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Yoz Ben Wed Oct 20 21:36:40 2021 A Day In The Life |
I enjoyed this... a LOT! Five out of five for originality alone. Easily one of my favourites just because this little crude drunken gem stands out so nicely from the more common "raid dungeon, kill dragon" fare, showing what else there is possible in the format. I enjoyed Outsider! and A New Day a lot, too, don't even start to get me wrong. I have to say I love all those innovative approaches though, keeping it fresh either by means of innovative mechanics, or the choice of the subject matter (as here). Thanks for this piece! |
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Yoz Ben Wed Oct 20 18:54:54 2021 Contractual Obligation |
Those points where paths diverge by the sequence in which one does seemingly unconnected things are my only gripe with the series. Of course that is kind of realistic, life is full of chance circumstances we can't influence or even perceive. But from a game perspective, I strongly dislike that I can't get around that with exploring or wits or smashing, only with either luck (not LUCK) or cheating. Also, I can think of several alternative mechanisms, depending on the situation - LUCK rolls for example. Or a possibility to circle back to this point later. LucasArts Adventures used to let you do the conversation topics unchanged in any order you wanted where it was about flavour and info, but when there was a fork in the path during conversation, you would be given slightly different conversation options based on what you had chosen earlier, thus giving you a clue there actually WAS a fork. But all in all I guess there were as many non sequitur in any of those cherished old adventures as in a WWGB book. Which is a tremendous thing to accomplish while still providing a great story with a complex path structure. The original WWGB was great, too, as far as I'm concerned. I read about plans to re-write it, but that was posted years ago so maybe I've played the rewritten version? Great introduction to the series! I'm glad it didn't matter in which order I searched the areas of the ship's bar, though. That might have turned me off and I would have missed out on what is some seriously funny writing and great worldbuilding. Chapeau! |
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Yoz Ben Wed Oct 20 18:51:36 2021 Contractual Obligation |
I'm late to the party, but what a great site! I thoroughly enjoy the WWGB series so far, incredibly well written! I believe the obvious comparison to the Hitchhiker Series has been made before, but I have to repeat it, meaning it a very big compliment. Great parody of SciFi, Fantasy, and FF tropes, both in the stories' contents and through the mechanics! I also love how later entries in the series poke fun at stuff that happened earlier. I have to say I was disappointed though when at the end of Contractual Obligation
SPOILER
I for one would have enjoyed to see the genre's sexism subverted further (take, for example, the hypersexualization of any and all female characters, or "the princess" as a trophy but not a person, or the treemaidens' fear of spiders, or ...), not just by overdoing the trope, but also destabilizing it with other means. I mean, honestly, I think I have yet to find a gamebook that offers a hero (YOU!) that isn't silently assumed to be male and heterosexual (and probably white, which usually doesn't come up though. I guess because in those settings Black people are simply not even thought to exist). Playing with such implicit assumptions baked into genre conventions should be actually a rich field for comedy in such an approach as WWGB. There's of course a humourous approach to this in the series when it comes up, but also much reinforcing tired tropes (yeah sure, overdoing tropes is part of the fun - but subverting them is too)... I'm interested and looking forward to how that's handled in the following entries! I've read mention of a planned story where the hero is an Orc, turning some of the "common wisdom" about orcs on its head? Has that happened? Heaven't found it yet, looking forward to that one, too, if it exists. The Golden Crate was my favourite so far. So good! Lots of different locations, lots to discover on paths that may lead somewhere or not, and it doesn't matter if they do because the writing makes exploring so much fun. Lots of possibilities to improve a character that can be taken on to the next book, strengthening the connection between the episodes. Lots of red herrings, too. I love that you're still given a whole story to play/read that just turns out differently when you make a "wrong" choice earlier on, instead of giving you insta-death all the time. Even going through all those varied settings slightly differently on the alternative paths - wow! That surely makes the "game side" harder, but does wonders for the "story side"... Lots to explore for sure. Great read! I've found the entries in the series I've read so far to be quite varied, too, both in setting and in game mechanics. Contractual Obligation was rather straightforward, as Bob said above. You see the puzzle, you know what item to use (if you've come across it). Kind of like an easy point-and-click adventure (well not THAT easy! It's still text, and by Ulysses Ai!). |
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Mage Wed Oct 20 06:04:38 2021 Escape Neuburg Keep 
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Hey, the title is so misleading!
SPOILER
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Mage Wed Oct 20 00:46:44 2021 Above The Waves
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Never realized there was a book using Virtual Reality series rules here. Hope there's more of these. |
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Mage Tue Oct 19 07:05:38 2021 New Day Rising
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A mildly amusing diversion. |
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Mage Tue Oct 19 03:52:56 2021 Tomb Of The Ancients
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Starting with an easy one for the rest my unfamiliar playthroughs... |
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Mage Tue Oct 19 03:40:43 2021 Shrine Of The Salamander
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Ah, this is one I can always get back to. Once you find out which are the most useful spells, the win-rate is close to 100%, even with minimal stats. And it's the last of the books that I'm fairly familiar with. The rest of my nostalgia playthroughs will likely take much longer... |
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Mage Tue Oct 19 03:23:17 2021 Riders Of The Storm
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And done with the sequel! |
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Mage Tue Oct 19 03:01:16 2021 Curse Of The Yeti
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Refreshing not having to deal with being screwed by the dice. |
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Mage Tue Oct 19 02:46:29 2021 Midnight Deep
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Enjoyed this, but still wish this could have had 3 different successful endings in accordance with the 3 alignment paths that you can choose in the beginning. |
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Mage Tue Oct 19 02:13:25 2021 Impudent Peasant!
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Short and sweet. |
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Mage Tue Oct 19 02:08:22 2021 Hunger Of The Wolf
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Nice prequel for Scorpion Swamp. |
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Mage Tue Oct 19 01:58:33 2021 Bodies In The Docks
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Finally! Took me way too many tries and I needed max values for most of my stats to barely scrape out a win! The lack of healing/restoration (even Doctors have a very tight limit on his First Aid skill) and the fact that most opponents have highly-inflated STAMINA compared to the average gamebook, AND the fact that you always encounter enemies in pairs, really ramps up the difficulty level. Even with Max SKILL and combat bonuses from Knife usage, there's way too many opportunities for opponents to get lucky on the dice and whittle down your STAMINA in a single battle (and leaving you weak to later fights without the chance to heal up). |
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Ulysses Mon Oct 18 11:33:14 2021 Lindenbaum Competition |
Hi Stuart. Good on you for resurrecting a gamebook writing competition - it's a really good way of encouraging this specised form of writing. I just read the discussion above about feedback and voting during the Windhammer competition, and agree that having encoyraging and useful feedback is important. I note that the rules for this year are set, but I'll add a couple of suggestions for the future: 1. Rather than just a voting system, a panel of experts (anyone who has actually written a gamebook) who provide feedback, with the voting used as a 'people's choice' award for the best entrant. 2. The Expert Panel can additionally choose winners for categories like: 'Most Adventuresome', 'Funniest', 'Best Under 30 Chapters', etc. Whatever you think is best to encourage. |
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Mage Mon Oct 18 09:56:08 2021 The Cold Heart Of Chaos
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And a short one to round out Day 1 of my nostalgia run here... Although I think this one is more difficult than the "easy" rating that was assigned to it. |
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Mage Mon Oct 18 09:21:50 2021 Isle Of The Cyclops 
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Tales of Bird Island can't be completed, so I guess I'd have to make do with this one. And after spending the last game trying to complete the Rich Challenge, I hereby nickname my hero the Island Hyena Hunter. |
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Mage Mon Oct 18 08:13:48 2021 House Of Horror
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Great prequel. |
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Mage Mon Oct 18 07:35:50 2021 Hellfire
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Woohoo! Completed once of the most difficult ones on the first day of my nostalgia trip. It can only get better, right... |
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Mage Mon Oct 18 06:58:36 2021 Beggars Of Blacksand
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Very fun, but feels kind of underdeveloped. Or maybe there's just a bit too many red herrings that look interesting but don't really have any significance on the gameplay for plot. Still great fun. |
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