Series - Falcon

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Language:	English
Publishers:	Fabled Lands Publishing -- United Kingdom Sphere -- United Kingdom
Categories:	Complexity Level : Advanced (Full Game System) Format : Paperback Game System : Codewords Game System : Combat Game System : Inventory Management Game System : Randomization Method : Dice Game System : Randomization Method : In Book Game System : Scores Genre : Science Fiction Target Age Group : Older Children Target Age Group : Teenagers Writing Style : Present Tense Writing Style : Second Person
Translated Into:	L'Epervier (French) Falcon (Italian) Falken (Swedish) Farukon [ファルコン] (Japanese)

These books put the reader in control of Falcon, a time-traveling special agent, with each volume presenting a distinct mission to complete. The books feature small print and detailed illustrations, making them feel as if they are aimed at slightly older readers than the average gamebook. In spite of this, their game system isn’t especially complex. The player must keep track of only four attributes, two of which represent psychic abilities: Attack Modifier, Evasion Modifier, Thinkstrike Modifier and Power of Will Modifier. These attributes are added to dice rolls at various points in each adventure. There are also Endurance points which measure the character's current physical condition, and special items that can be acquired during each mission. Some of the books feature a special scoring mechanism which assigns letters to certain sections. The reader must write down these letters as they are encountered, and at the end of the adventure, a chart is consulted and a score is tallied from them. As an unusual bonus, the first volume in the series includes a pair of cut-and-assemble paper dice.

In 2015, this series started to be re-issued with slightly different updated cover art through Amazon's print-on-demand service. Only the first book has been re-issued to date and, as sales were poor, it seems unlikely that any further books in this series will be reprinted.

Gamebooks

1. The Renegade Lord
2. Mechanon
3. The Rack of Baal
4. Lost in Time
5. The Dying Sun
6. At the End of Time

Related Documents

Play Aid

Falcon #1 Character Sheet

Falcon #2 Character Sheet (back)

Falcon #2 Character Sheet (front)

Falcon #3 Character Sheet

Falcon #4 Character Sheet

User Comments

The Falcon series takes place in the distant future, where mankind has discovered time travel. You take the role of Falcon, a special agent who has psychic abilities, and your mission is usually to track criminals through time and space in your special purpose time machine.

Not only is the series heavy on descriptive and imaginative science fiction, it also delves quite a bit into actual historial events in Earth's history, such as the Battle of Gettysburg.

--Haoie

The Falcon series is one of the many interactive works released during the commercial peak of path-split adventure books, generally all but ignored upon release and in retrospect. While many gamebooks came as quickly as they disappeared, few series were as deliberately off-kilter in terms of genre and style as this one tried to be... and worse off for it. Jam-packed with some of the most unnecessarily dry, overdetailed technical jargon in gamebook history, and defined by weak writing, lifeless story design and juvenile choice-based system design, these science fiction failures resemble the worst text-based RPGs from back in the day. It's a shame that something so obviously capable of greater ambition could completely forsake the human elements entirely - and it's similarly sad how each book is thoroughly incomplete and forgettable in its prospects. Not deserving of a closer look, not satisfying in a slightest - these titles are not recommended in any way, shape or form.

--Shadeheart