FANTASTIC FIGHTS
We’re doing another open world book this episode in the form of the first Steam Highwayman book by Martin Noutch with art by Ben May. It’s a whopper of a Victorian science fiction extravaganza weighing in at over 1000 sections and featuring all manner of systems and a whole host of different plot lines to explore. Is it any good? Listen along to find out.
Note that the review portion starts at 47:20.
We’re back on another modern Fighting Fantasy book (2006 was basically last week right?) with Bloodbones by Jonathan Green with art by Tony Hough. This is a book with an interesting history as it was originally supposed to be part of the original run. It’s not often you get to have another go at something in this world but does it land? Listen along to find out.
We’ve reached the end of another journey as we play and critically examine The Crown of Kings, book four in the Sorcery series by Steve Jackson with art by the wonderful John Blanche. It’s been an epic quest but now only the fortress of Mampang and its vile archmage stand between us and ultimate success. How does the adventure go? Listen along to find out.
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.
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.
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.
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.