If I Ran the Z/o/o/ ConTabletop Tuesdays: Choose-Your-Own-Ending Books as an Educational Medium? | Submitted by costik on Tue, 03/03/2009 - 00:33. |
The New England Science Fiction Association is one of the oldest and best-organized groups of science fiction fans; among other things, they run the annual Boskone convention, and often bid for (and run) the World Science Fiction Convention. Their publishing arm, NESFA Press, exists mainly to keep in print classic works of science fiction and fantasy that commercial presses no longer see any profit in providing.
They don't publish games.
Except for this one.
Lone WolfTabletop Tuesdays: "Which-Way" Adventures For Free | Submitted by costik on Tue, 04/22/2008 - 16:51. |
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf series of "which-way" (or, if you prefer, "choose-your-own-ending") books were part of an efflorescence of such works in the 80s. (The other two most popular series were the Bantam Choose Your Own Adventure books, and the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks from Ian Livingstone and the UK Steve Jackson [not to be confused with the Texan Steve Jackson], both of whom have gone on to stellar careers in digital games).
Fans of XCOM will find the gameplay of Taskforce familiar: you control a squad of heavily armed soldiers, and each turn you plan their moves. Each has a limited number of action points to spend, and movement, firing, and other actions require you to spend points. Opponents can 'opportunity fire' at you if you enter their field of fire (and they have action points remaining from last turn), so even though this is an "I move/you move" game, there's a sense of interactivity between the players as you move. Once you're finished with your turn, the other side performs its own actions under the control of the AI.
