|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 21, 2021 0:56:42 GMT
Phantoms - Items - 11/14/7/8 - 3 rerolls And back to the amber. *sigh*
Phantoms - Items - 11/14/7/8 - 4 rerolls Success! I thought for sure I was going to die against Morpheus but luck was on my side and I rid the world of Ishtra and saved the forest.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 21, 2021 1:58:10 GMT
Phantoms - Power - 7/14/7/13 While foraging for food, I got attacked and killed by a forest giant. Off to a smashing start! Phantoms - Power - 8/14/7/13 A failed luck test makes it impossible to get to 22 power. Phantoms - Power - 8/14/8/13 That evil wind has been plaguing me all day! Phantoms - Power - 8/14/9/13 Killed by the dark elves. Phantoms - Power - 9/14/9/13 The dark elves may keep killing me but at least I don't need to hunt down that piece of amber this time! Phantoms - Power - 10/14/9/13 I reckon I'll get past the dark elves next time. Phantoms - Power - 11/14/9/13 Down goes Ishtra again! This path is a lot less annoying than the items path. I must say that actually playing the game certainly sours the whole experience with this book. Up next is Midnight Rogue, as I've always had an affinity for playing as thieving sneaky types, this was another favourite as a kid
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 21, 2021 3:50:23 GMT
Midnight - 7/14/7 It's all pretty easy until you get right to the end. A skill 10 possessor spirit was way too much for me to handle.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 21, 2021 6:36:43 GMT
Midnight - 8/14/7 It's a bit weird that there's such a sudden jump in difficulty. Possessor spirit got me again.
Midnight - 9/14/7 I hit away from killing it!
Midnight - 10/14/7 I finally beat the spirit but now a crystal warrior is cutting me down.
Midnight - 11/14/7 I did it! I claimed the worthless piece of glass! Wait, what? Oh well, it still counts.
Apart from 2 fights at the end, the whole book is manageable with minimum stats. Quite a fun return to Port Blacksand. Up next is Chasms of Malice. I remember one thing about it. This is the one with the godawful one strike combats. Another one where I'll be needing my rerolls!
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 21, 2021 9:11:17 GMT
Chasms- 7/14/7 A failed stamina roll sees me failing to jump a gap in a narrow ledge and falling to my death. I had 13 and rolled a 15 so stamina goes up by 2. Chasms - 7/16/7 It was a close fight but I lost to a gryphon. Chasms - 8/16/7 I somehow made it through. I had 2 stamina when I took down the sludge and then Orghuz killed me in one hit. Luckily I still had the resurrect scroll which instakilled him and restored me to 4 health. So I was wrong, I didn't need the rerolls after all. Only 2 Luke Sharp books left to worry about. I can do this. But with that behind me, up next is Battleblade Warrior which I also don't remember much about. I think it had a lot of lizard men in it or am I thinking of something else?
|
|
CharlesX
Baron
Posts: 2,222
Member is Online
|
Post by CharlesX on Nov 21, 2021 10:52:51 GMT
Will you be following the (BB) rule you can only eat when given special permission to? I know I often disregard it because the author doesn't give you enough chances to do so in my own opinion, very frankly I think MG forgot the rule halfway through writing.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 21, 2021 10:56:38 GMT
Will you be following the (BB) rule you can only eat when given special permission to? I know I often disregard it because the author doesn't give you enough chances to do so in my own opinion, very frankly I think MG forgot the rule halfway through writing. Yep, rules are rules. If Marc forgot to put enough opportunities to eat in, I'll probably need a much higher skill to win fights without taking too much damage.
|
|
|
Post by The Count on Nov 21, 2021 12:30:06 GMT
The only part of the gameplay of Phantoms that I find potentially frustrating is that the Dream / Power battles are balanced against you.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 21, 2021 20:32:59 GMT
The only part of the gameplay of Phantoms that I find potentially frustrating is that the Dream / Power battles are balanced against you. For me, it's also the fact that there's no stat that you can increase to improve the chances of winning a round. I'm not fond of die rolls that aren't stat checks in general. Another thing that bugs me is that the spells are never worth casting. It seems a shame that he came up with a magic system then gave you very few chances to cast any spells (and none where it's worth spending a power point on) then removed the spells entirely for the second half of the book.
|
|
CharlesX
Baron
Posts: 2,222
Member is Online
|
Post by CharlesX on Nov 21, 2021 21:26:45 GMT
To me, Phantoms Of Fear is easily Waterfield's best FF book. Aside from the wonderful sense of atmosphere which seems to be his wheelhouse, there are lots of memorable encounters, it isn't too linear or long, and the gameplay difficulty is right. I don't rate (his) Rebel Planet as one of the best FF, sci-fi or otherwise - it's overlong and boring. Weirdly, my favourite part of Rebel Planet is the introduction, where the colourful, developed world is as good as anything in the Traveller or Star Wars universes.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 21, 2021 21:36:55 GMT
Battleblade - 7/14/7 A fight against 6 goblins goes poorly. Battleblade - 8/14/7 Things were going rather well until a swamp mutant popped up and ripped me apart. Battleblade - 9/14/7 Another hero falls to the swamp mutant. Battleblade - 10/14/7 I nearly had him! Next time for sure! Battleblade - 11/14/7 I made it through with 4 stamina left! The restrictions on eating weren't too bad, though I did have half a dozen meals sitting uneaten in my pack. It would have been a lot worse if I hadn't taken the healing potion at the start though! Well, that was okay. Nothing wrong with it, nothing great about it. Just fairly standard FF fare. Up next is Slaves of the Abyss. I really like Paul Mason's books and Slaves is no exception.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 21, 2021 21:41:23 GMT
To me, Phantoms Of Fear is easily Waterfield's best FF book. Aside from the wonderful sense of atmosphere which seems to be his wheelhouse, there are lots of memorable encounters, it isn't too linear or long, and the gameplay difficulty is right. I don't rate (his) Rebel Planet as one of the best FF, sci-fi or otherwise - it's overlong and boring. Weirdly, my favourite part of Rebel Planet is the introduction, where the colourful, developed world is as good as anything in the Traveller or Star Wars universes. I haven't read Deathmoor but of the others, Phantoms is easily my favourite of his books. That's probably just nostalgia speaking though. I never read Masks until I was an adult and read Phantoms a lot as a kid.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 21, 2021 23:22:53 GMT
Slaves - 7/14/7 Luthaur cuts me with his poison sword and I die immediately.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 22, 2021 0:19:48 GMT
Slaves - 8/14/7 That one hit kill Luthaur has is rough.
Slaves - 9/14/7 It took me too long to kill a caveman so I got swarmed by murder hornets.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 22, 2021 1:38:32 GMT
Slaves - 10/14/7 A lucky double six got rid of a skill 10 ogre. With the good comes the bad, however, and despite a 3 skill advantage. that damn caveman drew the fight out long enough to get me swarmed again. Slaves - 11/14/7 I actually had a surprising amount of trouble with a pair of low skill guards who messed me up enough that I needed to eat most of my provisions to recover. It seems that I was just getting all the bad luck out of the way early so I could cruise to victory. I now get to spend eternity in the abyss playing with my snake! Now on to Sky Lord, everyone loves Sky Lord. I'm sure this is going to be great.
|
|
|
Post by Peter on Nov 22, 2021 6:47:11 GMT
Hang on. The rules for Battleblade Warrior say you can only eat when instructed, and there are places in the book where you find that "at least there is plenty of food - you can re-stock your provisions". Is this an instruction that you are allowed to eat? Whenever someone tells me there is plenty of food available, they are inviting me to help myself.
And I am regretting missing the opportunity to congratulate you on finally managing to pass wind in Phantoms of Fear. That would have been a funny joke (weak, but funny).
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 22, 2021 6:48:04 GMT
Sky - 7/14/7/3 I got killed by... something. It had a lot of arms whatever it was. Took down three of them, the fourth finished me off.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 22, 2021 6:51:05 GMT
Hang on. The rules for Battleblade Warrior say you can only eat when instructed, and there are places in the book where you find that "at least there is plenty of food - you can re-stock your provisions". Is this an instruction that you are allowed to eat? Whenever someone tells me there is plenty of food available, they are inviting me to help myself. And I am regretting missing the opportunity to congratulate you on finally managing to pass wind in Phantoms of Fear. That would have been a funny joke (weak, but funny). I played it as I could only eat when explicitly instructed so those were not eating opportunities. The path the guide takes is quite short so I didn't feel the lack of provisions all that much. The healing potion at the start goes a long way to bridging the gap, as long as you roll somewhat decently when drinking it as well.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 22, 2021 8:42:15 GMT
Sky - 8/14/7/3 I did even worse! The third arm got me this time.
Sky - 9/14/7/3 I couldn't defy the odds forever and I lost the first spaceship fight.
I'm honestly not sure what to raise for this one. I could raise rating to 5* which would let me shoot first but that would only help in this one battle which seems rather inefficient. I could improve the ships lasers to 5 which would let me hit more often (and is therefore the closest analogue to skill in this scenario) but the ship's lasers aren't determined by dice, they're permanently set to 4 so this seems more like cheating than raising a rolled stat.
What do you guys think?
*Rating only goes up if you beat an enemy with a higher rating than you. This means that the rating will quickly equalise to where it would have been if I hadn't raised anything.
|
|
CharlesX
Baron
Posts: 2,222
Member is Online
|
Post by CharlesX on Nov 22, 2021 9:29:34 GMT
Raising Rating wouldn't work as you say and raising Shields would definitely take too long. The unfair difficulty level of Sky Lord means 'cheating' via raising Lasers is justified in my own view. If you are so commendably scrupulous about following the rules your conscience will destroy you when you are playing Blood - when you win it will be with an Avatar half a universe away from the one you should have had capping your Stamina at ordinary levels!
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 22, 2021 10:18:18 GMT
Raising Rating wouldn't work as you say and raising Shields would definitely take too long. The unfair difficulty level of Sky Lord means 'cheating' via raising Lasers is justified in my own view. If you are so commendably scrupulous about following the rules your conscience will destroy you when you are playing Blood - when you win it will be with an Avatar half a universe away from the one you should have had capping your Stamina at ordinary levels! From the sound of things, Blood will take a very long time if I only ever increase stamina by just enough to survive what killed me. I'll see how I go when I get to it. I might need some kind of special ruling for it. I'll give Sky Lord a go with lasers increased. It does seem like the most sensible option.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 22, 2021 10:50:44 GMT
Sky - 9/14/7/3 - Lasers +1 It did help but not enough. The SECOND spaceship fight killed me. Sky - 9/14/7/3 - Lasers +2 With lasers at +2, I can only miss if I roll a 6. Which is, of course, why I rolled three in a row. Alright, lasers up to 7, I can now never miss. Sky - 9/14/7/3 - Lasers +3 When you basically house rule the space combats out of the game, it gets a lot easier. I made it almost to the end but giving up my sword made it easier for a yellow mutant to kill me.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 22, 2021 19:55:01 GMT
Sky - 10/14/7 - Lasers +3 Wow, this set of four arms really shouldn't be this hard! Sky - 11/14/7 - Lasers +3 Thankfully, I'm victorious and can move on to something better. I understand why Sky Lord has its reputation. Oh well, it's done now. On to Stealer of Souls. I like Keith Martin but Stealer isn't his best work. It's still a damn sight better than Sky Lord though!
|
|
CharlesX
Baron
Posts: 2,222
Member is Online
|
Post by CharlesX on Nov 22, 2021 22:12:58 GMT
Like Livingstone, Martin applies a similar formula to most of his books, with varying success. His best books include Vault Of The Vampire and Night Dragon, his worst books include Revenge Of The Vampire and Tower Of Destruction. I think Stealer Of Souls is very well-designed in a clean, storytelling way, except for the rule inconsistency about the Speed spell mentioned in the solution, which you will no doubt exploit. I've noticed you stick to the rules when their absurdities work in your favour as well as when they don't .
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 22, 2021 22:55:38 GMT
Stealer - 7/14/7 That was quick. A giant stormbird killed me 2 references into the book!
Stealer - 8/14/7 I made it a fair bit further this time but a dark priest was too strong for me.
Stealer - 9/14/7 Wow. A skill 7 giant stormbird (not the same one that killed my first character at least) absolutely demolished me.
Stealer - 10/14/7 I had to make a tough call and reject a skill bonus here. As I read it, the skill bonus from the chainmail can exceed your initial value but doesn't actually raise the initial value so when a trapped chest cost me a skill point I was at 10/10 rather than 10/11. So I couldn't take the skill bonus from the figure touching me or praying for the dead. Perhaps overly harsh but I want to stay on the up and up as much as I can here. Anyway, I got Mordreth down to 3 stamina but couldn't kill him.
Stealer - 11/14/7 Despite some serious hate from the dice at some points, I managed to kill the boss and save the day.
That was fun, but now we must once again face the horrors of Luke Sharp (though I hear Daggers is one of his better books so maybe it won't be too bad).
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 22, 2021 22:59:33 GMT
Like Livingstone, Martin applies a similar formula to most of his books, with varying success. His best books include Vault Of The Vampire and Night Dragon, his worst books include Revenge Of The Vampire and Tower Of Destruction. I think Stealer Of Souls is very well-designed in a clean, storytelling way, except for the rule inconsistency about the Speed spell mentioned in the solution, which you will no doubt exploit. I've noticed you stick to the rules when their absurdities work in your favour as well as when they don't . Yep, Keith is as formulaic as Ian is. I just like Keith's formula a lot more. I agree with your picks for best books but I'd add Master of Chaos in as well. Jesper the Mongoose for best FF character of all time! As for exploiting the speed spell, I definitely did. However, my rules adherence cost me about as much as it benefited me. Such is the nature of these things.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 23, 2021 1:33:05 GMT
Daggers - 7/14/7 I won first go. The medallion that lets you survive 3 combats that would otherwise kill you is exactly as overpowered as it sounds. There weren't too many of the roll the wrong number and die situations so I am happy to say that this is Luke's best book so far. Let's see if my luck continues, I'm going back up against Ian Livingstone after all. I seem to remember liking the army combat as a kid so that's something.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 23, 2021 4:06:29 GMT
Armies - 7/14/7 An axeman accused me of stealing his ring. He was prepared to kill me to get it back.
Armies 8/14/7 A fly lands on the wrong blob of jam and the game is unwinnable.
Armies - 8/14/7 - 1 reroll I made a good amount of progress but I died trying to save a dwarf from a shapechanger.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 23, 2021 5:34:56 GMT
Armies - 9/14/7 - 1 reroll Shapechanger again. Armies - 10/14/7 - 1 reroll Literally 1 hit away from winning but alas, not to be. Armies - 11/14/7 - 1 reroll My dice rebel against me and I die to the shapechanger again. Armies - 12/14/7 - 1 reroll Apparently I've had it too easy for too long and the fly once again has terrible taste in jam. Armies - 12/14/7 - 2 rerolls Okay! Done! This was not as good as 10 year old me thought. It's not bad as far as Ian books go, but the oracle was rather ridiculous and the army aspect was grossly underutilised. Never mind that though because up next is another one of my childhood favourites. The presence of dinosaurs may or may not have swayed that opinion.
|
|
|
Post by terrysalt on Nov 23, 2021 21:15:58 GMT
Portal - 7/14/7 A variety of bad rolls had me on 2 stamina when I faced a stegocephalian. I managed to fight my way free without losing a single round but then I took 2 damage as it spat me out of the cave. So all that for a 1 stamina increase next time around. Portal - 7/15/7 That was actually enough to enable me to win. There were a couple of "fail this stat check and die" moments but the dice were kind and I rolled low for both of them. The book is both longer and easier than I expected. Fortunately, this one was just as good as I remembered it. And next we have another classic. I can tell because the book is definitely showing signs of use.
|
|