Item - Legend of the Shadow Warriors

Even though the connections between them are tenuous at best, as I try to analyze this book I can't help comparing it to the later Moonrunner by the same author. For one thing, both are adventures with a horror bent, and to me, neither succeeded very well. Legend of the Shadow Warriors comes out a little ahead as the source of the title actually made it into the book, giving the reader a more tangible menace to combat (not that the unknown can't be scary, but it needs to be handled a good deal better than it was in Moonrunner). However, there are problems. For one thing, one of the Shadow Riders uses martial arts, and the idea of a kung-fu zombie did a bit of damage to my ability to be chilled.

Legend of the Shadow Warriors deserves some praise for attempting to have more realistic effects on gameplay than other Fighting Fantasy books for giving the player unconventional weapons and armor (for instance, wearing heavy chainmail will protect you from damage, but it will slow you down and it becomes useless after a certain number of hits... rather than simply adding a point to your Skill). I didn't get to experiment with this nearly as much as I liked, though, as it's pretty hard to find non-standard weapons outside of the marketplace at the beginning of the book.

The book has some interesting experiences, particularly the battle with the Haggwort from the cover and dodging creditors at the beginning of the adventure, but on the whole ranks a solid "decent" on my approval scale. If I were going to read a horror Fighting Fantasy I'd much rather read Vault of the Vampire or Howl of the Werewolf again.

More reviews by Fireguard