It solely depends on you. Don't listen to critics that tell how you should go about things. It's your writing, it's your choice. If they don't like it, that's fine. Some people are just too lazy to read a lot of text while others are impatient and want to get to the interaction immediately.

It's always a curfew on my mature content, don't make it so violent, don't be so gory or sexual, but it's what I do. If they don't like they don't have to read it or bother leaving a comment.

If you want your gamebook to be wordy, then alright. If you want it short and to the point, very well. It depends on you and as i always tell others "DO IT to please YOU not others because once you start writing for others you lose your enjoyment of far-fetched creativity and now you'll be afraid to let them down, expect greater things, or rely strictly on judgement and reviews of your work."

But as it's always nice to hear feedback, write the book with as many long reference as you like. Just don't be like Charles Dickens who took two pages full of paragraphs to describe a tree.

Derek Metaltron
Sun Apr 12 10:45:30 2020

Hey everyone, new person here, some great content on the site! I am just wondering what people's opinions are about doing fan made game books (either with FF mechanics or not and either open world or not) based on established settings, probably any of the following...

- Star Wars
- Doctor Who
- Marvel
- DC
- Fallout
- Skyrim
- Horizon: Zero Dawn
- Hitman

I want to say I have a lot of ideas and a lot of free time right now because of current situations and I really like the idea of dipping my toes into making a gamebook finally, but I don't know if some people dislike games that take content from established universes (outside Fighting Fantasy anyway) or not. But clearly I have my loves and it's nice when you have some lore or even RPG inspired material to work with!

Also I am wondering what size is best to start with! Long term I would love to make a 1000+ section epics that Fabled Lands would be proud of with plenty of adventures and quests and such but I know it's best to sharpen my skills on something more straightforward first! I have to say I liked Andrew Wright's idea of micro adventures with 25 sections or mini adventures with 50 sections, and the short games with 100 sections sound ideal too, so should I start there before tackling a 400-500er or a 1000er?

Thanks in advance!

Robert Douglas
Sun Apr 12 14:52:43 2020

Hi Derek, welcome to the group! A good list of possible ideas for gamebooks set in those particular worlds/universes. Personally though, I would say that open-world video games such as Fallout and Skyrim already speak (perhaps more efficiently) for themselves within RPG circles. Much as we all love gamebooks on this site, and how entertaining they have been and still can be despite their somewhat archaic approach to gaming, each one of us are painfully aware the limitations regarding choices. Admittedly, open world video games have much more choice of direction, methods employed, beside the sight and sound lacking in gamebooks. One of my favourite games would be Deus Ex - and Ian Livingstone was actually the Eidos Chairman during release way back in 2000. Even so, its 'multi-path' approach was partially inspired by the gamebook mechanic: do I go in guns blazing, venture beneath by taking the sewers, or climb that ladder to the rooftop and go from there...?

However, the Marvel universe of superpowered heroes and villains is very popular - and one already emulated by Steve Jackson in the form of his fantastic 'Appointment With F.E.A.R'. Reading through it might give you inspiration, even what you might have done differently. And the good thing about this is you can execute such ideas and have it posted on this site. However, please bear in mind, while FF publications are open to fan-written prequels, sequels, or parallels to the plots, tread very carefully around copyright-protected worlds and universes. As you said yourself: 'based' upon - and it's far better to create your own world inspired by, but not directly taking from, established worlds/universes. Appointment with F.E.A.R achieved this without treading on the toes of actual Marvel superheroes/villains - yet they had similar ideas, powers, and character backstories. Steve Jackson made a tribute to his beloved Marvel comic hobby and all without incurring legal wrath. All published novels and gamebooks set within such franchises - Dr Who, Assassin's Creed, Star Wars, Robin Hood, to name but a few - were written by authors specially commissioned and bound under legal contract. Sorry if I sound a bit like a lawyer, but rules are there for a reason.

Whether the overall theme is horror, sci-fi, steampunk, post-apocalypse, comedy, including some or even all these genres, the best thing is to play to your strengths - or your loves as you mentioned above - as you already have the necessary inspiration necessary for enthusiasm. As to actual length, I would recommend a short adventure as an ideal starting point - something like 100 entries - just to get your teeth into, trying out ideas first, and that many entries gives you some room to play with during writing. However, one factor to also bear in mind is not to limit yourself; for example, you might have written about 120 or 130 by the time you've finished writing in all your ideas. 50, 100, 400....all are ideal round numbers. Don't be afraid, or limit yourself, to have 125 or 415. I'm currently writing Sean Calibre Book 2 and planned something like 450 entries - I suddenly realized there wouldn't be enough to cater for the scope of choices and expanded it to 600!

Whatever you decide, I hope the writing goes okay <:-)>

Yaztromo
Fri Jun 19 04:23:47 2020

Over ten years ago I came across a Star Wars fan gamebook series that followed Lone Wolf game mechanics (after all, the Jedi are not that different from the Kai...) and it was really great!

WRT size, my strong suggestion is to start small. You will increase size once you will get your technique perfected.

I suggest you make a good use of the (free) tool called Libro Game Creator http://www.matteoporopat.com/librogame/libro-game-creator-3/#download-lgc
Don't get scared off by the language, there is also an English version....

A.E.Johnston
Sat Jun 19 02:58:30 2021

Hi Derek,

It has been a while since I have messaged, but saw your question and just wanted to chip in my $0.02.

- Star Wars: Everyone likes Star Wars- BUT therein lies the issue. This is such a large franchise I wouldnt be surprised there are already officially published gamebooks, so I would likely steer clear unless it is a franchise you are very passionate about.
- Doctor Who: I am not a large fan of Doctor Who, but this would likely fall into the sci-fi category. Ulysses AI has explored may sci fi stories, so it may be worth looking into another genre.
- Marvel: Not a big comic fan, and it seems that this is already a series with a huge fanbase. Originality and making stories may be an issue and outweigh the value of the established media.
- DC: See above for Marvel.
- Fallout: Promising! the post apocalyptic genre is of great enjoyment and almost criminally overlooked. The Fallout game series also has diverse background in their games, and provides a good background.
- Skyrim: Also sounds promising, another Bethesda game series with diverse gameplay and background that would translate well to FF.
- Horizon: Zero Dawn: I am not familiar enough to comment.
- Hitman: Would transfer well to FF! Good idea, worth looking into.

Hope this helps!

YARD
Fri Aug 11 12:03:39 2023

I was excited when I first saw this conversation topic, but now I realize the last post was 2 years ago, and the initiating post over 3 years ago! Seems like Derek hasn't been able to go ahead with any of those ideas?

To be honest, it's really quite impressive that The Project has 56 gamebooks by my count, and practically all of them appear to be original works? Well, Bodies in the Docks is obviously Lovecraftian (though since Lovecraft has always been public domain, it's still a different kind of a phenomenon) and perhaps some are related to the settings of the official Fighting Fantasy books (I really haven't played that many of the official gamebooks) but it is still remarkable that no-one has apparently decided to spin off a more widely familiar setting, and instead all successful works have staked out their own claim.

Oh well, perhaps I can be the first, then. I'll keep the setting a secret until my work is done, to avoid raising expectations in case it fails, but I'll say the setting I intend to work on is not any of the ones which were mentioned above.

Gabe Fandango
Wed Aug 16 06:50:51 2023

Hi, I realize that this hasn't been very active for a while, so I hope the site admin will see this...

I've recently finished writing my first gamebook. Well, technically, I wrote it many years ago, back in my student days, in handwritten manuscript. Of course, I had to go back and more or less edit every single section when I decided to turn it into a softcopy version, because the original draft was written by a kid (and who frankly wasn't very fluent in English - it wasn't my Mother Tongue). I can't really call it a rewrite - the content and design of the book pretty much remained as it was, but I basically reworded all the sentences and paragraph to make the English less broken, and added an extra line here or there to patch up some missing loopholes. The end result is something like what Terry Pratchett described his book "The Carpet People" to be: something that's not entirely written by young me or old me.

Anyway, the book is actually meant to be part of a "series" of sorts. It's an idea similar to the "companion adventures" of the Lone Wolf series published under Mongoose (although kid me thought of the idea before Mongoose did it), with the PC of each mini-adventure being a minor character of the main series. The book I've recently "finished" features a minor character from "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain" as the PC - namely, the bearded prisoner rescued by the Hero from his cell and now trying to escape from Firetop Mountain (the title of the mini-adventure is called "Escape from Firetop Mountain).

Anyway, I understand that you may not have the time (or think it's good enough) to ever make this book available for online play on this site, but I'm hoping you can at least still put it on the downloads section if I send you soft copy.

Can I just check if I can still send the softcopy to this address in the contact link to be hosted in the download section: <info@ffproject.com>?

Many thanks.

Yes, definitely.

Gabe Fandango
Wed Aug 16 14:50:07 2023

Thank you. I've sent the soft copy to the above address. :)

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