Бойните ровове на Крарт

Blood Sword #1

by Dave Morris, Oliver Johnson, Дейв Морис

На всеки тринадесет лунни месеца маговете на Крарт провеждат смъртоносно съревнование, за да установят кой от тях ще властва над тази мрачна и ледена земя. Те изпращат дръзки Приключенци долу в лабиринтите, които лежат под тундрата, като всеки Приключенец или отбор от Приключенци търси Емблемата на победата, която ще спечели власт за техния покровител. Само един отбор може да оцелее. Другите трябва да умрат.

КЪРВАВ МЕЧ може да бъде играна или индивидуално, или от отбор до четири човека. Поредицата представлява най-вълнуващото досега предизвикателство в ролевите приключения, като обединява най-доброто от ролевите игри, книгите-игри и игрите върху дъска.

Genres: Gamebooks, Fantasy, Fiction, Role Playing Games

290 pages, малък формат, меки корици

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This gamebook is a multi-player dungeon crawler adventure with an excellent combat system. The adventure is quite linear and I didn't find the dungeon particularly exciting. Nevertheless, I think that the possibility of picking the wizard to represent as a champion at the beginning of the adventure was quite innovative.

[Tazio Bettin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading and loving this series when I was a kid, and now I know why. Big nostalgia trip, a series wonderfully written with some really innovative and interesting mechanics. Now that the series has been reprinted it's a must buy/must have!

[Scott Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is something a little different for a classic 1980s gamebook, as you manage a party of adventurers. Not only does this make combats more interesting, with various options for each of up to 4 characters, but also provides more of a tabletop RPG experience than most other gamebooks. The setting is high fantasy but with a dark tone. The quality of the writing is very high, as you'd expect from Dave Morris, and the Russ Nicholson illustrations are excellent - almost on a par with his very best work. The adventure itself has a dungeon crawl format, but begins with an interesting lead in, borrows at least as much from classical (Greek/Roman) mythology as it does from pseudo-medieval fantasy, and features enough interesting characters to feel like a lived-in environment rather than a D&D-style dungeon.

[Who · Rating 3 out of 5]

The reviews had me believe this gamebook was mindblowing, but playing with a party fo 4 it didn't feel that way. The quality of the writing is too longwinded and verbose for a busy party, most of the dungeon-crawl choices are cryptic, meanspirited, and arbitrary. Map-based combat sounds great, but the rules are unfleshed. Party dynamics are unbalanced as well- our wizard consistently racked all the kills while the warrior had basically no major role to play even while in combat.

Deaths are routine and arbitrary, but if you take them at their word the designers would honestly have you remove players from the game permanently, even though the consequent unbalancing would all but tip the balance away to any hope of survival. Naturally we didn't play like that

Bloodsword has a lot of good ideas and comes from an author (morris) whose system I LOVE, but it's still basically a one-player adventure

[Ангѣлъ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Така и не харесах тази поредица и така и не разбрах, защо я харесват - може би заради липсата на „културно“ (сиреч класическо касапско) фентъзи на български език. Играта беше мудна и на моменти объркваща. Може би защото бях свикнал повече да играя, отколкото да чета и по-големите произведения ми доскучаваха, а и западните не бяха като българските книги-игри - не бяха писани за българския придричив читател.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una delle prime serie di librogiochi "multiplayer" arrivati in Italia.
In pratica se si era in 4 giocatori era quasi come una partita a Dungeons & Dragons senza Master, inoltre se qualcuno moriva potevamo sempre barare! :D

[Kjeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great gamebook!, almost same plot as Deathtrap Dungeon from the Fighting Fantasy series, which is not bad at all. and with the possibility to play either as a solo hero, or in a party up to 4 characters.
If the hero(es) succeed, they can continue into book #2.

[Noi LeggiAMO Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un librogame molto interessante, la trama è molto interessante, rigiocabile tantissime volte con mille strade possibili fin dall'inizio. Questo librogame può essere giocato in solo o con altre persone, calibrando la forza in base al numero di partecipanti. Nonostante sia calibrato bene giocato in solo può risultare difficile per la capienza della borsa, che è limitata, se si gioca con più personaggi la borsa raddoppia, come anche le chance di salvarsi... o forse no... Ti salverai solo se farai le scelte giuste.
Scorrevole, ben scritto, divertente e longevo. Un librogame che consiglio vivamente, uno dei miei primi che mi hanno fatta innamorare di questo genere, scelte punitive a volte ma che permettono di rendere realistico il viaggio che il personaggio che stiamo impersonando. Ogni run sarà diversa sia per le scelte sia per i personaggi. Cambiando l'eroe che stiamo impersonando ma facendo le stesse scelte della run precedente, avremo risultati diversi proprio perché i personaggi hanno caratteristiche differenti, con uno magari si muore, con uno si sopravvive e magari con un altro ancora si apre una strada mai vista prima.
Munitevi di un D6 e partite per il labirinto che vi farà vivere tante avventure diverse.
Un D6, un libro e tante strade.
Recensione completa sul blog noi_leggiamo, anche su instagram e facebook.
Ari

[Andy Fletcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Battlepits of Krarth is the first in the Bloodsword gamebook collection. As with most gamebook series, the first isn't necessary the best. However, whilst it's a little derivative, it does set the scene for the rest of the series and is still very well written and avoids the clichés and problems that besets most gamebook series. The only drawback from the series was the complex combat system. But that is easily solvable, just don't bother with it. The book stands up on the quality of the writing alone.

I owned many gamebook series back in the day but culled most of them from my collection. Bloodsword is the collection I regret getting rid of the most, hence me purchasing it again. On a more positive note, at least the authors got paid twice over. There are probably around ten stand out gamebook series in total, this being one of them. One or both of the authors being involved in three or four of the others (more if you allow for Jamie Thomson's cameo role in book 5). But then you probably know that already if you're reading this.

[Al Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved these as a kid. Wasted a lot of time playing them repeatedly.

[Ángel Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estupendo librojuego que te permite jugar solo o con otros tres jugadores para formar un «dream team» compuesto por un guerrero, un bribón, un sabio y un encantador (o sus contrapartidas femeninas, lógicamente). Las reglas son sencillas pero lo suficientemente complejas como para permitir que los diversos personajes aporten una gran versatilidad al grupo en los combates y afecten al devenir de los acontecimientos según sean los actores principales unos u otros en un momento dado. El primer libro es un clásico «dungeon crawling»: los jugadores tienen que competir contra otros equipos de aventureros representando a un hechicero que obtendrá gran poder si el grupo por él patrocinado alcanza la victoria. La competición tendrá lugar en una especie de catacumbas cercanas a la ciudad de los magos, de cuya historia iremos aprendiendo más y más conforme avance la partida.

La gracia de la cosa, obviamente, no está en su originalidad, sino en el hecho de que puedan jugar hasta 4 jugadores. En mi caso, ha sido con mis tres hijos, y nos lo hemos pasado bomba, hasta el punto de empezar el segundo en cuanto hemos acabado el primero. Sin duda, Dave Morris (que, por cierto, me aclaró personalmente en su blog alguna duda que tenía acerca del reglamento, dando muestras de su amabilidad y cercanía) es el genio infravalorado de los librojuegos.

[Spencer Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, dark fantasy interactive fiction romp. Super cool that it's for 1-4 players. Mostly enemies, atmosphere, and items. I wish there would have been more cohesiveness from beginning to end and a bit more thoughtfulness to the choices (sometimes it's literally "go left" or "go right"). Took my wife and I about 4 hours to play, including the fights, which were basic enough to be repetitive after 2 of them, especially because you can't upgrade your character throughout and items only change a little of what you can do in combat.

[Chris R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story too hard died many times.