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A review by tiggum
The Jungle of Horrors by Gary Chalk, Joe Dever
2.0
This one mostly feels like a rehash of book six to me, but with a less fun travelling companion and no major antagonist. To be honest, I often get confused about which stuff happens in this one and which happens in book six, but when I take the time to think it through, all the best stuff is from book six and this just feels like stuff that didn't make the cut. Also, you spend hardly any time at all in the titular jungle-swamp, which is a bit of a letdown.
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The Collector's Edition bonus adventure, Masquerade in Hikas, is an insult to anyone who paid money for it. It was clearly published before it was ready and, as written, is completely impossible to finish. Close to the end of the book, no matter what choices you've made up to that point, you'll be directed to section 151. Section 151 doesn't exist. You're literally told to turn to a page that isn't there, and the only way to continue from that point is to go through the book section by section till you find one that seems like it must be the next bit of the story. In case anyone has the book and wants to save themself that trouble, it's section 85.
But you might not even make it that far, because that's not even the only missing section. There's an earlier place where you're directed to section 152, which also doesn't exist. Again, I figured out what should be there so I'll save you some trouble: write "Talisman" on your list of Backpack items and turn to 115.
There's also a section (149) that can't be reached but was clearly supposed to go between sections 80 and 60, and there's probably another missing section (153?) before it to explain why everything is suddenly exploding. Because everything is suddenly exploding and it makes no sense. You'll find out why later, but in a way that makes it clear you should already have that information and it just got left out by mistake.
Character creation in this one is crazy. The list of abilities you get to choose from is absurdly long, and many of them are obviously terrible. Some are less good versions of others, some are just mediocre, and there are a few that are so clearly better options that every player is always going to pick them. To save you some time: you're going to want Prophecy, Evocation, Sorcery and Baffle. If you pick those skills, the game balance is actually pretty good and you've got a decent chance of making it through.
As for the more minor issues: there are a lot of red herrings and time wasters, the ending is bad, and there are several places where you just have a 50/50 chance of dying (although you can avoid those spots if you're lucky or have played before). This could all have been improved with some playtesting and editing, which this book obviously didn't get. If anyone had read through it even once to make sure it worked then there wouldn't be a missing section on the critical path.
And the real tragedy of it is that it's actually got a lot of potential. It could have been really good. The author obviously put a lot of thought into it. It's just that no one else involved in publishing it gave even the tiniest hint of a shit.
---
The Collector's Edition bonus adventure, Masquerade in Hikas, is an insult to anyone who paid money for it. It was clearly published before it was ready and, as written, is completely impossible to finish. Close to the end of the book, no matter what choices you've made up to that point, you'll be directed to section 151. Section 151 doesn't exist. You're literally told to turn to a page that isn't there, and the only way to continue from that point is to go through the book section by section till you find one that seems like it must be the next bit of the story. In case anyone has the book and wants to save themself that trouble, it's section 85.
But you might not even make it that far, because that's not even the only missing section. There's an earlier place where you're directed to section 152, which also doesn't exist. Again, I figured out what should be there so I'll save you some trouble: write "Talisman" on your list of Backpack items and turn to 115.
There's also a section (149) that can't be reached but was clearly supposed to go between sections 80 and 60, and there's probably another missing section (153?) before it to explain why everything is suddenly exploding. Because everything is suddenly exploding and it makes no sense. You'll find out why later, but in a way that makes it clear you should already have that information and it just got left out by mistake.
Character creation in this one is crazy. The list of abilities you get to choose from is absurdly long, and many of them are obviously terrible. Some are less good versions of others, some are just mediocre, and there are a few that are so clearly better options that every player is always going to pick them. To save you some time: you're going to want Prophecy, Evocation, Sorcery and Baffle. If you pick those skills, the game balance is actually pretty good and you've got a decent chance of making it through.
As for the more minor issues: there are a lot of red herrings and time wasters, the ending is bad, and there are several places where you just have a 50/50 chance of dying (although you can avoid those spots if you're lucky or have played before). This could all have been improved with some playtesting and editing, which this book obviously didn't get. If anyone had read through it even once to make sure it worked then there wouldn't be a missing section on the critical path.
And the real tragedy of it is that it's actually got a lot of potential. It could have been really good. The author obviously put a lot of thought into it. It's just that no one else involved in publishing it gave even the tiniest hint of a shit.