Return on the "Dracula Game"

Maybe I should wait for my countdown to Halloween to blog about it, but anyway there you go. You may remember a few years ago, I blogged about the Dracula Game, based not so much about the famous novel (which I hadn't read at the time), but on a gamebook written by J.H. Brennan, Dracula's Castle. Well, I made a few rough calculations and if I'm not mistaken we played it on Thursday the 21st of September 1989. A day before the autumnal equinox, when teachers had been on strike for a week. Anyway, I blogged the story before: a friend brought this book and we decided to play a make-belief gme based on it. I think our intention was to bring the story to its conclusion around Halloween, but it was not meant to be and we played it only once. But we had such fun with it. Why I still remember it fondly and why was it so fun? Part of it is due to my fascination for the Count, which had started even back then. I wanted to know more about Dracula and this was the nearest and easiest source of info. I think it was also a well designed make belief game: a simple dungeon crawl in a castle, but in a real-world, contemporary setting, so it had relatability and atmosphere. Finally, there was Halloween already looming and this got us in the spirit of the season. These last few days, I only have to go out and smell the air and I remember how I felt that day. The boredom that suddenly triggers creativity.