chris@alberta (11/24/83)
A couple of days I bought what I think is one of the books mentioned
previously under the name "Which way book". It is "The Warlock of Firetop
Mountain", by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone (Puffin Books, 1983).
The book presents a scenario which you enter using a simple D & D type
character, with stats for skill, stamina and luck, and with a record of
gold, items carried, and other special possesions. Die rolls are used
where random numbers are needed (as in fighting monsters). The player
(reader?) has 2 or more choices of action at most of the 400 entries
in the book. Overall, I found the book interesting for a couple of
hours worth of entertainment, but was disappointed in a couple of
aspects: a fair amount of time is spent getting out of a maze, and
most players will not succeed at the task on the first try. The reason
for the failure is merely that the player didn't make the appropriate
choices at some points, and hence didn't manage to find all of the
keys needed to open the chest. If the same sort of thing could be done,
but without the maze, and with a careful, thoughtful player having a
good chance of completing the task on the first go-round, I would be
all for it, but I probably won't buy any others in this series ("The
Citadel of Chaos" and "The Forest of Doom").
Chris Gray
...uw-beaver!ubc-vision!alberta!chris