The Bloodsword series is a set of gamebooks which take place in the world of Dragon Warriors, the classic roleplaying game written by Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson. It’s great that they are available again but do they bring anything fresh to the table? The first book, Battlepits of Krarth, tips its hat to Deathtrap Dungeon and has art by the great Russ Nicholson (who seems to have been a regular feature on the podcast lately). There’s no less than four different characters to play and a whole host of additional combat rules. Listen along to find out if more is more in this instance.
Episode 57 - Magehunter
We’ve reached book 57 and Magehunter by Paul Mason with art by Russ Nicholson and cover art by Ian Miller. This one has a reputation for being quite the Chinese puzzle box of a gamebook but is that reputation justified? Also will we hunt a mage? Yes. Yes we will. Good job Magehunter on a fully accurate title.
Bonus Episode - The Cave of Time
We’re investigating a key piece of gamebook history this episode as we explore The Cave of Time, the first proper Choose Your Own Adventure book by Edward Packard with art by Paul Granger. With 40 different endings this packs a lot of adventure into a small package. It spawned a wildly successful franchise but is this book actually any good? HJDoom plays it to find out and offers a mildly contentious and completely untested theory about the reason gamebooks exploded in the early eighties.
Bonus Episode - Diceman
Prepare yourself for zarjaz episode of Fantastic Fights as your humble host tackles a series of adventure game comics spun off from the pages of the galaxy’s greatest comic 2000AD. Diceman, featuring such characters as Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Slaine, and former Republican president Ronald Reagan is a curious beast, an attempt to meld the popular adventure gamebooks of the 1980s with action oriented comics. Largely written by Pat Mills and featuring some of the UK’s finest comic book artists Diceman was a short lived experiment that’s been given a new lease of life thanks to a handsome hardcover edition collecting the entire run into a single tome. Is it any good? Listen along to find out.