Grailquest
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Grailquest is a series of gamebooks by J.H. Brennan. The books are illustrated by John Higgins.
The series is (usually) set in King Arthur's realm of Avalon, and follows the adventures of a young hero named Pip. Pip is often called upon by Merlin to right wrongs and save the realm from evil.
The series is light in tone and does not take itself seriously, often spoofing the fantasy genre and inserting a lot of pure slapstick humor or nonsensical elements in order to make the book a fun read. Occasionally there is more serious drama, but this is usually reserved for very special moments.
The fourth volume, Voyage of Terror, takes place almost entirely in ancient Greece, after Merlin's summoning spell goes wrong. Pip spends the adventure travelling with Jason and the Argonauts, encountering enemies from Greek mythology while trying to find a way back to Avalon.
Characters
- Pip: the hero of the series. He was brought up on a farm by his adoptive parents. One day, soldiers from King Arthur's court arrived to escort Pip to Merlin's log castle, where Merlin assigned him the mission of rescuing Queen Guinevere from the evil Wizard Ansalom. Pip fights (and sometimes argues) with a magical sword, Excalibur Junior, and often wears a sturdy dragonhide jacket when adventuring.
- Merlin: the (supposedly) wise old wizard. He introduces each adventure and is usually the one who gives Pip his mission, providing Pip with items and some magic. Merlin tends to be sarcastic and grumpy. However, even though he treats Pip like a stupid child, he still cares about him. In one of the series' running jokes, Merlin acquires a new, bizarre home in every volume.
- Excalibur Junior (E.J.): Pip's magical talking sword. It was created by Merlin, who based its design on King Arthur's sword (hence the "Junior"). E.J. is quite powerful but has the annoying tendency of speaking its mind at inconvenient times, and can even refuse to be pulled from its scabbard (showing an ability similar to its namesake) when in a bad mood. E.J. also suffers from arachnophobia, which is a disadvantage when Pip runs into giant spiders.
- The Poetic Fiend: A vampire poet who is a recurring character through the series. The Fiend believes that he is a great poet, when in actuality his verse tends more towards doggerel (and has been known to make even cockroaches throw up when he gives a recital). He is often helpful to Pip, as long as Pip is diplomatic in his criticism of the Fiend's poetry.
- King Arthur: Ruler of the realm of Avalon. He is rarely encountered by the player in person, but is a prominent and influential figure in the series. He is usually the one who gives missions to Pip by the way of Merlin.
- King Pellinore: King Pellinore of Listinoise appears in the first few books as a running gag, where he is often confused for the Black Knight because of his dark armor.
- The Wizard Ansalom: An evil black-magic-using wizard, who is the main villain in the very first adventure. He returns as a ghost when Pip visits the Ghastly Kingdom of the Dead and Pip discovers that some of his dark influence remains in the last volume.
- The Black Knight: The Black Knight of old legend is the main villain in one of Pip's adventures. He seems to appear in several volumes, but those other appearances are actually King Pellinore (see above).
Titles
- The Castle of Darkness (1984)
- The Den of Dragons (1984)
- The Gateway of Doom (1984)
- Voyage of Terror (1986)
- Kingdom of Horror (1986)
- Realm of Chaos (1987)
- Tomb of Nightmares (1987)
- Legion of the Dead (1987)
Combat
The rules of Grailquest are quite simple when compared to current RPGs. The player must roll two six-sided dice and add the results. If the result exceeds 6 (which will happen 58.3% of the time), then the enemy is injured and loses a number of Life Points. When a character's Life Points reach zero, the character is dead.
If wielding a weapon, the number needed to hit may be lower, and extra damage will usually be inflicted. For instance, Excalibur Junior hits on a roll of 4 (hitting 91.7% of the time) and provides a bonus 5 points of damage.
There is no defence roll, but damage is reduced by a set amount by any armor the character is wearing.
Initiative is determined by an initial, opposed roll where the highest roll gets the first attack. From then on, the character and the enemy take turns to attack.
If the character dies, the player must go to paragraph 14, which describes his afterdeath and tells him to calculate his Life Points again. Merlin then resurrects Pip, who has to start from the beginning of the adventure again. However, all previously killed enemies remain dead, and any treasure the player found is gone for good. (In some books, killed enemies return to life with half the Life Points they had the first time around.)
Magic spells
In some of the books, Merlin provides Pip with magic spells. In the first book, Pip has two spells - ten firefingers (lightning bolts) and two powerful fireballs.
Pip's First Spell Book
In the second book, Merlin provides Pip with a spell book. This provides Pip with more spells of different use in combat. Pip also receives ten new firefingers (different to the firefingers on the previous book) and two new fireballs. If the player has finished the first book, he can keep any unspent spells from the previous book, and also the dragonhide jacket, which would otherwise be unavailable.
- Pip's Armour of Nearly Impenetrable Coruscation (P.A.N.I.C. for short)
- Pip's Outlandish Wallop (P.O.W. for short)
- Pip's Instant Levity and Laughter (P.I.L.L. for short)
- Pip's Attacking Dart (P.A.D. for short)
- Pip's Immunity to Poison (P.I.P. for short)
- Pip's Instant Neutralizer (P.I.N. for short)
- Pip's Immense Rapid Repeater (Pi R squared for short)
- Invisibility (I.N.V.I.S.I.B.I.L.I.T.Y. for short)
- Firefinger
- Fireball
Pip's Second Spell Book
In the third book, Merlin provides Pip with a new spell book. Pip wonders why this second spell book is shorter than the first one. Upon which, Merlin tells Pip that spell books require research, which requires a great amount of money. Merlin says that he is not a rich man.
- Pip's Patent Lock Picker (P.L.O.P. for short)
- Pip's Incredible Duncher (P.I.D. for short)
- Pip's Amazing Legume Spell (P.A.L.S. for short)
- Pip's Instant Levitation (P.I.L. for short)
- Pip's Obliging Power Sword (P.O.P.S. for short)
External links
- [J H Brennan Book Covers & Info]
- [J H "Herbie" Brennan's personal website]
- [Demians' Gamebook Web Page] Guide to Grailquest gamebooks.
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