Now, the book of the game

Press, 28 May 1983, Page 16

Now, the book of the game

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. By Steve Jackson and lan Livingstone. Puffin, 1982. $3.95. (Reviewed by A. J. Petre) Role-playing adventure games have rapidly gained popularity in the last few years, since American games such as “Dungeons and Dragons” and “Rune Quest started collecting devotees. Most such games started out as board games. More recently, many have been adapted to or written for home computer systems. The latest development is the adventure game book — of which “Warlock” is one — although some simple games have appeared in specialist magazines. These games are based on fantasy,

and on the results of choices made by the player. Some twists in the adventure are selected by the throw of the dice. The “Warlock,” “readers” need dice, a pencil, and an eraser. They must then set about searching for the Warlock’s treasure, which is hidden in a monster-filled diingeon. The appeal is in proportion to the player’s imagination: a 12-year-old who tried reading and playing “Warlock” was absorbed for days. Dice decide your allocation of skill, luck and stamina, although occurrences during the adventure can alter these totals. When you are attacked by a creature — which is often — your totals decide the contest. During your travels you find useful items, traverse mazes (you must draw a map), use magic potions (to restore skill, luck or stamina levels) and meet a variety of nasties familiar to adventure-game players: goblins, giant rats and bats, vampires, vicious dogs, minotaurs, gremlins, trolls, sandworms and piranhas, to name a few. The book works. The game stimulates the imagination and tests the ingenuity, although luck plays the major part in the adventurer’s success or failure. Not everyone enjoys roleplaying games, in the same way that not everyone can be bothered with crosswords. Those who do enjoy such pursuits will get hours of entertainment from “The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.”