I like Tolkien, just not how he spells dwarfs!

Revenant Rising and Songs of the Mystics were both written for the Gamebook Adventures app series so I don't own the rights for either one. I think the former can still be obtained as part of the Gamebook Adventures 4-6 compilation. The latter isn't available anywhere as far as I'm aware.

Apart from those, there are a few other 50 sectioner competition entries that I wrote between 18-20: Sanctuary of Souls, Feathers of the Phoenix and Treasures of the Briny Deep. There's also two other Windhammer entries - Behind the Throne (an 100 section Three Musketeers tribute written between Hunger of the Wolf and Waiting for the Light); and The Experiment which is, ultimately, probably best forgotten. I think they're all floating around the

I also wrote two gamebooks for the Fighting Fantazine - Prey of the Hunter (Issue 3) and Hand of Fate (Issue 10). You can download them from the fantazine website.

I have intended to tweak some of these for uploading here but never quite got round to it!

Kieran
Sat Sep 9 14:22:57 2023
A Midwinter Carol

The hero of Deathmoor is promised half the kingdom but I decided that after rescuing the princess, the two of them become engaged. The hero is being hunted by the Pelagines (sort of fish-men) for stealing one of their scarlet pearls so I posited that they eventually caught up with him and killed him which was a contributing factor to the princess' mental health issues.

YARD
Sat Sep 9 08:37:12 2023
A Princess Of Zamarra

Hehe, not actually a huge fan of Tolkien myself, let alone some of the legacy he's left on the genre (which, to be fair, might include the plots of the most typical FF books.)

Now, I have to ask: Songs of the Mystics? Revenant Rising?! (Mentioned by you in another thread.) Other than the gamebooks already present on here (including To Catch A Thief , which is apparently the only one that still hasn't been digitized) how many more did you write, and is there a reason why they are apparently only available from elsewhere? It's certainly far more convenient for us, the readers when everything is in one place, at any rate.

YARD
Sat Sep 9 08:23:49 2023
A Midwinter Carol

Yeah, while on one hand, the ways in which the stories on here manage to work in the canon books are often really inventive, I do feel that multiple stories lean on those connections far too heavily, and unfortunately, this seems like one of them.

For the record, I have been checking out the archived canon FF book reviews recently, and the ones for Deathmoor are particularly epic. https://web.archive.org/web/20170905062914/http://user.tninet.se/~wcw454p/docs/ff55.txt Amongst all the other things it brings up, Leigh Loveday's review makes me wonder: was the Princess meant to have gotten married to that book's protagonist after the successful victory? If so, is this narrative then premised on the idea it falls apart due to her PTSD?

YARD
Sat Sep 9 08:10:00 2023
A Strange Week For King Melchion The Despicable

Well, to be fair, that dream sequence in Baba Yaga's hut might have been an experiment too far, and I wouldn't be surprised if that contributed a lot to those comments.

I would say my main disappointment with the ending(s) is that if you do succeed at the illusion recipe, it is still the same as in the other works, and you never find out if the Davor actually bothered to uncharm those two servants (the one turned to statue, and perhaps more pressingly, the one turned to squirrel), which does add some uncomfortable weight to those events.

YARD
Sat Sep 9 08:04:12 2023
Waiting For The Light

Yeah, I read the comments after getting stumped on the military part, so I found someone laying out

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YARD
Sat Sep 9 07:46:47 2023
The Word Fell Silent

Hmm, I may not be religious myself, yet I have a lot more positive attitude towards non-extremist believers than those "New" Atheists who are, as you say, edgelord. For what it's worth, I didn't really consider the story edgy altogether - particularly not when this very place happens to host Hellfire, Outsider! + New Day Rising and Escape Neuburg Keep (and a few more undigitized works in their vein). There is also the earnest Christianity of basically all of Robert Douglas' works here, and while I don't consider this bad in and of itself, I appreciate the presence of The Word Fell Silent as the right counterbalance to that. I also find it very reminiscent of Agora, which I consider gravely underrated, so that is another point in its favour for me.

I suppose you might be having second thoughts about including certain character who often ends up poisoning the player. To me, though, while the inclusion of him in particular came across as quite a bit of sensationalism at first, his perspective felt entirely plausible, as practically every major movement had at least one person present at the start who then thought it lost its way and became one of its greatest detractors. The way his presence allows you to carry out your task, though, needs a lot more detail to be remotely plausible.

As I said before, my main narrative issue was about how little of a plan you and any possible companions have once you actually get to the point of carrying out your mission. My main tonal issue was with Elena coming across as a plot device whose fate is completely insignificant once the task is done.

Kieran
Fri Sep 8 23:13:39 2023
A Princess Of Zamarra

And yes, I prefer 'dwarfs' - Tolkien be damned!

Kieran
Fri Sep 8 23:11:10 2023
Hunger Of The Wolf

Not technically my first work as I'd submitted a number of 50 section gamebooks for various competitions prior to this, but definitely an earlyish work - a lot of the content was reused in my later Revenant Rising - for better or worse.

Kieran
Fri Sep 8 23:08:11 2023
A Midwinter Carol

This was written for a competition for the official FF site. It had to be Christmas themed and 50 sections max. In the end I missed the deadline for the competition so I guess I could have expanded it, but hey, I'm lazy.

It has a number of references to both Deathmoor and Masks of Mayhem - the Word version carries a spoiler warning for both books. Admittedly these references are probably very confusing to those unfamiliar with either book!

Kieran
Fri Sep 8 23:03:12 2023
A Princess Of Zamarra

Fair point regarding sparing Mawrogh from the skeletons. Can't remember now if I mistakenly didn't think it was possible for him to still be about or I just didn't think of him at all - a definite mistake either way.

My idea behind this one was to have a wide array of paths but still have a fairly strong story - it's an approach I also took with my earlier Songs of the Mystics and I think it fit well with writing a sequel to a Luke Sharp book since his books had unusually wide branches for FF.

Kieran
Fri Sep 8 22:54:28 2023
A Knight's Trial

Now if King Melchion got lukewarm reviews at the time, this one was pretty much universally panned! So glad to see you liked it. My idea was just to do a standard Livingstonian gamebook with some Arthurian window dressing but I panicked that it was too generic and so rehashed some ideas from Waiting For The Light as well as making some meta-comments about Livingstonian gamebooks in general. I am quite proud of how I structured the maze even if the rest of it wasn't wholly successful.

Kieran
Fri Sep 8 22:47:29 2023
A Strange Week For King Melchion The Despicable

Yikes, that's a lot of typos! Thanks for fixing those, Andy.

I mostly like this one and I'm glad you do too as the feedback I got at the time was mixed bordering on negative. I think one reviewer suggested it verged on transphobic which was the complete opposite of my intention so definitely my bad there. I also find the ending is a bit rushed but couldn't really find a way past it without cutting other content I liked.

Kieran
Fri Sep 8 22:41:18 2023
Waiting For The Light

My inspiration for writing this was I was watching the movie Inland Empire and thinking 'I'm enjoying this without having the faintest clue what's going on' and figured I'd write a gamebook in this manner. My idea was that people could make their own interpretations of what it was all about even though I had a clear idea in my own head what it was about. But to be honest, I'm probably kidding myself that people thought it worth thinking about that deeply and it's more a case that people are just mystified why they have to take certain actions

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in order to win. While I left a couple of clues in the quiz show segment, they're probably too obtuse to be helpful.

For anyone who's curious about what it actually is all about:

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Kieran
Fri Sep 8 22:11:38 2023
The Word Fell Silent

Glad you liked this one, Yard. I'm quite pleased with it from a gameplay perspective, but I've really gone off the premise now - I think I was going through an 'atheist edgelord' phase during my early 20s when I wrote it and it makes me cringe to think of it these days! Maybe I could rewrite it into something less edgy and more respectful.

And yes, probably should have opted for 'grain' over 'corn'.

YARD
Fri Sep 8 12:15:24 2023
Shrine Of The Salamander
Star - optimum ending reached

I have to say, it is fun to go through a single author's works, and see how the things change, stay the same, and loop upon each other!

While this tale may not involve the adventuring duo that featured in Andrew Wright's first three stories, it is otherwise remarkably full of references to previous works - be it the alcoholic drink from Lair of the Troglodytes, another gastronomically gifted Mind Flayer like in The Black Lobster, bees and beehives playing an important role like in Impudent Peasant!, alongside an infinitely-spawning fight very similar to what that story had. That, and there is also another reference to the canonical Demons of the Deep, like in The Black Lobster, though this time it's clearly a rival of what was probably the most memorable character in that story.

The journey is also very fun on its own, although the narrative leaves a questionable aftertaste. In terms of morality, nearly all the canonical stories had been extremely straightforward, and predictably, this applies to a fair few works here as well. Then, an encouraging fraction here genuinely attempt moral ambiguity, which I appreciate dearly. And lastly, there is the uncomfortable category where the events appear far more ambiguous than the narrative is willing to acknowledge.

Up until now, Nye's Song was the only example I could think of, and my reading of it may be considered esoteric (is the invasion of England by Thuggee-led undead and demonic hordes actually worse than the Bengal Famine it would have averted?) Here, though, I don't think it's particularly arguable that you serve evil while considering yourself a hero (like most villains do, anyway). Not only do the Salamanders hold a very good claim to the artifact, but your city is literally ruled by slave masters who need the artifact to keep the slaves that toil in the mines in check...and we are heroic for helping them do just that? I wouldn't have minded it if the narrative seemed more aware of it (i.e. A Princess of Zamarra is very clear in its true ending that what you have achieved is hardly a boon for anyone outside of the orc tribes of Khul and Zamarra's ruling classes), but the true ending here is clearly meant to be read as an unadulterated triumph.

As for the rest, it's great when the story doesn't just have a lot of artwork, but artwork which was actually purpose-drawn, and not slotted in awkwardly from elsewhere, at times with clear mismatches between it and the text! The spells are fun, too, although there are perhaps too many of them for an adventure of this length, since the balance is clearly off. The Galehorn's spell wrecks practically everything and is just so much better than the rest. Meanwhile, picking a Giant's Tooth at the start is literally a total waste, and there doesn't seem to be any situation where a Fire Water is usable AND preferable to alternatives either. The items you can exchange for provisions also seem rather underwhelming at that point. It doesn't help when some fights deny you spell use for what appear to be balancing reasons, yet seem to have no internal narrative justification for that. (that Beetle, or the merchant, anyone?)

And at a certain point, there's some weirdness I'm really not sure about.

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Finally, proofreading.

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MPerera
Fri Sep 8 01:56:35 2023
A Flame In The North
Star - optimum ending reached

This was a challenge and I died quite a few times, but it felt great to finally win that awful battle in the end!

Too bad there isn't a third book, this journey really deserves completion.

YARD
Thu Sep 7 16:54:05 2023
Impudent Peasant!

Interesting, and I guess I can see some play-by-post traces here if I look closely enough!

This actually gets me to wonder if converting some of the more-famous play-by-posts which have proliferated on the internet in the two decades since this plucky website came online would be feasible. At least some of them have to be worth it in terms of writing, narrative stakes, etc., right? Though, either way, I suppose more people need to know about this place as a prerequisite.

Thanks again for returning to comment after so long!

YARD
Thu Sep 7 16:47:49 2023
Lair Of The Troglodytes

Oh, wow, I got you to comment on this work for the first time in...11 years! What a welcome surprise!

Thank you for responding and sharing this background!

YARD
Thu Sep 7 16:02:55 2023
Beggars Of Blacksand
Star - optimum ending reached

This was going pretty well until the story felt the need to use the same plot twist as Escape Neuburg Keep. It felt really cheap there, and is not much better here, undercutting most of the initial narrative stakes just the same. And with how underwhelming the writing of the real primary villain is, I actually preferred the other, "failed" ending to the intended one.

Proofreading (mostly missing hyphens here.)

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