Right I have emailed my school of Satan.
I have played the true path and shortest route, the game can be completed realistically with the lowest stats (Skill 7, Stamina 14, Luck 7, Respect 4)
You can still get caught out with the highest stats if you deviate from that true path too.
It is a story that reveals itself as you read it, there are many characters to speak to and texts to read, each uncovering little bits of information, from all angles and viewpoints.
The story/game touches on friendship, betrayal, bullying, suicide and a few other issues. If you go various routes and pick up the whole story, it can get you attatched to certain characters. Without giving too much away, there is a character central to the game who you will encounter on a number of occasions throughout the game, and at the end too.
I hope you all play and enjoy.

Paul Mc
Thu Feb 26 09:13:53 2015

Just to clear up, the book is called Satan's Academy. It should be going on the website today, I'm feeling a little excited as this is my first book I was ever disciplined enough to complete.

Should the book go down well, I may do a sequel involving a romance between the reader and a particular character in the book (It will be apparent who when you read the book)
Originally I thought about developing a romance in this book but decided not to as both characters involved are male (and I couldn't be bothered changing the gender references and checking it).
However I then thought, what if those two characters did have a romance anyway?? While perfectly normal in real life, is rather rare in literature and I have never seen it in a gamebook. Also the town I set the story in is a backward town as I wrote... so it has given me an idea.
There is a romance but the townsfolk don't like it, you must escape from the town and elope in the quest for love. And that will become another gamebook adventure.
Was wondering what your thoughts were on the idea??

Robert Douglas
Thu Feb 26 14:55:25 2015

@ Paul Mc,

Great that you've finished writing 'Satan's Academy'! As I've said before, I'll get round to reading the fan-written adventures listed on the left (I've already had brief forays with a few of them) once I've finished my other projects.

There's always room for romance in stories - and gamebooks are no exception. The nature of the relationship, orientation, etc would be a great boost for hetero/gay/bi/transgender rights (whichever you decide to put in the story!), although I would make it as matter-as- fact as possible: it's great that many TV dramas, movies, books, etc feature such rights of an individual's preferences and raise awareness of gay/lesbian communities, yet at times focus too much on them so that it dominates the larger picture, becomes a vehicle to promote their existence, and somewhat floods the market to the point of exasperation. Insert any kind of relationship within the story seamlessly, naturally. Some of the FF/gamebook fanbase are at that age (or realization can actually happen at any age) where they are confused by their orientation - yet, even through subtle means, soon recognise that any relationship is natural enough and not something to be feared.

Any relationship being the premise to a sequel would be an interesting idea....

Paul Mc
Thu Feb 26 16:04:09 2015

I thank you for that Robert.
I might just go for it, but I will be subtle about it rather than blazon and forceful, the adventure itself does the work. I have played these gamebooks and enjoyed them from when I was a young boy so subtle is my only option as I want my gamebooks to be suitable for any age of reader.
It's simple, the back story is you develop a romance with somebody but the town's folk do not like it (You live in a backward town). They try to stop the romance, but you wish to be together. You make a pact to meet up one night and escape to the city you are originally from...
That night is where the adventure starts, obviously and escape from a town to a city is good in a gamebook, there will be many traps, red herrings and battles along the way.

Paul Mc
Thu Feb 26 16:43:51 2015

This is the first draft of the back story Escape from Krill, (The sequel to Satan's Academy, with the Romance)

Escape from Krill
Another day goes by in the town of Krill. You have lived here for two years and your memories of this town will not be fond ones. Until aged 15 you enjoyed living in the vibrant city but your mother and father relocated to this town to enjoy a simplistic rural life.
Your first experience of this town was your first, and only day at St. Anne’s academy. What seemed like an opportunity to make friends and enjoy something in this anachronistic town turned out to be a sinister day and evening of pure horror as you had to escape from the headmaster and his evil demonic cult.
Nevertheless it wasn’t all bad, a boy called Luca helped you escape that night and without him you would not be here today. This sparked of a great closeness between you and for a year was a great friendship. However one drunken evening after finally managing to get served in the town tavern, Luca whispered to you that he had feelings for you and wanted something more than a friendship.
You put this down to the drink and the closeness you have forged by that fateful night in St. Anne’s academy, and thus the next day you agreed never to bring up this conversation again. Weeks pass and it slowly dawns on you, you have feelings for Luca and want something more than a friendship yourself!! Another night in the tavern you admit your feelings and embrace Luca, he still feels the same about you, you both smile at each other and agree to have a secret romance.
You decide to keep this a secret as the townsfolk are a very backward sort of people and simply do not understand or accept such goings on. However in the weeks that pass the town become suspicious of this “friendship” that you tell them it is, tongues start wagging and rumours start spreading. One evening you come clean to your mother about the romance.“Son” she says “I will always love you, no matter what” a week later your father returns from one of his drunken nights in the tavern and in a fury demands to know what is going on between you and Luca. He has heard rumours of the town and he is angry, he wanted to be respected in this rural town not laughed at.
With tears in your eyes you confess the romance, your father beats you black and blue, he forbids you to ever see Luca again. Every so often you sneak out to see Luca pretending to be somewhere else, lying to your father, even if just to snatch a few precious moments but this is not enough, you can’t live like this, you want to be with him properly not snatch a few moments here and there. You agree to meet Luca by the tavern and run away to the city together tonight.
When you get home, your father has found out you spent some time with Luca and gives you another beating, these beatings are all too often now as your father is slowly becoming the town drunk. “You ever see him again, and I will kill you with my bare hands” he threatens. You wait for him to go to bed, now is your only chance to make a life with Luca, leaving the town, and your family...

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Roll dice for skill, stamina and luck as normal, however the beatings your father has given you has taken its toll. As usual roll 2 dice and add to 12 and that will give you your initial stamina, however your starting stamina is 6 less than this due these beatings.
e.g. Roll 2 dice (3,3 = 6) and add to 12... Initial stamina = 18, starting stamina = 12.

Also Luca has a Skill of 6 (which doesn’t change) and a die roll + 10 of stamina. In the adventure it is important to look after Luca and as a result his stamina can go up and down in the game. If at any point Lucas’s stamina falls to zero, you must turn to reference 99.

Paul Mc Thu Feb 26 18:28:39 2015	MY GAMEBOOK (SATAN'S ACADEMY) IS AVAILABLE ON THE DOWNLOADS PAGE.
	It's been temporarily removed at the author's request.

Paul Mc
Mon Mar 16 17:58:07 2015

Update...
Satan's academy has been debugged, there was a few mistakes on it. Now it should work. I'm just waiting for the corrected version to be up online.
I decided to press ahead with the sequel escape from Krill and have started writing it but I need your advice and opinions...
Due to the nature of the adventure the very first part of it is littered with a couple of bad endings do you have any feelings about bad endings very early into a book??

Tammy
Mon Mar 16 18:44:23 2015

I see now, wondered why I couldn't open the file anymore.

Paul Mc Mon Mar 16 19:29:47 2015	If anyone wants the book Satan's academy now... Put your email on here and I'll send it across
	No need, it's back on the downloads page now.

Phil Sadler
Mon Mar 16 21:03:06 2015

I love the way that people will describe others as 'backwards' just because they happen not to agree with them. Perhaps they should go to Afghanistan or something, just so they can really get to grips with these 'backwards' people.

Tammy
Mon Mar 16 21:25:39 2015

@ Phil,

We need trolls. LOTS OF TROLLS. They're backwards. :)

Paul Mc
Tue Mar 24 01:52:57 2015

Was wondering if anybody played Satan's academy and if so what were your thoughts. Any feedback is appreciated even if you did not like it.

I've now started the sequel 'Escape From Krill' this one will only be 300 references rather than 400 and the path is much more linear (to prevent problems I suffered when writing Satan's academy) Nevertheless it will be equally hard but hopefully enjoyable when it's complete.

Paul Mc
Sun May 3 03:58:48 2015

Due to being busy, i havent had chance to do too much of my escape from krill but I aim to carry on with writing this soon but a question to ask you.
I've just counted and Satan's academy (a 400 ref story) had 38 deaths/bad endings is that too many and do I need to rein it in a bit on future books??

Richard Evans
Thu May 7 08:52:54 2015

It seems a lot to me, although my books have tended to be on the easier side of things

Paul Mc
Sun May 10 06:58:33 2015

Id like you to try my game and see if you like it Richard x

Robert Douglas
Sun May 10 12:42:46 2015

@Paul Mc,
Once I've completed writing my entry for Windhammer 2015, I'll be free to have a go at Satan's Academy sometime in the future.

In answer to your last question: it's all a matter of personal opinion, but I guess the average of death/bad ending entries in a gamebook would be about...thirty? It all depends on the author's discretion. Having thirty eight deaths in a 400 entry gamebook is certainly plenty! I'm wondering, for example, how many Creature of Havoc has? Bearing in mind how many wrong turns Steve Jackson typically had in his gamebooks! And COH exceeds the standard 400 entries. You could always count through a few FF titles to get an average. In comparison, Joe Dever's Lone Wolf and Freeway Warrior series possibly had about eight death entries per book. However, please correct me if I'm wrong.

21 to 40 of 66 | [next] [previous] | [first] [last]