Messages

I keep forgetting about inner force! I'll try that.

That's how I did it the first time, but the ogre keeps battering me!

[Way of the Tiger 1: Avenger!]

Way of the Tiger 1: Avenger!

So I finally found time to start this book today!

First impressions

I've never come across Way of the Tiger before, so I'm interested in how it differs from Fighting Fantasy. My first thought on reading the rules is that the combat system seems to be quite complicated, but when I actually use it during the game it turns out to be much simpler than I thought. It gives you some choices to make instead of just rolling dice (though it has dice rolls too), and there is even some description of the fight.

Description is another difference: there's generally more of it than in FF, and several paragraphs are much longer than you would see in any FF book. I welcome this, as it fleshes out the story a bit and makes scenes more interesting.

There's a detailed colour map of the mainland, which includes some locations from FF11: Talisman of Death, which is fun.

You don't have to roll dice to generate stats for your character, instead you are given your stats. This is fairer than FF, where usually if you roll a skill of less than 10 you're probably fucked before you've even started.

You have to choose three special skills from a list of eight (e.g. climbing, lock-picking). I like this (there are a few FF books which have this too).

In an early paragraph in the story, your ninja boss tells you "there is always time to bite off one's tongue from one's head and bleed to death rather than betraying secrets under torture." That's a bit darker than anything I've read in an FF book! (Mind you, my mum still confiscated one of my FF books when I was ten!)

First play through

My character is a ninja and I've spent my whole life training to be the best ninja I can be. The story opens with me in single combat with one of my comrades (not to the death) to see which of us will be promoted to super bad-ass ninja. I lose, because I missed an obvious clue in the text. D'oh!

I then get sent on the actual quest which is the focus of the book (why didn't they send the other guy?). I have to go and assassinate someone before he can get to where he's going. My journey starts on a ship that takes me from the ninjas' island to the mainland. On the way we are attacked by pirates, but I very easily make short work of them and kill their captain, after which they leave us alone.

Arriving at a port, I am offered a choice of two doors, one black and one white, that lead from the harbour into the city proper. I choose the white door, and am greeted by a knight decapitating a priest, graphically illustrated by Bob Harvey. I follow another priest, and he seems to be about to lure me to my death, but it seems to be so obviously dangerous and stupid to play along that I think this is just misdirection by the writers to see if I will chicken out, so I hold my nerve, and am rewarded with useful information and transport to outside the city. Progress!

I am immediately presented with a choice to follow the road or trek through a wilderness, and the information I have just learned from the intimidating but friendly priest means I know which choice is the correct one. I next encounter a Cobra Man (a dude with a cobra's head) who is about to kill a small child. I attack him but he bites me, and because I don't have the immunity to poisons special skill this instantly kills me.

Second, third, and fourth playthroughs

I choose immunity to poisons special skill.

This time I win the fight at the start, and after answering a multiple choice question correctly I am promoted to Grandmaster, and am given some presumably important information and a ring which I'm told will come in handy later. After that I make all the same choices I made before, since they all seemed to be the right ones, except that this time the pirates kick the shit out of me and kill me three times. Fuck! This combat system is brutal.

I'll give this another go later in the week!

I think Pandora Perfect and Cadet Dredd were both fine, but I didn't like anything else.

why is there only one Phearax on display, what happened to the other missing people?

Well on page three there's an alien monkey wearing glasses.

That's about something else.

Also, Colin's link doesn't lead to anything relevant.

Read it today and thought it was great. Kids Rule OK was very well done. I would love to see a multi-episode Nina Petrova & the Angels of Death story (by Ennis) in the prog.

we could do without reminding that anti-trans bigot JK Rowling still exists.

That seems a bit over the top. Why don't you have a little lie down?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_is_dead

I forgot it was Paul. I had assumed the significance had come from Lennon being the first to die. No idea what it means then!

The barefoot Dredd picture was a homage to the cover of the Beatles album Abbey Road, in which Lennon was barefoot for reasons known only to him.

[Firekind]

Firekind stands out for me as one of the superior, classic stories in 2000AD. A great story, and Paul Marshall's best art.

FTB

I like them all, and I like some variety.

They sounds pretty similar to what already happened in Necropolis.

What was that?

I envy you!