Thursday, 22 December 2011

Way of the Lone Tiger

 Even A Team gamebooks?
Absolutely.
Welcome to the Lone Tiger Gamebook Reviews blog!  This is a blog formed by Andrew Wright and Stuart Lloyd where anyone can post reviews about gamebooks, particularly obscure gamebooks or those gamebooks  written by amateur authors.  

There are plenty of gamebooks on the internet, but most of the talk about them revolves around Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf gamebooks.  There are plenty of gamebook series that have been published but only find a little attention in the dark corners of the internet.  Demian's gamebook site has an extremely comprehensive list of all the gamebooks ever published but many of the lesser known ones do not have a review.  There are also plenty of amateur gamebooks of very high quality but which get less attention than their printed brethren but which still have as much, if not more, to offer to the world of gamebooks. 

The aim of this blog is to give these hidden gems a platform to show their sparkle. Having said that, we'll probably be looking at a few duds along the way...

We will be using the TIGER system to rate each gamebook (in a nod to the CRPG Addict's GIMLET system).  It goes a bit like this:

Theme: What's the background or scenario? How cool or original is it?
 
Illustration: How nifty are the accompanying pictures? If there are no pictures, how immersive is the gameplay experience?
 
Gameplay: How does it play out gamebook-wise? Frustratingly linear or are there plenty of choices?
 
Exposition: How good is the writing? Are transitions smooth and seamless?
 
Rules: What's the rules system like? How complicated is it?

He likes to get his teeth into things.
The scores are out of 5, where:  

1 = carrion
2 = leftovers
3 = decent snack
4 = fine meal
5 = grand feast

And this will give the gamebook a mark out of 25.  

The name comes by taking the lone from Lone Wolf  and tiger from the Way of the Tiger series.

Anyone is welcome to email a review to the blog at lonetigergamebooks@gmail.com.  If we have more contributors then more obscure and amateur gamebooks will get the publicity they deserve.  

3 comments:

  1. Looking forward to future updates!

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  2. Same here! I've only barely dipped my toe into the gamebook waters over my lifetime but I'm excited to see this blog appear. Thanks!

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