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Post by Per on Jul 4, 2024 19:27:23 GMT
A few hours to go until the deadline. There are one or two among the usual suspects who haven't submitted, but you can't always fit everyone into a forest.
I will aim to post the results of five questions a day starting on Friday if I'm not still expecting any replacement answers. If I am, it doesn't seem right to start posting even if it's for unrelated questions, so in that case I may delay the results by a day, then go with what I have if necessary.
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Post by Per on Jul 5, 2024 11:24:48 GMT
scouserob also dodged into the undergrowth with thirty minutes to spare, and replacement answers have all been received. Finally something to distract from all these football shenanigans!
Fun fact: the original rare entries ruleset contained an explicit ban on using a randomizer to select your answer. You were allowed to research your set of answers in any way, but had to use only your brain to select one, because otherwise it's not a massive battle of wits or something. "Reverses" must be manually counted.
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Post by Per on Jul 5, 2024 20:44:18 GMT
All right, into the Forest of Doom we go!
1. Identify a named location or character.
Yaztromo's Tower - Gabe Fandango - 1 Quin - kieran - 1 Mirewater - Wildy - 1 Stonebridge - Peter - 1 Yaztromo - hallucination, Peter's wife - 2 Trumble - petch, trialmaster - 2 Gillibran - scouserob, vastariner - 2 Darkwood Forest - adrius, evilwizard, sylas - 3
Names that were not chosen: Arragon and Bigleg, both of them big wimps.
If the scope of the contest had been the full set of books, I would probably not have allowed Yaztromo's Tower, since the preponderance of evidence would be against it: in Forest, Temple and Crypt, each time the words appear in the text, the word "tower" is not capitalized. However, since we're only considering this book, I think there's just the one case in the text and then the label on the map, where it is capitalized, and so benefit goes to the player.
Darkwood is considered synonymous with Darkwood Forest, as evident in section 1 and other places. I think however the words "Forest of Doom" appear nowhere between the book's covers, and so would not have been allowed.
The question was about only characters at first, as I thought it might be fun to bookend the contest with knife fights in phone booths, and it was amended not long before posting. Actually I could probably have asked for a proper name and it would have added the Eye of Amber and Gillibran's Hammer and not a whole lot more.
Scores:
1 - Gabe Fandango, kieran, Peter, Wildy 2 - hallucination, petch, Peter's wife, scouserob, trialmaster, vastariner 3 - adrius, evilwizard, sylas
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Post by Per on Jul 5, 2024 20:56:28 GMT
2. Identify an occasion on which you can expend one or more Gold Pieces in order to obtain some item or service, seek some favour, or comply with some threat or obligation.
Paying the Bandits - hallucination - 1 Buying items from Yaztromo - kieran - 1 Paying the crow for advice - evilwizard - 1 Losing to Quin at arm wrestling - sylas - 1 Paying the Gnome to get your sword back and/or for advice - adrius - 1 Giving the friar a coin for charity work - Peter - 1 Paying Arragon to spare your worthless life - scouserob - 1 Tossing a coin in the mud pool to make a wish - Gabe Fandango, Peter's wife - 2 Paying the Centaur to carry you across the river - petch, trialmaster, vastariner, Wildy - 4
This was one of the questions with the greatest number of answers; if I didn't miss anything, the unchosen options are tossing a coin in the well, and paying the boy or the trapper to release you from traps.
I'm guessing the pull of the Centaur may be related to the fact that it also appears as an option in Q5.
Scores:
2 - kieran, Peter 3 - Gabe Fandango, hallucination, scouserob 4 - adrius, evilwizard, sylas, Peter's wife 5 - Wildy 6 - petch, vastariner, trialmaster
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Post by Per on Jul 5, 2024 21:06:23 GMT
3. Identify something you get to eat.
Belladonna - Gabe Fandango - 1 Green-topped fungus - kieran - 1 Elven bread - evilwizard - 1 Provisions - Peter - 1 Violet mushrooms - hallucination, Wildy - 2 Red-topped fungus - trialmaster, vastariner - 2 Spit-roast rabbit - petch, sylas - 2 Purple fruit - adrius, Peter's wife, scouserob - 3
As noted by Gabe, the big question here may have been how many would go for Provisions, which ended up a unique answer, while the purple fruits turned out to be poisonous.
The rabbit appears in two places: roasted by the Orcs in the adventure and by you in the background.
If I didn't miss anything, this is the first of two questions where all of the available answers got picked. I would not have been so lenient as to allow the maggot-ridden biscuits in 301, as there's no indication that you get to eat them, just like you don't get to arbitrarily snort the Dust of Levitation.
Two people still hold on to perfect scores:
3 - kieran, Peter 4 - Gabe Fandango 5 - evilwizard, hallucination 6 - scouserob, sylas 7 - adrius, Peter's wife, Wildy 8 - petch, vastariner, trialmaster
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Post by Per on Jul 5, 2024 21:15:13 GMT
4. Identify an occasion on which you can repel or incapacitate an enemy using an item, excluding your sword.
Using Fire Capsules to keep the Treeman at bay - petch - 1 Using Potion of Insect Control against Killer Bees - kieran - 1 Using Holy Water to burn the Ghoul - adrius - 1 Using Net of Entanglement against the Cave Troll - Peter's wife - 1 Using Glove of Missile Dexterity and a rock to brutally brain the Ogre - Gabe Fandango, hallucination - 2 Using Garlic Buds to keep Vampire Bats away - scouserob, Wildy - 2 Using Potion of Plant Control to repel Tangleweed - Peter, sylas - 2 Using the Flute of Dragonsleep to sleepify the Wyvern - evilwizard, trialmaster, vastariner - 3
The second of two questions where I think all possible answers were selected. There's that time where an Earth Elemental somehow doesn't get released if you drink a Potion of Stillness, but it's not very clear what goes on there.
Possibly the flute was chosen since it's the one that isn't sold by Yaztromo.
Surely nobody could have picked unique answers in every darn question so far:
4 - kieran 5 - Peter 6 - Gabe Fandango 7 - hallucination 8 - adrius, evilwizard, Peter's wife, scouserob, sylas 9 - petch, Wildy 11 - vastariner, trialmaster
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Post by Gabe Fandango on Jul 5, 2024 21:15:54 GMT
Bah! I was mostly deliberating between either tossing the coin in the well or the mud pool.
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,731
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Jul 5, 2024 21:25:29 GMT
IIRC the Earth Elemental is only released by accident but isn't related to the Potion of Stillness.
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Post by Per on Jul 5, 2024 21:39:22 GMT
Tossing a coin in a mud pool just seems like such a random thing to do. In a later Livingstone book, it would have been either fatal (BAM! It awakens a Mud Pool Demon) or necessary (BAM! It comes back up with a three-digit number on it).
5. Identify a method by which you may pass either of the river branches flowing through and past the forest.
Carried across by the Centaur - petch - 1 Sturdy stone bridge - adrius - 1 Descending steps to pass behind the waterfall - Gabe Fandango, Peter's wife - 2 Wading - Peter, scouserob - 2 Halfway by boat, swimming the rest of the way - evilwizard, hallucination, vastariner - 3 Rickety wooden bridge - kieran, sylas, trialmaster, Wildy - 4
Unchosen options were just swimming and using stepping stones.
petch's double-Centaur gambit paid off on this question at least.
There was a bridge-based wrinkle here as I had decided that crossing by the wooden and stone bridges offered sufficiently different experiences to count as different options, and the wording of the question was meant to draw attention to the one crossing of the upper branch. However, two contestants replied only "bridge", one of them with no given reference. I could have left it at that and applied the seldom-seen "less specific answers" rule, whereby "bridge" would clash with both of the specific bridges but they would not clash with it; but since I'd already offered clarifications to help others avoid wrong answers, I felt like that would have been a bit jerky, and asked the respondent with just "bridge" to provide a reference. Unluckily the "wrong" one was chosen, and though it still meant one less point for the one contestant, it meant one more for three others, so maybe it was a bit jerky either way. Muahaha
There's also a bridge marked on the map for the journey around the forest, but what actually happens there on each pass is left to the reader's imagination.
The two instances of wading are not dissimilar enough to count as different methods, even if you meet a Leech in one and a Blood Eel in the other; this didn't matter anyway as both contestants indicated the Leech path.
Some real scoring separation now:
7 - Peter 8 - Gabe Fandango, kieran 9 - adrius 10 - hallucination, petch, Peter's wife, scouserob 11 - evilwizard 12 - sylas 13 - Wildy 14 - vastariner 15 - trialmaster
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Post by Per on Jul 5, 2024 21:53:10 GMT
6. Identify an item you can find with a stated value in Gold Pieces, excluding individual Gold Pieces.
Gold-studded leather collar (from Wolf) - hallucination - 1 Gold ingot (from Gremlin lair) - Wildy - 1 Large gold ring (from Boar) - Peter's wife - 1 Silver dart (from Bear) - Gabe Fandango, Peter - 2 Gold studs (from Catwoman) - adrius, scouserob, sylas - 3 Gold medallion (from trunk) - evilwizard, kieran, petch, trialmaster, vastariner - 5
The very popular medallion from the tree trunk worth 5 GP is what you get if you bought a Ring of Light for 3 GP, leaving you up 2 GP, and I think that's how useful that ever gets.
This was one of the questions that proved more open to interpretation than intended. I was aiming only for what I assume the book means when it sometimes talks about "items of treasure". For instance if a Livingstonian Industrious Youth™ offers you a mouldy pastry for 6 GP, I think most wouldn't consider this to fix the pastry's value at this amount for any other purpose, as opposed to when you bite down on it to chip your teeth on the worth-precisely-17-GP orichalcum wotzit inside. On the other hand, when Yaztromo authoritatively writes his prices on a chalkboard it's hard to deny he's stating a market value for each of them.
Unchosen options include a gold ring from the fireplace in an abandoned hut and the gold medallion you can get from a Gremlin. One nonobvious choice I would have allowed is the golden winged helmet from 400 which is said to be worth "hundreds" of GP, wow.
Peter narrowly holds on to the lead:
9 - Peter 10 - Gabe Fandango 11 - hallucination, Peter's wife 12 - adrius 13 - kieran, scouserob 14 - Wildy 15 - petch, sylas 16 - evilwizard 19 - vastariner 20 - trialmaster
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Post by Per on Jul 5, 2024 22:10:53 GMT
7. Identify a location you can visit above or below ground level.
Gillibran's residence - petch - 1 Hoisted by snare trap - kieran - 1 The Ghoul's crypt - scouserob - 1 Sting Worm's cavern - hallucination, Peter - 2 Gremlin lair in well - Peter's wife, Wildy - 2 Top of Yaztromo's tower - evilwizard, Gabe Fandango, vastariner - 3 Ape Man's platform - adrius, sylas, trialmaster - 3
Votes for up: 8. Votes for down: 5.
Two of these I hadn't anticipated, and perhaps not coincidentally they're among the unique answers. First, when it comes to Gillibran's place, 400 could just as well be describing steps set in a slope leading to a higher level of ground on which the building and throne can be found, and given that the throne is said to be outside the building, this might seem more likely than the throne being situated on a precarious ledge or pillar or something; but I guess it's also possible that the building is placed on some kind of sufficiently tall crepidoma with the throne on a frontal platform or portico. (The brief description in Temple of Terror, though irrelevant for this adjudication, neither confirms nor contradicts this; meanwhile Lords of Stone moves the throne inside the building, maybe it's a seasonal thing.) Second, the snare trap isn't necessarily what I would call a location, and it's unclear just how high up you are when you can grab a sword handed to you by a small boy (the book's description of the trap offers little help as it doesn't make a lot of sense overall). But I was already going to allow the pit trap, so let's allow this one as well for reasons of symmetry.
Locations that went unchosen include the Clones cave, the Fish Man cave (which is sort of level with the river on one side, but you reach it by going up and down a lot and it has lots of rock above), and the already mentioned pit trap.
The well and Gremlin tunnels were counted as one location, as would have been all levels of the Clone cavern, for much the same reason I wouldn't have treated "the middle of Yaztromo's tower" as a separate location even though you must logically have passed through it to get to the top.
This was the second question that was apparently not as clear as I thought. As I tried to clarify without drawing attention to any specific answer, I intended the question to divide locations into "below", "at" and "above" ground level rather than "below", "above" and a potential "glowering Malbordus-like from a shallow pit"; and to be relative to the surrounding ground. Otherwise, the question just would not have worked well.
Scores:
11 - Peter 13 - Gabe Fandango, hallucination, Peter's wife 14 - kieran, scouserob 15 - adrius 16 - petch, Wildy 18 - sylas 19 - evilwizard 22 - vastariner 23 - trialmaster
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Post by Per on Jul 5, 2024 22:20:28 GMT
8. Identify a type of enemy that can be fought (with listed Skill and Stamina) in multiples on one pass through the forest.
Killer Bees - trialmaster - 1 Orc - Peter - 1 Hobgoblin - scouserob - 1 Bandit - Peter's wife, Wildy - 2 Wolf - evilwizard, vastariner - 2 Vampire Bat - Gabe Fandango, hallucination, sylas - 3 Pygmy - adrius, kieran, petch - 3
This was the question where, with a lenient adjudication, there were enough answers to provide everyone with their very own, and yet we have a bunch of clashes.
Options that went unused include Clone Warrior, Death Hawk, Gremlin (incidentally the only enemy you can meet in multiple singles, though they have a pair also), Hunting Dog, and Wild Hill Man. Finally we have one odd possibility in the Treeman, which you are told to fight twice, so although you won't fight multiples Treemen thematically, you are mechanically.
Scores:
12 - Peter 15 - Peter's wife, scouserob 16 - Gabe Fandango, hallucination 17 - kieran 18 - adrius, Wildy 19 - petch 21 - evilwizard, sylas 24 - trialmaster, vastariner
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Post by Gabe Fandango on Jul 5, 2024 22:21:09 GMT
Regarding the (literal) trap options, my point of contention wouldn't have been whether or not they qualify as locations, but whether they are places you actually 'visit'.
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Post by Per on Jul 5, 2024 22:30:38 GMT
9. Identify an item you can find in the forest and then be asked if you possess, excluding tower-bought items and Gold Pieces.
Silver key - petch - 1 Bronze hammer head - Wildy - 1 Ebony hammer handle - trialmaster - 1 Belladonna - hallucination, Peter's wife - 2 Brass flute - adrius, evilwizard - 2 Eye of Amber necklace - Gabe Fandango, kieran, scouserob - 3 Brass bell - Peter, sylas, vastariner - 3
I guess for this question the hammer pieces were the "too obvious" answers that resulted in single points. Unpicked options include the Dust of Levitation and perhaps a little more obscurely the bronze helmet.
Minor adjustments at the top while woes are ongoing at the bottom of the list:
15 - Peter 17 - Peter's wife 18 - hallucination, scouserob 19 - Gabe Fandango, Wildy 20 - adrius, kieran, petch 23 - evilwizard 24 - sylas 25 - trialmaster 27 - vastariner
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Post by Per on Jul 5, 2024 22:41:15 GMT
10. Identify a way for the adventure to end, excluding loss of Stamina.
Starving to death after breaking your leg - petch - 1 Becoming a Fire Demon - Peter's wife - 1 Turned into a frog by Yaztromo - scouserob - 1 Reaching Stonebridge without the two hammer pieces and not going back - adrius, Gabe Fandango, sylas - 3 Shot by Wild Hill Men while skirting the forest - evilwizard, vastariner, Wildy - 3 Reaching Stonebridge with both hammer pieces - hallucination, kieran, Peter, trialmaster - 4
Clearly the communal counting of "reverses" stopped at keeping away from the book's three unconditional failure paragraphs, of which being paralyzed by the Ghoul remains unvisited, while the others get one vote each.
Final scores:
18 - Peter's wife 19 - Peter, scouserob 21 - petch 22 - Gabe Fandango, hallucination, Wildy 23 - adrius 24 - kieran 26 - evilwizard 27 - sylas 29 - trialmaster 30 - vastariner
And so, thanks to a final perfect answer Peter's wife emerges from the forest with all the hammer pieces, all of them! Congratulations! The rest of you get zapped by rogue thunderclouds or something.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,532
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Jul 6, 2024 6:19:54 GMT
Thanks Per and well done to Peter's Wife.
Annoyingly, my initial answer for Q8 was 'Hunting Dog'.
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Post by Peter on Jul 6, 2024 6:38:35 GMT
Unbelievable! She beats me again!
I decided that if I chose all my answers from the path on the far eastern side, I would be bound to get some unique ones. I wanted to use the Cave Troll's cave for Q7, as I feel that a cave, by definition, is below ground.
Very good quiz. I am liking the different themes that people are coming up with.
By the way, what do you do after this adventure, having become "wealthy beyond your wildest dreams"? When you win the Trial of Champions for a second time, you spend the money raising an army. But after this, the next time you pop up in Allansia you are "living by quickness of wit and skill of sword". No mention of fortunes at your disposal.
Being strictly chronological, by the start of your next mission, you have acquired a starship and achieved captaincy of it. That must cost more than you could dream of. Perhaps that's it.
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Post by vastariner on Jul 6, 2024 7:27:09 GMT
Yes, given that you find the Aleph at some point, only the time-travelling for that means you forget until much later.
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Post by evilwizard on Jul 6, 2024 7:27:13 GMT
An interesting round as I couldn't use memory for anything other than Q10. Initially, I put Stepping Stones for Q5 but changed to the boat just before submission, not that it would have made any difference.
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,731
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Jul 6, 2024 7:56:52 GMT
Well done Peter's wife again. I did terribly this time with clashes all around.
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Wildy
Squire
Posts: 40
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by Wildy on Jul 6, 2024 7:59:33 GMT
Great idea and a very interesting concept, thanks to you Per! Congratulations to Peter’s wife, it was nice to see the changes in rankings each question.
For once, I’m not the last! I was also seeing myself in many clashes as usual and started a mini game of pokemon, collect’em all, trying to see if I clashed with every participant…
I had hoped there would be a difference between Bandih A and Bandit B (both multiplied) but I guess it’s the same as treating a whole section underground together, it wasn’t such a shooting in a phone booth in the end.
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Post by petch on Jul 6, 2024 10:31:38 GMT
When I last checked the forum before turning in last night I was joint last, so am pleasantly surprised by where I ended up! Love how the leaderboard developed in this round, with lots of players having a shot at the win all the way up until the end, and Peter leading pretty much throughout only for his wife (who looked out of it at the halfway stage) to creep up the rankings and overtake him on the final question.
Thanks for the round Per. I find these one-book rounds especially challenging...in a standard round there are usually one or two questions that I'm confident that I've found an answer obscure enough it is unlikely to be duplicated but in rounds like this where the field is narrower I have no clue. I usually try to avoid any answers that are either too obvious or too clever, instead going for the most middle-of-the-road answers I can find (but nothing that appears so innocuous that is is likely to be attractive to other players). In other words, the most Coldplay-songish answers available.
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Post by scouserob on Jul 6, 2024 10:44:10 GMT
Thanks for the fun Per. 😎👍🏻 Congratulations to Peter’s Wife. 🏆
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Post by Per on Jul 6, 2024 16:25:39 GMT
Regarding the (literal) trap options, my point of contention wouldn't have been whether or not they qualify as locations, but whether they are places you actually 'visit'. "Thank you for DROPPING IN" "Heh heh heh" "..." "Same reaction as from the one we thanked for HANGING AROUND" I had hoped there would be a difference between Bandih A and Bandit B (both multiplied) but I guess it’s the same as treating a whole section underground together, it wasn’t such a shooting in a phone booth in the end. I kind of skipped As and Bs without reflecting on it since the question already necessitated ignoring "First" and so on, but it's true this could have been handled differently by another moderator, the exciting world of rare entries contests etc. As a brief post-amble, the idea behind the single-book round was so I could plan and execute it without access to most of my books, and Forest wasn't actually the first title I started picking questions from, but once I thought of it, it seemed like a superior option for multiple reasons such as presumably being in the possession of just about everyone and being an early nostalgic title and having various recurring features that make for decent questions, and I could probably run another similar contest later on, although perhaps someone else can think of something more outlandish for now.
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Post by evilwizard on Jul 6, 2024 16:57:35 GMT
Curses! Foiled again! I will get my revenge!
The bane of many an adventurer, and often the best dressed, most handsome and wittiest character in any tale is the EVIL WIZARD, a staple Fighting Fantasy antagonist. It is about time this dashing and debonair dungeon denizen is celebrated in style!
Unique Answers Game - EVIL WIZARD edition.
The only books that can be used for answers are: Puffin Titles 1-59 and Eye of the Dragon. (with one possible exception that is for you to figure out!)
Expect questions and acceptable answers to be arbitrary, ambiguous and ultimately EVIL!
1) Provide a reference number in Eye of the Dragon which mentions ME, the EVIL WIZARD.
2) Name an EVIL WIZARD and identify a book name they appear in. Include a reference number or section that justifies your choice
3) Provide the book title and paragraph number where an EVIL WIZARD casts, or is implied to target you with, a magic spell (such as, but not limited to: a Fireball, Bolt of Lightning or Magic Dart,) that causes you STAMINA loss or instant DEATH
4) Give the title of a book in which an EVIL WIZARD is illustrated inside the book, accompanying the main text. Provide the reference number that this illustration relates to.
5) Name an EVIL spell, power or artefact you can get in a Fighting Fantasy book, and in which book – provide the relevant reference number or book section to justify your choice.
6) Identify a creature or monster, that is NOT a human, elf or dwarf, that is described as EVIL. Provide the book name and paragraph number as evidence.
7) Describe or demonstrate an event or a sequence of events in a named book where you undertake an EVIL act – justify your choice with the relevant reference number(s). Please note that the text does not explicitly need to state that you have committed EVIL.
8) Name one spell caster who is NOT an EVIL WIZARD. Identify the book name and relevant section that demonstrates this.
9) Name an EVIL character who is NOT an EVIL WIZARD, provide a book name and identify the section that justifies your choice.
10) Identify a reference or chain of references in a book that makes you suspect the author had EVIL intent.
No alternative answers will be accepted. If in doubt, use the exact wording of the question. Like Taskmaster, but EVIL. Bwahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Deadline for submission is 23:59 BST on Sunday 21 July 2024
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Post by Gabe Fandango on Jul 7, 2024 2:16:53 GMT
Qn 6: Does the word EVIL need to be explicitly used in the text description? Qn 10: Not really sure I really understand the question. What does evil intent constitute here? Like, to me, the entire act of writing Crypt of the Sorcerer is proof of the author's evil intent, but I'm sure that's not what you're looking for.
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Post by Per on Jul 7, 2024 11:45:14 GMT
Q10 is super clear to me and I knew almost right away what my answer will be.
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Wildy
Squire
Posts: 40
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by Wildy on Jul 7, 2024 13:12:13 GMT
I also have found first an answer for Q10 before any other questions… I’m sure it will be unique too!!
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Post by evilwizard on Jul 7, 2024 17:43:17 GMT
First set of EVIL answers has been received. Qn 6: Does the word EVIL need to be explicitly used in the text description? Qn 10: Not really sure I really understand the question. What does evil intent constitute here? Like, to me, the entire act of writing Crypt of the Sorcerer is proof of the author's evil intent, but I'm sure that's not what you're looking for. If in doubt, use the exact wording of the question.
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Wildy
Squire
Posts: 40
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by Wildy on Jul 9, 2024 15:38:09 GMT
If in doubt, use the exact wording of the question. *Edited out my initial question Never mind, Yes, Taskmaster!
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