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Post by hynreck on Oct 22, 2013 16:17:48 GMT
Here is my review from the Unofficial FF forum. You can all thank the almighty mudworm for his good work here, without him, most of my reviews (and some of yours) would have been lost. As it is, it turns out to be not so bad. Since the page he got back was all kind of bunch up together he asked me to take a look at it and clear out my review, and since I was already taking the time to do that, I thought, hell, I'm going to slightly edit it as well, as I used to write those in a hurry. So there it is, almost as it was:
Le marais aux scorpions, as it is called in french, was a book I first read long ago at my cousin's place. I think it was the only one he had; I know he wasn't much of a reader, that's for sure. Alas, it had to be that particular book. In truth, though, perhaps he did have the right book for him as this book is much more about gaming than it is about reading. I myself didn't bother to buy Scorpion Swamp until much later, and even then it was a used french copy. But now I just finished reading my used Puffin copy (no choice this time) and with my memory refreshed I can now conclude... What a bad book it is for a cheater. See, since I don't have the time to play proper each and every book of this series, I cheat for stats and fight, that sort of thing, except for stuff like items found and spell gems used. If I reach a dead end because of one of those reasons, I start over.
Doing the map in Scorpion Swamp (which I did bothered to do) is essential for finding the right way and minimizing mistakes. It's easy to lose skill and stamina and use up all your gems too fast in this swamp if you keep to guesswork and only rely on memory. Repeat play, for the serious player, will ask him to elaborate stategy depending on his goal, to avoid certain jonctions or plan just how many times he can pass through a dangerous clearing (like those damn Sword-Trees).
But for one like me who just wants to get through it... how tedious and repetitive. Most of the clearing are on the boring side (especially on a second or third time through) of things and the only challenge from the book (cause if you are making a map you can't get lost) is coming from having your stats slowly depleted until you're doomed. Nothing coming close to an intellectual challenge (apart, like I wrote, from building up a stategy over time about how to best cross the Sword-Trees junction, er, I mean overall swamp, of course).
For a time I felt like I was crossing another Forest of Doom, one a bit more cohesive, perhaps, but not enough to keep me interested. Since I was cheating on stamina loss and battles, I ended up maping the whole of the swamp. It might turn useful one day, if I ever play it by the rules, but it was a bit of a snore fest. The illustrations are mostly good, well done. But I'm not a fan of the Robin Hood-esque type of characters depicted. I like my Brigands without tights and pantyhose, I thank you. Also, in the same vein, most of those faces made me want to hit them. I don't know what it is, but my aggression gauge just flared up everytime I look at them. Look at the Brigand Chief, the ranger, the thief or that Master of Gardens. Don't you just feel like punching them? Just for being the way they are? One other (useless or useful?) thing I learned on my journey, is that a Ranger can just melt into the woods when he wants to. Must be a great skill. I wonder if he went dating that Slime I met back there? I also learned that if you call your book Scorpion Swamp, you better put some scorpions in there to justify the name. Three occurences should be good, right? No. Could have been called Swamp of the Masters, though, I guess (look at that, this mound of dirt is my kingdom! And you think I had to pay a huge amount of gold coins for this critter-filled mud lot? Right? No! I got it basically next to nothing! Now you can call me Master!) (I will not, I will call you madman).
And remember, the only real crime in Scorpion Swamp is the amount of tights on display!
And that's it. People, don't let the fact that the name of Fearthealmightymudworm is heading every thread on this board (nearly). He's only the Messenger, or I should say preserver of the old ways, bringing a bit of the order and topics from the old forum back to the light. Feel free to post in those topics, to keep things alive, or to make up your own. Now, GO!
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Mar 19, 2014 16:44:18 GMT
This is a fragment of Oakdweller's review from TUFFF. (I have a few more bits which might be his, but without his help it's impossible to be sure): It's a queer looking rooster, Scorpion Swamp. I like the way that Steve Jackson #2 has examined the basic FF format and decided to use it in a completely different way. Giving the reader a choice of three different missions allows for a greater sense of freedom than for previous books. The missions are all quite different too: finding a rare berry, making a map and slaughtering wizards to claim their amulets. A significant downside to this freedom, however, is that it does water-down the sense of achievement when victory is won. (Perhaps if it was double the paragraph count it would've had a lot more space to work). Selator's mission is undoubtedly the most satisfying one to play because, unlike Poomchukker's task, there is at least something to bring back with you. I'm not even sure that the Grimslade quest leads to a solid victory at all - I remember that the last time I played it there was just an anti-climatic feeling that I was lucky to escape with a meagre reward and my life
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Mar 19, 2014 16:45:04 GMT
Ironically, this post was preserved because vagsancho failed to post it in the right thread: From TUFFF (August 2012)... Hi. I read and won the scorpion swamp today. In first place: I loved it. It is a nice book with a lot of weak points, so my note for it it is only a 12 (0 to 20). Some of the weak points is that in a lot of situations there is the sentence: "If you have already been here turn to the number ...", other is the fact that all the situations are very "static", I feel a tremendous fault of dynamics in this book. However, the description is clear, there are very different situations, very different "wizards" and i like the book. One more thing, the story of this book have some kind of emotional bond with me, so my note could never be less than 12. (There is another special thing about this book, but because I think it is a very special thing, I will put it in another topic).
(Sorry if I didn't put this coomment about scorpion swamp in the right place, I didn't find it.) Razaak's apprentice
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Mar 19, 2014 16:46:30 GMT
From TUFFF... the fact that all the situations are very "static", i feel a tremendous fault of dynamics in this book. That's true, due to the nature of the book, there's no description of your route between the various clearings which makes things seem a bit artificial. I'm not sure how you could design a book like this and avoid that however (without making it a 1000 sections long!)
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Mar 19, 2014 17:04:52 GMT
Scorpion Swamp seems to be no one’s favourite book. Books rejected by most as awful, like Sky Lord, have a few ardent fans, but not really SS. Is it a good idea, badly executed or just a bad idea? Having a range of clearings throughout the book is a bit tedious and shows the obvious: it’s difficult to have a structured adventure in a swamp. The book in summary is: go in, blunder about a bit until you find your thing and then leave. How serious a fault that is is a matter of taste: If you like your adventures with a clear sense of progress as you’re playing them then SS was never going to be for you anyway. On the other hand, a number of the faults seem unnecessary. I remember being quite excited about the magic element as it was my first encounter with spell-casting in FF, but the execution is disappointing, partly because of when you can use certain spells (as I ranted about in the Immersion Breakers thread). The missions can feel a bit short. It’s tempting to put this and some of the limitations on magic down to the difficulty in fitting three missions into 400 paragraphs, but the book wastes several paragraphs as well. Grimslade’s mission is the most substantial, but of course if you do that as read you just get told off. (That doesn’t make much sense either, how is someone who hacks up the Master of Gardens and then only squabbles with Grimslade over being ripped off better than someone who sells on the Master of Spiders amulet?) If I had to re-create Scorpion Swamp, I’d probably delete Poomchukker (and Willowbend for that matter) and instead have Grimslade appearing as a shady but possibly neutral character at first, suggesting that there’s some indication that the masters are not friendly and it might be no bad thing if they were relieved of their powers. Then you could have a proper epic showdown with Grimslade at the end - possibly one in which you actually get to use the amulets against him. (That would be the suitable time to have the Master of Gardens’ amulet turn out to be cursed or something, rather than just having a ‘PS You’re a turd.’ paragraph.) That way you could have Selator’s mission as the sort of ‘Easy Mode’ and the Grimslade mission the harder version without any ‘ooh you shouldn’t have done that’ garbage.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Mar 20, 2014 13:33:03 GMT
I like my Brigands without tights and pantyhose, I thank you. Also, in the same vein, most of those faces made me want to hit them. I don't know what it is, but my aggression gauge just flared up everytime I look at them. Look at the Brigand Chief, the ranger, the thief or that Master of Gardens. Don't you just feel like punching them? Just for being the way they are? And remember, the only real crime in Scorpion Swamp is the amount of tights on display! I think you’re a tad harsh in wanting to punch the Master of Gardens (if we ever meet I'll be wearing a helmet). Can’t really disagree when it comes to the Ranger mind you - clearly a pompous jerk striking a silly pose. Punchability aside... that brigand leader… He’s a guy with a moustache who just hangs around with a bunch of other guys, who wear tights. If you cast a Friendship spell he specifically says he likes your looks - not you, your looks. Then he tells you that the best place to go at night-time in Willowbend is The Bent Spear. Is Steve Jackson trying to make some kind of a point here? I forget - is The Bent Spear described as the sort of place where you get a lot of compliments on your leather armour and a group of village bards sing about the virtues of the Young Men's Necromancer Association?
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Post by hynreck on Mar 20, 2014 14:58:52 GMT
Thank you almightymudworm for making me laugh. I'm sick and I need it. This aside, some points: I enjoy your vision of a revisited Scorpion Swamp. It sounds like a neat idea and way more epic than what we ended up with. Or heck, perhaps Scorpion Swamp should keep it's three storylines, be 1000 sections long, and added to a series like DestinyQuest, where it would fit in more, I believe.
As for me punching out people because of how they look, I'm not that bad! It only happened a few times. I swear I've never been arrested, so, as you can see, authorities think I'm a fine citizen... Since we're not planning to meet, don't worry, as I've never been able to punch someone through the internet, though I would have done it to Vagsancho back in the days... How awesome would that power be??? If I'm ever a X-Men, I want that power!
Kidding aside, I was playing this part more for laughs than meanness, though I can see why it would look that way. Mean is funny, right? In any case, I do mostly dislike the illustrations. This cheesy pre-Costner Robin hoodness isn't for me. I'll make an exception for John Cleese, though.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Mar 21, 2014 14:32:45 GMT
Sorry to hear you’re ill. Get well soon and all that. Thanks re my spin on SS. I did have one more silly thought about the book, that being the one aspect of the brass ring’s powers isn’t really done justice: If you get your hand frozen by someone’s Ice spell (or whatever), all you have to do is hang around with some complete bastards for a bit and it will act as an excellent handwarmer. I quite like the idea of cheerfully traipsing round after bemused bad guys until the numbness fades. __ That would be a handy X-Men power indeed. Frankly I think I’d be using it on a daily basis (though not on this forum). I reckon we’re about 5 years off a time when if someone annoys you on the web you hit one button to determine their exact location in the world and another to release a fleet of micro-drones which fly in a fist formation around the world to their face. (Even all the way from Canada to Portugal…) You wouldn’t get the satisfaction of feeling knuckle meeting nose that way, but you might get visual… But what would you say if you sent one to Vagsancho and you saw that he actually looked like Razaak? Mean often is funny. I am particularly chuckling over the idea of you arriving in the Ranger’s clearing brandishing your sword, carefully laying down that sword, strolling over and punching him in the face, then collecting your sword and leaving, muttering, “That’s for looking like a muppet!” Why is that not an option in the book?
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Post by hynreck on Mar 21, 2014 16:34:14 GMT
Thanks for the health related wishes, it's just the good old flu, but since it went through every member of my family in succession, it feels like forever! Just like this damn winter. Oops, weather chit-chat, I should quit while I still have some bit of dignity.
Interesting thought about the ring. It would be handy indeed to carry such a ring when going through the Caverns of the Snow Witch, tracking that Tower of Destruction or visiting those Caverns of Kalte. Oops wrong series.
Interesting also about the drone thing, but sounds expensive! Can't we have something simpler, like a micro zapper, preferably aimed at the crotch. Hell, I understand most people use handheld devices nowadays, so I guess I will have to settle for a good old shock in the teeth, nose or eyeball. Better than nothing! Of course, for buyers to equip their said devices with such torture implements would be pretty stupid, but funny enough, I know a lot of stupid people out there...
As for Razaak, if he were to look like Vagsancho, I wouldn't be surprised at all, but er, what? The other way around, you say?
As for that ranger... *Strolls in the clearing, saw ranger lying on the floor with a blackened eye.* "Yep, looks like a Muppet alright!" *Punches ranger again before leaving*
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torallion
Squire
Posts: 12
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by torallion on Sept 8, 2014 19:31:15 GMT
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,434
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Sept 15, 2014 9:44:04 GMT
Glad to see you back at it, Torallion
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2014 3:16:31 GMT
Starship Traveller Steve Jackson
1 out of 10?
It's not that terrible of a book, is it? I quite enjoyed it when I played it some years back. Couldn't figure out what some of the illustrations were at certain points but the game-play is OK.
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torallion
Squire
Posts: 12
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by torallion on Sept 16, 2014 15:35:27 GMT
1 out of 10? It's not that terrible of a book, is it? I quite enjoyed it when I played it some years back. Couldn't figure out what some of the illustrations were at certain points but the game-play is OK. I've never really enjoyed it at all. On reflection I might have been harsh, if only because there was a lot of potential there - but mostly unrealised. I might go as high as a 2
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2014 20:17:27 GMT
I can live with that.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 2, 2014 12:15:44 GMT
A good read, thanks torallion . Pointed out a couple of quirks which I hadn’t noticed before, such as the ring somehow divining people's career paths. (Just as well in a way - the info on whether they're good or bad is usually the bleeding obvious - except for the Master of Wolves for whom the ring is strangely unresponsive.) Anyway, it's prompted me to have an ill-tempered rant about Sword Trees etc... So… as has been pointed out by others, the concept of Sword Trees doesn’t really make much sense: Did the swords grow out of them like branches? How do they end up holding them? In October the blades turn pretty colours and fall off That doesn’t have to be a problem - I like zany ideas and this is an inventive one - but it’s just slapped down without any kind of explanation or context. The fire burning underwater in SJ2’s later book DotD which some object to is found in the room of a Sea Hag with significant magical powers, so it’s not a stretch to imagine that there’s some special magic behind it. Scorpion Swamp is a strange place (and not just because the river runs backwards) but that can't be an all-purpose excuse. The sword trees are just …there, and having introduced them Jackson does nothing much with them. It might as well be a bunch of swordsmen in the clearing except that they happen to be plants (HINT you might have plant spell HINT). Of course you probably don’t have that spell because it’s impossible for you to have it unless you’re serving Grimslade. You can cast a Fire spell but for some reason that’s not very effective. (Why?! They’re made of wood!) So a quirky idea fades into a tricky and rather dull combat. Winning results in you gaining some sword tree seeds which are a nice idea but useless (unless you lose to the brigand leader and can convince yourself that he will accept them as a valuable magical item, rather than have the same reaction that Jack’s mum had to the magic beans). [Edit: Just realised that I’m wrong about this as you can use them on the Dire Beast if you have a Growth spell. Still, you wonder why that has to be the only potential combat you can use them in, or why they’re never mentioned again, eg at the dealers in Willowbend.] The really weird bit though is this: “There are several Sword Trees, but you may fight them as a single opponent. You are lucky in that they cannot see you, they attack by sound.” They attack by sound rather than sight… …because that would be crazy? They wander around (like plants don’t) and wield swords (like plants don’t) but they can’t respond to light (like plants do) and instead just hear things (like plants don’t). …despite quite clearly being pictured with eye sockets (and no obvious ears). You wonder what the mouths are for too. There could be all kinds of explanations for Sword Trees... Personally, I like the idea that they might have been created by a moody, teenage Master of Gardens. In fact a few things in SS might have been (fear flowers, crab grass...). Weirdly he does pretty much nothing plant-related when you encounter him. His powers seem to consist of causing paralysis and, er, causing the loss of SKILL points in some unspecified way… “As you reach him, he waves his hand, casting a spell. Subtract 3 from your SKILL.” Ouch! I could almost feel those SKILL points being deducted... Perhaps SJ2 missed a trick in not making him evil and having the trees as just one of his weapons ahead of a Venus Man Trap? Sinister plants can be a winner. Or he could make you grow roots if you attack him. Returning to the actual Sword Tree encounter one last time: Again it’s annoying that the logical Fire spell is barely worth casting, and also that there aren’t other logical options available. How about an Illusion option? Perhaps you could make yourself appear as a giant woodpecker or beaver (maybe an Axe Woodpecker which mysteriously hatched clutching a hatchet) - or even a raging inferno? Unless of course illusion spells have to be purely visual and the trees can’t hear them through their big eyes. I can't think of many things funnier than panicking trees making a run for it.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,434
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Oct 2, 2014 15:45:55 GMT
Lol - must admit I've never given the sword trees all that much thought other than "Oh crap, these things that always kill me"
Unlikely since the Masters are meant to have only come to the swamp relatively recently. Nice idea though.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 3, 2014 13:55:45 GMT
Unlikely since the Masters are meant to have only come to the swamp relatively recently. Nice idea though. That's a good point. Still, maybe they could have traipsed after him from where he came from. (Wherever that is - you'd think a beautiful garden in Khul would stand out a bit.)
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Post by flanimal on May 10, 2015 12:03:36 GMT
As a child the Fighting Fantasy books that I read were Starship Traveller, Rebel Planet, Scorpion Swamp, Appointment With FEAR, and Robot Commando, Deathtrap Dungeon.
If I were to rate them out of 20, my scores would be Starship Traveller 3/20 - Too hard. Relied on obscure decision to get to a necessary paragraph, e.g. ignore, ignore, go right. Rebel Planet - 14/20 - Loved it, but again it was too difficult, with the story ending prematurely with no clue as to what you did wrong. Scorpion Swamp - 19/20 My absolute favourite! I loved the innovation in this book, and it left me with the longest lasting memories. I completed all three missions, and explored every nook and cranny of the swamp (which was a forest in my mind's eye). Appointment With FEAR - 17/20 and Robot Commando 15/20 - I was a sucker for robots, and again I enjoyed the innovation in this book. Deathtrap Dungeon 4/20 - I just could not bring myself to like this book at all. Perhaps it was because I was slightly older.
My point is that Scorpion Swamp was easily my favourite. I was not aware at the time that SS and RC were written by American Steve Jackson, so I was not biased at the time. I loved the fact that these two were more like a computer game than a linear book.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 10, 2015 17:01:24 GMT
Welcome flanimal. Intriguing to see that SS is someone's absolute favourite after all. I agree it deserves some credit for innovation. I take it you haven't tried Demons of the Deep - US Steve Jackson's other FF book? That's a favourite of mine. Interesting that you compared SS to a computer game - there's a lot of discussion somewhere on here comparing gamebooks to computer games. Someone compared Talisman of Death to a computer game because it has restart points if you die.
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Post by flanimal on May 10, 2015 20:29:49 GMT
Welcome flanimal. Intriguing to see that SS is someone's absolute favourite after all. I agree it deserves some credit for innovation. I take it you haven't tried Demons of the Deep - US Steve Jackson's other FF book? That's a favourite of mine. Interesting that you compared SS to a computer game - there's a lot of discussion somewhere on here comparing gamebooks to computer games. Someone compared Talisman of Death to a computer game because it has restart points if you die. Thanks for the warm welcome. Whilst Googling Scorpion Swamp, I found another stating that it was (maybe) their favourite of the series too; check out comment #3 of fightingdantasy.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/8-scorpion-swamp.htmlThe reason for my rekindled interest in Scorpion Swamp is the hand drawn map that I have recently rescued from the attic. The map depicts my visualisation of the swamp (forest). So far on the internet I have only found box-linked maps, which pale to even my ropey art. I drew the map with a set of fine tipped coloured pens, after being inspired by an episode of Tony Hart who made use of them for one of his quick drawings. I have already mailed a scan of the map to fightingfantasy.com at fightingfantasy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1373&Itemid=37Hopefully they'll add it to their collection of fan maps soon. Another innovation that reminded me of a game was in Robot Commando, where you mostly don't die if your robot is destroyed because you actually get to eject, and continue your adventure on foot, fighting hand to hand, and acquiring other robots on your adventure. I don't remember much else from the book though. The only two books that I found highly memorable we Scorpion Swamp and Appointment with FEAR. Of course I snapped up the AWF Android App as soon as it came out (darn it's buggy!). I'd snap up SS too if they released it. There was another book that ended my Final Fantasy run. After looking at the list of books I believe it may have been Portal of Evil. I remember nothing about it, except for the fact that it did not grip me at all. Perhaps age diminished the FF experience. One thing that my FF choices taught me was that I was a sucker for book covers. Almost all of my book choices involved illustrations depicting space or technology. I'm such a geek! I wonder if other peoples' choices of FF books have running themes with the cover illustrations. Honestly, I regret buying some of the later, less memorable books, and I feel I should have plumped for the old classics such as Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Citadel of Chaos, City of Thieves, and, going on your recommendation, Demons of the Deep.
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Post by flanimal on May 13, 2015 23:16:05 GMT
Hopefully this link to my old hand-drawn map of Scorpion Swamp will work. I found the book so much more enjoyable once I had mapped it. It makes completing the missions achievable by ensuring that you only pass those pesky sword trees twice, one on the way in, and once on the way out. Here's a URL for the map. Viewing the map is of course a SPOILER if you wish to map Scorpion Swamp yourself. drive.google.com/file/d/0B_XOE09zTPxOZ2lJWVg4OTRwYUk/viewEventually, this map should be available from the Fan Maps section of fightingfantasy.com/
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 14, 2015 17:46:43 GMT
Yep, I can see that fine. If images are already on the net it is possible to embed them in posts here, but apparently not from Google Drive. Tony Hart! Those were the days… There is a thread on maps in the Solutions section. You might want to put it there too. I'm slightly surprised you didn't like Portal of Evil. It’s a while since I read it but I was quite keen at the time. Peter Darvill-Evans’s books are generally quite well regarded. I think it would be worth you looking up Demons of the Deep. It’s difficult to guess whether you'll like it, but you can get hold of a second-hand copy off Amazon for the price of P&P, so it seems worth a go. Many FF readers have strong opinions on which are the best individual covers and the best artists overall, but I don't know about themes. Maybe that's worth a new thread...?
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Post by flanimal on May 14, 2015 20:44:57 GMT
Yep, I can see that fine. If images are already on the net it is possible to embed them in posts here, but apparently not from Google Drive. Tony Hart! Those were the days… There is a thread on maps in the Solutions section. You might want to put it there too. I'm slightly surprised you didn't like Portal of Evil. It’s a while since I read it but I was quite keen at the time. Peter Darvill-Evans’s books are generally quite well regarded. I think it would be worth you looking up Demons of the Deep. It’s difficult to guess whether you'll like it, but you can get hold of a second-hand copy off Amazon for the price of P&P, so it seems worth a go. Many FF readers have strong opinions on which are the best individual covers and the best artists overall, but I don't know about themes. Maybe that's worth a new thread...? Thanks thealmightymudworm, I'll post the map link to the solution thread that you suggested. I probably would have given Portal of Evil more of a chance if I had known that it was highly rated. I didn't select my FF purchases based on recommendations, instead I recall choosing my purchase with a sense of trepidation, hoping desperately that I had selected a good one. If only I could have looked up the Amazon reviews of products in those days. I'll let you know what I think of Demons of the Deep if I read it, it certainly is appealing to me since I have enjoyed two out of two of American Steve Jackson's books. A new thread about running themes in people's FF collections sounds really cool. Feel free to start it if you so wish. I wonder if it may come as a surprise to many that their choices are themes such as tech, pirates, nautical, space, old west, spooky, etc!
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Post by Pete Byrdie on May 20, 2015 8:11:04 GMT
I'm a fan of Scorpion Swamp. My favourite part of game books was always drawing out maps and exploring, and I often felt a little cheated if I tried a new way around only to find I wasn't given an option to go to a certain location where I knew there was something I needed, just because of the requirement gamebooks have for a certain amount of lineality. You know the sort of thing. "You pass a corridor on the left (I know! That's where I need to go to get the Magical Anklet of This Book Completion) but then you hear some ominous groaning up ahead, so ignore that essential location to investigate." Then you're left feeling that the very first time since playing the book that you've rolled a SKILL of 12 and a LUCK score that wasn't an absolute burden has been wasted, because you haven't been allowed to go somewhere you know you have to go. I know these things are a gamebook necessities, and also that they're carefully planned to provide paths through the book, but for me it was always fun to dive into Scorpion Swamp with its freedom of movement and ease of mapping. In fact, I used used to return to it frequently over the years.
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Post by hynreck on May 21, 2015 14:17:34 GMT
What's going on? Scorpion Swamp fans coming out of the woodwork? What's next? A Sword Trees zombie series on Netflix? What am I even writing about? I'm outa here. There's some guy in thights outside that needs punching.
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Post by Pete Byrdie on May 23, 2015 6:32:41 GMT
Interesting that you compared SS to a computer game - there's a lot of discussion somewhere on here comparing gamebooks to computer games. Someone compared Talisman of Death to a computer game because it has restart points if you die. Really? Was the crazy attempt at producing a first-person shooter zombie game in gamebook form mentioned? Shocking!
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vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
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Post by vagsancho on Jul 23, 2015 14:19:28 GMT
very special book to me! Has a strange and magic atmosphere! I feel it like a possible visiting place after death.
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Post by hynreck on Jul 23, 2015 14:25:00 GMT
So much magic already... Are you planning a trip soon? Where were you the last few years? Purgatory?
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Post by johnbrawn1972 on May 19, 2016 23:50:21 GMT
My inner solution analyser has been at work and there seems to be something irrational about Champskees Poomchukker solution. If I have it right in the opening moves it is possible, but somewhat unlikely, to lose 6 stamina points, have to fight a skill 9 stamina 12 creature and then almost certainly lose 6 stamina points before you reach Master Of Birds airways.
In pedantic mode a solution should be there for a modest adventurer not Conan The Barbarian with some notable exceptions. Even a more modest assessment of the above is fighting a skill 9 stamina 12 creature and losing at least 7 stamina so only 3 hits allowed for a 14 stamina adventurer.
If Champskees is still around what skill does he have in mind for his adventurer? A skill 9 adventurer would, at best, lose 1 stamina point then take 4 hits so 8 stamina points then 6 stamina points. A 14/15 stamina adventurer would be finished.
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Post by philsadler on May 20, 2016 9:02:51 GMT
I remember this book. Wasn't there a skill 16 enemy at one point (which luckily you didn't have to fight)?
Yet what's the point of an enemy that no one will ever beat? What's more, I think I read the para where you killed it (just to find out) and it just said you "killed the demon, good bye". Not even a luck point!
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