"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)
The original Globe Theatre burned down on this day, 29 June, in1613, during a performance of Shakespeare's All is True - a.k.a. Henry VIII.
A theatrical cannon fired during the play ignited the wooden structure's thatched roof, and the resulting conflagration destroyed the building in less than an hour. Incredibly, no one was killed. The theatre was subsequently rebuilt in 1614.
Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come is dedicated to Master Scott Lewis and Mistress Claire Byard - two good friends who have helped me out at various events over the years, but mainly the UK Games Expo.
When I made the dedication, I had no idea that Scott's birthday happens to be 29 June. It's almost as if it was written in the stars... by a big, nasty gribbly called Cthulhu!
Four weeks today, I will be attending the UK Games Expo at the NEC in Birmingham*. You will find me sharing Stand 2-359 with Sir Ian Livingstone.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the UK Games Expo. Checking back on my blog**, my first visit was in 2010, the fith year it had been on, when it was still in Edgbaston. Since that time, I have only missed two years - 2020, when it wasn't on, and 2021, when it returned after Covid but clashed with my son's birthday.
Today - Saint George's Day - is William Shakespeare's deathday*, so it seemed like the perfect time to remind gamebook fans that Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come is available to buy now. You can even buy a signed hardback here.
As it is World Book Day, I thought I would draw your attention to four gamebooks that may be of interest to you.
Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come was published last November. YOU take on the role of William Shakespeare himself as he navigates the nightmarish worlds of his plays and comes up against very servants of the Great Old Ones.
Here is what one reviewer had to say about the adventure:
"An absolute joy to flit through the worlds of Shakespeare as you fight your way through to hopefully a successful conclusion. Each read through bringing a little more insight and a better chance to make it out to the other side. This is a fast paced story as you are constantly being thrown from one story to the next and new paths and options unfold before you."
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. Curious as to why the reclusive Elijah Harcourt has summoned you to his home, you are unsettled when you discover Harcourt’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.
Here's what one reviewer has had to say about this adventure:
"Another solid entry in the series (this one stronger on parlor-room mystery vibes than on cosmic horror vibes, though these are present too) from gamebook maestro Jon Green."
Valiantis the first Warcradle Studios Gamebook and will be published on Saturday 7th March 2026.
It is the Dystopian Age.
YOU are Valiant, an agent of the Crown Ministry of Intelligence, an unsung hero, working in secret to keep an unstable world from igniting into all-out war.
Victoria may reign as Queen, but it is the super-science of the Enlightened that dominates the world thanks to their discovery of otherworldly technologies. The great global superpowers strain against the uneasy detente that exists between them. All it takes is the right agent in the wrong place, so after a secret mission goes disastrously wrong, all that stands between a shadowy conspiracy and global ruin is YOU!
Her Majesty is counting on YOU to end this threat.
Only YOU can save Queen and Country - and perhaps the world!
When asked which release she was looking forward to most in 2026, Warcradle Studios' Game Development Manager Sophie Williams, who worked closely with me on the adventure, had this to say:
"Valiant! I love choose-your-own-destiny books. Play as a Crown spy in the Dystopian Age whilst navigating a story packed with adventure, deciding how you would deal with the challenges ahead, yes please!"
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.
The new edition of Dracula: Curse of the Vampirehas a red cover, with black lettering, and known errata have been corrected. The book will also include the names of everyone who backs this latest Kickstarter.
Those who back the campaign will also receive some unique rewards including a collectible bookmark, a pair of black Dracula-themed dice, a set of 10 postcards featuring Hauke Kock's artwork from the book, and a golden pin badge in the form of Count Dracula's crest.
The Kickstarter. is running until Thursday 19th March 2026 and, as of writing, is almost 50% funded already.
At 11:30am, I will be giving a talk about Writing Fantasy Gamebooks, and signing copies of my books afterwards, at the East Quay Creator Space, Harbour Road.
You can find out more and book your ticket (although entry to FREE) here.
I have had one AHIGpublished each year since 2024, meaning there are now three in print*.
It struck me the other day that back in 1995, I had three Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks in print and this felt like a real achievement. In fact, when Curse of the Mummy was published, I only had three books published in total.
êêêêê "If gamebooks be the food of love, play on."
Antony Johnston, author of Can You Solve The Murder?
Even though The Kingsport Metamorphosis is my 86th published book (not including reprints and omnibuses), I still get excited when I get to hold a copy of one of my books for the first time. I am particularly keen to give The Kingsport Metamorphosis a read myself, to see if I succeeded in what I set out to do with this adventure.
Strangely, 2025 will go down in history for me as the Year of Valiant, even though all most of you have heard about the Valiant gamebook appeared in this news item back in September.
I started this year finishing writing the first Valiant gamebook, and have ended the year working on the second. Valiant will be out in March, so look out for more news about that in the New Year.
As of writing, it has received three 5-star reviews on Amazon, one of which has been written in the style of William Shakespeare himself:
"O gentle reader, lend thine ear awhile,
And hark to Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come,
A book most strange, where inked worlds intertwine—
The Avon bard with eldritch horrors wed."
This was the first ACE Gamebook I have self-published, and the first book my son has laid out, and I am very pleased with the result. Two overseas publishers have already signed up to release the book in their territroies, which is very exciting.
Talking of overseas editions of my books, there weren't so many this year - certainly not compared to last year's seven! There was a new edition of La Nuit du Loup-Garou (the French language version of Howl of the Werewolf) and Pax Britannia: Unnatural History was published in Hungary.
Next year, however, I am expecting a glut of overseas editions of my gamebooks.
In terms of events, this year I attended AireCon, Dragonmeet: Call to Adventure, the UK Games Expo, and Dragonmeet. I already have my place booked at UK Games Expo 2026, and next September we will be holding Fighting Fantasy Fest 6 in West London.
My wife turned 50 in 2025 and it was her desire to visit 12 places she had never been to before in 12 months. This resulted in us going overseas five times! The countries we visited were Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Hungary, and Denmark.
Yours Truly in Faraos Cigarer, in Copenhagen, with my Danish FF gamebooks.
All of them were amazing and have provided me with all sorts of material for future stories or games, especially an exhibition at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen about the role of the Sorceress in Viking culture. I even got to see the lengendary Gundestrup Cauldron in the flesh, as it were.
An image of the horned god Cerunnos on the Gundestrup Cauldron.
I have also had some health issues to contend with this year, which I need to get a better handle on in 2026, but throughout it all - the highs and the lows - I continue to have my furry companion by my side.
Conker the Cavapoo is now three!
In the New Year I will continue to work on the second Valiant gamebook, but I also have a new gamebook coming to Kickstarter. So, watch this space.
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.
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.
______________________________________
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.
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.
______________________________________
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.”
I am at the UK Games Expo at the NEC all weekend, from Friday 30th May - Sunday 1st June 2025. You will find me at Stand 2-359 in Hall 2.
This will be the first time you can buy my new Arkham Horror Investigators Gamebook The Tides of Innsmouth.
Strange and mysterious sightings send Arkham Investigators to explore the decrepit town of Innsmouth where horrors beneath the sea have risen to consume the world in this new action-adventure gamebook set in the popular world of Arkham Horror.
2025 marks 10 years since the publication of the first ACE Gamebook, Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, and I will have copies of all eight adventures that are currently in print with me.
The crowdfunding campaign to fund Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come concluded one year ago today. Thanks to Stretch Goal #1 being unlocked during the campaign, everyone who has backed to receive a physical copy of the book will also receive a pack of five postcards featuring Heraldo Mussolini's artwork.
If you visit Shakespeare's Birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon, you can pick up postcards featuring extracts from the 1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare's works enhanced by woodcut images printed from original blocks by Louisa Hare.
Louisa Hare's First Folio postcards.
I wanted to pay homage to the First Folio postcards in Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come, and so Heraldo has produced a stylised woodcut illustration for each Act of the adventure, and it is these images that will be printed on the five postcards. Here's the one for Act 3 - Full Fathom Five.
