1. Grey Star the Wizard
Author: Ian Page (edited by Joe Dever)
Illustrators: Iain McCaig (British cover), Richard Corben (American cover), Paul Bonner (interior)
First Published: 1985
ISBN: 0-425-09590-8 (American edition)
Length: 350 sections
Number of Endings: 28 (not including failure by loss of points)
Plot Summary: As Grey Star, an orphan raised by the magical Shianti,
you must begin your journey to find the lost Moonstone and stop Shasarak the
Wytch-King from conquering Magnamund. Your first mission is to track down
the Lost Tribe of Lara, a race of magical creatures who may be able to help
you in your struggle.
Translations: French, German, Italian, Swedish
My Thoughts: This was the first adventure I ever had in Magnamund,
and it's also one of the first gamebooks I discovered and read. As a result,
I have very fond memories of the story and its characters, and I have long
looked forward to replaying it. Now that I have, though, I'm a little
disappointed. Certainly, it has some excellent elements -- memorable
non-player characters (a rarity in gamebooks), a variety of nasty monsters,
lots of opportunities to cast spells and a bunch of useful items to collect,
not to mention plenty of high-quality and memorable internal illustrations.
Unfortunately, it also has a lot of flaws. The writing is a bit more bland
than I remember it being, but that's not my primary complaint -- most of the
book's real problems have to do with poor game design. When I first enjoyed
this book many years ago, I cheated to win. I'm glad I did, because if I
hadn't, I don't think my memories would have been so fond. The optimal path
through the book isn't that hard to find, but it contains enough difficult
(and unavoidable) battles that it takes a lot of luck to get through
successfully. This means that you can know exactly how to win but be unable
to do so simply because of bad rolls of the die (or points at the Random
Number Table, if that's how you play). Certainly, success relies on having
high initial statistics; this is annoyingly luck-dependent, and a
point-distribution system for character attribute generation would have made
this a stronger and more balanced book. As it stands, certain aspects of the
rules make a potentially entertaining adventure story into a long,
repetitive, frustrating mess. This isn't a big deal if you don't mind
cheating, but you shouldn't have to cheat to win the game; where's the fun in
that? This situation isn't helped by the numerous typographical errors and
vague rules embedded in the story's paragraphs; you'd think that by the fifth
printing (which is the version I read) that some of these problems could have
been cleaned up, but of course they never were. This book isn't as much of a
classic as I had hoped, though if it had been given a bit more playtesting
and thought, it really could have been.
Hint: Don't be afraid to expend willpower to increase damage in
combat -- this is very useful in getting past the tougher fights with a
minimum of damage.
Errata: Section 3 mentions "your remaining two meals," but
depending on events, you may have more or less than two meals by this point.
In section 10, the choice that leads to 102 should instead go to section 90.
In section 193, pestle & mortar should be listed as a backpack item.
In section 266, the choice that leads to 333 should in fact lead to 330.
Section 289 covers the greater than and less than cases, but not the equal
to case.
2. The Forbidden City
Author: Ian Page (edited by Joe Dever)
Illustrators: Iain McCaig (British cover), Richard Corben (American cover), Paul Bonner (interior)
First Published: 1986
ISBN: 0-09-944780-0 (British edition), 0-425-09710-2 (American edition)
Length: 310 sections
Number of Endings: 26 (not including failure by loss of points)
Plot Summary: Having found the Lost Tribe of Lara, you now must use
their powers to locate the Shadow Gate to the Daziarn Plane so that you can
proceed with your mission.
Translations: French, German, Italian, Swedish
My Thoughts: This book is a dramatic improvement over its
predecessor. The writing has more flavor, and the characterization is
stronger. The previous book had a tendency to describe the personalities of
its characters without actually showing how they acted, but this one does a
much better job of making its characters seem like real and interesting
people; where book one might have described a character as having a sense of
humor, this one instead includes humor in the dialogue. The game design on
display here is also a lot more fair than the previous book -- I managed to
win on my second attempt, and while my first death seemed a bit arbitrary, I
found the experience of playing without cheating to be completely possible
(and thus worthwhile). I suppose it helps a bit that the book allows you
to grow in terms of magical abilities and Willpower points, though I don't
see it being impossible to win even with a completely fresh character. The
biggest criticism I can level at the book is that it's a bit short; I wonder
why it's so far short of the usual 350-section length found in Lone
Wolf books...
3. Beyond the Nightmare Gate
Author: Ian Page (edited by Joe Dever)
Illustrators: Richard Corben (American cover), Paul Bonner (interior)
First Published: 1986
ISBN: 0-425-09892-3 (American edition)
Length: 350 sections
Number of Endings: 28 (not including failure by loss of points)
Plot Summary: Now that you've made it to the Daziarn, you must track
down the Moonstone with the help of an old friend...
Translations: French, German, Italian, Swedish
My Thoughts: This is a great book; it lives up to the quality of
writing found in the previous volume, and it's full of interesting settings
and puzzles. I also found the story more compelling than usual for this kind
of gamebook -- while it's still the usual "solve the puzzles and collect
stuff" sort of mission, it has a number of dramatic moments strong
enough to create an almost cinematic tone at times. Good stuff! The game
design is also interesting -- the emphasis is on making wise choices rather
than on making good rolls; during my trip through the book, my point scores
barely fluctuated, though I did instantly die quite a few times before
becoming victorious. On a whole, I think this is a good thing; it's
certainly less frustrating than book one was. Nonetheless, it did seem a bit
too forgiving towards the end. I'm not sure how anyone's scores could
possibly go low enough to fail certain conditions presented by the book. I
also have a few other minor complaints. Most importantly, I was rather
disappointed that no character advancement takes place at the start of this
book for players who have finished the first two adventures. While I admit
that it wouldn't make much sense in the context of the story, I missed the
satisfaction of being rewarded for completing book two. There's also a bit of
rules ambiguity -- the book keeps saying that keys are special items kept in
the backpack. I'm not sure what this means, but my best guess is that they
are kept in your backpack but don't take up a slot of space, so they're
instead put on the special items list... If this is the case, though, it
should have been stated more clearly. Additionally, there's a minor bug
towards the beginning in which you can keep returning to a locked door
(section 118) even after opening it. Finally, I thought the "Story So
Far" section at the start of this volume was decidedly lousy. Not only
is it written in a different tense than in previous books, but it's too brief
to be particularly meaningful. Overall, though, I'm quite pleased with this
adventure, and I'm glad to be returning to this series.
4. War of the Wizards
Author: Ian Page (edited by Joe Dever)
Illustrators: Uncredited artist (American cover), Paul Bonner (interior)
First Published: 1986
ISBN: 0-425-10539-3 (American edition)
Length: 360 sections
Number of Endings: 23 (not including failure by loss of points)
Plot Summary: All is in preparation, and it is time to fight the
final battle against Shasarak!
Translations: French, German, Italian, Swedish
My Thoughts: Although this book lacks the humor that livened up the
previous two volumes, it's a good read. Gameplay is emphasized over story,
and it takes a bit of strategy to make it to the fairly satisfyingly
drawn-out final battle with the Wytch-king. Really, I don't have any major
complaints about this book; it's a good conclusion to the series, and I was
unable to find any nitpicky flaws to point out (apart from the errata below).
It even returns to the old-style "Story So Far" seen in the first
two books, making book three's abbreviated section a total mystery to me.
Despite being hard to complain about, though, it's not my favorite of the
series -- that would go to either book two or book three, both of which have
a bit more character than this one. Still, it was a fun adventure, and it
certainly makes me wish Grey Star had been given more adventures; I actually
find him to be a more appealing character than Lone Wolf, and I think he
deserved a longer series.
Errata: The character sheet includes too many slots for Higher
Magicks. According to the printed rules, you should start with four Higher
Magicks if this is your first book or five Higher Magicks if you've completed
any previous adventures.
