Sorcery! books are the pinnacle of what has been achieved to this moment in their combination of art and text and in the way they so successfully communicate to the reader the sense that they are exploring a real region of a genuinely inhabited world. But I would like to see it bettered.
Fabled Lands is a game book series that I am currently enjoying. Of course I am of an age that enjoyed FF and Lone Wolf books. Maybe it's just me, but Fabled Lands seems mature enough to hold an adult's interest. YMMV as they say.
ReplyDeleteFabled Lands defo represents the high water mark of the genre. Book 7 was kickstarted (and successfully published) a few years ago by Paul Gresty, with Morris and Thomson's support.
DeleteThere is absolutely still a market for open world gamebooks, as recent kickstarters for the likes of Alba and Legendary Kingdoms indicate.
My half-written offering is the single project that haunts me. One day... One day...
What's an 'open world gamebook'?
DeleteSimilar, I think, to what you describe in your post. Unlike the traditional Fighting Fantasy books that had a somewhat fixed arc to the narrative, or at least a purpose, in e.g. Fabled Lands, you just bimble about doing quests, trading, levelling up etc. The FL books innovated on the CYOA genre in an almost absurd number of ways, but the market collapsed mid-series. Only 6 of a planned 12 were written.
DeleteThere has been a low-key revival of gamebooks in recent years, limited IMO by the very specific set of skills and interests required to write one.
I would strongly recommend Fabled Lands to anyone with an interest in gamebooks. Also, Russ Nicholson's art is sublime.
I have slowly been picking up reprints of old gamebooks (Way of the Tiger and Fabled Lands instead of Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf, though) as well as new offerings (Steam Highway, Destiny Quest, The Cluster of Echoes, etc.). In fact, I got the hankering for writing my own. I don't really see it as any "less mature" than RPGs or board games, to be honest.
ReplyDeleteYou're probably right on the maturity point. We're all really making concessions to our innner children.
DeleteI've seen a bunch at my FLGS, in fact there's an entire section devoted to these neo-FF books. I'll take a look next time I'm there, though no doubt others will be along to illuminate the niche.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, my favourites were Marc Gascoigne's 'Way Of The Tiger' series. I'd match them against 'The Sorcery' series in a heartbeat. Of course, it's been a while...
It's honestly so long since I've really read any gamebooks I genuinely can't remember if I've read the Way of the Tiger ones. I recognise Marc Gascoigne's name, though.
DeleteI've recently been dipping into James Wallis's Interactive Fantasy magazine (1990s academic-ish magazine about RPGs - I think some of it would interest you. They're free at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/388989/Interactive-Fantasy-issues-14-all-issues ) and in the first issue there is an article titled "Solo Gamebooks" by By Marc Gascoigne. And I too thought "I recognise that name". (Turns out he's done a lot of stuff for GW over the decades, including coming up with Advanced Fighting Fantasy, and publishing Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay)
DeleteThat must be it!
DeleteI did play a tiny bit of interactive fiction (text adventures) back in the last 90s. There was one guy who was really good and was doing interesting things with the genre but I can't remember his name. Fat lot of good that does you, but there you go.
Given how much the subgenre of solo journaling RPGs have taken off, its hard not to imagine programmed solo adventures to still have a market. I know recently I got the Choose Cthulhu books through Steve Jackson Games, and while I no longer have much interest in these things, my son read all of them to death almost immediately (he's 11). I also know many of those classics now exist as game apps, recreating the original text but with rules moderation and graphics added (Fighting Fantasy, Sorcery! and Fabled Lands are all now "video games" that do the original just with flashier designs/graphics and with lots of text, essentially).
ReplyDeleteThe solo journaling thing is very weird to me. I don't understand what the merit of it is, as opposed to just writing fiction?
DeleteI don’t get journaling RPGs either. But I think it’s basically a creative inspiration tool for people who find these things help them write. Personally, I would rather spend that time just writing RPG material… - Jason Bradley Thompson
DeleteI think the popularity of journaling games cames from many different factors: they are a tool to inspire on creative writing; the journals themselves are often physical objects (many of them hand-written) that scratch an itch in a era of digital tools; and perhaps solo RPG games, gamebooks and journaling games are more attractive as a hobby given the possibility of being confined again in the future...
DeleteFair enough - I certainly appreciate the physicality of writing longhand.
DeleteGamebooks are not limited to new editions of the old books from the 80's and 90's. Now we have new books and series like Choose Cthulhu (created by a spanish publishers), Vulcanverse (by Dave Morris of Fabled Lands fame), Riders of The Black Sun (1,400 sections!), Destiny Quest, Legendary Kingdoms, Steam Highway... indeed, is a great time for gamebooks. Even better if you can read spanish, italian or german as there are great gamebooks being published in good old Europe.
ReplyDeleteThe genre is obviously not as popular as it was the 80's but the new books are better tested and written, in my opinion.
I may buy some and do some reviews. Riders of the Black Sun at the very least seems worth investigating if only to see how a 1,400 section long gamebook would work. (I think the last Sorcery! one is 800 sections, and I remember that being pretty mammoth...
Delete"There is in fact no imaginative experience that is quite like a gamebook, then, in that it provides a way to experience another reality that is not depicted by somebody else (as it would be in a video game), or described to the reader for them to encounter passively (as it would be in a novel) but in which the reader is invited to partake in the conceit that they are exploring it for themselves."
ReplyDeleteText adventure games? From what little I remember of Fighting Fantasy they're not meaningfully different. Certainly the dead tree format seems obsolete for games like this.
Perhaps, but I dispute the obsolesence critique. Are books obsolete because of the existence of ebooks or audiobooks? Yes if the words are the only thing that matters, but clearly the words aren't the only thing that matters! ;)
DeletePhysical books maintain a number of advantages over ebooks, their main disadvantage simply being sheer mass. They were never a terribly well-suited medium for gamebooks, though. It depends whether you consider the physical pleasure to outweigh the associated inconveniences, and the innovations for which a computer game allows. In comparison I loved the Encyclopaedia Britannica as a kid and it certainly was a pleasure to use, but in terms of doing its job I'd have to say the 32 volume set is obsolete.
Deleteas someone far too young to have any nostalgia for this shit, I can see a lot of potential appeal if you lean into the physically of the book as an object. after all, every artsy punk loves a nicely-printed zine, right? if someone gives the genre a Mork Borg makeover it could probably do some numbers, idk
ReplyDeleteApps are in some ways a better way to experience the gamebook format - more portable, you don't need dice, etc. The Sorcery! apps sold well and are quite good.
ReplyDeleteRecent notable oddities in the field include the Bastard Elf book and one on PC about Hamlet that I can't quite remember but which was extremely well-reviewed. It's definitely a medium with some life left in it.
Great question! While the gamebook craze is nothing like it was during the 80s, it is currently, and has been for a while, producing some excellent quality work, including many of the new series mentioned here by others (e.g. Steam Highwayman, Legendary Kingdoms, VulcanVerse, Bastard Elf, Black Sun, etc.). In addition it has made the step to app/games, and RPGs with three different Lone Wolf RPGs produced, as well as Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2E, which I write for and blog about, and which has been going for well over 10 years now, with far more AFF books exploring the world of Titan and its inhabitants, than the initial run of 3 AFF 1E books (Dungeoneer, Blacksand!, Allansia) in the late 80s.
ReplyDeletePart of this is because new FF gamebooks are still being published, occasionally, creating more game content for AFF RPG books, attempting to slot more lore into the world of Titan. Last year Ian Livingstone wrote Shadow of the Giants (revisiting Firetop Mountain) - a fairly standard FF adventure, and Steve Jackson (UK, with Jonathan Green) wrote Secrets of Salamonis, which was a more innovative and non-linear account of the path from apprentice to adventurer in the FF world of Titan.
Both were published in time for the fourth Fighting Fantasy Fest in London, and a fifth con is scheduled for next year to coincide with 40th anniversary of Deathtrap Dungeon, supported by yet another new book by Ian Livingstone. So, plenty of both new and nostalgia-driven books to look at.
Finally, Stuart Lloyd has run 2 annual Lindenbaum Competitions for best amateur gamebooks for the past two years (with the third scheduled for this year), based on the slightly older and sadly defunct Windhammer Prize for interactive gamebook fiction, so there's also a great amateur fan-driven community as well. :-)
That seems to answer the question!
DeleteYes, the Lindenbaum is a great shout. The competition has sensible rules regarding length and structure, so it's an ideal starting point for a budding gamebook author.
DeleteThanks for this - sounds very promising.
DeleteOne of the objections to such gamebooks might be the rather rudimentary rules for running combat, determining reactions, etc. But there are a number of (popular) works that use more sophisticated mechanics, e.g. The Alone Against the Flames/Dark/Frost/Tide Cthulhu books, Red Ruin Publishing solos using Dragon Warriors rules, The Fantasy Trip Solos (of which the ones written by David Pulver are especially good, and several have conversions to OSE), and Dark City Games (using a Fantasy Trip variant). The excellent Explore: Beneath & Beyond site has P'teth Tower and Kandroc Keep I and II from the early days of D&D.
ReplyDeleteInteresting - thanks for the recommendations!
DeleteThere is continuum of complexity to solo adventuring games - FF and Lone Wolf added a few mechanics to the original "Choose Your Own Adventure" series, to bring it closer to the then-burgeoning RPG hobby. From fantasygamebook's answer above, it seems that there is still a market for those sort of books.
ReplyDeleteThe drift away from "books with the pages in a funny order" and towards greater interactivity has only increased over the years. There is a huge market for solo games today, with literally thousands out there, most of which seem more "grown up" (or at least have more rules) than the books we loved as kids.
I've seen your comments about journaling games, both above and in previous posts here, but your comments seem to be based on assumptions rather than on playing or even reading the games themselves. You might just as well ask "why don't people write their own scenarios instead of buying them" or even "why don't players just get together and narrate a story, without the need for expensive books of rules". I've only played a handful (Sölitary Defilement stands out in my memory) and there seems to be a great deal of variety out there, in terms what is provided for the player and what the player is expected to fill in. There is a huge difference between playing within a pre-existing world with its own locations, random encounters, etc., and just sitting in front of a blank sheet of paper.
These gamebooks were gateways (introductory drugs) and are not to be denigrated for that. We are all, in our youth, exposed to artifices of beauty and power which knock us out but yet we lack the language and persuasion to urge others to join us; we feel but can't convince.
ReplyDeleteThese wonderful gamebooks created a population of craving inarticulates primed to adore the sociable RPG exploration of the same themes.
You would think the same would apply to literature and history. You read alone, you crave fellow understanding and look to the joys of university, but ... eh, don't find that.
I think gaming is successful because it stimulates wildly, leaving so much to the imagination of each participant. Each gamer brings a different intensity to the scene the same group witnesses—players have different relationships with the DM. In a weird way the rpg table of fellows is so small that the DM can give out a cinema cut, a director's cut, a final cut and a commercial cut all at the same time with ease when he knows his players.
Nicely put.
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