Gamebooks

[Barrington Boots]

I'm really enjoying reading other peoples playthroughs as well, and I'm glad some other people are enjoying this and not finding it tedious!

It's become a bit of a hobby project for me now... I started buying a load off ebay during the pandemic for a laugh, but now I've got a spreadsheet and have been hunting down odd FF books in charity shops and online auctions. Although I've no hope of getting a complete set, I do have a wife-enraging big pile of them..

Also everyone should play WotT. I have no idea why these weren't bigger at the time.

Also:

TEMPLE OF TERROR

Played this before, but about 30 years ago, so it's all new to me, basically.
This one seems to be a nice little followon from Forest of Doom: it starts with a nice little scene-setting paragraph about some evil dude called Malbordus who is going to lead the Dark Elves to take over the world by finding some magic dragon statues and raising a dragon army. Then the scene cuts to Stonebridge, where I'm chilling out after finding the Kings magic hammer in FoD when Yaztromo rocks up and asks for a single volunteer to go stop Malbordus. All the dwarves hide in their beards and it's down to yours truly to stop him!

Yaztromo offers to teach you three spells at the start: he's made it clear I'm going to a big abandoned city in the desert, so I choose Create Water, Open Door and Read Symbols as these all seem like they'll be useful in an environment like that. He also says I've two routes: Overland, or via boat through Port Blacksand. Common sense says avoid the city of thieves, so I take the latter.

Whilsting cheerfully I strike out overland. Soon I spot a couple of Dark Elves attacking a simple homesteader - I rush to help, it's too late but I polish off the evil-doers and take their bow and two arrows (all the rest are in the homesteader, I assume). Good to get some Dark Elf killing practice in early! Further on I find a sinister looking, smoking amulet emblazoned with an M that the text says might have been dropped by Malbordus, do I want to pick it up? I certainly do not.
After losing 6 stamina fighting a random harpy, Yaztromo takes pity on me and sends an eagle to pick me up and take me to the desert. I'm zipping along like that kid in the Neverending Story when we're attacked by a Pteranadon. I now have to run a fight between the eagle and the pteranadon - problem is the eagle is terrible, and when it loses I plunge to my doom.

Attempt 2

Trying again, it looks like the eagle fight could be mandatory, so I decide to go via Blacksand. I haggle for passage there at reduced rate and am soon in the City of Thieves. This version of me is a bit more wary, so I carefully move through the city streets, treating everyone like a potential thief or enemy. Eventually I find a sailor pub, buy myself passage and a round of drinks for some clumsy oaf and head to sleep.
Next morning I'm up bright and early, discovering to my mild horror that I have enlisted on a pirate ship. Said ship is immediately sunk in battle:I float about for days hanging onto a mast, losing stamina and wishing I had stayed in Stonebridge, before washing up on a beach which the text says has no coconuts on it.
I head overland into the blistering heat of the desert of skulls, battling insects and discovering oddities in the sand. My spell of create water comes in handy here to keep me alive - eventually my trek leads me to the tent of Abjul the merchant. He generously gives me all the food and water I need, so to return the kindness I buy an Onyx Egg, a Bracelet of Mermaid Scales & a Crystal Key, using up the last of funds (cant imagine I'll need these in the lost city)
Back into the desert - I am attacked by, and kill a giant sandworm but the fight is a very tough one and I am not left in the best of states - something not helped by the freezing desert night, where lacking any sort of flame I freeze. Now in single digits stamina the next thing I do is stick my hand between two rocks and get stung by a scorpion for a further 4 stamina damage.
Probably hallucinating madly at this stage, I examine what I found in the sack and it's some kind of little pixie dude in a jar, who when I free from his confinement tells me to fashion a headscarf from a sack. With my headscarf and my create water spell, but on my last legs, I stagger around in the desert until - what is this? The lost city of Vatos lies before me, nestled in the dunes. I have arrived at my destination!

I use my open door spell to get in, forgetting this will cause me stamina damage. Inside I find a pretty neat helmet that increases my skill. But any good cheer I might have is extinguished when I encounter a terrible phantom - the MESSENGER OF DEATH. "DEATH" it whispers to me before vanishing, and I realise I'm stuck in some kind of weird scavenger hunt: the creature will be hiding the letters D-E-A-T-H in my path, and if I find them all, it appears and kills me. Contrived, but very cool.

I'd better tread carefully, I think to myself. Of course, the first thing I do after that is open a door to find a room contaning a giant centipede that rushes out and kills me.
Wow, that's hard, I think.... 

...who forgot he was carrying provisions? Gah!

Aside from my rank stupidity, I really enjoyed this one. The trip through the desert felt pretty epic and the messenger of death is a neat concept: I'll be opening doors, boxes etc looking for dragon trinkets, and presumably finding letters along the way.
Only downer I would say is the art: the cover is a lovely Chris Achilleos, but I'm less keen on the interior stuff by Bill Houston. The monsters look suitably twisted, but also lack a bit of menace and his humanoid faces look a bit off. That's a minor nitpick though. Definitely going to try this one again.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Feck, there's a lot going on there!  Shame about the abrupt ending - you wouldn't want to be relying on FF books for a cinematic finale. 
I think I had this book, but don't remember a thing about it except the artwork (which was indeed a bit ropey in the interior).  Better than most of Proteus' art though.

[Barrington Boots]

I'll have another go at the weekend as I'd like to take it through to the end. There were some pretty severe stamina losses, but I could have offset those through provisions if I wasn't such a dunce.

On a FF-related note, it's Freeway Fighter apocalypse day:
https://officialfightingfantasy.blogspot.com/2022/07/21-july-2022.html

[Dark Jimbo]

Great stuff! ToT is the only (Titan-based) Sir Ian book from the original run that I don't own. Love that it's a fairly direct sequel to Forest of Doom! A series first, right?

Interesting that you mention provisions. I've played another three or four FF books that I haven't posted about yet (I've jumped ahead a bit to the late 20s, simply owing to which books I own) and provisions have suddenly become almost non-existent. At the same time, enemies' average Skill levels have dropped to a more manageable level (7-9 rather than 9-11). Presumably this was based on reader feedback of the first 20 or so books?

[Barrington Boots]

That is interesting. If it is based on feedback then I'm good with that - I'd much rather fight a bunch of more reasonably skilled enemies and not have the provisions. I'm keen to do ToT again but there's a SK10 ST20 (I think) Sandworm fight in there that is putting me off, unless I max my own stats.
I get the idea of wanting certain monsters to appear like a threat, but I think it could be done in a cleverer way than just whacking its skill up. I guess it's easy to criticise in retrospect.

You mentioning not owning some books reminds me I've got a handful of spare FF books from job lots that I've picked up. I should offer them to others here.

[Dark Jimbo]

It's lovely not having to remember to sit down and eat! One less worry to keep track of, and avoids incidents like you've just had (I'm pretty sure I only died on my City of Thieves playthrough because I blundered into a fight having forgotten to eat a meal or two first).

You mentioning not owning some books reminds me I've got a handful of spare FF books from job lots that I've picked up. I should offer them to others here.

Yep, I've got some doubles too.

[Funt Solo]

I'm going to be contrary and upvote the provisions mechanic - but then I like numerical strategy. If you're 3 away from max. stamina, and you think you might be close to a dangerous encounter, do you eat provisions and waste a point, or do you keep your powder dry and save it for later.

That right there is an interesting gameplay decision.

If it weren't for provisions, I might have to consider taking the Potion of Stamina - which seems like overkill when you have 40 stamina points worth of healing already on board.

[Dark Jimbo]

If it weren't for provisions, I might have to consider taking the Potion of Stamina...

Don't worry, they ditch the Potions as well! 😄

I don't mind either mechanic per se, but I'd generally prefer to find/buy the gear during the adventure.

[Richard]

Lack of provisions makes FF 21: Trial of Champions impossible to complete!

[JayzusB.Christ]

I think Seas of Blood was the last one I ever bought.   You used days of rest rather than provisions to regain stamina, but there was a time limit. Made a bit more sense than the idea of a packed lunch healing sword wounds, but then again I never really questioned the idea of arcade game heroes finding ham haunches in piles of tyres that fixed them up after a hiding.

Actually now I think of it, the last one I read was probably The Riddling Reaver - a multiplayer job that needed a dungeon master. I never actually played it but read repeatedly up until my 20s - one of the most atmospheric FF books out there.

[Funt Solo]

Deathtrap Dungeon - 2nd playthrough

I managed to get half way last time, but got murdered by the minotaur (due to my lackluster skill of 9). I used a house rule (roll 4D6, apply as you wish for stats) to get myself skill 11, stamina 16, luck 11 and tried it again.

Man, though: this book is brutal towards the end! Even with the good stuff circumventing the T-Rex, there was still a tough battle with the ninja, the bloodbeast and then finally the manticore, which murdered me!

I'm sensing this is a book that absolutely requires a skill of 12. Even there, there's a really useful item that allows you to circumvent a major battle, but getting that item drops your skill by one. There's a possibility of a chain mail shirt earlier in the book that gives +1 skill, but the rules say you can't go above your initial skill. Maybe I can keep it and only apply the +1 when I lose a skill point?

This book makes me want to play with the rules on skill a little bit. I don't recall much beyond the first book that actually does adjust your initial skill (there's a sword in Warlock). But there are skill+ items. I think I need to replay this with skill 12, but even then it's going to be a close run thing. That paragraph about there being an easy path that anyone could win on - that's just bollocks!

Oh, and my stamina is pretty low - given the number of high skill fights I get into. Not what you'd call a well-balanced book.

[Barrington Boots]

Deathtrap Dungeon is incredibly brutal. I don't think it's possible to complete with a skill of less than 11, and you can say the same of IotLK and CotSW.
I've seen a lot of people saying they allow themselves skill bonuses from items in combat but not on skill checks, which is logical imo but also kinda against the rules: I think it's your book and you should play it your way though. Better than skipping fights after a while which I definitely did as a kid.
Funt, if you got to the Manticore you were almost at the end!

Actually now I think of it, the last one I read was probably The Riddling Reaver - a multiplayer job that needed a dungeon master. I never actually played it but read repeatedly up until my 20s - one of the most atmospheric FF books out there.

Love this book. I've ripped bits of it off for D&D campaigns in the past.

[Barrington Boots]

You mentioning not owning some books reminds me I've got a handful of spare FF books from job lots that I've picked up. I should offer them to others here.

So at the moment I have spare copies of:

Forest of Doom
Island of the Lizard King
Scorpion Swamp
Rebel Planet
Demons of the Deep
Sword of the Samurai

Trade or free (pay postage) to anyone who wants them on this thread.

They're all puffin originals, with the green stripe (no Wizard / Scholastic rubbish here!) from cheap job lots I've picked up. All a bit tatty, faded spines etc as you'd expect, and not played by me.
I was hanging onto them till I had another couple and then thinking of ebaying them as a lot myself, but I'd much rather someone here had them if they're wanted.

[Funt Solo]

I think I've been misunderstanding the Skill rules for decades - they are somewhat ambiguous. Here's Warlock's blurb (repeated in most of the books):



I'm spotting the difference between the language of "SKILL score", and then just "SKILL", or "SKILL bonuses". There seems to be a suggestion that a Magic Weapon with a skill bonus increases your skill (potentially beyond the initial value), as long as you wield it, because it's a bonus, rather than a permanent adjustment to your initial skill value. I wonder what the intention was - and whether anyone's ever asked Ian or Steve.

There is an explicit sense of this dynamic in Warlock (entry #27), when you find an enchanted sword. That entry is very clear - saying boost your current skill by 2 (and raise your initial skill by 2, but only as long as you wield it). That feels very much like the intention for all magic weapons - you bump the initial value up temporarily as long as you're using the item. Another way of saying it is it's a bonus. This feels a lot like an Attack Strength bonus, but perhaps you would use the magic sword also to take down a door during a skill test.

I know they wanted the books to be simple, rules-wise, but this ambiguity, and the difficulty of some of the books, makes me wonder at the intention. Island of the Lizard King has the Fire Sword, for example, which (if you're reading the rules as never go above initial skill ever) provides no bonus at all if you're max-skilled and up against the 11/11 black lion.

You could extend this out to magical apparel - Deathtrap Dungeon has the Amulet of Strength (+1 SK) and Chainmail Coat (+1 SK), which are pointless if you're max-skilled (which really you have to cheat and set to 12 at the beginning to have any hope of success). Using these as magic items that provide a bonus would give someone with a natural skill of 9 or 10 a chance of winning the book.

Oh well, I suppose if it's ambiguous, it's up to me how I interpret it.

[Barrington Boots]

Oh well, I suppose if it's ambiguous, it's up to me how I interpret it.

Definitely this, I think.

I've completed Temple of Terror at last - the desert / journey to Vatos bit feels epic, but it's by far the smallest part of the book as what follows is a full-on dungeon crawl. It took me a long time to finish until I worked out that to get one of the 5 dragon statues you need to have made what looks to be the wrong decision earlier in the book.

There's a couple of very hard fights in the book and the two villains are rather underdeveloped - old Malbordus at the end is pretty rubbish - as well as a few points where the book will say 'do you want to use item a, b or c if you have them' and there's no clue as to which will work and monsters being scared / depowered seemingly at random. There's also a point at the end where a dwarf shows up from Yaztromo and gives you an item and dies which is annoying - how did he get ahead of me? Why didn't the two of us start out together? This would have worked better if, say, Yaztromo had sent him via the route I didn't take at the start as insurance (this also offsets him basically saying 'the world will be destroyed if we don't stop Malbordus, I'll send one under-equipped guy'). I think overall it suffered a bit from going from the longer form WotT / Freeway Warrior books to this, which is a bit more basic.

On the flip side I really liked the 'reverse' scavenger hunt from the messenger of death and the deserty / tomb setting: this book was a lot of fun.