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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 10, 2023 2:48:52 GMT
Steering back to the topic in hand, when we're talking about kings and poshness there's a difference between a king who is the only one in a society above the rest, and a whole class on the other.
If we think about dwarves – usually seen as more working class than e.g. elves – it seems entirely natural that they might have a king. Someone has to be in charge after all, whether you call them 'king' or 'chief'. The idea of dwarf nobles seems a bit odder. Would dwarves tolerate an indolent, land-owning, snobby class? If not, what are they like? (Naturally this hasn't stopped some fantasy writers.)
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 10, 2023 0:48:15 GMT
It was equally as common in the 80s and 90s for various reasons Honestly, I'd need to read some serious studies to measure this. My intuition from memory (and intuition is absolutely the enemy of reason and serious research, all the more so because it often masquerades as reason) is that post-1970s Britain was more polarised, and anti-monarchy views were more prevalent. But I doubt that barely touches the nuances of reality. Stopping short maybe of serious studies, here are a couple of Guardian articles. The first one in particular tries to refer back a long way.
"We can track rather more of the reign if we switch to a better off/worse off without the royals question, of the sort used in our survey on Thursday. Ipsos Mori asked that question throughout the 1980s and 1990s and, as fairytale weddings gave way to the divorces of Charles and Andrew, there was a steady swing away from the steadfast royalist "worse off" vote to a position of indifference. The "indifferents" fleetingly overtook the "worse offs" in the Queen's "annus horribilis" of 1992 (when flames at Windsor Castle followed rows about her tax-exempt status) and then again just before Diana's death. But in neither case did the hardline "better off without them" vote get enough traction to get beyond a fifth. In both cases, the royalists soon bounced back to a modest lead, even if they never quite got back to the scores of about 70% they had enjoyed in the mid-1980s."
(A common theme across the two of course is that Charles is not as popular as the Queen was.)
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 9, 2023 20:57:16 GMT
Clash of the Princes: The Whingers Way Spareship Traveller The Kates of Death Sparebreaker Caverns of the Spares Witch Sorcery! Spare - Cityport of Traps I think I'm sensing a theme here... Meghanhunter
Shadow of the Ginge
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 8, 2023 15:14:02 GMT
Garter Knights of Doom
Horse of Hell
The Citadel of Chaz
Slaves of the Abbey
Anointment with FEAR Sceptre Stalkers
Legend of That Orb
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 7, 2023 19:06:37 GMT
A day late, and possibly could have been included in the other Coronation Day thread. (But I don't want to bloat that if it gets going.)
Island of the Lizard King Charles (One for David Icke fans)
Curse of the Mummy Being Slightly More Popular Than You
Windsorcery
Royallansia
Clash of the Princes: The William Way
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 7, 2023 18:41:38 GMT
Potentially interesting to categorise which heroes start the poshest. Often it's ambiguous as you are simply a seasoned adventurer, and whilst that's an unlikeable career path for the noble born it's not impossible. Off the top of my head, Masks of Mayhem has you as the king, whilst Fangs of Fury has you as a no-ranking soldier. The third assistant rabbit-skinner's heritage matters more than their job in LS's other book CoM. Since it was mentioned, TCT contrasts with the related BVP in terms of your standing at birth. There are a few FFs where you can play an Elf, but none in which you play a female (perhaps we should have had a woman's day thread, right?) or person of colour. I thought the majority of FF books were at least theoretically unisex. Didn't this come up in a discussion not so long ago? I recall Dave Morris saying that when he was involved with writing a gamebook (only one of those FF of course) he reminded people to change things like "Stop him!" to "Stop the thief!" or whatever. In the AFF Dungeoneer at least one of the pre-rolled characters was female. Likewise for the Wizard edition of House of Hell (I'm just mentioning books I know about/have to hand). I'm reminded that there was a thread entitled "Pictures of You" on TUFFF. Did I repost it on here or not? It was about which ones of the books actually showed the adventurer or part of them. It was mentioned on there that some US reprints had explicitly depicted a blonde, blue-eyed male to depict the hero, which seemed regrettable.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 30, 2023 15:02:37 GMT
The stats and dice rolling aspect of FF brings another dimension to the books which completely fails if they are impossible to play by the rules (or it's so miserable that you'd only do it as a bet). Livingstone is right of course that almost everyone cheats, but not that everyone cheats all the time, many/most of us at least want the option of completing the books by the rules. It's a richer experience with the possibility (but hopefully a low to low-ish possibility) of dying even making perfect choices, giving a sense of jeopardy. Perhaps a string of dice rolls might make you change tactics from your intended walkthrough, adding some variation. As soulreaver said, the FF system is not one which lends itself to having a possible but not trivial run-through on all potential stats. So we can forgive books which are essentially brick walls for SKILL 7ers. (I'd never describe Vault of the Vampire as a bad book because it can be completed in a sane number of playthroughs playing by the rules.) But it's not impossible to do if the author makes an effort. For example, Steve Jackson (US) demonstrated that in his books with different missions (SS) or different gradations or kinds of victory (DotD, RC), not to mention in DotD you get an extra SKILL point for losing your training 'fight' with Cyrano, and there's that opportunity to re-roll your stats completely in the merman baths. That's definitely a plus point, and VotV would be even better if it had some comparable touches. Conversely it's just unforgivable for books to be (near-)impossible on ALL stats. It's just not that hard to do it properly, so it seems careless or even spiteful. The original 'one true path' promise was a good one. If you start an adventure with great stats and fall over the finish line at the end with your LUCK on 4 and STAMINA on 1, you should be thinking "Hmm, must have missed a few tricks in this that would have made it easier. I'll find them next playthrough." not "At last, 50 playthroughs after finding out the best route I've finally fluked it, never again."
Edit: non-chance difficulty is more of a judgment call/matter of taste. In general, as has been said, being penalised for failing to do illogical things is always bad. Or at least, we expect there to be a few traps where doing the most logical thing costs a few STAMINA points. But if you repeatedly miss a vital clue because you're failing to dive into acid or kick a bear in the crotch and have no way of knowing that's the wrong choice, that's a problem.
As a principle, I'd suggest that if you put in some sort of puzzle to be worked through which is essential or near-essential, the ratio of your likely readership who can figure it out vs those who are stumped should be (very) high. Inviting people to enjoy an exciting romp based on the cover and title of your book only to cause them misery by slapping them with algebra and lateral thinking halfway through is unkind. Perhaps even more so if the puzzle is very open and you have to be on the author's weird wavelength.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 24, 2023 3:40:12 GMT
I do see what you are saying about Caverns, I just felt it was structured in the wrong order. Interesting out of the first 10 books, Caverns and Starship have by far and away the least page views. Obviously not a barometer of quality but think it shows not that popular. I love how worst cover has got everyone talking. What is everyone favorite cover from the first 20 books? (I'm assuming we're talking about the original Puffin covers.)
Predictably, Demons of the Deep is my favourite. Of the rest... Talisman is very good, and I suppose Temple of Terror and Isand of the Lizard King are pretty effective at grabbing your interest (I didn't play those two growing up).
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 21, 2023 13:42:17 GMT
I wonder whether the Calvin & Hobbes strip was published before or after Robot Commando? Just asking questions, but Calvin & Hobbes 1985 - 1995, Robot Commando 1986 - I'm wondering whether Robot Commando inspired this strip rather than the other way around. Probably wishful thinking though. I think Calvin & Hobbes is a US strip and SFAIK US have a limited run of FFs which either doesn't include Robot Commando or includes it later than the UK date (and\but more to the point, it's seen even more as a cult in the USA than it is here in Europe).
My guess would probably be that if anything the influence would go the other way with (this) Steve Jackson being American though obviously it depends on the exact date. But children's authors have been noticing the way kids smash their toys together forever. We should probably be grateful that there's no book showing Donald Duck kicking a T-Rex in the balls.
Edit: This suggests that the Calvin & Hobbes was a very late one, so it could have been influenced by RC, but it seems unlikely.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 16, 2023 17:37:26 GMT
I'm just preparing my sad face for when the so-called 'worst' FF turns out to be Deathtrap Dungeon \ Legend Of The Shadow Warriors.
Democracy gives you mob rule but this poll will give you rule of Lady Luck which will probably be worse.
*Hums tunelessly* Luck be a lady to Night of the Necromancer
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 12, 2023 3:01:56 GMT
What this reminded me of more than anything was watching Knightmare in which it was just accepted that the satchel-thing the dungeoneer carried was somehow an externalised stomach. They just dumped food into it any which way for sustenance, but what was really going on in there?
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 10, 2023 17:49:34 GMT
Hi everyone, it's your friendly neighbourhood thread necromancer here.
I thought I'd offer an updated PDF link for this – no new sections have been added but previously the paragraphs before Doigy's first contribution were barely mixed with e.g. paragraph 5 linking to paras 30/31/32/33, all of which in turn led to 34. That is, I feel, tolerable here on the forum where all the paragraphs are spoilered but in PDFs they are not. I've now scrambled them a bit.
There are no significant other changes – just the odd typo and the ambiguous word-use. Plus I've just credited myself, Kieran and Doigy as contributors because God knows when I'll find out what babbagefart's full name is.
A number of regular posters have joined this forum since this was last posted in so if anyone feels like giving this a playthrough or even contributing to it, please go ahead/let me know.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 8, 2023 20:59:38 GMT
Supreme Retail Business License – provided directly by the gods, this allows its owner to set up a shop in the most unpromising places. Every being regardless of attitude or intelligence must accept its authority, be they ghoul, dragon or manticore, waving this in their face(s) will cause them to leave the shopkeeper unmolested.
An adventure suggests itself with a hero being pursued by assassins or a horde of caarth who can only escape by founding an outlet for poorly labelled potions. But how do they pass on the business to another? Only a Divine Business Transfer and Sale Agreement can do this, but the only known example was torn in half by squabbling goblins and dark elves...
NB: even a Supreme Retail Business License is no defence against a human self-declared hero carrying a Sword of Shopkeeper Slaying.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 2, 2023 3:14:06 GMT
Okay, I think I have made it so guests can read but not post etc. I will point out that this was a really, really, really, really tedious thing to do. There is no one setting for this. I had to do this for each individual board (there is about 30-40 boards in this forum). Let me know if it works as advertised. This is great news. I seem to be able to navigate all round the forum in a private window whilst if I try to reply it asks me to sign in. So all is as it should be. I'm disproportionately happy to see 'guests' numbering above zero again.
Let the call go out: All are welcome at the table [though you may not bring your own spam].
Thanks for putting the time and effort in to sorting this out.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Apr 1, 2023 4:42:02 GMT
I read this forum for a while (mainly for solutions and reviews after I'd completed a book), but didn't bother to sign up. Then it closed to guests, so I signed up as a member because I wanted to keep reading. Then, once I was a member, it felt like I should start contributing where I thought I could. So I did. So closing the forum to guests has had me posting where otherwise I don't think I ever would have. Whether that's turned out to be a good thing or not isn't for me to say! My situation is exactly the same as Wizard slayer so in that respect at least it has encouraged those that are now members to contribute with their own comments and opinions. Yes, there's no question that the portcullis coming down prompted a number of long term 'guests'/lurkers to sign up, and some of you have become prolific posters which is great. The problem is that now there are no guests, long-term or otherwise, and overwhelmingly the new members signing up are doing no more than guests used to do. Total posts (up to 31st March 2023): By members joining between 20th Sep and 20th Oct 2022: 419 By members joining between 21st Oct 22 and 31st Mar 23: 26
I think that second number is very low for this forum in recent years, (masked by the still brisk member sign-up rate) but what's more worrying to me is that most of those months were during a time that the forum's pages still appeared in Google results. I'm not sure when we dropped off exactly but maybe not before the end of January...?
Before then people at least knew that there are e.g. solutions to the books here, even if they had to sign up to see them. (The number of posts by members joining since February 1st is 3.)
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Mar 29, 2023 2:00:00 GMT
This seemed like a relevant contribution to the discussion: Of course I had to bust through a warning about bumping this thread – which is sort of a shame as it was quite relevant in this case:
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Mar 25, 2023 5:31:27 GMT
I've gone with Sands of the Snake, Trails of Trauma and Servants of the Night (although maybe rethink the title of the second one – the word 'trauma' doesn't quite land right imo). Those have clear points of interest that an author could make use of: -Struggling to get help from good characters when you're on an evil master's quest. -Can you use the magical item yourself and are there risks associated with that? What unique skills do your crew have and how are they best deployed against a plethora of unpredictable threats? -How do you hunt down and assassinate the leader of a race which is so naturally inclined to be assassins themselves?
A note on the vote numbers for The Sword of Excelisar (currently 1): the premise of 'go and fetch a legendary sword to save the kingdom' cannot be described as very original. It's the plot of, at least, Sword of the Samurai and Battleblade Warrior – the latter of which the blurb fairly closely resembles (excluding the word 'serpent'). That's not necessarily a disaster as the premise of e.g. Vault of the Vampire is not very original yet the execution has ensured many think it's a classic. But you'd need to include more USPs in any proposal.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Mar 24, 2023 19:48:44 GMT
Sylas the adventure The Dead City is one idea I jotted down when I didn't have easy access to Titan so I tried to write the idea off memory. I would say it was my least favourite idea. Also I have no desire to publish it privately as I the only reason I want to publish anything is because I want to be part of fighting fantasy. You said in a thread that you did playtesting fighting fantasy. Do you have any contacts I could send my proposals to? This strikes me as odd. I mean 90% of my gamebook experience is Fighting Fantasy and there would be a particular thrill in being part of the official series, but I'd love to have an actual book selling to people that they could get immersed in and puzzle through and keep regardless of whether it was part of another series or my own.
One thought might be that it would be worth it as a means to an end. If you could start a proposal to Scholastic with the phrase "I am a published gamebook author and..." they might at least read it before throwing it in the bin.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Mar 22, 2023 15:07:25 GMT
This book is actually a very good read and it's well built. However I think PD-E could have made use of some secret references, at least during the whole Gloten thing (p.e., Gartax gives you knowledge about him, deduct 50 when he beats you to tell him he is a Dwarf, instead of the hint appearing available to everyone). I like the explanation on how there are Slave Warriors and creatures (dinosaur but not only)... and I personally love the scene where you fail to surrender your sword - one of my personal best deaths. All in all, can't wait to explore the rest of the book.
I've always thought Portal Of Evil is deeply underrated and one of the best FFs. I think my high opinion of the artwork might not be shared by others, but the writing is rich, concise and action-packed, the world vivid and memorable, and the gamebook doesn't require outrageous starting stats or luck, or both, as can be the case with FF. I've also good memories of Portal Of Evil as one of the first FFs I bought, and not one which disappointed (cough * Star Strider * cough). As far as IoannesKantakouzenos 's remarks go, I imagine the author's logic, aside from adding a secret reference being complicated, would be your adventurer may work out (perhaps intentionally) Gloten might be a dwarf, possibly based on nuanced clues and artwork in the text. For me absence of complicated reference instructions adds to POE's simplicity and charm. You could probably argue the Gloten thing both ways. I can see that it's nice to have it more open (though honestly I doubt I'd have got from him being short, stout and muscular to his being a dwarf), but the option does read as quite odd. I can't remember anything I've read or seen in which a man is complimented by comparing him to a dwarf (except possibly by a dwarf) so it's sufficiently weird and weirdly specific to raise an eyebrow on an experienced gamebook reader and make them feel it's worth a shot.
("Would you perhaps like to wipe your face with a haddock at this point?"
"Well, now you mention it...") Perhaps another way of doing it would be to offer the reader the option of paying a compliment, but then give alternative options. Say: he fights with the discipline of a monk, the explosive force of an ogre, the graceful elegance of an elf or the strength and courage of a dwarf. The first option would result in merely an indifferent shrug, whilst the middle two options would earn you a bone-breaking clout on the nose, causing a SKILL penalty and a fear of mirrors to rival Horfak's.
Anyway, I agree that PoE is an excellent book. Oddly PD-E doesn't agree – at the FFFest4 panel he said it was probably his least successful book. Some would say that being the least successsful alongside Spectral Stalkers and Beneath Nightmare Castle isn't too bad, but still.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Mar 19, 2023 21:24:14 GMT
Chasms of Malice Skill 11 Stamina 20 Luck 10
Abilities: Gaddon Cyphers, Sensefight, Gaddon Ring, Sword tempered in the Heartflame, Spell of Life
Kills: Scavenger Orc, Drunken Troll, Khuddam Geshrak, Tailspiker, First Goblin, Second Goblin, Third Goblin, First Orc, Second Orc, Shadrak, Khuddam Barkek, Gryphon, Khuddam Griffkek, Mist Wraith, Khuddam Kahhrac, Chef Orc, Apprentice Orc Chef, Silent Warrior, Sludge, Orghuz
One Strike Combats: 5
No allocation, no guide, 1 attempt, victory
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Mar 3, 2023 5:47:03 GMT
I had nothing to do with the decision to restrict board access to members, but I don't recall having had to deal with any spam since then, and membership has increased significantly, suggesting that denial of acces has prompted a number of former lurkers to join up, so I'm not seeing a downside. ETA: Not voting because it would not be appropriate for an interested party such as myself to get involved in the polling. Getting rid of spam is obviously a win and it's true that a number of lurkers have been prompted to become members – I even made a meme about that at the time. Since then I've wondered whether lurkers signing up is much of a win on its own if they have no intention of posting. We've had (I think) 58 members join since the start of the year of whom 5 have posted at least once. The forum has always had at least 50% of posters stuck on 0 posts but it's getting worse. It seems unlikely that posters who sign up with names like 'yvfuwgguolfjgxjfwb' are really more involved than passers-by. (Prove me wrong yvfuwgguolfjgxjfwb !) Meanwhile the number of guests is of course stuck permanently on 0 so there are fewer people on the forum at any given time. Does this matter? I think it does a bit. It's worth something if people are reading and enjoying threads even if they don't post in them. We have a reasonably lively community here – surely we want people to see that? That seems like the best way to help keep FF alive as long as possible. I know there are Facebook groups but a lot of people, perhaps especially young people, hate Facebook and discussion is not the same anyway. The last thing this hobby needs is to become more insular. A few months ago a search for pretty much any combination of words with Fighting Fantasy had this forum in the top few results whereas now it has disappeared almost completely. I originally found TUFFF because I remembered struggling with The Crimson Tide and Googled something like ' "The Crimson Tide" solution' . A year ago, a similar search would have brought me here as it was the top result. Now... well see for yourself. There's no way I'd have signed up here if the only page Google could find for this place was the login page. Maybe I'm being overly sentimental but I find the current situation a bit depressing. The reasoning behind the change was mainly to deal with spam posts, which, as Ed has pointed out, have now dropped to 0 since being a member has become a requirement for posting. Unfortunately, ProBoards currently does not appear to have a setting between requiring login and full access without login, otherwise, yes, I would have made it possible to view the forum without logging in. I was going to ask directly about that but didn't want to be annoying. It seems it at least used to be possible to do that on ProBoards forums (including that one) but possibly they've changed it...? There are other ProBoards forums which seem to operate on that basis though.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Feb 28, 2023 20:08:24 GMT
Ideally guests should be able to view the forum but not post imo. The open post rule led to excessive spamming but the current situation means people can't see why they should sign up in the first place.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Feb 25, 2023 2:16:36 GMT
I don't think that there's anything major that I've consistently got wrong, (though quite capable of misreading special rules in a hurry as happened a couple of times on last year's playthrough challenge). But maybe this is a good excuse to repost this that I first posted in 2016 (and had to spend a while tracking down – the search on this forum sucks): Slightly off topic, but this reminded me of something that made me laugh over 20 years ago. Many people think that the word 'dice' means the singular as well as the plural, but of course it's actually 'die'. Someone I met at school, who didn't know this or have much grasp of how sentences work, admitted that he found FF particularly difficult for some time because whenever he read 'Roll one die...' he'd take one of his dice, roll it, and if the single-spot side came up he'd dutifully turn back to paragraph 1 and start over, thinking his character had died. He did this religiously, even though it frequently made absolutely no sense. You can imagine... Your aim is true and the javelin pierces its thick hide. Roll one die. Deduct this number from your opponent's STAMINA*Rolls 1* 'B***er! Must have overstrained myself!' Now that's dedication to trying to play by the rules.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Feb 24, 2023 10:15:37 GMT
Thanks for running the round King Gillibran, and congrats to Hallucination and Trialmaster. I was a little surprised that KG accepted Scorpion Swamp, for I somewhat recalled that he told me the question only involved the British Steve Jackson, in one of the PM replies. In any case it would have been best for the quizmaster to clarify this on the onset. I think it probably wouldn't have been a good idea to try to enforce that. It's probably for the best if people defer to the judgement of the person running the round when there is any ambiguity at all, but the question simply doesn't specify which Steve Jackson it is. Given the context, it might seem to be expecting UK Steve Jackson gamebooks, but if anything that just encourages people to give counterintuitive, loophole-type answers in this game. I was going to give Demons as my answer, but decided there was too much chance of a pile-up on the three US SJ books. I actually wondered whether if KG had left the ambiguity in deliberately.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Feb 21, 2023 22:06:14 GMT
Mardi Gras-mies of Death Syrups of Salamonis Shadow of the Giant Pancake About to Land on Your Face
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Feb 12, 2023 18:32:14 GMT
Is the deadline for this 11.59pm tomorrow, or earlier?
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Feb 11, 2023 22:03:34 GMT
Being the relative FF lightweight that I am, I've read Dungeoneer of the AFF lot and recently had my first playthrough of a couple of the Sorcery books for the fortieth challenge. That's it.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Feb 4, 2023 18:40:30 GMT
If the brass ring in Scorpion Swamp turned out to have a hidden demon-whispering function, you could turn the one Grimslade summons on him (Spectral Stalkers-style!) and I wouldn't fancy his chances, even with a magic sword.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Feb 4, 2023 3:46:49 GMT
Hesitating to post in this thread as it appears to have become a Dune-zone, and my knowledge of that/those book(s)/franchise is limited to remembering half the lyrics to Weapon of Choice... I don't read as much, especially fiction, as I should. The most recent fiction books were A Taste for Death – the third PD James book I've read, and I think the last as it really tested my patience and settled my opinion of her work – and John Le Carré's final book Silverview. I can recommend the latter. Having asked for some easygoing detective fiction at Christmas, I'm just starting Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club. I must read something more heavyweight after that!
The most recent non-fiction I've read is Nothing but the Truth by The Secret Barrister, which is sort of her (I think) autobiographical take on that role in terms of bafflement, exasperation, some belly laughs and her own changing political views. It's extremely readable, in spite of the structure being a bit one-damn-thing-after-another. A quality index wouldn't have gone amiss. Next I will be reading The Cuckoo's Calling by J K Rowling. Any good? That one or any of the other Strike novels? I've enjoyed the BBC adaptations so far, although the more recent ones felt like they were struggling to capture the whole narrative somehow.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jan 28, 2023 4:52:55 GMT
Q8. Name a gamebook in which for ALL paths of successful playthrough, you must fight a battle when nearing the end of the adventure (i.e. in a dice roll combat fashion with the opponent's Skill & Stamina shown), but will be guaranteed a/the good-ending immediately after winning it. - (r216) Master of Chaos [Naas]
3 - Trialmaster, Vastariner, Thealmightymudworm - (r103/380) Temple of Terror [Malbordus]
2 - Evilwizard, Greenspine - (r109) House of Hell [Hell Demon]
2 - Hallucination, Peter - (r46) Stealer of Souls [Mordraneth]
1 - Gabe Fandango - (r187) Sky Lord [Last Prefecta]
1 - Petch - (r40) Masks of Mayhem [Efor Tynin]
1 - Sylas - (r49) Eye of the Dragon [Sharcle]
1 - Peter's wife Excluding some gamebooks such as Citadel of Chaos, in which you can use an item or spell or action to skip the fight entirely, there still are many gamebooks that feature a "final battle" without embellishments before the good-ending(s). So it's quite unfortunate that there were clashes on this one. Other potential answers include Appointment with FEAR, Sword of the Samurai, Trial of Champions, Vault/Revenge of the Vampire, Return to Firetop Mountain, Bloodbones, etc. It's just head-desk stuff that of the three answers I considered I dodged two unique answers and picked the double-clash...
One answer I considered and rejected though was Talisman of Death, and I'm interested to know whether it would have been rejected if I'd submitted it.
Naturally the player has to kill the Red Dragon but, if you seem to be winning that fight, it disguises itself in human form to trick you and you essentially stab it in cold blood. You have a choice not to, which will get you killed. Would that have been enough to exclude it from the criteria?
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