The Crimson Tide

Infobox Fighting Fantasy book


caption=The cover of "The Crimson Tide" illustrated by Alan Craddock
location=Isles of the Dawn, Titan
references=400
authors=Paul Mason
illustrator=Terry Oakes
coverillustrator=Alan Craddock
year=1992
number=47
ISBN=ISBN 0-14-034555-8
wcoverillustrator=N/A
wyear=N/A
wnumber=N/A
wISBN=N/A

"The Crimson Tide" is a single-player roleplaying gamebook written by Paul Mason, illustrated by Terry Oakes and originally published in 1992 by Puffin Books. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It is the 47th in the series in the original Puffin series (ISBN 0-14-034555-8). There are currently no announced plans to republish this book as part of the modern Wizard series.

Some elements of the book tie-in with Paul Mason's previous Fighting Fantasy book, "Black Vein Prophecy".

tory

This gamebook is set in the Isles of Dawn, a region on Titan similar to ancient China. The player takes the role of a young boy seeking vengeance on the mercenaries that burned down his village, killed his father and kidnapped his mother. The character can go on to train in martial arts at a monastery and progresses through a series of adventures before finally attaining the Sacred Sword of Tsui and confronting the leader of the mercenaries.

Unlike other Fighting Fantasy books the player character ages over the course of the story, beginning as a young boy with low SKILL and STAMINA scores. As the book progresses, the player increases in age, and the scores increase to reflect this. There is also a special attribute, FURY.

Also unlike other Fighting Fantasy books is the fact that many of the premature endings to the book do not involve the death or failure of the player character. These endings include the player character living the rest of his life as a monk, a sailor or a basket weaver, without finding his mother or obtaining his revenge.

Editing error

The first enemy encountered on the critical path to the standard solution of the book is a Mudworm, with a SKILL score of 12 (at this point the highest possible SKILL which the player character could have is 6), rendering the book virtually impossible to complete without having the player cheat. This was an editing mistake by Marc Gascoigne (whom Mason later referred to as a 'dingbat' and 'a total idiot') who forgot that the player began the book as a child and altered the SKILL score of the Mudworm from 6 to 12. [cite web
url=http://web.archive.org/web/20050406002350/http://www.fightingfantasy.com/fflett.htm#Paul%20Mason
title=Letter from Paul Mason on the Internet Archive record of the old fightingfantasy.com site ]

Other references

"The Crimson Tide" ties-in with Paul Mason's previous Fighting Fantasy book, "Black Vein Prophecy". The player character meets several characters from "Black Vein Prophecy", including the player character from the successful ending to the earlier book, who is now a king.

The book also contains a reference to the earlier Fighting Fantasy book "Sword of the Samurai". The player can encounter a character from Hachiman, the region in which the earlier book is set.

ee also

*Fighting Fantasy
*List of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks
* [http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/The_Crimson_Tide The Crimson Tide Article] at [http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Titannica] the Fighting Fantasy Wiki hosted by Wikia

References

* cite web
title=Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks on gamebooks.org
url=http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series.php?id=11
* cite web
title=The Crimson Tide on gamebooks.org
url=http://www.gamebooks.org/show_item.php?id=91
* cite web
title=The Crimson Tide on the Internet Archive record of the old fightingfantasy.com site
url=http://web.archive.org/web/20051127132124/www.fightingfantasy.com/ffb47.htm