Hand of Fate (Issue 10 adventure)

[champskees]

Corrections to the magazine adventure Hand of Fate:

Para 74 suggests the Basilisk has 123 Stamina.
Para 93 should not link to Para 173.

Para 189 does not exist.

[champskees]

Hand of Fate Solution

Bit of a mix of Citadel of Chaos and Temple of Terror. Quite a simple adventure with weak enemies. Hard decisions need to be made as to which items you will go for. For a low skill character, the following solution is recommended. The Ganjee companion that travels with you is hilarious and really keeps the reader interested – good job.

Considering the above, I recommend a Skill of 9 and Luck 8+ for this adventure as there are a couple of skill/luck tests you will want to make.

- Cast Fool’s Gold.
- Lose 1 Initial Skill Point (3 Damage).
- Fight Sk 6 St 6 Rhino Man.
        o -1 Attack Strength due to being unarmed.
- Take 2 Meals.
- Take Water Flask.
- Take him with you.
- Charge the Khulian mercenary (2 Damage).
- Fight Sk 8 St 12 Fang-Zen for one round.
- If you lose round: 3 Damage.
- Try begging in the street to get some coin.
- Try to placate them.
- Hand over your newly acquired Gold Pieces.
- Restore 4 Stamina.
- Take 10 Gold Pieces.
- Take Healing Potion (restores 6 stamina when used).
- Sussurus is still with you.
- Hang on to him.
- You have not killed two watchmen.
- Take Sword (-4 Gold Pieces).
- Take Cloak (-2 Gold Pieces).
- Take 1 Meal (-1 Gold Piece).
- Take Potion of Fortune (-3 Gold Pieces).
- Sussurus is with you.
- Stick with your plan of visiting the Healer.
- Offer to help him haul in his catch.
- Hold on and see where the aquatic being will take you.
- Sussurus is with you.
- Refuse the king’s offer.
- Refuse.
- Head on to the strange laboratory.
- Test Luck. Fail = 3 Damage & -1 Skill. Fight Sk 6 St 6 Mimsy Soldier.
- Try a purple potion.
- Take Red Potion.
- Restore 2 Stamina.
- Kneel down in preparation to battle the great bird.
- You do not wish to attack.
- Fight Sk 6 St 12 Nestlings.
- Take Sun Talisman.
- Hang back and wait to see what he does.
- Sussurus is with you.
- Keep him.
- Force the pegasus to land.
- You possess a sun talisman.
- Fight Sk 7 St 14 Nomad Champion.
- Fight ends when enemy’s Stamina is reduced to 2 or less.
- Finish the boy off.
- Take Bone Sword (2 Damage).
- Sussurus is with you.
- You have a cloak.
- You are using only the smaller one you took from Brus.
- You have a Red Potion you would like to drink (3 Damage).
- Take Potion of Might.
- Open the door.
- You do not possess an Axe of Hacking.
- Fight Sk 7 St 5 Dark Disciple.
- Fight Sk 6 St 6 Dark Disciple.
- Take Potion of Levitation.
- Take Black Talisman.
- Eat some of the grapes.
- Restore 4 Stamina.
- You have neither.
- Fight Sk 8 St 8 Calacorm.
- Wake the sleeping servant.
- You are wearing a Black Talisman.
- Open the ash door.
- Open the ancient sarcophagus.
- You have a Potion of Might.
- Take Javelin of Vatos.
- You sent the eunuch away.
- Head right.
- Open the golden door.
- Fight Sk 8 St 12 Giant Python.
- You possess a sword made of bone.
- Fight Sk 7 St 7 Leesha.
- Fight ends when enemy’s Stamina is reduced to 1.
- Do not spare her.
- Take Golden Necklace.
- Do not open it.
- Take the archway to your right.
- Summon a spirit in the pentacle.
- Roll D6.
        o If 3-4:
         - You have a Black Talisman.
         - Note it is now enchanted.
         - You do not possess a horn.
         - Roll D6 10x. 1 = 1 Damage.
         - Fight Sk 6 St 5 Wheelie, Sk 6 St 6 Wheelie & Sk 6 St 5 Wheelie together.
        o If 5-6:
         - Run like hell.
         - Test Luck. Fail = Death.
- Fight Sk 5 St 7 Rhino-Man & Sk 6 St 5 Rhino-Man together.
- If you do not possess an enchanted amulet: Test Skill. Fail = Death.
- Fight Sk 8 St 6 Lucretia Dire for one round.
- Fight Sk 5 St 10 Imps.
- Fight Sk 8 St 6 Lucretia Dire.
- You have a Golden Necklace.
- You possess a Potion of Levitation.
- You have the Javelin of Vatos.
- Fight Sk 9 St 2 Possessed Appendage.
- You have stopped the Juggernaut from being activated.

[kieran]

Interesting, I would have thought it would be worthwile to go for the Axe of Hacking, but I'm guessing you did more research into it than I did. Glad you liked Sussurus (I know Greenspine wasn't so fond!). I must admit I had a blast writing this and was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

[champskees]

What did Greenspine think of him? Now I'm curious. I also liked the comedy routine with the calacorm.

The Axe of Hacking is a bit of a trade off. You need to make a Skill Test and a Luck Test to make it worthwhile. Fail the Skill Test and you have a 1 in 6 chance of death and lose 3 gp. Fail the luck test and you lose a point of skill, which effectively negates the bonus from the axe. Of course you have also lost a point of luck as well.

In addition to the above, the reason I don't recommend it is because at the end, if you possess the axe of hacking you cannot get the potion of levitation, which means you will then have to make a successful skill roll at the end (or die). This is on top of the Skill Test for not acquiring an enchanted amulet. Testing on an effective skill of 8 leaves you with edgy chances, but if you failed the luck test getting the axe, you're testing against 7. Possibly twice. As such, I do not believe it is worth attempting if you are a low stats character.

[kieran]

What did Greenspine think of him?

I believe the words "more annoying than Littlebig" were uttered

Yes, I think you're right about the Axe of Hacking upon consideration. Although one of the passages I liked writing best was the one where it causes you to

SPOILER: Click to show

hack the chained-up elf to death which sends the dark disciples running off screaming at your savagery

[a moderator]

Part 1 of my playthrough of this adventure has now been published.

I'm not as harsh on Sussurus this time round.

[kieran]

Can't say I've ever come across Oink magazine which is a great shame as it sounds right up my alley. Which maybe explains a lot.

There were two reasons I included the spell choice at the start even though it makes no difference to the outcome of the ambush (it can have an impact in gameplay terms though as choosing well leaves you in better shape for the fight with Brus which can be tricky with a low Skill). First was to give the player more of a sense of loss when their magic gets taken away. Admittedly, I probably needed to give far more opportunity to use magic than one measly choice for that to really work. The second is that I had the idea of an interactive background where rather than have a long info dump at the start, it could be interspersed with a few low impact decisions and easy fights. It seemed quite clever at the time, but I realise now that it really didn't work. Plus it still had a fairly hefty info dump anyway. Ah well.

Re Fang-Zen, he's from Jitar which is off the coast of Allansia so he was always well-travelled even in Deathmoor. Not that I can use that as an excuse as I fully thought he was from Khul at the time of writing (I even refer to him as Khulian in several places).

The two guards check is because you can be attacked by two guards where you have the option to surrender. If you kill both of them, you escape arrest, but are now wanted and are then attacked if you try to go to the market. If you kill only one and then surrender you are tried where killing the guard counts against you. So if you make it to the market having only killed one guard, you have already been tried and acquitted for that crime and are no longer wanted so the guards in the marketplace leave you alone.

[CharlesX]

I liked Oink! and it's associated TV show Round The Bend, they were more humorous than the lowbrow Viz and more spontaneous than the undergrad-orientated Private Eye. It's a real shame it wasn't making enough money to outlast two years, I guess it was just too sophisticated and student-y, and I guess, as well, it was too of its time to be redone, like Knightmare. Satire isn't half as subtle and sophisticated as it was in the '80s - just compare the original Spitting Image and Comic Strip Presents with the one-star Spitting Image Britbox reboot.
   Apologies for the tangent.

[kieran]

Oh, I remember Round the Bend pretty fondly if very sketchily. I seem to remember the rats interviewing people by popping out of their toilet.

[a moderator]

Nov 27, 2021 19:39:16 GMT kieran said:

There were two reasons I included the spell choice at the start even though it makes no difference to the outcome of the ambush (it can have an impact in gameplay terms though as choosing well leaves you in better shape for the fight with Brus which can be tricky with a low Skill). First was to give the player more of a sense of loss when their magic gets taken away. Admittedly, I probably needed to give far more opportunity to use magic than one measly choice for that to really work. 

Is giving the player such a sense of loss that worthwhile a goal? I don't recall many reviewers praising the bit in Temple of Terror where you lose all your magic.

The two guards check is because you can be attacked by two guards where you have the option to surrender. If you kill both of them, you escape arrest, but are now wanted and are then attacked if you try to go to the market. If you kill only one and then surrender you are tried where killing the guard counts against you. So if you make it to the market having only killed one guard, you have already been tried and acquitted for that crime and are no longer wanted so the guards in the marketplace leave you alone.

I did suspect that it could be something along those lines, but I couldn't waste the comedic potential of the idea that the guards would be okay with you only killing one of them, but would draw the line at two fatalities. 

Someone's commented at the blog to say that they felt having Sussurus as a sidekick detracted from the mysterious and frightening nature of the Ganjees. I'll wait and see how things pan out over the course of the adventure before coming to my own conclusions, but there is some food for thought there.

[kieran]

Nov 28, 2021 16:48:29 GMT a moderator said:

Is giving the player such a sense of loss that worthwhile a goal? I don't recall many reviewers praising the bit in Temple of Terror where you lose all your magic.

Fair point.

Someone's commented at the blog to say that they felt having Sussurus as a sidekick detracted from the mysterious and frightening nature of the Ganjees. I'll wait and see how things pan out over the course of the adventure before coming to my own conclusions, but there is some food for thought there.

Also fair. Something mysterious leaves itself ripe for expansion, but that also leads to spoiling that sense of intrigue I guess.

[philsadler]

Just had a quick play of this one and noted the fairness of the combats, fairness being quite rare in FF these days. The gangee was a good companion. The idea of you losing your hand was odd but different, but the idea that, without a weapon, you only lose 1 skill point was super odd - is your character some sort of one-armed martial arts master like the fabled Chinese hero The One-Armed Boxer?

All, in all, I didn't play it much because I was soon killed in combat with my reduced attack strength of ... 5, which meant that a small child could probably have killed me quite easily. However, a sequel to Citadel of Chaos without the magic system? Odder still (unless you get back magic later?).

Good adventure!

[kieran]

Aug 3, 2022 15:42:07 GMT philsadler said:

However, a sequel to Citadel of Chaos without the magic system? Odder still

Yeah, probably a bad decision on my part. I wanted to do a story where Leesha and Lucretia team up and you have a Ganjee as a companion... but I didn't really want to use the spells from Citadel of Chaos.

[nathanh]

I enjoyed my brief time with this one, so I'll be having another go. The quest structure, the companion, and the acceptably self-indulgent call-outs to as many books as possible evoke a good Livingstone adventure, despite it being a sequel to Citadel of Chaos.

[vastariner]

Nov 27, 2021 20:28:47 GMT kieran said:

Oh, I remember Round the Bend pretty fondly if very sketchily. I seem to remember the rats interviewing people by popping out of their toilet.

A kids' tv show where a sewer crocodile would greet the audience with "hello to all you benders out there".  Genius.

I really liked this one and it shows how "mature" the writing has become compared to the Warlock competition entries.  There is logic in the quest, even if somewhat bizarre, and I did enjoy the ganjee companion aspect, I imagined him voiced by Kenneth Williams or Peter Wyngarde (the former surely influenced by Willo the Wisp).  Slight illogic that a spirit with some future perception and an interest in keeping you alive would not get you around most fights.  But I do wonder if that is reflected in being able to get quite a way with a low skill character.

Indeed, the bit where I lost was because I didn't use an option that looks pretty unfair.  I should have got the

SPOILER: Click to show

bone sword

for the obvious win.  Although looking through the playthrough there were a couple of bits I missed out that might have been vital; and, if they were, then it's Siege of Sardathesque - engaging but linear.

[kieran]

Aug 6, 2022 22:05:38 GMT vastariner said:

Indeed, the bit where I lost was because I didn't use an option that looks pretty unfair.  I should have got the

SPOILER: Click to show

bone sword

for the obvious win.

Yeah, while I'm mostly pleased with this book, that element is probably my biggest regret about it - it is unfair and in restrospect

SPOILER: Click to show

I don't really like that I punished the reader for doing the moral thing.

Although looking through the playthrough there were a couple of bits I missed out that might have been vital; and, if they were, then it's Siege of Sardathesque - engaging but linear.

There's a few viable routes through it.

[terrysalt]

Aug 6, 2022 23:01:22 GMT kieran said:

Aug 6, 2022 22:05:38 GMT vastariner said:

Indeed, the bit where I lost was because I didn't use an option that looks pretty unfair.  I should have got the

SPOILER: Click to show

bone sword

for the obvious win.

Yeah, while I'm mostly pleased with this book, that element is probably my biggest regret about it - it is unfair and in restrospect

SPOILER: Click to show

I don't really like that I punished the reader for doing the moral thing.

Although looking through the playthrough there were a couple of bits I missed out that might have been vital; and, if they were, then it's Siege of Sardathesque - engaging but linear.

There's a few viable routes through it.

While without a guide, I'd have spared him, I thought it made sense that you have to finish the guy off. The tribe values strength and not mercy after all. I can see the claims of unfairness in terms of the one-shot nature of the 40th Frenzy but most gamebooks are intended to be replayed so someone who died from missing the sword would just make different choices their next time.

[Peter]

Apologies, I played this a while ago and I haven't commented on it. From memory:

I have come to expect good things from Kieran's gamebooks, and I wasn't disappointed here. Obviously well thought out, avoiding random choices and dice-rolls that result in death, and fair in terms of opponents' skill levels. It was less complex than A Princess of Zamarra (the last one I played), with a less convoluted plot, but I suspect this one was written earlier.

Enjoyable to play, rewarding to complete. Thanks Kieran.

[kieran]

Nov 5, 2023 22:17:55 GMT Peter said:

It was less complex than A Princess of Zamarra (the last one I played), with a less convoluted plot, but I suspect this one was written earlier.

Yep, about 7 or 8 years earlier. Glad you enjoyed it.