Dragon Warriors' 40th anniversary won't pass unnoticed as long as Red Ruin Publishing have anything to say about it. They've just released the seventeenth book in their series of DW adventures, and it's one of the best. The Curse on God's Acre is a 500+ section gamebook by David Donachie and Paul Partington:
Deep in the fertile countryside of Chaubrette, you find yourself in the isolated valley known as God's Acre. Here the sturdy locals grow wine and keep sheep — but all is not as it seems. A pernicious evil haunts the lanes and narrow fields.Revealed at first in scraps of children's songs, in the blank stares of straw dolls, in the animals masks lurking in the shadows, in the tangled entrails of a murdered woman. Mysterious evil has the valley in its grasp and is squeezing ever tighter.
Special rules for dread and exhaustion add to the sense (for me, anyway) of a blending of Clark Ashton Smith's eerie tales of Averoigne with the straightforward secular horrors of The Wicker Man. But to make any such comparison is to sell this atmospheric and original adventure short. The Curse on God's Acre is a memorable solo scenario that deserves a place in every Dragon Warriors player's collection. You can pick it up for as little as $1 if you're hard up, and the artwork alone is worth more than that, so grab your copy now.
Do you mind if I quote you on this, Dave?
ReplyDeleteThat'd be fine, Simon.
DeleteI'm very flattered by the kind words Dave! We were definitely trying to capture that sense of dread and menace behind every corner that is inherent in Dragon Warriors — or in this case behind every haystack and row of vines.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed by every Red Ruin publication, David -- and I thank the stars of Krarth you're doing these great books, else there would be nothing to mark DW's 40th anniversary!
DeleteThanks for the kind words! Always a pleasure to contribute to Dragon Warriors. Credit to David, who came up with the story, the dread and exhaustion rules, and all the interior illustrations.
ReplyDelete