Beyond the Mountains of Magnatz

Cugel at last extracted several gold coins from the landlord together with a parcel of bread, cheese and wine. The landlord came to the door and pointed. ‘There is but a single trail, that leading south. The Mountains of Magnatz rise before you. Farewell.’

Not without foreboding, Cugel set off to the south. For a space the trail led past the tillage of local peasants; then as the foothills bulked to either side the trail became first a track, then a trace winding along a dry riverbed beside thickets of prickle-bush, spurge, yarrow, asphodel. Along the crest of the hill paralleling the trail grew a tangle of stunted oak, and Cugel, thinking to improve his chances for going unobserved, climbed the ridge and continued in the shelter of the foliage.

The air was clear, the sky a brilliant dark blue. The sun wallowed up to the zenith and Cugel bethought himself of the food he carried in his pouch. He seated himself, but as he did so the motion of a skipping dark shadow caught his eye. His blood chilled. The creature surely meant to leap upon his back.

Cugel pretended not to notice, and presently the shadow moved forward again: a deodand, taller and heavier than himself, black as midnight except for shining white eyes, white teeth and claws, wearing scraps of leather to support a green velvet shirt…

        (Vance, 1966, p. 67)

A shade over ten years ago Pelgrane Press published the Dying Earth Roleplaying Game by Robin Laws, John Snead and Peter Freeman. This was based on the Dying Earth sequence of novels by famed author Jack Vance, featuring a setting so far into the future that it effectively becomes a fantastical past. The role-playing game was followed by a wealth of supplements, of which my top three picks would be the Compendium of Universal Knowledge, the Kaiin Player’s Guide, and the Scaum Valley Gazetteer. When the game license expired two years ago there was a pre-expiry glut of orders for both digital and physical copies of the game by enthusiasts, myself included. Part of this I suspect is that while I may never run the actual game in session, its various supplements make for enjoyable reading for any fan of the Jack Vance canon and the Dying Earth in particular.

Which brings us to now. Pelgrane Press have reacquired the license and reopened the vaults to their Dying Earth stock. Better still, we have a new publication: Beyond the Mountains of Magnatz by Ian Thomson (who I once sketched some Dying Earth monsters for, a long time ago in a galaxy far away). It’s the latest in his sequence of Dying Earth scenarios entitled ‘In the Footsteps of Fools’, and is a 97 page PDF packed with gaming goodness, including:

• Magnatz! The eponymous entity of said mountains.
• Various encounters with bestial half-men, friendly or otherwise.
• The noted sorcerer Pharesm.
• The Basilisk-haunted Vale of Dharad.
• Gazetteers to the village of Vull and the city of Mar.

It’s great to see the series back in action and I for one will be purchasing any new release to add to my expanding stash of Dying Earth lore. I bought my copy of Beyond the Mountains of Magnatz here.

References

Vance, J. (1966). The Eyes of the Overworld. USA: Ace Books Inc.

Gone fishin'...



Astral Shark


I apologize for the complete lack of recent updates - I've been alternating between bouts of study, watching late night Champions League games, and a holiday down at the beach [not to mention an absolutely useless broadband connection for the past four weeks]. It hasn't been completely wasted though, as I did take Family Fantasy Game Book to the local Rayong Aquarium where we got to see all kinds of cool stuff! What follows is a brief look at some of the denizens of the deep we encountered, along with a batch of Advanced Fighting Fantasy stats for the gaming purists among you. After this, more maps by Steve Luxton and discussion on Titan geography to follow...

First up, my favourite, the Crocodile Needlefish (Tylosurus crocodilus)!  

CROCODILE NEEDLEFISH [SKILL 6 STAMINA 6, Large bite]

Nearly two meteres long and capable of launching themselves through the air to impale unlucky fishermen (Test for Luck to avoid), CROCODILE NEEDLEFISH appear superficially similar to Barracudas but are actually more closely related to the edible Garfish. A menace to all who trawl the equatorial waters of Titan!

The Pharaoh Cuttlefish (Sepia pharonis) is perhaps not as big as some of its relatives, but for Titan purposes we can always extrapolate!

 GIANT CUTTLEFISH [SKILL 9 STAMINA 10, Small claw or Large bite, 4 Attacks]

As well as their more mundane capabilities, the blinding colour changes of the GIANT CUTTLEFISH function as a Sleep spell for those unfortunate enough to view it underwater! These enormous cephalopods grow to three metres in length and are among the most intelligent of their kind.

Moray Eels are snake-like reef-dwelling fish that grow up to four metres long!

MORAY EEL [SKILL 7 STAMINA 12, Large bite, (from Jackson, 1986, ref#98)]

MORAY EELS live among rocks and coral in tropical marine waters and will defend their territory aggressively with a mouth full of large needle-like teeth. Their flesh is poisonous to eat. Giant Moral Eels have been reported from the vicinity of Solani Island off the southern coast of Allansia.

Biggest of the reef fish are the enormous Groupers - huge predators that grow to three metres long and weigh over 600 kilograms!

GROUPER [SKILL 8 STAMINA 12, Large Bite, (from Jackson, 1986, ref#119)]

Despite their size, GROUPERS prefer easy prey and if they are hit twice in succession in two Attack Rounds they will usually try and Escape. However, if they roll a double 6 when calculating their Attack Strength then they have swallowed their victim, who will then take 2 STAMINA points damage per Attack Round until they are dead or they have cut themselves free.

All photos by me!

References

Jackson, S. (1986). Demons of the Deep. London: Puffin Books

Geography of Titan (Part 3)

This has to be the coolest map of Titan I have ever seen (thanks Steve)! Click on it to see the big version - it really is a work of art!

 

A new climate map of Titan by Steve Luxton.


It's similar to the very rough climate map I made for part two of this discussion, but obviously Steve has put a lot more thought into deciding why and how the oceanic currents and atmospheric conditions actually work. Everything on it looks good and I've just got a few tentative minor issues as follows:

• Atlantis (the dot on the north-western edge of the map), should be closer to Fish Island and Skull Island on the equatorial eastern edge of the map. The events of Demons of the Deep reveal that these locations are fairly close together. Also, for the final map, we have to remember to change Atlantis to a cross, not a dot, as it is a sunken city not an island (which it looks like now).
• I like the Hotspot Anomaly of Allansia centred around the Desert of Skulls. Do we have anything from Fighting Fantasy canon that can confirm the Caarth snakemen are engaged in sorcery to expand the desert? I just had a look in Titan but couldn't find anything relevant.
• The Hotspot Anomaly of Khul is obviously the Wastes of Chaos and the Twin Sun Desert. Case closed?
• Can we reverse the currents on the east coast of Khul? This area is relatively cooler than the lands to the west (and so is the Arrowhead Archipelago). As these currents then come down from the equator they could bring warm water to the tropical northern parts of the Isles of the Dawn.
• The south-eastern coast of the Inland Sea could be a shade warmer, as that's where the jungles beyond the city-states of Marad and Shurrupak lie...

What else can we add? Are there any other suggestions?

Part one of the discussion on the geography of Titan can be found here, and part two is here.

Geography of Titan (Part 2)

[Part 1 is here]

Steve Luxton has now emailed me a revised map of the Fighting Fantasy world of Titan for discussion and review. I've attached it to this post below as Figure 1.

Figure 1. Revised global map of Titan by Steve Luxton.

As you can see, Titan finally has an equator and a scale! I have a few minor issues/notes with it, which you can see in Figure 2 below as possible corrections.

Figure 2. Things to check: Blood Island, the Arrowhead Archipelago,
 and Tura, southernmost Island of the Dawn.

Issues to be addressed on the revised map:

• We really need to sort out correct shapes for the three continents, starting with either Allansia or Khul. Allansia needs to be somewhat broader for instance, to allow for the rolling expanse of the Flatlands.
• I'm not sure what the tiny island is, far to the west of Allansia. If it is Blood Island from Trial of Champions then it needs to be much closer to the Allansian mainland.
• Some of the topmost islands that form the 'point' of the Arrowhead Archipelago appear to have been cropped off.
• We're missing Tura, the entire southern-most Island of the Dawn. Tura can be seen here. Incidentally, do we have any idea what the climate of Tura may be like? Warren mentioned Hokkaido as a point of comparison, which seems as good an idea as any.

What thoughts do other people have about this revised map?

In addition, I did a rough mock-up of a climate map for Steve's revised version. This is Figure 3 - as per before, blue = polar regions, green = temperate regions, and orange = subtropical and tropical regions.

Figure 3. A revised idea of Titan's climate. Better, perhaps?

Again, it's not an exact map, but what do people think of this new climate interpretation of Titan?

You know the drill. Hit us with your ideas, thoughts and opinions. What works and what doesn't. After we've nailed this one down, we could probably then start looking at the individual continents themselves.

Tales from the Catacombs...

There's slowly been some feedback filtering downwards to my lair concerning Catacombs of the Undercity, my adventure for Tin Man Games' line of Gamebook Adventures for the various iDevices. Firstly, it's got nothing less than 5 star reviews at iTunes! Yay!

Secondly, this awesome review was posted as a comment to the Tin Man website:

This release got me into your games, thanks! I haven’t finished it yet, but I’ve played through to various bad ends more than a few times, and died countless times before even crossing the river… and I’m still finding new things to explore, and there are a few more achievements to pick up. The “roll three ones” one took the sting out of a nasty roll, and it’s been fun seeing which ones I get whilst exploring.

I also bought 2 & 3, which look awesome from the brief time I’ve spent on them. I am very happy with them all, except for the way they’ve filled my iPhone’s gamebooks folder and wrecked my beautiful organisational scheme. I guess I’ll just have to buy the rest when 6 comes out, to tidy things up.

So far, though, 5 (and perhaps the others) are among my favourite classic-style gamebooks. I can’t possibly compare them to Fabled Lands, as it’s a different style of game entirely, and Lone Wolf has the ongoing saga aspect with its pluses and (mostly, to me) minuses, but they’re better than every Fighting Fantasy game I’ve played, and my school used to have a shelf full of them. Keep up the excellent work!

Thirdly, Warren had a bash on the iPod Touch, and said:

I spent a couple of hours of unadulterated pleasure playing this last night, the perfect salve for a cold! I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the gameplay. I usually don't play gamebooks by the rules, but it was strangely liberating being made to, and not being able to flick back to the previous paragraph continuously (helped of course by knowing that you're not the sort of author who kills people for choosing one random option over another).

As for the dice, I loved them. I know it's just random number generation, but having dice on the screen made it seem less random than 'you lose/win'. And it seems to me, although I need to play a lot more to be sure, that the Tin Man system makes the most of random rolls, with players getting more random rolls the higher their stats are, so that the randomness comes down as you get better.

Looking forward to playing more. I have to work out how to power up without losing all my health and money...

Finally, a friend in Bangkok now has it on their iPod Touch, so I'll get to see my own adventure, plus all the hard work that Tin Man Games have put in, when I hang out with them at the pub tomorrow. The Undercity beckons...

[Remember, if you get stuck in the Catacombs and need some spoilers - let me know, and I'll dig out my flowcharts and see if I can help you out!]

Ian Livingstone in Bangkok!

Ian Livingstone
(from Digiplay, 2011a).

I’m gutted. Ian Livingstone, co-creator of Fighting Fantasy, former editor of White Dwarf, and ex-mastermind behind Games Workshop, was in Bangkok on Friday to give the keynote speech ("Capitalizing on Great Ideas: from Games Workshop to Tomb Raider", Digiplay, 2011b), at the opening of “DigiPlay: Thai-UK Digital Festival” and I had no idea. DigiPlay, held at the Thailand Creative and Design Centre until May 1 (so I can still visit at least!), is part exhibition, part trade-show, showcasing UK and Thai companies involved in game design and digital entertainment. Perhaps I should buy an iPad and get down there with Catacombs of the Undercity…

Anyway, local newspaper The Nation has reported on the opening though it doesn’t make clear whether the pull-quotes in the article from Ian Livingstone were delivered as part of his speech or an interview afterwards. Regardless, I’ll reproduce here all the comments by Ian Livingstone as follows:

DigiPlay! (from Mudlark, 2011).

“The global revenue of games sales today – both online and offline – is about US$50 billion a year – bigger than the box office, DVD, book and music industries combined. Young and old, male and female, enjoy the experience. It’s mass market entertainment industry.”

“Gaming has moved from a niche market to mainstream entertainment with many platforms available today from PCs, consoles, handheld devices, smartphones and online portals. It’s no longer necessary to have a huge team to produce a game, a small team can reach global audiences. The days are gone where you sell a limited number of games for high prices; today you can sell to millions of people for a very small price.”

“The success of Angry Birds lies in its elegant way of operation – using a touch screen device in a satisfying and simple way. It’s easy to play and deals with an emotional response and the human spirit. It generates gameplay that makes you want to play again and again. Just one more time to reach achievement – feeling yes, I can make it!”

“Among three things – gameplay, technology, and graphics, the most important thing to me is gameplay, that’s the value of replay. Satisfaction is playing the game, not looking at it.”

Online games [are the next big things]. People need a game that’s enjoyed together with friends and family rather than one that’s won as a solo experience. Rising penetration of broadband and fast processor PCs, those can make things happen. Farmville on Facebook is a great game. It promotes gameplay and is a kind of social engagement too.”

“The opportunity is open to all. Angry Birds was conceived by a small team. Thai creators are equally as capable. The game character and content should be global. It’s important to lead people to think about good things in your game like problem solving or brain training, not violence.”

         (all from Pholdhampalit, 2011, p. 1B, bold emphasis by me)

Ian Livingstone interviewed in Bangkok (from Tiwa, 2011)

It’s an interesting article, and I certainly intend to visit the exhibition, but I’ve highlighted three things that stood out for me:

Replay value: Ian Livingstone’s obviously learned his lessons from Crypt of the Sorcerer or Armies of Death.

Family enjoyment beats solo experience: Fighting Fantasy strike one!

No violence: Fighting Fantasy strike two!

Of course, we’ve been here before. Back when the 25^th Anniversary Edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was released, we were told:

In 2005 the first brand-new [Fighting Fantasy] book for ten years was published. Written by Ian [Livingstone] Eye of the Dragon played on the strengths of the original series while at the same time reflecting Ian’s experience gained over fifteen years in the world of computer and video games.

        (Jackson & Livingstone, 2007, p. 206, bold emphasis by me)

Anyone who thinks the above paragraph is true should consult the following reviews of Eye of the Dragon:

I've reached a saddening conclusion: despite being one of the pioneers of interactive fiction, Ian Livingstone isn't and never has been that good at writing it. I won't deny I enjoy Forest of Doom and Deathtrap Dungeon on one level, but I first read them when I was nine and expected less from books back then. Not to mention I have fond childhood memories now. Caverns of the Snow Witch and Island of the Lizard King aren't bad gamebooks, but "bland" sums them up accurately. Unlike the Golden Dragon book of the same name, which was one of the best entries in its all too short series, Eye of the Dragon is an Ian Livingstone book of the absolute worst kind. I'm not familiar with the short adventure from Dicing with Dragons this book is adapted from, but if it's anything like this, Ian should've left it alone.

I've never particularly enjoyed dungeon crawls and this book reminds me of the worst reasons why. You wander from room to room, fighting a bevy of random and frustratingly bland monsters, finding a bunch of annoying vague items where every single one is as likely to curse you as save your butt, and constantly face the soul-shattering decision of whether to choose the boring left passage or the boring right passage. And just why is there someone operating a general store in this isolated, monster-infested dungeon? If you were going to let the player buy supplies, fine, but why couldn't it have been before he got to the dungeon? The way it's done is almost [parody-like].

Besides the genius who makes a living from a shop in a hidden dungeon, what are such a random collection of creatures as a BLACK DRAGON, MASTER SWORDSMAN and even a boss monster stolen wholecloth from the underrated House of Hell -- right down to the only weapon that can hurt him -- doing in this isolated dungeon? If it were some madman's idea of a trial of champions that'd be one thing, but it's just a collection of stone rooms hidden beneath the forest floor.

Even if you're willing to put up with all this and a sidekick named Littlebig, all you've got to look forward to is a climactic battle with a dull villain and an ending full-on as lame as the one in Crypt of the Sorcerer. While I'm grateful to Ian for the fact that Fighting Fantasy exists, this book proves that if anything his powers have only dulled with age. Let's hope if Ian contributes another book to the new line it's at least something he's buckled down and done from scratch.

(Fireguard, 2009)

And here:

Nothing is better than the brilliant choices, the awesome plot and the wonderful writing and imagination that pour forth from this book.

Choosing [repetitively] between the right passage and the left passage, without knowing anything about either is what makes Fighting Fantasy books so awesome, so let's do it twenty times in a book. And other brilliant choices like when you see a plain treasure chest in the room, do you open it or leave?! It took me centuries to decide if I should open the unguarded treasure filled chest, or walk off. Other brilliant choices include deciding whether to throw 1 gold coin into a non functioning wishing well, staring into a mirror with a 50 foot IT'S A TRAP sign, and choosing whether to open the door. AGAIN.

This is deeply engaging book, and I could feel every brain cell in my head being put into full use, especially when I met other humans, and I was confronted with the thrilling attack for no reason-talk-leave choice AGAIN. WHOMG!

And the challenges you go up against are so imaginative, you’d think they were divinely inspired. I mean you will know true fear when you face the likes of a GOBLIN, a GIANT SPIDER or even an EVIL WIZARD.

And MAN the plot and writing of this book are brilliant. Some dude has found some stature in the bottom of a dungeon in Darkwood forest. The statue is worth 335,000 gp, because people in Titan like to pay large amounts of gold for crap. And naturally, rather than sell the statue and retire in luxury, the old owner decided to put in a dungeon and somehow fill it with monsters and obvious traps. No one would think to look in there!

And naturally when some guy asks you to drink slow acting poison that will kill you in two weeks, you see no problem at all with doing so. But all though he intends to screw you, he was at least courteous enough to switch his poison with grape juice, ruining his brilliant evil plan.

And of course, although you’ve been warned that touching the statue without the two emeralds will result in your death, if you reach the statue with one emerald, instead of looking down one of the exciting right/left passages, you touch anyway. SMART.

Those of you with one or more brain cells may have figured out this is something of a joke review.

Humour aside, this is a merit-less piece of crap. If anyone but Ian Livingstone or Steve Jackson had submitted this crap to Wizard Books, they'd have burnt it into little cinders.

It really is nothing more than a bunch of poorly thought out clichés meshed together. The choices are every bit as inane and stupid as I have made out, and there is nothing of any merit here. If Wizard Books publish any more new adventures, I seriously pray they're better than this.

(Paul T., 2005)

Fighting Fantasy strike three!

Of course, the moral to this story is that you can give someone an OBE or make someone Life President of Eidos, but it still doesn’t mean that they know what they’re talking about, or understand what made their initial venture so wildly successful. Therefore, as Ian himself says, the opportunity is still open to all.

If you want to read an online version of the news article, you can do so here.

References

Digiplay Thai-UK Digital Festival. (2011a). Feature Designers. Accessed from http://www.thaiukdigital.com/feature


Digiplay Thai-UK Digital Festival. (2011b). Seminars. Accessed from http://www.thaiukdigital.com/seminar


Fireguard. (2009, May 20). Fireguard’s thoughts on Eye of the Dragon. Review posted to http://www.gamebooks.org/show_item.php?id=1988


Jackson, S. & Livingstone, I. (2007). The Warlock of Firetop Mountain: 25^th Anniversary Edition. Cambridge: Wizard Books.

Mudlark. (2011). Digi-Play (Bangkok). Image accessed at http://www.wearemudlark.com/projects/digi-play/

Paul T. (2005, May 3). Paul T.’s thoughts on Eye of the Dragon. Review posted to

http://www.gamebooks.org/show_item.php?id=1988

Pholdhampalit, K. (2011, March 27). Gaming’s golden age. The Nation, p. 1B.

Tiwa. (2011, March 25). “w/ Ian Livingstone, tomb raider producer @tcdcconnect Digiplay exhibit launch”. Photo posted to http://yfrog.com/h8x9csj

The Geography of Titan!

Titan - the Fighting Fantasy world!

Steve Luxton, original cartographer for the sourcebook Titan: The Fighting Fantasy World (Gascoigne, 1986), recently got in touch with the gang at Titan_Rebuilding. He's looking at redrawing the original maps of Titan and its various continents for Arion Games upcoming release of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy rules system. Steve wants to know what improvements can be made to the Fighting Fantasy maps to make them more accurate and remove or reduce the errors that crept into the original designs. This blog post has two functions then:

• To highlight the errors and inconsistencies in the original maps from Titan.
• To serve as a forum, via the comments section, where YOU state your opinion as to what should change and what should stay the same, and also to add any spotted errors that may have been missed.

For this post, we're just looking at the big map of Titan (see Figure 1), and from what I can see, most potential changes can be grouped under three main categories.

Figure 1: The World of Titan, by Steve Luxton (from Gascoigne, 1986).

1. The Shape of the Continents.

In the bad old days before Photoshop, the nearest equivalent you had to resizing images and placing them in a new image was the office photocopier. This may explain why the shapes and sizes of the various continents on the big map of Titan differ radically from their appearance in their individuals maps. Figure 2 shows the map of Titan with the individual shapes of the continents superimposed over the top.

Figure 2. The continents of Titan. Actual shape of continents as coloured overlay.

Two further points follow on from this.

a) Priorities. If we want to make an accurate map of Titan, we need an accurate map of each of the three continents developed first, so we can then downsize them and insert them into the main map. Unfortunately this goes against Steve's idea of sorting the main map out first, and then letting the rest follow on from there.

b) Scale. Accurate map scales are rubbish in the world of Titan. This is easily established, thanks to Warren M., by looking at the map of Khul the Dark Continent in Figure 3. The distance between the towns of Willowbend and Fenmarge takes one day to travel through in Scorpion Swamp (Jackson, 1984), and yet a similar distance in the Inland Sea make take a week or more of sailing in Seas of Blood (Chapman, 1986). Ironically, the scale looks a bit better on the otherwise incorrect Titan map, where the Inland Sea is larger, than the individual map of Khul.

Figure 3. Khul, the Dark Continent, by Steve Luxton (from Gascoigne, 1986).

2. The Climate of Titan.

Another problem area! Figure 4 shows an expected climate map of Titan, with a central tropical equatorial orange band, bordered by two green bands of more temperate climates, and surmounted by icy polar regions in blue, at the north and south poles.

Figure 4. The expected climate of Titan (blue: polar, green: temperate, orange: tropical).

Unfortunately, this isn't what we find when we look at both the original map of Titan and what we read about in the various gamebooks themselves. Figure 5 shows a simplified look at Titan's unusual climate where we have a narrow northern temperate band followed by a broad tropical climate area, followed by more temperate regions (in Khul), then more tropics in southern Khul, then the southern polar area! Just what is going on and what solution can we come up with?

Figure 5. The actual climate of Titan (blue: polar, green: temperate, orange: tropical).

Given that the climate weirdness of Titan is due in part to the tropical areas of southern Khul, perhaps one approach would be to invert Khul so that its tropical region lies within the main equatorial band. Figure 6 shows this, with Khul effectively becoming an upside down continent in the southern hemisphere. The problem here of course is that it disregards 25 years of established Fighting Fantasy canon.

Figure 6. Climate solution #1: Flip Khul upside down! [a.k.a "Australian Solution"]

A better approach may be simply accept the fact that Titan's climate is highly irregular and heavily messed-up. This could be due to any of the following:

• The War of the Wizards, and the creation of the Wastes of Chaos in central Khul.
• A lingering tectonic/magnetic anomaly caused by the Splitting of the Lands following the sinking of Atlantis.
• Problems stemming from the original First Battle of the Gods, and the release of Chronada the God of Time into the atmosphere of the planet Titan.
• A combination of all of the above three theories!

Figure 7. Climate solution #2: The unexplained Khulian anomaly!

What it gives us is Figure 7. This map looks almost normal, were it not for the strange temperate region of most of Khul, otherwise surrounded by equatorial tropics. Perhaps the Wastes of Chaos are somehow responsible after all...

3. The Lost Lands of Titan.

There has been a considerable amount of geological and tectonic upheaval on the planet of Titan. It would be nice to see a few references this on the main map of the world, especially since their locations will not be covered by any of the individual maps of the continents. Figure 8 shows us the location of two of Titan's major lost land-masses: Atlantis and Vangoria.

Figure 8. The lost lands of Titan (Atlantis: orange, Vangoria: green).

a) Atlantis. The sinking of Atlantis caused the cataclysm that split the great continent of Irritaria into the three lands of Allansia, Khul, and the Old World. Although its final resting place has never been shown, we know from Demons of the Deep (Jackson, 1986) that the sunken capital of Atlantis lies near Fish Island and Skull Island in the Western Ocean. Figure 8 therefore demonstrates a potential location to mark it on the map of Titan. Of course, the whole island of Atlantis does not need to be marked. Perhaps instead we could just have a cross that says "Sunken City of Atlantis" or something similar.



Figure 9. The land of Vangoria,
(artist unknown, from Jackson, 1993).


b) Vangoria. The continent of Vangoria, and its connection to the Fighting Fantasy world of Titan, is a little more obscure. Vangoria was the world of Steve Jackson's collectible card game BattleCards, and Figure 9 depicts it in all its glory. An immediate link to Titan can be seen here - the Eelsea of Vangoria's eastern coast matches the Eelsea of the Old World's western coast (other links can be found here). Hence the decision in Figure 8 to place the sunken continent of Vangoria in the northern waters between the Old World and Allansia.

Obviously Vangoria was another product of the Splitting of Irritaria and existed for several centuries in the obscure period immediately following that cataclysm. However, a secondary tectonic disaster (perhaps caused by the magical wars of succession described in and by the BattleCards game itself), caused Vangoria, like Atlantis before it, to sink beneath the waves, leaving us just a few scattered islands (Dolphin Island, Compass Island, and the Cragspider archipelago) to mark its passing. One could also make the argument that survivors from Vangoria made it to both the Island of Scars and its neighbouring Isle of Despair to account for the diverse populations supported by these otherwise highly isolated places.

Given that it is much more obscure than Atlantis, if we want to record its presence on the main map of Titan, we probably would look for a dotted outline of the continent and labelled "Lost Land of Vangoria".

c) Islands of Titans. Offhand, I can't think of any other issues with the island and other lands of Titan (apart from Allansia, Khul, and the Old World, which will merit separate posts). A few small things would be to finally label the Isle of Despair (alongside the Island of Scars), and perhaps also Stayng Island (the eastern-most islet in the Arrowhead Archipelago), but that's about it. There are other islands mentioned in Demons of the Deep (Jackson, 1986), but given their size and location it's probable they make up the Blood Islands group.

Phew! That's it from me. What do YOU thing needs changing (or not)?

References

Chapman, A. (1985). Seas of Blood. London: Puffin Books.

Gascoigne, M. (1986). Titan: The Fighting Fantasy World. London: Puffin Books.

Jackson, S. (1984). Scorpion Swamp. London: Puffin Books.

Jackson, S. (1986). Demons of the Deep. London: Puffin Books.

Jackson, S. (1993). BattleCards. San Diego, California: Merlin Publishing International.