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Post by terrysalt on Nov 8, 2021 19:50:29 GMT
Starship - every crew member on minimum stats This one is really only included as a formality. As you can win without rolling any dice, I obviously won this first try. City - 7/14/7 Fortune is a fickle mistress and she abandoned me this time. Almost everything that could go wrong did. I lost all my gold, missed the potion of mind control, even when fights were with lower skill enemies, I still took a hammering. In the end, it was the simple leaf beasts that took me down. Even though I had a 2 skill advantage and 9 stamina, the dice were not my friends. There were a few suggestions of how to handle losing to a weaker foe but I think I have to stick with my original plan of raising skill. That really is the stat that failed me so next up will be 8/14/7.
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Post by philsadler on Nov 8, 2021 20:25:21 GMT
Powergamers gonna powergame. I don't see it as power gaming, rather I'm so bored with being stuck in almost all the time because of the pandemic
I think you mean because of the lockdown.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Nov 8, 2021 20:39:13 GMT
I don't see it as power gaming, rather I'm so bored with being stuck in almost all the time because of the pandemic
I think you mean because of the lockdown.
What lockdown? I waltzed around a crowded city yesterday, had lunch in a restaurant and watched Dune in the cinema. Free as a bird.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 8, 2021 21:13:32 GMT
And this bird you cannot change but what CAN change is my luck!
City - 8/14/7 Apparently Lady Luck was adequately shamed by my previous call out and she made it up to me. Despite all expectations, I beat both moon dogs. I barely survived but it still counts! Barely surviving went on to be a theme with me as due to once again losing all my gold, I had to fight the mummy and it knocked me all the way down to 2 stamina. Thankfully I could use the rest of my provisions to heal enough to barely survive the skeletons too. I tell you, I was CERTAIN that the dice were going to troll me and make me miss the final luck test. Luckily, if anti-climactically, I rolled a 3 and easily passed it. So I am the 4.4% I beat it with 8/14/7!
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 8, 2021 22:22:01 GMT
Deathtrap - 7/14/7 Surprising approximately no one, this went poorly. The flying guardians tore me apart.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 8, 2021 23:33:48 GMT
Deathtrap - 8/14/7 Second verse, same as the first. I suspect that once I get past this roadblock I'll be able to make a decent bit of progress.
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Post by philsadler on Nov 8, 2021 23:38:35 GMT
Deathtrap - 7/14/7 Surprising approximately no one, this went poorly. The flying guardians tore me apart.
Fun fact: the Flying Guardians are, as far as I can tell, the only creatures in FF to be described as 'NUMBER ENCOUNTERED: 2'. Of course there are many enemies that could be described as 2-12 or whatever, but only the Guardians are literally always just '2'.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 9, 2021 0:05:44 GMT
I had a quick skim through Out of the Pit and it seems like you're right.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 9, 2021 6:14:12 GMT
Deathtrap - 9/14/7 Okay, still stuck on the flying guardians. I got the second one down to 4 stamina this time so I'm thinking I can get past them next time.
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Post by philsadler on Nov 9, 2021 7:58:21 GMT
I had a quick skim through Out of the Pit and it seems like you're right.
I looked through all 3 'Pit' books just to confirm. While we're on the subject, Leaf Beasts are the only creatures described as always being '3'; and did you know that they were taken from the book 'The Shining'?
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 9, 2021 19:09:22 GMT
I did notice the thing about them always being 3. Never read (or watched) The Shining so that part was news to me.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 9, 2021 19:45:46 GMT
Deathtrap - 10/14/7 The flying guardians lie dead at the foot of the statue! And as expected, after killing those I made quite a bit of progress. I fell down a pit and lost a skill point but restored it seconds later by answering a riddle. To demonstrate the nature of luck, the 10/11 cave troll was no problem at all but the 10/12 Throm completely destroyed me. Oh well, at least now we're moving into the range where victory is possible (2.1% counts as possible!)
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Post by CharlesX on Nov 9, 2021 20:07:22 GMT
I'm noticing a definite trend in your formulation to increase skill and to leave stamina and luck at their minimum. This strikes me as weird from a gameplay and variation pov, though I can't think of how I would do it differently.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 9, 2021 23:09:42 GMT
I think it's the nature of the early books. Skill is overwhelmingly the most important stat. I expect luck boosts will get more common as I go through the series and stamina boosts will probably always be minimal but we'll see how things pan out.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 9, 2021 23:56:49 GMT
Deathtrap - 11/14/7 If you can believe it, I actually failed the skill check to grab the cobra. I passed the following luck test so no damage was taken but that cost me a vital luck point as I was unable to avoid the pit fiend and died fighting it.
Now, technically I died in combat which means skill boost, but if I'd passed the luck test, there wouldn't have been a combat for me to die in. So arguably this should be a luck boost instead. Thoughts on which way to go?
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Post by daredevil123 on Nov 10, 2021 0:26:32 GMT
Now, technically I died in combat which means skill boost, but if I'd passed the luck test, there wouldn't have been a combat for me to die in. So arguably this should be a luck boost instead. Thoughts on which way to go? I think that if you're sticking to the (admittedly self-imposed) rules, it should be a Skill boost. Also, you could argue that you should increase your Stamina, because if it had been higher you might not have died in combat, but that doesn't make much sense to me. So call me a rules lawyer, but I'd increase your Skill.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 10, 2021 11:59:23 GMT
Skill it is then!
Deathtrap 12/14/7 Fortune mostly smiled on me, I kept the rope AND avoided the pit fiend and even dodged the ninja star! But I did lose all my provisions while swimming so I got quite worried fighting the final three opponents. Turns out I had JUST enough stamina to win all three fights and survive the gnome's toxic gas. Limping across the finish line with all of 3 stamina, the prize is mine!
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Post by philsadler on Nov 10, 2021 12:25:56 GMT
Woah. I didn't even know that DD could be completed with minimum stamina or luck. Best I did back in the day was 12/23/12. So congratulations and keep up this interesting experiment.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 10, 2021 18:55:04 GMT
Apparently it's about a 20% chance. I was lucky that the luck rolls I failed were mostly less important ones. If I'd had to fight the pit fiend, I would have definitely died.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 10, 2021 19:29:46 GMT
Island - 7/14/7
Well, off to a great start. The giant crab was my first and only enemy before I went the way of Mungo.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 10, 2021 20:25:24 GMT
Island - 8/14/7 This is going to be the flying guardians all over again, isn't it? Another adventurer turns into crab food.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 10, 2021 20:36:24 GMT
Island - 9/14/7 I actually put up a fight this time but no, 'twas not to be. I should be able to take down this crab next time I think.
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Post by jmisbest on Nov 10, 2021 20:41:53 GMT
Island - 9/14/7 I actually put up a fight this time but no, 'twas not to be. I should be able to take down this crab next time I think. You'll have A Skill of 10 so I think theirs no way you won't win, but because you only have 14 Stamina if you're unlucky enough to lose 3 or more rounds your remaining Stamina may be so low that you can't beat the book
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Post by CharlesX on Nov 10, 2021 20:49:36 GMT
Island - 9/14/7 I actually put up a fight this time but no, 'twas not to be. I should be able to take down this crab next time I think. You'll have A Skill of 10 so I think theirs no way you won't win, but because you only have 14 Stamina if you're unlucky enough to lose 3 or more rounds your remaining Stamina may be so low that you can't beat the book Losing even though there is a slight likelihood you will win happens all the time. My time playing FF has practically taught me that, as well. You might want to see the recent Return To Scorpion Swamp thread (Amateur FF) as well, where we were trounced in a fight were the odds were theoretically favourable.
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Post by jmisbest on Nov 10, 2021 21:07:28 GMT
You'll have A Skill of 10 so I think theirs no way you won't win, but because you only have 14 Stamina if you're unlucky enough to lose 3 or more rounds your remaining Stamina may be so low that you can't beat the book Losing even though there is a slight likelihood you will win happens all the time. My time playing FF has practically taught me that, as well. You might want to see the recent Return To Scorpion Swamp thread (Amateur FF) as well, where we were trounced in a fight were the odds were theoretically favourable.
You right, somehow I'd forgotten that losing even though there is a slight likelihood you will win happens all the time can happen. Thank you for reminding me
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 10, 2021 21:23:19 GMT
Island - 10/14/7 Okay! Crab legs for everyone! After taking down the crab things went fairly predictably. I rolled a very painful 6 leeches while crossing the marsh which wiped out half my stamina. But apart from that, it was just a slow whittling down of my stamina until eventually a hill troll came along and caved my head in.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 10, 2021 21:25:32 GMT
Losing even though there is a slight likelihood you will win happens all the time. My time playing FF has practically taught me that, as well. You might want to see the recent Return To Scorpion Swamp thread (Amateur FF) as well, where we were trounced in a fight were the odds were theoretically favourable.
You right, somehow I'd forgotten that losing even though there is a slight likelihood you will win happens all the time can happen. Thank you for reminding me Not to mention in this very thread, one of my attempts at City of Thieves was cut short by the skill 6 leaf beasts of all things.
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Post by philsadler on Nov 10, 2021 23:15:40 GMT
Island - 9/14/7 I actually put up a fight this time but no, 'twas not to be. I should be able to take down this crab next time I think. You'll have A Skill of 10 so I think theirs no way you won't win, but because you only have 14 Stamina if you're unlucky enough to lose 3 or more rounds your remaining Stamina may be so low that you can't beat the book
Imagine putting a skill 10 monster as your first enemy in a book? And then later on a few skill 6 and even 5 enemies. Honestly, Livingstone never had a clue.
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Post by CharlesX on Nov 10, 2021 23:41:39 GMT
You'll have A Skill of 10 so I think theirs no way you won't win, but because you only have 14 Stamina if you're unlucky enough to lose 3 or more rounds your remaining Stamina may be so low that you can't beat the book
Imagine putting in a skill 10 monster as your first enemy in a book? And then later on a few skill 6 and even 5 enemies. Honestly, Livingstone never had a clue.
Well, going by his tweets and those of other FF authors Livingstone thought readers would cheat like crazy. It's surprising and disappointing coming from someone who is an experienced RPG player and games designer.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 11, 2021 1:02:49 GMT
Island - 11/14/7
Made it a decent bit further this time. Somewhat amusingly the 11/10 styracosaurus was not too much trouble but the 10/10 cyclops was too much for me. Ah well. Going up to skill 12 should be enough to clear the book, I reckon.
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