Sindbad le Magnifique

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This series, like La saga du Prêtre Jean, was published only in French by Hachette and met a sudden stop with the end of the popularity of gamebooks. It features a fairly typical system of rules, very similar to the previous series. Your character has "Dexterity Points" (DP) and "Constitution Points" (CP) which are similar to SKILL and STAMINA in the Fighting Fantasy series. Your DP are equal to 6+2d6, your CP = 18+2d6. You start with a lot of gold. Roll 2 dice, the best number is the hundreds digit, the worse is the tens digit and you add a zero for the units (for example, if you roll a 3 and a 4, you have 430 gold coins). Thus you can have from 110 to 660 gold coins. Last but not least, you are given a bag which can hold ten items, including the four rations you start with.

The fighting system isn't very original; you roll the dice, add your DP, roll again for your opponent, and the greater score wins and deals damage (higher DP minus lower DP). Thus, the fights can be very quick if you're stronger than your opponent. With a good dice roll and a better DP score, you can easily deal 8 or 10 damage points which is more than most monsters can handle.

Later in the book, you have stats for your boat with a number of hit points depending on the number of sailors you managed to recruit. There's also a map and a little system to navigate in the "Archipelago of the Four Winds."

Most content on this page was provided by Frederic Martinoty. If you have any additions or corrections, please let me know by e-mailing me at demiankatz@gmail.com.

1. Le Prince des Voleurs
Literal Translation of French Title: The Prince of Thieves
Authors: Doug Headline, Michel Pagel and Fred Gordon
Illustrator: Rolland Barthelemy
First Published: 1987
ISBN: 2-253-04249-8
Length: 320 sections
Number of Endings: 29
Plot Summary: You're Sinbad, prince of the thieves. You're bored, you want adventures, you want to fight awful bad guys and save pretty princesses. Your boredom ends when two important merchants ask you to transport a precious shipment and offer you lots of money for it. But the counselor of the Khan of Djaghathai proposes another mission: take the daughter of Baghdad's calife to Djaghathai to marry the Khan. This will seal a new frienship treaty between the two kings. And, as if you didn't have enough problems, an old beggar predicts that your destiny is to save an unknown nation from destruction. Which mission will you choose?
Translation: Italian
My Thoughts: Well, there's not much I can say except that I'm glad to be able to share Frederic's comments; I'm glad that my knowledge of French gamebooks has been able to increase so much despite my lamentably meagre language skills.
Frederic Martinoty's Thoughts:

This book is very similar to GrailQuest #4 (Voyage of Terror). You must choose between three missions, and it doesn't really matter which one you choose. Then you must recruit some men and after that, you're forced to accept another mission and sail to the Archipelago of the Four Winds, where you'll have to visit three islands, find three parts of a medallion and then fight your nemesis. A bit too classic for my tastes. The choices you make at the start of the adventure almost don't matter; you must inevitably visit these three islands (some of them being rather short) and survive a handful of tough fights (don't even think of winning with medium stats; you'll need a solid amount of luck in that case).

I'm disappointed by this book. There's a good sense of humor and several references to Prester John from the authors' other series, but the story is rather short because it is easily divided into 4 parts (introduction, three islands), the fights are too tough, and many of your choices don't have any influence on your fate. I have the impression that I already played several books on the same theme, and there isn't enough originality to make Le Prince des Voleurs a gamebook you'll distinguish from the competition.

Italian Translations

The book was translated into Italian under the "Simbad il Marinaio" series title.

1. Il principe dei ladri
Translation Of: Le Prince des Voleurs
This book is not part of my collection.