Gamebooks

[Barrington Boots]

Also, are there any fan blogs / sites, YouTube channels, FaceBook groups or Reddit communities dedicated to series' such as Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, CYOA, etc or just game-books in general...?

I've recently discovered Malthus Dire's Fighting Fantasy Page which is excellent:
http://ffreviewermalthusd.blogspot.com/

Some great ones on your favourite list and interesting you've mentioned Starship Traveller and Rings of Kether which I don't remember fondly and I think the former generally gets bad press. We're doing Starship Traveller next, why not join us and do a playthrough? My life has gone a bit weird lately but I'm hoping to have a go this week.
I'll check out those Lone Wolf reissues shortly...

[moly]

Batman's superior cousin - thank for the heads up with the lone wolf books, just placed an order for the first one but can see me ordering a load more soon

[Funt Solo]

My Lone Wolf collection was one of the things I let go during a big move years ago - and regret quite a lot. I bought some of the re-issued hardbacks that came out a few years ago - Dever had written in a whole new sequence featuring the attack on the monastery at the beginning of Flight From the Dark. It didn't add much, really - if anything, it made you too powerful going into the rest of the book.

I wonder if these new editions will use that version or the original. Maybe Project Aon could tell me. It's interesting that they mention rebalancing some of the gameplay, because it was definitely broken in places.

I had my students code up the combat system, and we discovered that the random number table isn't balanced and neither is the combat chart. There's no algorithm that you can apply to generalize the values - you just need to hard code them all in. I loved the stories, but the system itself is not robustly developed.

[sheridan]

Just finished reading through Starship Traveller and had mixed feelings on it.

Just as background, I much prefer the fantasy and specifically Titan-based gamebooks and have re-played those ones many times over the years (though there's quite a few of the later books that I've picked up in recent decades but not played at all yet).

As further background - I like sci-fi (as you might be able to tell from my continued posting on the forum of  the world's longest-running sci-fi comic) but my style of sci-fi leans more towards Alien and Star Wars than Star Trek, and this is a very Trekkie-style adventure.  Not that I dislike ST...

Anyway, for the actual book - there are some interesting rules regarding running a crew brought in, but for actual combat rules are not included in the intro (the reason given is "to allow you to start playing with minimal delay" - they're actually at the back of the book).  The story is not unlike Star Trek: Voyager in that you're a long way from home and the adventure is trying to get back to Alpha Quadrant our universe.  This is done by way of planet-of-the-week scenes, of variable quality.  It was 'fine' though I skip the die rolls and just going through the  motions to find out what happened next.  Which meant that by the time I got to a maze I wasn't taking time to make a map.  After spending about twenty paragraphs taking left/right turns without any descriptions on which one is best and which went round and round, revisiting the same paragraphs again and again (a bit like the Maze of Zagor but without any of the interesting bits at all).  So rather than go in to the other room to get a pen and paper to draw out the maze and try and figure out if it was just a waste of time or actually went somewhere I found an earlier paragraph from before I went to the maze and carried on from there.  I managed to find two 'keys' to get back to our universe but as I hadn't written them down I didn't know what numbers I needed to get back at the end.  I think psychologically "a key marked with the number 99" seems to require being noted on the adventure sheet while "you need to approach the black hole at warp speed three" didn't.


Think I'll dig out that flowchart from upthread to see if that maze actually went anywhere.




p.s. another - the main - reason that I skipped through this one was because I really like the next book in  the series and wanted to get on to it as soon as possible!

[Funt Solo]

++STARSHIP TRAVELLER SPOILERS AHOY!++

That maze is vital to solve the book, but if you take a wrong turn you get auto-killed. The stardate you need is much later. A bit like Warlock, there's no indication at any time whether a particular sector or stardate (the two numbers you need to win) is more or less likely to be successful.

[Richard]

City of Thieves play-through

Right, people are still welcome to play Starship Traveller if they want to, but I decided to move on to City of Thieves. I started with Skill 11, Stamina 20 and Luck 9, and the Potion of Stamina.

Arriving at Port Blacksand, I bluff my way past the guard and elect not to pay him for his proffered advice, because I assume he will tell me something worthless and waste my money. With three directions to choose from, I arbitrarily head East and talk to a man who turns out to be an insane maniac, of course (where did I think I was?). I kill him with ease, smash the glass globe he had with him and it produces a magic helmet which increases my Attack Strength in fights. A good start.

I enter the next house, and try to befriend the occupant by sharing my food with him, but he's an ungrateful dick so I murder him in his own home and nick all his gold, which is obviously quite alright because I'm on the side of Good or something. (I also take his gems, but I decide to leave the silk glove behind because it's probably cursed or something -- in these gamebooks, it doesn't pay to be greedy! Or to be ungrateful to people who give you free food.)

Outside, some kid is selling a health potion, or at least that's what he says but I don't trust him and walk on by. I am, after all, in the City of Thieves. However, my caution doesn't save me from being ambushed by three dwarves who knock me out and steal all my gold. (9 Luck points weren't enough!)

Waking up, I pop into a flower shop because I forget I have no money with which to buy anything, but the nice lady accepts payment in food. I am assured that the flower petals will turn into gold coins on contact with dogs' blood. In any other place, that might seem strange, but I take her word for it and buy some.  The man in the next shop, a jeweller, is less flexible about his prices, and so I kill him and steal his gold -- huzzah!

In the market square, some old lady picks my pocket and I lose one of my newly-acquired gold pieces. I ignore a musician because he's probably another thief. A strongman challenges me to a game of "catch the cannonball until one of us drops it," and I accept, but annoyingly the outcome depends entirely on chance and has nothing to do with my decent Stamina score, which seems unfair. I lose and it costs me 5 gold pieces. I buy some useful-looking items, and now I only have one gold piece left, which it turns out is not enough to pay Madam Star the Clairvoyant for her presumably useful info. Oh well.

Leaving the market, I go into another house, which turns out to be occupied by snakes for some reason. I kill them, and then find Nicodemus, the wizard I've been sent to find, living under a bridge. He tells me about all the things I need to defeat the evil Zanbar Bone. This is the thing I dislike about all of Ian Livingstone's books -- there's always a shopping list, and you need every item on it or you automatically fail. 

I head East again (it seems to be my default choice in this adventure) and meet a macabre man who offers me 20 gold pieces if I'll play a sudden death game with him. The odds are good and I need the money, so I play and win. I keep going east, but it's a waste of time, I'm not interested in engaging with any of the encounters that way, so I end up re-tracing my steps and heading west towards the harbour. I give a gold piece to a beggar, not to be generous but in the hope of maybe getting something in return, and am rewarded instead with the far superior gift of knowing I have done the right thing. Well I suppose it's better than murdering people just for pissing me off.

I explore a dubious alley and am attacked by wild dogs. Their blood and the magic flowers I bought produce more gold, and I'm now quite rich. I avoid a road-rage incident, and then sneak on board a pirate ship via a rope ladder and into the hold, where I steal some black pearls from a sleeping pirate -- the first of the five items I need to defeat Zanbar Bone!

Leaving the ship and heading east again, I walk past an injured child because I assume it's a trap, then buy a candle in a candle shop and then leave without checking out the magic candles in the back room because I assume it's a trap. I do visit the silversmith though, because I need a silver arrow, so I buy that. I head east again, ignore another man because he's probably a thief, and enter the sewer, just because I vaguely remember from the last time I read this book that it has something I need. Inside I fight some giant rats and then a hag, and take the third item I need from her corpse.

Back at street level, I'm attacked by three robbers. I kill them but they only have one gold piece between them. I enter a woman's house and pretend I'm a tax collector, and she gives me 12 gold pieces. I get what I deserve in the next encounter though, when I spend 20 gold pieces on some chainmail armour which turns out to be basically useless.

I make a citizen's arrest on a fugitive and get a small reward. I enter the public gardens and pick some black lotus flowers -- another essential item -- and fight some monsters that were guarding them. I go down a narrow alley and find a tattoo artist. Nicodemus said I need to get a tattoo of a unicorn on my forehead to protect me from Zanbar Bone's magic -- maybe because it will be so distracting that he won't be able to look in my eyes while he's hypnotising me?

With my new ridiculous tattoo, I now have everything I need to fight the big boss, so it's time to leave the city. As I'm leaving, I end up in a fight with two trolls in the city guard, the toughest opponents so far, but I manage to kill them and escape the City of Thieves.

I then receive a note from Nicodemus which says that I didn't even need all of those items after all. That seems a bit silly, coming as it does immediately after a paragraph where, if you don't have every single one of them, it sends you to an abrupt "you have failed" ending.

In the woods near Zanbar Bone's tower, I fight some random creature and the two of Zanbar's "Moon Dogs." Arriving at his tower, I kill his butler, who turns out to be undead but the silver arrow does its job (and I get to retrieve it for later). Offered a choice between two ornamental shields on the wall in the hallway, I choose the one with a unicorn on it, and it's the right choice. I assume that Zanbar is at the top of the tower, so I decide to ignore all distractions and climb the stairs to the top without exploring any of the rooms along the way -- with hindsight, this was probably a very serious mistake!

Arriving on the roof, I fight a couple of "Death Hawks", get some Stamina points back, and head down to the floor below to confront Zanbar Bone. I immediately run into a sudden death paragraph because I didn't have some other magical artifact nobody even told me I needed! It was probably somewhere in the tower...

[Funt Solo]

Ah - one of the best books in the series - City of Thieves!

Things start well, as I roll up a Skill 10, Stamina 20, Luck 11 hero! Luck's a core trait for me in these books - it can turn the tide of battle, so I also stock up on a Potion of Fortune. Stamina is taken care of with the provisions. Armed with a fancy sword from Silverton's mayor, and on a noble quest to save the town from the rampaging (and lusty) undead evil of Zanbar Bone, I head down to Port Blacksand to seek the help of the great wizard Nicodemus.

Having bluffed my way into the city, I lay out some serious coin on a skeleton key then almost immediately get peppered with arrows when calling the bluff of some street bandits. Nearly bleeding out I get bandaged up by a healer, who magics my sword off me as payment.

I figure if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, so I wander into someone's house and steal one of their magic brooches. Turns out the owner is a fire-breathing Lizardine, who I have to fight. I stumble out of the house with my bandages smoking and run into a couple of city guards who I have to fight to the death because I haven't got the right paperwork. Limping onward, I dumpster dive a pair of Elven boots, which make up for the sword I lost earlier.

The marketplace is lively - a bard sings me a song of fortune, I win a game of toss the cannonball, buy tons of kit because I'm feeling flush, have my fortune told by Madame Star, then drift on towards where she says Nicodemus lives. On the way I pop my head into an abandoned house and fight some snakes for my troubles.

Limping slightly, singed, bandaged and bleeding, I rock up to Nicodemus's grunge pad. He's like Gandalf on PCP - but once I get him to calm down he tells me a shopping list of all the things I'll need to defeat Zanbar Bone - including a fucking ridiculous tattoo right in the middle of my forehead. I'm not sure if he's serious or just shitting me, but I go off in search of four key items and a tattoo artist.

Wandering around town I play poison pill roulette with a death cultist, wander past some serious mental health issues in the low rent part of town and end up playing in a game of Bays' Ball. Somewhere around here I end up with a Potion of Mind Control, although I'm not entirely sure where I got that. I think Nicodemus might have spiked me, if I'm honest.

I head down towards the harbor whistling to myself - it's a pretty nice day, things have been looking up for once - I toss a coin to a beggar - then two wild dogs try to tear out my throat! Jesus - this city! Up ahead there's a pub and a pirate ship - and I sneak aboard the pirate ship. Don't ask me why! It would seem way more sensible to go to the pub, but ... like I said, I've been feeling pretty strange since having tea with Nicodemus. Anyway, I sneak aboard and filch one of my shopping list items off a pirate and get some information about where to get another required item made.

After a goblin ambush I get a bit vague about what happens next - although I feel really light-headed, and some things seem to be missing out of my pack, and my coin purse. Luckily, I have enough to pay for another item from my shopping list. After that - and, again, put this down to the special tea - I decide to climb down into the sewers. Normal people don't do this, but when you're an adventurer, and you drink special tea at the wizard's hovel, suddenly pirate ships and sewers are must-see destinations.

Down in the stink-tunnels I battle a giant centipede and several sewer rats before defeating and scalping a weird hag with my Potion of Mind Control. Beating up old homeless ladies in the sewer may seem mean, but she was pretty far gone in the head, and Nic said I needed some old lady hair to defeat the death metal rock lothario Zanbar Bone. Better her then me, basically.

A quick clamber back outside, pausing to chuck a throwing knife at a vagabond and I'm picking lotus flowers in the city gardens and being attacked by vicious topiary. A crowd has gathered. They whisper to each other and give me space. Someone calls the city guard - but the tea is really kicking in now and they look like fucking trolls, man! They threaten to lock me up but I bribe them and they quietly shove me out a side-gate and tell me to sleep it off in the woods.

I wake up the next morning after some hideous dream about fighting a giant snake, and there's some instructions next to me from Wizard Nic (how did they get here?) about how to make up a recipe to defeat Zanbar - but I have to guess the ingredients. I look in the mirror I think I found in the sewers and discover that, at some point yesterday, I did get that tattoo. Fuck! Was Nic even serious about that part? A fucking unicorn on my head! Jesus.

Anyway, I hike on over to Zanbar's tower, by which time it's dark again, and I nearly get killed by his enormous guard dogs. I sneak into his tower using that expensive key I got earlier, and start snooping around. Some garlic I filched off a pirate comes in handy in dissuading one of Zanbar's groupies, and I use a lantern from the market to set fire to an animated mummy. In the sarcophagus I find a piece of merch from that classic Nintendo 64 game - the Ring of the Golden Eye - you use it to see through illusions, like magic eye books and stuff.

I'm not entirely sure whether I've actually woken up at this point because things get pretty strange - there's a cat, but it turns into Zanbar Bone, and then there are dancing skeletons and I fire an arrow at Bone and then while he's down and twitching I rub some of that old homeless lady's hair in his face, and some other stuff, and he doesn't get up. I hitch a ride over to Silverton and I'm like "I killed Zanbar Bone! You're all free now! We're all free!" and people are crowding around and talking, and I think I hear sirens...

...can you hear sirens?

[Dark Jimbo]

City of Thieves

I've played this one once before. Either the FF Gods were on my side, or it's a very well-designed adventure, as I got all the way to the final confrontation with the big baddie, Zanbar Bone. Except that after doing everything right, the whole adventure ultimately comes down to a blind choice out of three. No clues. Just eeny-meeny-miney, and needless to say, I chose poorly - but this infuriating bit of typical Ian Livingstone game design came at the end of an otherwise superb adventure, so I'm rather looking forward to going back to tackling the Night King again...

The Playthrough
...and it isn't the best start. Skill 9, Stamina 17, Luck 8. Ouch. I'm really not sure how I came to be such a famed adventurer with those stats, and can only conclude that I'm actually a bit of a shyster, overfond of telling tall tales. Incredibly, the intro actually backs this up, saying how I love nothing more than having a whole tavern of adoring fans hanging on my every word. Never mind. It's unlikely that being a bit elastic with the truth over the years is ever going to come back and bite me on the - What's that? Mighty reputation? Moon Dogs? Zanbar Bone? Er, well, the thing is... Oh, you merely want me to enlist the services of Nicodemus the wizard. Well, of course, no problem. As long as I'm not going to have to go up against the Night King myself... Ahem.

So it's off to Port Blacksand, City of Thieves, and to be honest I get the feeling my character could be right at home, here. Once I've recruited Nicodemus, maybe I'll set up shop as one of the shady NPCs, bamboozling newcomers out of their gold with my flim-flam. You know, that doesn't sound too bad at all. I meander round the market and kill a mentally ill beggar and some snakes, but my heart's not in it. The plan is to breeze through the early sections of the city and give Nicodemus his quest as quickly as possible, so that I can get on with the serious business of earmarking a suitable tavern in which to set up shop. It will come as a surprise to exactly nobody that, when I finally track him down, he dodges out of the whole thing, landing yours truly right up to my neck in the brown stuff (no, wait - the sewer section doesn't come until much later, does it?).



I choose (grudgingly) to look upon this as a chance to make good on past misdemeanours. This time I'll come good. This time I'll actually be the hero that everyone thinks I am. No tall tales will be needed ever again. This time I really will beat the baddie, get the girl, and be someone who can bear to look at themselves in the mirror. Someone with a unicorn tattoo right in the middle of their face...

I go off down Candle Street, studying my shopping list, when I bump into a high stone wall blocking off the end of the street. There are growls and cheers coming from the other side, so I climb over to investigate. I find a group of goblin-like creatures playing a game that involves a stick, a ball, and a lot of running. These are Bays, playing their favourite game - Bays' Ball. Ba-Dum Tish. I join in and strike the winning hit, netting me all sorts of things apparently collected from down the back of the sofa - 8 gold pieces, a Potion of Mind Control, a silver flute, a piece of chalk, an eye-patch, and a bunch of bananas. I don't look this gift horse in the mouth, though - you never know what will come in handy.

As I arrive at the docks, my patron deity sends me a flash of inspiration, and I feel compelled to board one of the pirate galleons moored up at the wharf, suddenly convinced that black pearls are to be found on board... (aka I vaguely remember this bit from my last playthrough.) Failing a luck roll means having to fight pretty much every pirate on board - I won't be starting a career in cat-burglary anytime soon - but I emerge with one of the needed ingredients in my possession! There's not much else to do at the docks, although gossiping with the fishwives does give me a lead on one of the next ingredients...

It's off to the Silversmith next, who fashions me a Silver Arrow, and as I set off down Stable Street I spy a manhole cover in the ground. Thanks to my earlier hot tip, I'm straight down into what I'm 'disgusted to learn' is a sewer. What I thought would be beneath a manhole cover I'm really not sure. Three giant rats accost me, but they don't prove too difficult a foe, and then, round the corner, a 'hag' approaches. I mean, maybe she really is an evil spellcaster and not just a homeless old woman who's been seriously let down by Port Blacksand's lack of social care, but I never really find out. She certainly starts to chant something horrible at me, but before the curse can take effect (or otherwise), I've used the Potion of Mind Control to knock her out and I'm sawing off a hank of her hair. I'm obviously no fan of the mentally ill - which is an... er, interesting thing to learn about your character - as rather than just, I dunno, let her go, I deliberately elect to throw her into the sewage. Wow. Port Blacksand really is the place for me to put down roots.

But first I have to finish collecting the ingredients to defeat Zanbar Bone. With Hag's Hair in the bag, I'm wending my merry way north up Stable Street when three bully boys block my path, demanding money with menaces. I fancy I'm getting quite good at this hero business, now (look, nobody ever has to know what went down in the sewer, do they?) so I tell them where to go. One of them thinks I may have a point. Unluckily for them, I also have the rest of the sword to go with it...

Bravado's all very well, but it doesn't actually win fights. These boys give me a right pasting, the first serious tussle I've had in the city, and it's a somewhat woozy and bloodied adventurer who eventually continues up Stable Street. One house stands out among the sandstone terraces - it's made of white-painted brick, and has a door with a serpent's head carved on it. The room inside is sparse, and silk curtains obscure an archway on the far wall. From behind the curtain, a woman's voice asks who it is. Perhaps suffering some blood loss, I fumble and stutter a bit, unsure why I even came in, and the woman gets increasingly annoyed until suddenly...



Well what the bloody hell is this, now? Apparently, she's a Serpent Queen, and she's not had her lunch. It gets worse. In my hubris, I've completely forgotten to heal myself after tangling with the vagabonds, blundering into this completely unnecessary encounter on a measly five stamina. I'm given the option to flee after four combat rounds, but I don't even make it that long.

Ah, well. With my stats, I was probably never going to get as far as Zanbar Bone, anyway. Sorry, Owen Carralif. Sorry, Silvertown. You bet on the wrong horse...

The Verdict
Huge fun, even if I made a fairly woeful showing of it. Port Blacksand is rightly trumpeted as probably the best-realised location in the whole FF series - for once it doesn't feel as though it sprang into existence purely for your adventure, but has an existence of its own, independent of the page. Little touches like all the street names really give it an aged, lived-in feel. The art, by Ian McCaig, is a huge step up from previous books - it has a real sense of humour and character to it that lifts the whole adventure.

The book has some typical Sir Ian Livingstone bad game design later on, like that final blind choice, and I seem to remember the difficulty ramps up exponentially - but as I never really got to those sections this time out, it didn't bother me too much!

Sir Ian's best yet, as well as the best FF overall (so far). 8 combat dice out of 10.

[Barrington Boots]

Some great playthroughs here and look at that Ian McCaig art! The art in this book is just incredible and so evocative. That Serpent Queen picture is just mental and so full of energy with her striking out of the drapes and cushions. Also, as someone who has been bitten by snakes a lot, that's basically what you see except with less faux-sexy eyelashes.
The Lizardine and the two trolls are two images from this one I especially remember too.

I haven't really had time to play Starship Traveller, and I know I hate it, so I think I'll skip to City of Thieves too as I know it's a bona fide classic and I'm really excited to give it a play.

[Dark Jimbo]

Some great playthroughs here and look at that Ian McCaig art! The art in this book is just incredible and so evocative. That Serpent Queen picture is just mental and so full of energy with her striking out of the drapes and cushions. Also, as someone who has been bitten by snakes a lot, that's basically what you see except with less faux-sexy eyelashes.

I said that the image of the Cat-woman in Forest of Doom made me feel strangely uncomfortable; this time the text explicitly tells you that the Serpent Queen makes you feel the same way!

[Barrington Boots]

Stupid sexy snake lady.

[Barrington Boots]

I was all geared up for City of Thieves today, but the previous book had been sitting unread on my desk for weeks so, pricked by guilt I decided to give it a try and venture forth into the unknown as a STARSHIP TRAVELLER.

Now... I did start doing a proper write up for this, but when I read it back it was pretty boring. Negotiated with some aliens, flew off. Landed on a planet, captured by androids, escaped. Landed on another planet, cured some aliens, flew off. Landed on a planet, brought a poisonous spore aboard, purged it, flew off and so on. I went through a chunk of the book not rolling any dice at all. The maze bit is awful - I managed to get through it by remembering which paragraphs I'd already turned to, as it just goes round in circles. I had one single combat and that could have been easily avoided, but I really wanted to fight the giant robot on the cover (it battered me, until I remembered that I had a skill-boosting android helmet).

It's not a great FF book. The art is mostly flat and lifeless, especially when you compare it to the twisted stuff in Forest and Doom and the atmospheric masterworks in City of Thieves. The mutitude of NPCs you generate at the start serve little purpose, as does the various types of combat. I didn't fire my ships weapons once - although in fairness I avoided any other spaceships after my early negotiations with the reptillian Ganzigs led to them fitting my ship with some kind of gizmo that meant I'd never be able to fight them, which seemed like something that woud come up.
Ultimately it's pretty tedious - the various planets don't really have much in the way of interest, and the aliens are pretty oridnary - and very, very easy. Worst of the lot to date, sadly.

Next up - Zanbar Bone, I'm coming for you!

[Barrington Boots]

It's time for the CITY OF THIEVES

What a book this is. Depressingly I have the Wizard version with the rubbish cover (although the original illustrations) so after I hit up Port Blacksand I'm off to ebay. But first, the Night Prince and his daughter demanding, Moon-dog unleashing antics must end.

Arriving at this wretched hive of scum and villainy I blag my way in and my first stop is a locksmith where I acquire a skeleton key - it seems apt for a city of thieves, after all. Minutes later I'm ambushed by bandits. A bloody wreck, I crawl up the street and accept the aid of a kindly healer - I'm back to my best, but in return I have to hand over my fine sword.
Continuing up the street I find a house with a welcome sign - I go in. I'm starting to think this adventurer version of me is a bit of a good natured dope, so instead of looting the contents I pop upstairs and chat to the beautifully illustrated Lizardine within who sells me a beautiful brooch with healing properties. I'm feeling badass! Off I go and here's some guards asking to see my papers. The guy on the gate told me I needed one of those didn't he? Erm....
Luckily the guards are weak, so I kill them, steal their gold, bread and keys, hide the bodies in an alleyway and head off trying not to look bloodstained. Why, here's some boots! Too naïve to fear any ill of them, I pop them on and immediately feel better for it.
Happy now I go to the market where my pocket is picked. I'm not too flush for cash now, so I decide against buying any food or paying the bard, although I linger for a while enjoying the tunes and the smells of the market. I win some gold on the cannonball game, buy some rope (because that'll never not come in handy) and a throwing knife and have my fortune read. Then I pop into an abandoned house to keep out of the rain only to find it infested with snakes.
Wiping snake blood from my (inferior) sword blade, I finally arrive at Nicodemus's bridge and get the shopping list to enable me to defeat Zanbar Bone in a complicated way (presumably when he sees me with a unicorn / sun tattoo he'll be helpless with laughter and I can finish him off)
Harbour Street seems a good bet as I know the pirates have pearls, so I head there. A narrow encounter with the carriage of Lord Azzur himself leaves me smarting, but I sneak aboard the pirate ship and a deft bit of thievery later the pearls are mine! I then surprise the captain in his bath (ooer) and he reveals where I can get a silver arrow. A bit red-faced from embarrassment, I leg it.
Heading onto Clog Street where I know I can find a silversmith, I see a child in trouble and my kindly nature leads me to stop to help him only to find this is a sour goblin thief intent on cutting my throat. Luckily goblins are still crap, so I dispatch him and find the silversmiths. The silver arrow is mine!
Heading down stable street I find a manhole cover. Something tells me Dark Jimbo passed this way and he found it worth going down into... the sewer. Nice. I dispatch some rats but next up is a hideous hag who blasts me with terrible illusions of my own death. Screaming wildy and waving my sword like a madman I'm lucky enough to clock her with the blade, breaking the spell, and soon I'm cutting the hair from her lifeless body. I don't feel too bad about this... she started it.
Relieved to be out of the sewer, I use my throwing knife to see off some vagabonds and enter a strange serpent marked house. The pleasant voice of a lady comes from within but wait... is that blood on the drapes? Do I see a bloodtained boot in the corner? Could it be... Dark Jimbo's boot..? Gorge rising, I leg it before I too meet his snakey fate.
Continuing on I'm accosted by an escaped prisoner. Obviously I agree to help, but my sword (unsurprisingly, although I am surprised) cannot cut his chains and when the guards arrive I am forced to hide in a water barrel to escape. I spend the last of my gold to get into the public gardens, fight the hedge and escape with the lotus flower. Shopping list complete! Next up is the tattooist: I'm broke, but luckily I can pawn my magic brooch for the funds to get myself tattooed up. Now I look like a proper berk.
By now I'm still broke and pretty beat up, so I decide to dodge some trolls by scaling the city walls. I drop my shield, but the guards are after me in force now. For a moment I stand on the wall, gripped with panic - that drop looks insurmountable - but wait - climbing rope! Yes! With a sigh of relief I'm over the wall and out of the city of thieves!
Now it's off to Zanbar Bone's residence. As I approach the Night Prince's stinking tower I hear howls and my blood freezes. It's the terrible Moon Dogs! I draw my sword and - well - I get torn to bits. These dogs are BRUTAL. My adventure ends there, reduced to chum by the hounds of hell...

Like my fellow adventurers say, this was brilliant. The city setting is incredibly well realised - it feels more lived in than the mazes, forests and dungeons we've had before, and so well rendered by the illustrations - it's my favourite location so far in FF. I'm a fan of the intro, too - there's a nice bit of background there that gets you into the story straight away.
Definitely the best book yet in my opinion and one I'd like to give another go at - although the switch from three reagents to two sounds like an unsatisfyingly arbitrary way to kill off players at the end, unless there's a clue I missed to that or something later in the tower. I seem to remember the tower is pretty hard, although the city section didn't feel too bad for auto-deaths, although I did nearly cop it at the hag where a failed luck roll would have done for me.
Great book though, best one yet.

[Richard]

Great write-up!

So are we going to try and win this book, or move on to Deathtrap Dungeon?

[Barrington Boots]

Cheers, it was a bit of an essay, but fun!
I'd really like to win this one and I'm going to give it another go, but with maxed stats this time. However I also cannot wait to get onto Deathtrap Dungeon.
Can't imagine any of us is winning that on a first attempt..