Some gameplay questions

[daz]

My young son was given Eye of the Dragon recently. I'm new to the Fighting Fantasy series so I have some questions about the gameplay.

The instuctions say, "Your SKILL score can never exceed its initial value unless specifically instructed", with similar instructions for LUCK and STAMINA. Very early in the piece there are events that can increase the player's SKILL level, e.g. putting on the iron breastplate increases SKILL by 1. As the player's SKILL at this point is already at its initial value, I take it this means the breastplate has no benefit: is that correct? 

Also, in the battle against the Snake Witch, there is an instruction saying "With her venomous snake heads, the witch has two attacks to your one". So how does this work? Do I roll and calculate the Attack Strength twice for the witch, so that if either of her attacks is stronger than mine, I lose?

Thank you in advance for your help. 

[kieran]

Aug 5, 2019 12:27:01 GMT daz said:

The instuctions say, "Your SKILL score can never exceed its initial value unless specifically instructed", with similar instructions for LUCK and STAMINA. Very early in the piece there are events that can increase the player's SKILL level, e.g. putting on the iron breastplate increases SKILL by 1. As the player's SKILL at this point is already at its initial value, I take it this means the breastplate has no benefit: is that correct?

This is a common problem with books in the series unfortunately. Yes, strictly speaking the breastplate does nothing at least as regards a bonus to your stats. It may come in use for other reasons (for instance, perhaps later on you could be a shot by an arrow, but it's non-fatal if you're wearing a breastplate). You could also interpret the rules as meaning if you later lost a Skill point, but still had the breastplate, you could then apply the bonus.

The question is of course whether the author actually intended for the bonus to work that way - in Eye of the Dragon in particular, there are a lot of Skill-boosting items to collect early on which if they allowed you to exceed your initial score would make the overpowerful enemies you encounter later on much easier to beat. You could apply a house rule where if the bonus comes from an item of equipment, the bonus should actually apply to your Attack Strength rather than your Skill. Really it's up to you if you want to do so. Logically it makes sense - why would a breastplate help a weakened person, but do nothing for a healthy person? But if you're determined to stick with the rules then doing this is technically cheating.

Also, in the battle against the Snake Witch, there is an instruction saying "With her venomous snake heads, the witch has two attacks to your one". So how does this work? Do I roll and calculate the Attack Strength twice for the witch, so that if either of her attacks is stronger than mine, I lose?

Not quite. Each round, roll for your attack strength and the witch's as normal - if you score higher you wound her and vice versa. Then roll again for yourself and the witch, but the second time even if you score higher you haven't wounded her - only parried her second attack. However if she scores higher than you she wounds you in the normal way.

[daz]

Thanks for your help

[kieran]

Aug 6, 2019 1:33:50 GMT daz said:

Thanks for your help

No worries, hope your son enjoys the book!

[jnicol]

It's a shame that Ian and Steve seem reluctant to give an official ruling on whether armour & weapon Skill bonuses should be interpreted as Attack Strength bonuses.

I play a fair number of boardgames, and in the boardgaming world it is usual for a game designer to make themselves available to clarify any rule ambiguities and errors, and publish a rules errata.

I reached out to Ian on Twitter to ask the question, but haven't received a reply. *shrug*

I suppose it is kind of late in the game to be changing the rules, but still, an ambiguity like this shouldn't have hung around for 37 years!

[gmchampskees]

Aug 6, 2019 21:11:46 GMT jnicol said:

It's a shame that Ian and Steve seem reluctant to give an official ruling on whether armour & weapon Skill bonuses should be interpreted as Attack Strength bonuses.

I play a fair number of boardgames, and in the boardgaming world it is usual for a game designer to make themselves available to clarify any rule ambiguities and errors, and publish a rules errata.

I reached out to Ian on Twitter to ask the question, but haven't received a reply. *shrug*

I suppose it is kind of late in the game to be changing the rules, but still, an ambiguity like this shouldn't have hung around for 37 years!

Well Joe Dever clarified many of the more ambiguous points in his Lone Wolf saga. Really no excuse, really should have been an official clarification on many of the bugs found throughout the series.

[dragonwarrior8]

Aug 7, 2019 1:01:24 GMT gmchampskees said:

Aug 6, 2019 21:11:46 GMT jnicol said:

It's a shame that Ian and Steve seem reluctant to give an official ruling on whether armour & weapon Skill bonuses should be interpreted as Attack Strength bonuses.

I play a fair number of boardgames, and in the boardgaming world it is usual for a game designer to make themselves available to clarify any rule ambiguities and errors, and publish a rules errata.

I reached out to Ian on Twitter to ask the question, but haven't received a reply. *shrug*

I suppose it is kind of late in the game to be changing the rules, but still, an ambiguity like this shouldn't have hung around for 37 years!

Well Joe Dever clarified many of the more ambiguous points in his Lone Wolf saga. Really no excuse, really should have been an official clarification on many of the bugs found throughout the series.

I cant help but notice Joe Dever graciously allowed his works to be downloaded for free from the Project Aon website. Any chance Steve and Ian would do the same for Fighting Fantasy at some point?

[a moderator]

Considering how frequently Steve and Ian's FF books have been republished with new covers, making them free rather than trying to sell them all over again seems unlikely.

[dragonwarrior8]

Aug 7, 2019 22:53:06 GMT a moderator said:

Considering how frequently Steve and Ian's FF books have been republished with new covers, making them free rather than trying to sell them all over again seems unlikely.

This kind of makes it sound like Mr Dever was in it for the joy while Steve and Ian are in it for the money. lol.

Regarding the rules questions above, how do the apps handle the weapons bonuses? How does the House of Hell app (I think there is one?) handle the Kris knife for example? You could argue I suppose that being an official FF product it would be a tacit admission of how they were supposed to be handled.

[aggsol]

I alway treared that the inital skill is what my body is capable of and for combat the equipment can add to it. I wonder why they never clarified the rules while repainting the books.

Joe Dever open up his works because for may years he was not able to to secure proper reprints and people had a hard time getting copies. now that he is dead Project AON is more than that. I hope IL and SJ have similar preparations in case of their deaths.

[jnicol]

Aug 11, 2019 4:39:19 GMT dragonwarrior8 said:

Regarding the rules questions above, how do the apps handle the weapons bonuses? How does the House of Hell app (I think there is one?) handle the Kris knife for example? You could argue I suppose that being an official FF product it would be a tacit admission of how they were supposed to be handled.

In Tin Man's version of Island of the Lizard King, weapon & armour Skill bonuses are treated as Attack Strength bonuses. I ended my winning playthrough with +4 AS on a 12 Skill character, which made combats a little too easy. I played the book straight afterwards and it felt more balanced.

Tin Man do have a habit of tweaking books to make them easier or harder, though, and it's hard to say if these changes are initiated by Tin Man or the author.

[aggsol]

In the scholastic edition of City of Thieves the rules differ between SKILL score and SKILL value.