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Post by thealmightymudworm on Feb 16, 2024 0:13:20 GMT
Struck by the description of the Cangui as '...like an impossibly beautiful Mudworm' (TCT 319 with thirst trap pic at TCT 64), I wonder whether the two slithering wonders might hit it off...?
The Mudworm would be charmed by the silky embrace of the Cangui, as well as impressed by her enchanting abilities. Conversely the Cangui would be struck by the awesome unarmed combat skills the rugged Mudworm displays in hand-to-handless segment fighting.
You feel that together they would be nigh on unstoppable. Perhaps they would sweep aside opposition in righteous conquest, finally bringing a glorious era of invertebrate monarchy to the once troubled Isles of the Dawn.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Feb 13, 2024 16:31:04 GMT
I've never played Lone Wolf at all. However, there is a set of shelves at my local railway station where people can dump generously make available books for travellers and when vaguely looking them over to see if there were any Revenge of the Vampires or anything, I noticed name 'Dever' on a hardback. So, do I have the book I need to get into this celebrated series? Not really, it's in Italian. Nevertheless, I thought I'd pick it up as it seemed unlikely to me that many fluent Italian speakers who love gamebooks pass through a small station on their way to Brixton or Bromley. It's not in perfect condition – the back looks like it was dropped in a puddle – but it is all there and looks acceptable otherwise.
Is anyone interested in it? I'm not sure what conditions I'm offering it under really except that I don't intend to be out of pocket for posting it to Italy (or anywhere). If no one shows interest I might put it back after a couple of weeks.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Feb 12, 2024 3:55:02 GMT
Playthrough
I managed to roll decent stats of SKILL 10 STAMINA 19 LUCK 11. This proves useful immediately as the adventure starts with two LUCK tests. This means that the hero of TWoFM not only didn't stab me but also handed over some bread – bonus!
The choice is then offered to stick around in my cell to eat the food, replenishing my current STAMINA of 10, but I figure that if I do that someone will just turn up to lock the door and I'll have squandered my first chance in several years to escape.
However this turns out to mean that I lose 1 STAMINA point every paragraph until it says I can stop to eat. This means that having lost a maximum of 9 points over the past two days of not eating, I lose 4 in about, say, five minutes walking to the armoury. There I pick up an awesome battleaxe and restore my LUCK, but despite reading the paragraph three times, I can't find any hint that I can sit down in this room and eat my hunk of bread. Why is it more dangerous here than in my cell? The Battleblade Warrior problem of death by anorexia looms large.
Going South, I encounter two orcs, swat one and overcome the other without taking a hit. Just as well given my rumbling tummy and related STAMINA of 5. Finally I get into the dining room which is the first place I'm told I can eat.
(I'm reminded of the rules my brother had to stick to in conducting university tutorials which indicated that a variety of rooms might be used, including ones where the professor (or whatever) lived but, to deter staff-student liaisons, never one with a bed in it. This led to many wry comments about the wisdom of the authorities in noticing that sex is impossible without a bed.)
Anyway, restored to a STAMINA of less than I started with by my first meal in days, I get a chance of continuing West or South. I go South, encountering various orc corpses, references to the Giver of Sleep and Di Maggio's 'burn a dragon's nose' book, but nothing useful to take.
Passing a cell with a figure with a concealed face apparently sobbing over something, I'm not blind to the obvious red flags. Nevertheless I figure I could afford a fight and there might be something interesting available, and so say hello. The mutant orc is upset that someone has killed his snake (literal, not innuendo) and is content to blame me. I kindly re-unite him with his pet, taking one hit and spending one LUCK point in the process. Nothing interesting is available.
Finally I near the entrance and have to pass a die roll test which would be affected negatively by various items, none of which I have and most of which I've never heard of. I pass. The orc sleeps on and no others turn up. Win!
There's an epilogue explaining how the name Eric Rune-Axe came to be, which is a nice tie-in with the battleaxe. Generally though the journey out of Zagor's domain felt a bit uneventful. Maybe that's why it was missed out of the original.
Yeah, I am aware now that it can be a pretty boring adventure if one finds the most straightforward way out of the mountain. When I was first writing this as part of a mini tie-in series during my student days, I spent most of the efforts on making connections with the corresponding books in the main FF series, so most of the content is in finding encounters that links back to what the hero of TWoFM went through or might have gone through in this part of the dungeon (which wasn't much in the first place).
There are extra content which can help flesh out the story (and of course, to insert more reference to TWoFM, which was the important thing to young me at the time), but nothing essential, and probably nothing too rewarding comes out of them, although I did attempt make sure that the players who go through the trouble of getting them can also get a bit of extra help if they fail that final roll near the entrance (which they would be more likely to since they would be picking up some of those checked items with negative bonuses in the process.
I think the reason I left out the armoury as one of the 'safe' places where you are allowed to eat is because one of the possible circumstances where you can enter the room include having to break the door open (or it's already broken open by your saviour who came before you), which leaves it in open view to anyone passing by. I considered setting up more complicated conditions to check on that, but in the end decided it wasn't worth the effort (and I was also running out of sections - I was childishly stubborn about keeping to that).
I did try to add more interesting elements and design in some of the later books in the mini-series (although I believe 1 of them ended up broken as a result since I didn't have enough sections to resolve all the stuff I added), but this one now feels like a lesser RtFM nostalgia trip, little more. Thanks for taking the time to play this! I appreciate the comments. Forgot to say that I went back and headed down the other passage to take a look. That section definitely adds something to the adventure compared to just hurrying out. Thanks for writing it and your reply to my slightly grumpy playthrough.
Thought I'd better get that in before what I assume will be a flood of winning entries shortly being posted for the current challenge.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Feb 10, 2024 5:21:12 GMT
I can see Karam Gruul hitting it off with Katarina Heydrich. An interest in living past their natural ages, a lust for power and a quirky use of magic with a special focus on mind-control... there are things that bring them together.
Katarina could get seriously obsessed with the Skull of Mora Tao. Whether that's a reason why she and Gruul would meet, something they would fall out over or both, I'm not sure. Perhaps Gruul would be happy to have someone looking after it so that it doesn't fall into the 'wrong' hands.
Since the possibility of Zanbar Bone dating has been mentioned, perhaps people will excuse me pointing out that his dating profile is one of those on this thread. New members may not have seen it.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Feb 9, 2024 23:35:26 GMT
Just for the hell of it, I've converted it to a lower quality JPG and uploaded it to an old photobucket of mine.. If you still can't see anything, I give up. It took this for me to see it, too. You're very talented Yvoire. The kopesh is an interesting and very effective sword choice. Huh. You know, when I saw your reply here I wondered whether to mention that Yvoire hadn't posted on here for 10 years. Then I wondered how Photobucket (the bastards) were displaying the image (whether it had 'pay us now' stamped all over it or somesuch) and clicked on the link.
So it seems that we know who yvoire is/was on this forum and we were considering his artwork several years before Secrets of Salamonis became a thing.
Once you know, it's not difficult to see the resemblance e.g. in this.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 31, 2024 1:31:32 GMT
Gently starting to transition away from only ever presenting challenges which are my own work by setting The Aleff, that being the open-to-expansion collaboration which was begun a number of years ago. (Please note that it is still open to contributions – DM me if interested in writing a section.) You can play the adventure on the forum, though there is a pdf with the numbers more scrambled which some may prefer. HOUSE RULE: Because I hope one day that there is more than one win in the adventure, the only win available is statistically difficult to reach and players may get bored revisiting paragraphs. So for this challenge: When you first reach a paragraph featuring the line 'If one taper should fizzle out...', play by the rules as stated, but if you reach it a second time in the same playthrough, just assume that the die rolls match. The winner of this challenge is the first person to post a successful playthrough after 12 noon GMT on Shrove Tuesday (February 13th), unless someone else also posts a successful playthrough within 24 hours of that playthrough. In that case the winner will be determined by die roll. If no successful playthroughs have been posted by 12 noon GMT Leap Day (February 29th), then unsuccessful playthroughs will be considered. Unsuccessful playthroughs may be posted at any time. This challenge is open to contributors kieran and stevendoig if they are interested.
Unrelated: how do people feel about adventures being reused for challenges, especially if no one managed a successful playthrough the first time? Don't worry, I'm not going to repost Festivities, not in 2024 anyway, but perhaps The Blight might be due another chance at the limelight? I think it perhaps fell by the wayside with people keen to enjoy the easing of Covid restrictions.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 27, 2024 22:20:34 GMT
Playthrough
I managed to roll decent stats of SKILL 10 STAMINA 19 LUCK 11. This proves useful immediately as the adventure starts with two LUCK tests. This means that the hero of TWoFM not only didn't stab me but also handed over some bread – bonus!
The choice is then offered to stick around in my cell to eat the food, replenishing my current STAMINA of 10, but I figure that if I do that someone will just turn up to lock the door and I'll have squandered my first chance in several years to escape.
However this turns out to mean that I lose 1 STAMINA point every paragraph until it says I can stop to eat. This means that having lost a maximum of 9 points over the past two days of not eating, I lose 4 in about, say, five minutes walking to the armoury. There I pick up an awesome battleaxe and restore my LUCK, but despite reading the paragraph three times, I can't find any hint that I can sit down in this room and eat my hunk of bread. Why is it more dangerous here than in my cell? The Battleblade Warrior problem of death by anorexia looms large.
Going South, I encounter two orcs, swat one and overcome the other without taking a hit. Just as well given my rumbling tummy and related STAMINA of 5. Finally I get into the dining room which is the first place I'm told I can eat.
(I'm reminded of the rules my brother had to stick to in conducting university tutorials which indicated that a variety of rooms might be used, including ones where the professor (or whatever) lived but, to deter staff-student liaisons, never one with a bed in it. This led to many wry comments about the wisdom of the authorities in noticing that sex is impossible without a bed.)
Anyway, restored to a STAMINA of less than I started with by my first meal in days, I get a chance of continuing West or South. I go South, encountering various orc corpses, references to the Giver of Sleep and Di Maggio's 'burn a dragon's nose' book, but nothing useful to take.
Passing a cell with a figure with a concealed face apparently sobbing over something, I'm not blind to the obvious red flags. Nevertheless I figure I could afford a fight and there might be something interesting available, and so say hello. The mutant orc is upset that someone has killed his snake (literal, not innuendo) and is content to blame me. I kindly re-unite him with his pet, taking one hit and spending one LUCK point in the process. Nothing interesting is available.
Finally I near the entrance and have to pass a die roll test which would be affected negatively by various items, none of which I have and most of which I've never heard of. I pass. The orc sleeps on and no others turn up. Win!
There's an epilogue explaining how the name Eric Rune-Axe came to be, which is a nice tie-in with the battleaxe. Generally though the journey out of Zagor's domain felt a bit uneventful. Maybe that's why it was missed out of the original.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 27, 2024 0:23:12 GMT
Even though a fair number of the books are rated pretty much where you'd expect them this is a pretty weird list.
I suppose it's worth saying the obvious: it's not the same people doing all these ratings. Many of the people rating the recent books will never even have heard of the ones only printed in the original Puffin range. Most likely even the nostalgic pink-tinged glasses of hindsight are no match for the wide-eyed viewpoint of a ten year old with their first gamebook. All the highest rated entries have been either published or re-issued in the past 20 years (the highest which hasn't is Vault of the Vampire at 14).
The question of fogeys vs whippersnappers aside though, it's hard to comprehend how both Seas of Blood and Scorpion Swamp can outrank Moonrunner (even if only just).
Also, I know he isn't many people's favourite author, but poor Luke Sharp! Out of 71 titles none of his books make the top 60. Naturally Chasms is damned forever by many people because of hmm hmm mmhmm, (but why do Crypt and Blood get relative let-offs?) and surely Fangs and Daggers aren't that bad?
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 18, 2024 0:07:49 GMT
I believe a 15th January has been and gone and Per has appeared to be first to post here with a best outcome, if he wishes he can set next challenge or we can do some elaborate RNG between him and victory posts in the Hovel Of The Vampire thread. The rules are still unclear and even arbitrary but my thinking is if we've had several victory posts after a few days after the deadline we can think about the next one? There are an awful lot of Amateur FFs (even if many are long and hard or short and wanting).
So it's not running to the 21st? I don't have any special title in mind, so if anyone wants to choose one they can go ahead, or else I can pick some adventure based on the title (and maybe verify it's not a 534-section monstrosity). Then again if I was the only contestant this time and I'm not supposed to post for my own pick, do we even have a challenge? Just to do a little bit of housekeeping here: 1. I've suggested that it's up to each person setting the challenge what the conditions are for a win and when they've been met (hopefully there shouldn't be much dispute if the conditions have been set clearly) so long as those conditions are broadly in the spirit of the thread. So in this case it's up to CharlesX who has won anyway.
2. Assuming that CharlesX was running this according to the conditions used previously: the two dates of Jan 15th and Jan 21st were for successful playthroughs to first be considered (15th) and only if none had been posted by the second date (21st) would the least bad failed playthrough be considered by the setter. Per has had a successful playthrough. The only issue is that it hasn't been posted in this thread after the 15th. Let me rectify that by quoting him: I finished it on my second attempt; I wasn't at all sure I'd get past the armour or have everything needed to kill the vampire, but it worked out. I got the sludge but didn't use it, and I did get really lucky in the first vampire fight, as I won the second round despite being effectively 4 Skill lower. The first time with the armour, I figured I'd scratch out the N in the inscription leaving "ONE SHALL PASS", so the number would be 1. Apart from that, and assuming the number wasn't a password found somewhere else, 0 straight from the "none" with no real justification was the only other thing I could think of. Possible corrections or observations: In 4 when it says you can take an action, I assumed it meant switching back to fighting with your sword, but maybe you meant you can drink the sludge (and still not have to keep the AS penalty?).
Also in 4, even though the regeneration has been "nebulised" and not explicitly neutralized, I still assumed it wasn't meant to be applied. In 17 I would also interpret the extra damage to replace the non-listed regeneration ability, but I'm not sure that's intended.
Should 12 read "4 or 8"?
The cake image seems to be broken. Taken together with the unsuccessful playthrough posted earlier, that gives a pretty comprehensive runthrough. Although I'd be interested to know whether Per's successful playthrough ended Horace by stake or sunlight.
Just to suggest a tweak to the rules to address the main objection – or at least say how I'd probably run a challenge if I ever get to set one again:
Keep the format of two dates with the 'first post of a successful playthrough after (e.g.) Feb 15th 1 pm G.M.T.' wins unless someone else also posts a successful playthrough within 24 hours in which case the two or more claimants can roll for it.
Hopefully that would maintain the benefit of giving a minimum time for people who don't know an adventure to have a decent go at it, whilst minimising the 'but that's 4am for me you bastard' element and keeping the influence of luck to a minimum.
(Note that we can even include a public die roll in our posts on this forum, so people don't even have to trust each other.)
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 17, 2024 23:12:50 GMT
Hello all - My name is Gareth. I loved the Fighting Fantasy books as a kid and recently in the course of house renovations I unearthed my old collection. I have been re-reading them with much enjoyment. I'm really interested in the art in all these old game books (I have a few Lone Wolf volumes as well). I like to draw and was thinking of drawing images in the style of some of the illustrations, to see if I could learn some of the illustrator's techniques. If I draw something, I would love to share it here. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to post an image here. Is there a 'how to use the forums' page I missed? I have checked the 'Help' manual. Unfortunately, the only articles I can find say I need to either click on a +Add Files button or on a 'toolbar' directly above the message area. I can't see either the button or the toolbar. Can anyone help me out? EDIT: the toolbar appears when I select 'edit' for the post - but not before I have posted? Do I have that right? It's confusing! Is there any way to upload images / attachments before you post? Or do you have to post and then 'edit' to create a post with images? Hi Gareth, welcome To get to write a post with the toolbar available from the start, click on the yellow Reply button rather than typing a reply and using Post Quick Reply.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 12, 2024 4:57:28 GMT
Switching to your sword can be done without taking time. So basically me when playing a certain FF and the adventure asks "are you fighting with a hammer" and I go "well I guess I am now". – I mean, why not? (If this is the stone axe in MR, I may have done some bellyaching on that subject on the relevant solution page.) What was the ambiguity about regeneration? I read the instruction to say that every round he begins below full health, he regains 1 Stamina at the end of that round (if still alive). This is slightly convoluted - why not check at the end of the round, then? - so I'm not ruling out that the intended procedure is if he begins a round below full health, he immediately regains 1 Stamina, i.e. that "next round" refers to what I would call "this round". It's perhaps an indication of how difficult it is to be precise about this that I'm not sure how or whether your description differs from what I intended. Or possibly I'm being dense. Two points: Horace's regeneration doesn't kick in instantaneously and he needs a whole round to regain a point.
Maybe this can only be made clear with sample rounds:
Round ––– Horace stats ––– outcome of round for hero ––– notes
Number
1 ––––––– Sk 11 St 16 ––––– win
2 ––––––– Sk 11 St 14 ––––– lose or draw –––––– H didn't start R1 injured so he hasn't had time to regain a point 3 ––––––– Sk 11 St 15 ––––– lose or draw –––––– but now he has 4 ––––––– Sk 11 St 16 ––––– win + LUCK 5 ––––––– Sk 11 St 12 ––––– win + LUCK –––––– again H didn't start R1 injured so he hasn't had time to regain a point 6 ––––––– Sk 11 St 9 –––––– [FAST FORWARD] 15 –––––– Sk 11 St 4 ––––– win 16 –––––– Sk 11 St 3 ––––– win 17 –––––– Sk 11 St 2 ––––– win –––––– regeneration won't be quick enough to save him VICTORY
Although I could have made it even harsher it's a stiff fight even for a hero with Skill 11 or 12 unless they have at least a couple of successful Luck rolls.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 10, 2024 4:18:35 GMT
I finished it on my second attempt; I wasn't at all sure I'd get past the armour or have everything needed to kill the vampire, but it worked out. I got the sludge but didn't use it, and I did get really lucky in the first vampire fight, as I won the second round despite being effectively 4 Skill lower. The first time with the armour, I figured I'd scratch out the N in the inscription leaving "ONE SHALL PASS", so the number would be 1. Apart from that, and assuming the number wasn't a password found somewhere else, 0 straight from the "none" with no real justification was the only other thing I could think of. Possible corrections or observations: In 4 when it says you can take an action, I assumed it meant switching back to fighting with your sword, but maybe you meant you can drink the sludge (and still not have to keep the AS penalty?).
Also in 4, even though the regeneration has been "nebulised" and not explicitly neutralized, I still assumed it wasn't meant to be applied. In 17 I would also interpret the extra damage to replace the non-listed regeneration ability, but I'm not sure that's intended.
Should 12 read "4 or 8"?
The cake image seems to be broken.
Thanks for pointing out the missing cake. When I first posted this I just hotlinked all the images because I didn't know any better and they've been steadily lapsing ever since. I'll see if it's easy to find the original.
To both your questions: basically the more generous answer.
My attitude to stats and fighting in FF is that whilst the possibility of death by dice adds something it can get tedious quite quickly. Ideally I'd prefer even minimum-statted adventurers to live in hope. The sludge was what I had in mind, which means for most it's worth trying to fight using the pen for several rounds before resorting to throwing it, and then hopefully drinking the sludge to restore STAMINA after it's hit. Switching to your sword can be done without taking time. I'm just not cruel enough to force someone who's thrown the pen and missed have to try to slap a full power vampire to death.
It's only in ref 6 that Horace has functional regenerative powers. In 4 he's just like any other fighter, and in 17 he's slowly dying in the sunlight. 'Time is on your side' because drawing rounds will eventually see him destroyed. 'Nebulised' just happened to be a word I preferred to 'neutralised' at that moment.
In ref 12, no not '4 or 8'. A hit causes 4 STAMINA points damage by default. If you test your LUCK successfully it's 2 damage and if unsucessfully it's a full 8 points of damage. I'm not sure why I decided on 8 rather than 6 which would arguably be more consistent, but I'm sticking with it. It's a big axe.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 10, 2024 2:53:00 GMT
I do agree there should be some mechanism so it's not just about sniping the announcement, it's just that waiting a whole week is perhaps not necessary (and doesn't that mostly mean that the contest becomes posting the fastest after 12.00 on the 15th, if "having a chance" means being super competitive). An alternative proposal: 1. People can start whenever they like, but any entries in the first week should be spoilered, 2. Any entries in the second week may or may not be spoilered, 3. And after the second week, if there are multiple winning submissions, the winner is decided randomly among them regardless of submission time, or if there's none, an oracle is consulted to identify the least bad loss. I haven't read every post of these three pages, but it doesn't seem like the major issue has been a flood of entries, so if my point 3 should become impractical, it would only be because things were going so well. Many or most people may prefer this method – we can leave it up to whoever's setting a given challenge. (Although I'm not quite sure I understand why it would be OK to have unspoilered posts in week 2...?) I think paradoxically although the original method enforces an embargo on winning posts I like the idea of people hurrying to get the first successful playthrough in time to be the unique winner as compared to it being chosen at random. Of course a pile up in the seconds after the opening time would be tedious but that hasn't happened yet. Either way I agree that having too many potential winners would be a nice problem to have.
OK, here I go with my first attempt at this ever, it's a total slam dunk. Or is it!? Read on if you dare etc. >prancing through the countryside with my sword >killed a "young" giant spider recently >I'm just oddly vicious I guess >suck at archery though >arriving at Slumberdown there's a giant crack across the whole valley >and also people aren't out in the streets >the latter of these circumstances being more concerning to me for some reason >there's some people at the inn though >no sooner have I entered than someone decides to "recite doggerel" >well yeah there are too many syllables in the last line >and it suggests I need to fail a Luck roll to win or something >anyway can I please go kill the mighty vampire in the sage's house >I say well not sure about my tight schedule, also archery >more doggerel >I stand my ground >they look at me pleadingly, even the cat >OH GOD the cat >fine >so I'm at the hovel >doors left and right, up and down >huge crack outside might be where I'm going when I'm done in here >so if they'd sent the cat at least we could have split up and covered the attic and basement at the same time >guessing at which options won't close off others, I try left door >animated suit of armour says no >it's the only thing in the hovel that's gleaming apparently >so now I know where the tin polish from Fortress Throngard went >there's an inscription by the door and do I have any idea how to solve this puzzle >in fact I do have a super intelligent solution >add five to my number and check this paragraph >nope >try putting a five after the digit I was thinking of and check this >nope >maybe I can get back to this later >check the other door instead >I'm in the sort of L-shaped kitchen >do I want to leave or investigate >"turning the corner" of the L I find a huge warrior >is this the sage or the vampire or what >I wait to see what he does, nothing much >gamebook suggests I should drink with him >opening bottles labelled "spirits" in a sage's house could lead to you being in the bottle >nice try gamebook >cake is not a drink >lemonade would take ages to prepare probably >tea seems as good as anything >warrior isn't impressed by result and neither am I >first indication the gamebook uses anything like a rules system >I roll up stats for a standard FF guy so I can lower them >warrior meanwhile falls asleep from boredom >as I leave, I get to pick up a bottle I can use if someone demands I show them my rat ashes >options suggest I won't get another go at the armour >up or down, which is least onwards >try up >do I have holy water, not to my knowledge >whoa vampire >he won't let this end without me hearing his story >he's been "summonsed" >he floats slash skitters towards me >do I have a mammal of holy water, if so, code >cow is not the right species, this knowledge may help in future games >for those of such bereft, only swordfighting is left >vampiric regeneration rule is a little unclear but anyway he doesn't need it >the end I guess - enjoyed that. Yes, sorry it doesn't start by saying: standard stats roll-up; only possession is sword. I only remembered to specify that later in the thread. (You may also have missed out on my beautiful cover art .)
What was the ambiguity about regeneration?
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 6, 2024 21:51:04 GMT
Birds of the Island Tales is indeed one adventure in the same sense that Fabled Lands is one adventure, but since it appears the gamebook tool linked only gives you one entrance point, the original Isle of the Cyclops, a victory condition of sorts could be getting enough gold to get off the island and head into some other sub-adventure. (Titannica a little confusingly claims it uses "the game system created by Per Jorner for his non-Fighting Fantasy based amateur adventure Mansion of Maleficence which in turn is partly based on the game system of the Fabled Lands", when it should be saying IotC is derived from both of those two systems separately. I don't suppose there's anywhere to download the non-French version of MoM any more?) Outsider! is indeed voluminous (section numbering to 1000, although there aren't that many) with long stretches of reading, and I seem to remember the author said he didn't balance the mechanics at all, although that may not be disqualifying in the challenge if there's no requirement that someone must win (and read through all the dialogues). Is there are reason the challenge can't begin right away? I mean, I could do a playthrough here and now and write down the result in a spoilered post, but by the 15th my carcass might be picked clean by ravens.You can certainly start a playthrough right now, and if it's a failure post it ASAP too, preferably in spoilers. The (my) thinking for the thread was that challenges should be open both to people who know the adventures well and those who don't. If someone plays an adventure, knocks it out of the park in half an hour (e.g. because they know the best route) and posts a winning playthrough straightaway, nobody else gets a chance. Of course I have limited authority here! Anyway welcome to the thread.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 6, 2024 16:08:01 GMT
I'm keen to get people actually playing, so I suggest Hovel Of The Vampire which is a mere 37 references long with outcomes to be submitted between January 15th 12:00 and January 21st 12 p.m. If anyone is feeling very brave they may mention if they complete or read Outsider! or even Tales From The Bird Islands but that will not affect the challenge (i.e. it would be in a discussion capacity, probably on Amateur Adventures thread).
Yes my only objection to the switch was going to be that people should get a few hours grace to declare "Grr! I've already spent 4 hours in that there Island of Bird Tails and all for nothing!". No objection whatsoever to another of my adventures being used . (Though it means I won't put in an entry unless perhaps there are none by the last week of January.)
Perhaps all of my adventures will feature in this thread before long as I absolutely intend to set the Aleff at some point (although of course that is a group effort, not mine alone).
Maybe to draw people's attention to it, it would be worth you putting a link in the Frenzy II thread...? That's just finishing and people might be up for a new (yet gentler) challenge.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 6, 2024 1:37:17 GMT
With respect, this is not how the challenge in this thread works. The person who gets to set the next challenge is the person who wins the previous one. Until there is a winner the challenge remains open indefinitely. PMs are not relevant. An account of any attempt should be posted on the thread, though with spoilers as appropriate (and claims of wins after the initial deadline which has passed for this one). The idea is partly to help people find out about/discuss the amateur adventures in question. Winning attempts are considered first, then if there are none the least abysmal failures are considered. As there are currently none of those, all you or anyone has to do is make one fresh attempt at FoF and write an account of the playthrough. No matter whether you win or lose or how badly you play, you will win the challenge by default at this point. But declaring a new challenge without bothering to attempt the previous one is taking the piss.
I do not understand what winning is, especially in your adventure where a whole range of outcomes are considered victories. I think you mean only the maximum best in terms of points is winning? I believe I misunderstood and thought the object was to post a win asap, rather than the best possible win over an indefinite\unspecified period of time.
I will post my quick nominal attempt here, just as no one else has. This has a terrible outcome but gets through the game. I guess if a long time passes and no other outcome has been posted we can go ahead with my suggested challenge sequel; there is no upper limit about posting outcomes.
Yes as you said it's not a great attempt but it is an attempt nevertheless. As we're passed the day I specified for considering unsuccessful attempts (New Year's Day) this suffices to close my challenge and yours can now be considered live.
My gamble that there was enough time for people to enjoy a festive adventure by/on Christmas/Boxing day (possibly with their kids) didn't pay off, so I will take the minimal satisfaction that my resurrection of this thread hasn't completely died on its arse.
I'm a bit hesitant about diving into the Tales from the Bird Islands now that I see it has a stonking 925 paragraphs but we'll see how it goes. Does anyone know it well enough to say whether there is one or more well-defined wins in it? That's not always the case with collaborative gamebooks.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 5, 2024 1:45:19 GMT
A less than precise likeness, but...
To be honest I'm not sure I want anyone to look at me that way – even if they aren't a centaur's bum.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 5, 2024 0:54:18 GMT
So, has thealmightymudworm been PM'd or is the amateur adventures challenge dead? I'm wondering whether the challenge was too festive. Either way, may I suggest the winner of the Amateur Adventures poll with a phenomal(-lly underwhelming) 3 votes Tales From The Bird Islands:
A winner being the first to post a victory after January 15th 12:00, or to have gotten the closest to one, will have the honour of suggesting another challenge.
Edit: Now played Tales From The Bird Islands a few times. Doesn't have enough birds . With respect, this is not how the challenge in this thread works. The person who gets to set the next challenge is the person who wins the previous one. Until there is a winner the challenge remains open indefinitely.
PMs are not relevant. An account of any attempt should be posted on the thread, though with spoilers as appropriate (and claims of wins after the initial deadline which has passed for this one). The idea is partly to help people find out about/discuss the amateur adventures in question.
Winning attempts are considered first, then if there are none the least abysmal failures are considered. As there are currently none of those, all you or anyone has to do is make one fresh attempt at FoF and write an account of the playthrough. No matter whether you win or lose or how badly you play, you will win the challenge by default at this point. But declaring a new challenge without bothering to attempt the previous one is taking the piss.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 4, 2024 5:57:09 GMT
And in 265 it tells me I can take whatever I think will be useful from the giant's corpse. I take it I was the only one puerile enough to make the long trek to Mampang with a rotting giant's schlong in my backpack, then. Look, those long nights out under the stars in the Baklands can get lonely... I take it I was the only one puerile enough to make the long trek to Mampang with a rotting giant's schlong in my backpack, then. Look, those long nights out under the stars in the Baklands can get lonely... Alas, petch you were not the only one.I don't know if that makes you feel better or not. And with regard to your second sentence, I might recommend you casting the ROK spell on it as soon as possible...
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Dec 29, 2023 2:09:58 GMT
The link seems to work for some and not for others so best to send me a PM so that I can email it to you. Hi sylas, I am not sure how can I send you a PM. Can you help me, I am interested in the "revised edition" If you click on 'sylas' to get to his profile, there should be a 'Send Message' button on there.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Dec 22, 2023 3:00:01 GMT
I hesitated on this before voting 'moderate complexity'. TBH I'm not familar with a wide range of systems and certainly wouldn't want to be using a system much more complex than FF. Also its most famous flaw – the difficulty in balancing an adventure for high and low statted characters – is not really a matter of complexity.
However, given that the first word of FF is 'fighting', it seems a bit unfortunate how mind-numbing combat is: – You get one choice every attack round: use LUCK or not (OK there are two ways you can use it but still) – Any round in a given fight (or with the same SKILL difference) in which you don't use it is the same as any other round in that fight apart from whether you win lose or draw, including the amount of damage
– For about 90% of the rounds, using LUCK is clearly the wrong choice – Sometimes when using LUCK is not clearly the wrong choice, it's an absolute no-brainer than it's the right choice e.g. you take a hit on STAMINA 2 or score a hit while facing the final boss with a SKILL deficit but a decent LUCK score.
It is absurd that if you have e.g. a Sk 9 St 16 hero taking on a Sk 9 St 12 opponent and the hero won't or can't use LUCK, the number of rounds can be predicted at the start to be at least six (very likely more) and could be indefinite. Is it fair to say that on a playthrough of any adventure having to fight anything approaching 100 rounds of combat is a significant crimp on your enjoyment? Even much over 50?
A little more ability to make tactical choices in battle and some more overall variation regardless would make things a lot more enjoyable. (I tried to write a book with rules that do that with an otherwise FF-ish system but procrastination has locked it away for a long time like a number of things.)
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Dec 16, 2023 5:52:02 GMT
Since this is being resurrected, I think there was some confusion about why it isn't allowed to post a win immediately if it's before the miniumum time. The idea was just: people should be able to take part in this whether they've played the adventure in question or not. However for some of them, FoF included, if you know it reasonably well you can probably win in 1 go or at most 2 and could probably win on the same day the challenge is set. If people are playing for the first time but are determined, they get time to play 3, 4 or 5 times and win. The requirement to remember exactly when to post is a bit arbitrary but I don't have any better ideas.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Dec 16, 2023 4:06:01 GMT
I've decided – ignoring necromancy warnings as usual – that this thread is due a resurrection. My justifications are: – If there's one thing that Charles X's polls on this forum show it's that most of us haven't played as many of the amateur adventures as we could have done
– It's Christmas
Perhaps I should have played Bones of the Banished again, but I'm not going to get round to it before Christmas now. In any case the form for this thread was that if no one had actually won an adventure after a given time, failures were considered, and I carried out a perfectly mediocre failure on last year's frenzy.
With the shameless self-promotion that I go in for at this time of year, I'd like to ask anyone interested to play
The aim is to get the best win, that is via the highest bracket of Comfort & Joy points which will get you to the equivalent of para 400 in this 62 para adventure. The first win posted after noon on Boxing Day (26th) takes the glory and gets to set the next challenge. If no such win is posted by noon on New Year's Day, the best failure (or suboptimal win) will take it instead. Failures can be posted at any time.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Dec 12, 2023 16:45:39 GMT
I remember very, very little about this book apart from it evoking in me a very short feeling of elation, followed by a since persistent mixed feeling of disappointment and apathy.... The reason for this? Well, apart from the fact that I only ever played it once, back in the early 90s, the main cause is due to the fact that I successfully completed the book on my very first attempt! The one and ONLY time that this has ever happened with a Fighting Fantasy book. I even remember that I completed it with a Skill of 8 and a Luck of 9 (can't remember the Stamina score!). I also completed it VERY quickly, so I must have bypassed a sizeable chunk of the book. Because I considered the book too easy, too short and lacking in substance, I never have gone back and played it again. Judging by the generally warm praise that the book seems to receive from fandom, I should probably give it another shot and see what I might be missing, because I DO tend to enjoy Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson's stuff (particularly Dave Morris'). It's been a while since I played a Golden Dragon book, so maybe I should pick those up too... Yes it's very unusual in that the design flaw is that it's quite statistically easy to win whilst missing most of the book, including some of the most interesting/fun sections. Usually the problem is either that a book is statistically impossible whatever you do, or relies on you solving puzzles which make no sense or just making straight-up unmotivated decisions.
Sometimes people talk about having patches or house rules to fix faulty books such as reimagining the one-stroke combats in CoM. TKotLL is about the only one where the house rules that would make the final showdown with Mortis statistically harder and making the side-quests such as defeating Lady Lotmora more important in countering the difficulty.
Edit: I now see that I've already made a comment very similar to this on this thread already.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Dec 10, 2023 3:40:41 GMT
One question: what were the criteria for inclusion here? I'm assuming that my Murderous Mire and the group written The Aleff were excluded because they're based on specific FF books and those are a different category. But whilst I see Hovel here and Creature of Hangover in another poll, Festivities of Fury is absent.
I assume that you're referring to my beautiful and much celebrated cover art: Your cover art is cool, except I can't make out the top title words which seem to be pink\cyan on blue, I would change so they don't clash (red on bright green by contrast is very readable). Ah yes, my grasp of colour contrast is sometimes not the best. A lighter sky would have been preferable. (Click to enlarge)
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Dec 2, 2023 3:40:53 GMT
I was taking something of a break from the forum when these were posted. Perhaps I could have hyped my own work – but then again nobody else seems to have done that. (Presumably actually voting for your own efforts was discouraged!) One question: what were the criteria for inclusion here? I'm assuming that my Murderous Mire and the group written The Aleff were excluded because they're based on specific FF books and those are a different category. But whilst I see Hovel here and Creature of Hangover in another poll, Festivities of Fury is absent. This is a poll covering in alphabet order all Fighting Fantasy amateur FF. There are about 160 amateur FFs, conveniently about 80 in each half of the alphabet, so each poll will cover a few letters up to around 20. YOU will be able to vote for up to 5 if you have heard of, played, like or love any of these adventures, with the intent being to choose our favourite half, few, and very favourite amateur FFs, along the way we can discuss these adventures and what we like\dislike about them. Each poll will be for one week. Hovel of the Vampire seems to have a computer pic by its entry, I don't know if that maybe means the title has a lovely computer pic, or the whole thing.
I assume that you're referring to my beautiful and much celebrated cover art:
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Nov 29, 2023 22:22:55 GMT
My first books were Starship Traveller, City of Thieves and Battleblade Warrior. I spotted some FF books when round at a friend's (probably at the age of nine) and picked those three to borrow. I'm not sure that he ever got them back. I wasn't that impressed with ST, but the others made me want more.
The ones I bought/had bought for me were mostly whilst visiting my grandparents (my grandfather was a vicar, but an open-minded one rather than a chain-himself-to-stuff type). So although I'm a Londoner, they all came from a WHSmiths in Maidenhead. It seems fellow forum member Wilf used the exact same shop to build his collection. I don't have much idea what order I bought them in.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Nov 26, 2023 19:49:07 GMT
Most recently finished fiction was Ian Rankin's Hide and Seek, my first read of a Rebus book. In the introduction Rankin says that this is a follow-up to Knots and Crosses, which featured references to Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde that readers failed to notice. He declares that in this one he's going to beat readers over the head with it. (That's not a quote, but it's amusingly close.) I enjoyed the read, though with slightly mixed feelings. Rankin is supposed to be class above most writers in the genre so I was maybe judging him by high standards. (Also he fronted a TV programme about the nature of evil many years back that I enjoyed in which he interviewed psychologists, psychiatrists, philosophers, lawyers who'd defended mass murderers etc.) The description of the Edinburgh locations is quite evocative and the characters quite memorable. However there are some places I feel the plot creaks. The book starts with the dying victim bellowing "Hide!" at his girlfriend and Rebus realises after a while that he was actually saying "Hyde" to indicate who has poisoned him and is a threat to her. Late on Rebus is trying to figure out what this could mean. However, by this stage he's already met the victim's acquaintance Charlie and his blind uncle Vanderhyde who share an interest in the occult. It would seem to me logical for Rebus to spend more time scrutinising their family tree (for other 'hydes) and acquaintances than he does. When 'Hyde' turns out to be the name of an underground club named precisely after the darker side of human nature from Stevenson's novel it feels a little on the nose/out of nowhere. It also feels a little disappointing that the occult arrangement of the body turns out to have nothing to do with the murder, given that that was the only reason Rebus became interested in the death in the first place.
Finally, when the Hyde club turns out to be well known to establishment figures and kept secret by conspiracy, Rebus takes a resigned attitude to it a little too easily after the guy running it 'commits suicide' (i.e. is bumped off).
As I said, I did enjoy it despite my moans. I'm more likely to read more Rankin than PD James.
Current non-fiction reading: Anthony Seldon's book on Boris Johnson at Number 10. Turns out he was all over the shop. Who knew?
I didn't really know the character well at all - never actually read Agatha Christie before and never seen any Marple adaptations. I like watching the ITV Poirot adaptations so I thought rather than reading Poirot, I'd read Marple for something a bit different. I expected it to be like Poirot with Marple being very much to the foreground. I think generally Christie fans feel that the ITV Poirot adaptations are of a good standard even if they prefer other versions. If you watch the ITV Marple adaptations those are more of a mixed bag. The early ones with Geraldine McEwan are a bit quirkier, emphasising the comedy and maybe a bit further from the books. From what I've seen, the later ones with Julia McKenzie tend to be a bit more serious and not just because of the way the actress performs it (although the last one, Endless Night, is pretty bad partly because it crowbars Miss Marple into a story which just has no space for her).
When I was growing up, the Miss Marple adaptations available were the Joan Hickson ones. She was apparently the actress favoured by Christie herself. I seem to remember they were good (and Hickson received BAFTA nominations) though I haven't watched any in 30 years. It's partly a matter of taste. Hickson's Marple never, ever makes jokes, unlike McEwan's mischievous, twinkly-eyed version.
Incidentally in general I'd steer of the recent BBC/Sarah Phelps adaptations of any Christie. Why someone would be motivated to sling bucketloads of money at productions in which the adapating scriptwriter shows such offhand disrespect for the source material is beyond me. [Not that I've read a lot of Christie: a handful of Poirots, one Marple and And Then There Were None under its original, no longer ever used, title.]
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Nov 19, 2023 19:01:55 GMT
Those of you nowhere near London mind you don't miss out on online events which might be of interest. Actually there was a writing for roleplay masterclass this weekend which perhaps I should have flagged up but it was a stonking £185. There are some more reasonably priced online events coming up: Monday 20 November Why We Need Fantasy: Neil Gaiman in conversation. Tuesday 21 November The Worlds of Terry Pratchett: Neil Gaiman and Rob Wilkins. Saturday 9 December Fantasy Worlds: A Day of Talks. This includes: 11:00 - 12:00 Fantasy Worlds: Fantasy Maps Cartographies of the imagination. With speakers including Charles Vess in conversation with Travis Elborough.
12:30 - 13:30 Fantasy Worlds: Mary Shelley, uprisings and rebellions How Frankenstein paved the way for generations of marginalised voices in fiction
14:00 - 15:00 Fantasy Worlds: Visualising Fantasy Brian and Wendy Froud and Alan Lee in conversation with Terri Windling
15:30 - 16:30 Fantasy Worlds: Rebecca F. Kuang in conversation The award-winning author of The Poppy War trilogy, Babel and Yellowface in conversation with Saara El-Arifi
17:00 - 18:15 Fantasy Worlds: World Building in Fantasy Aliette de Bodard and Adrian Tchaikovsky with Matthew Sangster
I've just picked out some which look to be most of interest. NB If you book but can't watch live you can catch up on most of them for 48 hours. The BL continues to be crippled by a ransomware attack, but you can book here:
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Nov 6, 2023 5:24:58 GMT
For those of you in or in the vicinity of London, The British Library is holding an exhibition named Fantasy – Realms of Imagination since the end of October until February 25th 2024.
I'm a member of the BL so will be going at some point (theoretically I can take someone in but this might be difficult to organise). There are some related events taking place involving Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman and a board games festival day. Some of these might be viewable online if you book. They had an interview with Susan Cooper (of The Dark is Rising) which I watched.
(Apologies if this is wrong section for this but it seemed too specific for 'General' and 'Stage' seemed the closest.)
but be aware that at time of posting they are still suffering the effects of a devastating 'cyber incident' which has disabled their website and much besides for a week (making it impossible to book tickets – you can turn up and buy them at the moment but only with cash!) Explanation of artwork references:
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