The adventures we chose
Aug. 1st, 2007 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebitterguySo, as normal, the fact something is old reminded me of my own history. Monday’s article about the 20th anniversay of the Fighting Fantasy books made me realize that those books served a vital purpose in my youth.
I've been a gamer since I got a copy of the red box . Possibly before that, but nature and nurture and who wants to get into all that, right?
Anyway, being a small town gamer was not the best experience. Finding a group in a town of 5000 was always hard. Finding a group you could fit with was just as hard. I had two gaming groups during my time in Napanee, one of which met Thursdays from 1am to 5 am. Holy shit, btw. That didn't work because I was trying to work at the time.
The other was Dave's group, which showed me drama before I knew what drama was. The GM's nephew (a douche, btw) was in the game. Very hard guy to get along with. The GM's girlfriend started cheating on him with another player (in the Gm's apartment!), and I accidentally interrupted one of their dalliances by dropping by when Slimer (the gf's car) was at Dave's house (actual Bitter Guy thought: "Why is Kim so sweaty? And why is Greg doing up his belt?" Eh, I was young.)
So, yeah, the opportunity to play a game without having to deal with other people could be a very appealing thing. Remember, this was pre-WoW and MUX's (at least in small town Ontario). For the first few years of its existence, Holy Cross Secondary School shared a building with KCVI, Kingston Collegiate Vocational Institute (which was fancy Kingston talk for "high school"). This also entailed sharing a library. The librarian, Mr. Payne, was an okay guy. He would do clippings from the newspapers, and would cut out Bloom County for me (my parent's didn't subscribe to a paper that carried it yet).
The KCVI library, among its other treasures, had the Sorcery books in stock. I don't recall much, other than tearing through them like a bran muffin. I know (as well as I know anything that happened 20 years ago) that I probably cheated a few times to get to the end. I mean, that's how these things go, right? What person in their right mind is going to play one of these things, hit a dead end (or just die) and go "ah, well. Fun while it lasted!" You work your way back, and choose option B (or just skip the battle).
I also enjoyed the Way of the Tiger books, because they were about ninja and for a short period in the '80s we all forgot how dumb Ninja were. Curse you, Sho Kosugi and your bewitching ways!
The Way of the Tiger books had a hell of a downer ending, too. I recall thinking "there must be a sequel" but there was none. It also taught me the great lesson: if you give a character an 'ultimate weapon', they'll use it at every opportunity possible. Kwon's Flail, and unblockable ninja kick, was my best friend.
I’m trying to remember which gamebook included the Demagogue as an NPC to sway. I think it was the Tiger books, since the ninja PC ends up running a citystate at one point.
The Interplanetary Spy and the Time Machine books were both fun, too. They generally eschewed standard rpg content (stats, and skills and equipment) in favour of more stock characters, although you’d usually pick one piece of equipment that might help make your trip easier. And I think you got to be an actual superhero in one of the Interplanetary Spy books.
They were a good substitute for a good gaming group in the dry years. Now, of course, there are CRPGs and endless sessions of SMAC (Gaians 4 Ever!). But they definitely had their place in the history of gaming.
I've been a gamer since I got a copy of the red box . Possibly before that, but nature and nurture and who wants to get into all that, right?
Anyway, being a small town gamer was not the best experience. Finding a group in a town of 5000 was always hard. Finding a group you could fit with was just as hard. I had two gaming groups during my time in Napanee, one of which met Thursdays from 1am to 5 am. Holy shit, btw. That didn't work because I was trying to work at the time.
The other was Dave's group, which showed me drama before I knew what drama was. The GM's nephew (a douche, btw) was in the game. Very hard guy to get along with. The GM's girlfriend started cheating on him with another player (in the Gm's apartment!), and I accidentally interrupted one of their dalliances by dropping by when Slimer (the gf's car) was at Dave's house (actual Bitter Guy thought: "Why is Kim so sweaty? And why is Greg doing up his belt?" Eh, I was young.)
So, yeah, the opportunity to play a game without having to deal with other people could be a very appealing thing. Remember, this was pre-WoW and MUX's (at least in small town Ontario). For the first few years of its existence, Holy Cross Secondary School shared a building with KCVI, Kingston Collegiate Vocational Institute (which was fancy Kingston talk for "high school"). This also entailed sharing a library. The librarian, Mr. Payne, was an okay guy. He would do clippings from the newspapers, and would cut out Bloom County for me (my parent's didn't subscribe to a paper that carried it yet).
The KCVI library, among its other treasures, had the Sorcery books in stock. I don't recall much, other than tearing through them like a bran muffin. I know (as well as I know anything that happened 20 years ago) that I probably cheated a few times to get to the end. I mean, that's how these things go, right? What person in their right mind is going to play one of these things, hit a dead end (or just die) and go "ah, well. Fun while it lasted!" You work your way back, and choose option B (or just skip the battle).
I also enjoyed the Way of the Tiger books, because they were about ninja and for a short period in the '80s we all forgot how dumb Ninja were. Curse you, Sho Kosugi and your bewitching ways!
The Way of the Tiger books had a hell of a downer ending, too. I recall thinking "there must be a sequel" but there was none. It also taught me the great lesson: if you give a character an 'ultimate weapon', they'll use it at every opportunity possible. Kwon's Flail, and unblockable ninja kick, was my best friend.
I’m trying to remember which gamebook included the Demagogue as an NPC to sway. I think it was the Tiger books, since the ninja PC ends up running a citystate at one point.
The Interplanetary Spy and the Time Machine books were both fun, too. They generally eschewed standard rpg content (stats, and skills and equipment) in favour of more stock characters, although you’d usually pick one piece of equipment that might help make your trip easier. And I think you got to be an actual superhero in one of the Interplanetary Spy books.
They were a good substitute for a good gaming group in the dry years. Now, of course, there are CRPGs and endless sessions of SMAC (Gaians 4 Ever!). But they definitely had their place in the history of gaming.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 03:53 pm (UTC)Man, are you begging to get your ass kicked, cursing the man like that? You know he's listening.
I'm just saying ... I wouldn't get caught writing that sort of stuff, unless my name was Sonny Chiba.
Doug.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 09:51 pm (UTC)Doug.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 04:34 pm (UTC)Someone has also released Dr. Who "Decide your Destiny" books.
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Date: 2007-08-01 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 05:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 04:00 pm (UTC)I ALMOST envy the ability to play in that time slot.
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Date: 2007-08-01 04:20 pm (UTC)They were interested in playing Werewolf when they saw Metallical lyrics printed in the rulebook.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 06:21 pm (UTC)That would actually work pretty well if you were in that sort of situation. I never really had any night shifts of that type.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 04:21 pm (UTC)Also: most of them had higher replay value than, say, the Lone Wolf series because it was almost impossible to find the correct solution on the first try through. Or even the fifth try. I had particular trouble with the Star Trek knockoff, Appointment with F.E.A.R. and one where you traipse through a forest looking for two pieces of a relic.
Oh, and House of Hades was guaranteed nightmare fuel.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 04:41 pm (UTC)I actually pre-date your initial gaming experience by about a year with the original John Eric Holmes "Blue Book" boxed set.
ADD&D came shortly after that (around the time just before Dieties & Demigods) and then Champions and then... well after that things got "ugly" . :P
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 06:39 pm (UTC)Well, sure. Nature of the beast. And besides, you paid for the book, why not read all of it? And to do that, you needed to stick your thumb in to mark your place and go down the stupid action line. In Lone Wolf, where 0 was the best combat result, I know my pencil seemed to fall on 0 pretty consistently in those hard fights.
That was one thing that made the Fighting Fantasy so hard. You couldn't just flip back a few entries and grab the seventh ring. At the start of the dungeon, you might have gone left instead of right, and missed out on a ring forever. You went through that door, and so never reached the dead-end with another ring. If you weren't perfect, you were screwed.
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Date: 2007-08-02 01:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-02 03:04 am (UTC)And, as always, work with the GM and the other players to make sure everyone has the best time possible.