Category: Blog

My first three runs of Star Strider were so bad, that clearly that guy was the decoy agent. Here is the story of the real Star Strider whom Tracebeam sent in to get the job done. Skill 8, Stamina 22, Luck 11, Fear 12 Oh for goodness’ sake – an 8 skill and 22 stamina, […]

All righty, Star Strider (Fighting Fantasy 27). Again, I am baffled that during my last playthrough the book didn’t even seem familiar and I was legit surprised to see that I played this back in 2016. Well, that just gives me a fresh start and something new to enjoy. I’m the most elite bounty hunter […]

I’ve decided to go with one of the few science fiction Fighting Fantasy offerings: number 27, Star Strider. What’s really weird is that I grabbed it off the shelf thinking I hadn’t played it before, and had two very short plays during which it didn’t seem familiar. As I came here to blog it, I […]

And, that’s another book won: War of the Wizards, book four of the Grey Star World of Lone Wolf series. Somehow I won it on my first try, due to not meeting the Demon Master (I met him on a later playthrough) and also to figuring out that I should always sink 3 or 5 […]

I’ve been quiet lately, but not idle. I’m playing Grey Star 4, War of the Wizards and I must say, Grey Star has not fared well. 🙂 The Shianti have enough magic to pull me back to Magnamund from the Daziarn Plane, but they drop us on the western side of the continent, with no […]

I’ve been quiet lately, but not idle. I’m playing Grey Star 4, War of the Wizards and I must say, Grey Star has not fared well. 🙂 The Shianti have enough magic to pull me back to Magnamund from the Daziarn Plane, but not enough to put me where I need to be. Considering that […]

I’ve not posted in the last month, but I’ve not been idle. I played through Beyond the Nightmare Gate, book three of the Grey Star series. I wanted to like this one. The idea of the Daziarn plane, featured previously in Lone Wolf 10 The Prisoners of Time, appeals to me: Even in the world […]

Last night I finished The Forbidden City, book 2 of the Grey Star series. There’s a tedious gauntlet in the middle where you’ll certainly die if you don’t have these two specific skills, but that same gauntlet also lays on the lore and atmosphere nice ‘n’ thick. And aside from that, it’s pretty decent. There […]

I started playing Grey Star the Wizard, which is The World of Lone Wolf book 1. It’s a totally different story arc from the Kai, though many game mechanics are similar. And I’ve been too busy playing it and enjoying it, to post about it. 🙂 The story line is pretty novel: You’re a wizard […]

Tonight is my third evening playing Lone Wolf 15, The Darke Crusade. Honestly, I think I’m over the whole Lone Wolf series by now. They’ve become repetitive, with the same enemies and scenarios and the same ongoing war after 24 years. The writing is lazy, with so many sections that do literally nothing at all […]

Well, I’ve had a few more plays of Legend of the Shadow Warriors. The book itself doesn’t seem overly difficult yet, but I’ve had just the worst luck ever and haven’t been making it very far.   Skill 8 / Stamina 21 / Luck 12 Surrendered to the guards. Feigned illness to escape from jail, […]

Part 3 of my second playthrough of Legend of the Shadow Warriors Previously, I headed east to consult a hermit who told me the backstory of the warlord and an undead army. Heading south from there, I met an invulnerable vampyr-witch with an army of pumpkin-heads, then a Frankenstein wannabe. As I march southward toward […]

Part 2 of my second playthrough of Legend of the Shadow Warriors Previously, I escaped the city and consulted a hermit who then got eaten by the undead zombie of his son. And I’m back on the road to Karnstein. To make up some lost time, I decide to cut south through Hustings and Cumberside […]

My second playthrough of Legend of the Shadow Warriors. Let’s see if I can do better this time. Skill 11 / Luck 8 / Stamina 19   I dig the 11 Skill, but I remember a lot of luck tests so I dunno… So, I’m sitting in the tavern one day, a retired soldier now […]

Well, I finished mapping out Seas of Blood and I admit, I did not enjoy it. So, on to my next adventure – Legend of the Shadow Warriors. My back story is fairly ordinary: retired soldier, sword for hire, and a village terrorized by some jerks dressed up as Shadow Warrior bogeymen. Starting stats: SK […]

Well, I’ve played a few more times and Seas of Blood is really kicking my butt. About half of the time, I’ve been killed in the second scene and I’m not sure how winnable this book really is. First play today: We headed south to Enraki and I killed the abbot of the warrior-priests. Got […]

Today is a “twofer” post, being two very short playthroughs of Fighting Fantasy 16, Seas of Blood. Yeah, they were that short.   Playthrough 1 I rolled up a skill of 7 and luck 8, so I expected that my 17 stamina isn’t going to last very long. For my first venture, I decided to […]

It’s been a month and a half, between editing someone else’s book, and studying for exams, and playing Cyberpunk 2077… I just haven’t picked up a game book in two months. But it’s a quiet evening, and I’m glad to be back. Today’s book is… Seas of Blood, Fighting Fantasy number 16. I’ve never played […]

For the last week, I’ve been play-testing and proof-reading a game book for someone in the Facebook group. It’s hard work. As with any game book, I go through every option and map out what connects to what – but this time I also need to track which pages I’ve visited, so I can find […]

I’m taking a break from Lone Wolf for a bit, so I grabbed a random gamebook from my shelf… Battleblade Warrior I don’t remember this one at all, though according to my own website I played it back in 2018, and I wasn’t overly fond of it. Well, let’s try it today. The story opens […]

It’s been 2 months since my last post. I’ve been playing Lone Wolf 14, Captives of Kaag off and on. But honestly, I’ve not been enjoying it. That’s not news, if you’ve read my previous posts. Ive not enjoyed the LW books lately. I keep griping about the game balance being absurd. The Grand Master […]

So I spent a few more hours playing Plague Lords of Ruel some more, this time mapping it out. I wish I liked it more, but I admit I’m somewhat disappointed. The maps show that there’s not a lot of ground covered. Forest or caverns, either way is about 5 encounters before you land at […]

I’ve been out of it for a while, haven’t picked up a game book in some 6 weeks, having been occupied with other pursuits such as video games and summer outdoor stuff. I wanted my next adventure to be a good one, and it was: Lone Wolf 13, The Plague Lords of Ruel. It’s been […]

I picked up Curse of the Assassin on iPad back in 2016, and I really enjoyed it. So a few years later, a few months ago, I picked it up for Windows on Steam and played it all again. I must say, it’s just as good as it was 4 years ago. It develops You […]

I am the mindless and hungry Creature of Havoc and yesterday was a weird day. While hunting tasty intruders to kill and eat, I came across two bottles of smoke. While I couldn’t eat then, they imbued free will and the language into me. It’s kind of a drag. I was happy just killing and […]

I was half-joking in my previous post that it was my 100th playthrough of Creature of Havoc. By this point, I’ve played it over a dozen times and have mapped out what I believe to be everything up to meeting Darramous. But I’m still trying to really play through it and get that far honestly. […]

So, I’ve been playing Creature of Havoc for a few days now. It’s been a wild ride, and I’m still not entirely sure what I think so far. The story so far, is that I’m an armored, taloned abomination. I’m a killing machine crafted by wizards and dropped into a dungeon with random movement and […]

All righty, my second go at Choose Cthulhu 1: The Call of Cthulhu An epigrapher told me told me that the lettering on Wilcox’s bas relief, was reminiscent of Esquimaux writing. So I impulsively jumped onto a boat to Halifax, then on to Greenland. With some sweet-talking and money, I found a guide to take […]

After over a year, I’m finally sitting down with my first Choose Cthulhu book: book 1, The Call of Cthulhu. My adventure was brief but terrifying. I saw a cult summon a giant tree monster, then visited a library. I was possessed with an urge to see the unexplored depths of the Pacific Ocean and […]

I just finished Lone Wolf 12, Masters of Darkness in two evenings, on my first playthrough. I know, I’m just as baffled as you! It was a great time. It’s an epic-grade story again, with adventure on the seas, hijacking an airbeast, walking miles and miles, and of course defeating Darklord Gnaag and saving all […]

I just finished playing Lone Wolf 11, the Prisoners of Time. It was a fun time, but not the best of them. Good: A very other-worldly feel, meeting cat people and brain-things and Kai itself. Hiking through the Nothing under psychic attack. Derivative: We’re in the Phantom Zone, plain and simple. Not great: Long spans […]

We continue with Lone Wolf 11, The Prisoners of Time. The first day was almost all exposition, and it boils down to these bullet points: The Lorestones are in Tolakos, a necropolis to the north. The Lorestones are also the key to the Shadow Gate back home, which is super convenient. The Shadow Gate is […]

I didn’t post at all about my recent playthrough of Lone Wolf 10, Dungeons of Torgar. I’ve been focusing more on the reading & playing, without the distraction of also writing about it. DoT was a quick and easy adventure, due to some good luck where I found the easiest path on my first time. […]

I’ve played ToD a few more times, but since it’s the same tundra and ice castle as I’ve described a few times, I didn’t bother writing it up until I got some somewhere new. So, welcome! You’ve caught me mid-way through the adventure: I have just landed on an unguarded walkway on the Tower, and […]

We continue my glass-cannon playthrough of Tower of Destruction. Why do I call it that? Because skill 11 / stamina 16 / luck 12 baby! The 11 is nice, but 16 means that I’m at best 8 hits from death. I’m winning fights, but I’m running out of food to keep patching myself back together. […]

Yesterday’s “skill 7” playthrough was amusing and brief. But for real this time: let’s play Tower of Destruction. This time I rolled:   7 skill / 16 stamina / 12 luck  Not bad. A bit of a glass cannon, but maybe I’ll get a bit further this time. Again with the intro: fire and destruction, looting […]

Let’s play another round of Tower of Destruction! I enjoyed it on my previous run with a skill of 12, though some of the fights and skill tests in there make me wonder whether it really could be won with a lower skill. We roll the dice and… Skill 7 / Stamina 20 / Luck […]

Happy Christmas, solstice, Yule, and so on, all! I am celebrating with another night of Tower of Destruction. I have been going strong in my quest for revenge: exploring workshops and storehouses, freeing ghosts, and finding out that the wizard is very afraid of a sword inside the cathedral. The cathedral is locked, though, and […]

I’m still going strong no my quest to destroy the Tower of Destruction. I have explored the town a bit and I heard about a magic sword in the cathedral, so of course that’s my next stop. However, the door is locked and I need a crystal bird and book to open the door. So […]

Tonight we continue my playthrough of Tower of Destruction. Aliades the wizard was kind enough to give me healing potions and food for my journey north-east, where I intend to stop the Tower of Destruction from being completed. It’s a 40 kilometer walk across tundra, and then into the wizard’s Ice Castle… In the late […]

We continue my playthrough of Tower of Destruction. My stats are 12 / 23 / 11 but I’m down to 17 stamina at the moment from a few fights. I have made my way across the tundra and to the sphere. I’m not sure how to get revenge on a sphere, but I find a […]

Let’s start playing Tower of Destruction. The backstory is good old revenge: on my way back from market to my home in the frozen lands to the north, my home is destroyed by a flying sphere throwing balls of fire. Damn! The destruction is nearly complete, with only a few able-bodied people to take care […]

Part 3 of my first playthrough of The Chasms of Malice. I’ve been injured, and killed a lot of people, and basically bumbled my way around in the dark until the magic sword told me that I am nearing the big boss fight. I am totally not ready for this, as I’ve only killed 1 […]

Let’s continue the lovely rags to riches certain death story that is Chasms of Malice. Mission: Kill the king’s evil brother, Orghuz, but first his 7 lieutenants. Then bring back the magic shield because the kingdom is dependent on its supply of good luck in order to cope with life. Previously, I killed the first […]

Dear Fighting Fantasy, I never thought it could happen to me. I was a lackey in a kitchen, a third-assistant rabbit skinner. Then one day a wizard rushes in and grabs me by the wrist, dragging me right out the door. My boss screamed and hollered up a storm, but they threw a ouch of […]

I tried my luck at Rings of Kether again. I kept the same crappy character with 8 Skill and 15 Stamina, because why not? This time I decided to go to the local cops, and enlist some help. The officer I met, though, was scared to talk in his own office, and had me meet […]

I recently saw on a Facebook group, someone playing The Rings of Kether. That reminded me, that I’ve still not completed this one! I had a lot of it mapped out, had some fun times bumbling around and getting my butt kicked, and so on, but never beat the big baddie at the end. So, […]

I just finished playing out Highway to Hell by Max Brallier. Damn, what a good book. An anti-hero. Good writing. Lots of well-done characters. Several different paths to varying degrees of victory. Good stuff.  

Following up on my previous post, in our playthrough of Vault of the Vampire. Our 12/24/12 and 14 had us steamroll our way through the castle. We got Siegfried’s shield and armor, holy water and a crucifix, and a silver-tipped stake to finish the job. We killed everything in our path, until Reiner Heydrich himself. […]

For Halloween, the family and I sat down to play Vault of the Vampire, one of my favorite of the Fighting Fantasy series. This comes also, on the same day that I heard of the unfortunate death of Martin McKenna. It’s just coincidence, but it feels like the right way to celebrate Hallow e’en. After […]