by Dominic Swan

£25.95 for RPG Item: Strangers in Prax
Condition: Very Good
Location: United Kingdom

by Dominic Swan

£24.95 for RPG Item: Cults of Prax
Condition: Like New
Location: United Kingdom

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 about sixty 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 Kickstarter campaign that produced the book. My copy is a 2026 softcover edition. The covers are coloured but the pages are black & white. The PDF version of the book was also included in my pledge and the images I've included are from that version.

First Impressions:
- The book was delivered in a flimsy Amazon logoed paper bag. There was no bubblewrap padding or even shrinkwrap around the book. The book had suffered damage to all corners. There were small black stains on the sides of the book. There was a line of brown adhesive stuck onto the front cover of the book (my guess is that from the sealing tape of the delivery bag). There were faint dents and scratches on the covers of the book. Yeah the delivery was relatively cheap at just under 9€ and it's not like the book can't be read but honestly I really would prefer my books delivered in a protective cardboard box with bubblewrap, foam or shredded cardboard around the book. This was probably one of the worst delivery experiences I've had for a gamebook.
- The book hasn't been cut correctly. There is 2-3mm of white paper showing on two of the edges of the front cover. It makes the cover look amateurish even though the mysterious hooded character with a glowing ember on their hands in a mountainous scape would otherwise look interesting. The back cover of the book is just a repeat of the front which is a bit boring. Gamebooks where the art of the front flows onto the back cover are simply better looking.
- The book is very thick and has a lot of pages but there are just 280 paragraphs. I wonder how they've filled those pages...
- The paper quality of both the covers and pages is all right. That said if I put this book and my copy of The Curse of Cthulhu 2 side by side it's clear as day that this book has coarser paper and the pages are of duller white - indicators of lower quality.

Rules:
A completely new ruleset. There's a 158 page core rulebook for it which was included in Kickstarter pledges of this gamebook. I'll try to summarize the rules:
- You create a character and select an Archetype for it (out of six possibilities like Warden or Envoy), assign attributes (might, agility, wits and spirit), select three skills (stealth, persuasion and arcana for example), select an Edge out of two options for each archetype (for example one of the Warden edges allows for taking damage instead of your allies) and finally you invent a fear (does not want to be alone in any situation for example) and a drive (wants to protect a specific person for example). Besides those your character has four tracks; harm (how much physical punishment you have taken), stress (how's your mental well-being), supplies (food and water) and momentum (willpower to defy fate ie affect dice rolls).
- Actions with a chance of failure are resolved by rolling 2d6 and adding attribute, skill and difficulty modifiers. A result of 10 or more is a strong hit (clean success), 7-9 a weak hit (success but with a cost) and 6 or below is a miss (you fail at what you attempted to do and usually you will incur a penalty too). Spending three momentum converts a miss to a weak hit and with two momentum you can add advantage to a dice roll (roll 3d6 and drop lowest).
- The adventure/story is divided into paragraphs. You start from paragraph number one and from there proceed to other paragraphs based on your choices and what the dice dictate.
- There are exploration zones (a dungeon or a castle for example). They consist of areas or locations inside of them and you need to find a zone exit to proceed in the story. Each zone also has a table of random events, encounters (mostly enemies and environmental hazards), location search results and navigation (directs which locations inside the zone you have available next).
- Struggles are basically encounters where you will need to do several attribute checks to fill a track and beat them. Escaping a landslide, fighting a boss monster and so on. Strong hits fill the track faster etc.
- There are clocks (timers). If you spend too much time exploring a zone you risk something really bad happening and the adventure ends in defeat.
- There are tags which are basically codes or keywords that affect what options you have available in future paragraphs. The different endings for example each require that you have certain tag(s).
- There are ten or so endings. None of them are the 'one and only correct ending'. Every ending costs you something you'd rather not pay (a companion dies, a village needs to be sacrificed, etc). The idea is to play until you find an ending you can live with.
- In most gamebooks getting defeated in combat means that your adventure immediately ends (Fighting Fantasy gamebooks for example) but not so in this book. Usually there's a resource penalty or a companion might start to distrust you but other than that you can continue the adventure even if a fight goes awry.

Exploration Zone turn sequence.

Artwork:
- An excerpt from the Kickstarter page: The Last Ember is written, designed, edited, and laid out by our team — all narrative text, game mechanics, adventure structure, section writing, and book layout are human-created original work. AI-assisted tools may be used for a portion of the visual artwork in the book and on the campaign page, including chapter header illustrations, atmospheric scene art, NPC reference visuals, and decorative interior elements. AI tools may also be used during the production process for tasks such as proofreading support, formatting assistance, and generating draft visual concepts that are then reviewed, selected, and refined by our team. Maps and any cover art are produced by human artists or by our team directly.
- There are something like 70+ unique pieces of art on the pages of the book which is a great amount for a gamebook and there is a good amount of detail in the images too but the usual caveats of using AI generated art apply. The art is not consistent. The art style differs slightly between images, characters look slightly different from one image to another, the details in an image have something wrong compared to the text next to it and so on.
- The images on the pages of the book work fine in black and white. There are some textbox backgrounds and table headers that are hard to read printed in b&w but it's not a very big problem.
- The art is fine and serves the purpose of visualizing key characters, locations and events but personally I just don't get very excited with AI generated art.

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

Attempt 1:
[o]- I knew when I ordered the book that I'd probably have some kind of issue with the AI generated art so I found it funny that I went 'uh?' immediately with the first paragraph. It describes how you meet three other travellers... but there's four in the AI generated accompanying image (you can see your own hand holding a letter in the image so the fourth character is not the player character).
- I decided to ally with Corra.
- I failed the first couple of attribute checks. I could have used momentum but I decided to see how it would go with 3 stress.
- How does paragraph 140 work? The previous paragraph (139) said to have one conversation but if you choose to converse with Corra and then choose the option 'I'll carry the letter' you get a tag but what are you supposed to do then? The book seems to direct you back to 140 and you can have another conversation?
- I was ambushed while travelling on a road but I talked them down.
- This feels quite a lot different compared to many of the other gamebooks I've played. Instead of back to back fights or deciding how to get past a locked door I've been mainly talking and deciding what to say to my travelling companions. In other gamebooks I've played you frantically jump around from a paragraph to another but thus far the journey has been pretty linear and instead I've been collecting different kinds of tags by making choices within the paragraphs.
- I reached Zone A. The book says to see Zone A Procedures. What are they? Where are they? I can't seem to find them? Ah, had to look from the table of contents, page 168.
- I took a short rest at Ashwalker's Rest.
- Due to a lucky search roll I was immediately able to get to the next leg of the journey.
- I tried to mend a family bond by using momentum to gain advantage for the roll but I still got a miss.
- At the end of paragraph 200 I was again baffled. The book said to return to paragraph 25 and continue to Zone B. There's no sign of any instruction to where to turn in paragraph 25, I've already been to this paragraph. I guess I'll again look at the table of contents... and it seems I need to turn to page 244.
- My first area in Zone B was The Singing Pipes.
- Next I happened upon The Binding Circle.
- After that I ended up in The Memory Gallery and I encountered an Ember Stalker. I managed to defeat it even though I would have collapsed from just one hit on me.
- I got to the Heartforge Core. I had only one subsection available (besides the always available walk-away option).[/o]
Playing time: 4h 26min

The book is full of instruction boxes like this. They made playing the book feel mechanical. Why not weave the choices into the story text?

Attempt 2:
[o]- I made a new character and this time around I decided to approach the scholar in the beginning.
- The first area I happened upon in Zone A was the Abandoned Homestead - a safe location to rest. I rolled Ice Hazard from the event table. Ground gave way beneath the party while exploring the homestead due to a cave entrance? I failed the roll and after suffering light harm I discovered a shortcut to the next chapter. Huh.
- I got another epilogue. Weird thing was getting there skipped Zone B completely. Not the ending I was aiming for.[/o]
Playing time: 56min

Attempt 3:
[o]- This time around I went for the third available character in the beginning.
- I failed so much during this attempt. Every dice roll I made came out as a miss up to the point I met a stranger on the road.
- The first area in Zone A this time around was the Frozen Orchard. The Pale tried to take a hold of me there.
- Next I had a couple of options to choose from and I decided to explore the Ember Shrine. That strangely led to the Ashen Gate. First time seeing that location.
- I looped between paragraphs 194 and 195 until I got a tag I wanted. It took three tries.
- My stress rose to 6. My dice rolls just had been that poor this attempt.
- I could have advanced to the epilogues but I decided to explore Zone B for certain rare information because I was aiming for a certain ending and I didn't yet fulfill the conditions for that.
- My first Zone B area was The Forgekeeper's Workshop. I was ambushed again by an Ember Stalker. I missed six times in a row (the book doesn't state a miss penalty for the struggle so I figured misses don't count) and then got a weak hit which meant the enemy defeated me.
- Next I found my way to The Binding Circle. An Ember Stalker again attacked me. I was again defeated.
- I explored a couple more locations and finally the dice allowed me to get the tag I was searching for. Next I went for the finale and got the ending I had been aiming for.[/o]
Playing time: 2h 36min

Total playing time: 7h 58min

Positives:
- The rules might seem like a scary long read but in reality they aren't that complex as can be seen from my summarization above. The rules are lengthy because they include ample examples of everything and also clarify edge cases.
- There's a great amount of art. There are some 70+ images on the pages of the book.
- 10+ different endings is a lot for a gamebook. It's cool to have that much ending variety.
- The book probably has the largest font for any gamebook that I've played and there's a lot of empty space on most of the pages. It's easy to read.

Neutral:
- The book is ok in physical qualities (if I ignore the issues my physical copy happened to have) but for a 26€ book there are many other similarly priced gamebooks that are physically of better quality. Obvious Mimic or Archmage Press gamebooks for example.

Negatives:
- The book feels a bit like a GM's manual instead of a smooth story. Each section of the book has a text box at start that summarizes the contents and secrets of that section and where you can go from the section. It pretty much ruins the mystery and excitement that comes from trying different choices in gamebooks. What also ruins the mystery is that the book explains together with the choices what each choice will cost and net you. The book also displays the results of attribute test success/partial success/miss in a list instead of hiding them behind different paragraph links like its usually done in gamebooks which makes the tests feel very mechanical because you start to compare the results and evaluate is it worth using resources in a particular test or not. You can try avoid reading these texts but it feels clunky.
- The AI generated art is not consistent. For example you have an image of a character in 151 (sharp cruel lookin features) and then again in 176 (rounded almost anime-y features). It's the same character but the looks are very different. In paragraph 1 we have a lady knight, in 181 we have another image of her and suddenly she has a huge earring she didn't have in the first image. That is besides changing from full plate armour in the first image to leather armour in the later image. It rubs me the wrong way.
- For how short the flowchart I drew from the beginning of the adventure to the end I got a lot of playing time... which isn't a good thing in this case. A lot of my playing time was spent trying to interpret what the heck the book tries to convey, what rules apply to a given situation and what character abilities I can use or can't use and which is the correct next paragraph and what I'm supposed to do now that I've looped back to a paragraph I've already been at.
- The tags are long and there are a lot of them. It's tedious to write them down. They take a lot of space on the character sheet. It takes not so little effort to keep them in an alphabetical order for easy checking (otherwise you need to read through a list of 20-40 tags each time the book asks do you have some specific tag). I prefer shorter codes that gamebooks like Legendary Kingdoms use; A1 or B7 for example.
- While the ruleset isn't as complex as their length could make you assume it didn't feel like it was very well implemented in the book. The book expects you to remember a lot of the special rules and triggers. For example I don't think the book states in any attribute check that you may add +1 skill bonus if have skill X or Z. You have to remember and judge that yourself. I dislike doing that because it easily veers to cheating. I would have preferred the book to clearly state if you could add some skill bonus to a check. The book also doesn't remind you what negative effects some status conditions have when you receive said conditions, for example 'Marked by the Pale' means that you can't rest in Zone A but the book only states that in a table at the end of the rules section and not in the paragraph where you get that condition. I had the condition during my last attempt but I only noticed the effect while writing the rules section of this review. You can also obtain several kinds of one-time use advantages to dice rolls but the book doesn't prompt you when you could use them so they are easily forgotten and it's hard to decide yourself when they actually apply because they've been defined so broadly.
- Some of the Archetype Edges (ie. character specializations) seem to be useless in this particular book. For example Scholar's Study the Weakness. Keen Insight too? Wanderer's Eye. This book just doesn't accommodate those edges.
- It's possible to navigate the paragraphs so that the story will have jarring discrepancies. For example you can have a long discussion with a certain character and physically save them from self-sacrifice and after that the book returns you to a point where the story assumes you haven't even met that character yet and the story describes tearful reunions and whatnot.
- The endings take around 30 paragraphs and the special brutal difficulty 20. That high amount of different endings sounds cool and all but it is a lot for a 280 paragraph gamebook. It means the story needs to accommodate all that so it becomes wide but very short. I think the book would have been more interesting if there had been just like three to five different possible endings so that there would have been more space for the journey (less abrupt scene changes for example) and character developement. The Dark Moon Rises series is a good example of that kind of design.
- A lot of what you can do is decided by dice and not by player choice. You cannot choose what locations in an exploration zone you would like to explore - dice rolls decide that for you. And for example if you are aiming for a specific ending it might be that it's just not possible in your current playthrough because the dice do not allow you to explore a location that would be required for that ending.
- In multiple points of Zone B the book seemed to imply that short resting advances the clock (for example in the text for zone search result number eight). However on page 17 in book specific rules reads that the clock advances only on long rests. It feels like there has been a design change at some point of developing the book but not all traces of the old design have been edited out.
- There are weird page breaks. For example the list on page 173 could fit the result 7 but instead it's on the next page together with the result 8. There are pages with just a section header and then an image on the other page of a spread. It feels like there has been very little editorial work done to prepare the book for physical printing. I find it likely that no test copy of the book has been printed for a final review before mass printing.

Minor Issues:
- Some of the texts printed on dark background are barely readable. In the coloured PDF version they work fine. Example on page 16.
- Paragraph 140 and the conversations. Can you get the letter and then return to 139 for another conversation like the text would seem to work? Page 42 ends to text: 'Choose:', then the next page has a couple of rows of text which end: 'continue below' and then there's a page break. I strongly suspect they've just printed the PDF without doing any editing for the physical book format and it shows. The physical book feels unprofessional.
- In paragraph 176 the book uses 'to me', 'tell me'. Shouldn't the correct be 'us' since the character is talking to a group of people with the PC among them?
- Paragraph 192: 'Merith practically...' -> Should the name here be Corra?
- On page 250 there's a sentence with massive font that overflows to the next page. (259 in the PDF)
- The enemy on page 256 has a danger rating of 3 but the book says you take 2 harm per weak hit. Is it a misprint? If you have the tag Dragon-Touched and the danger rating increases to 4 do you now take 3 harm? Or 4? Also there is no miss result rules for the struggle. The core rules say to roll the designated attribute on each turn of a struggle. What is the designated attribute for this struggle?
- Are section numbers in 33 correct? To address uncertainty go to 36 and to explore other options go to 38? Are the numbers switched?
- How is the choice at the end of paragraph 11 a test? You do not test any attribute in it. It's just a choice.
- You can loop between paragraphs 194 and 195. This can be used to try getting an outcome-affecting tag until you succeed in the attribute test.
- In paragraph 193 one of the choices is 'How do we implement this at the Forge?' and it directs you to paragraph 196 which is completely off-topic. The story just feels rushed and like it's missing bits with these kinds of illogical transitions.
- Are ending 'Learned the Steward's Path' paragraph links working as intended? The link to 199 seems to just loop back eventually? Is it a wrong link? The link to 128 seems to indicate that there's an attribute test you will need to pass but there's no such test and instead the book simply asks do you want a good ending or do you want a bad ending? Who chooses to voluntarily have a bad ending?
- The area map on page 187 has two of the same location.

Summary and Verdict:
I feel that the book has been developed too fast and that there has been too little editorial work. I'm sorry to say that the book is a bit of a clunky mess. Playing it felt like trying to get a wonky mechanical contraption to work instead of journeying trough a well-crafted story. Half of the time it was like reading a GM manual instead of a story for a player.

I came up with just a few positive and neutral aspects: the new rules system is fine and well explained with case examples, the book has a lot of art, the high amount of different endings is interesting, the book is easy to read and the physical qualities of the printed book are acceptable.

The list for negative aspects on the other hand is very long: reading the book is like reading a technical manual at times, it reveals mysteries in an explanatory way, the art is not consistent, the story is short, it's a hassle to manage the tags, the book doesn't implement the ruleset very well, some character options are useless in this book, there are jarring scene transitions and at times you even feel that story bits are missing, the high amount of endings leaves little depth for the journey to each of the endings, dice dictate important decisions that would be better left for the player to decide, the book layout is frankly speaking quite unprofessional looking on some spreads and the list of minor issues I encountered gave me a headache.

The Last Ember gets a rating of 4 from me using the BGG/RPGG scale and goes to the bottom of my gamebook ranking list. I'm disappointed and it's hard to recommend this book for anyone as it stands.

~ Damdael

by Rachel Carpenter

Is it really 7 PM already? Gah! Where'd the day go?!!?!
Oh wait, it went to writing Elder Sign reports 😜.
That's okay though because it means that tomorrow is definitely going to be a Mythic Monday. And so is the Monday after that too :geek_grin:.

And now, I need to get my butt off the computer for now.

Image Credit: TeeTurtle

Catch you all tomorrow!

Happy Sunday and happy playing!
-Rachel

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