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Tower of Ruin
The Tower of Ruin is a fantasy novel by William A. Kooiker. No. Scratch that. The Tower of Ruin is a roleplaying fantasy novel by William A Kooiker. That's an important distinction. There are better fantasy novels to pick up and read but if you want a novel rich in gamerisms then certainly pick up The Tower of Ruin.
In particular, The Tower of Ruin uses Open World Press' d20 setting and it is impossible not to notice the references to The Hamlet of Thumble and The Village of Oester.
In fact, Oester is central to the story. Our heroes, eventually, wind up on a mission to explore some unknown but disturbing disturbances at Oester. If your GM sense is tingling - if you're worried about disrupting the flow of history in your Open World Press setting game - then sit back and relax. Such is The Tower of Ruin that events in the novel, if they happen at all in your gaming world, could have happened some time ago or are yet to happen. There is the suggestion, though, that these events are set after certain events in Thumble.
It's pretty cool to read an adventure set in a world you've played in.
Our heroes are a typical adventuring party; a halfling rogue, a dwarf cleric, a human fighter, a human sorcerer and human ranger. There's a special focus on the ranger - Kyligan. How's that for a typical roleplaying and unpronounceable name? Kyligan is plagued by dreams with foreboding promise. Here's there for the reader relate to. In a band of heroes, it's Kyligan who gets to be the outsider - the reader/ranger - as part of the book/band of heroes. It's a good tactic. Some readers may well think - hey, that's my character!
The plot? This band of heroes go to check out happenings in Oester. Okay, I've come back to the issue of plot because there's a second strand given that our heroes get the King's official go-ahead for their investigation and this spurs off the inevitable political skulduggery. Then there are the gamerisms. You know; those inevitable scenes where a bunch of woodsmen at the side of the road are having trouble with wargs and when orcs are given just enough motivation to be a bother. We might even have reoccurring NPCs in the form of barbarians or other rogues.
There are even some small plot surprises - nothing that I'm going to give away here - but some of the character development twists are nice and juicy. I'll put my hands up and admit that I was not expecting any character development at all and so there's a double bonus in having interesting growth.
Other than the character development do not expect any other sort of surprise. You know how the book will run its course and this is certainly true for any roleplayer. You'll recognise all the telltale signs and accurately predict the next steps. Its here we see one of the important distinctions between a fantasy novel and a fantasy roleplaying novel. This predictability would kill a fantasy novel. In a roleplaying novel, though, we seem to relate to the scenes. Every single encounter in the book reminded of a scene I've either played in or GM'd and that was fun.
The added bonus of the Tower of Ruin is that it's there to enhance your game. Players can read it and get to know the world setting better. With the Tower of Ruin players can more easily relate to the game.
Kooiker's use of language caught my attention. The occasional archaic or even backward phrasing stood out as unnatural an unnecessary in the first half of the book. Perhaps the flavour of writing grew on me, perhaps I became immune to it as the pages turned but I found the occasional quirky phrase to be less of an annoyance and actually appropriate to the adventure later on.
I liked Tower of Ruin. It's an easy read. It's a really easy read. There's just enough twist in the plot to keep you interested but you can sit back and let the pages turn without furrowing your brow. When you're in the mood for an easy read, a roleplaying read, I'd recommend Kooiker.
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