Another Vorple Question

[Erik_Temple]

@maga

@ektemple

@maga

To be specific, I’m talking about a subset of gamebooks; ones which involved an IF-like map that could be traversed in any direction, a focus on examining features of the environment, a need to solve puzzles, an inventory, etc.

Can you give examples of any of these?

Hm. The example that springs to mind is Duelmaster, a two-player CYOA (Iain Merrick ran a session of it over G+ recently), which, two-player aspect aside, is a lot like Fighting Fantasy moved more towards IF or adventure game (traversable map, time not a strong narrative impetus.) People have mentioned similar things like Fantasy Trip in my CYOA analysis posts (which I should really get back to). The pattern there is that CYOA becomes more IF-like when people try to use CYOA to simulate tabletop RPGs. I’ve played a number of gamebooks where the whole point of the book is to simulate a maze (cordoned off by locked doors and riddles and things), and, presumably out of trauma, have forgotten all their titles.

OK, gotcha. I haven’t tried either of those. I was intrigued by your suggestion that there were books with fully traversable maps that were inspired by IF (rather than by tabletop RPGs). I know of a few gamebooks with fully traversable maps that work pretty darn well–the Iron Crown Middle Earth series comes to mind, and maybe also Fabled Lands–but the inspiration there is all from tabletop, not IF. In those books, the emphasis is very different than it is in CYOA (CYOA is rather one element among others), and there also isn’t the concern with examining features of the environment, solving puzzles, etc. that you would expect in books inspired by IF.

The latter can be seen, though, in Faerie Mound of Dragonkind (recommended here by S. John Ross). I’m not sure whether IF was what the designers were striving for, but it’s what it feels like they were after–and it is a strange beast indeed.