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Post by terrysalt on Nov 14, 2021 20:52:09 GMT
Looking at the guide, it seems like the difference between the paths is very small. The deviation is right at the end where you either choose to fight Babbet or you don't. That doesn't really warrant two playthroughs. If I die against Babbet, I can make a note that winning would have been possible had I just opted to leave.
Sword of the Samurai is a tricky one, with 4 starting skills and 2 paths, that would be 8 separate playthroughs which seems excessive. Not sure what to do about that one yet.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 14, 2021 21:17:25 GMT
Rings - 7/14/7/7/1 I was steamrolling through until a failed skill roll meant I took 2 damage to my shields. Since they only started at 1, this went badly for me.
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Post by philsadler on Nov 14, 2021 21:41:47 GMT
As ludicrously overpowered as the Giant Sandworm is, we are lucky that it doesn't follow the rules of the one described in Out of the Pit which would 'swallow you whole if it wins two rounds in succession.'
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 14, 2021 22:20:57 GMT
Rings - 7/14/7/7/3 I made it through the minefield to the asteroid defences and promptly got shot out of the sky.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 14, 2021 22:25:05 GMT
As ludicrously overpowered as the Giant Sandworm is, we are lucky that it doesn't follow the rules of the one described in Out of the Pit which would 'swallow you whole if it wins two rounds in succession.' I don't remember 100% but I THINK I still would have been fine on my 12 skill playthrough even if the sandworm had that ability. But yeah, I'm glad this sandworm wasn't hungry.
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Post by daredevil123 on Nov 14, 2021 22:51:26 GMT
Looking at the guide, it seems like the difference between the paths is very small. The deviation is right at the end where you either choose to fight Babbet or you don't. That doesn't really warrant two playthroughs. If I die against Babbet, I can make a note that winning would have been possible had I just opted to leave. Sword of the Samurai is a tricky one, with 4 starting skills and 2 paths, that would be 8 separate playthroughs which seems excessive. Not sure what to do about that one yet. Unlike The Rings of Kether, Sword of the Samurai has only one 'good' ending, so I'd say there's no need to play through both paths as long as you win at some point.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 14, 2021 22:51:58 GMT
Rings - 7/14/7/8/3 Victory! Being able to get 4 extra pep pills (for a total of 8!) and being able to use them in combat renders stamina loss almost meaningless so I could just outlast both Zera and Babbet until I won enough rounds to bring them down. This is definitely much better than Space Assassin. It actually feels like you're making decisions rather than just guessing directions and whether or not to enter a particular door. But up next is the only Chapman book I really like. I loved Seas of Blood as a kid.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 14, 2021 23:09:23 GMT
Looking at the guide, it seems like the difference between the paths is very small. The deviation is right at the end where you either choose to fight Babbet or you don't. That doesn't really warrant two playthroughs. If I die against Babbet, I can make a note that winning would have been possible had I just opted to leave. Sword of the Samurai is a tricky one, with 4 starting skills and 2 paths, that would be 8 separate playthroughs which seems excessive. Not sure what to do about that one yet. Unlike The Rings of Kether, Sword of the Samurai has only one 'good' ending, so I'd say there's no need to play through both paths as long as you win at some point. That's the way I was leaning before Charles mentioned the other, much harder path. I think a decent compromise is 5 runs. One for each skill taking the forest path and one iaijutsu (the skill Champskees recommends in his guide) run through the fens. That way, all 4 skills can be compared on the (to my mind) correct path through the book and Charles gets to see one playthrough of the harder path.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,451
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Nov 15, 2021 0:16:41 GMT
Maybe to cut down on attempts, just pick a different skill on each restart?
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Nov 15, 2021 0:41:57 GMT
It's been a while since I played it, but I tend to remember the skill choice in SotS as being archery or ...not. That is, two of the other skills have reasonably predictable practical benefits but you aren't asked about them, while the jumpy-jumpy one feels like a bit of an afterthought.
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Post by a moderator on Nov 15, 2021 1:05:42 GMT
Quick draw can make a not insignificant difference early on in the fens path.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 15, 2021 1:42:19 GMT
It's been a while since I played it, but I tend to remember the skill choice in SotS as being archery or ...not. That is, two of the other skills have reasonably predictable practical benefits but you aren't asked about them, while the jumpy-jumpy one feels like a bit of an afterthought. That's how I remember it too. As a kid I pretty much only ever chose the archery one.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 15, 2021 1:55:21 GMT
Maybe to cut down on attempts, just pick a different skill on each restart? I appreciate the suggestion. I'd prefer to keep the same skill across attempts so that the only thing that changes between tries is my stats. I was expecting to do 4 runs anyway, going up to 5 isn't a problem.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 15, 2021 2:10:59 GMT
Seas - 7/14/7/7/8 The Enraki priests left me with 2 crew strength so I had to add the maximum number of days each time. Despite this I managed to get myself 215 gold before getting slaughtered by a krell.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 15, 2021 5:49:35 GMT
Seas - 8/14/7/7/8 The Enraki Priests were out for revenge and I died in my first fight.
Seas - 8/14/7/8/8 I took revenge on the krell which allowed me to roll 2 dice instead of 3 when testing crew strength. Sadly my crew strength was only 4 so I still couldn't pass any of the tests. Having 4 crew strength also meant I died quickly when attacked by a Kishian Warship.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 15, 2021 6:49:29 GMT
Seas - 8/14/7/9/8 *sigh* Back to dying at the Enraki priests. Seas - 8/14/7/10/8 A failed luck test got me up against a hydra which was more than my crew could handle. Seas - 8/14/7/11/8 And another one to the krell. I obviously cheated a lot as a kid as I don't remember it being this hard back then.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 15, 2021 7:57:29 GMT
Seas - 9/14/7/11/8 That krell can really carry a grudge! Seas - 10/14/7/11/8 On the island before the final destination, a fight with some pirates left my crew strength at 2 which made it impossible to pass the ensuing check so a storm blew me off course and I failed. Since I failed the roll by 4, I guess that's how much I boost my crew strength by. I would have had too much time (53) and not enough gold (696) to win even if I had made the roll so don't feel too bad for me.
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Post by jmisbest on Nov 15, 2021 12:45:54 GMT
I've thought of a potential problem with Black Vein Prophecy. What do you think?
In order to win you must fail your 1st Luck Test but if you follow your rules then when you do Black Vein Prophecy if you die because of being unlucky 5 or more times then theirs no way you'll fail your 1st Luck Test, which will make it impossible to win
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Post by CharlesX on Nov 15, 2021 13:19:31 GMT
I've thought of a potential problem with Black Vein Prophecy. What do you think? In order to win you must fail your 1st Luck Test but if you follow your rules then when you do Black Vein Prophecy if you die because of being unlucky 5 or more times then theirs no way you'll fail your 1st Luck Test, which will make it impossible to win Terrysalt will either maintain his luck at 7 which would maximise his chances of success, even though one of the luck rolls in particular would be more beneficial to pass, or effectively cheat by counting the roll for multicoloured scales as a defeat even when it might not be. I'm more concerned about Spellbreaker, where Terrysalt will * have * to cheat to lose a fight, or his odds will be several increments tougher than Crypt. Or Revenge Of The Vampire, where he will have to house rule about the horse\gold. Or Blood Of The Zombies, where he might as well be trying to win the lottery 5 times straight. I imagine Terrysalt will be crossing these bridges when he comes to them.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 15, 2021 18:44:03 GMT
I've thought of a potential problem with Black Vein Prophecy. What do you think? In order to win you must fail your 1st Luck Test but if you follow your rules then when you do Black Vein Prophecy if you die because of being unlucky 5 or more times then theirs no way you'll fail your 1st Luck Test, which will make it impossible to win Way back at the start, I covered this. I can voluntarily fail any roll (voluntarily failing a luck roll still costs a luck point).
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 15, 2021 18:54:05 GMT
I've thought of a potential problem with Black Vein Prophecy. What do you think? In order to win you must fail your 1st Luck Test but if you follow your rules then when you do Black Vein Prophecy if you die because of being unlucky 5 or more times then theirs no way you'll fail your 1st Luck Test, which will make it impossible to win Terrysalt will either maintain his luck at 7 which would maximise his chances of success, even though one of the luck rolls in particular would be more beneficial to pass, or effectively cheat by counting the roll for multicoloured scales as a defeat even when it might not be. I'm more concerned about Spellbreaker, where Terrysalt will * have * to cheat to lose a fight, or his odds will be several increments tougher than Crypt. Or Revenge Of The Vampire, where he will have to house rule about the horse\gold. Or Blood Of The Zombies, where he might as well be trying to win the lottery 5 times straight. I imagine Terrysalt will be crossing these bridges when he comes to them. I don't remember Spellbreaker well enough to cover that off the top of my head. But I think the voluntary failure rule can be expanded to include combat. I've heard bad things about Revenge of the Vampire. If the item you miss is necessary to win, then I'll find a house rule to allow its collection. If it's merely helpful then sucks to be me, I have to live without it. For Blood of the Zombies, I will remind you that I am not constrained by the limits of what is physically possible to roll when it comes to post-failure stat boosts. If I need hundreds of stamina points to make it through, so be it.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 15, 2021 20:05:56 GMT
Seas - 10/14/7/11/12 A failed luck roll had me up against a skill 11 roc which easily defeated me. Seas - 11/14/7/11/12 The dice betrayed me and the Enraki priests smacked me around far more than expected. So I only had 6 crew strength after that first fight. A kishian warship then knocked me down to 2 which made things even trickier. A sith orb then knocked my stamina down to 2 and the roc once again finished me off. Seas - 12/14/7/11/12 So close! I made it to Nippur in 48 days with 777 gold. I think I should count this as a luck boost since most of my failures to collect gold were the result of failed luck tests (selling the slaves for a low price hurt me a lot) unless any of you have 23 gold pieces I could borrow real quick.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 15, 2021 23:26:25 GMT
Seas - 12/14/8/11/12 I had bad luck in the crew fights and my strength was slowly whittled down until the pirates on the final island managed to wipe us all out.
Seas - 12/14/8/12/12 IT'S OVER! The stars finally aligned and I sailed into Nippur on day 49 with 953 gold. This was a much tougher book than I remembered!
Seeing as I mentioned it above, this book was the first time I used my voluntarily failure option. There's one luck check where if you're lucky you recover 2 crew strength, if you're unlucky you fight a hydra and get 52 gold pieces if you win. If I had max strength, I voluntarily fought the hydra. Also, there's a luck test near the end where lucky means you fight the roc with your crew and unlucky means you fight alone. Since you recover stamina just by travelling and there's no way to recover crew strength, I voluntarily fought it alone to ensure I could make the crucial crew strength rolls at the end.
Okay, Seas of Blood is done and I get to go on to the book that got me interested in FF to begin with: Appointment with F.E.A.R. I think this one will be considerably easier!
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 16, 2021 3:02:35 GMT
Appointment - Super Strength - 13/14/7 So you know how skill is the most important stat by far? Turns out starting with 13 of it makes the game trivially easy.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 16, 2021 3:53:01 GMT
Appointment - Psi - 7/14/7 I did surprisingly well against the Tiger Cat but the Titanium Cyborg killed me without me landing even a single hit.
Appointment - Psi - 8/14/7 Rather comically, the Tiger Cat knocked me down to 1 stamina which meant the obligatory use of psi powers immediately afterword killed me.
Appointment - Psi - 8/16/7 Once again, the cyborg overpowered me.
Appointment - Psi - 9/16/7 2 down, 2 to go!
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 16, 2021 4:24:27 GMT
Appointment - ETS - 7/14/7 A skill 10 shark right out of the gate. Looks like Batman has to earn this one. I got hit 4 times and the shark killed my access to a vital clue. Appointment - ETS - 8/14/7 Sharkin' 2: Electric Lose-a-clue Appointment - ETS - 9/14/7 At least in the movie he got Bat Shark Repellent! Appointment - ETS - 10/14/7 Finally! Once I brought down the shark at long last, everything else was easy including Utoshski himself. Weaker than a shark, some supervillain he turned out to be.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 16, 2021 5:17:41 GMT
Appointment - Energy - 7/14/7 2 stamina per blast adds up! By the time I got to the shark I only had 8 stamina, all of the damage self-inflicted! Then thanks to a successful luck roll I slinked away from the shark with a dead kid and a single stamina to my name. A weakness Chainsaw Bronski was keen to exploit.
Appointment - Energy - 8/14/7 My energy blast actually hit the shark this time. Having avoided that fight, I struggled through the self-inflicted damage until Ilya Karpov came along, saw my apparent suicidal nature and helped me out.
Appointment - Energy - 9/14/7 I guess he took that shark comment personally. Vlad rips me apart effortlessly.
Appointment - Energy - 10/14/7 An unfortunate double 6 sees me miss a fire warrior with my blast allowing all 4 to escape, taking a much-needed clue with them.
Appointment - Energy - 11/14/7 The dice finally cooperate and I have once again saved the world.
Okay, next up is Rebel Planet. I know I've played this one before but I remember basically nothing about it. I'm not much of a fan of the space books but Robin's writing should at least be interesting to read.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 16, 2021 20:20:43 GMT
Rebel - 7/14/7 In what I expect will be a common occurrence, I died to the Street Fighter.
Rebel - 8/14/7 I failed the skill check so I couldn't even go for the aerial this time. The Street Fighter stomped me again.
Rebel - 9/14/7 A couple of swats at the aerial and the Street Fighter became a lot more manageable. It will hadouken no more. This luck did not continue as a skill 7 scabrok somehow managed to do what the Street Fighter couldn't.
Rebel - 10/14/7 A skill 6 black marketeer really did a number on me, somehow knocking me down to 3 stamina. Continuing on this theme, a skill 6 rockbuzzard managed to hit me as well, instantly knocking me to my death.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 16, 2021 22:16:01 GMT
Rebel - 11/14/7 This time it was a lot easier. None of the fights gave me any trouble and with three blasts of elmonite, the entire Arcadian race is neutralised.
Next up is Demons of the Deep and while it's a totally legitimate option, it rather undermines the goal of this thread if I reroll my stats in the sauna so I will not be doing so.
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Post by terrysalt on Nov 16, 2021 23:15:37 GMT
Demons - 7/14/7 That was quick! A skeleton hacked me to pieces almost immediately. Demons - 8/14/7 That skeleton isn't messing around. Another one bites the dust. Demons - 9/14/7 Wow. I started with 9 skill and ended up with 12. Plus an attack strength boost of 1 on top of that. I was effectively skill 13 against the kraken. It died. Fast. From there me and my skeleton buddies took over the pirate ship and claimed all the treasure on board. Victory! Up next is one of the books I loved as a kid. I thought the monster battle at the end was the best thing ever.
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