17) Appointment with F.E.A.R Solution

[champskees]

Ok, here is my proposed solution for Appointment with F.E.A.R. Because there are four super powers to choose from (and each requires a different route to win) I have put them all separately below. This book is a favourite of mine; Steve Jackson gives you a lot of choice, enemies are well balanced and the book has a very interesting design. It also has a lot of replayablility due to the inclusion of 'Hero Points' and the 4 different powers you can pick to win. Note that these solutions get you to pick up all of the clues necessary in order to locate the villains meeting place. Thanks to Greenspine for part of the solution (and the motivation to do it correctly).

Super Strength Solution

- Add clue: when looking for Scarlet Prankster, subtract 50 to current reference.
- Buy a newspaper to find out about the robbery.
- See what else is in the paper.
- Add clue: Susan. Phone number 555-9999.
- Proceed to the bank as the Silver Crusader.
- Interrogate the Chief Detective investigating the case.
- You do not want to go.
- Go to Parker Airport.
- ‘Susan’ means something to you.
- Use clue: 5+5+5+9+9+9+9 = 51. Turn to Para 51.
- You have Super Strength.
- Add clue: Meeting on 27th (+2 Hero Points).
- Apprehend the pickpocket (+6 stamina).
- You automatically pass the skill test.
- Fight Sk 7 St 6 Pickpocket.
- Take the Casette Tape.
- Add clue: when you encounter Mustapha Kareem, double current reference (+1 Luck).
- Go to Wisneyland.
- Go to the Fun House.
- You have Super Strength.
- Use clue: 248-50 = 198. Turn to Para 198.
- Fight Sk 9 St 8 Scarlet Prankster.
- Add clue: Meeting begins at 9 a.m. (+3 Hero Points).
- Rest for the evening (+6 stamina).
- Head to Titan Zoo.
- Follow its advice and head straight for the museum.
- Ask him to get someone to show you around.
- Use Kareem Clue: 135*2=270. Turn to Para 270.
- You have Super Strength.
- Fight Sk 10 St 10 Mummy until enemy enemy Stamina reduced to 4 or less.
- Add clue: Meeting in Executive Jet (+4 Hero Points).
- Visit Titan Central Library.
- You don’t think you can handle this creature, leave.
- Go downtown to Police Headquarters.
- Investigate the strange case at the hospital.
- Check the morgue anyway.
- Go downtown to get tickets for a special concert (+6 Stamina).
- Go to Whirl’s Court.
- Your first duty is to save the visitors from the mad android.
- You have Super Strength.
- Add clue: Parker Airport.
- Take Circuit Jammer (+4 Hero Points).
- Go down to 7th Avenue to watch the presidential cavalcade.
- Spend the next half hour in a coffee bar waiting for the main procession to arrive.
- Go to Parker Airport (+6 Stamina).
- Go to Xavier Hanger.
- Use time and date clues: 394+9+27 = 430. Go to Para 430.
- Your power is Super Strength.
- You have a Circuit Jammer.
- Fight Sk 9 St 10 Titanium Cyborg.
- You have saved the world from F.E.A.R! (+10 Hero Points).

[champskees]

Psy Powers Solution

- Go over and see if you can break up the argument.
- Nip round a corner to change into the Silver Crusader.
- You have Psi Powers.
- Add clue: Guy with gold watch focuses on a pawnbroker’s shop (-2 Stamina from use of Psy Powers).
- Go to work.
- Nip into the toilet to change into the Silver Crusader.
- Use your superpowers to aid the men.
- You do not have Super Strength or ETS (+1 Hero Point).
- Stop a potential explosion.
- You do not have ETS.
- Rush off to find a fire extinguisher.
- Go to Cowfield Dairy (+6 Stamina).
- Take the cat to a Cats’ Home.
- You have Psi Powers.
- Fight Sk 9 St 8 Tiger Cat.
- Add clue: Meeting to be held on 5th Avenue (-2 Stamina from use of Psy Powers).
- Add clue: Add 60 to current paragraph when you find evidence of Mantrapper’s activities.
- Receive 2 Hero Points and +1 Luck.
- Head for work.
- Get to work as quickly as possible.
- Spend the day at Wisneyland.
- Go to Fun House.
- You have Psi Powers.
- Check the Rotating Room (+1 Hero Point).
- Go downtown.
- Ask questions at the bakery.
- You have Psi Powers so read their minds (-2 Stamina from use of Psy Powers).
- Add clue: Meeting at 209th Street.
- Phone the details through to the police.
- Have a look in the window of Epiphany’s, the famous jeweller’s.
- Add clue: Deduct 30 from current paragraph when looking for the Poisoner (+1 Luck, +6 Stamina).
- Go to the Natural History Museum.
- Look at the model reconstructions of dinosaurs.
- Do not go to the zoo.
- Go visit Gerry the Grass.
- Add clue: when you encounter Sidney Knox, deduct 40 from current reference (+1 Luck, +6 stamina).
- Use clue: 215 - 40 = 175. Turn to 175.
- Take Circuit Jammer (+5 Hero Points).
- Go to Police Headquarters.
- Use Poisoner Clue. 412-30=382. Turn to Para 382.
- You have Psi Powers (-2 Stamina from use of Psy Powers).
- Add clue: Location of the meeting is known by a man with a gold watch (+4 Hero Points).
- Go to the army base.
- You do not have Super Strength.
- Leave to find out what is happening at the Titan City Council Buildings.
- Stay in town (+6 Stamina).
- Use avenue clue: 5*10 = 50. Turn to Para 50.
- Use avenue & street clues: 5+209 = 214. Turn to Para 214.
- Investigate the pawnbrokers.
- You have Psi Powers (-2 Stamina from use of Psy Powers).
- You have a Circuit Jammer.
- Fight Sk 9 St 10 Titanium Cyborg.
- You have saved the world from F.E.A.R! (+10 Hero Points).

[champskees]

Enhanced Technological Skill (ETS) solution

- Buy a newspaper to find out about the robbery.
- Proceed to the bank as the Silver Crusader.
- Interrogate the Chief Detective investigating the case.
- Go to beach immediately.
- You have ETS.
- Fight Sk 10 St 8 Shark. (if it inflicts four wounds on you, you will not receive a vital clue and will lose).
- Add clue: Add 50 to current paragraph when you find a lion’s cage.
- Apprehend the pickpocket (+6 stamina).
- Test Skill. Fail = you lose (as you need the clue to complete the book).
- Fight Sk 7 St 6 Pickpocket.
- Take the Cigarette Packet.
- You have ETS, so run it through your computer at home.
- Add clue: Meeting at 176.
- Take Phenolic Acid.
- Go downtown.
- Have an afternoon off and do nothing.
- Go to Verging Records.
- Go to the circus.
- Head for the lion cages.
- Use clue: 310+50 = 360. Turn to para 360.
- Fight Sk 8 St 6 Ringmaster for one round.
- You have ETS (+1 Luck, +3 Hero Points).
- Add clue: Password for the meeting is ‘Quicksilver’.
- Add clue: When you find evidence of Ice Queen’s activities, deduct 20 from current reference.
- Go visit Gerry the Grass.
- Add clue: when you encounter Sidney Knox, deduct 40 from current reference (+1 Luck, +6 stamina).
- Use clue: 215 - 40 = 175. Turn to Para 175.
- Take Circuit Jammer (+5 Hero Points).
- Go to Stanley Swimming Pool.
- Use clue: 97-20 = 77. Turn to Para 77.
- Go back to save them.
- You have ETS (+2 Hero Points).
- Go back to Para 77.
- Track down the Ice Queen.
- You have ETS.
- Test Luck. Fail = 2 damage.
- Add clue: Meeting on 3rd Avenue (+4 Hero Points).
- Go to the army base.
- You do not have Super Strength.
- Try to get the Macro Brain on his own.
- You have ETS.
- Add clue: Meeting in Chinese laundry (+6 Hero Points).
- Leave to find out what is happening at the Titan City Council Buildings.
- Stay in town (+6 Stamina).
- Use avenue clue: 3*10 = 30. Turn to Para 30.
- Use avenue & building clues: 3+176 = 179. Turn to Para 179.
- Go into the Chinese laundry.
- You have a password you would like to try on him.
- Try ‘Quicksilver’.
- You have a Circuit Jammer.
- Fight Sk 9 St 10 Titanium Cyborg.
- You have saved the world from F.E.A.R! (+10 Hero Points).

[champskees]

Energy Blast solution

- Buy a newspaper & find out about the robbery.
- Investigate the robbery as the Silver Crusader.
- Interrogate the security guard.
- You have Energy Blast (2 Damage).
- Try again (2 Damage).
- Add clue: Meeting on submarine.
- Go to the beach straight away.
- You have the Energy Blast Power.
- Test Skill. Take 2 Damage for using an energy blast.
        - If fail:
                - Fight Sk 8 St 10 Ripper Shark. Fight until enemy is defeated or you have taken 4 hits.
- Go to Cowfield Dairy (+6 Stamina).
- Apprehend the villain.
- Fight Sk 8 St 8 ‘Chainsaw’ Bronski.
- Receive 1 Hero Point and +1 Luck.
- Head for work.
- Go in and look for a suitable gift.
- Go upstairs to the games department.
- You have Energy Blast.
- Test Skill. Take 2 Damage for using an energy blast. If fail, you lose (you need the clue to win the book).
- Test Skill. (2 Damage each time from using Energy Blast). You need to be successful twice.
- Chase after the last one.
- Add clue: Meeting on the 28th (+3 Hero Points).
- Run to work.
- Make sure you get an early start in the morning.
- Stay in and rest for the evening (+6 Stamina, +2 Luck).
- Visit Police Headquarters.
- Go shopping.
- Go into the drug store.
- You have Energy Blast.
- Add clue: Meeting at Clancey Bay (+3 Hero Points).
- Go downtown to get tickets for a special concert (+6 Stamina).
- Go to Whirl’s Court.
- Your first duty is to save the visitors from the mad android.
- You have Energy Blast.
- Take Circuit Jammer (+4 Hero Points).
- Watch the football game.
- You have Energy Blast (2 Damage from Energy Blast use).
- Fight Sk 8 St 8 Illya Karpov.
- Add clue: Meeting at 11am (+5 Hero Points).
- Go home and rest for the day (+6 Stamina).
- Head towards the waterfront.
- Use time & date clues: 11+28=39. Turn to Para 39.
- Go to Clancey Bay.
- Go to the ageing submarine.
- You have Energy Blast.
- Use Energy Blast (2 Damage from Energy Blast use).
- You have a Circuit Jammer.
- Fight Sk 9 St 10 Titanium Cyborg.
- You have saved the world from F.E.A.R! (+10 Hero Points).

[Nova25]

I would like to use this as the basis for a walkthrough/guide for the (STEAM) game version, if this is ok ?

[champskees]

Nov 14, 2016 3:48:27 GMT Nova25 said:

I would like to use this as the basis for a walkthrough/guide for the (STEAM) game version, if this is ok ?

Of course, assuming you credit your source please mention the website, we desperately need exposure!

It might interest you that Tin Man Games themselves used this very walkthrough as the basis for the steam app! 

[dreeeeee]

Do the Hero points actually play any role in this adventure, or are they just basically a distraction?

[a moderator]

They're just a distraction.

I'm pretty sure that in the Fighting Fantazine sequel Vengeance After Midnight, Hero Points can make a difference to the outcome, but that adventure has its own problems.

[The Editor (Alex B)]

May 22, 2017 19:12:01 GMT a moderator said:

They're just a distraction.

I'm pretty sure that in the Fighting Fantazine sequel Vengeance After Midnight, Hero Points can make a difference to the outcome, but that adventure has its own problems.

Mainly the fights, right? I've got to get around to fixing those at some point.

[dreeeeee]

May 22, 2017 19:12:01 GMT a moderator said:

They're just a distraction.

I'm pretty sure that in the Fighting Fantazine sequel Vengeance After Midnight, Hero Points can make a difference to the outcome, but that adventure has its own problems.

^^ Thanks!

I was looking for them to play some sort of role like the Honor or Faith points in other books, but, yh nothing. How weird.

Have a teenager who's getting into these, so, my old geek-girl interest in them has been revived. (:

[dreeeeee]

Hah looks like brackets are used to format text. I originally wrote:
I was looking for them to play some sort of role like the Hono(u)r or Faith points in other books, but, yh nothing. How weird.

Have a teenager who's getting into these, so, my old geek-girl interest in them has been revived. (:

[Cudd1es]

Lol. Funny that. I just uncovered my collection of FF books and got my wife interested.
(Yes, lucky to have a young wife).

Note perfect use of brackets...

[JMISBEST]

Jul 20, 2017 1:31:10 GMT Cudd1es said:

Lol. Funny that. I just uncovered my collection of FF books and got my wife interested.
(Yes, lucky to have a young wife).

Note perfect use of brackets...

Lucky you getting a girlfriend and now a wife that likes Fighting Fantasy

Maybe if you have 1 or more kids you could/can name them after characters from the books

[johnbrawn1972]

Jul 20, 2017 7:44:02 GMT JMISBEST said:

Jul 20, 2017 1:31:10 GMT Cudd1es said:

Lol. Funny that. I just uncovered my collection of FF books and got my wife interested.
(Yes, lucky to have a young wife).

Note perfect use of brackets...

Lucky you getting a girlfriend and now a wife that likes Fighting Fantasy

Maybe if you have 1 or more kids you could/can name them after characters from the books

I always thought Third Hobgoblin was a lovely name.

[philsadler]

Jul 20, 2017 13:13:31 GMT johnbrawn1972 said:

Jul 20, 2017 7:44:02 GMT JMISBEST said:

Lucky you getting a girlfriend and now a wife that likes Fighting Fantasy

Maybe if you have 1 or more kids you could/can name them after characters from the books

I always thought Third Hobgoblin was a lovely name.

Unknown Assailant is not bad, neither is Tentacled Thing.

[Ideas?]

I'm helping A Friend with her Idea for A Super-Hero Themed Fighting Fantasy Campaign that uses Appointment With FEAR and its 2 unofficial sequels, then goes to The UK on Holiday for House of Hell, then lets herself get kidnapped for part of A Sting that's a variation on Blood of The Zombies, then gets pulled to Orb for Talismen Of Death, then returns and goes to a newly discovered country in The Bermuda Triangle whose president is The Greatest Druglord in history as a modern day and real-life varaiant on Rings of Kether

But I'm too proud too admit that I'm in over my head more then I was with The 1,200 odd paragraph Appointment With FEAR Sequel, but at least my friends wrote a dozen or so almost full-sized Amateur Gamebooks that she won't send in for fear soneone will steal her ideas, as well as converted Rings of Kether and Rebel Planet to Star Frontiers in The 90's and Traveller 5 years back and is working on Fighting Fantasy Versions of Lone Wolf Books 21 to 28, just is too scared of stealing her work to send them in.

Ideas for me to help my friend. Please and thank you

[JMISBEST]

May 23, 2017 4:33:04 GMT dreeeeee said:

Hah looks like brackets are used to format text. I originally wrote:
I was looking for them to play some sort of role like the Hono(u)r or Faith points in other books, but, yh nothing. How weird.

Have a teenager who's getting into these, so, my old geek-girl interest in them has been revived. (:

I've never personally known a female whose a fan of super-heroes

What your favourite power and why

Mines Energy Blast, which I call Energy Bolt cos its easies to remember and sounds better, and that's cos its the only power I ever beat the book with. But even that took around 66 goes and around 16 months at between 2 and 6 goes per month

[The Editor (Alex B)]

So, if I'm reading these solutions correctly, in the Super Strength one the President ends up dead, but this event is avoided in the other solutions simply through not going to the parade? Can you still beat the book with the other 3 powers and have the President die?

[a moderator]

Champskees' solutions favour the quickest route. Allowing the assassination to take place involves fewer sections than preventing it, and capturing the assassin gains you no important clues, so Champskees lets the president die. I haven't checked all the routes on which it's possible to learn about the would-be assassin, so I'm not sure if you can find all the clues required for winning the book with Super Strength and save the president, but it might be possible.

With Energy Blast you can go straight from the location of the final clue to the presidential cavalcade, so you can watch (or maybe prevent, with the same caveat as above) the assassination if you like.

With the other powers, it depends how much 'guesswork' you allow yourself.

SPOILER: Click to show

With Psi-Powers, going to the parade is on a different path to capturing the Poisoner, so you don't get his clue about the man who knows the location of the meeting.

With ETS, watching the cavalcade means not encountering the Macro Brain, so he doesn't give you the clue about the nature of the business being used as a front where the meeting is to take place.

In both instances, as long as you got the two clues about the address that have numbers in, you're presented with a choice of buildings to investigate, so you could 'make a lucky guess' and pick the right one anyway (and if a reader genuinely reached that point for the first time without the clue from the Poisoner/Macro Brain, they'd have a 50% chance of making an actual lucky guess).

Given the nature of the choice, 'guessing' is more reasonable here than with the password in House of Hell, but some might still consider it cheating, so it's up to the individual reader whether or not they think it permissible to save the president/be in the vicinity when he's gunned down and still save the world.