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Started by Funt Solo, 19 October, 2021, 02:40:32 AM

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sheridan

This is the one (non-Sorcery!) book that I've been looking forward to most, so I definitely want a good go at winning it. 

First attempt we got killed by the lizardy personage upstairs, so didn't even get to the market place, so here's hoping luck (or Luck) is on our side for future attempts.

Funt Solo

My scariest fight was with the Moon Dogs - it was a close run thing.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

MumboJimbo

I had a spooky Fighting Fantasy moment a few weeks ago.

I happened to mention to my son as we were watching TV that I'd been watching a few YouTube video on Fighting Fantasy books (when he was a nipper 10 years ago we used to play Deathtrap Dungeon together). He replied, that's weird as he also had been watching videos on it too! Then we got reminiscing about Deathtrap Dungeon. At the time we were watching The Apprentice, and it showed a preview of next week's episode, and who should be on it, but Sir Ian Livingstone himself!

Spooky!

Richard

Wait til you find Steve Jackson hiding under your bed.

Richard

Okay, so I decided not to wait and moved on to play Deathtrap Dungeon.

I remember this being a particularly hard adventure, since it's one of Ian Livingstone's "find the exact route or fail" books, and a particularly hard example at that. But I still didn't expect to get killed quite so quickly! This must have been my briefest ever play through of any book.

I started with reasonable scores, and opened the mystery box inside the entrance [spoiler]no I'm not going to tell you what is inside[/spoiler]. At the first junction I followed three sets of footsteps, and at the next junction I followed the majority again. I ignored a bell, figuring it must be a trap. I killed two hobgoblins (what is the difference between hobgoblins and regular goblins anyway?) and won a vial of acid. I was then injured by a lame trap involving some wooden poles (boring!).

Then I discovered a room with a Bhudda-type idol in it, with emeralds for eyes. I definitely need those! As I climbed it, I was asked if I had any rope, and of course I didn't, which implies that I had already gone the wrong way, since I'm presumably supposed to have some! I successfully tested my luck and made it to the top, where I was asked to choose which eye to prise out first. My choice triggered a trap, and I had to fight two flying monsters, with a severe skill penalty because I was clinging to the idol. Winning the fight, I collected an emerald, and then I assumed that it must be safe to get the other emerald eye since I had already triggered a trap, so this one must be fine...

Nope! I turned to a sudden death paragraph in which a jet of poisonous gas hit me full in the face and killed me, with no opportunity to test my luck or anything! Damn!


Barrington Boots

Well that's brutal. The Dungeon claims it's first victim... We should keep a tally of these and see how many times we collectively die before one of us cracks it.
I'm going to have another crack at CoT and then I'll give DD a try.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

Barrington Boots

Finally wrapped up City of Thieves but only after I basically skipped the Moon Dog fight. It's horrible!

Zanbar Bone's tower is a bit of a change of pace, being full of vampires and stuff, and the confrontation with the Night Prince himself involves a good dose of luck. It plays heavily into his supernatural powers and almost feels like another book, but not in a bad way.
Awesome gamebook. I'll be tackling Deathtrap Dungeon tomorrow!
You're a dark horse, Boots.

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

All this talk of gamebooks has led to me ordering a copy of House of Hell, as well as two modern 'choose your own adventure' books by Victoria Hancox: Nightshirt and The Alchemist's Folly. Looking forward to them, and once again you bastards are responsible for me spending too much money.

SBT

Dark Jimbo

Attempted Deathtrap Dungeon this weekend gone. My playthrough turned out to be almost exactly the same as Richard's, except that the stuffed flamingoes killed me before the poison gas could. Hardly the stuff great travelogues are made of... I'll try again soon.
@jamesfeistdraws

Barrington Boots

I've had my first crack at Deathtrap Dungeon and was killed by the same poisonous gas as Richard. That's all three of us so far killed in the same room. Not sure there's any way to know about the gas without making that mistake.
I took a slightly different route to get there, following the single set of footprints. That turned out to be the first of the other entrants, who I found dead.. I'm sure I remember reading that the true path requires passing all the other trialists so I'll take the same route next time, but watch what I stick my sword in as I had an unpleasant encounter with a big puffball. I did however have the rope, which enabled me to dodge the stuffed flamingo things.

How good is the Ian McCaig art is this book?

Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 23 February, 2022, 06:04:15 PM
All this talk of gamebooks has led to me ordering a copy of House of Hell, as well as two modern 'choose your own adventure' books by Victoria Hancox: Nightshirt and The Alchemist's Folly. Looking forward to them, and once again you bastards are responsible for me spending too much money.

Nice to see you chose an easy FF book!
Not heard of those Hancox books but they look interesting, please let us know what they're like!
You're a dark horse, Boots.

Barrington Boots

#160
Second attempt: took the same route, got about 3 paragraphs on from the idol and ended up drowning in a trapped room. I was very unlucky here with the dice, but wow, Baron Sukumvit is a dick!
For my third attempt, same route, I acquired some treasures (a ring, jewelled dagger) and defeated some insect-themed monsters but was killed again this time by a trapped mirror.
Neither of these warranted a cool writeup really. Score is now Dungeon 3, Boots 0.

This book is brutal. Both the idol trap and the mirror have no real warning or hint to help you avoid them - it's basically trial and error and neither were traps I remembered to avoid from my previous youthful playthroughs. A quick examination of an alternate path after i died also lead to an auto-death paragraph, so I basically hit a point where going West was death regardless.
I realise this makes a lot of sense for a place called 'Deathtrap Dungeon' where the bulk of entrants are not expected to survive, but what a step up in difficulty!
I've started mapping the place out for another run.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

Dark Jimbo

#161
Yeah, the game design on CoT is so good it felt like Sir Ian was really learning from past efforts (if you ignore Zanbar Bone's tower); but DTD suddenly takes us back to Firetop Mountain-levels of dickery (except that it's even worse!)

I really, really hate 'One True Path' game design - but I suppose that, back in the 80s, without internet and with only four channels on telly, this kind of value-for-money was what you wanted from a book you'd spent all your pocket money on.

@jamesfeistdraws

Richard

I completely agree; I especially dislike the ones where you don't find out you have followed the wrong path until you get to almost the very end (which is most or all of them). I much prefer a more flexible approach. But at least there is a plot-based reason for the one true path in this book.

And this book is also redeemed by some of the great monsters it has, like the Bloodbeast on the original cover.

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

Well, I've been playing Nightshift for an hour and have died three times. It's very good- surprisingly atmospheric, and unreliant on dice or magic wands/ complicated combat maneuvers. Very enjoyable so far, but that's enough for tonight.

SBT

Barrington Boots

I will check out Nightshift, cheers SBT!

On Deathtrap Dungeon / 'one true path' - I agree, yet I'm finding DD to be a lot of fun. I'm not sure how much of this is nostalgia - I suspect if I picked up a new book written in this way I'd get frustrated pretty quick - but because it's so horrifically unfair in places it feels like the only correct way to play this game is to play it over and over, dying again and again and fully exploring the place until you know all it's perils and pitfalls and can find the way through. It helps that the setting and the art are really good.

It'll be interesting to see how I feel about books like House of Hell which I recall being excruciatingly difficult but I didn't own as a kid so have less nostalgic affection for. For now I'm doing a composite playthrough writeup of DD.
You're a dark horse, Boots.