Over the course of his 20+ year career, author Jonathan Green has written interactive novels based on the Sonic The Hedgehog video games (Stormin’ Sonic, co-written with Marc Gascoigne), the Marvel Comics superhero Moon Knight (Moon Knight: Age Of Anubis), and Lewis Carroll’s classic novels Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland and Through The Looking-Glass (Alice’s Nightmare In Wonderland).
But his newest — The Tides Of Innsmouth: An Arkham Horror Investigators Gamebook (paperback, Kindle), which is his second based on the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired card / board game Arkham Horror — is a bit of a wish fulfillment, as his explains in the following email interview.
For people who’ve never played it, what kind of game is Arkham Horror?
Arkham Horror is a cooperative adventure game, set in the 1920s, and based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. It exists as both a card game and a board game, and players take on the roles of investigators trying to stop the Ancient Ones and other cosmic horrors from invading Earth.
Second, what is a “gamebook”? Is it like a LitRPG novel, one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books…what?
While LitRPG novels tell the story of someone’s narrative experience of playing an immersive game, a gamebook is a story in which you, the reader, are the hero. You decide what happens by turning to different pages, thereby heavily influencing the course of the narrative.
What makes a gamebook different from simple branching narrative like Choose Your Own Adventure, is the addition of some simple role-playing mechanics. In the case of the Arkham Horror Investigators Gamebooks, you have to keep track of your investigator’s Willpower, Intellect, Combat, Health, and Sanity scores, which will be tested throughout the adventure, by means of rolling two six-sided dice. You will also collect Resources, Clues, and Doom points, along with special Items, Abilities, and even Weaknesses. All of this variety ensures that no two readthroughs of an adventure will ever be exactly the same.
Which brings us to the book we’re here to talk about: The Tides Of Innsmouth, which is an Arkham Horror Investigators Gamebook. What is Innsmouth about, when and where does it take place, and how does it connect to both the game and the previous Arkham Horror novels, especially your previous Arkham Horror Investigators Gamebook, The Darkness Over Arkham?
I’ll start with the last question first. The Tides Of Innsmouth and The Darkness Over Arkham are both stand-alone adventures and can be read in any order. However, the investigators that appear in Darkness can be used to play Tides, and vice versa.
The gamebooks connect to the Arkham Horror game and the previous Arkham Horror novels in that they are all set within the same world, at some point during the 1920s. You will find that the investigators in the adventures all appear in the core game, and have also made appearances in various stories.
The Tides Of Innsmouth takes place in the decaying fishing village of Innsmouth on the New England coast. During the course of the adventure, you will explore various places that appear in the game or H P. Lovecraft’s novella, The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
When in relation to writing The Darkness Over Arkham did you come up with the idea for The Tides Of Innsmouth, and what inspired Innsmouth‘s specific plot?
When I was commissioned to write The Darkness Over Arkham, I was specifically asked to set it in Arkham and focus on the weird cults that proliferate throughout that doomed town. However, secretly I was hoping to get the chance to one day write an adventure set within the port of Innsmouth. The Shadow Over Innsmouth Is one of my favorite Lovecraft stories, and I love the idea of the fishmen and there being unsettling things stirring within the lightless depths of the ocean.
When it came to devising the specifics of the plot, as well as rereading the original source material, I pored over Welcome To Arkham [An Illustrated Guide For Visitors by A.P. Klosky, David Annandale, and Matt Keefe] to help me flesh out the story and to provide a list of settings I could use. I have an abiding fascination for the Golden Age of Piracy and so that played its part, too.
And when you start working on a book like The Tides Of Innsmouth, which is interactive, do you just think of the story and figure out the interactive parts later, or do you have to keep the interactivity in mind as you form the plot?
I have been writing adventure gamebooks for over 30 years, and they were the first things I had published, so they’re in my DNA now. As a result, when I plot out an adventure, I am always thinking about the interactive elements from the get-go.
In crude terms, that means that when I draw out my first story map, it will already include some branching elements to the story. For example, without giving anything away, if you arrive in Innsmouth via bus, once you have disembarked in the Town Square, you can choose to visit grocery store, a cafe, or the hotel, an immediately the story has branched, with each option leading to its own set of unique encounters.
Flowcharting is the key. I’ll start with a very basic flowchart that breaks the adventure into three Acts. I will then produce a more detailed flowchart for each Act, and from there I will flowchart individual Scenes within those Acts.
Given that they’re all inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, the previous Arkham Horror novels — including The Darkness Over Arkham — have all been cosmic horror stories. I assume The Tides Of Innsmouth is as well, but are there any other genres at work in this story?
Where The Darkness Over Arkham is a murder mystery, of sorts, The Tides Of Innsmouth is more exploratory in nature, though there is still a mystery to solve.
The great thing is, while all these adventures include an element of cosmic horror, you can also tell of manner of stories within the setting. One day, if I get the chance, I would like to write a crime thriller set within the world of Arkham Horror.
The Tides Of Innsmouth is obviously not your first book. Aside from Lovecraft, are there any writers, or specific stories, that had a big influence on it?
I couldn’t really pinpoint any particular writer or story beyond H.P. Lovecraft and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Every author I’ve ever read will have inevitably influenced my writing, and ideas do not emerge from a vacuum, but nothing specific comes to mind. I just like to read widely, across a variety of genre. As another author friend of mine says, “If you don’t put words in, you don’t get words out.”
What about non-literary influences; was The Tides Of Innsmouth influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games? Aside from Arkham Horror, of course.
Again, I refer you to my previous answer.
That said, there is a scene in the film Aquaman where our hero is on a boat that is attacked by gribbly fishmen that emerge from the sea. But you’ll have to read The Tides Of Innsmouth to see whether that influenced me or not.
And then, to flip things around, do you think The Tides Of Innsmouth could work as a movie or show?
The tricky thing with adapting an interactive adventure into a non-interactive storyline means you have to decide on a single path through the story and base it on that. I think there’s enough story within The Tides Of Innsmouth that it could work, but an interactive movie would be more exciting, wouldn’t it?
What about as an expansion for Arkham Horror?
I think Arkham Horror already has enough expansions based around the town of Innsmouth, and I don’t think Tides would add anything new. However, Tides offers you a different take on an Arkham Horror adventure, and one that you can either experience by yourself, or with friends.
Finally, if someone enjoys The Tides Of Innsmouth, they’ll probably read The Darkness Over Arkham if they haven’t already. But once they’ve done that, which of your other gamebooks would you suggest they read next?
There’s quite a list…
If they like immersive horror, they will love the ACE Gamebook Dracula: Curse Of The Vampire. And if they are after more Lovecraftian action they could try Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come, which is coming out August 2nd.
