Today is the 40th anniversary of the publication of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the book that got me hooked on gamebooks, and I've done more to celebrate this one than I did the 30th.
Since the start of the year I've been running a Fighting Fantasy playthrough contest at the Fighting Fantazine forum. Each week I use a randomiser to select two FF titles - one that was published or reissued this century, and one that only came out last century. There's almost a 50/50 split between the two categories, and once the new books scheduled for release next month come out, there will be exactly the same number of titles in each. I am including the Fantazine mini-adventures (except for the one that only came out today, about which I shall say nothing for now). And the ones from Warlock magazine that aren't variants of full gamebooks. Plus Clash of the Princes and The Adventures of Goldhawk.
Anyway, there are currently 104 titles on the list, and by the end of the year it should be at least 106. So two a week would have got through the lot in one year, and since a year is 52 weeks and one day, that extra couple can theoretically be squeezed in at the end.
The random order was for a bit of variety. I made a start on playing through FF in publication order (more or less) at a no longer extant FF forum, and after that forum ceased to exist, I did so again at its successor (which has also vanished to section 404). This blog, thus, represents the third time I've done the series in order, so I felt like shaking things up a bit for the contest. Sorcery! still gets played in sequence, since it's possible to carry things over from one book to the next in that series, and a couple of the books would become a lot trickier if played in isolation, but the randomiser still determines when a Sorcery! title comes up.
Participants only have to play one of the selected titles each week (though they are free to play both if willing and able, and then decide which one counts as that week's entry in the contest). Points are awarded to add a competitive element, but they're not really that important. What matters is that, because of this contest, I've played 70 FF adventures so far this year (not including the ones covered in this blog), and assorted other players have done in the region of 34-35. Some fans have revisited and reappraised titles they hadn't given a try in years. Others have played certain gamebooks for the first time ever (myself included). These replays and first plays have inspired fresh discussion of many of the adventures. As celebrations go, I think that's not bad.
You may be wondering how I did at each adventure I've played. If not, you might as well skip to the final paragraph. For those who would like to know, read on. Any that I won this year but failed when I did them for the blog are highlighted in yellow. Ones I won on the blog but didn't beat this year are highlighted in pale blue.
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain – Not yet played
The Citadel of Chaos - Won
The Forest of Doom - Won
Starship Traveller - Won
City of Thieves - Won
The Shamutanti Hills – Crushed by a rolling boulder
Deathtrap Dungeon – Not yet played
Island of the Lizard King - Won
Kharé - Cityport of Traps – Killed by a Deathwraith
Scorpion Swamp – Not yet played
Caverns of the Snow Witch – Killed by an Elf Zombie
The Seven Serpents – Not yet played
House of Hell - Won
Talisman of Death – Won
The Crown of Kings – Not yet played
The Dervish Stone – Got hugged to death by a Bronze Golem
Space Assassin – Killed by Sentinels
Freeway Fighter – Got knocked out and had my car stolen
Temple of Terror – Not yet played
Dungeon of Justice – Took a crossbow bolt to the throat
The Rings of Kether – Not yet played
Seas of Blood – Killed by a Sith Orb (whatever that might be)
The Dark Chronicle of Anakendis – Not yet played
Appointment with F.E.A.R. – Not yet played
Temple of Testing – Killed by the Orcish Referee again
Rebel Planet – Got caught by an Arcadian search party
The Floating City – Was turned into a seal by a sorcerer who didn't like the
present I got him
Demons of the Deep – Killed by a Devilfish
Fortress Throngard – Killed by a mob of guards
Sword of the Samurai – Killed by a Samurai Horseman
Rogue Mage – Not yet played
Trial of Champions – Killed by a fellow slave while fighting blindfolded in the
arena
The Land of Changes – Won
Clash of the Princes - The Warlock's Way – Killed by a Thunder Beast
Clash of the Princes - The Warrior's Way – Not yet played
Robot Commando - Won by curing the sleeping sickness
Deadline to Destruction – Not yet played
Masks of Mayhem – Not yet played
Creature of Havoc – Caused the roof to cave in while searching for
secret doors
The Temple of the Pharaoh – Killed by a Swarm of Bats
Beneath Nightmare Castle – Killed by Xakhaz
Crypt of the Sorcerer – Killed by the Harpoon Flies again
Star Strider – Not yet played
Phantoms of Fear – Killed by a Wild Boar
Midnight Rogue – Not yet played
Chasms of Malice – Not yet played
Battleblade Warrior – Killed by a Tyrannosaurus Rex
Slaves of the Abyss – Not yet played
Sky Lord – Killed by Pelhon Rangers (I think they're some kind of spacegoing
busybodies, but given the weirdness of this book, they could just as easily be
a football team)
Stealer of Souls – Killed by Mordraneth
Daggers of Darkness – Not yet played
Armies of Death – Killed by the Elite Fanatic
Portal of Evil – Killed by a bandit named Kran
Vault of the Vampire – Killed by the Baobhan Sith again
Fangs of Fury – Captured by Mage Warriors
Dead of Night – Not yet played
Master of Chaos - Won
Black Vein Prophecy – Biantaied a Polybleb (I'm not entirely sure what that
means, but it turned out to be very bad for my health)
Keep of the Lich Lord - Won
Legend of the Shadow Warriors – Indefinitely imprisoned for being unable to pay
my tax bill
Spectral Stalkers – Not yet played
Tower of Destruction – Killed by a Man-Orc
The Crimson Tide – Not yet played
Moonrunner – Absorbed by a large blob which Gruul conjured up
Siege of Sardath – Not yet played
Return to Firetop Mountain – Not yet played
Island of the Undead – Killed by the Greater Ghoul again
Night Dragon – Not yet played
Spellbreaker – Killed by the Piper
Legend of Zagor – Killed by a different Great Orc from the one that killed me on my last two attempts
Deathmoor – Killed with the Baron's poisoned sword
Knights of Doom – Not yet played
Magehunter – Killed by Bath-House Bouncers
Revenge of the Vampire – Killed by Igor
Darkmoon's Curse – Killed by the Banshee yet again
The Demon Spider - Won
Mudworm Swamp – Got drugged, robbed, and dumped in the swamp because drinking
alcohol is bad, kids
Ghost Road – Won
Curse of the Mummy – Got crushed by a toppling statue
The Eye of the Dragon – Not yet played
Bloodbones – Killed by the Second Pirate
Howl of the Werewolf – Not yet played
Stormslayer – Not yet played
The Resurrection of the Dead – Killed by bad design a Xoroa Warrior
Shrine of the Salamander – Killed by a particularly vicious Tadpole
Night of the Necromancer – Not yet played
Prey of the Hunter – Not yet played
In Search of the Mungies' Gold – Killed by a large group of Mungies
Bones of the Banished – Fell off a cliff dodging a spear
Escape From the Sorcerer – Killed by a trio of Asura (intermittently invisible
demonic pests)
Queen of Shades – Killed by ghostly Shieldmaidens
Vengeance at Midnight – Not yet played
Return to the Icefinger Mountains - Won
Blood of the Zombies – Not yet played
Hand of Fate – Killed by some Wheelies (disc-shaped creatures that throw
knives, not a cycling stunt gone wrong)
Ascent of Darkness – Hit in the shoulder with a poisoned arrow
Starhunt: Void Slavers – Not yet played
As I haven't yet covered the more recent titles here, I shan't go into detail about the ones I've played (basically everything but Assassins of Allansia) until I attempt them for this blog. Suffice to say that they did not improve my success rate.
Wow, you've certainly gotten a lot of gamebook playing in! I couldn't help noticing, though, that a number of times you literally fell at the very last or second to last enemy! That has to be pretty frustrating, I would imagine. So which one of the adventures you've played above would you most like a second crack at?
ReplyDeleteI'm most interested in beating the adventures I've never won. Several of the unsuccessful attempts listed above did enable me to learn things that could be helpful next time round, so I'm inclining towards one of them.
DeleteNow that I've had a chance to engage with the actual plot of Ascent of Darkness, I'm interested to see where it's going. Still, the main thing I learned was that I should have chosen differently when allowed to claim a few magic items from a large selection, and as I still don't know which one(s) would actually enable me to avoid the Instant Death that did for me, another attempt could easily end in my discovering that the ones I go for second time around are equally unhelpful.
My most important discovery in In Search of the Mungies' Gold is bad news for the bird whose feathers I decided not to steal on every previous occasion I played it. On the other hand, I gather that the endgame involves some tricky decision-making, so even if I have found a way to simplify getting past one of the last major obstacles in the adventure, that could just lead to my opening up a whole new selection of brick walls to run into.
I think I might actually go with Hand of Fate. By now I've experienced enough of it that I can put the elements which annoy me into perspective and focus more on the adventure's merits, and I think I've established enough of what not to do that I might have a reasonable chance of succeeding, so long as I get decent stats.
Those harpoon flies have an impressive record against your adventurers!
ReplyDeleteHad no idea the contest was taking place, will have to go check it out.
In fact I wonder what FF foe has the most kills statistically.. yeti from snow witch perhaps?
ReplyDeleteGreat idea Ed to randomise the play order, mixes it up. Love the list, some of those deaths really got me!
ReplyDelete