Hwaet! Review of Beowulf Beastslayer by Jonathan Green

The early Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, in particular The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, had a strong influence on both my gaming and my reading. Up until Firetop Mountain, I preferred science-fiction, and while the gamebook made it easier for me to imagine role-playing as a hobby, it also suggested fantasy as a genre, which lead me eventually to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien, as a scholar and writer, studied and taught Old English, and so by a curious confluence we find, years later, a gamebook based on the Old English epic poem Beowulf, and if you throw in illustrations by the inimitable Russ Nicholson, there's really no reason to resist.

Beowulf Beastslayer, by Jonathan Green, is the most fun and interest I've had in a gamebook since finishing Steve Jackson's magisterial Sorcery! series decades ago. Perhaps the reason Beowulf Beastslayer is so engaging is that by going back to the Old English heroic sources, Green is able to make the world of the gamebook fresh and fantastical again. The first time you read The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, orcs and trolls and ghouls and skeletons and underground mazes are new and intriguing; but after a while the tropes and inhabitants of the fantasy world become familiar, and therefore less exciting. Translating the Old English world-view and poem into gameable format refreshes the experience by creating that sense of the unfamiliar again. Monsters like Grendel, giants, sea serpents, even dragons take on a new immediacy. Riddles based on Anglo-Saxon sources present a new challenge.

To his credit, Green also adapts the Old English alliterative verse to his prose sections, which makes each passage of the gamebook poetic and even evocative of the sense of the source poem. The passages that one would usually skim to find the next fight or choice point are also a pleasure to read. And, the gamebook uses kennings – compact poetic figures from the period – as progress markers and resources: another evocative turn that makes each achievement more memorable.

Green uses the ACE system for the gamebook series, adapted from the original Fighting Fantasy rules, where the ACE scores Agility, Combat, and Endurance are used in a familiar fashion with standard dice, and includes a Hero Points score which functions much like Luck. It's a familiar and highly workable system, although if you're familiar with Fighting Fantasy in general, it's pretty clear where you should allocate your character points for maximum effect, and, if a criticism can be made of the mechanics, I've never felt in much danger during a fight, or worried greatly about missing a roll.

This, on the other hand, could be intentional. With the earning and spending of Hero Points to overcome key challenges in the book, and initiative providing a bonus in a fight, the best option is always to act like a big-darn hero. This is fun, but also, from the perspective of someone familiar with the Old English heroic mode, sort of educational. Playing the heroic values of Anglo-Saxon epics – bravery, boastfulness, generosity, cunning – is a way to immerse yourself in the mindset as well as win the best outcome.

In early 2021, Green also launched Heorot, a kickstarter campaign for role-playing in the world of Beowulf Beastslayer, based on the same rules as used in the gamebook. Given the ease and simplicity of the system, and the potential of the setting (with the chance that it could even fit Tolkien's view of Middle-earth), I'm following this project with great interest.