Gamebook Friday: Spooky Halloween Reads

It's Halloween on Tuesday, so now seems like the perfect time to remind you of my various horror-related reads that you can enjoy at this time of year.

First of all there is the ultimate horror ACE Gamebook, Dracula: Curse of the Vampire.

1897 ~ In the wolf-haunted Carpathian Mountains, a young solicitor, Jonathan Harker, travels to an isolated castle to assist a mysterious Count with purchasing a number of properties in England. But what he witnesses there drives him to the edge of madness…

Meanwhile, in Whitby, Harker’s fiancée, Mina Murray, visits her dear friend Lucy Westenra. But during her stay, Lucy is attacked and becomes seriously ill…

In London, Lucy’s suitor and physician, Dr John Seward, becomes preoccupied with the case of a certain Mr Renfield, an inmate at his lunatic asylum, who seeks to collect lives for his master, having not long returned from a trip to Transylvania…

And so, the pieces for the game are set. For they are all pawns in a plan devised centuries ago by the Voivode of Wallachia, Vlad Tepes, a cruel tyrant whom history remembers as ‘the Son of the Devil,’ his bloodthirsty deeds having earned him another name…

Dracula.

And then there is my Cthulhu Mythos novella, The Serpent's Egg, and my ghost story, The Doll's House, both of which are available as audiobooks.

Gamebook Friday: O Maligno Mágico de Oz

The Wicked Wizard of Oz is now available in Brazil, in a Portuguese language edition, from Jambô Editora.

Here's my unboxing video of O Maligno Mágico de Oz.

In other news, last Saturday's International Gamebook Day was a great success. If you missed any of the interviews that were broadcast on the day, you can watch them at your leisure here, on The Storymaster's Tales YouTube channel, including one with gamebook godfather Sir Ian Livingstone himself!

Gamebook Friday: International Gamebook Day 2023

Tomorrow, Saturday 14th October 2023, is International Gamebook Day, and the schedule has been announced.

Our host is Olly Mc, of The Storymaster's Tales fame, and the Guest of Honour is Sir Ian Livingstone, whose interview will go live at 7:00pm BST.

If you check out the Facebook event page, you will see that the links for the video interviews have been posted already.

I will also be making an appearance, at 6:00pm BST, talking about my horror-themed ACE Gamebooks and my Marvel Multiverse Missions gamebook Moon Knight: Age of Anubis.

So, maybe I'll see you tomorrow...

Visit the International Gamebook Day 2023 store here.

Warhammer Wednesday: Warhammer eBooks

Monday saw the release of Krakenbane's Curse, a new Age of Sigmar short story by Yours Truly. 

A few of the short stories I have written for Black Library over the years are available as digital eShorts and three of the six novels I have written set within the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universes as eBooks. Why not check out one of them today?

 

ACE Gamebooks news from Sweden and Poland

First up today, I am thrilled to announce that Swedish company Sound Realms (who are currently crowdfunding The Fortress of Death on Kickstarter) and ACE Gamebooks are collaborating to bring you Dracula: Curse of the Vampire the audio adventure!

Sound Realms are very proud and excited to announce a collaboration with ACE Gamebooks and author Jonathan Green to create an audio adventure version of Dracula: Curse of the Vampire (2021) for the Sound Realms platform. 

Oscar Carlquist: "We are very pleased to present the next upcoming addition to Sound Realms and I can't wait to start creating some truly haunting and immersive soundscapes for Dracula: Curse of the Vampire. The interactive gamebook version of Bram Stoker's classic is masterfully written by Jon Green and taking this into the audio realm will be as much of an honour as a challenge that we here at Sound Realms are ready to embrace with enthusiasm and dedication!"

Jonathan Green: "I am thrilled that Sound Realms are turning Dracula: Curse of the Vampire into the first audio ACE Gamebook and can't wait to hear how they bring the horror to life through the use of soundscapes and top-notch voice talent. It's going to be bloodcurdlingly brilliant!"

Secondly, NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! is now available in Poland, from Muduko.

Thirsty for adventure? We invite you to Neverland, where as shipwreck survivor Wendy Darling, the mechanical avenger Peter Pan, the fearless hunter Tiger Lily or the ruthless pirate Captain Hook, you will discover many of the island's secrets and face nightmarish monsters!

In this gamebook, you make choices for your characters, discovering dark paths leading to many different endings. NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! is another part of the paragraph series of books by Jonathan Green, which is inspired by the classics of children's literature.

Also available, but only from the publisher's own webstore, is a special edition of the book that comes with dice, a bookmark, a pencil and a game bag.

Krakenbane's Curse - A Warhammer Age of Sigmar story

Today sees the launch of the Warhammer Age of Sigmar eShorts Subscription, which includes my first, and probably only, Age of Sigmar short story. Not only that, but from today you can buy Krakenbane's Curse as a standalone story.

"The forces of Death and Order clash on the high seas of the Mortal Realms."

I wouldn't read the story synopsis on the Black Library website if I were you, as it gives away one of the major twists of the story.

My last Black Library short story was published three years ago, almost to the day, and that was the Necromunda-set Paradise. The reason why it has taken so long for another tale to appear is a story in and of itself.

Ten months bfore Paradise was published, my Warhammer 40,000 short story Journey of the Magi appeared, and that was my first new Black Library story for six years. However, because of the leadtime for Black Library publications, I actually started pitching stories for Warhammer Age of Sigmar towards the end of 2019, and from a list of three, one was selected to go forward to full submission.

To give you an idea of how stories can change, the title went from Gloomtide to Scourgetide, to Black Tide, until finally settling on Krakenbane's Curse, with the outline of the story changing slightly every time as well. 

The story was commissioned in March 2020, just as Covid-19 hit. In no time at all, the UK was in lockdown and the vast majority of businesses went into a form of stasis, including Games Workshop. I submitted the first draft of Krakenbane's Curse at the end of April 2020. And then I waited.

As a direct consequence of the Covid-19 lockdown, priorities changed at GW and Black Library, and I didn't receive feedback on my story until the start of September 2021. It went through three sets of revisions and was finally passed as finished at the start of December 2021. At the time I was told my story would appear in a forthcoming Age of Sigmar anthology. And then I waited.

And here we are today, at the start of October 2023, with Krakenbane's Curse being the first title to be released as part of the Warhammer Age of Sigmar eShorts Subscription, which will be available until 8:00am BST on Monday 16th October 2023 (although the individual eShorts will remain available for individual purchase after that).

I'm please to see that one of the other releases this week is by me old mucker C L Werner, and has the intriguing title of The Abominations of Kriik Weirdpaw.

Spooky Season Sale Now On!

It's October, which these days also seems to be known as Spooky Season. So, it seemed like a a good time to run a sale of my two RPGs.

HEOROT - Roleplaying in the World of Beowulf Beastslayer is my mythic Viking RPG, inspired by a certain gamebook, while 'TWAS - The Roleplaying Game Before Christmas is the perfect pick-up-and-play RPG for experienced gamers and newbies alike. And I'm pleased to say that they're both DriveThruRPG bestsellers.

The PDFs of both these RPGs are on sale for just £5.00 each, as are these 'TWAS supplements.

Don't delay and grab a bargain today!