Gamebooks

[Funt Solo]

Deathtrap Dungeon

Skill: 9      
Stamina: 17      
Luck: 11
Potion: Fortune


Trap #1 – Spore Ball
Despite my misgivings, I crawled over the spore ball rather than attacked it, because whoever was in front of me must have done the same thing.

Trap #2 – Oven Tunnel
I drank the clear liquid, which made me immune to the extreme heat. (This was nerve-wracking as drinking any unidentified liquids in dungeons can curse you horribly or even kill you.)

Trap #3 – Pit Room
I looked through the little window before entering, so I could see there was a pit behind the door. I leapt over, grabbed the rope and moved on. Lucky there wasn't a secondary trap.

Trap #4 – Orc Ambush
I got surprised and hit in the leg before fighting two orcs to the death. Despite my mediocre skill with a blade, I managed to beat them without being wounded further.

Trap #5 – Goblet Shrine
The spikey, spring-loaded floor trap has already done for one of the barbarians, and I'm left pondering whether or not to drink the red liquid in the goblet. Red is a sign of danger, and the last liquid I drank was beneficial, so this seems too dangerous and I skip it. I do rummage through the barbarian's loin-cloth and eat some of the dried meat I found in there. That doesn't sound wise, but it was pretty tasty and I felt better for it.

Trap #6 – Bejeweled Idol Cavern
I climb up (using my rope) and pry out one of the emerald eyes of the giant statue. I get horribly mauled by two flamingo-golems, only surviving by praying to Sindla. I am about to pry out the second eye when I get a vivid vision of my own ghastly death, and decide against it. I retrieve my rope and move on after eating some provisions, and drinking my potion.

Trap #7 – Flooding Chamber
I answer incorrectly to a disembodied voice, and the room fills with water. I manage to smash through the door and escape.

Trap #8 – Giant Fly Brooding Chamber
I disturb a nest of giant maggots (to retrieve a well-crafted dagger) and am attacked by their enormous mother, who I dispatch.

Trap #9 – The Petrifying Riddle-Master
A powerful mage has turned the knight (another contestant) into stone. I must answer his riddle to escape the same fate. It is a logic puzzle, which I solve, and I am rewarded and sent on my way.

Trap #10 – Animated Skeleton
I fight an animated skeleton for a scroll that warns of danger from a manticore's tail.

Trap #11 – Skull & Crossbows
An elaborate trap is circumvented as I use the supplied bowling balls to knock the skull from the plinth – my reward is two gems.

Trap #12 – Mirror Demon
I smash one of the mirrors giving strength to the demon, which dismisses it – but I am badly wounded in my sword arm, and am not sure how long I will survive in this weakened state.

Trap #13 – Dwarven Taskmaster
I have been badly wounded in a fierce battle with a cave troll. The taskmaster I have beaten at dice, and managed to defeat his cobra. When I come to fight the fearsome minotaur in the arena, though, I am bested, and bleed to death on the dusty floor.


Post-Match Interview

There's a game – FTL – that punishes you for making stupid decisions, which sort of teaches you the rules of the game, so that next time you play you're better. Like, it's possible to beam your crew onto a computer-controlled enemy ship – only to find that it has no oxygen and your crew are suffocating. You look at the little dial that indicates how long they've got, as it rapidly reduces. You look at the little dial that is powering up to your next use of the teleporter and realize it's not moving as rapidly. Even before they all die and you lose the game, you can see it happening in slow motion, and you know you cannot help them. Won't make that mistake again.

In Deathtrap Dungeon, your death is so random. There's that fucking idol with one death-eye! You need to avoid the initial 50/50 option and then, assuming you survive the two guardians, you get offered it again. Chance of avoiding death from this trap through coin-flipping your options is 25%. I only survived here through prior knowledge. There is a notion of quit while you're ahead with treasures, so maybe going for the second eye is too greedy, but it's just a coin flip to survive at all.  I suppose the book's title should have warned me!

Ultimately, there are lots of high skill monster fights in this one, so it feels like a skill of 9 just isn't going to cut it – mine got reduced down to 8 by the time I faced the minotaur, and I'd drained all my luck defeating the cave troll.

[Dark Jimbo]

In Deathtrap Dungeon, your death is so random. There's that fucking idol with one death-eye! You need to avoid the initial 50/50 option and then, assuming you survive the two guardians, you get offered it again. Chance of avoiding death from this trap through coin-flipping your options is 25%. I only survived here through prior knowledge. There is a notion of quit while you're ahead with treasures, so maybe going for the second eye is too greedy...

The artwork does clue you in as to which eye is the safe one... but I agree with you, a stupidly hard (and unfair book).

[Barrington Boots]

It's definitely an unfair book, but I prefer it to say, Snow Witch where it's masses of extremely tough fights rather than insta-deathtraps.

I've been thinking about this over the course of the last couple of books: why did I find DD fun, but CotSW and HoH less so? All three are extremely difficult with one narrow, pre-determined path that must be followed to finish.

I'm going to say myabe it's a combination of theme and nostalgia. DD is dripping with thematic awesomeness - from the lovely art to the setting and a whole concept that says yeah, this is going to be brutally unfair. It's a puzzle that requires unlocking through foreknowledge, like that film where Tom Cruise is fighting some aliens and keeps dying over and over.
HoH is also very thematic, but I guess I just didn't buy into that theme as much. It's still a puzzle and it's actually much cleverer than DD but I just didn't find it as satisfying. And the art is bogus.
CotSW kind of falls between the two. A lot of it's difficulty came from repeated horrible battles: I think of the three it was the least satisfying for me to complete. I felt less like I'd solved a puzzle and more like I'd finished a gruelling long distance race. Typing this now I think I found being brutally killed a dozen times in DD to be part of the fun, whereas in the other books I found it a bit frustrating.

It'd be foolish to say that nostalgia though isn't a factor: I played DD hundreds of times as a kid and although I did play HoH I didn't like it, so I came into it on a bit of a downer. I'd never tackled Shareella before so I was coming at that book purely as an adult (a nerdy one on a gamebook binge, but nonetheless).

Anyway - nice writeup Funt and I liked it being broken down into challenges / traps. I'm impressed you got passed the Idol room, foreknowledge or not, which I think killed everyone else on this thread.

[Funt Solo]

In Deathtrap Dungeon, your death is so random. There's that fucking idol with one death-eye! You need to avoid the initial 50/50 option and then, assuming you survive the two guardians, you get offered it again. Chance of avoiding death from this trap through coin-flipping your options is 25%. I only survived here through prior knowledge. There is a notion of quit while you're ahead with treasures, so maybe going for the second eye is too greedy...

The artwork does clue you in as to which eye is the safe one... but I agree with you, a stupidly hard (and unfair book).

I was looking at that, but I couldn't figure out which left they meant - my left (sitting on the bridge of its nose, facing towards it?) or its left. And is the art depicting score marks, or gem sparkle? I'm still none the wiser.

[Richard]

I didn't like Blanche's art when I was a kid but now I think it's fabulous. I think Scholastic Books have replaced it though.

I was wrong about this, I've just seen Scholastic's The Crown of Kings in Forbidden Planet and it still has Blanche's art... although they don't seem to have reproduced it very clearly.

[Funt Solo]

Island of the Lizard King

Skill: 12      
Stamina: 24      
Luck: 7
Potion: Fortune


Specimen #1 – Gigas Brachyura
The rumors are true, then! A crab grown to gigantic proportions (which, unfortunately, murdered poor Mungo) as a by-product, no doubt, of the alchemical experiments of the Lizard King. As with its smaller brethren, this version also burrows in the sand to escape the day's heat. I dispatch it, for safety reasons (and to stop it from mauling Mungo's corpse) – the beast is strong, and draws blood.

Specimen #2 – Paludis Hoppius
A small, amphibious humanoid beckons me follow it across the marshes of the deep jungle. He is an agile fellow, and I have difficulty maintaining the pace. When he changes direction for deeper water, I opt to strike out alone.

Specimen #3 – Gigas Sanguisuga
Fascinating, yet acutely painful – I am infested with enormous swamp leeches and forced to dissuade them with salt from my rations. Like the crab on the beach – these are beyond the normal limits of size witnessed thus far in the known realms. I must sketch one!

Specimen #4 – Gigas Lacerta
Above the swamp lands, and into the rocky foothills of the island's volcano – I am set upon by yet another gigantiform – this a hungry lizard! I am protected by a helmet I found by chance, and so the battle goes well for me. The creature was an adult male, and this is to the good – it would not do for me to depopulate the island.

Specimen #5 – Ingens Veru Rubeta
Attempting to quench my thirst at a watering hole, I am confronted with a mega-toad which spits acidic venom as an introduction. I wish to study the creature but it lollops towards me intent on having a meal, so I am forced to dispatch another of this fascinating island's fauna.

Specimen #6 – Lacerta Bipedalis (Ignis Insula)
While lizard folk are common enough on the mainland, these specimens are a particularly hardy breed, and have set themselves up in the slave trade. While magnificent, I cannot let them stand in the way of the free passage of naturalism, and quickly put them out of their misery. I calculate that a full examination of the island cannot be achieved without the removal of the local hegemony, and so aim to foment a popular uprising.

Specimen #7 – Ursus Arctos Horribilis
Evidence, while I am slightly mauled by a ravenous grizzly, that normal-sized fauna exists alongside the mutations. So, have the mutations occurred only to particular species? The grizzly was malnourished, though: perhaps the oversized mutations are reducing the available nutrients of the island?

Specimen #8 – Collis Troglodytarum
While I seek a feather to tie in my hair in order to introduce myself to the hermit shaman, who knows how to remove the power of the Gonchong from the Lizard King, and thus enable the popular uprising of the slaves I freed from the mines – I almost run directly into a hungry hill troll, and am forced into another fight for my very life!

Specimen #9 – Novacula Maxilla
Like nothing I have ever seen before – a sulfur-loving batch of large, leathery eggs that, upon my approach, hatched a hideous, razor-toothed, eyeless serpent – intent on me as its first meal. Its lightning speed meant that, without the well-wrought helmet I found earlier, I would surely have perished on its initial assault.

Specimen #10 – Ingens Spicatae Lacertae
Worse than a lizard folk warrior, is one mounted on an enormous, armored lizard reminiscent of a rhinoceros but with its own natural gorget! My entreaties to parley are not heeded, and I find myself once again tending to my own wounds while bemoaning the loss of a fabulous brace of specimens.

Specimen #11 – Circulus Luscus
Taking part in the uprising, I take note of a singular creature – an enormous humanoid with but a single eye positioned immediately above its nose. Unfortunately, it also took an interest in attempting to dissect me with a battle axe at least twice my height. Bleeding and grazed, I stand atop the fabulous corpse and rally my insurrectionists. For naturalism!

Specimen #12 – Niger Leo
The Lizard-King is protected by a fierce pet – an over-sized, black-furred lion, which I meet in a fight to the death! I emerge badly mauled, but having dispatched the beast. Now I must face its owner...

Notes from a bloodied journal sold in Port Blacksand.


Post-Match Interview
What a roll for skill and stamina! My luck was the lowest, at 7 – but I actually succeeded in my first six luck roles, and gained the occasional point back. Blessed by Sindla, apparently.

When I found the Shaman, I failed one of his tests and so he didn't tell me the secrets of how to defeat the Gonchong. I didn't know if that meant I would lose the book, but figured I'd carry on and see if I could remember what to do from playing this book in years past.

Unfortunately, I didn't find myself a fire sword and, when my monkey scared the Lizard-King, I failed my luck test and was murdered! That low luck eventually did for me.

[Richard]

So near to the end too! I'm indignant at the sheer injustice!

[Dark Jimbo]

Brilliant take on one of my favourite gamebooks!

[Richard]

FF11: Talisman of Death

I've never played this book before, having bought it just this week. I know nothing about it, except Mr Boots' playthrough above, and I've forgotten all the choices he made. I start with skill 10, stamina 21, luck 7 and the Potion of Fortune.

After collecting the Talisman of Death I am offered the choice between heading though a forest, or taking a more direct route through an open plain. Since I already have hundreds of baddies looking for me, I choose the forest where I will be concealed, instead of the riskier plain. I encounter a wolf, and given several options I elect to offer it food, for which the book rewards me with more food. I then encounter a band of warrior-women, and given four options of how to handle them I choose a pretty terrible one which results in them confiscating my sword (for a loss of 2 skill points) and, a couple of paragraphs later, the Talisman!

Since my mission is to take the Talisman back to Earth with me, away from the world of Orb, this is something of a setback. But I remember that this happened to BB too, and he got it back, so I am not disheartened. The Street of Seven Sins sounds appealing, so I go that way and am attacked by an invisible monster. Fortunately I had the sense to throw some blood-stained sawdust at it as it was advancing, so I can sort of see it well enough to fight it. Nevertheless I still lose 12 stamina points, even though I had one more skill point than it did! I eat some provisions, and then get attacked by a Death Knight with a Skill of 10! With defeat looming, I am rescued by an unlikely rescuer, and pick up a magic sword, restoring my own skill. This is a surprisingly forgiving development, and not the only one like it in this book.

Walking along the street, someone drops a charm on the floor in front of me, without noticing. Given the choice between stealing it for myself and handing it to its owner, I do the right thing and am rewarded with a luck point -- but in the very next place I go to, as soon as I arrive I am asked if I have this very same charm. Did I just fuck up? Well I am not cheating on this playthrough, so I grit my teeth and venture into the Red Dragon Inn with no charm except that with which I was born. This inn turns out to be the roughest dive you could ever hope not to blunder into, full of scumbags, thieves and murderers. Fortunately the barman warns me about who to steer clear of, and I chat to some much nicer thieves who tell me where I can find the Thieves' Guild, and we agree to meet there tomorrow. After all, I am going to need some help getting the Talisman back. Leaving the inn, I am rewarded with a luck point just for making it out of there alive!

The next day I go to the Guild (and there is a clever anti-cheating device here to filter out people who have not learned where it is). I meet the Guildmaster, and out of four possible options of things to say to him I manage to choose one that gets me killed instantly! However, instead of the adventure ending, I am directed to another paragraph, where the gods of Orb give me another life! With my scores back to their Initial levels I am transported back in time to earlier in the adventure, with the Talisman back in my possession!

(This reminds me of Night of the Necromancer, where there is a similar resurrection device. It feels right, in terms of plot, because it was already established in the introduction that I am a tool of the gods, so it's not such a cop-out as in The Forest of Doom where if you make it through the forest without both parts of the hammer you just walk round to the beginning and pop back in.)

This time I decide to explore a different route through the book. That turns out to be a stupid mistake, because instead of repeating my very sensible and prudent choice of travelling through the woods where I can't be seen, I decide to travel through the open plain, where I am pursued by dozens of orcs and Dark Elves. Too many to fight, I somehow manage to stay ahead of them until I run into the band of warrior-women I met last time. This time I am more careful about what I say, and they let me keep my sword and the Talisman, and escort me to the city.

In the city, I go down different streets to last time, and I collect some chainmail. An Envoy of Death tries to take the Talisman from me, and this time I manage to hold on to it. This encounter is described very well, and is an example of one of the strengths of this book -- there is generally better description all round, and it really brings this world to life. It's just fun to read.

However, not long after that I fall into a trap in which the Talisman is taken from me (after all that effort!). Someone rescues me, and offers me bread and board for the night, but the book insinuates that he is not to be trusted, so I decline and sleep rough instead. I am then murdered by an Ogre. This time I am not offered another life, and so my adventure ends here. (Looking back at BB's playthrough, I should have accepted the help!)

This book is really good. As I've said, it is written well. I am pleased that every choice you are offered is a real choice, with obvious pros and cons, instead of the "left or right?" nonsense in some other books. In some encounters you are offered more than two choices, and frequently as many as four. The art is excellent, and flicking though the book there are some great and intriguing pictures, although so far I have managed to avoid succumbing to the temptation to read about them, since I am trying to preserve the mystery of this book for as long as possible, and to complete it legitimately. It's very enjoyable, and I would recommend it to people who don't already have it. There are not too many fights (so far), and the fights are not unfair, although the Envoy of Death does take a skill point for every time he wounds you (but you get all but one of them back if you win).

I did not do nearly as well as Barrington did on his first go, but I did feel that I was starting to make progress. I'm going to give it another go now, although I might not write it up today.

[Funt Solo]

Brilliant take on one of my favourite gamebooks!

I wouldn't have place Island of the Lizard King so highly prior to starting this play through, but it's a really solid book that tends to punish you a little for not always having the correct item, without killing you outright. Plus, you're on a noble quest.

Ranking the first seven books:

1st: Island of the Lizard King
2nd: City of Thieves (loses first place because there's a vampire living with Zanbar Bone)
3rd: Deathtrap Dungeon (does what it says on the tin, which can be frustrating)
4th: Forest of Doom (I like the dynamic of circling around for another go)
5th: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
6th: Citadel of Chaos
7th: Starship Traveller (too many random encounters)

---

Nice write up on Talisman, Richard. I'm looking forward to getting to that one.

[Funt Solo]

Scorpion Swamp

Skill: 9
Stamina: 17
Luck: 11




Post-Match Interview
Well, the sword trees got me the second time around, when I was forced to encounter them! I don't really like the structure of this book - it is interesting to see an attempt to allow you to retrace your steps, but it removes a lot of the narrative agility of the other books.

As far as the adventure, the Master of Wolves was a bit of dick, then leeches did D6+1 damage, then the sword trees were tough as nuts (basically, the exact stats I had, so I lucked through the first fight), but retreating from the dire beast in the dead end clearing made it so I had to face them again. Deadly!

[Barrington Boots]

Some great writeups there. Glad you enjoyed Talisman Richard - it is written well and the choices feel like 'real' choices, so much so as when there was a bit near the end where I was offered a 'go left or right' choice I felt a little nervous because it was the first uninformed choice I'd had to make.
Look forward to hearing how it goes with your next try!

Intrigued by Funt's ranking I think I'd go with (from the ones I've played so far):

Deathtrap Dungeon
City of Thieves
Talisman of Death
Island of the Lizard King
Forest of Doom
Caverns of the Snow Witch
Citadel of Chaos
Scorpion Swamp
House of Hell
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Starship Traveller

Not an easy task to rank them as beyond the bottom three I've enjoyed them all.

[Barrington Boots]

SPACE ASSASSIN

This is another new one for me and there's a new stat this time: armour, which blocks enemy hits but also degrades with each hit. My starting armour is a meagre 7 but I then have to roll for my starting gear and get 12, so I decide to take a massive gun and increase my armour a bit. Having a random roll determine the quality of my starting equipment feels a bit Chainsaw Warrior (if anyone has played that), but I think I did ok here.

The backstory is that an evil scientist overlord type is going to use my planet for some vile experiment and I. as a crack assassin, need to get onboard his ship and bump him off. Without further ado the mission is underway. I stealthily board Cyrus's ship, the Vandervecken. Finding myself in a cargo bay I recover an odd device from corpse before entering a maintenance hatch and making my way into the ship. I drop out of a hatch, eliminate a guard robot and investigate the cells - one contains a battered old prisoner who clues me up (a little) on the ships pilot, the other a horrible little monster that damages my armour. My next stop is a lab where I ambush a pair of rodent scientists and steal their security keys, which enables me to get out of the maintenance ducts and into the ship proper. I easily defeat another security robot, find a safe with three buttons, press one of them at random and am immediately blown up and killed. GAME OVER.

Annoyed by that arbitrary sudden death I decide to 'rewind' and this time skip the safe altogether and exit via the security door. I push on through the ship, reading a book on molluscs and letting some strange alien squirrels loose. I am randomly attacked by some cleaners, who are surprisingly tough and utterly psychotic despite being armed only with vacuum cleaners - I'm not joking, this fight is horrible - their moderate skill scores mean I am taking 2 /3 hits a round until I start whittling their numbers down a bit which reduce me from 21 stamina to 9, despite not missing a single attack (and the cleaners missing several) and I am forced to eat a load of energy bars to recover.
Having vanquished the mighty cleaners I press on down the corridor until it terminates and I am forced to crawl back into the maintenance hatch which eventually leads me to a floating path over some countryside that is still within this ship..? I follow this path to discover a strange lab where one of Cyrus's victims has been experimented upon: he gives me a vague FF-esque clue of always taking the centre path before passing out. I return to the ship, wipe out a couple of guards with my grenade, eat their sandwiches, then follow the victims advice (I think) to cross another hazard before running into a heavily armored, disintegrator-armed alien who requires me to answer a riddle to proceed. I was able to solve this (after a long think), once again take the centre path into a room with some floating black blobs of energy.  I try to dodge through them only to get immediately blown up again. GAME OVER AGAIN.

Out of the handful of FF books I picked up on ebay for this thread this one was the cheapest and I think I know why: it's not very good. It's not terrible, but it feels quite basic: it was, in effect, a dungeon crawl but on a spaceship, and the sci-fi elements didn't really feel that baked in either - it felt a little like a white label dungeon with a sci-fi skin over the top. The writing isn't great and there's very little atmosphere. Likewise my being an assassin wasn't really a factor as I just sort of blundered around answering riddles (there are several of these) and having super brief interactions with anyone who didn't shoot me on sight.
The extra rules for gunfights and armour sounded good, but were actually annoying as it meant loads of extra dice-rolling: in a gunfight I would roll for me to hit, roll damage, then roll for him to hit, roll armour - that's four rolls instead of two under the melee system and I forgot to roll armour when in my one melee fight with the cleaners which might have made it less deadly but would meant an extra 2 - 3 rolls per round as I fought three guys at once. By contrast I had to test my luck just once during the entire game.

I did play the book again over the weekend and was insta-killed another three times before getting to the end, which was a pretty derisory battle with Cyrus. In the end I discovered that the best bet is simply not to touch anything, as almost every time you're asked to pull switch A or B etc one of them is an insta-kill paragraph with absolutely no indication of which will kill you. If you do this, you can whip through the book pretty quickly. Terribly, paragraph 400 is only THREE SENTENCES LONG, one of which is 'Congratulations'. There's very little immersion or atmosphere in the book and this rubbish ending just about put the cherry on top. Oh, and I didn't even kill Cyrus, just captured him. What?

It's not all bad as the art here is really good and far better than in Starship Traveller. Lovely Chris Achilleos cover and the interior art is by the Prog (and Transformers) own Geoff Senior. Lots of great linework and unsurprisingly his robots, spaceships and future tech looks fantastic. I did like his picture of the psychotic cleaners. Flicking through there also seem to be a number of tentacles and squid monsters that I never encountered (that book on molluscs must have been useful after all!)

I was looking forward to this one, but art aside this is up there with Starship Traveller as the worst book in the series so far. It's very lightweight, contains a lot of unfair feeling deaths, and coming straight after HoH and ToD feels like a bit of a dud. I think it'd rank #11 out of 12 with these being a long way behind the other ten.
The familiar pages of Freeway Fighter is up next.

[Funt Solo]

Caverns of the Snow Witch

Skill: 8 [oh noes!]      
Stamina: 23      
Luck: 12
Potion: Fortune

House Rules
I know this one's a stinker on a low skill, due to the number of high stat enemies that you have to face, so I'm going to use a house rule that I've seen suggested. If I find an item that increases SKILL I'll allow it to go above my initial skill, up to a maximum of 12. I want to roleplay it, so if it's a weapon, then it'll increase my skill for combat (effectively a boost to attack strength), but if it's a skill test then I'll not apply the weapon bonus.

Apart from anything, this makes for a better user experience – it's a bummer when you get a boosted item if the boost doesn't apply because you haven't had the misfortune to lose any skill points yet. Like, it's a magic weapon, but you're preternaturally shit with a sword so the magic doesn't work on you. Capping at 12 seems reasonable, though – however magic your weapon, you can only get so good.

I'm also going to limit myself to one provision per entry, for recouping lost stamina. It feels silly, if you can just over-eat your way out of a health crisis.


Playthrough
Of course I walk over the ice bridge – it's more cinematic that way! It also adds tension, because I nearly slip and fall, and it cracks a bit – but my luck holds. Then, from out of the swirling mist – two snow wolves stalk me! I "do a Neeson" and take them on. I crawl away, barely alive, leaving a bloody trail on the snow.

A blizzard starts up (truly the path ahead of me is strewn with cowpats from the devil's own herd, as Blackadder would say), so I dig a snow shelter and wait for it to die down before moving on the next day. I raid a trapper's hut for extra weapons and a hot meal before following his tracks up the mountain – where I come face to face with a sad-faced yeti. I spear the beast, then hack it to death with my sword as it claws at me. I am barely alive, but the trapper has fared worse.

Rather than go back to Big Jim and claim my fifty gold pieces, for some reason I can't fathom I feel compelled to go into some evil witch's lair in the mountains that the dying trapper told me about. I meet an elf slave of the witch, who gives me his cloak as a disguise, and I get some cake given to me by a gnome in the kitchens. These ice caves are quite homely, really.

Not wanting to get in trouble, I stealth my way past some ice demon worshipers, rescue a dwarf, freak out an illusionist, get what I just *know* is a useless promise from a genie, run past a giant and then come face to face with a crystal golem that looks much more deadly than me. And so it proves.


Post-Match Interview
My first combat encounter, with the two snow wolves, brings me down to 5 stamina and 9 luck. I feel like I'm fucked before I even get started – and I know there's a tough as nuts yeti not too far off. Time to start nomming on some provisions. (Of course, the book then steals two of my provisions in a blizzard – fuck you, Sir Ian!)

I know from reading others' playthroughs that the war-hammer actually makes your life tougher later on (as it stops you from getting a genie-wish or something), but I pick up the weapons from the trapper's hut anyway because I also know that the spear is useful in my more immediate yeti encounter.

Well, as others have discovered, it's not really possible to complete this book without a higher skill setting at the outset.

[Dark Jimbo]

I know this one's a stinker on a low skill, due to the number of high stat enemies that you have to face, so I'm going to use a house rule that I've seen suggested. If I find an item that increases SKILL I'll allow it to go above my initial skill, up to a maximum of 12. I want to roleplay it, so if it's a weapon, then it'll increase my skill for combat (effectively a boost to attack strength), but if it's a skill test then I'll not apply the weapon bonus.

Apart from anything, this makes for a better user experience – it's a bummer when you get a boosted item if the boost doesn't apply because you haven't had the misfortune to lose any skill points yet.

I love this as a homebrew rule. It doesn't even feel like cheating, as skill-increasing items are hardly the most common of things - but at least now, if you roll a 7 or 8 Skill, it's going to feel like you have some kind of prospect of improvement ahead of you.

I know from reading others' playthroughs that the war-hammer actually makes your life tougher later on (as it stops you from getting a genie-wish or something)...

The only time in the whole book that the bloody genie actually comes good is in the fight with the Crystal Warrior, where he takes it out for you instantly - but only if you don't have the warhammer. If you do, then you have to fight it yourself, in which case the genie becomes the most useless aid it's possible to pick up! A truly bizarre bit of gamebook design which should never have made it past the first edit, frankly.