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by Damdael

I got interested in gamebooks a couple of 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 a bit over forty 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 keep my ranking list up to date so that readers can find other books to try out.

My copy of the book is 2025 edition by Steve Jackson Games. I've previously played The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Deathtrap Dungeon and City of Thieves from that publisher. These new editions are the first Fighting Fantasy gamebooks I've played so the books won't get any nostalgy bonus from me.

First Impressions:
- The delivery box was a pretty basic brown cardboard box. Thick enough cardboard and inside the five books I ordered were wrapped in bubblewrap. They arrived without any damage.
- I have to say the cover artwork looks... weird(?) with the... uh?... vampiric spirit? in the middle drawing in your focus. It looks out of place compared to the rest of the artwork on the cover. Speaking of which the rest of the cover artwork and the details on it I find much more interesting; the blood red guardscreature, realistic looking detailed buildings and those sinister goblins sneakily hiding in the lower right corner. It's not the best Fighting Fantasy gamebook cover I've seen but it's not totally bad either.
- The book feels solid (for a paperback) and the coating of the covers gives them a nice sheen. Plus makes them pleasant to touch. The paper of the pages is perfectly fine but there's distance to really high quality paper the likes of Legendary Kingdoms or Obvious Mimic gamebooks. The size of the book is pretty nice: it can be held in one hand while you play and make notes / roll the dice with your other hand.
- The font of the text on the pages is pretty large. It should be easy to read even with somewhat poor eyesight.
- Like the three other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks I've played previously this one has 400 paragraphs also. In my experience it is a good amount of paragraphs for a gamebook and makes me expect a good amount of content and playtime.

(I took the images with my phone camera while holding the pages with my other hand so that's why the curve of the pages shows)

Rules:
There's a short introduction that presents you the situation (dread sorcerer Balthus Dire is planning to invade the Vale of Willow) and after that you start from paragraph 1 and proceed to other paragraphs from there based on your choices trying to reach the end of the book without dying. You have three stats; skill (for fighting and bashing locked doors etc), stamina (health) and luck (for avoiding traps and finding secrets) plus a magic value which directly translates to the amount of spells you can have at the ready for the quest. Your stats are randomized at the beginning of the adventure and they can go up or down but almost never above their starting values. Your character has an inventory into which you can collect items you find (you start with a sword, leather armour and torch). The last thing to keep track of is gold you find during your quest.

In fights each round you roll 2d6 for you and the enemy and add their respective skill to see who got a higher result and gets to deal damage. You can spend luck to try deal more damage to the enemy or to try avoid some damage coming your way. If there are multiple enemies you fight them one by one (bar a couple of exceptions with special rules). Sometimes the book allows you to escape battles by letting the enemy deal one free hit. The combat mechanics are quite simple.

Except the spells for restoring stamina/skill/luck casting magic can only be done when the book offers a choice to do so. To pick the choice you need to have that specific spell readied. You choose which spells and how many of each before you begin your quest.

Artwork:
I appreciate that they've used as much of the original artwork as possible. I understand it's not easy to get the rights to use it. The artwork invokes a lot of old school vibes in me and there's some crudeness to it. There are plenty of newer gamebooks with sharper and better artwork in my opinion but that doesn't mean that the artwork in this book is bad. It's just done in what we now consider old style. There are 30 pieces of full page artwork (if I counted correctly) and a few of repeating small images that are used to fill empty spots on the pages between the paragraphs. There's an excellent amount of artwork. The artwork depicts what happens in the paragraphs which is how it should be. The art style is kind of crude and grotesque by current standards but has a lot of detail. I liked it.

Playing:
This section is reserved for my worthwhile thoughts while playing the gamebook. I've kept my observations mostly vague in order to avoid spoilers. I've mainly noted the new things I encountered during each attempt.

Attempt 1:
Skill 10, Stamina 17, Luck 10, Magic 10
- The introduction felt stunted. I would have liked to read more about the situation, location and characters.
- I got to the citadel and decided to pose as a herbalist. My ruse was successful.
- I had to whack someone unconcious.
- Got inside the citadel proper. Easy-peasy but I did succeed in a couple of luck tests.
- The book made me waste several spells. There's a lot of trickery going on.
- Hah, wasted two more spells due to an annoying little creature.
- Found a door you could A) open with a key, B) open with the Strength Spell, C) open by attacking but losing some stamina, D) give up trying to open and try a different path. I really appreciate the amount of choices offered and that there's an option to force it open at the cost of stamina. Well designed.
- A lady didn't like it when I tried to point out her beauty.
- I offered questionable food to some kids.
- I got greedy with treasure, sprung a trap and died. I could have saved myself with a certain spell but I had spent all my charges of it. Dangit.
Playtime: 1h 23min

Attempt 2:
Skill 8, Stamina 17, Luck 8, Magic 15
- Infiltrating the citadel didn't go as well this time around and I was already down to 9 stamina when I got in.
- I got groped by a tentacle.
- I got myself into a prison cell.
- Escaped the cell and found myself at a familiar place. This time I didn't waste my spells on illusions.
- I took different choices than I did during my first attempt on purpose to map out which paths would be the easiest.
- A lady killed me because I woke her up rudely. I didn't even get as far as with my first attempt.
Playtime: 47min

Attempt 3:
Skill 11, Stamina 21, Luck 10, Magic 15
- I tricked a spirit with my sweet words.
- Encountered something resembling an ogre. Had to kill it, naturally, it was ugly.
- I took part in gambling. Have to say there were a lot of corpses and maimed limbs. Amazingly I won in every single game I tried. I stalked away with my winnings (and all of my limbs intact).
- I found a clue during my first attempt about a thing I'd need to defeat the dread sorcerer and finally I found to where to get it.
- I encountered some kind of a powerful creature and while trying to evade it I fell to my death. I think I got nearly to the end of the book and I cast only three spells in total. If you map out which choices are the best in each situation the book seems to be beatable even with a low starting stat character (though high stats do help a lot).
Playtime: 48min

Attempt 4:
Skill 7, Stamina 20, Luck 9, Magic 15
- Oh, I found a library this time around. It was a very handy find.
- Managed to check out an enticing thing I expected to be a trap... which it was and a failed luck test meant I died to it.
Playtime: 20min

Attempt 5:
Skill 12, Stamina 17, Luck 7, Magic 12
- Woe be my luck stat, it makes winning so much harder.
- I didn't really learn much new information with this attempt. Just how to bypass a certain trap without having to use a spell and that spells are useless against a certain enemy.
Playtime: 8min

As a side note I still haven't fully mapped out the first half of the book. If I look at the flowchart I've made it will probably take another two or three attempts at minimum and the first half of the book still feels interesting. That's a big improvement compared to City of Thieves or Legion of the Necromancer in which I had seen everything there was to be seen in the first half of the book by this point and those parts started to feel a bit boring.

Attempt 6:
Skill 10, Stamina 17, Luck 10, Magic 12
- I gained information about what route doesn't provide what I'm looking for but I got to the midway point of the book without finding it and I knew I might as well restart so I abandoned this attempt.
Playtime: 10min

Attempt 7:
Skill 12, Stamina 23, Luck 10, Magic 12
- Oh? I found the kitchens? It is so unexpected for me that I'm still finding new locations in the first 50% of the book during attempt number seven.
- I again tried some choices/paths I hadn't tried yet but again ended up at the spot which kept blocking me and had to restart.
Playtime: 16min

Attempt 8:
Skill 12, Stamina 21, Luck 8, Magic 17
- Found the wine cellar. Another location I hadn't found yet.
- Tried using certain jar but to no avail. I admit it's getting a bit frustrating trying to find the item you need to get in order to get past a certain key point in the book. I've explored so much and still there's no sign of it.
Playtime: 19min

Attempt 9:
Skill 10, Stamina 19, Luck 8, Magic 16
- Yay, finally found the thing I was looking for. The book doesn't provide any clues where to get it, you just need to keep trying different paths until you stumble on it which is quite common in these kind of old games.
- Ok, that got me past the point that used to block me but I died soon after for lack of certain spell (even if I had the spell readied it would haven been only a 50% chance to not die). So frustrating.
Playtime: 17min

Attempt 10:
Skill 9, Stamina 23, Luck 7, Magic 10
- The next day after sleeping off my frustration and looking at the flowchart I had made I realized there must be a route through the book that doesn't use the item I had been so stubbornly trying to find for the past six attempts. I noticed an unimportant looking split in one of the paths near the very beginning of the book I had not explored yet and from there I found the solution to all my problems. Sheesh.
- Happened to drink some truth serum which made me reveal my mission to hostile creatures and that led to a fight. My dice rolls were atrocious and I was down to 7 stamina.
- Finally managed to get face to face with the dread sorcerer. Have to say his looks were very unexpected; wow, that hair.
- Phew, managed to win the book with literally just one stamina left. It took just this one attempt at the boss fight to beat it but what made it this easy was that I had almost fully explored the book by now and thus found information about the weaknesses of the dread sorcerer.
Playtime: 46min

Total playtime: 5h 14min

Positives:
- The gamebook is of good length. 400 paragraphs means there has been space to write mutually exclusive paths through the book. There are meaningful route splits throughout the book which converge back to major decision points where you again get to choose from different main paths. The splits aren't small either; usually each different path takes you through some 30-40 paragraphs (counting smaller sub-splits too) you won't get to see if you choose to take a different path. Plus there really are a lot of mutually exclusive paths unlike in most other gamebooks (bar a couple of exceptions like What Lies Beneath for example). There can be great variety between playthroughs and the splits are constructed less predictably than in City of Thieves for example. And surprisingly there are actually a couple of valid routes through the book unlike the other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks I've played which have had just a single valid path.
- With the three other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks I've played I spent a lot of my playtime resolving fights. Too many fights considering how simple the combat mechanics are and how little the player can do to affect their outcome. This gamebook doesn't have as many fights which is great. Instead you'll spend the majority of your playtime wondering which choices to pick and what paths to take. Playing the book felt a lot more interesting and like I spent my time doing worthwhile things.
- The amount of choices in decision points (ie. at the end of paragraphs) is actually pretty great. Much better than in the other three Fighting Fantasy gamebooks I've played. You quite often have three to five choices you can make. It's partly because of the spell system the other books don't have but the result is that there is noticeably more player agency. This gamebook is among the best gamebooks which I've played when it comes to the amount of choices it offers to players.
- The spell system is something different compared to the three other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks I've played which means it was refreshing. You also get a chance to do some spellcasting in almost every third paragraph or so which means the gamebook really leans into the mechanic instead of it being just some nice forgotten bonus rule on the side.
- The old school artwork again is excellent and it's tied to the paragraphs and not just some generic fantasy art.
- The final boss fight is really great because the player can affect how it resolves with choices and a little deduction instead of a simple boring dice chucking festival (some choices make it shorter, some longer, some require testing luck and some let you avoid tossing combat dice during it entirely). It uses all the mechanics the gamebooks has. A much better boss fight than in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain or City of Thieves.
- Thematic but unexpected. You will encounter things and events you'd expect to encounter in an evil sorcerer's tower but the book won't give you any indication what there will be behind each door and there's nice variety. The story and location felt more coherent than City of Thieves for example, which felt too much like the author tossed every single encounter idea he had into the book including fantasy baseball and whatnot; it was interesting and funny for sure but it also meant I couldn't take the story seriously and it was a mish-mash of themes.
- The difficulty of the book is not as unfair as in TWoFM, Deathtrap Dungeon or City of Thieves. It will be slightly hard but definitely doable to win the book even with a character with minimum starting stats. Personally I don't appreciate game design in which you can't win the game if you don't get max rolls for starting stats.
- Skill tests carry meaningful consequences. If you fail in a skill check to force open a chest for example you won't get a second try or at minimum you will spring a really nasty trap that you will need to evade with a luck test or lose stats or even simply die.

Neutral:
- The introduction felt hasty or somehow stunted. I would have liked to read more about the situation, location and characters. For example both Deathtrap Dungeon and City of Thieves had better introductions in my opinion.
- I usually greatly dislike choices that result in instant death without the chance of save using your skills or items but I actually didn't mind it with this gamebook (plus most of them were pretty obvious like don't let a vampire drink your blood so the deaths didn't feel unfair). Perhaps it's because I knew I wouldn't need to spend half an hour or more repeating the same simple dice chucking fights for the n-th time and instead I could get to the point where I died in less than ten minutes of playtime and at the same time I could explore a path in the first half of the book I hadn't yet explored.
- The combat system gets a bit boring. Some fights can take more than a dozen rounds and there is very little player agency; you can test your luck (if you can spare any points) to reduce incoming damage or deal a bit more but that's that. Eventually you just want the fights to be over as fast as possible because you've repeated the same fights so many times.
- Even though the spell system is refreshing for a Fighting Fantasy gamebook it's a bit rigid. You can only cast spells the book allows you to cast and when the book allows you to do so. Plus the spells usually have quite simple effects. More modern rulesets like D&D 5E allow for more flexibility in spellcasting and more complex and interesting effects.
- Physical qualities of the book are fine but not excellent. The covers are nicely smooth and have a coating that gives them a sheen. The paper of the pages feels ok. There was also this faint weird smell originating from the pages/ink but that has gone away now that the book has been out of shrinkwrap for sometime and has been played through and the pages flicked plenty.

Negatives:
- There are certain things you must find or you won't even get to try the final boss fight. Personally I prefer gamebook design in which all paths through the book are valid for beating it but some paths make it easier and some harder. That said, like I wrote in the positives, this book has more valid paths through the book than the other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks I've played.

Minor Issues:
Didn't spot any. Perhaps because this is already the n-th printing of the book typos and other minor issues have been ironed out ages ago.

Verdict:
This gamebook surprised me. It was better than I expected it to be. It's long, there's a nice amount of mutually exclusive paths through the book and more than one valid path, there's a tolerable amount of those fights with simple combat mechanics, the book offers a lot of choices in decision points, the spell system is something different and thus interesting compared to the other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, the grotesque old school artwork nicely compliments the story, the final boss fight is designed really well, the story and locations are thematic, skill tests carry meaningful consequences and most importantly the difficulty of the book is tuned so that it's actually possible to win it with minimum starting stats.

The introduction is a bit weak, there are plenty of choices that result in instant death, the combat and spell systems are kind of simple and you are required to find certain specific things or you can't beat the book which I don't like as game design but all in all the neutral and negative aspects of the book aren't so bad. The positive aspects shine much more.

The Citadel of Chaos gets a rating of 8 on the BGG scale from me. I feel that it is better than the other three Fighting Fantasy gamebooks I've played but the ye-olde gamebook design in which you need certain specific things to be able beat the book still make it slightly less pleasurable to play than for example the more modern Cult of the Pajoli I've played (even though these two books are relatively identical in many aspects). With this logic The Citadel of Chaos earns slot twenty-seven on my gamebook ranking list.

~ Damdael

by sdonohue

The Grue is a 2023 release for Realms of Pugmire as part of the Canis Minor community content program. It was written by Alain Giorla and has art by Dean Spencer.

Presentation
This is a 4 page pdf with 1 page of actual game content. It's a standard 8.5 x 11 document and uses the typical Canis Minor two page layout.

Content
The content is essentially a single page describing a single monster, the Grue. It is based on the old "you're likely to be eaten by a grue" from the Zork video game. The monster described is CR 8 and has a number of special abilities (and weaknesses). It's invisible in the dark, can swallow people whole, and has a host of other abilities that make it adaptable to a variety of environments and encounters.

Evaluation
There's not really a lot here, but it's only fifty cents on drivethrurpg, so it's not fair to expect a ton of content. As a monster, it's interesting and the abilities are nice. There are even rules for escaping if you get eaten. Overall, if you feel like you need a grue in your game, this is a pretty good investment.

by ninjamonkey7

£30.00 for RPG Item: Symbaroum Starter Set: Treasure Hunts in Davokar
Condition: New
Location: United Kingdom

by NemanMan

€43.00 for Board Game: Legacy of Dragonholt
Condition: Very Good
Location: Croatia

A new episode has been added to the database: Making The Eternal Ruins RPG (ft. Sam Carr, Felix Isaacs, Rob Leigh)