Bloodbones

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Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks

The cover of Bloodbones illustrated by Martin McKenna
Outline
Location: Old World, Titan
References: 400 (see article)
Publication details
Author(s): Jonathan Green
Illustrator: Tony Hough
(see article)
Puffin
Cover illustrator: Unknown
(Unpublished)
First published: 1999
(Unpublished)
Number 60
(Unpublished)
ISBN: ISBN 0-14-038317-4
(Unpublished)
Wizard
Cover illustrator: Martin McKenna
First published: 2006
Number 26
ISBN: ISBN 1-84046-765-7
List of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks

Bloodbones (ISBN 1-84046-765-7) is a single-player roleplaying gamebook written by Jonathan Green and illustrated by Tony Hough. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. The book was notorious for being the 'lost' Fighting Fantasy gamebook, written but never published, until it was finally published in 2006 by Wizard Books. It would have been 60th in the series in the original Puffin series had it been published at the time and is 26th in the modern Wizard series.

Contents

[edit] Creation and publication

For a long time Bloodbones was considered to be the long-lost Fighting Fantasy book; however, little was known regarding Bloodbones prior to 2001. Rumours correctly suggested Jonathan Green was the author of the book and there were also a wide variety of supposed publication dates ranging from 1995 to more recent years. Online book retailer Amazon.co.uk listed Bloodbones as available for order for a period after the series was canceled, confusing many fans.

Light was finally shed on the mystery in 2001 when Jonathan Green wrote a letter to a Fighting Fantasy fan containing details of the book. It was to be 300 paragraphs long (Bloodbones was to be the first in a revamped Fighting Fantasy series in an attempt to re-connect with the young audience after later entries had become more complicated) and concerned the player's quest for vengeance against the undead pirate Cinnabar, who was nicknamed Bloodbones. Green stated that he was disappointed to hear of the series' cancellation as Bloodbones was his personal favourite of the gamebooks he had written and had plot outlines for several more. It would have been illustrated by Mike Posen.[1]

In 2002 Wizard Books began reprinting many of the original Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, and at one point the official website featured a poll calling for fan requests with regard to upcoming reprints which included Bloodbones as one of the possible answers. Bloodbones was finally published in 2006, now a full 400 references long. The author has stated that this was the length he always intended it to be.[2]

[edit] Story

Bloodbones lives! The dreaded pirate-lord Cinnabar, scourge of the twelve seas, plagued the seafarers of the Old World in a bloody reign of terror until a brave adventurer put an end to his evil. But now he is back from the dead, seeking revenge and with the dark powers of voodoo at his command.

YOU have your own score to settle - Cinnabar murdered your family when you were a child. Only YOU can end the horrific slaughter by destroying the pirate captain and his crew of cutthroats. Come hell or highwater Bloodbones must be stopped!

This Fighting Fantasy gamebook is set in the usual fantasy world of Titan, on the continent of the Old World. The player is seeking revenge on the pirate-lord Cinnabar for the murder of their family. It transpires that Cinnabar was killed but has been revived by voodoo. The player must find the pirates' secret hideout, beginning in the Port of Crabs. The player character encounters Cinnabar in both his undead and fully revived forms, and has a final showdown with Cinnabar's Voodoo god, Quezkari.

[edit] Rules

The game uses a Time score to record the passing of time, but is not used after a certain point in the book. The book also uses codewords to record certain events that happen in the course of the book.

[edit] See also

[edit] References