1. The Warlock of the Extremely High Tower of Painful Mystical Death
Author: Demian Katz
Illustrators: Christopher O'Neill (cover), Jode Carrasco (interior)
First Published: June, 2000
Length: 100 sections, plus bestiary
Number of Endings: 30
Plot Summary: Tabriz the Warlock has stolen a juicy baby from you,
and you want it back! Unfortunately, that requires a visit to the Incredibly
High Tower of Painful Mystical Death...
My Thoughts: I wrote this book, so I can't really comment on its
quality. Instead, I'll give a little background information. First of all,
the title is vaguely a parody of that of the first Fighting Fantasy
book, though the content is inspired by one of the entries in the "Baby
Horrible Death Chart" from the Kobolds Ate My Baby! rulebook.
The whole thing was written pretty quickly (divine inspiration?) and wouldn't
be what it is today without the valuable assistance of Jode Carrasco, my good
friend and the book's illustrator, and Tiffany Cory, my then-girlfriend and
an ever-so-tolerant proofreader. In any case, this was the first success in
my campaign to get new gamebooks in print, and I'm proud of it even though it
wasn't necessarily a spectacular financial success.
2. Necro-Groundhog of the Awfully Dark Graveyard of Excruciating, Arcane Death
Author: Demian Katz
Illustrator: Christopher O'Neill
First Published: July, 2001
Length: 100 sections, plus board for BLT game
Number of Endings: 21
Plot Summary: Thanks to the baby-snatching trend you initiated in
Tabriz's Extremely High Tower, King Torg has dined upon a possessed infant,
getting a demon stuck in his teeth in the process. Now you must travel to
the dreaded Graveyard of the Necro-Groundhog and retrieve the fabled
Toothpick of Exorcism.
My Thoughts: Once again, I'm the author here, so I'm not going to
write a review. I do have to say, though, that while I think this book
contains the single funniest concept I've devised so far, it's not actually
as good as my earlier work; I think I was so happy with my idea that I got
lazy in the execution. Nonetheless, I do find myself chuckling at my own
jokes as I flip through the book (I'm shameless, I know). The plot is
actually based on a true story told to me by Jim Hall, a Marine that I shared
several computer science classes with; his tale of battle with an evil,
graveyard-lurking groundhog was too inspirational to ignore -- I'll leave it
to the reader to figure out exactly which bits I made up to embellish the
awful truth. Also, to those wondering about the Jeff Goldblum rule, it's a
reference to the Lost World: Jurassic Park gamebook which gives Jeff
Goldblum's character very high stats not because it's logical but (I suspect)
simply because he's Jeff Goldblum. Obscure, I know, but I couldn't resist.
Finally, I should note that this is the final KAMB solo adventure, unless
some other author cares to take up the job (which I find unlikely). While I
admire their work, I haven't had wonderful experiences working with 9th
Level, mainly due to poor communication -- it was a little disturbing to find
out third-hand about the publication of this book, and I wasn't altogether
happy with the title (my manuscript was called simply Graveyard of the
Necrogroundhog, and I wasn't all that thrilled about beating the
extra-long title gag further into the ground). I'm also disappointed
that Jode, who illustrated the first book, was never even given a chance to
do art for this one -- he had some really great ideas, and they would have
looked nicer than what has been used here (check out his preliminary work on
the big-headed
bird's carcass and the
depressed
dragon if you need pictorial evidence). There are no hard feelings,
really, but my desire to be involved in the world of baby-eating Kobolds
seems to have left me. 'Twas fun while it lasted, though!
