by Damdael

I got interested in gamebooks a few years ago. First I found joy in playing books from Season 4 Graphic Novel Adventures and then I fell in love with Legendary Kingdoms books. Since then I've played through some fifty gamebooks. I try to write reviews of the books I've played in order to lure others into this rabbit hole. In my reviews I try to have comparisons to other gamebooks and place the books I review onto my ranking list so that readers can find other books to try out.

I partook in The Curse of the Snake Queen Kickstarter campaign and ordered this gamebook as an addon. My copy is a 2nd edition. This is the sixth Numed System gamebook I've played through.

First Impressions:
- The gamebook looks relatively thick and the yellow edges of the covers remind me of old phone books or cheap college textbooks. Not the best impression.
- I know people don't always dress in ominous black leather in real life but the front cover of the book has this warrior in orange/red armour and it looks a bit goofy in my eyes. The golem or heavily armoured arena fighter on the upper part of the front cover on the hand looks interesting. The back cover has a map of the kingdom in which the adventure takes place. It's an ok cover in my opinion but there are better covers in newer books in the series.
- The paper of the covers seems to be the same or nearly same as in The Secrets of Candarlin which is worrisome since the covers in that book proved very problematic (they bent upwards a ridiculous amount). Let's hope the same problem doesn't arise.
- The inner sides of the covers seem to have maps of the city (Candarlin) in which the adventure takes place. A day/night version of the map with different locations available on each. Neat.
- The paper of the pages is perfectly acceptable but far from physically high quality gamebooks like what Obvious Mimic or The Dark Moon Rises have. There's no issue of lumpy pages like The Curse of the Snake Queen and A Lousy Night in Candarlin books have had.
- The length of the gamebook is 350 paragraphs. Fighting Fantasy gamebooks have made 400 paragraphs the standard which to compare gamebook length meaning this gamebook falls a bit short of that so you could say the length is a bit under average? I'll have to play and see how the playtime compares to FF gamebooks which usually take about 6 hours to beat over multiple attempts.

Rules:
Fairly standard rules for a gamebook. You start from paragraph 1 and proceed to other paragraphs from there based on your choices and sometimes to a direction dictated by the whim of the fate dice (two d6). The author has developed an independent game system, called The Numed System, and that's used in this gamebook. It uses two d6's and most of the time you are looking to match or exceed a target number.

Your character has five attributes (Education, Intelligence, Perception, Dexterity and Strength) plus a bunch of skills like Stealth, Climbing and Negotiating. Some combinations of attributes and skills give you talents like Master Thief or Great Reflexes (explained in the Path of Masters advanced rules) that sometimes unlock choices you otherwise wouldn't be able to take during the adventures. You have hit points and if they drop to zero you are dead and need to restart the gamebook. You can wear equipment like armour, weapons and amulets which give bonuses to attacks, defence or skills. You can gain permanent increases to your attributes and skills. There are several gamebooks in the setting.

When it's time to fight you can either use simple or advanced rules. You can use the simple rules if you prefer a faster and simpler game; the enemies are defeated with a single successful hit. I recommend using the Path of Masters advanced fighting rules, they are not that much more complex but make fights more interesting. First you check if anyone is surprised; that side automatically loses the initiative. Otherwise you roll for initiative (2d6 + dex) and if you meet or exceed the printed enemy initiative value you will go first every round until the end of combat. After that you determine the opponent's action for that round with 1d6 from a table of possible actions. If the opponent goes for a big attack it might have low defence so the enemy stats are not the same every round. On your turn you get one action like attacking or using an item. Melee attacks are 2d6+str+mods and ranged attacks 2d6+dex+mods. The enemies do not roll and that saves up a noticeable amount of time, a smart design decision. You defend against enemy attacks by rolling 2d6+dex+armour+shield. Rinse and repeat. Rolling 1+1 means you get a critical failure and might drop your weapon for example and rolling 6+6 means you make a critical success and have a chance to instantly defeat the opponent. Results of critical failures and successes are rolled from special tables.

The gamebook also uses 'fragments and signs'. Those are basically keycodes that allow the gamebook to remember what you've done. For example if you insult a merchant you might get fragment 'H' and later when you are walking on a dark alley the book might ask do you have that fragment and if you do some hired assassins will ambush you.

This gamebook has a special segment of rules for a thing called the Calendarium. Basically you have seven days to complete main quest and each day is split to morning, midday, afternoon, evening and night and the special rules concern this. You usually have time to do one thing during each time of day. Depending on which time of the day is different locations on the city map are available and the locations themselves might have different choices available based on the time of day. Events will also be placed on the Calendarium and when time proceeds to that slot you will need to resolve that event before normal play proceeds again.

Artwork:
- The author has stated that he generally uses a mix of his own drawings, licensed illustrations and graphics, stock images, and AI-generated images in his gamebooks. This is mainly for budget reasons I would guess; the gamebooks he puts out basically are one-man self-publications with relatively small audiences.
- Whatever the method of producing the artwork it's detailed, smooth and pleasant to look at. The chosen art style isn't bad and works great for a dry desert environment.
- There's a piece of artwork roughly on every third or fourth spread of the book but just a few of the pieces are completely new (besides the covers) and not previously used in some of the other books the author has produced. There are just two full page images (one new, one previously used). The rest of the images on the pages are small enemy portraits, small and simple images of swords, rocks, etc that repeat where something is needed to fill spaces between paragraphs.
- Except for the few new pieces of artwork produced for this book the images are slightly out of place compared to paragraphs next to which they are placed. They are kind of generic. For example a paragraph might describe a balcony with flower pots but there's an image of a ring next to that paragraph. Another paragraph might describe a fight between gladiators and next to that is an image a spell book.
- The downside of using AI-generated images becomes apparent if you look at the different images depicting city locations. The building styles are not consistent. In some of the images the city seems to consist only of low buildings and in some images there are nearly skyscrapers. Plus in most of the images the buildings seem to be mainly made out of wood and have sloped shingle roofs like you'd expect to have in medieval Central European buildings which is a big clash against what is supposed to be a dry desert city.
The gamebook is ok in artwork aspects for an one-man self-publication but that's it.

Looks like a friendly mate, eh?

Playing:
This section is reserved for my notable thoughts while playing the gamebook. I've kept my observations mostly vague in order to avoid any big spoilers but I've spoiler tagged my notes just in case.

[o]- I continued into this adventure with my character that has already completed five adventures in the Numed System. That means I have a bit higher stats than a completely new character and I'm more likely to succeed in everything the book throws at me.
- The story starts out with blood on the sand. Not a bad way to start a story.
- The first dozen or so paragraphs seem to work as a kind of a tutorial and then you are free to choose between nine different locations you can visit. I have to say it feels great when there's this much freedom in a gamebook. There's a problem though and that is I don't have any main quest or really anything to chase... perhaps it will pop up soon as I explore the available places?
- I decided to go to the bathhouse first. I thought it would be good to rinse of all the dust and perhaps there would be a chance to hear some rumours or clues related to the main quest or even to pickpocket a key or something which would allow me to access a building related to the main quest. It was relaxing but there was surprisingly little to do at the location. Next I went to the wood market because it sounded like a weird location and I wondered what connection there would be to the main quest. I was pleased to find out that the location differs based on the time of day. That was cool but still no sign of the main quest which was a small disappointment.
- Finally I managed to get tangled in the business of nobles; not by something I would have discovered by myself but by something the book forced to do. Not long after that I had the first corpse on my hands.
- I felt like it was a bit of clumsy storytelling to have the hero find a healing potion and then pretty much require using it in the next paragraph.
- Ooh, a certain favor from an another book in the series came in handy. It's nice to have these kind of little connections between books in a series.
- It again took a lot of searching to find how to proceed in the main quest. While doing that I again found a paragraph where there was another connection to other books in the series.
- Oh, the author has really crammed a lot into some paragraphs. Instead of a very long list of choices there's instead an actual table with rows and columns of choices in paragraph 231. Visually not the prettiest sight but I have to admit that's a lot of choices.
- I tried to sneak into where I shouldn't be but unfortunately I was spotted and I had to make an exit.
- I spent the daylight hours dilly-dallying in the city and then infiltrated the location where I shouldn't be again. I managed to infiltrate a bit further but as fate goes I was again discovered and had to make a quick exit.
- The story described the hero to be as frustrated as I was for not making any real progress and that was a trigger the author had made into the book to make the main quest nudged forward. Annoyingly mean.
- I freed a strange prisoner. It's always the people in high positions that have the morally dubious hobbies.
- The adventure in the catacombs advertised in the title of the book was very short, had a lot less decision points for the player than I expected it to have and wasn't very exciting. For most of it you just read what happened, especially if you went 243 -> 23, instead of getting to act.
- Completed the book gaining favours from two powerful factions to boot. A job well done.[/o]
Playtime: 3h 49min

Positives:
- This gamebook gives a lot of freedom for the player to go and explore whichever location sounds the most interesting in any order. Once at a location you also can explore the points of interest in them in any order you want to. Bigger locations with main quest related events have mutually exclusive paths through them.
- The day/night cycle is interesting as not all locations are available at each time of a day.
- The gamebook offers a good amount of choices in decision points. There are three or four possible choices often enough. That's a perfectly serviceable amount of choices though not an excellent amount like in The Curse of Cthulhu for example in which there often are three to five different options to choose from and sometimes even up to eight options.
- It's possible to refuse doing the main quest of the story if you think it's not something the character you are roleplaying would do. Naturally that ends the adventure immediately for you so there's no sense in doing that but I appreciate the gamebook giving the player that choice.
- I like how enemy actions are randomized for every combat round.
- Meaningful skill checks. Failing a skill check might mean you are locked out from doing something you wanted to do or that you need to succeed in a second check or simply die.
- I didn't encounter any choices that would have immediately killed me. Instead if you choose poorly you can avoid dying with a successful skill check, winning a fight or so on.
- The game system works fine (even if I feel it's not perfect, see my comment in the negatives below). Personally I enjoy gamebooks with more complex systems (for example The Dark Moon Rises and Obvious Mimic which use D&D 5e rules) more but this system does make for a smooth and fast play. If you aren't interested in spending a lot of time choosing your equipment and selecting prepared spells then this system is most likely fine for you.
- The 'fragments and signs' code system works well. The book 'remembers' what you have done previously and events change based on that.

Neutral:
- The gamebook started exciting but felt mundane and hurried towards the end. A bigger dungeon to explore and a multi-stage boss fight at the end of the book would have remedied that a lot.
- Once the book let me roam freely the city locations I felt like I was on a relaxing sightseeing tour (even though there's a timer on the main quest) most likely because many of the places available for visit don't actually advance or relate to the main quest in any way (at least until you've done something else first). I spent time taking baths, eating fine food, chit-chatting with locals, doing some pickpocketing, etc. I did try find how to advance the main quest but apparently I had a wrong logic for picking out my location visits.
- The gamebook felt slightly on the short side even though it has 350 paragraphs. The Secrets of Candarlin which has 20 paragraphs less took almost twice as long to play through. Too many paragraphs in this gamebook are used for things the player might not see (for example 20 paragraphs are used for rumours you can hear at taverns and pickpocketing results; you probably won't listen to more than one or two rumours and risking pickpocketing random citizens doesn't contribute to the main quest so you probably should avoid doing it) or might just read through very fast without needing to ponder decision options.
- The Calendarium seemed exciting at first but I feel it fell a bit flat in the end. The time limits are way too loose; the player can visit every location like four or five times before you will start to run into time limits. More preset events should have been placed or discovered as you explored the city locations. I think the author has a better time related tension system in the newer The Terror of Melgar's Rest. In that book you have less time than there are possible locations to visit so the player has to make excruciating decisions what to prioritize.
- You have five attributes plus eleven skills and only around half of them are used/tested in this adventure (though there were a lot of situations in which the talents from the Path of Masters advanced rules were useful). In my opinion a good gamebook provides moments for all kinds of characters to shine. This gamebook is better in this aspect than most of the other gamebooks in the series but there's a lot of room for improvement. For example I don't think I've used the Ancient Languages or Lying skills even once during all six books in the setting I've played.
- There isn't much item management (which is something you usually expect to have in a gamebook). I didn't find any loot my character would put to use during the whole book. No new armour, weapons or trinkets.
- The paper of the covers held their form and didn't rise upwards unlike my copy of The Secrets of Candarlin did. In physical aspects the gamebook is fine.

Negatives:
- There isn't much new artwork. Most of the images supporting the paragraphs are re-used from the author's other works plus they are a bit generic. The artwork produced with AI is not consistent and slightly off-theme for the desert city setting. Understandable for an one-man self-publication but it wouldn't be fair towards my other reviews if I didn't take this into accord.
- I've now played through six books that use The Numed System and I haven't seen a single ranged weapon. Even if there was one available for purchase in a shop would there be any difference besides flavour and attack modifier attribute compared to melee weapons? Similarly there are possible action types in the combat rules that never seem to have any use. Free actions? Your character doesn't have any free actions. Switch weapons? You will never want to switch weapons (unless you've been very unlucky with the dice and dropped your weapon after a critical failure). The type of melee weapon (mace/dagger/sword/axe) you have equipped hasn't either mattered even once, only the amount of attack bonus that the weapon in your hand confers... All this makes the ruleset feel underused and pale in comparison with D&D based gamebooks in which deciding what kind of weapon you want to equip is a meaningful decision.

Minor Issues:
- A minor typo in the simple fighting rules: '2W6' instead of '2d6'.
- Paragraph 51 says it's now midday so I thought I should mark the time of the day to be midday but it's apparently wrong. Midday eventually comes at paragraph 309.
- Paragraph 156 should end with an hourglass and return to map symbol instead of instructing to turn to 280.
- I think there's some incoherence in the story in what follows paragraph 336. I understood from the text that you are being led and the others have a plan and then suddenly in paragraph 117 you (as the hero) are in the lead and need to choose which way to go?

Verdict:
I feel that was I was slightly disappointed after the introduction and 'tutorial' of the gamebook. Freedom to go and do what you want is great in a gamebook but if it doesn't lead anywhere then it will end up feeling like meaningless filler. The foundation for a great gamebook is there in the rule system and the special Calendarium rules but they just don't get fully utilized/explored and that leaves the book just slightly above average.

Positive aspects include: complete freedom to explore the city locations in any order you want to, the day/night cycle is interesting, a good amount of choices in decision points, randomized enemy actions in combat, meaningful skill checks, you can use your skills to save the situation after poor choices, a rule system that makes for quick and not too complex playing and the code system works well.

Neutral and negative aspects include: the gamebook felt hurried towards the end, the gamebook gave too much time to explore the locations and too few of them actually related to the main quest in any meaningful way, the book felt a bit short considering the amount of paragraphs, the Calendarium wasn't as exciting as I expected it to be, some of the skills don't have any use at all, there isn't much item management to speak of, the physical aspects of the book are perfectly fine (but nothing more), there's little new artwork and the AI generated artwork is not consistent and is a bit off-theme and it's a bit meaningless what kind of equipment you have (just get the gear that gives you the biggest modifier bonuses).

Using the BGG/RPGG rating scale I give The Catacombs of Candarlin a rating of 6.75. That puts it to slot forty-three on my gamebook ranking list for now.

~ Damdael

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by sdonohue

Curse of the Pirate King is a 2019 release from Gaming Ballistic LLC for The Fantasy Trip. It was written by Christopher R. Rice and J. Edward Tremlett.

Presentation
This is available in PDF and print. The print version is staple-bound and features heavy stock covers in color. The interior is 16 pages of black & white text in a mostly two-column format.

Content
This adventure is designed for 4-6 experienced characters of 34-36 points each. It is written as a sequel to The Crown of Eternity and features the return of Jak C. Servantes, now a revenant after dying in the earlier adventure.

The book starts with a very thorough table of contents, averaging about 2 entries per page. The adventure is, on the surface, pretty simple. Jak has a mission, if he knows the characters, he'll talk to them directly otherwise he sends a message requesting they meet him. At the meeting he explains that he knows the location of a fabled pirate island with a fabulous treasure. It had been cursed for 500 years, but the curse has been lifted and now they could be rich.

If the characters agree, they have three days to gather supplies before setting sail on a ship called the Zaragon. The crew has worked with Jak before and none seemed concerned that he's not strictly alive. They can pick up various rumors about the pirates, the island, and their patron as they listen to the sailors.

The island is a very dark place and the pirates have met a fate they deserved. The ancient god of the original inhabitants of the island is forcing them to his service, consigning them to something called deadlife, where they have been replaced with the black ooze that makes up the god. During the day, there are many hazards and many places to explore, but at night, the pirates awaken from their watery grave in the ooze and begin leading a sort of shadow life. They are fixing ships and have already started raiding again.

The characters can succeed if they are careful. They can recover many treasures, including the legendary The Blade of Dawn. In the aftermath, they may be spotted by ships from two rival kingdoms; if they're lucky, the rivals will fight each other instead of trying to sink them. Both ships are out to recover the treasure.

Evaluation
There is a lot of backstory here and the GM needs to read the adventure very thoroughly to figure out the through-line of the story. It would be better if the GM had a synopsis of the plot to work from instead of having to read through the rumor tables (for example) to figure out the background and plot of the whole adventure. Beyond that, it's not a terrible adventure. The storyline is decent and the adventure is definitely challenging but not impossible. The inclusion of different sections and some optional encounters makes it easier for the GM to tailor the challenge to the adventurers. I'm not sure how many survivors of the Crown of Eternity would sign up for another adventure with Jak, but treasure can be a pretty strong inducement.

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by M Charles

'Ello, M. Charles here.

PART 14: WELCOME TO THE HOUSE OF THE GATHERING

I believe I mentioned The Fifth Element (1997) before. It's one of my favourite films (that and Batman Forever (1995)). In trying to answer a question by Tim Cain, of Fallout: 'is it easy to explain?' He was talking about video game RPGs, but it readily applies to board games in general. 'Is your setting evocative?' That was his last question.

The Fifth Element (1997) solved practically every problem, and even opened a few doors, including sci-fi power-armour or machine enemies, along with a deeper narrative on both sides (player-character and the world/enemies). I could justify everything easier, as well. And I believe everything is more coherent, in terms of the disconnect between Middle Ages theme and future/sci-fi.



I spent some time thinking about how to properly integrate, nest, deepen, blend, and justify everything, including the possibility of a mixed tone, and robots and superhuman sci-fi enemies. I realised that The Fifth Element solved practically every solution in one fell swoop (great idiom, by the way -- thanks Shakespeare).

It was that or a nightmare/Sandbox sort of direction, but that's already been done and is innately not as serious or flexible, in terms of narrative and mechanical depth.

It's very simple, now -- male Tomb Raider in a Fifth Element-like far future.

Forget about the post-apoc vision idea from before, and move away from Labyrinth (1986) a little. Everything is a little more serious, though still 'style over substance'. Note that I've not fully figured out everything shown in the image. I don't know what's staying, and I don't know their exact roles, nature, or mechanics. But I feel like we're getting there.

The Order of the House of the Gathering (The House of the Gathering for short) is the religious (quasi-Catholic) order of the human player-character, Balthazar. He protects the Earth and humans, and fights demons and space marines deep in the Iron Labyrinth (i.e. dungeon). Set in the year 2200 AD. The members of the House of the Gathering are called Alchemists and Summoners, or more formerly, Alchemist-Priests or Summoner-Priests. This depends on their general class: Summoners focus on Elemental Magic, where Alchemists focus on melee/combat (including rogue, in terms of player gameplay). They're narrative and soft gameplay categories, since Red Delve will not feature strict classes due to the deck constructor nature of the game (i.e. you can build any class pre-game, and switch classes in-run).

I'm also wondering about adding some moral choices for Balthazar (i.e. the player). Just how good or evil is Balthazar, and how does his story unfold; where does he end up? What is the House of the Gathering actually trying to accomplish? Very interesting questions.

Note that I have no idea how the 'sword vs. power-armour' is going to work. Maybe the player can only use the Sword against demons, and must use Elements/Magic and other Weapons against the armoured sci-fi enemies. I'll go with the tightest narrative answer coupled with whatever works best, mechanically, and gives the most player freedom and clarity. Before, I said that I disliked the idea of a sword vs. machine situation. But now we have an innately sardonic, over-the-top Tomb Raider/Fifth Element setting, I like the idea.

One fellow mentioned that he would love robots/machines in Poll #2. Well, this is exactly why taking feedback is important. Rumination. I believe we're in a much better position, now. The door to this direction was sealed shut a few days ago. Always leave yourself the bravery -- and tenacity -- to open a sealed door, if you're convinced it'll ultimately create a superior product. At the very least, there's no harm in testing it out at that stage.

And I'm kicking myself, as they say, that I didn't think of this instantly. But, again, that door was sealed off. In hindsight, it was possibly a mistake (if we stick with this direction), but I didn't know that at the time, and didn't know how to fully commit to a future setting given the Middle Ages nature of the player-character. I was also trying to enforce the usage of the Gloomhaven map for tracking purposes. That map now makes no sense, unless we invent a reason. For example, maybe it's the ancient map that has been passed down through the generations, and now Balthazar -- or, the player -- owns it. That sounds like a decent narrative device to me.

But that's how this process goes, at least for me. Maybe you think it's easy, and maybe it's easy for you. And it seems so simple now, looking back, but it took me about 4 weeks to get here. And all I had to think on day one was -- 'male Tomb Raider in Fifth Element'. That's actually a pretty clear mash-up of Zathura, The Fifth Element, Tomb Raider, and Star Wars. One reason it likely didn't enter my mind that is two-fold: first, I wasn't thinking so literally, and was actually aiming to avoid just creating a Luke Skywalker/Indiana Jones type situation. And secondly, I was trying to avoid Indiana Jones and things like Tomb Raider at all costs due to the association with Spelunky, Tomb Raider proper, Zelda, and more. (This explains why I tried to explain open-mindedness in earlier logs. But it's not possible to check every possible direction on day one, or know exactly where you should end up.) Nonetheless, it was important not to directly copy Tomb Raider or adhere to The Fifth Element too closely, which is what would have happened if I came at it from a direct route.

I have a few other ideas, as well, and a few new mechanics in mind. Evidently, it's no longer as Labyrinth-like, DOOM-like, or Soulslike. But it has a few parts or fragments from each, in addition to other sources, thereby creating a new whole. I'll talk about the other core mechanics next time, along with the polished narrative/setting.

P.S. I think we've found the tagline for the game, too -- welcome to the House of the Gathering. :)

by sdonohue

Path of Adventure is a 2017 release from Nocturnal Media. It is intended for use with any rpg system and was designed by Roderick Robertson and illustrated by Jennifer Wieck and Richard Thomas (I).

Presentation
This is available as both a pdf and a tarot-sized deck. The deck comes in a tuckbox with 36 cards and a folded sheet of instructions. The cards are black & white on good quality stock for cards -- they feel like a decent deck of cards.

Content
The deck consists of 36 cards. Each card has a title, a brief description, an illustration and a number. The numbers range from 1 to 7 and cards are played from lowest to highest. The GM chooses a 1, so the players can only add 2s; once a card hits the table, only cards of equal value or higher can be played. They set the plan for the adventure. The themes in this deck are The Hunt which means the players are either hunting or hunted; Finding the Lost means the players are searching for something lost; Exploration of the Unknown which sends the players to a newly discovered place; and War! which means the players are involved in some kind of military action. The rest of the cards are shuffled and each player gets 2 or 3 of them. They can then play them when they feel like they might help move the game in a new or exciting direction.

The general idea is that the GM reveals a theme to start the session, then the players add "tone" by playing cards in the 2s and 3s. The cards in the 4-7 range are considered climax cards and may end the use of cards at the GMs discretion; of course, even after playing 4, there could be more 4s or even another cards; too many might make it feel like the end of Return of the King. Once a card is played, the GM has the option to accept it, veto it, or edit it. Veto means the card is outright rejected, hopefully because it's not going advance the story but maybe because the GM doesn't like it. Edit means there's a negotiation between the GM and players. Players who play cards can draw new ones, but there's not a clear mechanic there.

The composition of the deck is
1 - 4 cards
2 - 8 cards
3 - 7 cards
4 - 6 cards
5 - 5 cards
6 - 4 cards
7 - 2 cards

Evaluation
It seems odd to me that one would try to limit the path of adventure to only 4 themes. Admittedly, they are both common and pretty broad, but I'm not sure that's a positive thing. Many games and adventures center around these themes already, so it's not bringing anything new to the table. On the other hand, their format does limit the number of cards of each type. Maybe this one should have had more cards, like the Path of Shadows (Storypaths) deck which bulked up to 52 cards.

Either way, there are some interesting ideas in the other cards, but I'm not sure who much an experienced GM would benefit from them.

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