[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy - Martin McKenna Tribute

[SGamerz]

The previous time I came back from a hiatus, it was when I heard about the death of Keith Martin (even though the news was almost a year late), which motivated me to do a LP of his book here as a tribute.

This time, it was something similar, except I found out about this even later: Martin McKenna passed away more than 1 year ago in September 2020, and I only just found out earlier this year. To be honest, I was one of those kids that never really appreciated the importance of good artwork in a story book. When I used to "rate" the FF gamebooks, it was always all about story, gameplay, mechanics, characters, etc...somehow the illustrations never seem that important to me. To be sure, they probably did influence my decision on whether to buy or borrow a book when I first saw them on the shelf, but otherwise I never did consciously place a lot of importance in them. It was only when I started seeing some of the new illustrations from the Scholastic publications (none of which I cared to actually buy...the combination of the artwork and the less-than-flattering online reviews didn't give me much motivation to do so) that I finally thought, "God, we were so lucky to have those old guys do the illustrations back in our days!"

So anyway, obviously, I intend to run an FF gamebook LP that was illustrated by Martin McKenna. Incidentally, the gamebook LP that's currently running now (Revenge of the Vampire) by Beroli was illustrated by him too, which was why I thought it was a pity there was at first no pictures available in the thread.

So, Martin McKenna actually did a LOT of cover art for FF. Much like how Jonathan Green was the main author contributing to FF's short-lived revival under Wizard Books, Martin McKenna was their go-to guy for most of the new cover art. But I'm going to limit the poll to books where he did the interior art only because...well, if I'm doing this as a tribute to the artist, I'd definitely want the opportunity to be able to post as much of his art as possible, so there's not much point presenting a book where he only contributed 1 picture.

Several of the books illustrated by him had already been done here before (and incidentally included several of my favourites even without considering the graphics):

Vault of the Vampire
Dead of Night
Legend of the Shadow Warriors
Moonrunner
Legend of Zagor
Revenge of the Vampire (still running)
Howl of the Werewolf
Night of the Necromancer

Which leaves us with the remaining 4 titles I've put in the poll. Sadly, I think the cream of the crop had pretty much already been picked during the earlier LPs, but I hope there's still some interest in what's left.

It will probably be a while before I start this next LP - probably close to the time when you guys are about to complete the current RotV playthrough, but I think I'd let this poll run for a while. I won't set an end date to this poll, so no rush.

[Queen of Swords]

I'm sorry to hear about Martin McKenna. I don't remember the names of the illustrators, so I'm glad you made this post. And his artwork was amazing.

About which gamebook to play, I love the worldbuilding in Curse of the Mummy. It's one of my favorite books in that respect. That said, it's a meatgrinder and I have never made it to the end without dying, but I'll pick it anyway.

[Thaluikhain]

Daggers of Darkness was his first so I vote for that. Though he seems to have done more Hammer Horror style, and that book has a barbarian riding two tigers on it, so might not be that representative.

[Darth Rabbitt]

RIP Martin McKenna.

Livingstone’s later work tended to be a mixed bag and Curse of the Mummy is notorious for its difficulty so I’ll vote for Daggers of Darkness. I have the book but don’t remember it beyond the cover art.

[SGamerz]

I don't remember the names of the illustrators, so I'm glad you made this post.

I don't remember most of them either. As mentioned earlier, I didn't used to pay as much attention to the artwork as a kid, and certainly not enough to go check for the artist's name. Even now I can only remember about 2-3 off-hand: McKenna, Iain McCaig and of course Russ Nicholson who was right there from the start with Warlock of Firetop Mountain.

Though he seems to have done more Hammer Horror style, and that book has a barbarian riding two tigers on it, so might not be that representative.

I have the book but don’t remember it beyond the cover art.

Interestingly, while the cover art of DoD really did grab my attention the first time I saw it, it actually wasn't done by McKenna. He did the interior art for that book, but the cover was apparently by Les Edwards. But yes, that cover was awesome.

****

Anyway, as mentioned I won't be starting the LP for a while yet, but in the meantime I want to suggest a new mechanism for this (and possibly future) playthroughs:

Traditionally, we'd always done rewinds whenever or PC die/fail during the playthroughs, so that we can reap as much content from the experience as possible. Journeyman has been running his a different way - only single attempt, and the LP ends upon the first failure. I'm personally not inclined to do it that way - especially in this particular tribute game where a key purpose is to try to showcase as many of the artwork as possible. But limiting the number of "lives" does add a certain sense of risk that can make for a more compelling game as well. So, along with the theme of this particular game, I'm making the following suggestion:

For every piece of (full-page) interior art that we get to see during the playthrough, our PC "unlocks" an extra life. Now, if you are familiar with the FF books, you'd know that almost all of them start with a page of artwork right at the very first section, so most of the time we'd already start with 1 extra life that will save us from any potential early failure/deathtrap. The more we explore, the more chances we have of seeing new artwork, but of course, each time we'd also be taking some risk of potential failure in the process. So in a way, it both encourages exploration and seeking new content while also adding the sense of risk at the same time.

Let me know what you guys think of this mechanism. If you don't like it, then we'd play the old-school way with unlimited lives.

[Queen of Swords]

That sounds like an interesting idea to try.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Oh, I like that.

[Beroli]

Count my vote for unlimited lives.

[Thaluikhain]

Lives per artwork is an interesting idea, and appropriate for a tribute.

[SGamerz]

So, it's been a whole month since I made the poll, and I was planning to start the LP around this time, but apparently there's going to be another maintenance update within these few days, so it's probably better to wait till it's over (and hopefully the spoilers tags will be fixed after that). If the update goes well, I should be able to start the LP this weekend.

Either way, I think we already have a clear winner, so the next LP will be for Daggers of Darkness. And it looks like most of you are in favour of the "illustrations unlock extra life" mechanism I suggested, so we'll be using that. Ironically, this one actually needs the "extra life" mechanism less than the other books, since it's the easiest of the 4 books listed with multiple paths to victory. And coincidentally, it also has a sort of "fail-save" mechanism of its own in the forms of medallions collected (each medallion found can revive you from 1 lost combat).

On this subject, I've been putting some thoughts on expanding this mechanism on future LPs as well, especially for the more difficult books. Using illustrations for this one was specifically due to this being a tribute to the artist. But for other books, I'm taking we can either link it to the theme of the book, or a certain existing mechanism unique to that book.

For example, while I don't own Blood of Zombies, I've heard a lot about it, most about how unplayable it was. Apparently, the win condition was to eliminate ALL zombies from the book, and even with the optimum path mapped out there's no way the PC can have enough STAMINA to last out all the battles in the entire game. With that in mind, I thought an appropriate mechanism for the theme would be to give the PC "extra lives" (full STAMINA restore) for every X number of zombies killed. Don't really know whether that can really work, since I don't have the book, but like I said, it'd be appropriate for the theme and certainly make it easier at least.

Now, for some of the books I do own, I suggest the following possible mechanism that link to some of the existing ones in the books, some of which are rather underdeveloped and which I think may be helped by the new measures:

Appointment with F.E.A.R (FF 17)

This is a book where the PC plays a comic book-style superhero, and has a stat called the Hero point. Except the points do nothing in the game besides "keeping score" and doesn't really affect the game's success rate in anyway. I'm thinking that instead of being purely ornamental we can trade Hero points for extra lives instead. Every X number of Hero p9oints collected can be converted into 1 extra life.

(There's also Sword of the Samurai (FF20) where you have the Honour stat, which I also considered using similary...but unlike the above book, Honour point is actually important here, and the PC can't really afford to trade them since they DO help improve his success rate considerably (and having it reduced to 0 is insta-fail).

Midnight Rogue (FF29)

The PC is a thief in the book, and can break into houses stealing valuables. The objective was mostly just to steal 1 particular object, however, and most of the money we steal on the way don't matter too much. It's not as useless as Hero points in FF17, since there are opportunity to do things like bribe guards and gamble, but on the whole there isn't too much opportunity to spend gold. There isn't even a Shopping list like most FF books, so perhaps...trade gold/Treasure for extra lives?

Chasms of Malice (F30)

One of the most notoriously so-hard-it's-unplayable books, this one can certainly do with a mechanism that reduces the difficulty. And like most Luke Sharp books, it also has an interesting-but-underdeveloped/poorly-executed mechanism in the form of a Cat Goddess that the PC brings around with him, which can apparently help him 9 times (cats, 9 lives) throughout the whole adventure, including 1 stat restore. Sounds interesting, except the book never gives you more than 3 opportunities (I think) to use her throughout the whole book, and at least 1 of them happens automatically, not as an option. So, a pretty wasted mechanism, which I think can be put to use be trading Tabasha's assistance for extra lives.

So, just some food for thoughts. Alternative suggestions for these and other books are welcome. I think I may put the above 3 in the poll for my next LP when I start Daggers of Darkness.

[Thaluikhain]

I would have mentioned it for Legend of Zagor, but that was before my time, but as their are 4 character options, regenerating into another, not yet used character (sorta like Doctor Who) could have worked there. There's a (very) small number of other books that have preset characters like that, but might have done them all already.

[Darth Rabbitt]

I like all of those. I actually find it a bit odd that the superhero book didn’t have something like that by default; it seems like an obvious inclusion there, especially if the Hero points do nothing otherwise. Superheroes don’t go down easily.

[Thaluikhain]

Superheroes don’t go down easily.

Well, except in Tijuana bibles.

(You've been a great audience, I'll be here all week)

[angelfromanotherpin]

Extra lives in Appointment with F.E.A.R. are pretty superfluous; the big obstacle is finding the clues to locate the end-boss; without several opportunities to explore the flowchart from the very beginning, you're just going to dead-end in a way that rezzing doesn't help at all.

On the other paw, extra lives in Chasms of Malice are very welcome, because even the One True Path exposes you to a large number of instances of 'roll a die, die on a 1' bullshit.

[SGamerz]

Extra lives in Appointment with F.E.A.R. are pretty superfluous; the big obstacle is finding the clues to locate the end-boss; without several opportunities to explore the flowchart from the very beginning, you're just going to dead-end in a way that rezzing doesn't help at all.

My definition of extra lives isn't just full restores after death, it's just a loose broad term for "ways to continue gameplay, so this can extend to rewinds to the last "wrong turn" for the appropriate books.

[SGamerz]

I would have mentioned it for Legend of Zagor, but that was before my time, but as their are 4 character options, regenerating into another, not yet used character (sorta like Doctor Who) could have worked there. There's a (very) small number of other books that have preset characters like that, but might have done them all already.

I think the second series of Wizard publications all have preset characters, but I didn't buy the titles I already had, so I only have Night of the Necromancer (already done) and Stormslayer. Those who did purchase the news version of the older titles might have a go at your suggestion, though.

[Thaluikhain]

I think the second series of Wizard publications all have preset characters,

Huh. Did they change the weapons into walkie-talkies while they were at it?

[Darth Rabbitt]

I thought they were just sample pre-gens for people who didn't want to roll up characters.

[SGamerz]

I thought they were just sample pre-gens for people who didn't want to roll up characters.

Yes. you're right, that's what they are, although I still think they can be utilized in a way similar to what Thaluikhain suggested for Legend of Zagor.

Anyway, I added a poll to the current LP for Daggers of Darkness to determine which of the 3 I suggested will be my next FF LP. Let me know which you prefer!