Dear all,
Thank you so much for all your orders of Legendary Kingdoms. We’ve had far more orders than we anticipated (especially from the international community – thanks world). In order to keep track and post it out we’ve gone all professional and now have proper postage services. As of today, copies of Legendary Kingdoms are flying out into the Royal Mail postage system and should be with you shortly – either next week if you are in the UK, or the week after if you live anywhere else.
Apologies for the delay, but we wanted to make sure that we could deal with all these orders in a safe and systematic way. From today, you can expect all orders to be processed by the next working day. We officially start shipping at 15:30 today, so feel free to check your account this evening to see if it is completed.
Thanks all. And good luck in your adventures!
James Cleverley says
Got my confirmation email today, wooh! Excited to explore the Valley of Bones next week!
Oliver Drozd says
Received my copy today. Looking forward to getting started.
Jon Lunn says
Good Luck, Oliver!
Kingravel says
Hello Oliver,
I wasn’t able to find an email address, so please allow me to post my first impressions of your gamebook here.
I started my first adventure yesterday and wanted to come back here to congratulate you and share my enthusiasm! You really manage to create an immersive experience, both by your very atmospheric writing and by the excellent idea of pre-made party-members with their own backgrounds. The game drew me in right from paragraph 1 and I really enjoy all the choices and possibilities it gives me from the beginning. It’s also a very good idea to make the first part of the game more restricted as it’s a great introduction to the game’s systems.
The luck factor – bane of all gamebook-players – is my only problem, but that goes for all gamebooks. Some mild form of a “save” possibility that would allow me to go back to an earlier point of my adventure would be great. Some newer gamebooks – like the great “Destiny Quest”-series, “Riders of the Black Sun”, “Heroes of Urowen” and some others – allow the player to simply go back some steps in the adventure if they die. While I always loved Fabled Lands I really hated the dire consequences of some decisions, basically leading to sudden deaths. While “resurrection deals” helped to survive you still lost all your stuff. So I made some houserules in FL, allowing me to “save” my game at inns (only) by paying a considerable sum of money. I know it’s cheating and I know I shouldn’t do it in Legendary Kingdoms, but when I fought with these darn spiders deep under the arena and lost valiant Sar Jessica not due to the big ugly spiders themselves but because of the tiny ones inflicting 1 damage per round, I just had to reroll. So, to make things short: Should I cover my face in shame because I tend to “optimize” the outcome of my dice throws now and then – or may I continue playing without a bad conscience?
Anyway – I really enjoy my adventures so far. I’m not very far in yet, but I already wonder how battles will work and how my party and their relations develop. That feeling of leading a group of adventurers is really well captured. And I love this very special feeling of promise and wonder, the impression of a wide and foreign world full of adventures and possibilities awaiting me. It’s exactly the same feeling I have when I play Fabled Lands. That’s the highest praise I can give to a gamebook.
Oliver Hulme says
Hi Alexander,
So pleased you are enjoying the book. Believe it or not, I did start out with the idea of making the game diceless, but it ended up making the game either trite (asking you to pass checks you can’t fail) or too hard (you have to complete tasks in exactly the right way, or get blocked). No doubt there is a happy medium I didn’t find.
In terms of death and resurrection, I considered putting in a way back from death but decided in the end that having a party of adventurers (and being able to recruit to that party) made it irrelevant. Coming back to life never really sat well with me, as it meant that the rich could basically live forever and villains are conceivably immortal, or at least should be if they are acting intelligently.
In my head I envisioned that the first playthrough for a player would end in disaster. The second playthrough would be like an extended scout through the world, finding out the lay of the land, so to speak. The third playthrough is where you go for it, well enough informed to overcome the hazards before you, and to have a plan about what order to do things in order to complete the main quest. There’s a lot of layers in LK that only become apparent when you get deep into it, so there is a pleasure in playing hardcore, because the game rewards as much as it punishes.
That said, this is a gamebook, and if you are able to resist the temptation to flick back to an earlier choice or ‘autopass’ an important roll … well, you’re a stronger person than I! It’s your game, so enjoy it how you want to. I promise not to come round and tell you off for not playing exactly by the book!
Good luck in your adventures. I’m writing Book 2 today, actually, so this has come as lovely morale boost.
Best Regards,
Oliver
Alexandre Correia says
Got my copy yesterday. Super excited to explore the world you’ve created.
Regards from sunny Lagos
Alex
Jon Lunn says
Thanks Alexandre,
Good luck!
Jeff says
Received my copy a couple weeks ago and just finished unlocking A100. I’m a longtime fan of the Fabled Lands series and I’m very pleased with my adventures in the Valley of Bones. You’ve earned a new fan of Legendary Kingdoms! 🙂
Things I liked that build on from FL:
– Multiple party members and having to use strategy when splitting them up. Some choices were painful to make, knowing the danger, and I took more time than probably necessary to decide who went where.
– Rolling lots of dice for team checks and feeling more capable as more dice are added.
– More settlements and locations changing from past choices (there a ton, I love that).
– The distinct cultures in each area.
– Raising/gathering armies and commanding them in battle.
– Encounters/Stories related to homeland or skills of individual party members.
– Purchasing trade goods from interior locations, having them delivered to my ship (although parking a ship at Cursus allows for an infinite increase of silver coins this way for little risk and time).
– Finding temporary companions.
– Wearing armor plus a shield.
– Spell books, finding and choosing between spells.
– Learning new languages.
Things I’d love in future books or series (but can probably add with a few house rules):
– Army Battle mechanics used for fleets (although I’d miss rolling lots of dice, feels more epic).
– Army units being led by morale lieutenants who can be attacked during battles (gives my party something to contribute directly).
– Ways to train up low strength Army units a point or two.
– Property (I know it isn’t necessary for LK but I liked that sense of ownership in FL).
– A way to end slavery (this messes with the recruitment mechanic, but my head-canon says I did and slave markets became job fairs or something).
– More ways to get gold bullion (only found 3, and given 1, so my options for new armies and bribes were limited. Thinking I must have missed a few more somewhere). My handicap on army units was largely of my own doing, as I refused to give a powerful artifact to an evil jerk and so denied myself some nice troops.
I admit I cheated at the King’s Hall in Clifftop. After reading the options I went “Nope!” and pretended like I never entered. Came back later and kicked their collective butts though. 😛
As more books are added I plan to find ways for our multiplayer group to cross back and forth between FB and LK by ship.
Looking forward to more lands and adventures!
Jeff
Oliver Hulme says
Thanks Jeff,
As far as I know you are the first non-playtester to complete to A100 (at least honestly)! Congratulations! Don’t feel bad about taking your time, that’s exactly what I envisioned when I made LK.
Being compared to Fabled Lands (an obvious influence of ours) is extremely flattering. There are a few ideas from FL that I avoided mostly to provide some fresh air and mechanical difference to LK. Houses are something I seriously thought about including, but they are a little greedy in terms of how much space they take up in the book, and I calculated that by the end of the six book run they would have taken up as much space as a quarter of a whole book. I preferred to use that space for adventuring instead.
Thanks for noticing the changing world. It’s one of those things that can be annoying in computer games, when you have saved the world but people still don’t recognise you. They do in LK, and I think that really adds to the sense of immersion. In terms of Gold Bullion – yes, it’s extremely rare. It’s the mega-currency of LK, and finding even one is a struggle. In the context of all six books, finding gold bullion is a key part of empire building, so it’s always a bit of a triumph when you find a bar.
Anyway, thanks so much. I’m beavering away at Book 2 as we speak, and if all goes well it will come out early next year.
Oliver
David says
This gamebook looks fantastic. I was wondering if you were going to sell copies to be downloaded instead of having a physical copy of it?
Thanks,
David
Jon Lunn says
Hi David,
We’ve taken a leaf out of Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson’s book, and we’re keeping it physical. It’s how the book was designed, and I didn’t want to compromise that. That doesn’t mean that a digital version can’t exist, but if it did, it would be more than just a PDF. Maybe an app, at some point in the future?
darkmage0707077 says
Hello,
Unfortunately, I’m still waiting on my confirmation email despite putting the order in on the 15th. Really looking forward to getting a copy, though!
Jon Lunn says
Hi Darkmage,
Sorry it’s taking so long. Our mail supplier, Pitney Bowes, has suffered a malware attack and has had it’s servers down this week. (Don’t worry, it’s a problem that only affects our franking machine, Pitney Bowes doesn’t have our customer information). You’ll get your confirmation email once we’ve been able to put it in the post. It shouldn’t be more than a week or so after that.
We’ll start shipping Monday on our own power if there is no joy from them after the weekend.
Jon Lunn says
Just as a follow up – Pitney Bowes now reckon they will be back in business by close of play on Saturday. Because this is England, that means we can recommence postage on Monday. It’s going to be a busy Monday!
Darkmage0707077 says
Thanks much! Looking forward to getting my copy soon!
Darkmage0707077 says
Got my confirmation email, so we’re all set!
Dennis Barbee says
Sorry to post this here but I am not sure where to put it. I have placed my order and now my order(#1804) and is now “Completed” dose that mean it’s shipping? It’s not here yet and I have not gotten any shipping information (like a tracking number). Again sorry for posting here but I just don’t know where to contact you guys.
P.S: The Account page for this website seems incredibly burred I would move it to a tab or something for ease of use.
Thank you
Dennis Barbee says
Correction
Burred = buried
Jon Lunn says
Hi Dennis,
Sorry it’s taking so long. We posted your order on the 22nd October, which was quite a long time after your original payment. Our postage people, Pitney Bowes, suffered a malware attack that took out their data centre, and made it impossible to add postage to our parcels for over a week. It wasn’t until the 22nd that it got cleared, however I can confirm it is on its way now.
The time for international postage is 7 working days, so hopefully you should get your package on Thursday or Friday. Do let us know if it doesn’t come by then.
In terms of contacting us, yes, I agree it’s tricky. We’ve just created a new company email and should be updating the webpage sometime around November 5th, so hopefully you’ll be able to contact us in a slightly more convenient way in the future.
Hopefully it will be worth the wait. Good luck in your adventure (when it arrives!)
Dennis Barbee says
I have never had this good of support I can’t wait to read this book and try it out I did not know of the attack and am truly sorry for that. I can’t wait to read the book and see the new website thank you again for your hard work!
Renkin says
Good afternoon. Congratulations on this wonderful new gamebook series. I can’t wait to start playing it. It has the same vibe as the great Fabled Lands and Steam Highwayman gamebooks (with its own peculiarities, of course), which are already some of my favourites.
Yesterday, I placed an order for The Valley of Bones, and today I received confirmation that my order (#3995) was processed, so I’d like to know how long will take for the book to arrive to Portugal.
Thank you very much and keep up with the awesome work.
Jon Lunn says
Hi Renkin,
We use International Standard delivery, so it should be with you within 5-7 working days. Thanks so much for buying a copy. Good luck, and do let us know how you get on!
Dennis Irwin says
This book is fantastic fun, thank you for publishing it.
Jon Lunn says
Cheers, Dennis.
Handy says
Thank you for creating this fun and adventure-rich gamebook! I’m loving the experience.
And now the question we’re all waiting to hear:
Approximately when do you estimate publishing the 2nd book?
Oliver Hulme says
Hi Handy,
Thanks for that! Book 2 is being written now. Art is being commissioned at the end of this week. 1st full draft at the end of April, after which is goes into editing and playtesting. So … June-ish?
(Quickly ducks and hides again)