Moonrunner

Moonrunner is a single-player roleplaying gamebook written by Stephen Hand, illustrated by Martin McKenna and originally published in 1992 by Puffin Books. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It is the 48th in the series in the original Puffin series (ISBN 0-14-034937-5). There are currently no announced plans to republish this book as part of the modern Wizard series.

It is a follow-up of previous Fighting Fantasy book Legend of the Shadow Warriors. The 400th reference of the book does not contain the successful ending to the adventure.

Story

In this book the player takes the role of a veteran of the War of the Four Kingdoms in the Old World, now a bounty hunter dedicated to capturing war criminals who escaped justice. The last remaining war criminal is the notorious Karam Gruul, "The Hand of Death", who has been tracked down to a location near the town of Blackhaven in the kingdom of Gallantaria. The player character is hired to find Gruul and bring him to trial, although it seems that Gruul is well aware that he is being pursued. There are several ways to reach the successful conclusion, each following a distinct narrative.

Rules

Like several other Fighting Fantasy books, the player may choose a set of special skills for their character.

Other references

The book is a follow-up of Hand's previous Fighting Fantasy book Legend of the Shadow Warriors, which is set in a similar location and historical setting. The storylines share elements. Hand has written that he envisioned a third book, Blood of the Mandrake, which would tie together and conclude several outstanding plot lines begun in Legend of the Shadow Warriors and Moonrunner although the trilogy was never completed due to the Fighting Fantasy series being discontinued in 1995 (See Mark J. Popp's correspondence with Stephen Hand at the former FightingFantasy.com).

Notably, the book makes numerous references to popular horror movies. The apparently-immortal Conrad Zaar is visibly based on Jason Vorhees from the Friday The 13th (series) movie franchise. Another character, Maria Ouspenskaya, is named after an actress from the 1941 movie The Wolf Man.