Alice’s Nightmare in Wonderland

YOU become Alice, and Wonderland is in trouble. In the five years since her famous Adventures, the Queen of Hearts has been festering , creating paranoia, terror, and emotional complexes. Alice has been called back into Wonderland to stop her, before Wonderland collapses into a complete psychotic break… taking Alice’s mind with it!

Can an 11-year-old child revisit a dream she had when she was 7, assassinate the queen, and restore sanity to herself and the world within?

Review and Opinion

This is truly a great book, and I highly recommend it for gamebook enthusiasts as well as folks new to the concept. The writing is great stuff, very atmospheric and descriptive, and there’s so much of it (520 paragraphs). Kev Crossley’s illustrations are excellent, reflecting the gruesome and mentally disturbed nature of the nightmares that Alice is encountering. The adorable white rabbit and goofy Mad Hatter are zombie/golem/machine things that defy description, but that Kev pulls off remarkably well.

And again, the sheer volume of content here means that you’ll replay this book a dozen times finding everything. It’s hours and hours of good times.

If I had any complaint, it’s that the game balance is heavily skewed in favor of the player, so it’s nearly impossible to die in combat. During setup, you get way too many skill points and everybody puts them into Combat and Agility for a start. Most opponents have a Combat score of 7 or less, while only a few of the toughest have a 10, and that you’ll find shields and weapons early on, you’ll rarely take a scratch. Also, there is no upper limit to stats nor on inventory. Given this and the abundance of food, one can easily have 52 endurance pretty early in the game.

The sanity mechanic is somewhat useless, since there is very little which increases insanity. Alice gains insanity from a few jump scares, but oddly does not gain them from horrific scenes of animals being killed or witnessing the decapitated Queen of Hearts. We have never reached an insanity score higher than 3 even in a complete playthrough. That’s too bad, too; it would have been a neat mechanic, and the Sea of Tears and beach scenes, which would have been quite memorable, are locked behind failing a Sanity roll in the Hall of Doors when your theoretical maximum sanity is 3 and even then you would have had to do it intentionally.

Still, don’t let that turn you off. Arbitrarily set a limit of 7 items in the pocket and 20 max endurance, set all of your skills to 9, and you can easily get back into enjoying the excellent writing and bizarre adventure in Wonderland. It’s really a great book.

Hints and Tips

The people of Wonderland mean well, but they’re crazy and they give bad advice. For instance, the Duchess’ house is a bad place for sure and folks tell you not to go there, but it has a mandatory puzzle if you are to survive the Red Knight’s challenge in the White King’s tower.

If you visit the Caterpillar and revisit the past, you get the keyword Revelation. At March Hare’s house, if you have Revelation then you skip the whole scene and miss out on the very useful tea tray and a load of food. So, better to remember the future. As the Caterpillar says, it’s a very poor memory that only works one way.

From the fountain at the center of the maze, you can travel back in time to the Duchess’ house and March Hare’s house. None of this content has “If you have been here before” so you must fight the same battles and can win the same items.  This can prove useful to get both the chess puzzle and also the Phantasm keyword. Phantasm is one way to get the Vorpal Sword, but if you make it to the final boss fight this friend can help.

The chess puzzle at the Duchess’ house is technically wrong. White can win in 3 moves. But the answer is “11” This is from the book Through the Looking Glass, and is not played according to real chess but may be a metaphor for the book’s chapters. There are various threads on the topic online. Point is, “11” is the answer Alice needs.

Errors

The scissors in the rabbit hole are equivalent to the bread knife later, and to the Ace of Clubs’ axe. That just seems off, and also means that there is no point in any later weapon, particularly not the Ace of Clubs’ axe which comes with a -1 Combat penalty. Also, if the axe does 3 damage in the hands of a child, shouldn’t it have done at least 3 points per hit when the Ace of Clubs was fighting Alice?

On 314 if you eat the cake first, the golden key is no longer offered.

On 492 when fighting the paper tiger, you’re told that scissors reduce its combat “in addition to 2 endurance points.” But the scissors already do 3 damage.

When you solve the chess puzzle on 132, you’re not told to write down the solution. The chess puzzle’s solution number is mandatory for getting the vorpal sword later, so important to write this down!

On 447 the answer is WHITE KING. But the text very clearly describes him as a knight. Granted he is wearing a small crown, but still clearly described as a knight which is not the same thing as a king.

Not an error, but an unclear point: There are three armor items: a tea tray shield, a dagger-proof jacket, and a shell shield. These items reduce damage from enemies by 1 point, but there is no clarification on what happens if you have two of these items. Do you effectively take 0 damage from more 2-point hits?

Maps

Publication

Written by Jonathan Green

Illustrated by Kev Crossley

2015

Other Players and Links

• ACE Gamebooks website