1. Mean Streets
Authors: Gary Chalk and David Kerrigan
Illustrator: Gary Chalk
First Published: 1988
ISBN: 0-340-42390-0
Length: 64 pages (232 sections)
Number of Endings: 31
Plot Summary: You are Edrix, the rightful heir to the throne, forced
to live the life of a thief while waiting for the moment to claim what is
yours. Your shadowy existence is no longer a secret, so the time is right to
make your first move....
Translation: Danish
My Thoughts: I'm not a big fan of gritty urban fantasy (though I
admit to have enjoyed a few Thieves' World anthologies in my day), so
this book didn't thrill me as much as the more adventurous Lone Wolf series. An excess of totally goofy fantasy
names didn't help matters any, though occasional comic relief redeemed the
proceedings somewhat. In any case, though I was never really gripped by
the story, I'll admit that the game design here is pretty solid. Although
the adventure is fairly linear, there are a lot of different ways to get from
point A to point B, allowing for different strategies of character design and
gameplay. You're unlikely to complete this book on your first try, but since
there are so many possibilities, it never becomes tedious or frustrating to
tweak your character a little and start again. The only bad thing about all
this flexibility is that once you are successful, the path through the book
turns out to be rather short. For this reason, I wouldn't recommend going
too far out of your way to get hold of this book (which, unfortunately is
quite rare); still, if you should stumble across it, it's worth the couple of
hours it'll take you to get through.
Errata: The character sheet in my copy of this book has a sticker
pasted into the Combat Value Chart box. I wonder if this means that some
copies of the book either have an empty box or feature incorrect values in
the chart.
2. Creatures from the Depths
Authors: Gary Chalk and David Kerrigan
Illustrator: Gary Chalk
First Published: 1989
ISBN: 0-340-42835-X
Length: 64 pages (223 sections)
Number of Endings: 32
Plot Summary: The usurper of your throne has planned a politically
convenient marriage for himself, and you plan to intervene by kidnapping the
bride-to-be.
Translation: Danish
My Thoughts: This book picks up nicely from where the last one left
off; interestingly enough, while it does allow you to carry over your
character from the previous book, it also lets you re-roll your Strength if
you so desire. This is nice, because it means that you're not locked into a
poor score if you happen to complete the first book after rolling poorly.
The story also nicely resupplies you so you're not disadvantaged as a result
of your experience. The only thing that might pose a problem is if your
previously-chosen Princely Skills were inadequate, since there's no way to
change or add on to these, but this isn't too severe a problem. As for the
book itself, I found it to be an improvement over the debut volume. The
story moved along quickly, featuring a diversity of options, characters and
situations, and keeping me engaged throughout. As in the first book, events
are fairly linear but there are enough alternative paths to make replay
worthwhile. Replay didn't prove necessary for me, though, as I actually
completed this successfully on my first try (though I only barely survived
one major combat). The low challenge factor may be a turn-off for some, but
I didn't mind; the story was fun, and it's nice to feel really clever once in
a while by succeeding without being killed over and over. Really, my biggest
complaint is that the series had to end here. Considering how short these
books are, the story was only barely getting started at this point, but the
seeds of romance and adventure that were sown here might have led to great
(or at least above average) things. Definitely a shame. I wouldn't be
surprised if the large format of the books was the source of their downfall.
The books cost more than standard-sized paperbacks but offered less actual
content, and Gary Chalk's artwork isn't spectacular enough to justify the
extra expense; perhaps a more modest approach would have allowed the series
to survive longer.
