Fabled Lands - Overview

Overview

The books deviated from other mainstream gamebooks (such as the Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf series) in a number of ways. The most notable of these was the open-ended, free roaming gameplay. Other gamebooks gave the character a set quest, with some leniency in how they went about accomplishing it; when they completed the quest, the gamebook ended. The Fabled Lands series gave the player an entire fantasy world to roam around in, doing whatever they wished with no limits or linearity; there was no set quest and there is no way to "finish" the series (unless the player dies). There are hundreds of quests in the six books that were published, of varying lengths. The player is free to pursue these at his leisure, or spend his time doing entirely different things - wandering, trading, exploring or building up his abilities.

Each book contained a different geographic area of the Fabled Lands, and the player could easily travel between regions by switching to another book. The books became increasingly difficult as they progressed, with tougher enemies and harder quests; this was to account for the player becoming more powerful as they went through each book.

Other differences between previous gamebook series included:

• A greater number of sections, 679 to 786
• Large (A4) format with fold-out character sheet and colour map
• Open-ended trade via marketplace goods, investment or shipping
• Acquisition of large assets such as houses and ships
• Plot discovery through use of uncovered keywords

Although the final six books in the series have never been published (or even written), Dave Morris has indicated in the past that he is interested in reviving the series:

I'd love to complete the series. It would take some time to get back into the flow of it, but I still have our (very extensive) notes. I would think the first step might be to set up books 1-6 as Web pages and see what kind of interest they generated. This, I think, is a better format for gamebooks now - we are no longer in the era of the printed word. If that worked out, and the net publisher could set up a subscription system, I think Fabled Lands and many other gamebook series could enjoy quite a renaissance.

On September 13, 2010, Dave Morris indicated that the series had a possible chance of a revival on his blog, saying, in response to a fan query about the future of the fabled lands and particularly the book the Serpent King's domain "my lips are sealed, though I will say that Frank Johnson, the head of Fabled Lands LLP, was throwing those same words around last week. He might even have thrown in a labyrinth and some legions :)". In a later announcement, Morris indicated that the publisher was willing to greenlight the production of books 7-12 of the series, provided that the reprintings of books 1-6 each sold approximately ten thousand copies.