One thing I like to see in a gamebook is varying difficultly levels. Or other ways to reduce or increase the challenge.
Different Ways to Play a Gamebook
One feature of gamebooks is the ability to vary the way you play them. Playing the same gamebook but with different types of characters, different numbers or a player resource that you can choose when to spend.
The Sorcery! books let you play as a Warrior (standard 1d6+6 Skill) or as a Wizard with Skill 2 lower plus spells. The experience as a wizard is more complex, with fights becoming harder but many options opening up as you get to experiment with spells.
The Bradfell Conspiracy (by Samuel Isaacson) has a "Free Roam" mode, designed to "get lost in the fiction without the threat of death around every turn". It starts you off with several codewords and all tickboxes ticked.
This is especially valuable in Openworld gamebooks. In Fabled Lands you play as different classes, opening up unique quests and opportunities. In Legendary Kingdoms each character and mix of characters unlocks different narrative options.
Difficulty Levels
Another way of varying difficulty takes from computer games with modes such as Easy, Medium and Hard. Different levels provide you with more or less resources or change the difficulty in other ways. Some gamebooks have this in-built, whether intentional or not.
Many gamebooks don't need this, such as mysteries, puzzles and ones light on game elements. Although hints are nice! Some gamebooks also come at this from another angle, such as the DestinyQuest books where you don't die and can return to try quests as much as you like.
Isle of Torment by Dean Moodie has varying difficulty levels, with Easy, Moderate and Hard. These effect your starting gold and the supplies for your ship.
Heroes of Urowen by David Velasco has game levels to vary the challenge (Destroyer, Easy, Standard, Difficult, Heroic). These give more money, making it cheaper to get new abilities, with the opposite for harder modes.
Fighting Fantasy has this built in when you roll for Skill. In many FF books a Skill of 7 results in a quick death or a slow attrition to a high-skill foe who finishes you. Some FF books are completable with Skill 7, others need Skill 11 or 12 to complete and a few it doesn't matter as it's more about finding the right path/clues/items. (A related article to this is Variants for Characters Combat and Gameplay for Fighting Fantasy)
In Fabled Lands you can start with a higher level character from a later book and take them to an earlier book. The later the book the higher level your starting character and the better their Attributes.
Making an Openworld Gamebook Easier
There are only a few series of openworld gamebooks, but they're a bit commitment to play for any length of time. Finishing a series can mean many hours of play.
So for having a way to customise this built-in is a big selling point.
For my own first openworld gamebook (and series), I'm considering the following for making the game easier. Letting people choose one or more of the options.
- Extra FATE POINTs. This increases the number of times your character can avoid death / a permanent ending. (for my current playtest this is the only option)
- Extra LUCK. Luck lets you have more rerolls, so having more increases the agency for the player.
- Higher starting stats. These give more dice in tests so give a higher chance of success.
- Extra starting Companion. Having an extra companion can boost your stats and skills, open up certain options and make some fights easier.
- Starting in the Middle. An option similar to the Bradfell Conspiracy one, where you start with certain codewords equipment and tickboxes, having completed a couple major quests of the book.
- Giving Experience Points to spend, to tailor and strengthen your character a little before you start.
Making an Openworld Gamebook Harder
For making a gamebook harder, I've cribbed an idea from the solo miniatures game Five Leagues from the Borderlands. It has a bit on customising the game, including a checklist of different options to make it harder (or easier), mixing and matching as you see fit. These include having fewer heroes, more foes, higher upkeep, no magic and extra quests.
I'm planning on a similar list of options to make my gamebooks harder. This serves both purposes of changing the way you play the game and varying the difficulty level.
Currently the list is...
- No Fate Points. If you die that's it...
- No starting equipment or money
- Starting with no re-rolls or not able to use them on re-rolls.
- Starting with certain nasty plot keywords, so people are out to get you from the start
- Reduced starting Attributes
- Starting with certain nasty state keywords. Starving, Sickened, Strained and the like
- Limit of one companion.
- Slower to advance with new abilities.
Finishing Up
Now thinking of doing some articles on openworld gamebook series (Steam Highwayman, Fabled Lands, Legendary Kingdoms, VulcanVerse) with ways to make them easier or harder!
Any other gamebooks you think have varying Difficulty Levels built in?
