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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jul 10, 2017 16:52:18 GMT
I felt I left a big gap between solving a puzzle and setting one last time, so here's a bonus (based on a particular book again): Puzzle-setting rights will remain with Greenspine regardless. (I say that as though it's likely to be someone other than him who solves this. )
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jul 7, 2017 16:38:47 GMT
Hi there! I know that there is an extensive article about the german FF-Books in Fighting Fantazine issue 9 by Nic from the Mantikore Verlag (biggest publisher of gamebooks here in germany). But I could post here something about it with more details (especially about the artwork and illustrations). Anyone interested? Yes, sounds interesting. Go for it.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jul 6, 2017 14:38:40 GMT
Hello! My name is David and I'm a big gamebookfan from Germany. Sorry for any spelling mistakes. My english is far from perfect, but it's good enough to read and play FF-Books. I actually improved my knowledge in English by reading FF-Books in the past, because there are so many FF-Books that were not published in Germany (we have only 22 from the original green Spine-Series translated in german)and I want to play them all! I also took part in the FF-Fest in 2014, but you sure don't remember me. Me and my wife were the only Germans there, and we were a bit shy and didn't talk to much. But I had a lot of fun there and bought YOU ARE THE HERO which gave me many hours of enjoyment. I'm also helped my friend Simon to write his own gamebook DER WEG DER WACHTEL, by doing the illustrations, proofreading and playtesting. You can find a entry about our book in the amateur gamebook section in this forum. Welcome, David Your English is fine. I like your profile pic – where's that from?
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jul 5, 2017 5:18:17 GMT
Some time ago – well nearly two years in fact – deadshadowrunner messaged me to suggest we could start a collaborative gamebook with as many people here chipping in as wanted to. His idea was to riff on Spectral Stalkers and have an item named the AleFF which would transport you to scenes in the books, or scenes following on from them. At the end of each scene you roll a die to determine where you go next. DSR gave some examples: DSR was suggesting this when the forum was going through a dead phase. Then he got busy at work and the forum became undead thanks to a note-dispensing ghoul. I haven't seen any trace of DSR for 8 months and I've no idea whether he'll ever be coming back, so there doesn't seem much point in delaying further. DSR was thinking about the adventure continuing more or less aimlessly, coming to an end when either the hero died or the reader ran out of numbers. This was to make it easier for new posters to add more scenes indefinitely, even if the people who'd started it had left the forum. I like the idea that it could be added to endlessly, but feel strongly that there have to be ways of winning. Either a single end like a final showdown but an ever expanding 'middle', or some scattered good ends across various books. I favour the latter – but this is getting ahead of things. How many of you like the idea, and would you be interested in writing a scene (or more than one) for such an adventure? It wouldn't necessarily need to be written up very quickly. If people could agree in principle now, post some ideas for what they could write over the next few-to-several weeks and then write them up (probably between 5 and 20 paragraphs each) whenever possible following that. Also, any thoughts on what would and wouldn't work for this? Obviously having independent scenes limits what you can do in them a bit. You can avoid insta-deaths and get food or even stats boosts like a magic sword, but if you want to write something in which is useful in another scene, you'll have to write that too (or arrange with someone else?). It might be worth the hassle though – for example perhaps if you pick up Tabasha the Bazouk from one world and then encounter Zanbar Bone in cat form (if you believe that's a thing) in another you could have them pulling chunks of fur out of each other.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jun 26, 2017 23:12:57 GMT
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jun 24, 2017 22:01:42 GMT
I seem to be gradually stumbling across Mudworm's back catalogue. I read Hovel to give myself a break from The Temple of Flame, which I have been stuck on for some time. I probably liked Hangover & Festivities better than Hovel, due to their original concepts and great humour, but I still very much enjoyed this one too. Warning: Spoilers ahead. I particularly liked the butterflies, that was unexpected, and the entire 'monstrosity' sequence was fantastically grim! The main naughty of the book was also totally badass, and I loved that final conflict. I played by the rules with dice, so it took me a good few attempts to get through it. Hynreck, I hope you weren't too dismayed about finding the word puzzle hard, I was also totally baffled by that part for a while as well, so you wasn't alone. The first time I successfully completed Hovel, my battle lust didn't quite feel quenched: I like to play barbarian style, so I attempted it again by just grabbing the sludge and then rushing straight for the bad guy. I wanted to smash him into oblivion as fast as I could. I completed it in that fashion without using luck, though I did have max stamina & skill, and that satisfied me. Good ending, and a great final sentence; read my mind. The only problem you have now Mudworm is that I'm going to have high expectations for everything you write. Have a nice evening all. Back to The Temple of Flame now, then I hope to check out Greenspine's stuff, if I get time. Well that's my entire back catalogue to date There's nothing of mine written in FF-style left for you to stumble over (save a four paragraph mock-extract of an adventure in London in which I grumble cryptically about the cost of travelling by Oyster card...) I am now much closer to completing the Scorpion Swamp pastiche but I'd like to lower expectations for that one if anything. I didn't realise quite what I was committing myself to when I decided to use a particular game mechanic, and I'm not sure what the playing experience will be like. So did you retrieve the item to finish Horace off but not the one to make the main combat easier? Or did you actually fight him twice? Thanks again for your kind words.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jun 24, 2017 21:38:04 GMT
I agree. POP's cover is quite cool, but I'm not sure the comic book style works for me either. That's just my taste though. Regarding the others, the old Miller, McCaig covers are hard to beat but I can understand why they went for this new look. I obviously hope they sell well and reach a new generation. Have they got green spines though? Gold spines according to Ian Livingstone.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jun 23, 2017 14:49:19 GMT
Oh oh. You shouldn't have called him Spiny. You won't like him when he's spiny. Turns green does he?
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jun 23, 2017 14:07:59 GMT
It's good to see the ol' bitey dagger back. Overall they're a touch cartoonish for my taste. I suppose that's an indication of an intent for these to be bought by new young readers as well as old codgers like us, and that's for the best. Whether this is the best way to achieve it (and whether the cover of HoH prepares readers for the book) I'm not sure.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jun 14, 2017 16:43:12 GMT
Hey thanks Mudders, that's very nice of you, I appreciate the tips Oh you're very welcome. I'm not sure how good it is as advice anyway – I've never tried a Morse-themed pub-crawl myself, though I can vouch for the Bookbinders as I used to live 50 yards from it. Probably better advice is to check Oxford's own DailyInfo to see if anything interesting is going on when you visit.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jun 12, 2017 21:16:42 GMT
Spot on.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jun 12, 2017 15:11:33 GMT
Got most of them, though I'm not 100% sure about 7A, and 9A eludes me entirely. Across 4 Dryad 6 Mandrake 7 Lich 8 Elemental 9
Down 1 Caarth 2 Werewolves 3 Gark 4 Demons 5 Pixies A cryptic clue about the one that's still baffling you: Confused as to glory. I did get this in the end, incidentally! I was being remarkably dense about it, having convinced myself it was harder than it was.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jun 12, 2017 14:57:42 GMT
OK, this is absolutely not good enough to justify the wait, but there it is. As will become pretty obvious it is themed on a particular book.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jun 12, 2017 14:43:12 GMT
The one set in Oxford, based on Colin Dexter's books? I've seen a few of those, by no means all. Did you watch the original Morse? I lived in Oxford for a bit. Sometimes it was a bit puzzling watching that because the characters would go for a drink and walk up to the door of a pub, and then you'd see them drinking in a completely different pub. This probably gets done a lot in other shows and cities, where the director likes the look of the outside of say, The Eagle and Child but find they can't fit the cameras in it and finish the scene in The King's Arms. To me though it just looked like teleporting. I intend to visit Oxford for the first time this year, as it's not exactly far from me. Looks lovely. Morse, Columbo... I used to watch a few of these types of programmes. I have also seen these "teleporting" occurrences in films set in my area. But perhaps worryingly, I also seemed to pin down geographic locations pretty accurately because of pub scenes: "This isn't set in my area, flippin' liars, I don't recognise any of these places! Oh wait, there's The George, oh yeah I know where that is." It is a great place. Have fun. ...and of course, don't ask anyone 'Where is Oxford University?'. The reply won't be helpful! There are lovely pubs there along with everything else (worth a check on BeerInTheEvening - you could even use Morse & Lewis as a guide). Expensive though.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jun 10, 2017 23:44:10 GMT
The one set in Oxford, based on Colin Dexter's books? I've seen a few of those, by no means all.
Did you watch the original Morse?
I lived in Oxford for a bit. Sometimes it was a bit puzzling watching that because the characters would go for a drink and walk up to the door of a pub, and then you'd see them drinking in a completely different pub. This probably gets done a lot in other shows and cities, where the director likes the look of the outside of say, The Eagle and Child but find they can't fit the cameras in it and finish the scene in The King's Arms. To me though it just looked like teleporting.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 19, 2017 3:32:14 GMT
I do not know if this is a strange question but why are there only solutions from Champskees and me on the board. The regular posters seem to have remarkable knowledge so I would have thought there would be rabid posting from all concerned. One answer might be the early books especially seem fairly linear(1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 15, 21 as a first stab)so this renders multiple postings redundant. One thing that might have happened more is responses to Champskees solutions but these seem only sporadic. Is there a reason for this? I wondered if it might be the case Champskees is the first responder then there could be many replies followed by a super-solution which might be 0% different or 100% different if the interpretations invert his ideas. I know the essential book mechanics must be the same otherwise it is madness. An example might be my 7/14/7 Night Of The Necromancer 'cascade' solution which goes off in a completely different direction to Champskees help guide/solution(I still love his help guide because it makes apparent what the consequences are for certain options or failed dice throws which I would suggest is invaluable to anyone who wants to break into it). Are people protective of their own solutions or is it more prosaic where we let Champskees do all the hard work and then most disagree privately? Some might be so 'prejudiced' they could not agree to a super-solution but I suppose it depends on peoples dispositions? Who would adjudicate? Headache? That's not quite true: for example fallingmast offered up some jovial walk-throughs of Sorcery! and nathanh came up with a very interesting set of walkthroughs for Moonrunner which vary according to what stats the player starts with. I don't have any well-worked out walk-throughs written out myself (I probably wouldn't top the 'remarkable knowledge' list on here). Probably there is a feeling that as Champskees has held himself to a high standard it would take a lot of energy and maths to eke out any minor improvements. As I recall there had been a number of solutions on TUFFF – mostly posted by a guy named Sunil (seeking/finding his solution to TCT brought me to FF forums) – before Champskees set himself the task of doing all the books with the sense that it would be a more exacting process. I don't know Jonathan Green's books at all well, so I can't really comment on those anyway.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 13, 2017 16:49:35 GMT
Another thought on goblins: If you intervene on their behalf by summoning eagles with Gloten's hunting horn when they're fighting troglodytes near the Cloudhigh Mountains, their god graciously rewards you.
Of course anyone who tries stealing from his temple is likely to meet a sticky end, but then most gods I know get pretty grumpy about that sort of thing.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 12, 2017 1:07:28 GMT
Like John, I only know a limited number of the books well so my list will mean little. But here it is just the same (in no particular order):
City of Thieves I first encountered FF in the form of three borrowed books: Starship Traveller, Battleblade Warrior and City of Thieves. The latter was easily the most impressive with Blacksand having its own character and atmosphere.
Demons of the Deep Demons is probably a bit of a comfort-read for me. The adventure doesn't really generate fear or a sense of urgency/drive, but the underwater world is very engaging and a pleasure to become immersed in. I like the variety of non-failure endings and the book being packed with ideas (albeit many of them borrowed).
Portal of Evil PoE is a unique quest with some memorable characters such as Gloten and Azudraz, some nice twists such as the sympathetic dinosaurs, sinister wood elves and the chance to intervene on behalf of goblins – and of course a unique opponent in the portal.
Vault of the Vampire The classic gothic horror – you know that you're going to get stakes and crosses, bats and wolves, coffins and blood in the wrong places, so it's just a matter of whether they come to life (or undeath). This manages it in style with the nastiest jaffa cakes (and worse jelly) ever known.
Moonrunner An entirely different sort of horror with well-deployed special skills, and some memorable quirks and characters such as Hogg and Kilmarney, the Corpse Master, Argolis and the Skull of Mora Tao.
Generally the above have good to excellent cover illustrations setting the scene and, crucially, are winnable by the rules (albeit decent stats are rather important to a couple of them).
This list isn't definitive by any means. Another day I might have pressed Spectral Stalkers, Master of Chaos, Sword of the Samurai or even Keep of the Lich Lord in.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 11, 2017 23:43:09 GMT
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 10, 2017 22:46:41 GMT
Hmm... well if those are book numbers they have alliterative names.
DD SS HoH FF ToT MoM SS
But they're not all the books with alliterative names. Ones with 'the' in don't seem to be included. Is it that they have palindromic initials, something like that?
Is 34 next?
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 3, 2017 23:24:34 GMT
I've never had any contact with him, though I have read a few of his reviews. Is it him that there's a stub on Swedish Wikipedia for? Not sure. That seems to be the review he posted to the gamebooks Yahoo group in 2007. Though when looking on that group, I see he did a few reviews in 2010 that he never put in the archive (Star Strider and the first 3 Sorcery books). Ah, obviously the original book was published rather before 2013 then. Oops. I'm quite ignorant about a lot of this stuff - the link in the text goes through to an Amazon page which says it was published in 2013, but presumably that's just the latest version. Plugging that Wikipedia entry into Google Translate shows it describing him as a 'fantasy writer' which seemed like quite a coincidence, but I've no idea whether he wrote the novels After the Campfires and Blood Moon.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 3, 2017 21:58:31 GMT
Is anyone still in contact with him? Was just reading some of his old Fighting Fantasy reviews on his website and forgotten how brilliant they are. Looks like the last review he did was Rebel Planet back in 2009! It would be nice to see him finish reviewing the series but guessing that's not too likely now.
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of reading Per's reviews, they are all available here: user.tninet.se/~wcw454p/ff.html as well as a ton of reviews by others that he compiled (check out Leigh Loveday's reviews while you're at it - hilarious). I've never had any contact with him, though I have read a few of his reviews. Is it him that there's a stub on Swedish Wikipedia for? A search on Twitter has Jamie Thompson most recently linking to a review of non-FF gamebook Heart of Ice which was published in 2013.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 3, 2017 15:35:52 GMT
They shy away from mentioning Gunpowder/firepowder technology. Perhaps for good reason!
If anyone needs info about the history of explosives on Titan there is a good one on Titannica. The earliest discovery may or may not have been something to do with a chap named Farren (Whyde). A lot of it is derived from the second tome of the Fantazine with the research done by a guy named Warren (McGuire) ('Farren' and 'Warren' seem suspiciously similar to me, but I'm assured that they're different people.) It may have been a puzzle Grimslade designed specifically to test adventurers applying for his mission. A break from the normal kind of job interview. Talc and gypsum are very soft minerals. You could scratch both with your fingernails. That's an interesting idea. A Stamina of 6 is quite plausible if Grimslade deliberately had them made out of something like talc (as opposed to granite which might be more like 86). Presumably he must have used magic to create them... I'd pity any poor sculptor locked away in his basement trying to carve interview-fodder out of crumbly gypsum. The tower exploding would have been a mercy.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 29, 2017 15:55:31 GMT
There have been a couple of threads on this sort of thing - mostly harvested from TUFFF and not updated recently. Gruesome deaths (inspired by those in Phil's favourite source CoH) Humorous deathsI haven't thought about this recently, but the first thing that springs to mind is the trident in Demons of the Deep which is pretty random and therefore memorable. You pick it up to fight mermen with, only for your hand to stick to it and the trident shoot off through the ocean with you attached. The book explains that not only do you stay attached until you drown, but even after your flesh has been stripped off and ultimately all your bones except your skeletal arm. I'm not totally clear on whether there's any reason for this to happen. You'd think if the mermen left charms on all their tridents to do this whenever the wrong person picked one up that they'd lose a lot of them and the sea would be full of 'armful tridents. The whole thing is slightly comical in a 'horror film starring Norman Wisdom' sort of a way. Edit: Oh and welcome, marman.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 24, 2017 12:55:56 GMT
Yes it seems goblins have capacities beyond snivelling and backstabbing.
Thinking about it, Poomchukker's neighbour owns a statue of a goblin. Why would such a thing even exist? Does it suggest there's a goblin artist who specialises in sculpting them, or was it at least made for a goblin? Either would suggest more of an interest in culture than goblins are usually given credit for.
Mind you I've always wondered what kind of stone it can be made of that falls to bits after three whacks from a wooden table leg.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 24, 2017 4:43:12 GMT
I'm afraid I don't own a copy of the book. But you're saying it's kind of racist? Are the authors elves? I know there have been some tensions there… I can't think of many reputable goblins offhand if I'm honest. I recall there was one working as a serving girl for a merchant near Scorpion Swamp, so he must have been more broadminded about them. He wasn't an elf though, he was …actually I don't know what the hell he was. Now I've always said that it's impossible to ruin bacon but that has given me pause for thought.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 23, 2017 1:57:08 GMT
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 22, 2017 3:32:12 GMT
Woah. I'm looking forward to your SS book. How far along are you? Oh thanks. I'd better not say how near I am to completion as every time I do it seems to get longer but when I started it I probably wasn't expecting it to go beyond 100 sections and it's looking like it might end up closer to 200. I'm not totally confident about the result though, it may be a bit of an oddity. I started doing it partly because I've always thought Scorpion Swamp had some quite innovative ideas but wasn't very well executed. In particular the let down of the spell-casting that I ranted about on the Immersion Breakers thread. So in my version you can cast spells almost whenever it makes sense, but that's led to the number of sections taking on a life of its own, even though I've cut back heavily on the number of clearings/encounters. Mind you, given that the original included… -Bit where you consider jumping over a soft bit -Bit where you decide whether to stick your head in a bear-sized hole in a tree. Or not. -Bit where you might try walking across something that looks like a bridge but which you think might be a massive bridge-illusion or trap because [??] but which is actually a bridge. …there was some fat to be trimmed. It's probably going to be a bit uneven in tone though… It starts quite light and jokey as I was thinking of it as more of a parody with various digs at the bits of SS which I don't think work. Later I did some of the writing a bit more seriously and a couple of the death scenes are relatively gruesome – possibly reflecting my increasing annoyance that it's not nearer finished!
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 18, 2017 10:06:50 GMT
In my opinion, Creature of Hangover is a great mini adventure. It made me smile a LOT and I read it four times despite completing it on the second go; love the variety of choices. It is a very short gamebook, so I would encourage anyone with five minutes spare to give it a go if they haven't already. (I drew on years of experience to get me through this quest.) The collapsible sections and bite-size proportions of the story also increase the fun of it. Thanks again Mudders for sharing your great brand of humour, it was a joy to play. (Side note; it flows brilliantly, but I believe that section 6 should read "you are IN danger...") Glad you enjoyed it. Many thanks, I really appreciate comments like this. I was thinking just the other day about how drinking/drunkenness is an underused theme in FF/gamebooks and that there is more fun to be had with it. But any ideas that way will have to wait until I've finished my ever-lengthening Scorpion Swamp pastiche/parody. ...and yes, thanks, I'll correct that now.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 13, 2017 21:12:51 GMT
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