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Post by petch on Oct 1, 2024 14:00:27 GMT
For the longer term I'm also considering another illustrations round, although I'd prefer to know we can muster 12+ players for that one. Also I'd love for petch to do another one of those so I can play. More than happy to do another illustrations round, I can get something prepared for after you have run the Sword of the Samurai round. Unless of course anybody else would particularly like to take the reins?
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Post by CharlesX on Oct 2, 2024 11:35:16 GMT
For the longer term I'm also considering another illustrations round, although I'd prefer to know we can muster 12+ players for that one. Also I'd love for petch to do another one of those so I can play. More than happy to do another illustrations round, I can get something prepared for after you have run the Sword of the Samurai round. Unless of course anybody else would particularly like to take the reins? I've now got the outline of a DD TOC TDOBI round, but as I've done host recently and I'd rather people had time to buy and get into TDOBI, I'd rather go after a couple more rounds, that is after Sword Of The Samurai and illustrations round.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 3, 2024 14:45:04 GMT
Sometimes we can only shrug and agree that the most important thing is that you lose to your wife and the rest is details. As I think I've mentioned before, I have another single-book round in the works (for Sword of the Samurai) which, should it turn out that nobody else is preparing anything, I should be able to launch in a week or so. I'm thinking I will calibrate it for a slightly lower number of contestants. For the longer term I'm also considering another illustrations round, although I'd prefer to know we can muster 12+ players for that one. Also I'd love for petch to do another one of those so I can play. Is there any hope that sylas, adrius, scouserob, thealmightymudworm or CharlesX (who ran a round recently but hasn't otherwise played) will be participating in the weeks or months to come? Yes. I've been semi-detached from the forum for a few weeks and the Unique Answers game for a bit longer, but neither is permanent.
As has been said having a UA game based on a single book can make a big difference to who takes part: there was zero chance I was going to be take part in a round on Seas of Blood. I don't own it and don't find it attractive enough to spend time delving into a dodgy pdf. Samurai is another matter. I own and rate that one.
At some point soon I'd like to run a round of my own. Cold feet set in before, partly because I didn't fancy the idea of telling people they were wrong about sections of books they know and I've never read. But I do fancy doing one.
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Post by CharlesX on Oct 3, 2024 14:58:58 GMT
thealmightymudworm Would you like to do your round after the illustrations and Sword Of The Samurai, or have me go first (or neither)? I'd actually rather someone else who hasn't run for a bit such as you took a turn before I did again. I'm afraid owing to the few FF I possess I may not be able to participate in many (any?) Unique Answers as player, but that's OK of course.
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Post by vastariner on Oct 3, 2024 19:09:13 GMT
As has been said having a UA game based on a single book can make a big difference to who takes part: there was zero chance I was going to be take part in a round on Seas of Blood. I don't own it and don't find it attractive enough to spend time delving into a dodgy pdf.
Funnily enough I liked that round for the same reasons. I hadn't looked at Seas of Blood for a while (I did it in a Frenzy and that might have been the first time I had picked it up since about 1986), and don't particularly rate it - it's not bad, it's just a bit lost given the later, more radical, experimentation in the series, and its main contribution to novelty (the cyclops fight) eats references that could be used to better purpose - so it was quite fun to delve under the bonnet for a more in-depth shufti.
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Post by Per on Oct 5, 2024 20:37:53 GMT
I'm assuming now that Samurai will be the next one, I'm closing in on a set of questions but not rushing it. (I had to merge two that didn't have enough answers but could split another that had too many, and nixed one question format that required players to verify a negative, which I think isn't ideal since you have to flip through the whole book whether you want to or not.) I should have TDoBI on Monday, after which maybe I won't have played through it entirely after one week, but perhaps two, so given one week's deadline for the next contest and at least one for the next, I should be able to do the triple-trial. Cold feet set in before, partly because I didn't fancy the idea of telling people they were wrong about sections of books they know and I've never read. Don't worry, they're super wrong! Apropos of nothing, here's what Golden Dragon 5 thinks about one-eyedness:
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Post by Per on Oct 7, 2024 16:18:25 GMT
And then there's this clown: "Hope you've got your kanji-to-numbers tables memorized! Tee hee hee!"Hachiman is a land that proudly celebrates its rich cultural and natural heritage. Vividly painted pagodas nestling among bamboo screens and cherry blossoms, snaking silvery river valleys, stern warriors in their resplendent armour, baby-eating hags, peasant uprisings, and you had better surrender all your deer crackers to that Black Elk hooligan. Let's tour the shrines and villages to witness the festivals and processions where locals dress up and cavort to make you think the age of duelling samurai, riddling reptiles and skeletons on bridges had never actually ended. Today still in the flickering firelight and to the steady drumbeat you can live the legend of the Sword of the Samurai, by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson! OK, so we're going to hike around these scenic places...1. Name a natural geographic feature or region of Hachiman. ... to celebrate the memory of these famous dudes.2. Name a person or creature confirmed to appear in the book. If I pick both of these skills I can do rocket jumps, right?3. Identify an encounter or other situation in which you can use either or both of the Kyujutsu (archery) and Karumijutsu (leaping) skills. It's better to be lucky than rich, if there are no shops selling vital items. —Old samurai saying, probably4. Identify a way to gain one or more Luck points and/or Gold Pieces. I just want to know, if I’m fundamentally convinced that I must die because of my actions, why was I unable to rule out performing them in the first place?5. Identify a way to lose Honour. Check out this crate of reenactment props, you'd think they're the real thing!6. Identify an item you can obtain and retain in a playthrough following the western path (in which your first choice is to turn to paragraph 10), excluding the following: objects you may move or manipulate within an encounter but invariably leave behind; any items with which you may begin the game as well as items functionally identical to those items; and Gold Pieces. And here's another one, but it's labelled "for suckers".7. Identify an item you can obtain and retain in a playthrough following the eastern path (in which your first choice is to turn to paragraph 29), excluding things as in the previous question. Some of these people really don't fight fairly, maybe they should kill themselves!8. Identify a way to lose at least 4 Stamina points at once. My Z key got stuck and now I've accidentally typed out the lyrics to the Song of Swarms.9. Provide the wording of a password, secret word, answer to a riddle, or invocation that appears in the book. A lot of water is a dangerous thing. —Old samurai saying, probably10. Identify a water-related way to suffer instant death.
* The scope of the round is only FF20: Sword of the Samurai, as originally published by Puffin. A Wizard edition exists, I don't expect it'll make much of a difference for these questions if you use it. * Answers to be PM'd to me by midnight BST or thereabouts on the 13th of October, giving about a week. * Some rules will be applied. Lose 1 Honour for each wrong answer, drop to zero and turn to 99 * Reminder of the name rule, which applies for this round: if a question specifically asks you to name something, titles, epithets or other descriptors may be included in an answer for clarity, but an actual name must be included; and answers with different supplemental qualifiers that ultimately refer to the same entity will be considered the same. * If a question asks for a "way" to do something, it means an instance of it happening generalized to some degree - as many events in the book may occur in different paragraphs with minor contextual differences of varying relevance - but not to a complete lack of context. It's recommended to provide a paragraph reference along with a brief description. * In case there is a tie for first place, it will be broken in favour of the contestant with the highest Stamina loss in question 8, and if still necessary, with the highest sum of Luck and Gold Pieces gained in question 4. Good luck!
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Wildy
Wanderer
Posts: 52
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by Wildy on Oct 8, 2024 10:24:14 GMT
6. Identify an item you can obtain and retain in a playthrough 7. Identify an item you can obtain and retain in a playthrough Per-dono, would you please accept this undeserved question? When you order us to find those items, does it mean we retain them until the end? an item that doesn't get consumed or that we would have kept on our dead body if we meet an untimely demise on those paths? Or is it just an item we actually pick up and have to write in our inventory sheet? I humbly apologize in advance for being unworthy of your wisdom that you may share with us.
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Post by Per on Oct 8, 2024 12:29:41 GMT
It can be an item that gets (perhaps ambiguously) used up or discarded during a game, provided it would have been meaningfully recorded as a possession before that time.
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Post by Gabe Fandango on Oct 9, 2024 5:56:28 GMT
Life's been getting much busier recently, so I'm not 100% sure I'd be able to get my submission in for this one. Anyway, question... 2. Name a person or creature confirmed to appear in the book. Does "confirmed to appear" mean the PC is guaranteed to encounter it whichever path he takes?
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Post by Per on Oct 9, 2024 12:45:46 GMT
Life's been getting much busier recently, so I'm not 100% sure I'd be able to get my submission in for this one. I've calibrated the round for fewer people this time, so it's not a disaster if we end up at 7-9 something and nobody has to break their back to submit, but as always it's more fun with more huge silly clashes. Does "confirmed to appear" mean the PC is guaranteed to encounter it whichever path he takes? No, it can be in any one place, so long as there's no reasonable doubt as to their identity (if it had been the other thing I would have written it like that).
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Post by Per on Oct 11, 2024 11:19:38 GMT
With about three days to go, six people have been seen chased around by a giant dragon-newt: evilwizard, petch, Peter, Peter's wife, sylas and Wildy. Will they be able to say about YOU that at least in this detail, the manner of parting with a set of answers, you have acted according to the code of the Samurai?
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Post by Per on Oct 13, 2024 20:19:25 GMT
kieran and vastariner have also successfully evaded the patrolling samurai. With that we have reached about as many contenders as I had hoped for, but to entice any possible latecomers I'll let slip that it's still possible to get a set of perfect answers, and that although only a few hours remain until the nominal deadline, I'll quietly accept any submissions that I find in my messagebox tomorrow when I start compiling the answers.
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Post by Per on Oct 14, 2024 16:01:57 GMT
Gabe Fandango, hallucination and thealmightymudworm have joined the festivities to fish for bones from the Hagakure Bridge, it's fun and keeps the environment a little more clean of the undead. Thanks to everyone who contributed answers, this couldn't be done without you etc. 1. Name a natural geographic feature or region of Hachiman. Kanshuro - Wildy - 1 Shios'ii Mountains - sylas - 1 Vale of Tinshu - kieran - 1 Hang-Yo River - Gabe Fandango - 1 Forest of Shadows - evilwizard, petch - 2 Marcher Lands - Peter, vastariner - 2 Wrong answers: Onikaru - Peter's wife - 4 Konichi - hallucination - 4 Giant's causeway - thealmightymudworm - 4 This was the question that started out as being split between the eastern and western paths, and including non-natural features. I thought it would be pretty straightforward but there was still some confusion in the end. vastariner provided an alternative in case the "natural" qualifier applied to both of the feature and region parts, but I hadn't really made the distinction for the latter - it was actually added to make sure Kanshuro would be allowed, as it's not clear whether it's a name for the dales collectively or the name of an area that encompasses the dales and more. The doubly ignored backup answer would simply have meant clashing with kieran instead of Peter. Meanwhile Peter confessed to doubt as to whether the Marcher Lands are mentioned in the book but said they're "definitely on the map"; I have no idea which map that would be - if it's something added to the Wizard version, it's outside the scope - but the name is there in section 397. The fact that it appears twice and only one instance is capitalized suggests a possibility that an editor simply went overboard after adding capitals to the creature you are about to fight, but it's good enough for me. Peter's wife's chances of remaining the sole winner of my single-book challenges take an immediate hit, as Ikiru's fortress Onikaru a.k.a. the Pit of Demons is not a natural feature. It could be speculated that the actual pit enclosed by the palace might go by the same name independently and may or may not predate the palace itself, but I'm not aware of any clear indication to that effect. Konichi the capital also isn't natural. Aside from Onikaru and Konichi, named constructed features in the book include the Hagakure Bridge and the Road of the East Wind, but I think not much else. The Enchanted Garden, which may or may not refer to the same location as the Well of Souls, seems rather unnatural and is also hinted to be extradimensional. thealmightymudworm's option fails because the causeway in the book doesn't appear to be named. It's characterized in 317 as "a veritable giant's causeway", and although the words appear in several sections after that as the book keeps pestering you to go back and get killed, they are never capitalized. The real-world Giant's Causeway is definitely named but also outside the scope. Coincidentally there were three unchosen legal alternatives: the Mizokumo Fens/Spider Fens of Kumo, the Hiang-Kiang River, and the Longhills. Though it may feel like a bummer to start off with a bunch of bonus points, there's not necessarily any reason to despair just yet! My impression is we have some fun wacky times ahead, and who knows what misfortunes may befall those who now sit in the lead. 1 - Gabe Fandango, kieran, sylas, Wildy 2 - evilwizard, petch, Peter, vastariner 4 - hallucination, Peter's wife, thealmightymudworm
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Post by Per on Oct 14, 2024 16:45:35 GMT
2. Name a person or creature confirmed to appear in the book.
Gargantus the Bronze Man - Wildy - 1 Graalsch the Toad Demon - Peter - 1 Ieratsu, Tsietsin's lieutenant - vastariner - 1 Eleanor the Enchantress - hallucination - 1 Yoro Ginsei - Gabe Fandango - 1 Lord Tsietsin - evilwizard, Peter's wife - 2 Shogun Kihei Hasekawa - kieran, petch, thealmightymudworm - 3
Wrong answer:
Sabre-toothed Tiger - sylas - 6
A little less confusion in this one. "Confirmed" was added specifically to helpfully steer people away from Hida, which may well be the name of the Gaoler, though this cannot be verified. Other names that could have been picked include Ikiru, Master of Shadows; Hammurabi, Lord of the Flies; Yomitsume Moichi; Ninji the headman; and K'rllk the Mantis Demon. May they not be forgot.
Being picked as the most common answer in this question is the only kind of popularity the Shogun is likely to enjoy, it seems, and that causes grief for sylas, as it boosts the penalty for an incorrect answer. The former master of the Tiger may or may not have referred to it as Mofumofu, but as the book says that is lost in legend, so for the purposes of this contest it's not named.
2 - Gabe Fandango, Wildy 3 - Peter, vastariner 4 - evilwizard, kieran 5 - petch, hallucination 6 - Peter's wife 7 - sylas, thealmightymudworm
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Post by Per on Oct 14, 2024 17:08:50 GMT
3. Identify an encounter or other situation in which you can use either or both of the Kyujutsu (archery) and Karumijutsu (leaping) skills.
Kappa (leaping over or shooting a godawful humming-bulb arrow) - petch - 1 Undead Samurai (both skills) - sylas - 1 Samurai rider outside burning village (shooting) - vastariner - 1 Groundhog (leaping over) - kieran - 1 Charcoal-burners (both skills) - hallucination - 1 Shikome guards outside Tsietsin's keep (sniping heroically) - evilwizard, Peter, Peter's wife - 3 Ginsei (shooting unheroically) - Gabe Fandango, thealmightymudworm, Wildy - 3
Other alternatives include the burning village (both skills), the Mukade (shooting), the Sabre-toothed Tiger (shooting), and outside the battlements of Tsietsin's castle (leaping up - this is the "other situation", in case anyone was wondering). Not much else to say here, so I'll just give vastariner a useless thumbs up for the heading to his message, "Hachimanswers", which is totally the name of the letters section of the monthly municipal news bulletin.
The thumb may not count but he still takes the solo lead:
4 - vastariner 5 - Gabe Fandango, kieran, Wildy 6 - hallucination, petch, Peter 7 - evilwizard 8 - sylas 9 - Peter's wife 10 - thealmightymudworm
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Post by hallucination on Oct 14, 2024 18:08:40 GMT
Konichi the capital also isn't natural. Ah! I accept your verdict of course, but I read the question as to name a *natural geographic feature* or *region* of Hachiman and figured the capital city was certainly a region
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Post by Per on Oct 14, 2024 18:36:33 GMT
Konichi the capital also isn't natural. Ah! I accept your verdict of course, but I read the question as to name a *natural geographic feature* or *region* of Hachiman and figured the capital city was certainly a region I personally wouldn't think of a city as a good example of a region (it might be different it we were talking about the Konichi Metropolitan Area), but I'd be open to reevaluation given some kind of unanimous consent on the part of native speakeners.
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Post by Per on Oct 14, 2024 18:39:03 GMT
4. Identify a way to gain one or more Luck points and/or Gold Pieces.
Looting gold from the Mukade's cavern - petch - 1 Obtaining the Talisman of Fortuitous Circumstance - hallucination - 1 Finding gold and a Luck point in Tsietsin's treasure chest - evilwizard, Peter's wife - 2 Being paid by the villagers for beheading Moichi - kieran, thealmightymudworm, vastariner - 3 Surviving the village of the undead - Gabe Fandango, Peter, sylas, Wildy - 4
Here we have the first "way" question, which was conceived as a way to make many sections with partially near-identical content count as the same answer to keep the number down, without having to rely on specific focus or phrasings on part of the contestants; for instance, the wordings of the three answers falling under what I describe above as "Being paid by the villagers for beheading Moichi" were "Decapitation", "Given gold for killing samurai", and "Murdering Moichi". I hope that this was reasonably intuitive in the end, although further quirks may yet be revealed.
The question originally asked for Luck or Skill, then I removed Skill, then I added Gold Pieces to keep it from being too trivial and because that didn't add too many options. The fact that Gold Pieces can only be found in three places on the western path and they're all completely useless was perhaps why all of those ended up being chosen, and by more than half of the contestants.
Unchosen options include killing the Dai-Oni and regaining any stolen Luck, the Dai-Oni's Spell of Fortune, obtaining Singing Death, getting the headband of Shinmen, sipping from the Waters of Knowledge, and reclaiming your swords in the castle.
Isn't this a roller-coaster, eh, eh?
7 - hallucination, petch, vastariner 8 - kieran 9 - evilwizard, Gabe Fandango, Wildy 10 - Peter 11 - Peter's wife 12 - sylas 13 - thealmightymudworm
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Post by Per on Oct 14, 2024 19:16:33 GMT
5. Identify a way to lose Honour.
Fleeing from the peasants and not protecting the honour of the Shogun - petch - 1 Failing to keep the roads and river-crossings open and safe for the common folk - Peter's wife - 1 Hiding from Yoro Ginsei and not challenging the enemy of your lord - kieran - 1 Unfairly using a bow against Yoro Ginsei after he challenges you with a sword - Gabe Fandango - 1 Refusing the challenge of the Silver Samurai to fight in the name of your lord - sylas, thealmightymudworm - 2 Losing your swords when thrown in Tsietsin's jail with a side of indignity - hallucination, Peter - 2 Failing to defend the good name of the Shogun from the charcoal-burners' taunts - evilwizard, vastariner, Wildy - 3
As vastariner pointed out, the Shogun has lost the one thing to keep safe, so his good name is going to be in some justified need of defending. And the way bushido works, his problem is your problem and then becomes the problem of everyone you meet, unless you chicken out.
The book clearly thinks that fleeing from the peasants is something more and worse than just ignoring their jibes, meaning petch slips out from under the biggest pile on this question. This may also partially illustrate another feature of the "way" questions, namely that for the most part the "less specific answers" rule doesn't quite apply as it might have with more traditional questions 'n' rulings. Since in a sense you are choosing between different sets of sections that count as the same answer, one set is not a subset of another even though their thematic content may suggest this. Or that's my reasoning.
Losing your swords happens in no fewer than 11 sections, while I think all the others occur in just one each, so from that perspective, two people picking that answer isn't too bad. The ones that didn't get picked at all include sniping unheroically in the burning village, abandoning those villagers to the marauding samurai, and losing your precious armour at the ford.
8 - petch 9 - hallucination, kieran 10 - Gabe Fandango, vastariner 12 - evilwizard, Peter, Peter's wife, Wildy 14 - sylas 15 - thealmightymudworm
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,744
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Oct 14, 2024 19:58:10 GMT
Having seen the explanation regarding Q2, I still don't understand the question. Nor do I understand why my answer wasn't changed. The use of naming and confirming answers was too confusing for me. Like I couldn't enquire about my answers without first setting them in stone by which time it would be too late to change. Guess I'll never understand in the end. A bit annoying.
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Post by Per on Oct 14, 2024 20:55:46 GMT
Having seen the explanation regarding Q2, I still don't understand the question. Nor do I understand why my answer wasn't changed. The use of naming and confirming answers was too confusing for me. Like I couldn't enquire about my answers without first setting them in stone by which time it would be too late to change. Guess I'll never understand in the end. A bit annoying. I'm not sure I can explain it much better than I already have. First, the name rule, that I think was fairly clearly stated in the post with the questions, effectively turns the word "Name..." at the start of a question into a shorthand that adds the condition "your answer must include a proper name", same as if that had been appended at the end of the question. Added conditions that limit the set of applicable answers should in itself be nothing out of the ordinary in these contests. The name rule has also been used in several past rounds in this thread. Second, if there was something that wasn't clear about any given question, you could have asked here in the thread as others did, or you could have asked me by PM and I would then have considered whether to post a public clarification. (I try to avoid answering questions privately if that would give out some exclusive advantage where brinkmanship is involved, it's just a good practice to not do it at all.) But you didn't do either, instead you just wanted to know if your answers were correct. That's not something I'm going to tell you because one of the player's responsibilities is to provide a set of correct answers to the questions, that's always been the case in these contests. Third, the replacement answer you offered wasn't accepted because I've never accepted them in any of my rounds, even if, like the arcane formula used to calculate the score for wrong answers, I've stopped spelling out that rule for every new round. Once you stated clearly that those were the answers you were going with and you wanted no more time to reconsider, I accepted those answers as given and that's it. It is the case that some moderators seem to allow them and may continue to do so and it may not hurt to ask them, but I will continue to disallow sets of conditional answers, or more exactly when presented with them I'll take the first one listed and evaluate it as I would any single answer.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 14, 2024 20:59:11 GMT
I'm almost impressed that the only answer I haven't clashed on so far was the one deemed incorrect. (Not to mention three of the four were double clashes.)
It felt like I had a knack for dodging other people's answers in these games to start with, then lost it. Taking a break clearly hasn't improved things.
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Post by Gabe Fandango on Oct 15, 2024 3:09:14 GMT
Being short on time, I pretty much submitted the first answers that came to mind, but Question 4 was the exception. The first answer I thought of was actually getting hands on Singing Death, but because the amount of LUCK/gold gained is tied to the tiebreaker condition, I consciously steered clear of the option believing it might be a favourite because it gains you more than a single point bonus. And of course, that's come back to bite me the hardest thus far.
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Post by Per on Oct 15, 2024 15:28:33 GMT
6. Identify an item you can obtain and retain in a playthrough following the western path (in which your first choice is to turn to paragraph 10), excluding the following: objects you may move or manipulate within an encounter but invariably leave behind; any items with which you may begin the game as well as items functionally identical to those items; and Gold Pieces.
Guard's armour - petch - 1 War-fan - hallucination - 1 White-feathered arrow of Tsunewara - evilwizard, Wildy - 2 Singing Death - sylas, vastariner - 2 Bottle of greenish-black liquid - Gabe Fandango, thealmightymudworm - 2 Helmet of Befuddlement - kieran, Peter, Peter's wife - 3
Questions 6 and 7 are of course the ones that were split from an original single entry; I had simply overestimated the number of named locations and underestimated the number of items before actually starting to count them. They were also the only questions that strictly required some basic knowledge of the book's path structure, but even for someone with no personal experience with or recollection of the book, a look at the solutions thread should have suggested some options. (Spoipers, what's that?)
petch's answer of the armour from paragraph 108 was one I had completely overlooked and had to consider for a bit. On the one hand it's functionally equivalent to your original armour in battle and I think an overwhelming majority of players wouldn't bother to note down that they're now wearing armour of a different design than they started out with. On the other hand, is must be assumed that it being different is what allows you to exit the castle, and you certainly hold on to it afterwards. (Why don't you lose Honour from ditching your Shogun-gifted armour and skulking off like a dog from the enemy of your lord? Because screw everyone on the eastern path, that's why.)
sylas and vastariner went for the one found item that can be had no matter which path you take through the book, and I wonder how many reverses were counted in that instance.
Unchosen options include the jade talisman, the headband of Shinmen, the ivory horn, and the samurai armour in Tsietsin's chest with a Skill bonus.
9 - petch 10 - hallucination 12 - Gabe Fandango, kieran, vastariner 14 - evilwizard, Wildy 15 - Peter, Peter's wife 16 - sylas 17 - thealmightymudworm
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Post by Per on Oct 15, 2024 15:41:22 GMT
7. Identify an item you can obtain and retain in a playthrough following the eastern path (in which your first choice is to turn to paragraph 29), excluding things as in the previous question.
Serpent rod - evilwizard, hallucination - 2 Singing Death - petch, sylas - 2 Silk screens - Gabe Fandango, kieran - 2 Map of the Spider Fens - Peter, Peter's wife, thealmightymudworm, vastariner, Wildy - 5
The first question in a while where nobody picked a unique answer; last time was Gabe Fandango's ghoul illustration question back in June, and before that my volcano illustration question.
sylas might have figured that everyone who thought of the Singing Death option would pick it either for both questions or, more likely, for none, depending on the counted number of reverses. But as it happens, one different other participant in each question jumped out to ensure he wouldn't get away with it.
Gabe Fandango and kieran both seem to have agreed with me that the two screens should be treated as a set, those things belong together in a museum.
The stuffs people could have had instead include the ruby phoenix, the antler, the silver ewer with Waters of Knowledge, the brass key, and the armour of the Legion of the Seventh Seal. One thing I would not have counted is the trident you can shake at the Kappa while telling them to get off your goddamn lawn, as there's no indication you take it with you, and how many samurai do you see lugging around tridents anyway.
It may be time to start despairing slightly for some people, but first place is far from settled:
11 - petch 12 - hallucination 14 - Gabe Fandango, kieran 16 - evilwizard 17 - vastariner 18 - sylas 19 - Wildy 20 - Peter, Peter's wife 22 - thealmightymudworm
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Post by Per on Oct 15, 2024 15:55:04 GMT
8. Identify a way to lose at least 4 Stamina points at once.
Being hit extra hard while fighting Ikiru having lost your armour - petch - 1 Being hit extra hard while fighting the Groundhog having lost your armour - Peter - 1 Getting hit by a trident - kieran - 1 Hacking off your own leg - hallucination - 1 Getting badly burnt by flaming brands - thealmightymudworm - 1 Getting impaled on the Kappa's sharpened stakes - evilwizard, Peter's wife - 2 Getting charred by Ikiru's bolts of black energy - sylas, Wildy - 2 Being hit extra hard while fighting an opponent having lost your armour - Gabe Fandango - 3
Wrong answer:
Being hit extra hard while fighting the Forsaken One having lost your armour - vastariner - 4
So the noteworthy thing that happened here is that four people spotted a loophole which, if I had become aware of it in time, could have been closed by appending the words "while still in armour" or something like that to the question, and depending on your viewpoint this is going to get about as interesting or as stupidly convoluted as these rules considerations are likely to ever get, so I'll forgive anyone for just skipping the rest of this paragraph. The thing is I had in mind primarily Stamina loss from a single instruction, so I might have wished to group together every answer invoking the circumstance of loss of amour or at least each instance of losing armour, but given that I wouldn't otherwise have considered the encounter in which the damage is dealt to be a piece of extraneous context, it would seem somewhat arbitrary and begrudging to do so in these cases. Therefore petch's answer of fighting Ikiru after losing armour in the well is perfectly fine and unique. OK, so then why didn't that work for vastariner? Because the instruction for losing your armour in the well specifies that "weapons" do extra damage, and there's no indication the Forsaken One is armed. One might argue whether natural weapons are weapons, but I think if a question asked players to specify a fight with a creature with a weapon, it couldn't be reasonably assumed that the set of allowed creatures was equal to the set of all creatures. Live by the letter, die by the letter, or something. OK, so why does that still work for Peter with the Groundhog? Because he noted you can lose your armour at the ford, where the instruction says nothing about weapons, and the Stamina loss of 3 can be brought to 4 by unsuccessfully Testing your Luck. OK, so why does Gabe Fandango get 3 points for his answer when nobody else does? Because he specified losing armour in the well but not any opponent, meaning the "less specific answers" rule kicks in after all, and he clashes asymmetrically with petch and Peter (Ikiru and the Groundhog are both opponents that could be fought after that point). This feels a bit mean and unfair given that the format of his answer was actually closer to what I might have preferred to limit the loophole damage, but I also have to be fair by applying the rules in what I consider to be a correct and consistent way. OK, so if one contestant got 3 points, why doesn't vastariner get 6 instead of 4? This is because there are slight variations to the wrong answers penalty specifying either double the highest score, or double the highest number of answers that are the same, and the ruleset I've been referring to uses the latter. Here, Gabe Fandango matches two others, but they don't match each other, meaning there is no set of three matching answers, and vastariner dodges 2 points because of this technicality. Scant consolation, perhaps, especially when you've just been slapped by a Forsaken One, even if it didn't cause any extra damage.
tl/dr: stuff and shenanigans and I apologize to everyone.
Correct non-loopholey answers that were not picked include being raked by the Kappa, losing Singing Death, being flamed by the Tatsu, being bolted by Gargantus, and being immolated by the Phoenix.
12 - petch 13 - hallucination 15 - kieran 17 - Gabe Fandango 18 - evilwizard 20 - sylas 21 - Peter, vastariner, Wildy 22 - Peter's wife 23 - thealmightymudworm
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Post by Per on Oct 15, 2024 16:45:50 GMT
9. Provide the wording of a password, secret word, answer to a riddle, or invocation that appears in the book.
"Harmony" - Wildy - 1 "Riddle" - Peter's wife - 1 "Egg" - kieran, sylas - 2 "A Shura is here, O Jizo. Come and execute your purpose." - evilwizard, hallucination, vastariner - 3 "Cherry blossom" - Gabe Fandango, petch, Peter, thealmightymudworm - 4
Some of our most diligent players seem to have figured that anyone just idly leafing through the book for answers would be unlikely to come across Moichi's password in 300 before anything else, and that it wouldn't otherwise be more of a pile-up risk than any other option. This didn't quite work out.
This question was the only one remaining with as few as six answers after I took out the original question 10, which also had six but could too easily have been misunderstood to have only four. The sixth here would be "fire", the sample answer given in paragraph 2, and it might be interesting to hear how many considered it but thought that either everyone else might take it, or it might be disallowed for not being spoken by anyone.
Scores before the final question:
16 - petch, hallucination 17 - kieran 21 - Gabe Fandango, evilwizard 22 - sylas, Wildy 23 - Peter's wife 24 - vastariner 25 - Peter 27 - thealmightymudworm
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Post by Per on Oct 15, 2024 18:06:41 GMT
10. Identify a water-related way to suffer instant death.
Pierced by a trident and dragged down by the Kappa - evilwizard - 1 Dragged down by the Kappa - Wildy - 1 Stepping into a bottomless pool of mud concealed by the muddy waters of the flooded swamp - Peter's wife - 1 Swept into the water and eaten by the Kraken - hallucination - 1 Hosed with boiling water and eaten by the Sea Dragon - thealmightymudworm - 1 Drowning in the Waters of Knowledge - Gabe Fandango, kieran - 2 Drowning after swimming in the flooded swamp until exhausted - petch, sylas, vastariner - 3
Wrong answer:
Being mobbed by three spiders, one of which is a water spider - Peter - 6
Fun fact: back when Peter ran his instant death round, nobody picked a paragraph from Sword for the "dying by drowning" question. Today we rectify that travesty.
Being exhausted in the swamp has three associated paragraphs, but those who went for that option all provided the same reference. Being dragged down by the Kappa happens in four, or five if you count the one with the trident, but Wildy avoids a specificity penalty for reasons mentioned previously.
Peter's choice was one I was aware of ahead of time, and I at once wanted someone to pick it, because I think it's great and would love to be able to judge it to be correct, and wanted nobody to pick it, because I actually believe it shouldn't be correct and that it wouldn't be proper for me to judge it so just because it appeals to me. There's no water, just a creature presumably capable of operating on land or under water (of course, the physical properties of water that real water spiders rely on shouldn't even work for a creature of that size, but fantasy), and trying to look at it objectively, I think it's somewhat analogous to supplying a likeness in place of a thing, e.g. an owl painting when asked for an owl, which is commonly disallowed, or if you will, being throttled by Roger Waters, which is also commonly disallowed. Relatedness is a nebulous concept but a line must be drawn. So Peter gets two useless thumbs up from me, but also a bunch of points he didn't even need.
Other options I would have counted include getting hopelessly stuck on the Kappa's trap in the river and drowning in the village well. I would not have allowed drowning in your own blood after being speared in your cell.
Final scores:
17 - hallucination 19 - kieran, petch 22 - evilwizard 23 - Gabe Fandango, Wildy 24 - Peter's wife 25 - sylas 27 - vastariner 28 - thealmightymudworm 31 - Peter
Congratulations to hallucination, who successfully restores the good name of the Shogun, while the rest of you get stranded on a picturesque island in the swamp to await the end of the typhoon season.
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,744
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Oct 15, 2024 18:20:51 GMT
Well done hallucination! Honestly thought petch was gonna run away with it again. Thanks for the round.
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