"The modern master of the gamebook format" (Rob Sanders)... "Can do dark very well" (Jonathan Oliver)... "Green gets mileage out of his monsters" (SFX Magazine)... "It takes a firm editorial hand and a keen understanding of the tone of each piece to make a collection this diverse work, and Green makes it look effortless" (Starburst Magazine)... "A charming blend of camp creatures, humour, and genuine horror" (Set the Tape)
If you're looking for Christmas gifts for the gamebook fan in your life, or an RPG to play with your gaming group or family this festive season, then ACE Gamebooks has got you covered.
And when it comes to roleplaying games, there are the Christmas-themed 'Twas and The Box of Delights RPGs, or the Beowulf-inspired Heorot. To find out more, simply click the appropriate cover below.
As you may have guessed, at the time, I didn't realise it was the start of a new creator-owned series, but just last weekend, the eighth ACE Gamebook was on sale at Dragonmeet 2025.
In the last 10 years, Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland has been published in 11 different languages, including Bulgarian and Japanese, and while the covers might change, they have all used Kev Crossley's original internal artwork. Not only that, but when Raven Distribution published the book in Italy, they commissioned Kev to draw a map of Wonderland, that then appeared in the 5th anniversary UK hardback.
It's been a while since I posted something for Steampunk Thursday. The reason for today's post is because yesterday I discovered that my first Pax Britannia novel, Unnatural History*, is published in Hungary this week by Chameleon Comix!
The title of the Hungarian edition translates at The Galapagos Formula, which sounds intriguing.
* Unnatural History currently has 299 reviews on Amazon, with a 3.9 average.
A mysterious letter summons you to the seaside town of Kingsport, where dreams leak into reality, to a wealthy estate transformed into a place of unspeakable nightmares in this new action-adventure gamebook set in the popular world of Arkham Horror.
Curious to meet your mysterious host, Elijah Harcourt, your excitement is dashed when you discover the recluse's purpose is far more nefarious than you realized, leaving you and his guests with riddles to solve if you are to survive. As each hour passes, your companions meet terrible fates, forcing you to navigate a spiderweb of betrayal…
Forty-one years ago today, at 5:00pm on 21st November 1984, the BBC dramatisation of John Masefield's The Box of Delights was first broadcast. I was one of those eager children who tuned in to watch and was hooked from the moment I heard Victor Hely-Hutchinson's orchestral arrangement of The First Nowell, taken from the third movement of his Carol Symphony, which formed the series' theme music.
"As
a lifelong roleplayer I was genuinely interested to read an RPG based on The
Box of Delights. I was pleased to find that Jon Green has done an excellent job
of capturing the spirit of the piece in a tight, narrative framework that
emphasizes storytelling and keeps the mechanics simple enough to be
enjoyed by any age. I may run it for my own kids."
Devin
Stanfield, Kay Harker in the 1984 BBC Television adaptation of The Box of
Delights.
Designed to be picked up and played with minimal preparation, it nonetheless includes a well-developed character creation system, as well as rules for combat and magic.
Illustrated throughout by Tony Hough, it is ideal for a festive gaming session with an established group, or as an alternative to the family games usually played at Christmastime.
Time and Tide and Buttered Eggs wait for no man. So, grab your dice and playing cards, and prepare for adventure, for the Wolves are Running!
The year is 1613, and England's foremost playwright is committed to finishing his latest magnum opus, Love's Labour’s Won, for his new patron, the Earl of Gloucester. However, after falling asleep while working late at the Globe, he wakes to find himself in a subtly altered world that is both familiar and yet strangely unfamiliar.
What follows is an epic quest through Shakespeare’s plays in which the Bard of Stratford is confronted by sinister eldritch forces in service of the Great Old Ones – malign beings of unimaginable power – the greatest of which is the cosmic entity known as Cthulhu.
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Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come is an interactive fantasy novel, inspired by the Bard’s most popular plays and the unsettling creations of the American pulp horror writer H.P. Lovecraft.
In this adventure gamebook, YOU take on the role of William Shakespeare himself, deciding which route to take, which perils to risk, and which of the villains and eldritch horrors you will meet along the way to fight. But whether you survive your ordeal or succumb to riotous madness, will be down to the choices YOU make.
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.”
ACE Gamebooks will be attending Dragonmeet again this year, on Saturday 29th November 2025, at the event's new venue of London's Excel Centre. I will be in the gamebooks corner, along with Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf.
