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Post by CharlesX on Jul 15, 2022 17:32:02 GMT
The Darwin awards are pastiche 'awards' given to people who do a service to humanity by dying in spectacularly stupid ways. I was wondering about any such examples from Fighting Fantasy, or stand-out ones from other gamebooks.
Just as a start:
Going to bed in Zanbar Bone's evil tower (City Of Thieves).
Showing your magic ring to Grimslade and then being killed by the powerful Demon he summons (Scorpion Swamp).
Randomly asking an Arcadion Police Officer for help finding your secret anti-Arcadion circle (Rebel Planet).
Taking on a Taskmaster or shopkeeper in any Ian Livingstone gamebook, who swats you like a fly (any Ian Livingstone gamebook even though you have to attack the 'harmless, good' Bonekeeper in his Crypt).
Trying to rescue the human sacrifice in Steve Jackson's House Of Hell, even if it means taking on forty armed enemies.
In Magehunter, swapping bodies with Mencius in the street where he cleverly attacks someone then switches bodies back.
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Post by slloyd14 on Jul 15, 2022 19:56:14 GMT
Ooooh, this is a good idea.
Does using Dark Veil against Myurr in Dad of Night count as one? It warns you at the beginning to be careful about it!
Immediately swimming back to the surface in Demons of the Deep? Maybe that's more of a meta thing as the quest is clearly about exploring Atlantis, but Steve Jackson US probably couldn't think of a feasible reason to prevent you from choosing to do that.
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Post by CharlesX on Jul 15, 2022 20:55:23 GMT
Taking on all five Shadow Warriors early on together in LOTSW. Choosing to trust 'Smegg' in LOTSW is probably borderline as well, although Stephen Hand should get bonus points if, as I suspect, the name 'Smegg' was inspired by Red Dwarf.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,458
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Jul 15, 2022 21:33:20 GMT
In Magehunter, swapping bodies with Mencius in the street where he cleverly attacks someone then switches bodies back. Ha, I remember falling foul of that one! |
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Post by vastariner on Jul 15, 2022 23:48:29 GMT
Midnight Rogue: attacking Nicodemus or trying to break into Azzur's palace.
The absolute worst, because it's an option I doubt anyone in the history of gamebooks has ever taken, and which smacks of being a fill-in as being a paragraph short, is in Snow Witch; at the end, when you are woken from your sleep by a dream involving a fiery bird, and you have to identify whether it is a phoenix or a griffin.
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Post by a moderator on Jul 16, 2022 0:10:39 GMT
Talisman of Death: "Okay, envoy of Death, I'll give you the Talisman."
Beneath Nightmare Castle: "No thanks, stranger, I'd prefer to stay tied up until my captors get back."
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Post by scouserob on Jul 16, 2022 8:02:07 GMT
City of Thieves, up on the City Wall:
…
There is a 20 metre drop on the other side of the wall.
Will you:
Jump to Freedom?
…
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Post by Peter on Jul 16, 2022 9:12:38 GMT
Forest of Doom: Attack the old wizard. Yes, I'm sure!
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Post by daredevil123 on Jul 16, 2022 9:49:03 GMT
City of Thieves, up on the City Wall: … There is a 20 metre drop on the other side of the wall. Will you: Jump to Freedom? … I actually did that the first time I played City... in my defence, facing the guards leads to automatic failure as well! |
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Post by CharlesX on Jul 16, 2022 15:13:02 GMT
Midnight Rogue: attacking Nicodemus or trying to break into Azzur's palace. In fairness, if you even try going to Nicodemus's Singing Bridge house (and yeah, you shouldn't if you have the primary-school level brain to figure out where you should go instead), you aren't given any options but abruptly and brashly told Nicodemus flings the door open, gets mad, and turns you into a frog or something (I forget what animal). And it's not quite as stupid as say attacking Yaztromo, where he is even more powerful and warns you if you want to go ahead. |
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Post by nathanh on Jul 16, 2022 17:11:28 GMT
Keith Martin rarely insta-kills you for simply making a choice, but even he draws the line at "I try a singlehanded frontal assault on the tower in Carnex" and "I walk calmly into the pit of mutants".
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Post by petch on Jul 17, 2022 10:30:35 GMT
Several books: 'Mmm. An unknown liquid.'
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Post by scouserob on Jul 17, 2022 10:52:48 GMT
Several books: 'Mmm. An unknown liquid.' 😂😂😂 We’ve all done it. (In Fighting Fantasy, that is.) In a world where food, drink, armour, jewellery, etc, can be enchanted or cursed, your point can be expanded to cover almost anything you sample/wear. An adventurer is effectively playing Russian roulette every time they pick up an object, which is half the fun every time you find multiple items and you just know that at least one of them is going to have a negative effect on your wellbeing. |
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Post by vastariner on Jul 17, 2022 16:08:21 GMT
Several books: 'Mmm. An unknown liquid.' 😂😂😂 We’ve all done it. (In Fighting Fantasy, that is.) In a world where food, drink, armour, jewellery, etc, can be enchanted or cursed, your point can be expanded to cover almost anything you sample/wear. An adventurer is effectively playing Russian roulette every time they pick up an object, which is half the fun every time you find multiple items and you just know that at least one of them is going to have a negative effect on your wellbeing. Now, the liquid/item thing is a fascinating example of the meta-Titan experience. In real life, a warrior confident in their strongarm would probably not bother with any of that stuff. The only thing to search out would be the Macguffin needed to eliminate the Big Boss and that's not likely to be found by drinking a Potion of Mystery. Not least that an experienced adventurer would have already stocked themselves up with proper potions with proper provenance over the years.
But in a world where the player's only penalty for it is to go around again, these sorts of traps make absolute sense. If one looks at the gamebook as being an author trying to make a player live through a difficult adventure but not sweep through the first time of asking, these 50/50 calls absolutely work.
So long as they are not unfair. The City of Thieves one is unfair because it's sheer chance, only comes out at the end, and is an absolute necessity to win. Doing the same thing in Deathtrap Dungeon is not - the clue is in the name. And if one imagines it takes 10 goes to get through DD because there are 50/50 traps, then one is getting one's money's worth, at least. It's more picking one's way through a puzzle than re-living an adventure. And for that there have to be (literal) dead ends, as well as Easter eggs that one would not discover on a fast run.
And they do add to the atmos and the game experience. Different to e.g. Chasms where the 50/50s are aggravating rather than ponderables.
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Post by CharlesX on Jul 17, 2022 16:46:26 GMT
One of my favourite FF Darwin awards is where you're in a burning building or something, and you either have the option of still leisurely trying to get treasure after you've tried once, or just given the generic choice to go treasure-hunting even though the building will explode in seconds.
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Post by CharlesX on Jul 17, 2022 16:54:53 GMT
Several books: 'Mmm. An unknown liquid.' The problem being unless there is an obvious clue such as red wine in a vampire's castle, there's very often no way of telling the powerful healing elixir from the poison (will you drink the blue potion or the white potion? Uh..😵). Some authors such as Jonathan Green give you hints (backwards writing, appropriate colours), but with say Ian Livingstone, who we criticise a lot but is one of the worst in this regard, it's more often than not basically totally random which are the essential-to-the-quest\helpful\harmful-or-fatal things. |
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Post by scouserob on Jul 19, 2022 16:54:33 GMT
Starship Traveller:
Beaming down to a planet whose surface is entirely covered by water.
No wonder your poor Science Office protests strongly.
(Especially if he has been selected for the away team 😬)
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