Life's Rich Demand Creates Supply in the Hand

The Fighting Fantasy playthrough contest I set up to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launch of the series has entered its final phase. For the readers who enjoyed my earlier list of outcomes to the books I'd played by the time I posted about the challenge, here's how I fared in the remaining titles (leaving out the ones I have yet to play here). As before, adventures I won on this blog but failed this year are highlighted in blue, while yellow indicates success at an adventure I didn't beat here.

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain – Won
Deathtrap Dungeon – Killed by the second Flying Guardian (again)
Scorpion Swamp – Killed by leeches after assorted fights wore my Stamina down
The Seven Serpents – Killed by the Moon Serpent 
The Crown of Kings – Poisoned by a Mucalytic’s toxic breath
Temple of Terror – Missed one Dragon artefact, so the villain (who missed the other four of them, but obviously wasn't playing an adventure written by Ian Livingstone) succeeded in his quest and went on to wage war against my homeland
The Rings of Kether – A bureaucrat hit me on the head with a paperweight
The Dark Chronicles of Anakendis – Killed by the Astromancer
Appointment with F.E.A.R. – Was destroyed by lasers along with my home city for not knowing the date (seriously, I was in the right place at the right time, but since I didn't know which day it was, I failed to spot the villains and thwart their scheme)
Rogue Mage – Killed by the Scitalis
Deadline to Destruction – Cut the wrong wire while trying to defuse a bomb
Clash of the Princes: The Warrior’s Way – Killed by a Werewolf
Masks of Mayhem – Blundered into a chasm in the dark
Star Strider – Was forced to play Russian Roulette and got unlucky (again)
Midnight Rogue – Killed by an Ogre
Chasms of Malice – Something furry killed my cat and clawed my face off
Slaves of the Abyss – Got locked in a cell and never released
Daggers of Darkness – Trapped by rapidly thickening ice, suffocated and frozen
Dead of Night – Got a sharpened pendulum in the frontal lobe
Spectral Stalkers – Was electrocuted on a staircase after getting Fibonacci and prime numbers mixed up
The Crimson Tide – Imprisoned and tortured or worse by the king’s adviser
Siege of Sardath – Failed to spot the exit, and got killed by a Ghost I lacked the wherewithal to fight
Return to Firetop Mountain – Dematerialised by a Doppelganger
Night Dragon – Fake pilgrims cut my throat while I was sleeping
Knights of Doom – Killed by Mummers
Eye of the Dragon – Killed by Cyclops
Howl of the Werewolf – Killed by Werebear
Stormslayer – Killed by Naiads
Night of the Necromancer – Got trapped in the floor for not knowing how my usurper self-identifies
Prey of the Hunter – Won
Vengeance at Midnight – Killed by the last two of six criminals
Blood of the Zombies – Killed by Attack Dogs (but not while wearing a suit of armour this time)
Starhunt: Void Slavers – Killed by Sump Monster

To my surprise, a few people joined in more than two thirds of the way through the challenge, some of them expressing the hope that I'd run another one in 2023. I hadn't been planning on doing so, but since nobody else was willing to take up the baton, I've now organised a new one here, to start on January 1st. Learning from some of the things that proved awkward this year, I've made a few minor changes to the set-up, but in essence it's the same: play through one or two adventures a week, and see how you fare compared to other people attempting the same titles. It'll be interesting to see how much of a difference the amended rules make: even among those who played every week, there's a wide range of scores.

Best wishes for 2023 to all my readers.