Gamebook Friday: Dracula - Le baptême de sang

The French edition of Dracula: Curse of the Vampire, is currently available for pre-order from Alknost Editions before it's release in June.

Prepare to enter a world of gothic horror for an interactive adventure inspired by the universe of Bram Stoker. Play as the young solicitor's clerk Jonathan Harker, his fiancée Mina Murray, or Dr. John Seward… unless you prefer to embody the bloodthirsty monster itself and hunt down the vampire hunters!

One of the things I like about the Dracula - Le baptême de sang page on the Alknost Editions website is that as well as listing the gamebook's special features, it has a 'Want to know more?' section, which is presented as a series of choices such as might appear at the end of a section in an adventure.

Translated by Joël Mallet and featuring Hauke Kock's original illustrations for the adventure, Dracula - Le baptême de sang is the fifth ACE Gamebooks published by Alknost Editions as part of their Les Contes tordus de Green range.

In other gamebooks news, don't forget that 100 Aker Wood launches on Kickstarter on Tuesday 12th May 2026, at 12pm BST.

Gamebook Friday: Cannes Festival des Jeux 2024

Last weekend I spent a very enjoyable three days in the south of France at the Cannes Festival des Jeux*. I was there at the invitation of both Scriptarium, who publish the French language version of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy RPG 2nd Edition, and Alkonost Editions, who publish my ACE Gamebooks in French.

Veteran gamebook author Dave Morris, he of Virtual Reality Gamebooks and Fabled Lands fame, was also in attedance with his wife Roz, who is also an author.

A large part of the weekend was spent chatting with French gamebook fans and signing copies of my Fighthing Fantasy adventures as well as my ACE Gamebooks.

Highlights of the weekend included two fabulous meals out with our hosts (and Dave and Roz are excellent company), making lots of new friends, seeing an edition of the French translation of Knights of Doom I don't own, and meeting Emmanuel Quaireau, France's bestselling author of gamebook graphic novels, who publishes under the name Manuro.

But probably the biggest highlight was winning an award at the Prix du Livre-Jeu 2023 awards!

The hordes waiting to enter Le Palais des Festivals et des Congrès de Cannes.

Patrick readying the Alkonost stand.

ACE Gamebooks en Francais - a.k.a. Les Contes tordus de Green.

Florent and Frederic on the Scriptarium stand.

This is the pile of books one fan brought from Paris to Cannes for me to sign.

Guillaume Romero brought this copy of Knights of Doom for me to sign, and it was the first time I had ever seen one. I need to add this to my personal collection!

Emmanuel Quaireau, a.k.a. Manuro, with his latest graphic gamebook,

The Dragon's Stone.

Sunset over the French Riviera.

Making my short acceptance speech at the Gamebook Awards 2023.

And here is the award itself with the re-issue of Night of the Necromancer.

Back row: Laurent Centro, of Alkonost Editions, and Florent Haro, of Scriptarium.

Front row: Roz Morris, Dave Morris, and Yours Truly.

* The Cannes Games Festival - rather like the UK Games Expo but smaller and with more je ne c'est quoi. 

Gamebook Friday: Alko Venturus

Issue #4 of Alko Venturus, the French gamebook and RPG webzine co-written and co-published by Scriptarium and Alkonost, is out now and includes a substantial interview with Yours Truly.

You can download Alko Venturus #4 here and, best of all, it's free!

 

Gamebook Friday: Cannes Festival International des Jeux 2024

I am delighted to be able to share the news that I will be attending the Festival International des Jeux in Cannes, from Friday 23 - Sunday 25 February 2024.

I will be the guest of both Alkonost Editions, who publish the ACE Gamebooks series in France, and Scriptarium, who will be publishing the French language edition of YOU ARE THE HERO.

So if you happen to be attending the festival at the end of February, do make your way to the Alkonost/Scriptarium stand and say hello. Or maybe bonjour.

Gamebook Friday: Les Contes tordus de Green

Which I believe translates as 'Green's Twisted Tales', which is about right.

Last year, Alkonost Editions ran a crowdfunding campaign to produce eleven gamebooks. Three of those were ACE Gamebooks and they were released earlier this year. My author copies arrived last Saturday, and they look great!

I particularly like how the character icons appear on the Adventure Sheets, where appropriate, along with the instructions linked to them. That's an idea I might borrow for future ACE Gamebook releases.

The fourth volume is a translation of the 'Making of' chapters from the hardback editions of the three gamebooks, and features designer's notes and the preliminary sketches by Kev Crossley and Russ Nichoslon.

If you are a French-speaker, a Francophile, or simply a collector of ACE Gamebooks, you can find out more about the French editions here, and pick them up from sites such as Amazon.fr.

The title Alkonost Editions will be translating next is Dracula: Curse of the Vampire, to be released some time in 2024.

Gamebook Friday: Les Contes tordus de Green

Three new ACE Gamebooks are now available in French, courtesy of Alkonost Editions!

This means that Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, The Wicked Wizard of Oz, NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!, and Beowulf Beastslayer can now be enjoyed by Francophiles everywhere.

Gamebook Friday: ACE Gamebooks News

This week, Alknost Editions updated backers of their gamebook crowdfunder on the progress they have made with the eleven titles they hope to release this year. The good news for ACE Gamebooks fans is that the French editions of Beowulf Beastslayer and NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! are ready to go to layout, while The Wicked Wizard of Oz has already been sigend off. However, it now has a new title; rather than being called The Great and Terrible Oz, it will now be known as The Machination of Oz, or La Machination d'Oz.

There's also less than a month to go before the German edition of Dracula: Curse of the Vampire is published by Mantikore-Verlag.

The Box of Delights RPG is still funding on Kickstarter and needs your support! After one week it is halfway to its funding goal. Can we hit fully funded within the next week?

Watch the Kickstarter video below...

Livres-jeux Alkonost

I am delighted to report that the recent crowdfunding project run by Alkonost Editions, to bring about the publication of 11 gamebooks this year, has funded, having raised 1,069% of its original funding goal of €4,000. Congratulations to all concerned and thank you to everyone who backed it!

This means that French editions of The Wicked Wizard of Oz, NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!, and Beowulf Beastslayer - will all be available later in the year from Alkonost Editions.

In other news, Czech publisher Mytago is currently running on offer on the first three ACE Gamebooks. So, if you're a Czech speaker or a collector, you know what to do.

Gamebook Friday: ACE Gamebooks en France

I realise that blog posts have been rather thin on the ground lately, and for that I apologise. However, it is because I have been very busy getting RONIN 47 ready for publication and simultaneously working on three other projects, as well as trying to organise Fighting Fantasy Fest 4.

However, today I have some rather exciting news about some of my other ACE Gamebooks. After the success of Alice au Pays des Cauchemars (or 'Alice in Nightmare Land'), Alkonost Editions are going to publish the next three titles in the series - The Wicked Wizard of Oz, NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!, and Beowulf Beastslayer - in French.

The three titles are part of a crowdfunding project, which is being run to bring about the publication of 11 gamebooks in total this year, and which goes live on Monday.

So, whether you are a Francophone or just a completist collector, make sure you check out the Ulule project here, and click the 'Notify me of Launch' button.

Gamebook Friday: European Day of Languages

Friday 25 September is the European Day of Languages, which is rather apt because I have had some news recently about some of the foreign language editions of my ACE Gamebooks.

Alice au Pays des Cauchemars - the French language edition of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, published by Éditions Alkonost - is being distributed in game stores by Novalis, a subsidiary of Asmodée, which means that it is now on the shelves of almost every RPG store in France!

Alice au pays des cauchemars on sale in an RPG store in France.

Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland is now available in English, Czech, Germany, French, Spanish (Argentina), Portuguese (Brazil), with the Italian edition on its way some time next year*.

It's also World Dream Day and the end of National Mushroom Month, which are also a perfect fit for Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, which features both dreams and mushrooms.

Kev Crossley's illustration of the Caterpillar atop its toadstool.

I also received copies of the Czech language edition of The Wicked Wizard of Oz from Mytago Publishing this week. Now just called Oz, it is a lovely little hardback with good quality paper stock and black endpapers.

The English edition of The Wicked Wizard of Oz next to the Czech edition, Oz, for size comparison.

And to finish on, Chameleon Comix recently posted this image on Twitter...

That's right, 'TWAS - The Krampus Night Before Christmas will be out in Hungarian before Christmas 2021. 

If you are a publisher who would like to publish the ACE Gamebooks series in your country, drop me a line at info@jonathangreenauthor.com.

* I hope. It was supposed to have been released this spring, but COVID but the kybosh on that plan.