Scorpion Swamp (Fighting Fantasy #8) by Steve Jackson

Scorpion Swamp (Fighting Fantasy #8) Reviews

• 
  Alex

  What this Fighting Fantasy adventure lacks in elegance and plot it makes up in innovation. Scorpion Swamp plays something like a sandbox RPG in that there are multiple quest lines (Good, Neutral and Evil), a range of spells to cast, revisit-able locations and each quest can be completed by actually only visiting a bunch. On paper it may not sound amazing - and it's not exactly mind-blowing to play these days - but it's quite an achievement for a short book written in 1984 to provide such a clever and well thought gaming experience and I literally had hours of fun wandering around the swamp seeing what was in each location and what the method was for dealing with it.
  
  Is it a fair gripe to complain that the story isn't that imaginative and that the encounters here aren't all that epic? Possibly, but I think that seems quite harsh given that we're still firmly in the classic D&D era of basic Dungeon crawl hack and slash when these books were produced and frankly there's some good hacking and slashing in this book. Besides, there's still an epic confrontation with the Evil wizard at the end if you choose his quest ... which I lost miserably because he's a badass. (There was an easier way. There's always an easier way dammit). Whilst most of the monsters are a touch dull (when they're not Orcs, they're Sword Trees or Scorpions or ... A BEAR!) but I liked wandering around meeting the Five Masters who each had a different theme, some of whom were good or evil.
  
  Recommended. It won't change your life, it's Fighting Fantasy; meet it on its own terms and it's a blast.
• 
  Graham

  A good, straightforward fantasy adventure and part of the FIGHTING FANTASY gamebook series. SCORPION SWAMP offers something slightly different from the usual formula in that it's much more navigation-focused. Players are encouraged to map their adventures - to be honest, you won't get far without your map here - and the game is unique (as far as I know) is that you find yourself returning to the same numbered locations even after you've played them through the first time.
  
  There's also a little more variety to the storyline than usual, given that you can choose to fight for good, neutral or evil. Each choice leads to a different mission, so there's plenty of play in this one despite the more limited nature of the gaming area. The encounters are atmospheric and well-written, making you really feel like you've descended into a murky swamp. Good stuff.
  
  NB: This adventure may be slightly easier than the others given that we successfully completed our "good" mission on our first playthrough. I look forward to trying one of the other options in the future, though.
  
  NB. So much for this book being easy! We tried playing again on Christmas Day 2020 and were almost instantly killed after a run-in with the sinister Master of Spiders. I still like the unique dynamics in this one, from the ultra-careful mapping angle to the 'magic gems' which feel like they're from a sci-fi story.
• 
  David Sarkies

  Written by the other Steve Jackson
  21 June 2012
  
  Well, there a couple of things that I must mention and the first is that I have suddenly discovered that there are two Steve Jackson in the gaming industry. Initially I always through that the Steve Jackson of the Fighting Fantasy books and the Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson games were one and the same person, however it turns out that they are not. The Fighting Fantasy Steve Jackson is based in England and the Steve Jackson Games Steve Jackson is based in America. I will not say that never the twain shall meet because, guess what, Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson present Scorpion Swamp by Steve Jackson (Steve Jackson Games).
  In a sense I thought that is was one of Jackson's experimental books because he does seem to experiment more than Ian Livingstone does, who seems to find a formula that works for him and then runs with it. Livingstone has experimented, but it seems the books that he wrote used the basic formula that was introduced in Warlock of Firetop Mountain and 'perfected' in Forest of Doom.
  Scorpion Swamp moves away from the standard formula in two ways, the first being that you are not required to simply move in one direction through the adventure, but rather you can travel about the entire swamp and visit the same location multiple times. In fact it is not the case of entering the swamp at one end and leaving at the other, but rather going into the swamp, completing your quest, and then leaving by the route through which you entered. The second thing is that there is not just one quest, but three of them, one for a good wizard (find the berries of a magical plant), a neutral person (find a path through Scorpion Swamp), and for an evil wizard (kill three masters and bring back their amulets).
  The actual adventure is smaller than the others, most likely because there is a lot of space taken up with you returning to a location you have already visited. Secondly this is the first adventure where the first paragraph does not immediately throw you into the adventure, but rather you spend some time wondering around the town obtaining your quest and then going out to complete it. Magic is also introduced into this adventure, however it is very restricted, with only one place in the adventure when you can restock spells. If you are neutral it is implied that you can use good and evil magic, however you never have the opportunity of getting your hands on any good or evil spells, that only happens when you contract your services to the relevant wizard.
  I have also noticed that the commentaries on this book have begun to wind down with people simply marking it off as read and then moving on, or simply cutting and pasting generic comments about the Fighting Fantasy game books. However I still believe that there is enough uniqueness in the books to actually write something worthwhile about them.
• 
  E.J. Matze

  FIGHTING FANTASY BOOKS
  Two dice, a pencil and an eraser are all you need to make your journey.
  YOU decide which way to go, which dangers to risk...
• 
  Vämpiriüs

  Bažina škorpiónů je parádní gamebook, který se od ostatních liší svými konci. Nabízí totiž tři různé konce v závislosti na výběru "sponzora" výpravy. Taktéž je možné procházet jednotlivé lokace několikrát dokola. Obtížnost knihy je poměrně vyšší díky její nelineárnosti a větší svobodě. Každá možnost cesty má svoji obtížnost a to je velké plus. Pěkně napsaný gamebook z parádního prostředí u kterého se hráč ani čtenář nudit nebude.
• 
  Adam Cleaver

  I loved these books as a kid. Must go back and re-read them to make a proper review. But just look at that art work too... amazing!
• 
  Michael

  This is the eighth book in the excellent “Fighting Fantasy Gamebook” series. This series combined the typical “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” format with some simple combat rules from Role Playing to create solo adventures that were challenging and interesting to older readers. I read them in my teens, but have hung on to them and returned to them through my adulthood, because they are so well crafted. This one is no exception.
  
  The adventure makes you an adult fighter (one of the reasons I liked this series better than “Endless Quest,” where the protagonist was always a kid) with experience, fighting skills, a sword, and armor. In this adventure you also have a useful magic item – a ring that works as a compass, keeping you oriented in wilderness conditions. It also warns you when evil is near. You have decided to use your ring to take on the trackless wastes of a “wilderness dungeon” called Scorpion Swamp. You get to choose one of three quests (good, neutral, or evil) at the beginning of the adventure, and get to choose a handful of “Spells” to take with you, depending on which quest you are on. These include spells to restore your ability scores, offensive and defensive spells, and a few “helping” spells like Bless and Friendship, which are more useful than they at first appear.
  
  The swamp itself is nicely thought out, with a series of numbered “clearings” that must be mapped as you go. Your first few adventures will really mainly be mapping quests, so that later you can focus on the objectives of your official quests once you know your way around. There are a variety of monsters, including Orcs, a Giant, Sword Trees, a Giant Scorpion, and Crab Grass. More interesting are the various “Masters,” who inhabit the swamp, including a Master of Wolves, a Master of Spiders, and a Mistress of Birds. Each has their own alignments and interests, and they may help or hinder you, depending on how you approach them.
  
  There are two aspects of this book that affect game play and differ it to the other “Endless Quest” books you may have played. The first is your ring, which warns you when evil is near. In general, “evil,” means “attack quickly,” even if you have chosen to pursue the evil quest. Evil people have no allies, it seems! The second is that the monsters in this book are quite tough. In previous books, the first few monsters you would encounter had skill levels from 3-6 or so, below the minimum you could roll for your character, assuring that anyone could get at least partway into the book and pick up a few helpful items before hitting a foe that could kill them. Here, the monster with a skill level below 8 is rare, and when you do find creatures with skill of 6 they either have very high stamina scores or they attack in a group. There are relatively few helpful items of treasure, and at least one cursed object you must avoid. Over all, this makes this adventure tougher than the previous books, but that may be one reason I have played it more often. It is possible to win, but it requires cleverness and dedication, plus a bit of luck.
• 
  Michael Kelly

  It's remarkable how many innovations there were in these early Fighting Fantasy books. Looking back over the years, I had come to assume that they were all out of the same mould, but there are quite a few unique features and 'firsts' with this, the eighth title in the range.
  
  It's the first book not to be written by Steve Jackson or Ian Livingstone, who started the whole thing of with 'The Warlock of Firetop Mountain'. The schedule was by now too much for only two writers, so books by other writers began appearing too, headlined 'Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone present...'. What confused a lot of people at the time was that the writer of this first 'other-authored' book was ... Steve Jackson! But a *different* Steve Jackson, a shining light in the US games industry, not the UK one.
  
  This is the first book to be set in a swamp, a great environment for scrambling about in a fantasy adventure. It's the first book in which you begin by picking up your quest in town instead of just plunging straight in. This is important, because there are three distinct quests available, working for a good wizard, an evil wizard or a neutral wizard. For the first time, an alignment system is introduced, limiting the spells which are available to you to use (this book reintroduces a simple magic system based around spell gems received from your patron). This also means the book can be worked through three times, with three distinct goals, all located in different remote parts of the swamp.
  
  This was also the first book to allow you to wander back and forth through the criss-crossing paths of the swamp as you wished, revisiting locations you had already visited as you explored. This actually made the experience seem much more 'real' and absolutely necessitated the use of a map. An experiment I'd have liked to have seen repeated and expanded upon.
  
  I tried the good wizard's quest initially. The encounters were comparatively tough, with enemy Skill scores of 9 being fairly common. The exploration was intriguing and the atmosphere of the swamp mysterious and dangerous-seeming. The highlights were encounters with the master wizards who have established their lairs in the swamp. There are apparently five of these. In this playthrough, I met the Master of Wolves (neutral), the Mistress of Birds (good) and the Master of Spiders (evil and bloody horrible). So there remain at least two for me to encounter.
  
  The actual quest was achieved and was well balanced, with a good deal of combat and the use of all but two of my spells. It was especially intriguing that the story doesn't end with finding the quest object. You then have to find your way back out of the swamp to report back to your patron!
  
  A good read Vive la difference!
• 
  Who

  one of the easier fighting fantasy games I've read. Well within the reach of lower-stat characters. Unfortunately the game world is rather small with few challenges if you bother to map it. There's a few clumsy issues such as being referred to seperate page each time you re-enter an area, when most have no game consequence
• 
  Rita

  Tal como A Masmorra Infernal, O Pântano do Escorpião foi lido há muito poucos anos e foi mais uma aventura que adorei e com a qual retomei o gosto por esta série.
• 
  Dane Barrett

  Written by the "other" Steve Jackson (the American one) Scorpion Swamp ended up being quite a different book (structure-wise) than previous titles in the Fighting Fantasy series.
  
  One major difference was how you could actively revisit areas that you had already explored. This was necessary because the missions in the game required you to visit the swamp, complete a task, and then return back to town. There was no shortcut back to town provided, so you had to carefully map and plan your return path.
  
  The other major difference was that there are actually three different quests to undertake, one for each alignment; Good, Neutral and Evil. Which quest you were performing would often change the ways certain character encounters would play out.
  
  A number of the combat encounters in this book are sharply more difficult than previous books in the series, with quite a few enemies having SKILL of 9 or more. This can be offset by obtaining a SKILL+2 based weapon (especially helpful to counteract a SKILL-draining area in the middle of the swamp) before even entering the swamp if you know the sequence of events that lead to finding it.
  
  Not a bad book considering it was the first of many designed by authors other than Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (the British one, that is).
• 
  Remo

  Los libros de lucha ficción eran juegos de rol de consumo individual. Basados en el planteamiento clásico de
  Elige tu propia aventura (que luego
  Multiaventura llevó un poco más allá), en estos libros había que ir con papel y dado, y estar dispuesto a llevar un recuento de varios estadísticos (vida, fuerza, habilidad) para progresar en la aventura. Eran muy divertidos. Tras el primer recorrido respetando las normas al pie de la letra, de repente, solía pasar que empezábamos a ganar todos los combates y las tiradas de suerte (los libros estaban bien porque aunque perdieras una tirada de suerte aún podías sobrevivir e ir por otro lado de la historia, no eran todas de sí o no).
  Cada libro traía varias horas de entretenimiento. Las historias eran arquetípicas (caballero mata monstruos en misión de rescate, universo Mad Max, naves espaciales que desaparecen, misión en ruinas arqueológicas...) pero eso en realidad era un plus porque te situaba perfectamente en la misión ya desde que veías la portada del libro.
  En conjunto unos libros que recuerdo con mucho cariño y que merecían mucho la pena.
• 
  Jouni

  Easy to win comparing to
  The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. You need just couple of plays to do the relevant mapping and find out suitable gems for each task.
  Easier to map than TWoFM. Much better replay value because there are 3 different missions and you can travel on map very freely. This also means that there are more freedom on solving each mission.
• 
  Ben

  Fighting Fantasy gamebook #8, from 1984, is distinguished by its approach to mapping, with numbered ‘clearings’ arranged in a grid-like pattern that you can retrace your steps and return to. You also have three missions to choose from, so it’s essentially three adventures in one. I did this one as a child and this time played it with my 8-year-old son. It was a lot of fun.
• 
  Alexander Curran

  Review in progress...
• 
  Mark Selby

  I thought I had already reviewed this book but apparently not so:
  Whilst in Coronavirus lockdown I have been rereading a few of my old Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.
  Scorpion Swamp was (along with Caverns of the Snow Witch) one of the first FF books I owned so I have fond memories of this one.
  
  The choice of working for good, evil or neutral missions was a different idea compared to other books but it did add to the time taken to actually get into the swamp.
  
  It was relatively easy to map although the numbered clearings don't seem to bear much relevance to each other but unlike other FF books you had the choice to come and go as you pleased rather than continually being forced in one direction.
  
  The concept of the masters of the swamp was a clever idea too.
  
  I think the artwork is great in this book with some memorable illustrations.
  
  An enjoyable trip down memory lane.