#gamebook

[theartofmadeline]

lil 16 page zine that i made at the coffee shop this weekend! a sort of pick your path style mini game, because i love wizards + interactive fiction. hope you get out of the wizard dungeon!!

[90sfantasyanimestuff]

Phantasy Star gamebook illustration. Source.

[vintagerpg]

I wasn’t expecting much from Raid on Nightmare Castle (1983), despite the awesome title. You can see right on the kind of weird Jeff Easley cover that your protagonist is going to be a kid accompanied by a dog and bird and no bet that the animals are A. Capable of speech and B. Use that power to whine ceaselessly.

All of that is true, and yet, somehow, this is top five for the series so far? Genuinely shocked. There are some crummy endings and some weirdly repetitive sections, but the good stuff is good. The kid is a human raised by elves who think he’s inferior, but it falls to him to rescue an important elf from the castle with, like, the intrinsic gumption of being human, I guess. Moral lessons, feh. But there is a nice selection of monsters. James Holloway, who usually seems so rushed for EQ, is actually pretty good, delivering in particular some gnarly spiders and trolls.

There are two main paths, neither particularly challenging, which is par for the EQ course, but the story remains engaging along both. Snag this one if you see it!

[haridraws]

holiday gift season approaches.

do you know a FANTASY GAME ENJOYER? or someone with a YEARNING for d&d but no opportunity/ time to schedule it?

may i suggest.... my books

Where can I obtain these: Consider US & UK indie bookstores!! But, many places, like Forbidden planet online for less than a tenner. or B&N.

Into the Dungeon: FUN. SILLY. Dungeon crawl! Get loot! Get eaten!

Into the Tower: Juicy fantasy novella vibe. Multiple unique endings. Wizard tower! Weird magic! Romance and horror options if you want!

BOTH: Standalone, quick reads, <1 hour to play once, no experience needed

Replayable. Achievements. Easy and hard modes

Meet creatures, kiss monsters

guest art I'm OBSESSED WITH. LOOK AT IT

Grainy VINTAGE (2018) photos of Felix Miall & Letty Wilson's inks

^ You might recognise these as the artists for many-award-winning ttrpgs including Heart: the city beneath and Wanderhome...

into the tower pics by Shazleen Khan, Faye Stacey & Sajan rai, THERE ARE LITERALLY SO MANY MORE BUT MOST ARE SPOILERS. CAN'T BELIEVE I GOT TO WORK WITH ALL THESE COOL ARTISTS TBH

Age rating FAQ: can I give Into the Dungeon to (or play with) nerdy children? yes. encouraged.

Number of players: solo, unless you read them aloud and get people to vote on their choices (I LOVE DOING THIS WITH CYOA BOOKS)

You can see more info, links to buy, character previews and a lil chart comparing the books here.

[purple-plum-petals]

Monster Lovers!! I Need Opinions!

Hello to all monster lovers, enjoyers, and fuckers! I have been brainstorming some characters for a LitRPG/gamebook focused on romancing monsters recently, and I have run into a character design choice that I'm torn between...

I have a harpy character on the roster, and I am unsure whether I want them to have arms (with talons) and wings, or just wings without arms. I find both design options to have their pros and cons (such as the armless version of the character potentially making the creature too monstrous/animal-like for some folks, while the version with the arms and wings might make the monster seem too human).

So, even though the story is very self-indulgent for me and acts as my own take on some monsters within the monster romance genre, I still want to create a story that people (even those who aren't normally interested in monster romance) can enjoy. Any input/thoughts would be much appreciated!

EDIT: This is about aesthetics, so just what option you find more visually appealing!

Harpy Character with Arms/Wings, or Just Wings?

Arms AND Wings

Just Wings (No Arms)

Voting ended onJan 9

[retroautomaton]

🐁💎✨

I made a game! ✨ It’s my first pen-and-paper gamebook, and I had a ton of fun playing around with it!! I’m definitely not super familiar with all the ins-and-outs of the medium, but I’ve always wanted to give it a go. You play as a creature darting from stall to stall, collecting trinkets from the street festival vendors, trying not to get caught! You can read more about it above, you can grab the full gamebook for just $5, or even try out a little demo of it for free!

If you’re looking for a little solo game to pass the time and are interested in giving a beginner’s gamebook a go, give it a try! Thanks! ✨

On Ko-Fi! ☕️✨

[hpowellsmith]

THE EARTH HAS TEETH June Update: Chapters 1-2 expansions

The June update for the demo adds major expansions to both chapters, along with tweaks to stats and lots of polish. Play on cogdemos or itchio now!

You'll need to restart the game to replay, but you can skip to Chapter 2 if you'd like (although Chapter 1 has expanded too, so I'd recommend playing both if you're in the mood!)

COGDEMOS | ITCHIO | DEVLOG & DISCUSSION THREAD | FEEDBACK FORM | INTRO POST | ROs

Among other changes and additions, in the game you can now (cut for spoilers):

play through your first meeting with Issi and Nikita onscreen

flirt with Nikita more overtly again

kill someone

Full changelog:

Expanded sections

Major expansion to Chapter 1 tunnel sequence and added a new item to pick up

Major expansion and rework to the start of Chapter 2 and large reduction of timeskip

Expanded initial library scene to clarify the sense of numbers of people living in Tulara

General polish, tweaks, and fixes

Instead of Vastan’s tooth boosting Discover, you can now take her ear for the same effect

Moved medical transition character customisation to follow directly from the gender/pronouns section for flow reasons; gave hormone-stimulating herbs names; added option for once-blessed characters to have had surgery or be on hormones

Restored Chapter 2 opportunity to ogle Nikita; it felt more appropriate now that they’ve had more screentime earlier in the chapter!

Lots of polish throughout, including more clarifying detail when deciding what to do with what’s found in the woods in Chapter 2, the Ven Lake festival name being a little more different, additional options for playing as nonbinary, wording changes, etc

Corrected bug in which choosing not to specify body details still led to questions about hormones/surgery in some cases

Stats/supplies/equipment

Added stat guide to the stats page and expanded glossary to include uses of herbs

Idealistic stat is now named Compassionate, and the wording of a number of choices that increase that stat, and tests involving it, has been tweaked. There was some muddying of the waters about what Idealistic meant due to the stat going through a couple of different iterations; this should be clearer and more consistent now

Obedient stat is now named Dutiful

Stat changes when you take a part of Vastan’s body are now always visible, as they’re not as intuitive as doing something like training a skill and are very large boosts

The first stat change is now always visible as it’s the first one players will encounter and includes large changes

Supplies are now tracked in half-day portions to make rationing choices more flexible

[greekmythcomix]

You Are Odysseus

So

I’m a teacher of Classical Civilisation that has taught the Odyssey for over a decade and studied pretty much every myth and story with Odysseus in it.. I think

and I’m writing an Interactive Fiction (choose your own path) version of the Odyssey, inspired by the Homeric phrase “he turned his great heart this way and that”, where you are Odysseus, allowing you to follow his decisions or make your own

and it already has 400 sections to it - written to emulate modern translations of the Odyssey, including the literary features of simile, formula, epithet, and the rest - and 21 different ways to die, and quite a lot of period and theme-appropriate alternatives

(and if I get time, the option to be Telemachus or Penelope, although that might have to wait because it’s already a monster)

and I’ve tested what I’ve made so far on my pupils, other Classics teachers, and some of the leading (and best-read) Greek Mythology podcasters and YouTubers, all of whom have universally loved it (yay!)

(EDIT: Oops and I presented on it at the Classical Association conference last year)

I’m trying to finish it this summer, but need a bit of encouragement to do so

EDIT: and I forgot to say that ideally I’m planning on it being a beautiful BOOK with an old-fashioned cover and lots of ribbons to mark your place ❤️ (ex-bookseller ofc)

so, please let me know if you’d like to know more!

(EDIT: or sign up here go get notified directly when it’s ready: https://ljenkinsonbrown.wordpress.com/you-are-odysseus-signup/ )