Gasp! A breather...

I'm taking a break tonight while I attempt to compile the rest of the Heart of Ice/Fabled Lands mash-up into a single bumper post for publishing soon. As is my curse, it began to bloat out beyond the initial idea for a single post, and I'm keen to finish it off, and move on to postings new (blessed as I am with a ridiculously short attention span).

Thanks to everyone so far who has stopped by to read the blog, and also to post comments. As you may well gather, I'm enjoying this lark immensely! :-) 

cheers

Andy

Heart of Ice versus The Fabled Lands (Outdoor Survival)

Returning yet again to our Frozen Lands mash-up…

4. Outdoor Survival. Another aspect of the Fabled Lands that is under-utilized in the interests of speedier gameplay and less book-keeping, is that of supplies and provisions. In fact, one of the few places where rules for this are provided is on the Great Steppes between the Spine of Harkun and the Peaks at the Edge of the World. Here, in the colder northern parts of the steppes, we find the following applicable rules:

The sun is sucked below the horizon, casting its wan rays across the flat and desolate steppes. You camp for the night. If you have a wolf pelt, the fur helps to keep you warm. If you do not, lost 1 Stamina from the cold.

You need to hunt for food. Make a SCOUTING roll at Difficulty 11. If you succeed, you find a wild hare to eat. If you fail, you go hungry and must lose 1 Stamina point. (Morris & Thomson, 1995, paragraph 666)

This is comparatively tame however, compared to the merciless conditions of the Saharan Ice Wastes, and presumably much of the territory that lies between the far-flung cities of Heart of Ice. At this point, we discover the perils of the weather are such that:

       

If you lack both a fur cloak and cold-weather clothing, lose 4 Life Points. If you possess either of those items, lose only 2 Life Points. (Lose 1 less Life Point if you have Survival, and 1 less if you possess a burrek.) (Morris, 1994, paragraph 426)

In addition, all travellers on the wastes need polarized goggles or they will suffer snow blindness (for effects, see Morris, 1994, paragraph 13). The food situation is such that 2 food packs must be consumed per location, or suffer 1 Life Point loss if you have 1 food pack and 4 Life Points loss for none, reduced to 3 if you have Survival, and reduced by 2 if you have a burrek, which you can slaughter (Morris, 1994, paragraph 444). (More on burreks later!)

Previously, Morris and Johnson (1987, paragraph 422) had provided rules for crossing the frozen expanse of the Mistral Sea, in The Kingdom of Wyrd, which make for an interesting comparison. Here, you lose 5 Endurance points for each day on the ice, with the following modifiers:

        One less point lost each day if you have a fur cloak.

        One less point lost each day if you have rations to eat.

        One less point lost each day if you have a bedroll.

        One less point lost each day if you have a brazier.

Also, if you do not have gloves, you suffer frostbite and lose 1 point of Fighting Prowess for the rest of the adventure.

A consideration of all of these sources has led to the creation of the following summary for outdoor survival in the Frozen Lands. As per the Fabled Lands series, this sequence would be included for every location that would be designated an Ice Waste (i.e. not ruins, an oasis (poisoned or otherwise), or the lands around the Lyonesse Swamps), usually after rolling for and resolving random encounters.

Outdoor Survival in the Frozen Lands

- After you enter the wastes, there’s an item check to see if you have polarized goggles. If not, you waste 1 day dealing with snow blindness.

       

- Lose 2 Stamina points each day/location. Reduce this by one if you have a burrek/camel or cold-weather clothing.

- Need to eat 1 food pack per day/location or make a SURVIVAL roll at Difficulty 11 to find some food. Lose 2 Stamina points if you have no food. If you are desperate, you can slaughter your burrek/camel to counter this.

I’ve tried to mix and match here, and create something simple but effective. Wilderness travel should be difficult, but not too punishing for the well-equipped, as they head out into the wastes to trade, explore, hunt, and just wander about aimlessly…

In the next post I will explain the wonder that is the oft-mentioned burrek, and look at adding pack-animals, steeds and transport rules to the Frozen Lands milieu!

References

Morris, D. (1994). Heart of Ice. London: Mammoth.

Morris, D. & Johnson, O. (1987). The Kingdom of Wyrd. London: Knight Books.

Morris, D. & Thomson, J. (1995). Fabled Lands: The Plains of Howling Darkness. London: Macmillan.

Heart of Ice versus The Fabled Lands (Combat)

Getting back to our Frozen Land mash-up of Heart of Ice and the Fabled Lands, the sole conversion issue we’ll consider in this post is …..

3. Combat. Given that it is a diceless, non-random system, combat in Heart of Ice is handled fairly simply. Tubb (2010) summarizes the combat system as follows below:

After walking down the dark alley for about a minute, you are attacked by two thugs armed with knives. If you have Close Combat, turn to #. If you have Agility, turn to #. If you have Shooting and a barysal gun with at least one charge remaining, turn to #. If you have none of these, turn to #.

If you had no applicable skills, you might lose 5 Life Points. If you had Close Combat or Agility, you might suffer 2 Life Points worth of injury, and if you had a charged barysal gun you might get away completely unscathed. As such, the system combines not only missile and melee combat, but also evasive techniques, including persuasive powers if you have the Cunning skill.

By contrast, the combat system for Fabled Lands involves the following steps:

- Roll two dice and add your COMBAT score.

- If you roll higher than the enemy’s Defence (COMBAT plus Rank plus armour bonus) score, you have hit.

- The amount you score above the enemy’s Defence is the number of Stamina points he loses.

- When the Stamina of either combatant reaches zero, they have died (Morris & Thomson, 1995, p. 6).

Interestingly, there is no missile combat system for Fabled Lands, but there are occasions when people shoot arrows and similar missiles at you. These tend to hit automatically, and do one die roll, less your armour bonus, in Stamina points damage (Morris & Thomson, 1995, paragraph 726).

For devising a combat system for Frozen Lands, I’d propose a distinction between melee combat and missile combat, as follows:

a) Melee Combat. This remains exactly the same as the Fabled Lands system. The only real difference lies in the choices of weapons and armour, and their respective COMBAT and Defence bonuses. These items include:

Frozen Lands Weapons Chart

Unarmed (no COMBAT bonus)

Dagger or Knife (COMBAT +1)

Shortsword or Club (COMBAT +2)

Sword or Axe (COMBAT +3)

Double-handed weapon (COMBAT +4)

        Frozen Lands Armour Chart

        No armour (no Defence bonus)

        Padded Armour (Defence +1)

        Speculum Jacket (Defence +2)

        Anti-Laser Armour (Defence +3)

Plated Armour (Defence +4)

Another omission from Fabled Lands is the lack of any cohesive rules for shields, but as they’re not a part of the futuristic world of the Frozen Lands we don’t have to worry about them either!

b) Missile Combat. At the start of any fight, you are allowed to engage in Missile Combat. This consists of making a COMBAT role at a Difficulty of X, where X is the COMBAT score of your opponent. If you make the Difficulty roll and hit the target, the damage done is equivalent to whatever weapon you were using from the following table:

Frozen Lands Missile Damage Chart

Throwing Dagger, Arrow, or Crossbow Bolt (Roll 1 die, and

        subtract opponent’s armour Defence bonus)

Barysal Gun (Roll 2 dice, and subtract opponent’s armour

        Defence bonus)

Grenade (Roll 3 dice, and subtract opponent’s armour Defence

        bonus)

Mantramuktas Cannon (Roll 4 dice, and subtract opponent’s

        armour Defence bonus)

Stun Grenade (Special)

Stasis Bomb (Special)

The only other issue with Missile Combat is keeping track of ammo, and also including places within to replenish ammo supplies or recharge barysal guns. Prices for these services would also need to be established but that is perhaps a topic for another post.

c) An Example of Frozen Lands Combat. Putting it all together, we get the following:

The Road Warrior, COMBAT 6, Defence 8, Stamina 11, Barysal Gun (5 charges), No hand weapon, Padded Armour (Defence +1).

Thug, COMBAT 5, Defence 6, Stamina 8, Knife (COMBAT +1 – already taken into account), No armour.

1. The Road Warrior shoots first, reducing the number of charges by 1 to 4. They make a COMBAT roll at a Difficulty of 5. They roll 3 plus their combat (6) equals 9. A hit! They roll 7. The Thug has no armour and loses 7 Stamina points. They only have 1 left!

2. The Thug lashes out with their Knife. They roll two dice and score 9. Plus their COMBAT score (5) equals 14, which is 6 more than the Road Warrior’s Defence. This reduces the Road Warrior’s Stamina to 5.

3. Having used the Barysal Gun at the start of the combat, the Road Warrior now attacks with his bare hands. He rolls two dice and gets 5. Adding his COMBAT score he gets 11, which is 6 more than the Thug’s Defence. The Thug only has 1 Stamina point left though, and succumbs to his wounds…

Thoughts? To me it seems fairly lethal, but then combat in Heart of Ice is quite a vicious affair. The rules could probably do with some tweaking however.

References

Morris, D. & Thomson, J. (1995). Fabled Lands: Cities of Gold and Glory. London: Macmillan.

Tubb, A. (2010, September 28). Heart of Ice – A solo gamebook adventure in post-apocalyptic Europe and Africa. Review posted to http://rpggeek.com/thread/568777/heart-of-ice-a-solo-gamebook-adventure-in-post-a

Heart of Ice versus The Fabled Lands

Not too long ago, I was supposed to be completing an assignment and I got completely side-tracked by what at the time seemed like a great idea. What if we combined the world of Heart of Ice – the frozen Earth setting that Per Jorner (2007) calls “the best one-shot world design” – with the ongoing campaign system of the Fabled Lands series? I originally thought it might be a fairly amusing diversion for a few days, but it quickly became apparent that the project would be far bigger in scope. However, as my time at the moment is fairly constrained and I’m unable to develop the concept any further, I thought I’d post my notes up here, for comments and discussion. It’s also in the spirit of what Robin Laws (2004) named his Abandoned Ideas Clearinghouse:

Like most writers, I keep a file containing ideas for what might one day become novels or short stories. Since it takes a few moments to think of a project and months if not years to complete one, I now have more ideas than I could possibly develop for the rest of my life. It’s good to have a big store of ideas in reserve; you never know when one will come in handy.

Often a seemingly lame idea will become interesting when cross-pollinated with another one that isn’t quite working. But even so, I can tell that some of these entries will never see the light of day. Some of them are hypothetical books I’d like to read, without being books I’d like to write. Others just plain bite.

In a spirit of magnanimous amnesty, I will periodically use this space to free from its imprisonment a premise which would otherwise be doomed to languish forever in my idea file, alone and unloved.

So, if anyone wants to take this idea and develop it further, feel free (just credit me for inspiration, or something like that!).

The rest of this post covers the first two sections examining how you would convert Heart of Ice to a Fabled Lands style of play, in terms of the gamebook’s form, and its character design. Subsequent posts will look at further conversion details including combat, outdoor survival, gamebook structure, and various miscellaneous rules mechanics.

1. Gamebook Form. As we’ve already seen (Wright, 2011a), Heart of Ice is a ‘one true path’ kind of book, whereas the Fabled Lands are about as non-linear as you can get. They don’t even have a proper ending. How do we combine the two? Bear in mind we have to be especially careful because the storyline of Heart of Ice is one of the things that make it compelling, whereas one of the criticisms labeled at the more non-linear gamebooks is their “endless wandering” (Jorner, 2009). In my view, there are two real approaches we can take here:

a) Retrofit. We presuppose that our mash-up gamebook (hereafter known as Frozen Lands), takes place either well-before or well-after the action in Heart of Ice, and there is no effect on gameplay. Characters may venture to the Lost City of Du-En, but they will not encounter the Heart of Volent there. Instead we can create a series of other quests with which to tempt players. This approach has the virtue of simplicity, in not having to work Heart of Ice into the gameplay, but it lacks any over-arching plot or purpose.

b) Reworking. We incorporate the Heart of Ice plotline into the Frozen Lands gamebook, perhaps as the big final quest after they have built up their character exploring the cities of the Mediterranean region and the icy wastes between them. This gives immediate purpose to the book, but it’s going to take some work incorporating the story of Heart of Ice and the actions of its various NPC adventurers into the Frozen Lands. It also seems like we’re just repeating ourself, using an alternate rules system to tell a story that’s already been told.

I find myself alternating in favour between both of these ideas. Currently I’m leaning more towards the first though, after a long period of preferring the second. What do others think?

2. Character Design. Another danger of this project is that we lose the well-regarded character creation process of Heart of Ice (Jorner, 2007), and replace it with the Fabled Lands model, which has far less flexibility. The redeeming feature of the Fabled Lands system however, is that it is easy to scale up for a campaign game, and allows for a greater series of smaller progressions until the player/character feels up to trying a big challenge (like seeking the Heart of Volent).

As previously noted (Wright, 2011b), Heart of Ice gives us seven different character types, and twelve different skills. Converting this to a Fabled Lands system involves trimming the professions to six, and also compressing the twelve skills into six abilities whose numeric value represents how good each profession is at accomplishing the task at hand (Morris & Thomson, 1995, p. 5). What follows are suggestions for this:

a) The Professions. From the Heart of Ice list of starting character types (Morris, 1994, pp. 7-8), we lose the Trader, and keep the following:

Explorer

Bounty Hunter

Spy

Visionary

Scientist

Mutant

b) The Abilities. Converting the skills from Heart of Ice (Morris, 1994, p. 9) into abilities, yields the following:

TECH: Cybernetics, Piloting

COMBAT: Close Combat, Shooting

PSI: Paradoxing, ESP

LORE: Lore

SURVIVAL: Survival

ROGUERY: Agility, Cunning, Roguery, Streetwise

c) Combining the Two. Assigning abilities and their values to the professions is a tricky business, and I’ve revised my notes at least four times. The current iteration I’ve come up with is:

Explorer: COMBAT 5, LORE 4, PSI 2, ROGUERY 3, SURVIVAL 6, TECH 1

Bounty Hunter: COMBAT 6, LORE 1, PSI 2, ROGUERY 5, SURVIVAL 3, TECH 4

Spy: COMBAT 3, LORE 2, PSI 4, ROGUERY 6, SURVIVAL 1, TECH 5

Visionary: COMBAT 1, LORE 6, PSI 5, ROGUERY 4, SURVIVAL 3, TECH 2

Scientist: COMBAT 3, LORE 5, PSI 1, ROGUERY 2, SURVIVAL 4, TECH 6

Mutant: COMBAT 4, LORE 1, PSI 6, ROGUERY 5, SURVIVAL 3, TECH 2

Although some of these match their corresponding characters from Heart of Ice, there are also a few shifts in emphasis. The Visionary for example becomes more of a dual LORE/PSI mystic type, whereas the Mutant becomes the strongest in PSI but also a decent fighter and thief. The Spy has also become stronger with PSI which is surely useful for their line of work.

That’s it for tonight. Tomorrow I’ll look at some other conversions issues, starting with combat and those dreaded barysal guns.

References

Jorner, P. (2007, May 31). Reviews part 18: The future’s so bright I gotta wear polarized goggles. Message posted to http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/fighting_fantasy_gamebooks/message/2752

Jorner, P. (2009, November 26). Notification of Results for the 2009 Windhammer Prize. Message posted to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gamebooks/message/10494

Laws, R. D. (2004, March 29). Abandoned Idea Clearinghouse: Palindrome. Message posted to http://robin-d-laws.livejournal.com/2004/03/29/

Morris, D. (1994). Heart of Ice. London: Mammoth.

Morris, D. & Thomson, J. (1995). Fabled Lands: The War-Torn Kingdom. London: Macmillan.

Wright, A. (2011a). Heart of Ice (Part 3). Message posted to http://fantasygamebook.blogspot.com/2011/01/heart-of-ice-part-3.html

Wright, A. (2011b). Heart of Ice (Part 2). Message posted to http://fantasygamebook.blogspot.com/2011/01/heart-of-ice-part-2.html

Future Projects

Just a quick post for now unfortunately. Three weeks of holidays end tonight, and I go back to work tomorrow, to a day filled with presentations I have to give and planning I have to do, so no late night blogging tonight. It's also going to be interesting over the coming few weeks to see how I combine these blog posts with the demands of work. If that isn't enough, I've also taken on writing a novel this month, as I was too busy last November for NaNoWriMo (2010), and I've got to resume studies in February some time. So, every day this January as well as blogging, I've been churning out 1400 words of "fantasy fiction", or something like that. Ah, the joys of self-inflicted pressure...

Anyway, the following is a list of ideas for some posts I'll be writing over the coming week. I'm forewarning you now, to serve as personal motivation later, when I feel obligated to sit down and type them out. So, some things you can look forward to reading about here include:

1. Heart of Ice versus Fabled Lands. In which I take Heart of Ice and provide a skeletal structure of sorts for converting it into a Fabled Lands-style project.

2. Heart of Ice versus Necromunda. The world of Heart of Ice converted to Games Workshop's cult miniatures game featuring gang warfare in an urban future dystopia.

3. Influences. In which I begin an occasional series of posts going back as far as I can or dare to see why I have become "Fantasy Game Book".

4. The Joy of Maps. As a lead-in to a possible series on maps in gamebooks, I want to first look at maps themselves, particularly evocative examples (fantasy or otherwise) that have left some lasting impact on me.

5. Fabled Lands Book 1: The War-Torn Kingdom. I review this amazing book in similar fashion to what I just did with Heart of Ice.

Wish me luck in getting these posts together!

Reference

National Novel Writing Month. (2010). Accessed from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Novel_Writing_Month

The Ages of Gamebooks

This post is inspired by James Maliszewski's Ages of D&D (2009). It's not intended to be comprehensive, and it's really only a surface reading of the publication of some of the more popular adventure gamebook series. Katz (n.d.) for example provides a comprehensive database of an absolute plethora gamebook publishing information. It's also just my opinion, and I'm completely open to comments and discussions on dates and ages that people may disagree with. Like Maliszewski, though, I'm attempting to establish a gamebook shorthand that will help when contextualising future reviews. Anyway, here we go...

Prehistory (1976-1981): The adventure gamebook as a solitaire role-playing experience begins with Buffalo Castle in 1976, which kicks off a long line of Tunnels & Trolls solo scenarios. This is followed by The Cave of Time in 1979, which is the first Choose Your Adventure book.

The Golden Age (1982-1987): 1982 sees the publication of the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, as well as Ian Livingstone's far lesser known Eye of the Dragon from his Dicing With Dragons guide to role-playing games. The latter is forgotten, the former provokes an avalanche. Over the course of the next five years it would seem that every paperback children's book publisher would attempt to emulate the success of Fighting Fantasy. Joe Dever starts the Lone Wolf series in 1984 with Flight From The Dark. Other notable series at this time include Sagas of the Demonspawn, Skyfall, Falcon, Golden Dragon, Cretan Chronicles, Sagard the Barbarian, and Sword Quest, though few of these series last beyond four books. Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson use the gamebook format to smuggle their Dragon Warriors role-playing system into bookstores in 1985 (Morris & Johnson, 2008, p. 11). This is set in the world of Legend which features in a subsequent series Blood Sword that begins in 1987 with The Battlepits of Krarth. 1987 also marks the end of two of the longer gamebook series, Way of the Tiger and Grailquest, though Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf are still going strong.

The Silver Age (1988-1995): Several innovative new gamebook series are published during this time, including Virtual Reality Adventures, Fabled Lands, and the continuation of the Blood Sword saga. Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy both keep churning out the titles, but the latter series - the grandaddy of them all - finally succumbs and perishes after Curse of the Mummy (the 59th title!) and Ian Livingstone's Adventures of Goldhawk spinoff series are published in 1995.

The Bronze Age (1996-1998): The slow death of gamebooks. Fabled Lands stops in 1996 with Lords of the Rising Sun, which unfortunately is only the sixth book in a proposed 12 book sequence, leaving the non-linear series woefully incomplete. Dave Morris publishes the Chronicles of the Magi, a trilogy of children's fantasy books based on the Blood Sword series in 1997, and Lone Wolf continues with a handful of titles, finishing with its 28th and last book The Hunger of Sejanoz, in 1998.

The Dark Age (1999-2004): There is little published material for gamebook fans, but the rise of the internet sees a flourishing community of gamebook fans and amateur fan-written adventures develop. Some high points include Kim Newman's Life's Lottery interactive novel in 1999, and in 2000 former Fighting Fantasy author Paul Mason republishes Heart of Ice under his Panurgic Publishing label. Also in 1999 Project Aon was formed to keep the Lone Wolf flame alive by republishing that series in a free downloadable electronic format. In 2002 Wizard Books begin reissuing Fighting Fantasy books, but for the first two years were content to merely republish existing titles.

The New Age (2005-?): Ian Livingstone's Eye of the Dragon is published in 2005 and marks the first real new Fighting Fantasy title in ten years (although it is based on his original adventure from 1982), leading to more new books in this series, including Bloodbones, Howl of the Werewolf, Stormslayer, and Night of the Necromancer; all of which are by Jonathan Green. Lone Wolf begins republishing expanded editions in 2007, and Fabled Lands is reissued in 2010, with a promise of completing the series if sales go well. Importantly, Fighting Fantasy and Fabled Lands are ported to digital formats on mobile devices, which also encompasses digital-only gamebooks such as Tin Man Games' Gamebook Adventure series. What does the future hold for gamebooks? 

Any thoughts? Do YOU :-) agree or disagree with this assessment?

References

Katz, D. (n.d.). Gamebook Database: Item List (sorted by date of publication). Accessed from http://www.gamebooks.org/list_years.php

Maliszewski, J. (2009, January 11). The Ages of D&D. Message posted to http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/01/ages-of-d.html

Morris, D. & Johnson, O. (2008). Dragon Warriors: The Classic British Role-Playing Game. London: Magnum Opus Press

Heart of Ice (Part 4)

Figure 1. The cover of Heart of Ice
by Mike Posen (from Morris, 1994).

In this final installment of our Heart of Ice review (see Figure 1), we’ll look at the setting of the gamebook. Returning to our original plan (Wright, 2011); we’ll consider the physical setting, the writing that describes it, and the characters that inhabit this distant frozen world.

3. Setting. Firstly, it’s post-apocalyptic in tone, but not of the Mad Max or zombie-apocalypse genres (though zombies do feature marginally towards the end!). Instead, this icy, glacial future earth evokes an atmosphere similar to science-fiction author J. G. Ballard’s loose ‘trilogy’ of disaster novels: The Drowned World, The Burning World, and The Crystal World (one could argue that Heart of Ice forms a logical addendum to this sequence as “The Frozen World”).

There is also an element of future dystopia in the milieu when we consider the stinking, decaying cities of Venis and Kahira (see Figure 2) that we encounter during the adventure. Here we find the bizarre mix of both high and low technology that characterize such bleak visions as Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, while Paul Mason (2004) has stated that there is at least one reference to Blade Runner in the book.

Additionally, Per Jorner (2007) notes that “there is a palpable ‘dying Earth’ feel pervading the book, with evident homages to [Jack] Vance and the genre in general”. This is best documented in the background section:

It is now 2300. The rich stand aloof, disporting themselves with forced gaiety, waiting for the end. The poor inhabit lawless slums where disease is rife. Between the cities, the land lies under a blanket of snow and ice. No one expects humanity to last another century. This is truly ‘the end of history’. (Morris, 1994, p. 11)

This compares favorably to an oft-quoted section from Vance’s inaugural eponymous collection The Dying Earth: “The vapid mannerisms of pale people, using up their lives. Mincing murder, extravagant debauchery, while the Earth passes its last hours,” (1950, p. 72).



Figure 2. The city of Kahira
by Russ Nicholson (from Morris, 1994).



As we can see, if we’re comparing the writing to Vance, then it must be good! Dave Morris says that gamebooks can be considered thought-provoking literature that explore interesting ideas in real depth (FalcoDellaRuna, 2008), and that is certainly the case with Heart of Ice. To quote liberally from Per’s review:

       

The success of this setting can be attributed to superb use of exposition, tone, and detail. You can come across historical records, encounter mutants of the frozen wilds, explore forgotten facilities and learn additional information about the world around you. Technology whose deeper secrets are lost to the centuries meshes wonderfully with a kind of freakish neo-Renaissance civilization of explorers, opportunists, merchants and nobles. At all times does this world feel as if it exists outside of your immediate experiences, outside of the page… (2007).

In addition,

The style and narration are virtually faultless. I’ve spoken on the lack of evocation in gamebook prose in the past (which is not necessarily the same as dryness or briefness), but I’d have to turn over all the stones to find something to complain about in this one: it is inspired but not florid, ambitious but not conceited. Dialogues and descriptions frequently contain interesting observations, curious particulars or amusing exchanges. (Jorner, 2007 - see Figure 4)

Of course, if the writing is this good, it would be remiss of me to avoid providing examples. The following are simply some of the passages that you will encounter while traversing the pages of Heart of Ice.

For instance, a chance encounter in the frozen heights of the Atlas Mountains:

       

The only other people you spy are a group of Hamadan ascetics on their shaggy camels. They pay no attention to you, as their creed insists that they disdain all outsiders. Adjusting their white-and-tan turbans with cold contempt, they go bounding off across the lone and level snows. (Morris, 1994, paragraph 273 - see Figure 3)

Figure 3. The lone and level snows by Russ Nicholson (from Morris, 1994).

 Or this, from the catacombs beneath the Lost City of Du-En:

As you step out from among the stalagmites, you fail to notice at first that a thick glowing vapour is roiling around your feet. …  You take another step, then you realize that the mist is draining your strength. It rises across your vision, a luminous fog that seeps into your skin like ice water. … Then you see a sight that sends a tingle of dread through you. Taking shape within the mist, reaching towards you with ghastly imploring fingers, is a horrible twisted figure that looks like a squashed effigy of white clay… (Morris, 1994, paragraph 39)

The final element of the book’s setting to consider are the characters that share your journey, and intersect, however marginally, with your given choices. These characters actually form a major part of the adventure. To quote Aaron Tubb:

Along your way, and especially near the end, you will encounter other people who heard GAIA’s message about the Heart of Volent; you will have to work cooperatively with some of them to find what you’re looking for, but these are very shaky alliances because no one will want to share the Heart when/if you finally find it. These other characters and their interactions really add some great storytelling to the book. (2010)

Per Jorner agrees whole-heartedly:

       

The characterization of your competitors surpasses that of many a novel. Suffice to say that I’ve found few gamebook moments as gratifying as telling Boche off on the quay in Venis, or as portentous as stargazing with Janus Gaunt, or as disturbing as coming eye to eye with Baron Siriasis for the final time. This is no gang of Mungos! Your antagonists are smart and resourceful and your only consolation is that hopefully so are you. (2007).

My personal favourite involves an encounter with Chaim Golgoth, the USI assassin:

You find Golgoth squatting by torchlight at the end of the colonnade, where he has laid out all of his weapons on the flagstones. As he checks each, he slips it into its concealed sheath: a garotte wire under his belt, along with a flexible steel blade; poison darts in a bandolier inside his jacket; guns at hip, ankle, and wrist; small flat grenades clipped along his sabretache. You watch him aghast for a few minutes.

                ‘Quite the professional killer, aren’t you Golgoth?’

                ‘Don’t get far if you only make it a hobby,’ he says. 

               

(Morris, 1994, paragraph 126)      

It was not my intention for this post to degenerate into a series of excerpts from Heart of Ice and its reviewers. However, given its reputation, it seems only proper to allow the book to speak for itself, along with those who have enjoyed it and published their thoughts and reckonings about it online. It’s that good.

The penultimate say on Heart of Ice, the summary of all that has been made evident by this series of posts, goes once again to Per Jorner and his epic review:

I can’t say with absolute certainty that this is the best gamebook I’ve read, but if not it’s certainly one of the very best, with the best character design, the best one-shot world design and the best writing. Almost every point of criticism has to be aimed at something which is clearly the exception and not the norm. Rather than a hackneyed outing that you struggle through and put behind you, Heart of Ice is an experience to remember and reflect on. It shows every sign of having been written by someone who loves the gamebook medium, and with great narrative skill and vision to back that energy up… (2007)

The ultimate word goes of course to the adventure gamebook itself:

As the daylight fades, a gap in the louring cloud reveals a handful of diamond-bright stars. The bar is opened and the atmosphere aboard gradually acquires a current of bonhomie, but you remain aloof and troubled. Most of these people have no further destination in mind than Kahira, no ambition beyond a small profit and a frisson of petty adventure. But your own goal is direly remote: the lost ruins of Du-En, in the far hinterland of the Saharan Ice Wastes. It seems impossible to believe but there in Du-En you will either grasp the ultimate power – or perish… (Morris, 1994, paragraph 246)

[Once again, you can download it here! Enjoy!]

Figure 4. Yes, these are the Pyramids.
By Russ Nicholson (from Morris, 1994).

References

FalcoDellaRuna. (2008). Dave Morris interview 2008. Accessed from http://www.librogame.com/modules/PDdownloads/singlefile.php?cid=8&lid=21

Jorner, P. (2007, May 31). Reviews part 18: The future’s so bright I

gotta wear polarized goggles. Message posted to http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/fighting_fantasy_gamebooks/message/2752

Mason, P. (2004, April 5). bring a friend and share a miracle. Message posted to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gamebooks/message/5977

Morris, D. (1994). Heart of Ice. London: Mammoth.

Tubb, A. (2010, September 28). Heart of Ice – A solo gamebook adventure in post-apocalyptic Europe and Africa. Review posted to http://rpggeek.com/thread/568777/heart-of-ice-a-solo-gamebook-adventure-in-post-a

Vance, J. (1950). The Dying Earth. New York: Hillman Periodicals Inc.

Wright, A. (2011). Heart of Ice (Part 2). Message posted to http://fantasygamebook.blogspot.com/2011/01/heart-of-ice-part-2.html