Conceptually this is a highly interesting experiment in adventure gamebooks. Inevitably, in over three decades, several gamebooks changed series, for various reasons. Usually this has been in their development stage, long before publication. ‘Keep of the Lich Lord’, however, was originally published as part of the Fighting Fantasy range around twenty five years ago. It is now revisited by its original authors and has been crafted into their own series from the mid-nineties, ‘Fabled Lands’.
To all intents and purposes the amalgamation works quite successfully. There is a fair percentage of re-writing in the early stages to make the adventure part of the Fabled Lands’ world. Much of this is an improvement on the original. Fortunately, the adventure being set on an island enables the transition from the Fighting Fantasy world of Titan to that of the Fabled Lands relatively smoothly. If Stayng had been continental it could have posed real problems for the Fabled Lands system of moving between books.
Throughout the course of the adventurer’s exploration of the island there are many subtle re-writes that bring in the peoples and races of the Fabled Lands. The Chaos warriors of Allansia are easily swapped for knights of Nagil, for example. This works particularly well with the Uttakin, who I feel we actually learn a touch more about than in the available Fabled Lands’ books. Having all these connections with the peoples and cultures of the Fabled Lands vastly enriches this book, making it feel part of a greater world. In contrast the Fighting Fantasy version had little to do with the rest of Titan.
In contrast the latter stages of the adventure don’t really offer that much Fabled Lands’ influence and really slip into a relatively basic ‘infiltrate the major villain’s stronghold and kill him’ style plot. Mortis himself is particularly disappointing after all the background that is built up concerning him throughout the course of the book. There is hardly any interaction with him and he appears quite briefly. On the plus side though there are two methods of defeating Mortis and completing the adventure. This provides some variety in re-reading, but neither are hugely satisfying.
Where there is somewhat of a problem is the method of combat. Although the Fabled Lands’ system works perfectly fine in the confines of its own series it doesn’t quite port across that well. This is due to the fact that the original Fighting Fantasy version was conceived as a self-contained, one off adventure. However, the nature of the Fabled Lands books encourages you to develop a character over the course of your adventures. Many readers I expect will come to this book because they have already played through most, if not all, the Fabled Lands series. Inevitably this means that whatever character the reader may have already developed will have far too powerful a set of combat statistics for the opponents of this adventure. The instructions in the book do advise you to play as new character rather than using one that you may have developed throughout the other Fabled Lands books and this would no doubt give a better balance to play. But who wouldn’t want to play with the character that they already have? It gives a greater a sense of continuity with the rest of Fabled Lands.
Most of the other Fabled Lands attributes are smoothly integrated. ‘Thievery’ works particularly well in conjunction with the ‘Alarm Value’ statistic from the original version. ‘Resolve’ is also kept from the Fighting Fantasy original. I’m not sure why though. Again, carrying over a character from a previous Fabled Lands adventure can easily make this pointless, especially if your rank is six or higher. Surely it would have been an improvement to drop ‘resolve’ and replace it in some way by using the ‘sanctity’ attribute common to Fabled Lands.
Over the last decade there have been two reissues of the Fighting Fantasy series. Primarily, though, these have stuck to the Ian Livingston and Steve Jackson written adventures, sadly neglecting the efforts of many of the other authors. This is partially why the rerelease and rewrite of ‘Keep of the Lich Lord’ is something to be welcomed. It might encourage other authors of Fighting Fantasy books to revisit their works. ‘Keep of the Lich Lord’ certainly benefits from its republication into the Fabled Lands series, allowing the authors to tweak and improve it. It also introduces the very intriguing idea of Fabled Lands Quests. Hopefully this is a sub-series to come. If ‘Keep of the Lich Lord’, already established as a Fighting Fantasy book, can be republished as part of another series then surely some of Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson’s other ideas for Fighting Fantasy can be re-visited, hopefully as Fabled Lands Quests. Some of these ideas for adventures are recounted at the end of this book, but, personally, I would love to see the publication of ‘The Keeper of the Seven Keys’.
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Opiniones de clientes
Reseñas más importantes de otros países
Alaran
A welcome re-visit
Revisado en Reino Unido el 15 de noviembre de 2014Compra verificada
Mr. A. Fletcher
Do you feel Lichy, punk?
Revisado en Reino Unido el 5 de junio de 2021Compra verificada
Stuart lloyd
Excellent gamebook and adfition to Fabled Lands series
Revisado en Reino Unido el 19 de diciembre de 2015Compra verificada
Leon Fairhurst
Good but no fabled land
Revisado en Reino Unido el 18 de mayo de 2021Compra verificada
Amazon Customer
Five Stars
Revisado en Reino Unido el 22 de diciembre de 2015Compra verificada