Year in review

OK, OK, I admit it.  I'm writing this blog on August 23rd, so it's not quite a year, but I'm away on the 28th, so I won't be able to put my exact stats for that day up.  So shoot me.

So I have now had this blog for a year, so I thought I'd talk about how it's grown over the past twelve months.

I'd just like to thank everyone who has fed back to me, encouraged me and followed me over the past year.  This blog has opened up a whole world of gamebook to me.

I started this blog as an education for myself.  In this age, we absorb too much information without analyzing it properly and discerning its true meaning.  I aim to learn more about how to create a good gamebook.  It has now grown to include Twitter and Youtube.

Over the past year, I have written 124 posts (including this one) and had 18045 pageviews (although I'm sure that most of them involve people searching for images based on the searches I can see).  My Twitter account now has 157 followers and my Youtube channel has 2 videos about gamebooks.  I also have a Facebook group with 17 followers.


Things people have asked for more of

Image found here.

Pictures - I will supply more of these.  A picture paints a thousand words.

Vlogs - I liked doing the vlog and I will do more in the future.  I am planning on commenting on my gamebooks in vlog form.

Quotes from players playing a gamebook - I need to start this up again as people asked for it.  I will do this in future.

Lessons I've learnt from this blog


Listen to BlogcastFM.  Most of the things I've learnt have come from this excellent podcast.

Review things ASAP to give them and you the most coverage.  I made a mistake with Destiny Quest.  I scheduled it, but I should have just published it.

Build up relationships with readers - such as having a dialogue with them or emailing them.  It makes blogging more rewarding.

Write lots of posts in advance so that you acn deal with stuff that comes up - this is because real life stuff comes up and when you start putting yourself out there, you start getting emails to deal with.

Think very hard about a good title - I called the blog virtual fantasies as a mixture of Virtual REality and Fighting Fantasy.  I then tried to get another name (lloydofgamebooks.blogspot.com) but it didn't work as I had two blogs with different followers.  I got rod of the new URL as it was causing confusion.

April A to Z - Doing this got me lots of pageviews and followers.  It was well worth it.

Stats

As you can see from this, after a dip in November and December (when I did very little posting), my views have gone up 

every month.  I think August will be the month when I hit a plateau.

My top posts are mostly reviews.

Here are my top reference sites - thankyou guys!

The future


I am actually going to do more gamebook writing in the future.  I hope to release a small gamebook every month.

I have written most of the posts for the rest of this year and some for next year.  I have a lot of posts of inspirations for my gamebooks.

I have more reviews to write about gamebooks and the websites that they appear on as well as analysis of gamebooks and their characters.

I'm looking forward to sharing my second year with you all :).

Happy gamebooking!  And for those of you writing a gamebook to share, keep it up!

A view on views

The number of page views I've had over these past few days has shot up.  I think it has something to do with the number of reviews I've posted.  I have posted reviews of Fabled Lands, Destiny Quest and Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2.

As mentioned in Zhu's blog in the post Year One, review and commentary gets fewer hits than creative stuff.  


I will be posting some more reviews in July and I will have a think about why people like reading reviews.  I like to read reviews of books I've already read and TV shows and films I've already watched, so I'm going to give a little analysis of why I would do that.


Hope that you are all having a good week.

And hello to...

Those of you who listen to Blogcastfm know that one of the characteristics that successful blogs share is that the writer builds up some good relationships with their followers.  I set out to do this but things have been rather busy of late and I have not been able to give you all the attention you deserve for following my blog.  I will get onto it, but in the mean time, I'd just thought I'd say hello and that I'm still thinking of you all and thank you for your attention and comments (especially comments; I like comments and will start replying to them soon.  Thanks to BilliamBabble for giving me a lot of comments)  I hope you're getting as much out of reading this blog as I am writing it.  


I'd also like to give a shout out to Shane Garvey whose great blog with Fabled Lands Previews seems to be where a lot of my readers are linking from at the moment.  


I also didn't get round to entering the One Page Dungeon Competition, but I'm enjoying looking at the maps.


I have been perusing the blogosphere and I have found some good gamebook related stuff from Tunnels and Trolls blogs.  I like the retro presentation and system of Tunnels and Trolls.  It gives me comfort.  


As well as being an RPG, Tunnels and Trolls produces a lot of solo gamebooks and there are several Tunnels and Trolls blogs out there.  First of all, Scott Malthouse has produced his own Solo, Depths of the Devilmancer.  I have ordered it and need to give it a good play through.  


Since Tunnels and Trolls has a lot of solo adventures, people have written a lot about writing these solos well.  First is H'rrrothgarrr's Hovel which has  a good post about writing a solo book.


Another Tunnels and Trolls blog devoted entirely to solo adventures is The Lone Delver which has posts devoted entirely to Tunnels and Trolls solos.  I'm particularly enjoying the Solo design series which now has eight parts.


If you fancy writing a Tunnels and Trolls solo adventure, the submission guidelines are here.  


If you are a new or old reader, please carry on - I appreciate it immensely and hopefully, I'll get round to writing some more gamebooks.  I'd like to release a micro adventure every month, but that won't happen until September as I'll be writing them over the summer just like I'll be writing my entry for the Windhammer Competition.

Stylish blogger award

Many thanks to Scott Malthouse and Gamecaster for their Stylish blogger awards.  They both have great blogs that focus on Tunnels and Trolls an RPG system started in 1975, but still going strong and it its 7.5th edition.  Tunnels and Trolls also has several solo adventures, some of which I have bought along with the 7.5 corebook.  The rules are fun and easy to learn.  


The award comes along with a few fun rules:

1. Thank and link back to the person giving 
you the award.
2. Share seven things about yourself
3. Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award
4. Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award.



Seven things about myself:

1. I'm an obsessive podcast and audiobook listener.  If I enjoy a podcast, I have to go on the RSS feed and download all of the episodes.  In order to listen to more podcasts, I listen to them on a faster speed setting.  
2. I also enjoy singing and I am part of a choir.
3. There is no food that I don't like.  I enjoy eating too much.
4. I like choral music but I also like Muse.  
5. My favourite TV series is Peep Show.
6. Away from the blog, I'm a science teacher.  I do most of my gamebook writing in the summer when I have long holidays.
7. I can't remember the first film my fiance and I watched together(!), but our first meal was at a tapas restaurant.  We are getting married in just over five weeks!!!!!!!!!

Ten blogs I would recommend:

1. Fantasy Gamebook by Andrew Wright - a brilliant gamebook blog by an active member of the gamebook community and author of great gamebooks including Catacombs of the Undercity.  Andrew also pulled me out of period when I wasn't posting with this post.  It showed me that someone was reading and cared.  
2. Trollish Delver by Scott Malthouse.  I'm giving the reward right back at you for writing great RPG advice, also liking H.P Lovecraft and calling me a really nice guy.  Thanks Scott :).  
3. T and T Liasha World by Gamecaster.  I found this from Scott's Trollish Delver site and I enjoy reding about the construction of this world.  
4. Fabled Lands by Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson - As well as keeping us up to date on everyone's favourite sandbox gamebook series, the blog also publishes material on many other interesting topics.  
5. Adventures and Shopping by Billiam Babble - here Billiam reviews RPG and gamebook products and sells his great wares including dungeon sections, dice mugs and game books.  I'd like to thank  Billiam for selling me Black Vein Prophecy (my copy was very worn).  
6. Fighting Fantasist by Coopdevil - eclectic mix of book and magazine covers, reviews, playthroughs of gamebooks where YOU decide and much much more.  
7. The realm of Zhu, by Zhu - great blog showing artwork, miniatures, RPG characters and gamebook material.  
8. Turn to 400 by Murray - The hilarious stories of Murray's attempts at the Fighting Fantasy series.  Complete with skeleton count.
9. Jonathan Green author, by Jonathan Green - I know of Jonathan through his Fighting Fantasy books, but he is also the author of many more things.  Here, you can read all about his many creations.  
10. Ascii, Dice and Why by Akhier, the dragon hearted - a young blog I found on the April A to Z challenge.  His A to Z posts have contained some great things to think about in regards to RPGs.  Looking through the old posts provides plenty of Ascii for the roguelike fans.  
11. Titan, the Fighting Fantasy Blog by Gallicus - I love the fanzine so I was glad to see that Gallicus has also started a blog to keep us tied over between issues.
12. Trivium Academy by Jessica.  As a teacher, I would like to give my students some good tools for learning.  I read a book called The Trivium by Sister Miriam Joseph.  I enjoy reading about how the Trivium is being put into action.  
13. The Lone Delver by Dan.  I've bought Tunnels and Trolls 7.5 and several solo books and getting into them is on my to do list.  It is great to see a blog that focuses on Tunnels and Trolls solos.  

Happy new year!

Happy new year!

I have been neglecting the blog recently - december is both a hectic and a tiring time for me at work and  then there are all the holidays.  However, I am now refreshed and relaxed.  You could say that my stamina has been replenished. 

However, I have been working quietly away and keeping my finger on the pulse. 

First of all, there is a new gamebook blog, written by Andrew Wright who has also written tons of great gamebooks which you can find on http://www.ffproject.com/download.htm.

The blog can be found on:

http://fantasygamebook.blogspot.com/

http://fantasygamebook.wordpress.com/

http://fantasygamebook.livejournal.com/

It has only been active for a short time, but it already contians several well written posts with references for further reading.  In fact, it was Andrew's post about gamebook blogs that has inspired this post as it showed me that people are taking notice that I haven't updated yet. 

So read it - it is really informative.  Andrew's latest posts contain a great review of Heart of Ice, a gamebook by Dave Morris.  You can find it on his blog for free (it is half way down the page).  I'm ashamed to say that I haven't read it yet, but I am putting it on the top of my list.

Secondly, it was announced that Advanced Fighting Fantasy (AFF) is being revised, re-written and reorganised by Arion games.  It is due to be released in Spring 2011.  The website for the new Advanced Fighting Fantasy is here:  http://www.arion-games.com/AFF.html.

I am looking forward to it.  I have the AFF gamebooks and I enjoyed the unique way in which it was presented.  Adventures were presented as films with scenes, characters and props.  The approach did not take itself too seriously, either, which I enjoyed.  It made the book an entertaining read for the director while they were planning an adventure.

The side of me that was all about games mechanics noticed a few things though (and when I was younger, I went through a phase that was all about games mechanics.  Sometimes I would scan gamebook paragraphs to see if I needed to changed stats or gain an item and jsut ignored all the lovely description that the author had gone to lots of trouble to write - sorry!).

First of all the old problem of having a skill range between 7 and 12 was exacerbated by the rule that every point in skill you had allowed you to pick a point in a special skill. 

The value of that special skill was your skill + the number of points you had allocated to that skill (maximum 4).

This means that a skill 7 character had 7 points to use and the maximum value they could have was 11.

A skill 12 person had 12 points to use and the maximum value they could have was 16.  The minumum value they could have was 13.

So a skill 12 character could have 12 special skills with a value of 13, while a skill 7 character could have a value of 11 for their best skill and only 3 points left to spend. 

I also think that there needs to be clarification on what the skills do and how balanced the skills are.  Some skills overlap with others.

The scouting skill allowed you to sneak and hide outdoors.  However, there was already a sneak and hide skill.

The heavy armoured combat skill which allowed you to fight in heavy armour.  However, there were no rules for what heavy armour did.

There was a battle combat skill and siege combat skill which allowed the character to fight well in a mass battle and siege.  What did that mean exactly? 

Excellent vision and excellent hearing are both  self explanatory, but there is also an awareness skill which allows the character to detect anything. 

The strength skill allowed you to increase the damage you inflict in combat by 1 - I'll have that one!  Heal allowed you to restore other peoples' stamina. 

The magic system also needs tidying up.  There was a priest magic list and a sorcerer magic list.  However, they were too similar.  Priests had offensive spells and sorcerers had healing spells.  Priests had to follow a moral code of their god or be excommunicated and lose the chance to learn more spells. They only had a few spells that sorcerers did not have.  Sorcerers, on the other hand, could do what they liked and had lots of spells that priests could not access.

I just read what I wrote and realised that I was sounding a bit down on AFF.  I enjoyed reading the books immensly.  I was never able to find a group to play with, but I'm sure I would have liked it.  These issues are easily tidied up and I look forward to the new releases!

I am working on my post about endings in gamebooks which are a result of bad choices (I really wanted to say bad endings there, but that would be ambiguous).  However, I am getting sucked in to reading a lot of endings.  A lot of them are very entertaining.