Daniel (@dungeondive) returns to Paul Stapleton’s world of Pauper’s Ladder for Tower of Elmarsh, an open-world adventure gamebook that doubles as a board game and, in combat, a roll-and-write. The copy came from the designer. The premise sits in established lore: Moon Towers have risen across the land, and your hero plus a party of rogues, rangers, smiths, mages, adventurers and hawk guards must build strength and resources before reaching one to bring it down — against a clock, since camping and detailed actions both cost time.
The box is three books — rules, adventure paragraphs, locations — plus player aids and downloadable PDFs. The adventure book runs a keyword and checkbox system Daniel compares favourably to Fabled Lands: the game remembers what you did and opens passages accordingly. Some map locations expand into mini-maps, echoing the small dungeons in The Crows of Coppershell Bay. An achievements page adds light roguelike progression across plays.
Combat gets the closest look. Five white dice against rows of boxes, some linked, plus one enemy die that punishes matching values; each class bends the dice differently and exhausts when used. He plays a worked encounter — coming to the aid of a woman beset by wolves — through a ranger volley, two hawk guards and an adventurer reroll.
Verdict: enthusiastic, at roughly $20. His only complaint is the paper covers; he would gladly pay for a deluxe edition.
Keyword systems let a gamebook remember you. Does that deepen a replay, or does knowing the paragraphs spoil the discovery that made the first run work?