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No Make-a-Wish moments today. Just had to look after my stupid no-famous family in our boring town. Maybe this means I am not dying after all.
To be fair Ernie and me had been meaning to go to Battle, where the Battle of Battle took place in 1066 (Battle was asking for it - I know it's an old-fashioned attitude, but if you call yourself Battle then you are asking for people to battle on you). This would have been the equivalent of meeting Kyle Maclachlan, especially if, as hoped by him, Ernie found a thousand year old arrow or sword. I told him he could keep it if he did.
We decided that given the weather and the possibility of being caught up in a storm, this might not be the best day to go, so instead stayed home. I have got the latest Fighting Fantasy book "Tomb of the Golden Skull" because Ian Livingstone is going to be a guest on the book club soon and so I decided to introduce Ernie to this fantastic series (I bought him Warlock of Firetop Mountain for his birthday, but he hasn't read it yet).
I have very happy memories of playing the Fighting Fantasy books as a kid. It never progressed into full on Dungeons and Dragons fanaticism, but I loved the thrill of having to choose where the story went, plus the added fun of rolling dice to determine luck, skill and how battles went. Absolutely thrilling books that you could play again and again.
Playing the new one with Ernie I remembered how tantalising each choice was. In the new one, early on, a wizard is telling you to get on with your mission and get on the boat, but someone is trying to tempt you on to a different boat. Even though it's likely you should be trusting the wizard and not trusting the person wanting you to divert from your mission, I could see that Ernie couldn't resist finding out what would happen if he did the"wrong" thing. He went on to the other boat and then got embroiled in a fight with two pirates. Luckily he had high skill and luck points, but because he'd been so disobedient he had to take away 3 skill points each turn and some damage was inflicted.
We both learned a lesson and later on in the story your correct path is not always so clearly signposted. What terrific fun. Ernie loved it and was heavily invested, terrified of doing the wrong thing, delighted when he won a battle or found a ring, devastated when he lost a couple of stamina points.
So lovely to have two excuses to return to these books - oh yes I am doing a podcast and my son can't possibly play these alone, so I HAVE to play. I was also thrilled to be in the adventure and annoyed when I realised that my choice had meant I'd missed out on visiting the library or darting into a room whilst escaping killer bees.
It's so cleverly constructed and almost impossible to believe there's so much adventure in such a small book. Very much looking forward to talking to the man himself!
