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Post by tyrion on Dec 31, 2020 15:17:53 GMT
65 Night of the Necromancer 2 5 5 8 4 1 5 7 TOTAL 25 / FF 2
I like Jonathan Greens writing. He has a lovely turn of phrase. I have probably spelt his name wrong. Once he stopped trying to make his books harder than Crypt, they became more playable. The plot is interesting in theory and there is no doubt that this is beautifully constructed and crafted. Yet, I just don't like this at all. It is inexplicably a bit... underwhelming... and I can't quite figure out why. I have no desire to pick it up again and investigate if something has changed since my last attempt. The artwork is lovely and I definitely marked that down unfairly as it is doing the heavy lifting here. I feel the same way about this one. As a gamebook, I can admire it's technical brilliance. But something is lacking, I don't know what. It may be the ghostly powers that you acquire at random, which is just another thing to keep track of and adds more randomness. I think if you just got certain powers at certain points (so more like an item hunt) it might be better.
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Post by The Count on Jan 1, 2021 20:26:48 GMT
And what better way to start 2021 with this lot?
63 Steve Jackson's Sorcery!: The Shamutanti Hills 2 7 3 7 6 2 9 9 TOTAL 27 / FF 3
62 Steve Jackson's Sorcery!: The Seven Serpents 2 7 4 7 6 2 9 9 TOTAL 28 / FF 3
61 Steve Jackson's Sorcery!: Khare - Cityport of Traps 2 7 5 7 6 2 9 9 TOTAL 29 / FF 3
So anyone thinking I might have found the remaining three Sorcery! books to be a vast improvement on the final instalment, I didn't. There are more things to like, particularly in the middle paring, yet the series as a whole has some constant irritations throughout.
First things first: Analand. What a ridiculous name, and even though it probably has its roots in "annals", you don't have to have witnessed the reaction to #susanalbumparty to see where the problem lies. I can't get immersed in a book where I can't take the name of land seriously, especially when you are then constantly referred to as the Analander which implies something squicky...
The option of playing as a warrior, which seems to be harder, defeats the purpose of the book being about a wizard on a quest. Complexity added for no fathomable reason.
There are far too many spells, with far too many components some of such are utterly ridiculous. A green wig?!? What nonsense! Given the amount of crap you need to tote I can picture any spell casting being preceded by politely asking your soon to be victim to wait while you empty out your 40L backpack and scrabble around for the required components. Overly complex for the sake of it, leading to essentially wasted paragraphs just to deal with the effects of the various spells. Some of which you barely get to use, if at all. Why not stick to a dozen and let you choose which ones you know? Or remove the components entirely since Citadel managed magic without them.
While it is good that you get bonuses or penalties for completing previous books, it potentially makes reading them as individual efforts pointless.
The pest that follows you is an irritant and not properly explained away, and popping up again randomly is another immersion breaker.
The whole go through Khare where the exit is locked makes no sense. Why not just go round, or back through the way you came? How does it get food or trade?
A few silly endings such as giving up when you reach the lake are just lazy.
I don't get the sense that I am on a perilous quest through a hazardous land to recover a magical artefact from a dangerous villain, even as the warrior - while as the wizard, its a walk in a park in a rough area. There are moments that are risky but nothing to give you pause.
Ultimately, I just don't enjoy the series as a whole enough to look past the above.
There are some good points: the writing is decent throughout, and there is no doubt that the overall structure is solid. If you can get past the annoying bits that remove immersion, these three work quite well, being let down by the final part. Khare is probably the best in terms of an overall gamebook and the most atmospheric, however the most satisfying encounters are with the more devious Serpents.
The blatant highlights of all four books are the wonderful artwork and fantastic covers. I even like the Wizard covers as well.
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Post by The Count on Jan 1, 2021 21:26:05 GMT
60 Island of the Lizard King 3 3 6 10 5 3 6 5 TOTAL 30 / 3
I don't like when you are forced to have a companion / sidekick in Ians books, so having the companion dying within 3 paragraphs was a good opening. Goes down hill from there as the titular island becomes a linear dungeon with some... old fashioned... enemies. The mine feels like a cave. Why are the pirates burying a crowbar? The shaman doesn't seem helpful. Two essential items that make it far too easy are so simple to find you can trip over them without trying. The final encounter is quite tense. On the plus side, there is a cave woman that is clearly based on Raquel Welsh in her iconic fur bikini, and you aren't forced to go via Firetop Mountain. The artwork is generally good and the covers from all three publishers are ok, the Wizard one being the best of the three. Not the most enjoyable book or one for revisiting but not as derisible as Assassins or Zombies.
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Post by The Count on Jan 1, 2021 22:35:56 GMT
59 Battleblade Warrior 3 4 4 15 4 1 3 6 TOTAL 31 / FF 1
The first of several outliers where my enjoyment of the book means its FF ranking differs notably from where it sits on my spreadsheet.
I find this to be very forgettable, and not very enjoyable. The premise is a bit of a stretch. The initial siege breaking is quite good as there are different options and routes that can cross over, though seems a bit random. Once you get out of the siege, there are some very strange paragraphs thanks to yet again being forced to have a companion who is a complete idiot. The ending is a massive damp squib. However, if you find the correct path, it is a very short book and most of the fights are easy. It is well balanced with a couple of tougher fights as well. Given how important this siege was made to be in Titan, it really deserved a better book.
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Post by The Count on Jan 1, 2021 22:59:22 GMT
58 Forest of Doom 1 3 3 18 5 1 6 1 TOTAL 31 / FF 1
Ian's first solo effort, where he is not only nice to the reader, he is too forgiving. Allowing you to take a walk round to the start again and reset the entire dungeon is extremely daft. Ignoring that for now, the reason behind this meandering stroll through the woods is stretching things a bit - without an easily dismantled hammer, a town is doomed! Meeting Yazmotro or however you spell it for the first time is interesting and the premise of a dangerous forest to explore is intriguing. However, it is an outdoor dungeon which is extremely easy to explore and too many encounters are human instead of scary monsters, despite the scary artwork suggesting otherwise. The clones and fire demon are the most interesting sections. The cover is decent. The inside artwork is terrible and is probably the only book where the Scholastic artwork is a massive improvement. For a beginner, this would be good - for anyone who has read Warlock, Citadel or from City of Thieves onwards, don't bother as its boring.
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Post by The Count on Jan 1, 2021 23:05:03 GMT
57 Curse of the Mummy 5 11 13 1 1 1 5 7 TOTAL 32 / FF 1
Greens 3rd and the overall final Puffin outing has his trademarks: decent plot, solid writing and utter contempt for the reader trying to attempt the gaming aspect properly and honestly. A couple of difficult puzzles, the poison mechanic and near impossible encounters (up to 15 Mummies in one fight?!?) make this barely playable once, let alone again. It is atmospheric and it does have a couple of routes through, even if one is pointless as it gets you killed far too easily. The artwork is mostly lovely (death spider looks stupid) and the cover is ok.
The revised Wizard edition is slightly easier, but the same problems are still there. If this was a standard book, it would be great.
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Post by The Count on Jan 1, 2021 23:50:09 GMT
56 Armies of Death 5 8 7 6 4 4 7 8 Total 34 / 4
As a follow up to Deathtrap and direct sequel to Trial, this is part of a loose trilogy - and is the poorest of the trio. The big villain is a bit bland and it features an author cameo wittering on about himself that is unnecessary. The armies aspect doesn't work properly, the fights are fair and the rest of the book is not bad despite being very linear. The only real issue is a 50-50 roll that determines success of failure, and the link to Trial seems forced.
Lovely art within and the Wizard cover is better despite being generic
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Jan 2, 2021 0:29:12 GMT
Why are the pirates burying a crowbar? The crew believe the chests are full of gold bars but they're actually full of iron bars - the captain has hidden the real treasure elsewhere so he can have it all for himself.
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Post by Law on Jan 2, 2021 21:21:40 GMT
The whole go through Khare where the exit is locked makes no sense. Why not just go round, or back through the way you came? How does it get food or trade? Cityport of Traps? Everything comes in by Lake Lumlé, legal or otherwise.
The opening paragraphs lay out that crossing the Jabaji river to circumvent the hive is impossible; because of the amount of river pirates operating in the area I suppose.
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Post by The Count on Jan 2, 2021 21:52:31 GMT
55 Sky Lord 5 7 9 9 3 8 2 6 TOTAL 41 / FF 5
Could it finally be a book I actually enjoy? And its... Sky Lord?!? Why, yes it is!
This is absolutely insane. It isn't badly written, especially compared to some of the other efforts. The storyline makes no real sense, though the final revenge of L'Bastian is darkly hilarious, especially now the current fashion is for self absorbed idiots to mutilate themselves for social media likes. Most of the encounters are similarly deranged and the roll pitch yaw puzzle section is suitably challenging, and not easy to remember for replays. The trick to this is to remember that the author either wasn't taking it seriously, was on a strange combination of dodgy substances, or wanted to highlight how little attention Puffin paid to the content of the actual books themselves (all too evident with the shocking errors in the later books). The standard fights lean towards being the easier side, while the ship fights are harder making the book fairly balanced. The art is OK and fitting for the book. On my first ever read, I wasn't that impressed. Now, I can appreciate the madness a lot more. I think I may have ranked this too low and the FF ranking is fairer.
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Post by The Count on Jan 2, 2021 22:16:21 GMT
54 The Riddling Reaver 3 11 12 10 3 3 4 8 TOTAL 42 / FF 2
This was a difficult one. The Reaver as a cameo character is brilliant. A whole book? He loses some of his charm. While this is well written for the most part with a good atmosphere, having 4 different sections makes it uneven and it seems rather forced by the nature of the book itself which makes the plot disjointed. The opening section is the highlight, with the others becoming steadily worse. The 3rd section is horribly linear in particular. Considering the nature of the Reaver, a lot of the encounters are rather unimaginative - a lot of spiders in particular. I feel that I have ranked this too highly, as I vastly prefer Sky Lord.
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Post by The Count on Jan 2, 2021 22:49:27 GMT
53 Knights of Doom 4 15 15 5 3 1 3 6 TOTAL 43 / FF 2
This should be amazing: FF mixed with Warhammer. Yet, it is another reader hating tome. As usual, Green weaves a very atmospheric, well written tale. Then poisons it with an excessive number of incredibly difficult battles worsened with unnecessary special rules. You can manipulate the rules to make this easier, but that is not satisfying. As it was never republished by Wizard, its unlikely to ever get "fixed" like the other two Puffin titles. This should be a good book to pick up and have a few goes at, yet the relentless assault on the reader is off putting.
Ugliest cover for a Green book to boot.
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Post by The Count on Jan 2, 2021 23:34:21 GMT
52 Robot Commando 2 8 6 18 8 3 5 3 TOTAL 45 / FF 3
I never got the appeal of this. It's not bad by any means, the writing is decent and it is well balanced with several ways to win. The plot is rather thin but once you get going, it is an easy play that you can pick up and try again without feeling frustrated. I just don't like the concept and find it a tad dull as a result. A great one for 6-7 year old boys who don't like reading much however, and if Scholastic don't get this republished, they are missing a trick.
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Post by vastariner on Jan 2, 2021 23:45:59 GMT
The whole go through Khare where the exit is locked makes no sense. Why not just go round, or back through the way you came? How does it get food or trade? Cityport of Traps? Everything comes in by Lake Lumlé, legal or otherwise.
The opening paragraphs lay out that crossing the Jabaji river to circumvent the hive is impossible; because of the amount of river pirates operating in the area I suppose. I had assumed that the Jabaji cuts through very steep cliffs all the way up to where Kharé grew up - as the lowest place where a crossing/landing were possible.
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Post by The Count on Jan 3, 2021 0:53:32 GMT
Cityport of Traps? Everything comes in by Lake Lumlé, legal or otherwise.
The opening paragraphs lay out that crossing the Jabaji river to circumvent the hive is impossible; because of the amount of river pirates operating in the area I suppose. I had assumed that the Jabaji cuts through very steep cliffs all the way up to where Kharé grew up - as the lowest place where a crossing/landing were possible. Could be, and a more reasonable explanation that too many pirates, so go through a deadly city with a locked gate... however, this goes into the same territory of explaining why the Ninja can bypass everything in DD. If the author isn't good enough to explain something properly, then I'm not buying it.
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Post by The Count on Jan 3, 2021 1:19:17 GMT
51 Bloodbones 5 13 11 9 4 5 9 6 TOTAL 47 / FF 4
Lost in limbo for years, there was a lot of expectation for this. Had Green learned that the readers are not the people that stole his lunch money and flushed his homework down the loo? Was it padded from a 300 reference version with excessive false trails or was it extensively rewritten? Evidence suggests that in the years between cancellation and publication that Green had almost learned to like the readers who he was earning a living from. As ever, it is well written with some great set pieces but this is tainted with unnecessarily tough encounters: the spider-scorpion hybrid thing springs to mind, especially as you meet it twice, the final battles, the shark and the ridiculous nine tailed cat (which is not funny). Yes, there are lots of items you can pick up to help, but as this isn't quite as linear as previous Green efforts, some can be missed which suggests some padding was done. The first half is notably stronger and more atmospheric, it runs out of steam towards the end where it becomes a slog, and the finale doesn't feel satisfying. I have played the app version more than the book version so this may have skewed the results somewhat as one item isn't available on the app - but you can get a cheeky bonus in lieu.
Incidentally, the second book (the first being Lizard King) where the titular villain looks amazing on the cover and like a camp panto baddie on the inside illustration.
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Post by The Count on Jan 3, 2021 1:44:11 GMT
50 Crystal of Storms 5 14 11 10 2 5 1 6 TOTAL 47 / FF 6
Another tricky one to rate due to being a recent release. It gained a few ranking points from me giving it the benefit of the doubt when it should on reflection only be a 3 or 4. Clearly aimed at kiddies, probably more for girls, with the bizarre cover (which would be ok if it was just the flying creature, not the clouds with the dodgy faces) and with a hint of FF nostalgia from the Wheelies, this is notably different in tone than the rest. The writing is good for the most part and there is a wry humour lurking under the surface. However, it is clear that Rihannas strengths lie in video games as the book veers towards that style far too often in battles and bonuses - most encounters are reasonable though. Some rather childish naming conventions (thingie, doobie, whatsit) are an annoyance. Most irritating is a loop that can see you revisiting the same areas repeatedly due to sloppy editing, something that has plagued the series since the mid 80s. I do quite like the whimsical art, though it isn't really suited to FF. Not one I'd rush to pick up again in a hurry, but I would like to see if Rihanna can come up with something to match the potential shown here.
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Post by vastariner on Jan 3, 2021 11:59:52 GMT
I had assumed that the Jabaji cuts through very steep cliffs all the way up to where Kharé grew up - as the lowest place where a crossing/landing were possible. Could be, and a more reasonable explanation that too many pirates, so go through a deadly city with a locked gate... however, this goes into the same territory of explaining why the Ninja can bypass everything in DD. If the author isn't good enough to explain something properly, then I'm not buying it. There are all sorts of possibles in DD, such as the ninja also getting a Ring of Wishes, there may be one-off portals that whizz you through parts of it that you never stumble across, there may be secret passages that a ninja could spot.
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Post by petch on Jan 3, 2021 12:36:17 GMT
So lets kick this off with my least favourite FF book ever... 77 Blood of the Zombies 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 TOTAL 0 / FF 0 (-100)**I wasn't allowed to give this a negative score... I really don't consider this a FF book at all. It is just nonsense. The new fangled "zombies" that are not zombies, the EU country taking dollars when they are Stasi-like on Euros even in some airports, the lack of plot, the non FF rules, the ambiguous counting that means you can win but still lose by not understanding the shite Ian is talking, and the fact that even with infinite stamina, you have at best a 50% chance of winning means this is simply dire... the only saving grace is some lovely internal artwork that frankly deserved to be in a much better book. Frankly, this was an insult to all FF fans and to the legacy of FF when excreted for FF30... (Incidentally, I can't get the excel table to post nicely - if anyone has hints PM me and I'll fix the posts accordingly) Ok, so given that it finished bottom of both the main rankings table and the Count's rankings here, I'm going to attempt to mount something of a defense for poor old Blood of the Zombies. I wouldn't blame anyone if they decided to stop reading this post right here! First off though, the fact that it is impossible to complete with the given rules is indefensible, and I'm not even going to try. It's like Ian finished writing his first draft of the book, thought 'that'll do,' and didn't bother with even cursory playtesting - given that he had created his own bespoke rules for this book, it really wouldn't have taken him much effort to tweak either the rules or your character's starting stamina to make it actually playable and just smacks of laziness on his part. Indeed, while a number of other books in the series have infinitesimally low mathematical probabilities of completing them if playing by the rules, BotZ has the dubious honour of being the only one that is actually impossible - unless I guess you count the missing paragraph trigger in Creature of Havoc as rendering that particular book impossible, which surprisingly would give one of the series' best regarded entries something in common with one of its worst! Similarly, I can't disagree with the Count's point about the ambiguity of the counting requirement, and the necessity of tallying every zombo killed from the hordes that you faced was some irritatingly intrusive numbercrunching in a book that otherwise wasn't exactly a stretch on cranial capacity. Onto the good though. The introduction was effective, atmospheric and pretty damn dark for Ian. Your character is given a brief background, which humanises them a lot more than the empty 'mighty warrior' cipher you play in the majority of the books. The fact that the book has a real-world setting and is the only one other than House of Hell to do so gives it a point of difference. Now, a lot of this promising set-up is lost when the book gets going proper and things get kind of silly, but you know what? I kind of liked that dumbness. I revelled in it. The fact that you play a weedy, malnourished mythology student who suddenly becomes an 80s action movie star, mowing down hordes of undead with whatever weapons come to hand had a satisfyingly bloodspattered, corpse-dismemberingly Sam Raimi-esque knowing daftness to it. Where else in the series do you get to cut down swathes of foes with a mounted Browning machine gun, butcher them with a chainsaw or dive off of a castle battlements as someone fires an RPG at you? As for the main villain, no, Gingrich Yurr's actions or motivations made absolutely no sense. But in keeping with the hyperbolic swagger of the rest of the book, that didn't matter to me. He was a mental cartoon bad guy who did bad things because he was bad, and that was the only justification he needed. When he suicidally injected zombie blood into himself was the icing on the very bloody cake. I'm not trying to say that Blood of the Zombies is, in any credible sense, actually good. It's not, I accept that. But I did find it a great deal of fun (once I'd doctored the rules to make it actually playable by quintupling my starting stamina or something), and more entertaining and memorable than some of the series' more formulaic moments.
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Post by The Count on Jan 5, 2021 5:54:14 GMT
49 Spellbreaker 6 18 18 4 2 3 6 7 TOTAL 51 / FF 3
At first it seems this really should be much higher - it is very well written and you cannot help be drawn in, especially as the sense of impending doom hits you from the first paragraph where you start in a fight to the death. I don't quite get the initial premise, however that is swept aside as you journey through what appears to be a complex tale. Until you realise that it is a linear punishment for daring to pick up the book in the first place that makes Crypt look like Starship Traveller! Most of the time, you end up hitting various fail points - particularly if you don't get maximum stats AND make an incredibly lucky roll - meaning all joy is sucked slowly from your brain until you dread the thought of picking it up, and find something more enjoyable to do instead. Like set yourself on fire. Even the "fixed" Wizard edition is still brutal in its contempt for the reader.
Another one where the Wizard cover is better than the original.
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Post by The Count on Jan 5, 2021 5:58:56 GMT
48 Stormslayer 3 14 14 14 5 2 3 7 TOTAL 52 / FF 4
Another one where it is well crafted, perfectly playable and is a more unique take on the series. Another one that I simply cannot get into. In fact, it bores me when it shouldn't. I don't even know why I gave it a 4 as I prefer Spellbreaker.
The name is silly, but thats beside the point.
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Post by peasantscribbler on Jan 5, 2021 14:04:15 GMT
49 Spellbreaker 6 18 18 4 2 3 6 7 TOTAL 51 / FF 3At first it seems this really should be much higher - it is very well written and you cannot help be drawn in, especially as the sense of impending doom hits you from the first paragraph where you start in a fight to the death. Ah, but you must not let a sense of impending doom focus your mind on the task at hand. The secret to success lies in taking the leisurely approach, allowing yourself to be distracted by as many side missions and curiosities as possible. *Plot holes don't usually bother me much, but they do in this book for some reason. * Not a spoiler, just hyperbole to make a point.
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Post by petch on Jan 5, 2021 17:45:15 GMT
Until you realise that it is a linear punishment for daring to pick up the book in the first place that makes Crypt look like Starship Traveller! Most of the time, you end up hitting various fail points - particularly if you don't get maximum stats AND make an incredibly lucky roll - meaning all joy is sucked slowly from your brain until you dread the thought of picking it up, and find something more enjoyable to do instead. Like set yourself on fire. Ha! I get what you're saying here, and the comparison with Crypt is a good one...Crypt was only the rebalancing of one absurdly overpowered boss encounter away from being a very challenging but nonetheless playable entry in the vein of Deathtrap Dungeon or Trial of Champions (although I do like Sylas' other ideas for making it more fair at other points in his revised edition). Spellbreaker, on the other hand, relentlessly tries to kill you off pretty much throughout. I still like it though. Green's wordsmithery is good enough to make me forgive a good deal of its flaws!
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Post by The Count on Jan 6, 2021 0:31:47 GMT
47 Deathtrap Dungeon 5 11 15 14 5 3 1 5 TOTAL 53 / FF 6
This will probably be even more controversial that my dislike of Sorcery! and my utter disdain for the twat Higson combined...
I like the idea of DD. It is a bit simply written on places, but once you get to a certain point, the main path is far more compelling. And therein lies one of the biggest problems - you know immediately when you are on the wrong path that ends up going down a stupid chute to die as the writing becomes even more banal. The decoy items are too blatant - one you can only get by something going wrong - and you can get all the right items but you still face stat penalties for not doing something that makes no sense. Why lose luck for giving some worthless tat to a troll, or miss a bonus for avoiding a fight? One of the biggest bugbears is the enforced "friendship" with another contestant, a rather stupid one at that, and you are supposed to care and be upset at the contrived "moral dilemma" - I'd much rather have you let that muppet go off alone to kill the cave trolls and set off the trap while you follow at a safe distance. Then steal his sunglasses. Then you have the various trail masters who are not interesting in the slightest and the "trials" are tedious rather than treacherous - the final trail in particular where you need to find the correct sequence. Far too many of the encounters are humans making this supposedly deadly dungeon seem rather tame - why do the monsters just stay in the same place and not go on the rampage killing them? Why don't the troglodytes chase them round? There are the teleporting contestants - three contestants pass the trapdoor before you and the Ninja teleports past everything. And no, there are no teleporters or alternative routes in DD even with that ridiculous paragraph where you ignore passages to your left and right, and he didn't go down one chute then climb back up another one, or any other variations of "yes, but..." you can come up with to defend this blatant plot hole. Which brings me to the most overblown creature in FF history - the Bloodbeast. Or rather the BOREbeast. Defeated by having read a bit of paper despite its weakness being in the same place as they are on every other creature... the solidly unspectacular Wizard cover is preferable to the Puffin which just highlights how ridiculous this encounter is. Most of the art is decent, especially the two that give subtle clues, but some of it is terrible - the Manticore looks like a constipated lion, the mirror demon is shoddy, the dwarf trialmaster seems to be writing Gates of Death without the luxury of handy toilet paper and the Pit Fiend (which is one of the best illustrations) is just a small Tyrannosaur.
It is a challenging book without a doubt, and it does tread more on the side of the line that is fair to the reader than later Livingstone efforts. As a basic dungeon slog, it's decent. As a compelling tale, it's lacking. As an overall package, its vastly overhyped and overrated. I am mystified why I gave this a 6 - should be a 3 at best.
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Post by The Count on Jan 6, 2021 2:34:33 GMT
46 Portal of Evil 5 11 12 17 6 3 3 8 TOTAL 54 / FF 4
Another one that is interesting in theory, but in practice I find a bit dull. The story is quite compelling, with some interesting death paragraphs, yet it loses steam about 3/4 of the way through and the idea that the portal is turning people into dinosaurs seems a bit off. Some of the battles are too easy which doesn't help. The writing of PDE pulls you through so it is one that can be replayed a few times without getting annoyed (unlike say DD, Crypt, Spellbreaker). Another one that is definitely good for younger readers as with time, I've stopped appreciating this as much.
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Post by The Count on Jan 6, 2021 3:17:29 GMT
45 Fighting Fantasy: The Roleplaying Game 4 13 11 14 6 6 15 9 TOTAL 54 / FF 5
Probably the trickiest book to rank. Having two distinct adventures does have advantages over the Riddling Reaver as each can stand alone without worrying about what happens in the other. The Wishing Well is a nice, simple romp that while it does use too many "special" monsters without any real theme, as a beginners dungeon it does the job of demonstrating the system and is quite easy, especially for groups of 3 or more, until the unbalanced Boss fight with the ridiculous special rules. Disturbing the poor Calacorm in its bed and the pit room are two of the most memorable paragraphs. Shaggrads Hives of Peril while larger in scope and allowing a bit more use of the GMs imagination, still has no real theme to speak of, has the dungeon staple of an inexplicable shop, uses fewer "special" monsters and is again fairly easy although the difficulty ramps up suddenly in places - especially with the Dragon. The Hives are less memorable than the Well Ultimately, the enjoyment you get from this book revolves more round a skilled GM and a good team of players, but it sets you up nicely in both adventures.
The illustrations are mostly good - the mummy and "dark room" being a bit iffy - and allow the GM to get some nice details.
Reading the forum attempt at the Well was a great way of highlighting the benefits - and drawbacks - of group RPGs, and without it, I'd probably have scored this lower as really this, RR and Princes are a bit of a waste of FF resources.
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Post by johnbrawn1972 on Jan 6, 2021 15:42:21 GMT
The ranking and disdain for Deathtrap brings to mind the earlier posts about the idea of the book being better than the actual execution.
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Jan 6, 2021 18:09:10 GMT
There are the teleporting contestants - four contestants pass the trapdoor before you Only 2 or 3. The knight and the other barbarian die before this point. The elf and ninja are presumably still ahead of you. Throm may have overtaken you after this point (possibly by taking the other exit from the goblin room). So you only really need to explain how the elf and ninja got past the goblins - maybe the goblins were out on patrol at the time?
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Post by The Count on Jan 6, 2021 19:30:36 GMT
There are the teleporting contestants - four contestants pass the trapdoor before you Only 2 or 3. The knight and the other barbarian die before this point. The elf and ninja are presumably still ahead of you. Throm may have overtaken you after this point (possibly by taking the other exit from the goblin room). So you only really need to explain how the elf and ninja got past the goblins - maybe the goblins were out on patrol at the time? I forgot about the Knight being killed earlier for some reason. Probably because its not memorable
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Jan 6, 2021 19:31:39 GMT
There are the teleporting contestants - four contestants pass the trapdoor before you Only 2 or 3. The knight and the other barbarian die before this point. The elf and ninja are presumably still ahead of you. Throm may have overtaken you after this point (possibly by taking the other exit from the goblin room). So you only really need to explain how the elf and ninja got past the goblins - maybe the goblins were out on patrol at the time? Easily the two stealthiest contestants as well so it doesnt seem too hard to imagine them getting past unnoticed.
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