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Post by terrysalt on Dec 15, 2021 5:41:28 GMT
Assassins - 7/14/7 The same mid-combat healing rules as in Port let me get up to the 5th assassin but my stamina was so low and the skill difference so high that I was another successful contract for him.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 15, 2021 6:22:05 GMT
Assassins - 8/14/7 A bad roll meant I had to fight the decayer. I won but the fight depleted my healing enough that I only made it to the 4th assassin this time.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 15, 2021 8:02:55 GMT
Assassins - 9/14/7 An absolute disaster. I used every single bit of healing and beat the decayer with 2 stamina left. Then I fell and twisted my ankle, which cost me 2 stamina.
Assassins - 9/15/7 I avoided the decayer and made it all the way to assassin 9.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 15, 2021 10:04:57 GMT
Assassins - 10/15/7 I had such absurdly bad luck against assassin 7. I had a 1 skill advantage and still had to eat almost all my provisions before the dice would cooperate and let me take her down. This meant that I had no healing and 7 stamina when a poison dart hit my neck for 10. Assassins - 10/19/7 I kill all the assassins but get forced into Deathtrap Dungeon and probably die anyway. That's the good ending though, so I win. That was the best of the new books so far. It starts slow but once you get off the island and start facing the barrage of assassins, it gets a lot better. Up next is the only book written by a woman and it just so happens to be book 69. Coincidence?
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CharlesX
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Post by CharlesX on Dec 15, 2021 11:14:09 GMT
Port Of Peril was ranked a miserable 5th to last in Wilf's gamebook rankings. The difficulty level and gameplay aren't particularly off, it has some memorable encounters, as well as a good ending. It's just very mediocre and very dull! Most of Livingstone's later gamebooks (not Blood) wouldn't have seemed so bad in the '80s, before gamebooks became an entire phenomenon. If I was in a mood to face Zagor, I might rather face him in Port Of Peril than spend a day playing through Legend Of Zagor. Unless I somehow managed to miss him, Zagor isn't in this one! As for Zanbar Bone, I'd play City of Thieves over Port of Peril every time. Point taken, bro. In my enthusiasm to defend POP I perhaps confused the Z for Zanbar Bone with the Z for Zagor. Where COT has the Moon Dogs and the Nicodemus mixture, POP has several imbalanced fights near its end, and the rules BS. After I played POP once, I didn't feel like playing again.
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CharlesX
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Post by CharlesX on Dec 15, 2021 11:16:37 GMT
Since there seems to be some dispute over the rules, here's how I'll be interpreting them. 1) You start with 10 food and a potion. It says clear as day in the rules that you do. It makes no narrative sense but that's Ian for you. 2) Yaztromo's skill bonus does not let you exceed initial values. The rules seem pretty clear on this too. You cannot exceed initial values unless instructed by a particular page. Yaztromo gives no such instruction. So, when you played POP, did you choose to increase your stamina (or luck) instead, knowing increasing your skill would not help?
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 15, 2021 11:21:45 GMT
Since there seems to be some dispute over the rules, here's how I'll be interpreting them. 1) You start with 10 food and a potion. It says clear as day in the rules that you do. It makes no narrative sense but that's Ian for you. 2) Yaztromo's skill bonus does not let you exceed initial values. The rules seem pretty clear on this too. You cannot exceed initial values unless instructed by a particular page. Yaztromo gives no such instruction. So, when you played POP, did you choose to increase your stamina (or luck) instead, knowing increasing your skill would not help? I generally took the stamina bonus, yeah.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 15, 2021 21:22:15 GMT
Crystal - 7/14/7 This is a tricky one. The fight against the lightning serpent required all my healing items, including the honey that the guide assumes you have available to give to a goblin so he can fix his balloon. Since I can no longer follow the guide, I'm counting this as a loss. I guess I'll just go with a skill boost since if I'd fought better against the serpent, I wouldn't have needed to eat the honey.
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CharlesX
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Post by CharlesX on Dec 15, 2021 21:24:10 GMT
So, are you goiing for one particular island rather than all of them (the guide suggests Cirrus)? I imagine if the guide suggests Cirrus, it might be the best, easiest route. * Or not *.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 16, 2021 0:45:12 GMT
Crystal - 8/14/7 Things were going well until I had to try and fight while controlling a bathysphere. A great white squark did so much damage that the enraged wraithfish destroyed it with a single hit.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 16, 2021 0:48:25 GMT
So, are you goiing for one particular island rather than all of them (the guide suggests Cirrus)? I imagine if the guide suggests Cirrus, it might be the best, easiest route. * Or not *.
I'm using Johnbrawn's guide because the one at the top of the thread by Sunil seems to value taking an interesting route more than taking the easiest one. Johnbrawn's guide suggests cumulus so that's good enough for me.
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Post by The Count on Dec 16, 2021 2:50:16 GMT
Seeing you fudging your multiple attempts at Blood and still failing is exhausting - and an unwelcome reminder of how painful that sorry excuse of a book is...
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 16, 2021 3:47:46 GMT
Seeing you fudging your multiple attempts at Blood and still failing is exhausting - and an unwelcome reminder of how painful that sorry excuse of a book is... Easily my least favourite book in the series.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 16, 2021 4:29:45 GMT
Crystal - 9/14/7 I'm noticing a pattern with this bathysphere. Squark softens me up, wraithfish finishes me off.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 16, 2021 7:38:06 GMT
Crystal - 10/14/7 This bathysphere section is reminding me of the underwater level in Earthworm Jim and it's just as frustrating. I managed to beat the wraithfish but with only 4 stamina remaining and no way to repair the sphere. A giant then easily beat me in a wrestling match and ate me.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 16, 2021 10:01:45 GMT
Crystal - 11/14/7 Finally strong enough to survive the bathysphere section, the rest of the book was a cakewalk after that. I quite liked that one. Rhianna apparently knows the rules of the series better than one of its cofounders which is both comical and concerning at the same time. Up next is nothing, the series is over!
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Post by daredevil123 on Dec 16, 2021 10:41:21 GMT
Have you thought about doing Sorcery!?
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 16, 2021 11:03:49 GMT
Have you thought about doing Sorcery!? I did but the fact that the books feed into each other poses problems. If I do a complete fresh start for every book then the guides won't work as I'll be missing items that were carried over from previous entries. If I treat it as one massive 4 book adventure then dying in Crown of Kings would mean I have to go all the way back to The Shamutanti Hills and start completely over with slightly higher stats. I don't think I have the patience for that, to be honest. If there's a way to make it work, I'm happy to do them though.
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Post by kieran on Dec 16, 2021 11:44:02 GMT
Crystal - 10/14/7 This bathysphere section is reminding me of the underwater level in Earthworm Jim and it's just as frustrating. Nothing is that frustrating! Well done in doing them all. Any final thoughts?
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 16, 2021 11:51:39 GMT
Crystal - 10/14/7 This bathysphere section is reminding me of the underwater level in Earthworm Jim and it's just as frustrating. Nothing is that frustrating! Well done in doing them all. Any final thoughts? I'm glad I finally played through Jonathan Green's Wizard releases because 2 of them were awesome and Stormslayer was still good despite the excessive bookkeeping. Bloodbones was too close to his Puffin era mean mode though. The new Scholastic ones aren't quite as bad as I expected with Assassins and Crystal being decent books. The Puffin series got really broken at the end which was made all the worse by the dramatic increase in length (Magehunter excluded). But this was fun, and I never want to see Blood of the Zombies again for as long as I live.
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CharlesX
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Post by CharlesX on Dec 16, 2021 16:44:16 GMT
Nothing is that frustrating! Well done in doing them all. Any final thoughts? I'm glad I finally played through Jonathan Green's Wizard releases because 2 of them were awesome and Stormslayer was still good despite the excessive bookkeeping. Bloodbones was too close to his Puffin era mean mode though. The new Scholastic ones aren't quite as bad as I expected with Assassins and Crystal being decent books. The Puffin series got really broken at the end which was made all the worse by the dramatic increase in length (Magehunter excluded). But this was fun, and I never want to see Blood of the Zombies again for as long as I live. I wonder what exactly IL was, more to the point, wasn't, thinking when he wrote Blood of the Zombies, 'cause it goes sailing past "readers cheat when they play gamebooks". Maybe he was spaced out after a spliff, playing a zombie game like Resident Evil, and thought "uh, why not make a game like this", but forgot in good video games, most of the enemies are wimpy mooks, while you are as strong as Batman's brother.
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Post by The Count on Dec 16, 2021 20:16:16 GMT
I never want to see Blood of the Zombies again for as long as I live. I suspect there is a place in hell where tortured souls are doomed to trying to complete that with 14 Stamina for all eternity...
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Post by sleepyscholar on Dec 17, 2021 13:19:27 GMT
If you really have finished, can I just chip in and say congratulations and thanks. I, for one, enjoyed tuning in regularly for your progress.
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Post by tyrion on Dec 17, 2021 15:16:34 GMT
Yes indeed, I'll add my thanks too. I enjoyed catching up with your exploits.
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CharlesX
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Post by CharlesX on Dec 17, 2021 15:40:53 GMT
Thank you from me. You were always thorough, intelligent and diligent, as well (that is, in regard to obedience to the rules). I thought particularly highly of your Sword Of The Samurai, and your analysis of Gates Of Death. So, while I imagine the two playthroughs you least enjoyed might be Blood and Gates - you can tell me either way - what were your two favourite playthroughs?
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Post by johnbrawn1972 on Dec 17, 2021 18:34:09 GMT
This has been an absolute delight I have looked forward to every day.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 17, 2021 18:51:09 GMT
Thank you from me. You were always thorough, intelligent and diligent, as well (that is, in regard to obedience to the rules). I thought particularly highly of your Sword Of The Samurai, and your analysis of Gates Of Death. So, while I imagine the two playthroughs you least enjoyed might be Blood and Gates - you can tell me either way - what were your two favourite playthroughs? Picking favourites is always tough. I'd probably have to say Night of the Necromancer gets the top spot because I really liked gaining new abilities as I went and the fact that dying was written into the story instead of instantly ending it. For second place, maybe Moonrunner for the sheer nostalgia factor. It was my favourite book when I was young and reading it now had plenty of "I remember this part!" moments. For the bottom two, Blood is obviously my least favourite by far. Gates was only bad in as much as it required me to cheat so directly. It only took one attempt after all. I'd probably say the second worst goes to Sky Lord. It also forced me to cheat and required a lot of attempts but wasn't even interesting to read which the other books requiring a ton of playthroughs usually tended to be.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 17, 2021 18:52:12 GMT
Thanks for the kind words everyone. I'm glad you enjoyed my journey through the series.
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Post by jmisbest on Dec 20, 2021 9:57:26 GMT
I've had a idea. Why don't you try and do a progressive stats version of The Lone Wolf Books and the reason I'm suggesting this is you were so good at your processive stat versions of Fighting Fantasy Books that in my opinion your the best person for the job
On that subject I've got 4 bits of advise that if you do a progressive stats version of The Lon Wolf Books will, in my opinion, make them both easier and more fun
The 1st is that because The Saga that is Books 21+ is a lot easier, in my opinion, then The Saga that is Books 1 to 20 I'd do Books 21+ 1st, that way you'll know if you like it or not
The 2nd is that when, not if, die you restart not from the 1st book in the saga but from the book you died in, you keep the stuff you started the book with and in order to avoid accidentally cheating and I'd keep a detailed record of what you have I at the start of every book
The 3rd is that I know that you don't like doing what I call Tactical Suicide but to be honest some of The Foes in some of The Books are so strong making use of Tactical Suicide in the only way to win without cheating
The 4th is that if do The Saga that is Books 1 to 20 then you when transition from Book 12 to Book 13 that if the progressive stat rules mean that your Combat Skill is higher then 20 and your Endurance if higher then 30 that you keep the stat boosts that progressive stat rules and the reason I'm giving this advise is because just like with my 3rd bit of advise some of The Foes in some of The Later Books are so strong making use of Tactical Suicide in the only way to win without cheating
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 20, 2021 11:37:36 GMT
I appreciate the sentiment but I'm not looking for another undertaking of this magnitude for a while. I'll keep it in mind for the future though.
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