Elric Gamebooks

[Vastarian]

I don't know if anyone of you is familiar with the 'Lone Wolf' series but I can very well imagine a conversion of Elric, probably most of the other Eternal Champion books, too, to Fighting Gamebooks....as an attachment I include two links so that you can see what I'm talking of; to have these with illustrations by Rodney Matthews is just a marvellous thought

http://www.projectaon.org/


http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/ho...hp?qsSeries=24

[J-Sun]

As a kid I loved the LoneWolf and GreyStar books. Brilliantly done, and probably hands down the absolute best of the solo RPG books. Yeah, I would love to see the EC end up in one of those, but it is not likely that Mike would write any, and I don`t like the idea of other people writing Elric and co.

[Elwher]

Some Elric gamebooks were planned in the mid 1980s - see here, I wonder why they were pulled?

[Papi]

Some Elric gamebooks were planned in the mid 1980s - see here, I wonder why they were pulled?

Thank you for the link : it is very interesting !

[The English Assassin]

I always felt that the game book format was sadly under appreciated and one that 'real' authors never really explored properly. I'm sure in the right hands the 'choose your own adventure' format could have been modified allowing a reader to explore ethics, narratives, metaphysics or whatever... Okay the idea would probably have failed spectacularly but so what: I think it would have been more ambitious than the hideous pretension found in many 'anti-novels.' Why did no one give it a go? I'd love to read a reality bending Kafkaesque or Phildickian style novel in a game book style format. Far better than cut-up IMO. Harry Harrison's attempt was fun but he's the only proper author that I know who tried. Probably just to cash-in, but still...

[Rymdolov]

I like gamebooks too! However, I think that they are games in the format of books, rather than the other way around.

Regarding the kind of experiments The English Assassin is talking about: I recently read an article about Interactive Fiction, which seems to be what you are talking about and more. Apparently some people picked up where gamebooks left off after their brief heyday, and now it's a kind of (sub)cultural movement. Unfortunately, I don't have the article at hand and it was in Swedish anyway, but go ahead and google interactive fiction and see what you come up with. And/or write some IF of your own. I think that there are tools specifically designed to help with writing IF available for download, but I'm not sure.

A friend of mine actually wrote a gamebook some time ago, which he said was inspired by Lone Wolf and David Eddings' novels. I have yet to play it, though.

[The English Assassin]

I like gamebooks too! However, I think that they are games in the format of books, rather than the other way around.

Regarding the kind of experiments The English Assassin is talking about: I recently read an article about Interactive Fiction, which seems to be what you are talking about and more. Apparently some people picked up where gamebooks left off after their brief heyday, and now it's a kind of (sub)cultural movement. Unfortunately, I don't have the article at hand and it was in Swedish anyway, but go ahead and google interactive fiction and see what you come up with. And/or write some IF of your own. I think that there are tools specifically designed to help with writing IF available for download, but I'm not sure.

A friend of mine actually wrote a gamebook some time ago, which he said was inspired by Lone Wolf and David Eddings' novels. I have yet to play it, though.

I'll have a google sometime, thanks!

[garadan]

Moorcock RPG

There are a number of RPG games using the eternal champions theme, Elric (previously Stormbringer) and Hawkmoon. Hawkmoon is now out of print, but Elric RPG in the young kingdoms is going well and is published by Mongoose games.

[J-Sun]

Did Mongoose can their Hawkmoon line already? They did a handful of books, all of decent quality.

[Rothgo]

From the Mongoose forums:

All setting books, like Elric, Corum and Hawkmoon, will require the RQII rules; they won't be self-contained volumes as previously.

As with the overall philosophy, as much 'backward compatibility' as possible is going to be maintained; so if you've just invested in the earlier Elric and Hawkmoon tomes, they'll remain usable.

You can look forward to, for Elric, a revised Cults of the YK, plus Cities of the Young Kingdoms; and, next year, a campaign. Corum and Hawkmoon will follow next year.

[finarvyn]

Unfortunate that MONGOOSE changed their game mechanics so soon. I hate to go out and re-buy all of my Elric & Hawkmoon RPG books.