Book 'em Up

[Francach]

I've found Bernard Cromwell's historical novels enjoyable. Reading about the proud English slaughtering ze evil French at Agincourt is refreshing

 

If you like historical fiction (as in based on historical facts, not just the setting), I'll push G.G.Kay again. 

I grew up having to read "De leeuw van Vlaanderen" for school. Which is basicly the same story except this time it was the proud Flemish slaughtering ze evil French. You guys really didn't make many friends in the middle ages huh? 

[Doomy77]

A Nice. I still play clash of the princes with a friend sometimes.

I had that!

[wismerhill]

I grew up having to read "De leeuw van Vlaanderen" for school. Which is basicly the same story except this time it was the proud Flemish slaughtering ze evil French. You guys really didn't make many friends in the middle ages huh?

Read the book, saw the movie.

Even considered making a bret team with only yeoman and name it schild en vriend

[Francach]

Read the book, saw the movie.

Even considered making a bret team with only yeoman and name it schild en vriend

And if your opponent fails to say schild en vriend you should have your angry peasants gangfoul him 

[Barristan]

Just wondering if there are People in here who are (or used to be) into Fighting Fantasy books?

 

Hell yeah. Lone Wolf #1, Sorcery! #2, Fighting Fantasy standalones next. Also played Way of the Ninja but it was way overboard on 'lousy choice, you're dead mate'.

 

 

I grew up having to read "De leeuw van Vlaanderen" for school. Which is basicly the same story except this time it was the proud Flemish slaughtering ze evil French. You guys really didn't make many friends in the middle ages huh? 

 

Nope. Then again, who did? Maybe Napoleon is to blame for piling on the diplo malus later on

[Doomy77]

You mean Way of the Tiger. And yes, those books killed me a lot too.

A million years ago I wrote a review of the first book for some blog.

[wismerhill]

And if your opponent fails to say schild en vriend you should have your angry peasants gangfoul him 

 yup

[Doomy77]

You mean Way of the Tiger. And yes, those books killed me a lot too.

A million years ago I wrote a review of the first book for some blog.

Found it: https://gamebookreview.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/way-of-the-tiger-1-avenger/

[Barristan]

Thanks, was going from the French name. Ninja stuff is great as a child, but yeah, they were punishing as fuck. Like in 95% of the fights the wrestling moves will get you killed, you have to figure which ones they will win you on the spot. Book #5 was the pinnacle, you have to command your army in battle and literally every other paragraph you have to make a decision that will kill you if you go wrong. Joy. 

[Barristan]

Now that I think of it, there was another series that was good but I can't remember the name. You could choose to play as male or female and were the Prince(ss) of Time IIRC. 4 books in different historical settings, one of them was Far-West for sure. Ring a bell?

[Doomy77]

No, afraid not. Were they published in English?

 

Bonus geek points to the first person to identify the Fighting Fantasy book which uses the Way of the Tiger setting, and the three villains who cross over.

[Barristan]

Talisman of Death, feat. Tyutchev, Cassandra and Thaum.

 

Bear with me while I look up the other series.

[Barristan]

Ah. It appears it was a French series only, despite being written by a man named James Campbell and being advertised as an English translation

 

Les Messagers du Temps (Messengers of Time) if you want to look it up. Seems to be a bit of a rarity though, as there's been only one edition and it was never ported to English.

[Doomy77]

Geek point duly awarded.

[Barristan]

1 SPP from Legend, woot

[Doomy77]

Gave you another one as we need you next season and 175 SPP has a notoriously high mortality rate.

[Barristan]

Yes! The coach succeeds where all his players have failed! 

[Francach]

Nope. Then again, who did? Maybe Napoleon is to blame for piling on the diplo malus later on

That actually reminds me. I have a book called "1000 years of annoying the French" by Stephen Clarke. It's a pretty funny commentary on the history between France and England. And he gives the French way more credit than you would expect from an Englishman. I would recommend it if you're into that sort of stuff.

[Dreamy]

As for gamebooks, aside from Lone Wolf, Way of the Tiger and a handful of Fighting Fantasy, I've also played (and still own) the Lone Wolf spinoff Silver Star, a couple Lord of the Rings ones, the Falcon (Time Traveler Cop) series, some Chill gamebooks (the ones translated to Swedish, although I got those as an adult) and Madame Guillotine (actually Giljotin - a Swedish gamebook about the French revolution - you got to pick sides)

[Doomy77]

Sweet. I'm familiar with most of those, except Chill and obviously the Swedish one, which does sound interesting.

[Dreamy]

Sweet. I'm familiar with most of those, except Chill and obviously the Swedish one, which does sound interesting.

The Chill books were apparently written by Ian och Clive Bailey. The Swedish names were Tidlös Skräck (Timeless fear?) and Ondskans Gruvor (Caves of Evil?).

And the Guillotine one was pretty good.

And apparently it wasn't Swedish, but one of a series of "Real life gamebooks" by Simon Farrell and Jon Sutherland

http://mrparsons.webspace.virginmedia.com/html/real_life_gamebooks.html(I can't speak for the other ones)

Also Silver Star was apparently Grey Star in English. http://mrparsons.webspace.virginmedia.com/html/world_of_lone_wolf_by_ian_page.html

Also Falcon: http://mrparsons.webspace.virginmedia.com/html/falcon_by_mark_smith___jamie_t.html

[Barristan]

Oooh I had forgotten those! This series was called simply 'History' in French. I still own somewhere the Hastings one and the 'murican Independance war one. I read two of the remaining ones (from the local library) and the guillotine one is actually the only one I never played. They were very good but quite hard too. If I recall, rolling snake eyes in combat was insta R.I.P., somewhat annoying.

 

I actually discovered Grey Star two weeks ago. 

[Zgagor]

I grew up having to read "De leeuw van Vlaanderen" for school. Which is basicly the same story except this time it was the proud Flemish slaughtering ze evil French. You guys really didn't make many friends in the middle ages huh? 

 

Hah, i grew up reading it for FUN!

There wasn't much to do in Yugoslavia at the time

[Rymdkejsaren]

Well, I've certainly been successful at increasing my reading. For non-fiction, I have read Carol S. Dweck's Mindset, a book everyone alive should read, and I can recommend it for anyone who wants their life to be better. It's not a self-help book, though it may look and sound like it, but a deeply researched and easily accessible account of the psychology of what that makes some people successful and others less so.

 

I followed that up with Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion, which an exhaustive manual on the how and why of atheism. I found it thoroughly stimulating, and although I've named myself agnostic at times, I now know that I am, and have been for a long time, atheist.

 

Fiction-wise I finished Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell? by some guy. A fascinating story based on the account of one WWII soldier who escaped from German POW-camps hundreds of times. Unfortunately, the writing was rather poor, even cringeworthy. I am now reading Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time.

[Rymdkejsaren]

Oh, and if you are at all interested, I've finished the second part of a short story set in my own fantasy world. You can find it here: http://spiritmask.net/not-the-prey/. Part one is linked at the top. It's shorter, and in my opinion, not as good, but part two will make a fair bunch more sense if you read it first.

 

If you want to, do share your thoughts. Trust me, I am thick-skinned (I do editing for a living, I know the only way to improve is to listen to people's impressions of your writing; it is never the same as your own).