Frenzy II - Contest of Chaos

[a moderator]

As the new year is only a fortnight away, several forum members have expressed the hope that there will be an ongoing challenge like this one for 2023, and nobody else has indicated that they'd like to have a go at running one, I think it's about time to start preparing the ground for the new one.

In many regards it will be similar.
Two randomly selected titles a week, participants play one (or both, and choose which of the two they wish to be scored on).
Points are awarded based on stats (weaker characters score better, as they're at a disadvantage when playing).
Additional points are awarded for winning the book (or getting closest to victory if everybody fails), and for winning the most fights.
Scores are tracked over the course of the year, and whoever scores highest wins.

There will be a few differences.
In 2023 there will be a separate 'closest to victory' and 'most fights won' bonus for each book.
The mini-adventure from Fighting Fantazine 17 will be added to the list of titles, and The Adventures of Goldhawk will be dropped. Adding one title and removing four obviously leaves a gap. Any new FF books published during the year can thus be incorporated easily, and I have a few alternatives in reserve in case little or nothing new should come out.

Any questions, suggestions, recommendations?

[vastariner]

Is it too similar to the last one? Would it be interesting if everyone started on minimum stats? Or, at the other extreme, just count every fight as a win?

[hallucination]

I like the idea of adding some sort of twist.
Maybe everyone starts the year with five "tokens"; each use of a token allows the contestant to use max stats rather than whatever they rolled. Use of the tokens by the end of the contest isn’t mandatory; after all there are still the point incentives for playing with a low stats adventurer.
Alternatively we could revisit how people feel about allowing guides, or the rule about reporting your first attempt (allow three attempts and players pick which to report?)
Keen to hear other ideas if folks have them.

All good if folks prefer just the classic rules, I’d still be on board.

[peasantscribbler]

I'm not that interested in playing with minimum or maximum stats (unless I happen to roll them up that way). However, if people really want to play that way, I'd suggest that it be connected to the weekly standings. If you finish first, you can choose to use maximum stats the next week (forfeiting your stats bonus). If you finish last, you have to use minimum stats the next week. Something like that. But, again, I'd rather play it straight as we did this year.

Edit: There is some merit to having everyone play with minimum stats each week to see who gets furthest. However, I think that would only work if we ban the use of guides (or, alternatively, have everyone use guides).

[nathanh]

I think the splitting of the closest to victory and most fights won bonus will be enough to liven things up, and will incentivise more play.

One possible way to add more chaos would be for the win bonus to be dependent on the difficulty of the book, e.g. using the Champskees probability matrices.

[terrysalt]

I wonder if it would be feasible for players to choose their own stats rather than roll them. Take the easy win with 12/24/12 but forfeit the stats bonus or try to eke out a few extra points by going in weaker but risking failure.

[jozziah]

Hello! Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I'd be up for joining in with something like this! Two thoughts:

1. I don't have a complete collection of FFs (I think I have about 42?) For people like me who want to join in, if we end up being unable to play one week, will we be penalised in the overall rankings, or will our rankings be taken as an average of the ones we've been able to join in with?

2. What about, in addition to points for combats and winning the book overall, there are also bonus points for fulfilling certain side-quests etc? After all, there are plenty of gamebooks that are designed to be quite combat-light, but still have plenty of optional sub-challenges within them. Perhaps when each gamebook is assigned we also determine whether any bonus points will be assigned for taking optional routes, eg. defeating all five members of the Cadre in Howl of the Werewolf, taking the "hard" path in Legend of the Shadow Warriors or Sword of the Samurai, fighting through the battle-lines in Battleblade Warrior, winning the pie-eating contest in Armies of Death, acquiring the Shield of Faith in Vault of the Vampire, acquiring the Soul Stone in Night of the Necromancer, etc etc

[kieran]

I'm happy with keeping it much the same bar the proposal of splitting the closest to victory and most fights won bonuses. Though I won't object if people want to mix it up a bit more.

Adding Fantazine 17 and removing the 4 Goldhawks will mean a 5 book difference between 21st and 20th Century books. It would probably make more sense to ditch one of the 21st Century Books instead of the Goldhawks. Maybe Blood of the Zombies as it doesn't use FF rules and isn't possible to beat anyway?

[terrysalt]

I'd rather the removal of the Goldhawk books myself and make the choice 2 random books rather than insisting on a new/old divide. That way the only issue is that there be an even number of books (and I doubt there'd be many complaints if Blood of the Zombies had to be dropped should the total end up being odd).

[a moderator]

Dec 19, 2022 10:56:48 GMT kieran said:

Adding Fantazine 17 and removing the 4 Goldhawks will mean a 5 book difference between 21st and 20th Century books. It would probably make more sense to ditch one of the 21st Century Books instead of the Goldhawks. Maybe Blood of the Zombies as it doesn't use FF rules and isn't possible to beat anyway?

Part of the reason for the old/new divide was to reduce the risk of two rare books coming up the same week, thereby potentially excluding players. Discussion elsewhere on the forum suggests that some of the Wizard-originated titles are becoming trickier to find at reasonable prices, so some of those could be shifted to the 'old' column.

Dec 19, 2022 10:29:39 GMT jozziah said:

Hello! Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I'd be up for joining in with something like this! Two thoughts:

1. I don't have a complete collection of FFs (I think I have about 42?) For people like me who want to join in, if we end up being unable to play one week, will we be penalised in the overall rankings, or will our rankings be taken as an average of the ones we've been able to join in with?

2. What about, in addition to points for combats and winning the book overall, there are also bonus points for fulfilling certain side-quests etc? After all, there are plenty of gamebooks that are designed to be quite combat-light, but still have plenty of optional sub-challenges within them. Perhaps when each gamebook is assigned we also determine whether any bonus points will be assigned for taking optional routes, eg. defeating all five members of the Cadre in Howl of the Werewolf, taking the "hard" path in Legend of the Shadow Warriors or Sword of the Samurai, fighting through the battle-lines in Battleblade Warrior, winning the pie-eating contest in Armies of Death, acquiring the Shield of Faith in Vault of the Vampire, acquiring the Soul Stone in Night of the Necromancer, etc etc

Welcome aboard, jozziah.

1. There's already precedent for players who don't have everything using the solutions available here as substitutes for the actual books. It's not ideal, but it does at least make it possible for anyone to play at least a facsimile of almost every title.

2. Side quest bonuses are an interesting idea, but they would reduce the effectiveness of the solutions as an alternative to the actual book. Additionally, for the sake of balance it would probably be necessary to have a bonus for both titles or neither every week - if a bonus could only be had for one of the books, that would penalise players without a copy of that one. Still, I'll give some thought to possible side quests.

Dec 19, 2022 2:21:52 GMT terrysalt said:

I wonder if it would be feasible for players to choose their own stats rather than roll them. Take the easy win with 12/24/12 but forfeit the stats bonus or try to eke out a few extra points by going in weaker but risking failure.

One idea I’ve been toying with is giving the option of allocating rolls to stats at the cost of a reduced bonus. Thus, if you were to roll 1-6-6-1, you could choose to have a 12-14-12 character rather than 7-24-7, but you’d get a stats bonus of 1 or 2 rather than 4.

[King Gillibran]

I would just like to have completely random stats. I don't want any maximum or minimum stat things. I look forward to actually standing a chance for victory.

[a moderator]

Dec 18, 2022 19:08:30 GMT hallucination said:

we could revisit [...] the rule about reporting your first attempt (allow three attempts and players pick which to report?)

Maybe allow up to 3 attempts, but taking a point off the victory bonus for each one after the first.

[a moderator]

Week 1
Masks of Mayhem (4 dice)
Six-Gun Friday (Fighting Fantazine 13) (3 dice)

Please state if you use a guide, if you allocate dice at character creation rather than taking them as they fall, or if you make more than one attempt at a book.
Only combats which you win (using the 'Battles' rules in Masks, or either of the methods listed under 'Combat' in Six-Gun) should be included in the list of enemies defeated.

[terrysalt]

Six-Gun Friday
Skill: 8
Stamina: 15

Off to a cracking start already.

Special skills: Spontaneity, Fast Draw
Assigned stats: No
Guide: Yes
Attempts: 1

items: Colt .45 Peacemaker (-1 to aim tests), 4 first aid kits (heals 3), Sarsparilla Bitters
kills: 3*
info: asp, nest, anaconda, XXXXX

A surprising but welcome win to start the year off. Incidentally is there any significance to the (3 dice) and (4 dice) after the book titles? Obviously it's how many you need to generate your stats but does rolling more dice affect the stat bonus or is it just the average roll either way?

*I'm assuming "test your aim" to add an X at the end counts as a kill, if not my kill count is 0.

[a moderator]

Jan 1, 2023 2:23:31 GMT terrysalt said:

Incidentally is there any significance to the (3 dice) and (4 dice) after the book titles? Obviously it's how many you need to generate your stats but does rolling more dice affect the stat bonus or is it just the average roll either way?

I decided to list the number of dice involved in character creation so everyone will have a reminder when there's a random element to things like starting gold, which might help cut down on instances of players neglecting to report the outcomes of those rolls.

The stat bonus is derived from the average of the rolls, no matter how many dice are used. 

[King Gillibran]

Masks of Mayhem

Skill: 9

Stamina: 18

Luck: 9

Used a guide.

Assigned stats: no

Attempts: 1

Kills: 8, 4 tentacles, wight, Doragar, Nandibear, Hellfire Spirit

Burnt in a forest fire.

[juniorhornet]

Masks of Mayhem

Skill 11
Stamina 20
Luck 11

Finally a good roll!

SPOILER: Click to show

Not that it mattered, lasted 3 paragraphs and got taken on the lake by a tentacled creature.

Attempts 1

[peasantscribbler]

Masks of  Mayhem

Skill=7
Stamina=16
Luck=11

Fights Won (1)
Vermin

One attempt. Didn't use a guide. Didn't allocate dice.

SPOILER: Click to show

I was shot (arrowed?) by a malevolent Blackheart in the mine when I stopped to look at something. An inauspicious beginning for Frenzy II.

[kieran]

Masks of Mayhem

SPOILER: Click to show

Sk10 St22 Lu7 - One attempt
Eaten by the kraken in my sleep. Pity we weren't playing Black Vein Prophecy.

[hallucination]

Masks of Mayhem

SPOILER: Click to show

Skill 8, stamina 15, luck 12

Killed by the wight

Fights won: 5x tentacles

First attempt

[a moderator]

Just under 24 hours to get in results for week 1.

Week 2
Black Vein Prophecy (4 dice)
Vengeance at Midnight (Fighting Fantazine 8) (4 dice, or 3 dice plus seven if you choose Super Strength)

In Prophecy you may voluntarily fail that Test your Luck, but if you do so, you may only add 5 to the number rolled when generating your Luck score, and must state that you did so when posting your results.

[terrysalt]

Black Vein Prophecy
Skill: 10
Stamina: 16
Luck: 9

Assigned stats: No
Autofail luck test: Yes
Guide: Yes
Attempts: 2

items: greatsword, haversack, 4 provisions, shrivelled claw, jewelled dagger, chang whistle. battle plans, orange syrup, snapped shaft
kills: Shael-Beast, 2 soldiers
info: multicoloured scales, biantai (mutation), baopo (disruption), izkhao, Shangsuo (locking), wearing filthy clothes, tiaohe (harmonisation), ears are ringing

Attempt 1: I failed to get Izkhao and then the 50/50 went against me. Not sure if you need the stats for this run but they were skill 7, stamina 18, luck 6.
Attempt 2: I roll much better stats and easily win

[vastariner]

I won't be playing this time, got a bit played out by the end last time.

[evilwizard]

Masks of Mayhem
Skill 11
Stamina 20
Luck 8

SPOILER: Click to show

Kills: 5 x tentacle, Wight, Doragar
Items: Potion of Fortune. Wight's Sword, Sceptre, Nugget, Snattacat’s Tusk, Stone Statuette, 5 Gold Pieces
Failed a Luck test which led to an instant death by stepping into thin air

Got further than expected

[nathanh]

Sadly missed the first week while moving house. Have found both internet and the box with my books though so will have a go at BVP later.

[juniorhornet]

Black Vein Prophecy

Skill 10
Stamina 20
Luck 10

SPOILER: Click to show

Escaped the tomb but killed in the city ruins by the Mirror Image of myself

[CharlesX]

Jan 10, 2023 17:51:27 GMT nathanh said:

Sadly missed the first week while moving house. Have found both internet and the box with my books though so will have a go at BVP later.

I moved house just 6 months ago! Good luck in your new house .

[evilwizard]

Black Vein Prophecy
Skill 7
Stamina 18
Luck 8

SPOILER: Click to show

Kills: Shael Beast, First Soldier, Second Soldier
Items: Haversack, 5 Provisions, Greatsword, Multicoloured Scales, Biantai, Izkhao, Shrivelled Claw, Baopo, Brooch, Shangsuo, Jewelled Dagger, Peasant Clothes, Chang Whistle, Battleplans, Tiaohe, Small Jar of Orange Syrup, Snapped Shaft

I didn't choose to fail the Luck test so rolled as normal. I won.

[hallucination]

Black Vein Prophecy

SPOILER: Click to show

Skill 8
Stamina 19
Luck 11 (added 5 to my 1D6 roll of 6)

Used champskees’ guide
First attempt
Voluntarily failed first luck roll

Items/notes: Multicolour scale, Greatsword, haversack, Power of Mutation, Shrivelled Claw, Power of Disruption, Brooch 343, Power of Locking, Jewelled Dagger, Chang Whistle, Battleplans, Power of Harmonization, Orange Syrup, Snapped Shaft

Codewords: Biantai, Baopo, Izkhao, Shangsuo, Tiaohe

Fights won: Shael Beast, 2x Soldiers

And I successfully completed the adventure!

[nathanh]

I haven't unpacked BVP yet so had to use the guide.

Sk 9 St 20 Lu 11 (rolled 12)
Autofail luck test: yes
Guide: yes
Assigned dice: no
Attempts: 1
Combats: SHAEL BEAST, 2 SOLDIERS
Result: win