Gamebook Friday: Vampires - The Dead and the Damned

Unusually,* this week I put out the call on social media for people to tell me what they would like to read in this week's Gamebook Friday blog post. There were a significant number of responses** - everything from where do I get my ideas from to how my approach to Kickstarters has changed over the last 8 years - but the suggestion that piqued my interest came from Ian Reynolds on Facebook who wanted this post to be about "Anything to do with Horror and particular Vampires!"

Since I am currently writing a gamebook about a vampire, I thought it might be fun to go back and look at how vampires have been portrayed in my previous gamebooks. However, before we proceed, I should warn you that this post will include SPOILERS!

Still here? Then let's get started...


Bloodbones (2006)

A vampire bat made an appearance in my second published gamebook, Knights of Doom, but the first full-fledged vampire didn't turn up until my fourth Fighting Fantasy adventure was finally published by Wizard Books in 2006.

Bloodbones was originally commissioned by Puffin Books in 1996. At the time, the publisher was intending to reprint the gamebooks but having edited them all to be only 300 sections long, so that's how long Bloodbones was. However, when Wizard Books agreed to publish it ten years later, they wanted it to be the traditional 400 sections long, so I had to add some new material.***

I did make up some entirely new encounters, including the Rainforest Sprite and the vampiric pirate Jolly Roger. Here is his flag-draped coffin, as illustrated by Tony Hough.


Howl of the Werewolf (2007)

Only a year later, another vampire turned up - or rather, a vampiress - in my gothic horror gamebook, Howl of the Werewolf. This was the Machiavellian Countess Isolde, a.k.a. the Lady of Maun and the illustration of her and her Werebat flunky by Martin McKenna is still one of my favourite images from any of my books.

Temple of the Spider God (2011)

Jump forward four years to 2011 and I was busy writing my contribution to Tin Man Games Gamebook Adventures series of digital interactive fiction apps. This is probably one of the most classically 'fantasy' adventures I have written and one of the encounters contained within it involved an island that was ruled over by a vampire.


Shadows Over Sylvania (2012)

Shadows Over Sylvania, the only Warhammer gamebook I have ever written, is also the most blood-soaked gamebook I have ever written, and is chock full of vampires. The reason for this is that you actually get to play as a vampire and can even choose which vampire bloodline you are from. This ultimately brings you into conflict with the blood-sucking thralls of other vampire factions, most notably at the climax to the adventure.

Good luck getting your hands on a copy of this, if you don't already own one - they are as rare as vegan vampires.

Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland (2015)

2015 saw the publication of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, which kicked off the ACE Gamebooks series.

In it, I re-imagined the well-known characters from not only Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventure in Wonderland but also Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. And when you have an antagonist called the Red Queen, it is not hard to imagine where I went with that...

Here she is, as illustrated by Kev Crossley.


Dracula - Curse of the Vampire (2021)

Which brings me to the book I am currently writing, Dracula - Curse of the Vampire. Dracula is the ultimate vampire story, and I'm hoping that Dracula - Curse of the Vampire. will go down in history as the ultimate gamebook re-telling of the ultimate vampire story.

In the adventure you can either play as one of the Vampire-Hunters who are trying to stop the blood-sucking Transylvanian warlord, or you can play as Count Dracula himself, and try to stop Professor Van Helsing et al. before they stop you.

Dracula - Curse of the Vampire is scheduled to be published next March. If you missed out on the original Kickstarter, you can still place a Late Pledge here.

And remember - the blood is the life!

* In fact I think it was the first time I've ever done this.

** Which may well form the topic of other Gamebook Friday blog posts in the future.

*** Or more accurately, in some cases, re-instated material.

Warhammer Wednesday: War for Armageddon and the Iron Hands

It may be coming up to six years since my last Black Library book was published - the very hard to acquire Warhammer Path to Victory gamebook Shadows Over Sylvania - but its nice to see some of my old stories getting another airing.

The stories in question are my 40K short story The Relic, and my 40K novel Iron Hands. The former has been collected* as part of the new War for Armageddon: The Omnibus, which will be available from the Black Library in August.

The latter is Iron Hands, which, thanks to the wonders of ePublishing**, still garners a bit of interest. More recently, it was referenced in a post over on the Warhammer Community page.

     

So, if you fancy finding out what my Warhammer 40K fiction is like, you know what to do...

* For the umpteenth time.

** And the fact that it was the first novel to feature the 'Flesh is Weak' boys.

Happy St Dragon's Day!

Since today it St David's Day, I thought I would draw your attention to works of mine with a Welsh focus... or at least ones featuring dragons!

Actually, my very first published book Spellbreaker features a lot of Welsh names.

When I was starting out as a writer, I consciously tried to steer clear of fantasy cliches in my writing (although a magic sword does appear in Spellbreaker), but one of my earlier gigs was writing an article about Dragons in Warhammer, for White Dwarf magazine, entitled Enter the Dragon.

Dragon-like creatures appear in Knights of Doom and Stormslayer, but there are not technically dragons.

There was a dragon in Warlock’s Bounty: Revenge of the Sorcerer, and there was a Zombie Dragon in Shadows over Sylvania.

I do have ideas for various stories featuring dragons, including a Pax Britannia one, but I just haven't got round to writing them yet.

I gave the old explorer's adage 'Here be Dragons' a twist with my Doctor Who novel Terrible Lizards, and I intend to revisit that concept later this year, in Neverland.

4 days and counting until The Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland launches on Kickstarter

It's quite common for Kickstarter projects to come with rewards for Early Bird backers. Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland doesn't have that, but it does have some very limited rewards that fans of gamebooks in particular are sure to want to grab before anyone else does.

For example, fans of vampires or Warhammer should check out the RED QUEEN reward (limited to 10 backers):

And then there's the MAD HATTER reward for all the Alice fans and cosplayers out there (also limited to 10 backers):

But possibly most exciting of all for gamebook fans, there's the DODO (not quite an Early Bird) pledge level (limited to 20 backers):

Well, I say most exciting, but there are a couple more... But you'll just have to wait until the Kickstarter launches on Saturday to find out what they are*. ;-)

So remember to set your alarm for 1.00pm BST on Saturday 4th July.

* Just like you'll have to wait a little longer to find out what a QUEEN OF HEARTS pledge gets you.

Gamebook Friday: Walk the Path to Victory

You wait a week for a new Gamebook Friday post to appear, and then two come along on the same day.

The reason? Black Library are selling off the rest of their stock of Print on Demand titles, specifically their Path to Victory adventure gamebooks, including my Vampire Counts title Shadows Over Sylvania.

According to New@BL, Shadows Over Sylvania "tells a compelling Warhammer... story that unfolds through your decisions – but watch out, because death could be around any corner (well, on any page)."

It seems that there are just a handful of each Path to Victory book remaining, and when they’re gone, they’re gone.

So if you want to star in your very own Warhammer adventure, you’d best hurry over to blacklibrary.com and secure yours.

Warhammer Wednesday: Rise of the Skaven

Black Library have been making much of their Skaven stories of late, what with the Rise of the Horned Rat in the Old World with the coming of the End Times. The chittering denizens of the Under-Empire have appeared in various of my Black Library stories including Sir Dagobert's Last Battle, the Badenov's Band story The Nagenhof Bell, and quite extensively in my Path to Victory gamebook Shadows Over Sylvania.

All of the above are available direct from Black Library, Sir Dagobert's Last Battle as part of Hammer and Bolter Issue #9, The Nagenhof Bell as part of Swords of the Empire, and Shadows Over Sylvania as its own print on demand title. Just follow the links to find out more and purchase them.

Warhammer Wednesday: Free Shipping!

If you've yet to pick up Herald of Oblivion, or Shadows Over Sylvania, or The Armageddon Omnibus, or Iron Hands, now's your chance, with free shipping until this time next week. 

Go on, you know you want to.

13 Halloween Horrors

Inspired by the warmest Halloween in recorded history? Fancy a little more horror-inspired reading? Then why not try one of these?

1. The Serpent's Egg
13 short horror stories, including the Cthulhu mythos novella The Serpent's Egg, available now!

2. Human Nature
The Whitby Mermaid has been stolen from Cruickshank's Cabinet of Curiosities and consulting detective Gabriel Wraith is on the case. But what does the theft of the mermaid have to do with the mysterious House of Monkeys? And what of the enigmatic criminal known as the Magpie? But there are worse things lurking under the moors outside Whitby than mermaids... David Cronenberg-style body horror in the world of Pax Britannia, including a highly warped version of the Hound of the Baskervilles.

3. Evolution Expects
More than ever before, the realm of Magna Britannia needs a saviour - a man like new Prime Minister, Devlin Valentine. But while London prepares for the launch of the Jupiter Station there are those who want this longed-for change to come about more quickly - people who are willing to give evolution a helping hand.

4. Blood Royal

St. Paul's Cathedral entertains a new congregation, one driven by its own unholy creed, while a coldly clinical killer is carving a name for himself across the city - a name that has been whispered upon the streets of Whitechapel for over a hundred years.

5. Anno Frankenstein
1943 ~ The Nazis are battling the empire of Magna Britannia, cooking up necrotic super-soldiers in the gothic towers of Castle Frankenstein. In the forests outside the castle, other forces are gathering, including Dr. Jekyll and the ladies of the Monstrous Regiment. But there may be other gothic monsters waiting in the hills around Darmstadt...

6. Spellbreaker
Rassin Abbey has guarded its arcane treasures for centuries. But when their Black Grimoire spellbook is stolen, the land of Ruddlestone is plunged into a crisis of epic proportions. Should the legendary Casket of Shadows be opened, the Infernal Beast will be unleashed to wreak its terrible carnage across the Old World. On the night of Shekka's Moon, scant days away, this will surely come to pass, unless YOU can retrieve the Black Grimoire in the nick of time... Witches, demons and devilry abound in my first ever published book.

7. Curse of the Mummy
Beware the Curse of Akharis! When an ancient tomb in the Desert of Skulls turns out to belong to Akharis, a legendary ruler from a previous age, YOU discover some of his followers are trying to return the evil pharaoh to life. Soon you will have to learn the true meaning of The Curse of the Mummy!

8. Bloodbones
Bloodbones lives! The dread pirate-lord Cinnabar, scourge of the twelve seas, terrorised the seafarers of the Old World in a bloody reign of terror until a brave adventurer put an end to his evil. But now Cinnabar is back from the dead, seeking revenge and with the dark powers of voodoo at his command. Only YOU can stop the pirate captain and his crew of bloodthirsty cut-throats.

9. Howl of the Werewolf
Lupravia is a cursed land. Only the foolhardy or insane would willingly pass beyond its borders and enter that benighted realm of predators, but enter you must after a vicious wolf attack sets you on the path to murder and madness. Steadily succumbing to the call of the wild and the beast within, YOU must seek out a cure to your condition before the next full moon. But how long can you survive in a land where the powers of darkness hold sway and all live in fear of the Howl of the Werewolf?

10. Night of the Necromancer
Death is not the end...Returning to your ancestral castle having been away fighting a crusade against the forces of darkness in the Mauristatian principality of Bathoria, you are struck down by a band of murderers within sight of home. Driven by the need to know why you have been killed, and on whose orders, YOU rise again as a ghost and set out to solve the mystery of your own murder.

11. Shadows Over Sylvania
YOU are the Vampire! A blood war has been declared between the life-leeching bloodlines of the cursed county of Sylvania. As a thrall of one of the bloodthirsty rulers of this benighted land, you will be forced to battle numerous enemies who would stand against you, both mortal and Undead.

12. Warlock's Bounty: Revenge of the Sorcerer
You are a mighty wizard, once apprenticed to the sorcerer Corax Whiteraven, guardian of the lands of Lloegyr. When Whiteraven’s familiar appears out of the blue carrying an urgent message from its master, you embark upon a mission that will test your mettle and magical abilities to the full. For Lloegyr’s guardian – the greatest sorcerer of them all – is in danger, and needs your help!

13. Temple of the Spider God
Temple of the Spider God sees YOU uncovering the schemes of an horrifying spider-worshipping cult. Arachnophobes, beware!

Short Story Saturday: Sticks and Stones

It's been a while since I've had anything new out from the Black Library, but on Thursday this week my Orcs 'n' Empire story Sticks and Stones (or should that be Sticks 'n' Stones) was released as part of Warhammer Week.

It features the first appearance in fiction of a Rogue Idol of Gork (or should that be Mork?)* and that should be all you need to know to go out and download it for your eReader of choice. But in case you need a little more persuading, here's the blurb...

War against orcs and goblins is never easy for the soldiers of the Empire. Their foes are savage and brutal and revel in battle… and never more so than when a mighty idol of their gods marches to war alongside them, fuelled by magic and the power of the Waaagh! In the midst of battle, it falls to Rutger Erlang and his pistolier comrades to deal with the manifestation of Gork (or is it Mork?) and prevent the total destruction of the Empire army.

You can purchase Sticks and Stones by following this link. And if you like the story, then why not check out some of my other Warhammer tales and Black Library publications?



* Just as Sir Dagobert's Last Battle featured the first appearance in fiction of an Arachnarok Spider, with Shadows Over Sylvania** featuring the second. :-)

** I can't believe two years have passed since I wrote Shadows Over Sylvania!

What price words?

The other day I was lamenting the poor sales of a relatively recent publication of mine. I openly invited people to have their say as to why they thought the book hadn't sold and the overwhelming response - in many cases voiced by exactly the people you might have expected to have bought the book themselves - was the price.

Now I agree that £13 is a lot for a gamebook, except that I don't think it is. Yes, it costs more than other similar books, but why should £13 for a book be seen as a lot of money? I know we are living in the Age of Austerity, but one adult ticket to see the latest 3D blockbuster release costs almost as much and if you take the family it's a lot more. If we continue with the movie ticket comparison, say you go to see a 2D movie, off peak, and pick up a snack at the same time. You're probably looking at spending somewhere in the region of £13 anyway, and that doesn't include transportation to and from the cinema. And you're paying this for an experience that lasts a couple of hours, if that.

Now I'm not bashing cinemas or movie makers. I love cinema, and happily shell out that sort of money to see a film that's been hyped to death for a year or more. But I will also happily shell out £13 or more for a book that will give me pleasure for more than just a couple of fleeting hours. When it comes to gamebooks in particular - and even more so in the case of Shadows Over Sylvania - you can re-read the book over and over again and experience a different story every time. And then in years to come you can pick up the book and enjoy the adventure it contains once more, enjoying it again almost as if for the first time, or recommend it to a friend, or pass it on to your children. And all for £13 (which is less than one round of drinks costs down at my local on Quiz night).

I was reading a sobering piece about the current climate in the world of literary fiction earlier today. That painted an even darker picture. The trouble, it seems, is that many people just don't appear to be prepared to pay a fair price for fiction. The fact that it only takes you a weekend to read a book should not detract from the fact that it might have taken the author a year to write it.

A writer friend of mine recently told me he'd been asked to write a book based on a popular IP but not through a conventional publishing house. As a result, those commissioning the story didn't know the going rate for such work and paid him a small fortune (in writing terms). Except that why shouldn't he be paid that amount? The company clearly thought it was worth it and were willing to pay that amount, and obviously had the money.

Or look at it this way. When I was commissioned to write my first ever book Spellbreaker, I was paid an advance. It wasn't a record-breaking amount, but it was very gratefully received. The book went on to earn back my advance and more money in royalties too, so clearly this was a fair amount. However, the problem is that over 20 years later, books that are twice the length come with an advance that it only slightly more, if they come with an advance at all. Prices have continued to rise, along with the cost of living, and yet advances on books haven't.

There seems to be an attitude among some that writers should just be grateful for being published at all, as if that is some worthy goal deserving of all manner of sacrifices to be achieved. And yet, if someone thinks your book is good enough to be published, then why isn't the author considered deserving of being paid a decent wage to write it in the first place?

I realise there are writers out there who are still paid healthy advances, thanks to the input of agents and the like, but why should us mid-listers - without whom many publishers would struggle to put enough books on shelves to keep themselves in business - be paid a pittance when it takes the same amount of time and effort to produce a book in the first place. Also, of all the amazing debut two-book deals you hear of in the publishing press, how many do you hear of signing another, equally impressive deal a few years down the line? There are some, I know some of them, but there aren't many. And then there are those of us who keep plugging away, writing book after book, who never reach the heady heights of literary stardom and yet who keep getting published and in the process hope to earn enough to be able to keep doing the same thing.

Is self-publishing in part to blame for this? Or is it the Age of Austerity I spoke of earlier, which has seen writers' earnings from schemes such as the Public Lending Right system threatened in recent years? At this point I'm minded of the occasion when Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favour of the war effort and he replied, "Then what are we fighting for?"

So where am I going with this? I realise that I'm very fortunate to be published*, that I continue to be published, and that people seem to enjoy reading what I write. But is it too much to be asked that writers are paid a decent wage at the same time as entertaining thousands of readers the world over, helping them to escape the miseries of modern life through their writing? Well, is it?


* But I also believe in making your own luck.

Short Story Saturday: Dreadnoughts, Knights and Vampires

Today marks the fifth year of Black Library Live! I've never been to what has become BL's premier event (other than the BL Weekender) but this week, the BL blog has been asking the attending authors what the favourite story is that they've written in that time.

Over the last five years, I have had four short stories published by Black Library* and two Path to Victory gamebooks.

The Relic - It's got Black Templars, Orks, Armageddon, Dreadnoughts, snow and ice... What more do you need to know?

But Dust in the Wind - Imperial Fists face off against the ancient and implacable Necrons on another ice world.

Sir Dagobert’s Last Battle - A Bretonnian village beset by forest goblins find salvation from an unlikely source.

Liberator - The story of a noble Space Marine's fall to Chaos, told in reverse.

Herald of Oblivion - You are Brother Nabor, an Imperial Fists Terminator, tasks with cleansing the drifting space hulk Herald of Oblivion of xenos filth.

Shadows Over Sylvania - You are a vampire, servant of one of the masters of the night who would claim dominion of Sylvania in the aftermath of Vlad von Carstein's failed attempt to become the first vampire Emperor. Which bloodline will you choose? Which allies will you recruit for the final battle? And at the end, whose side will you really be on?

My favourites out of all of these are the two Warhammer-related tales, Sir Dagobert’s Last Battle and Shadows Over Sylvania, not that Warhammer seems to be BL's cup of tea at the moment.

So which are your favourites?


* I've actually written six, one of which will never see print and as to the other, who knows?

Gamebook Friday: Black Library sales and Shadows Over Sylvania

Today I received the half-yearly sales commission figures for my Black Library books. The royalties generated are never very much (I've not written a conventional novel for BL for nine years) but it's always a pleasant surprise when the statement comes through the door and, as they say, every little helps.

I was particularly interested to see this set of figures, however, since it would really let me know how my newest BL publication - the vampire gamebook Shadows Over Sylvania - is selling. Now I don't normally discuss sales figures and the like in public, but here's a thing. I feel that Shadows Over Sylvania is one of the best gamebooks I've written (and it's received some positive reviews since it was published) but the sales figures do not reflect this. From publication up until the end of December 2013, Shadows Over Sylvania has sold a grand total of... drum-roll... 237 copies. That's all.

More people backed my YOU ARE THE HERO Kickstarter than have bought a copy of Shadows Over Sylvania. (The book certainly hasn't paid for the time it took me to write it yet.)

Herald of Oblivion, my Warhammer 40K Path to Victory gamebook (which I do not feel is as good as Shadows), has sold 2,344 copies. Yes it's been out longer, but that is still a huge disparity.

So why the poor sales? It's not because the book is rubbish. Shadows is good*, and I can say that with some confidence, it's just that not many people have read it. (Match Wits with the Kids suffered from the same problem, despite earning a 10/10 review in The Independent.)

Is it because Warhammer just isn't as popular as Warhammer 40,000? Is it down to a lack of promotion by BL? (Gamebooks certainly aren't their thing, despite the fact that they are the book publishing arm of one of the largest games companies in the world.) Is it down to the high cover price (due to the book being Print on Demand only)? Is it due to the fact that the book is not available in stores, only at events, where it's not obvious what type of a book it is? (Certainly very few GW store managers that I've spoken to have any idea what the Path to Victory books are.) Is it a result of the book having very few illustrations (unlike the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks that inspired the Path to Victory line?) Is it that gamebooks have had their day? (I certainly hope not.)

At the end of the day, who knows? All I know is that I've done all I can to promote the book and if any of you feel able to do the same, here's where you need to send prospective readers.

So, until next time... And thank you.


* I'd argue it's one of the best vampire books BL have ever published. The reader, playing the part of a vampire, fighting undead and the Empire, not to mention Skaven, Daemons and Goblins... What's not to love?

My Annotated Workspace

I was just thinking about all the different projects I'm trying to juggle at the moment, and looking at my workspace, when I thought it might make an interesting topic for a blog post, for those who are curious about how and where writers write. (People like me, in other words.)

Before anyone makes any snide remarks about how tidy everything looks in the picture below, I should point out that I don't have an office at the moment. I don't even have a desk I can call my own and so I work at the dining table (hence the strange choice of table covering). Everything I get out at the start of the day has to go away again at the end of the day, to make room for dinner plates and homework, and the like. (And I knew I was going to take a photo, so I tidied up.)

So, with those excuses out of the way, here is my annotated workspace...

1) Notes and notes and notes about YOU ARE THE HERO. If you don't know what YOU ARE THE HERO is already, or why it's taking up so much of my time, click this link.

2) The printed manuscript of YOU ARE THE HERO with comments by Ian Livingstone added in red pen. I've been working through 207 pages of this.

3) This is the space where my iPhone would go, if it wasn't for the fact that I used the phone to take the photograph.

4) Shadows Over Sylvania - my Warhammer Vampire Counts gamebook. I had this out to remind myself how I had written the opening. And even if I do say so myself, it's a damn good book. Whether you're a fan of Warhammer, vampires or gamebooks, you should secure yourself a copy now!

5) My laptop - currently open on Outlook. You know the movie Her? Well my wife thinks they got the idea from me and my laptop. The only difference is my laptop doesn't speak with the voice of Scarlett Johansson (more's the pity).

6) The Vampire in Lore and Legend, by Montague Summers - research for a story I hope to be able to write for Josh Reynolds in the not too distant future.

7) Research material for a story I hope to write for Ian Whates sometime soon. I hadn't watched The Company of Wolves for at least 20 years until last night. Watching it again I realised how much of an impact it has had on my work over the last two decades, and Stephen Rea's transformation is still one of the most chilling I've ever seen depicted in a werewolf movie. (Maybe it's the fact that the children witness the whole thing.) And I'd never realised until last night's viewing how sympathetic George Fenton's score makes you feel towards the werewolves and all that their strange curse has to offer.

8) More research, this time for a possible future gamebook project. (You can see I've got a dark fairytale vibe going on at the moment.) Snow White and the Huntsman is a strange film. Putting aside Kristen Stewart's much commented upon woodenness and lack of different facial expressions, Charlize Theron's ham-acting, Chris Hemsworth's Scottish accent, and using CGI to turn full height actors into dwarfs (and not in a Lord of the Rings kind of way) there is much that is very effective in the film and visually stunning. I particularly like the glass army and the troll bridge. But where the film really falls down for me is in the fact that the director couldn't decide at the start whether the magic in the movie was real or not. Of course, by the end there are spells being cast left, right and centre, but there are also occasions where it is implied that the magic might be the result of something else, hallucinogens in the case of Snow escaping into the forest and madness in the case of the Queen talking to her mirror. Both are equally valid for a movie like this, but not in the same movie! It's not clever - it just makes the director come across as inconsistent and indecisive. Anyway, rant over.

9) Outlines for stories for an anthology (the one of the top is by Toby Frost), but more on that another time...

10) And back to YOU ARE THE HERO again. More notes, and a copy of Arion Games' Beyond the Pit for good measure.

So, there you have it. That's what's occupying my days at the moment. How about you? What are you working on, and how is it reflected in your workspace?

Gamebook Friday: Shadows Over Sylvania

Shadows Over Sylvania recently received a new review on Black Library review site The Founding Fields.

“A vibrant tale of bloodshed which should satisfy many a Vampire Counts fan.” - Bellarius, The Founding Fields

You can read the review in its entirety here, while you can order your own copy of my most recently published gamebook Shadows Over Sylvania here.

Gamebook Friday: Recent Gamebook Acquisitions

Over the last few weeks I've acquired various gamebook-related items. Some of these I've purchased (at events like Dragonmeet), others are the result of Kickstarter projects I've backed, and then there are the books I've written myself.

My most recent acquisitions include my Warhammer Path to Victory gamebook Shadows Over Sylvania, the Advanced Fighting Fantasy Second Edition RPG Blacksand supplement, the Holdfast Kickstarter, and the Tin Man Games app version of Ian Livingstone's Island of the Lizard King.

If you think you would like any of the above, simply click on the relevant links.

Gamebook Friday: Shadows Over Sylvania

These finally turned up yesterday*.

Shadows Over Sylvania is my second Path to Victory gamebook and one of the best I've ever written (in my humble opinion). Also, the way it's written you don't need to be a fan of Warhammer to understand what's going on. So come on, gamebook fans, put Shadows Over Sylvania on your Christmas list this year!

So what's going to be under your tree this Christmas?


* Only ten months and eleven days after the book was published.