Deadline To Destruction

DEADLINE TO DESTRUCTION

Gavin Shute

Reviewed by Mark Lain

Anyone who has read my thoughts on Appointment With FEAR will know that I see it very much as the “best of times, worst of times” of the series. On the one hand, AwF was a superlative example of the gamebook art-form in terms of design and construction, whilst, on the other hand, it was a terrible example of an “adventure” in its truest sense, being far too short, overly reliant on bad jokes and “knowing” references, and lacking anything of any real interest for you to actually do. This sequel, published in Warlock #12, carries over many of the ideas from AwF as well as exhibiting many of its pros and cons.

Conceptually we once again have a choice of one out of four Special Abilities (the same four as before) and we can gain or lose useless Hero Points that amount to nothing other than acting as a comparative marker of your performance as a superhero from one playing to the next. The Special Abilities have less of an overall effect on how the adventure plays out than they did in AwF, but there are still minor differences in what can happen and events you can access, plus the eventual solution is slightly different for each Ability inasmuch as the street where the end baddie (The Dynamo) is hidden will have a different number based on which supervillain spilled the beans which, in turn, depends on which Ability you have. However, other than these two plot drivers, the mission (to capture The Dynamo and prevent him from turning Titan City’s nukes on it) will otherwise pretty much be the same for each.

The Steve Jackson-esque numerical clue idea appears again and you get three initial clues based on your chosen Special Ability, but one of the clues is effectively meaningless so there are some slightly better combinations than others, not that it really makes much difference overall and no Ability is any better or worse than any other. But, a big difference this time is that the moments where you need to do the relevant calculations are very clearly signposted here, unlike in AwF where you need to be psychic to work out when to subtract x from a current paragraph number to pursue a lead, which naturally makes this sequel rather easier by comparison in that sense. By contrast, combats are fairly challenging with most key villains having stats in double figures, whilst The Dynamo himself has Sk 12 St 20 and does an additional -2 St damage on each hit he gets in on you (ie all hits inflict -4 St damage on you by default) unless you use an Energy Drainer (which I can’t seem to actually find anywhere) which reduces him to Sk 10 St 16 (still strong) and removes his double-damage effect, which is a relief. Staying alive in general isn’t all that difficult and unless you get shot or blown-up (in a 50/50 bomb diffusal situation that is actually very realistic for once, rather than unfair, in its apparent arbitrariness), staying alive is just as easy as it is in AwF. The failure by unmasking is back, but this makes sense too, and does add to the comic-book feel. The big challenge in AwF was in cracking the puzzle but that is all but absent this time around and DtD is generally quite an easy proposition to win. There seem to be a lot of Skill and Luck tests for a short subject, but this does show that, superhero or not, you are still mortal and fallible, which I like the idea of – think more Spider-Man than Superman (in fact, Spider-Man is even mentioned as your “rival” at one point.) There is one additional mathematical puzzle which can only be found by taking a particular route and which is vital to success, but the calculation is, by FF standards, simple to do.

The mechanism whereby you should avoid killing your opponents is back again (reduce their Stamina to 1 or 2 and they surrender; kill them and you lose 1 Hero Point) as is the text’s failure to deal with their deaths and blanket assumption that they are always alive and able to blab to you after each combat, regardless of what actually happened. You would have hoped that this would have been resolved by the second instalment but the theory must be that you will never kill anyone as that would be out-of-character. A sensible idea in context, but ultimately nonsensical in continuity terms.

On the subject of continuity, the intro makes direct reference to your having captured The Titanium Cyborg in AwF (there’s even a picture of you doing this) and you are Jean Lafayette/The Silver Crusader again here. For some reason, though, you are not given the option to re-cycle your same character from AwF and continue from where he/she left off on finishing the previous book. There’s nothing to stop you doing this in principal and it does make sense to do so, even if you might be restricted to a particular Special Ability or a hopelessly low Luck score (which would give you little hope of winning), but, as we have seen, the nuances of winning with each Ability are far less impacting here than in AwF so wouldn’t really detract any and would probably make this feel more like an ongoing comic book saga.

AwF’s art made much of the comic book association, but this is less obvious this time around with less multi-frame images to visualise an episode (although there are lots of “BOOM” and “SWOK” intertitles) and this does diminish the affect a bit. The art is very clean-lined and bright, though, so there is a nice cheerful (and slightly manic) tongue-in-cheek comic book (as opposed to something dark and brooding as with the more serious-toned comics) look to the pages. The rather silly popular culture references are very much in abundance again, but they feel less forced and awkward this time in that they seem to be trying less hard to be funny and therefore slip into the text better. Yes, the fairly crappy super-villains are back (mostly animal-based this time, bar the Mr Freeze clone called Mr Frosty – a link to The Ice Queen in AwF, incidentally, which adds more continuity between the adventures) as are the plot devices of going to work, visiting a few sights, and going home to rest (a lot), meaning the mission per se just involves wandering around Titan City looking for clues as to The Dynamo’s whereabouts again, but DtD has a far longer core part before you are faced with needing to crack the puzzle’s secret. AwF had 440 sections, but played-out (without finding the hidden parts) in what seemed like about 10 paragraphs. DtD is only 200 paragraphs long, but the basic mission is much longer and you feel less short-changed even if you haven’t found the numbers you need to get to the main villain at the end. There is more to see and do in DtD and, due to its being less reliant on secret sections, it is more linear in approach. There’s even a follow-on to the episode in AwF where you could buy a copy of WOFM, wherein you find some FF books in a shop (which you have no idea what are!) and your informant, Gerry the Grass, tells you AwF is really good – cheap plug or open acceptance that sequels aren’t generally as good as the first parts, maybe? Or perhaps just a nice tribute to Steve Jackson from DtD’s author?

There are a few odd moments along the way that are inconsistent with the general flow, especially the lack of a Hero Point penalty for not bothering to apprehend Elastic Eddie (which is essential to get the main part of the secret code for the end) when failing to take any other super-villains in will affect your Hero Points, plus, as with most Warlock mini-adventures, there are a few (possibly only two, in fact) mis-linkings of sections which is frustrating, but this effort does seem better proof-read than most of the Warlock FFs, so we’ll count this as progress.

When I was younger I much preferred DtD to AwF. Once I’d figured out how to beat AwF and discovered its brilliant but complex design I have to say that DtD’s far more conventional linear approach makes it structurally much weaker. That said, as a straightforward adventure to be played through to completion in a couple of hours without the frustration of having to keep quickly failing and re-starting over-and-over, DtD certainly has some merit and it is more satisfying in that sense as it relies far less on your needing a sixth sense that tells you when to use your clues. There is less variety this time and there is essentially only one general route through regardless of your Special Ability (although slight digression is allowed if you want to keep it fresh on subsequent playthroughs), but there is still fun to be had by playing this FF. AwF fans will probably be pretty unimpressed by DtD, but those who want a simplified superhero adventure that doesn’t melt your brain as you try to fathom it out will find this an acceptable variation on a theme.

#43: The Keep Of The Lich-Lord

THE KEEP OF THE LICH-LORD

Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson

Reviewed by Mark Lain

The combined gamebook achievements of Morris (Blood Sword, Fabled Lands, Virtual Reality, etc) and Thomson (Falcon, Way Of The Tiger, DuelMaster, etc) are not to be under-estimated and the prospect of a co-written FF by them both is a mouth-watering one. This is Dave Morris’ only completed/published FF entry, whilst Jamie Thomson had previously brought us (with Mark Smith) two impressive FFs: #11 Talisman Of Death and #20 Sword Of The Samurai. Expectation is high, then, for what should be a brilliant book, considering the talent and pedigree of the writers.

I always like to glance at the Adventure Sheet before I start ploughing through the rules so that I can prepare myself for any interesting or confusing new stats or mechanics to contend with and there is nothing new on this one, which suggests a conventional old-style FF (unusual for a later release.) However, on reading the rules we discover TWO new stats that are nowhere to be seen on the Adventure Sheet which means you need somewhere else to keep track of them. Annoying. Even more annoying is that it quickly becomes apparent that bothering to record these extra stats is a complete waste of time as they are highly unlikely to have any bearing on anything! Resolve is another name for concepts we have seen in other FFs such as Fear, Faith, Willpower, etc and is your ability to hold fast when faced with the Undead rather than freaking out and not being able to do anything useful. On first reading the explanation in the intro, it seems that this might be out to scupper you pretty quickly – roll one die and add 5 (ie the highest this can go is 11) – but when you read on, the cracks start to show through. When you have to Test Your Resolve, you need to roll under your Resolve on two dice. With a ceiling score of 11 this seems quite tough, but you then get to increase your Resolve by one point every time you are successful. Conversely, you have to reduce it by one if you fail, but the odds are definitely in your favour once you start getting a few lucky rolls and it goes up, or if you start with a high Resolve anyway. To make things a bit easier, your Resolve can never drop below 2, but it can exceed your Initial Resolve, finally being capped-off at a maximum of 12. As Resolve tests are fairly common, it won’t take very long to reach a Resolve of 12, which makes any further rolls against it redundant (or it might even be effectively redundant from the outset if you start on 11) and therefore takes away the element of terror and uncertainty when faced with the Undead (which is presumably what Resolve was designed to highlight.) The second new, and even more badly exploited, stat is your Alarm Value. This only comes into play once you have reached the final stage (Bloodrise Keep) and tracks how much unwanted attention you are drawing to yourself as you try to find the main baddie. A good idea in principal, especially as the Undead in this adventure are a sort of collective consciousness that die if their leader dies so you would assume they will know if any of their number is being attacked, but it is highly unlikely that your Alarm Value will increase enough to cause you any real problems and there is only one (literally) life or death checkpoint where it will make any real difference to you, and even that is easily avoided. These stats were evidently designed to add foreboding in the environment and a sense of care/urgency to your actions, but they are both so easy to survive that they are rendered almost completely ineffectual.

...And therein lies the root of this book’s (only real) problem: it is just too damn easy and makes the FFs that are regarded as uncharacteristically straightforward (in particular #29 Midnight Rogue, #3 The Forest Of Doom and #34 Stealer Of Souls) actually seem like a challenge. In KotLL pretty much everything is laid at your feet and you do actually have to make quite an effort to fail:

• ·         Moments where, in other FFs, you would almost certainly expect to die instantly, only result in slight chafing here (eg: being hit full-on with an arrow causes -2 St, as opposed to being fatal, which in reality it probably would be!)
• ·         You can very quickly acquire various weapons to make you extra-dangerous in battle: your sword can be sharpened to always inflict -3 St in combat, you can find a spear that always does double damage to Undead AND a shield that reduces Undead foes’ Skills by 1 (which, in an adventure where most of the encounters are with the Undead, is a bit over-lenient!)
• ·         A particular route can lead to you having a Luck of 16, which makes Luck tests frankly ridiculous
• ·         There are only 17 instant deaths, almost all of which are for doing bloody stupid things that you would be unlikely to attempt (or by failing Luck tests, which you will struggle to manage to do once you reach the stages where failure becomes fatal)
• ·         If having a potential Luck of 16 and superhero-type weaponry at your disposal isn’t enough, there are umpteen opportunities to improve/replenish your stats (including several increases of your all-important Resolve score)
• ·         There is very little combat needed in the early stages and it is possible to get to the end with still only a handful of encounters that can only be resolved with a fight
• ·         There are three different ways to kill the end baddie, all of which are mutually exclusive, and two of which will just kill him outright without the need for combat, Luck tests, or in fact anything that would constitute an effort to prove yourself
• ·         There are no essential items that success or failure will be dependent on. OK, there are some items that will make life easier for you, but it’s not as if it’s going to be particularly hard here anyway!
• ·         Finding the end baddie is very easy. He is in two different possible locations, based purely on which way you go, but hiding isn’t his strongpoint and he comes to you whatever you do so you don’t have to search very hard for either of his locations (and failing the only important Alarm Value check will only kill you outright in one of these places)
• ·         There is no true path, primarily due to the absence of any key items, yet it is also possible to visit almost every location (bar the battle site, where nothing happens anyway) on the way to the final section should you feel inclined. Alternatively, you can take the shortest possible route (which will have no comparative effect on your chances of success) and finish the book in just over 35 paragraphs, making it also potentially extremely short
• ·         Although everything that you can buy here is unusually expensive (min 25/30 gp for the cheapest stuff, rising to 60/70 for some classier items – er, none of which you really need, of course), the book is very generous in terms of giving you large stashes of money along the way, plus you start out with 25 gp anyway
• ·         The most successful set-piece of this book takes place in a graveyard which houses a nest of vampires that are terrorising a local village. If you choose to visit it you would anticipate that surviving this is not going to be an easy task. However, in KotLL even a vampire infestation is easily sorted out as you can take either one or two NPC companions with you (who hate each other, to add a bit of tetchy interplay to the proceedings) and you can let them do some of the fighting for you. Add to this the fact that, even though you are racing to find the vampires before sun-down, there’s a very good chance that you will find them as they can be found in at least three different locations (each of which will have different effects on them), removing the thrill of the chase somewhat

On the plus side, the vampire cameo is just one of a large number of (optional) sections of this adventure that really make it come alive and it is through vivid writing, combined with genuinely worthwhile things to see and do, that this book really deserves to be played and re-played, not to try to win (which will disappoint and take no effort at all), but to experience just how much colour and atmosphere has been written into it. Everywhere you go (bar the non-event that is the battle site) there is a game-within-a-game for you to play, be it vampire-hunting, ridding a village of a bizarre beast that is eating the inhabitants, foiling a pirate slave ring, visiting a safe-haven woodland full of refugees, discovering the remnants of a long-dead ancient race, or infiltrating the keep where the main baddie is holed-up. Anyone who has ever played any of Dave Morris’ Blood Sword gamebooks will be familiar with his use of extremely evocative language, lengthy descriptive paragraphs, and an atmosphere of foreboding that starts mysteriously and then grows ever more oppressive as the game progresses. Morris and Thompson’s books are often quite complex in vocabulary terms and also in design and are aimed at more mature readers, but this makes for a very immersive experience and the environment in KotLL is very well constructed. Much thought has gone into both the back story to current events and also the history of the setting in general and you really do feel this world as you discover its past and present along the way (there are even two locations with National Trust-style explanatory commemorative plaques telling you all about what happened there!)

The actual mission here is to rid an island (Stayng Island off the far east of Khul) of an undead necromancer (the luridly-named Lord Mortis) who has been accidentally-deliberately re-animated after 200 years lying dormant and has made short work of turning many of the island’s inhabitants into his undead minions. He has already taken the Northern part of the island based around Bloodrise Keep (where he has imprisoned the island’s former Castellan) and YOU are a mercenary hired to kill him off. Yes, this is fundamentally another lunatic-of-the-week effort where all you need to do is assassinate the madman, but there is far more depth to it than just that and, for once, your character comes across all the way through the book as simply being in it for the money, rather than as a do-gooder, which perfectly suits the idea that you are a mercenary. There is a sub-plot where Chaos Pirates are working with Mortis to enslave the locals to make capturing the island easier, and many people are leaving while they still can (via your initial landing point.) You discover a sort of Elven resistance movement (who’s demi-God just happens to be in Bloodrise Keep as well) and you also have to deal with a traitor situation, your handling of which will affect what happens when you reach the Keep (well, a little bit anyway.) The aforementioned optional Vampire hunt is actually to despatch Mortis’ wife (Lady Lotmora), which adds a sense of anticipation and acts as a support act to the main event of bumping Mortis himself off, plus you can visit his (empty) tomb to get an idea of what to expect when you find him (and also to get one of the two different items that can kill him without you having to lift a finger.) A really inventive moment comes when you visit a temple that is an archaeological remnant of an ancient civilisation that once lived in the island. The main item you take from there is the Elixer Of Lhyss, the effects of which are different based on your die roll when you drink it – the result can be good or bad (there are three outcomes) which adds an element of surprise on re-plays and is a nice change to the usual situation with drinks in FFs where you are normally totally at the mercy of the writer’s generosity or sadism.

The logical yet multi-layered premise (which is not all presented on a plate, but rather, unfolds as you discover parts of it) gains extra credence from its encounters. As the island is being over-run with Undead, most of what you meet is exactly that and this is what you would anticipate from the restrictive environment of an island. There are more “normal” people in the untouched South than the already devastated North, and the further you progress, the nastier your foes become. Combat encounters are fairly sparse, but those that you come up against are interesting and in context, if sometimes a little bit weird (Werewight, Whipperwolf, Skull Beast, etc.) The Keep itself also has a lot of cannon-fodder Skeletons and the like which, again, makes sense, as it’s the garrison for Mortis’ undead army.

There is a minor structural criticism in that there are a lot of “cut-and-paste” sections but, as these deal with alternate versions of the same thing (eg: whether you have one or two companions in the graveyard, or whether you spend too long getting to the quayside), this is forgivable as it avoids the problem you sometimes find in FFs of having/doing something that is impossible based on the route you have taken to reach that point. There are also a few “knowing” inter-textual references where you find pubs called the “Sword of the Samurai” and “Down Among the Dead Men” which are cute but also a little bit pretentious (although there is nothing wrong with product placement on the authors’ behalves!) Rather more cleverly, you can find a stat-boosting sword (if already potentially having a razor-sharp one is not enough for you) that was made in Hachiman (the setting for Sword of the Samurai) and I always like to see evidence of cross-referencing to aid the creation of a global FF world. There is a grating aspect as well, though, which suggests that the adventure had been re-thought at some point during its creation, in that the overall island group and its Alliance changes its name part-way through, but you may or may not even notice this. Also, you are given what the book calls a very important ring (the Ring of Communing) by your sponsor at the start and you would be forgiven for thinking this will prove pivotal in the adventure. Sadly, it has no real impact on anything (you can even lose it and it makes no difference), other than to give you a semi-useful clue to beating Mortis at the end. For the most part, you just find yourself getting yelled-at for using it at the wrong times and, in one of the few moments of bad continuity, it works in paragraph 400 regardless of whether a) it has any charges left in it, or b) you even still have it!

A book with such well-rendered atmosphere and theme needs art that is equal to that and David Gallagher’s internal drawings are very dark, in keeping with the prose. Monsters are very stark whites on very shadowy backgrounds which make them seem all the more horrific and there is an intensity to many of the illustrations that suits this book in my view. The cover is curious as nothing is really happening on it (the title takes up a lot of the available space), but it shows Lord Mortis as a huge, almost Napoleonic figure dominating his hordes, which is subtle yet strangely appropriate.

This book’s excessive ease is at odds with the atmosphere created and the general themes. It is very well-designed and exceptionally well-written. Its non-linearity, with no particular true path, and relative freedom of movement, make a refreshing change to the usual very specific route you need to normally find in FFs, and the sheer quality of this book as an adventure (as opposed to a game that you need to win) raise it well above just being written-off as “far too easy.” Granted, it is very very simple to beat, but at least there is variety even in how you can easily beat it! The new stats are a failure when they should have driven the plot devices, but for once we have a book that can be completed with low stats, and this entry has so much to offer that, in spite of being stupidly easy, this is still a great gamebook as well as a great piece of fantasy fiction.

In Search Of The Lost Land

IN SEARCH OF THE LOST LAND

Ruth Pracy

Reviewed by Mark Lain

The second part of Pracy’s trilogy of adventures ended with the promise that “The next part of this epic will be published in Warlock in a few months time”, then Warlock ended at Issue 13 which left us all wondering whether Part 3 of the story would therefore ever appear, or at least it did if you hadn’t given up on this trilogy after the lacklustre second instalment and decided you really couldn’t care less whether the demise of Warlock meant we’d never get to see this one out. Strangely enough, nine months after the final issue of Warlock had been published, the magazine it had made no secret of its antagonism towards, Proteus, finally printed the missing third episode of Pracy’s “epic”, albeit using a set of “different” rules.

Part 1 (The Floating City) was set in an icy wilderness and was reasonable, whilst Part 2 (The Land of Changes) took place in a forest and was dull, and thus Part 3 takes us into a third textbook fantasy adventure environment, starting in a very convoluted dungeon that zig-zags off in all sorts of directions and even goes around in circles in places, before giving us a site-seeing tour of Norse legends once we approach the Lost Land itself. The initial dungeon section is fairly standard fare with North-South-East-West options, items to collect, and a lot of doors that have a habit of closing behind you forcing you to carry on forwards. This is probably the most linear of RP’s three efforts, although this is semi-disguised by the sheer amount of floating around, passing out, and being generally transported about that happens here. Certain items are essential to success (eg: it is possible to find yourself looping around endlessly in the dungeon if you can’t find a silver wristband, until you take a wrong turn and die, that is) and the Lost Land section is only slightly less linear than the beginning part, leading you through volcanoes and ice, with the only real option being whether you go via some Giants or not, but it does at least offer some slight variety and sits somewhere between the multiple-route design of Part 1 and the very specific true path approach of Part 2.

Interestingly, other than its huge reliance on Northern Hemisphere mythology, one or two examples of items coming and going regardless of what you do, and the return of Pracy’s sometimes insulting jibes at the player (section 130 is one of the worst failure paragraphs I’ve ever read in a FF), this offering is rather different structurally and conceptually than Pracy’s previous adventures:

• ·         There are far less unique creature types this time
• ·         There is far less need to make allies and you can more easily get away with killing
• ·         This is much more dream-like and feels almost like the Grail quest scenes from Excalibur
• ·         There are hardly any “non-win” alternate outcomes, but there are numerous instant deaths which otherwise tend to be a rarity in Pracy’s work
• ·         Typos, bad grammar and mis-linked sections are largely gone (enough to not be distracting) making it seem that more care has been taken in the execution
• ·         Most worthy of note is that there is far less paragraph wasting (but still a small amount) and sections are generally longer and more descriptive as if this is designed to feel more fleshed-out and climactic

(Presumably) as this was not a Games Workshop/Puffin publication, the rules have been altered (sort of) which means you could play all three adventures and use a different rule system for each, given that Part 1 uses FF rules only and Part 2 allows for either FF or D&D rules to be used. Unlike Part 2, you are not given the option to carry over your character again (which does detract from continuity when playing through the complete “epic”), but it wouldn’t take much imagination to translate your FF attributes into those used here. Skill is re-named Dexterity and Stamina is called Strength – as these are rolled up in exactly the same way as their FF equivalents and cannot exceed their Initial values, these are directly interchangeable so the adventure’s FF origins are only very thinly disguised. Ditto, Rations which restore 5 Strength points are more generous than FF, plus you start with six and you are not restricted as to when you can eat (outside combat, naturally.) Oddly, no other starting equipment is mentioned, but you can assume you have a sword, armour and a backpack otherwise you are going to struggle! A more radical departure from FF rules is the complete removal of any concept of Luck, but you do get Wisdom instead which plays its part very well – you are often required to roll against your Wisdom (ie test it) to determine if you are worthy enough to progress, particularly in the final stages and there is a suggestion of your character having developed from an impetuous chancer in Part 1, through proving your worth via an old sage figure in Part 2, to discovering a sort of Promised Land in Part 3 (overtones of Star Wars, maybe, but this self discovery tale is used all over the place in popular culture so it would be unfair to call this plagiarism.)

Whilst on this subject, this third part of the story arc carries on directly from Part 2 and you start still in the company of Gether, with the Moss Maiden’s challenge compelling you to seek out the Lost Land which contains (you discover) the legendary Stones of Sariram that hold the source of Gether’s land’s power. The opening dungeon trawl is the caverns that were referred to in Land of Changes, then you travel through The Stupa Of The Lost Land to the other side of Winter (is that not back where you started in Part One?), and finally discover the Lost Land itself which, given that it is peopled, seems to have already been discovered before you got there (although it is a land of legend, rather than a New World.) There is nothing out of place about the plot of this (or the trilogy as a whole) and weirdness is made acceptable by the generally mystical feel of this adventure, especially the latter half which you would expect to be pretty unusual considering its mythical status. The sheer weight of Norse material that comes to the fore in the final parts is laid on a bit too thick (Miollnir, Ragnarok, Ginnungagap, Heimdal, Bifrost Bridge, etc) and whilst it does not affect the plot or the gaming experience, it can feel like you have long since left Titan and are now on Earth. I accept that it is not explicitly stated anywhere that this series is set in the FF world of Titan, but it can be assumed that it is meant to be (I think?) to make it more in keeping with the canon.

In terms of challenge level, this adventure is not especially difficult, but it can get rather muddled and confusing the first time around. I assume the sense of disorientation is deliberate and certainly makes mapping a nightmare with areas looping onto each other, but it is interesting to find a FF where the sense of the mystical renders it tough to get your head around (as a Lost Land of legend should) rather than just contending with tough combats and needing a catalogue of items to win. Yes, there are some key items to find, but as this is pretty linear you will easily find them all after only a few attempts. Creating a mental image of some of the locations you visit can be bewildering (think Journey to the Centre of the Earth, which created similarly impossible scenes in my head when I read it) and there is a gigantic scale to some of it to give you a sense of your small-ness compared to where you are (literally, at one point when you find yourself in a Giant’s glove!), but you are basically dealing with a sense of awe and vastness, rather than fighting for your life. To keep it in context there are some combats to be fought, but none are especially tough (the Garm, which is meant to be hell-spawn, is very weak with De 7 and St 3 but you meet it very early on and you don’t really want to feel like it is a lost cause that soon on) other than an incredibly strong Mountain Dwarf who has St 20. It is possible to choose to fight some very tough figures from legend (Heimdal and the Fenriswolf) but this is not essential and you will benefit from taking other options to get by them, whilst the most impressive encounter by far here would be with Heruka (who has three heads and six arms, each holding a different weapon that you must individually beat one-by-one), but if you defeat it you will lose the game anyway so my theory that there are no unreasonable combats required becomes apparent as you trace the true path over several failed play-throughs. Re-playability potential is pretty high as the sense of spectacle carries this one through and the idea of building a character up to be worthy enough to find the Stones of Sariram is compelling in itself. It’s not often (other than in those FFs that involve faith- or sanity-based attributes) that FFs require you to prove your worth in this way and this is a really appealing part of ISotLL. Similarly, it is possible to fail on your first choice, which might seem harsh but a) you are supposed to be worthy, and b) playing either of the previous instalments which give you a huge clue as to how to avoid this.

When you do beat it, there is an open ending for a fourth part that never happened, which I am glad of as this is climactic and spectacular enough to be a suitable ending to the series, plus there is a limit to how much of Pracy’s wholesale exploitation of myth we can realistically tolerate and this is definitely as far as it needed to go whilst still holding an interest for players. Pracy clearly values her source material and wants us to get something from it as well. In Parts 1 and 2 her writing style was arch and felt overly smug. In this adventure, she tones it down and lets the descriptions of the environments speak for themselves rather than sounding like a bombastic GM that you’d rather not have to deal with more than was necessary, which again makes this one much more tolerable and enjoyable to play.

The art (by seven different artists) has more continuity to it than the number of illustrators involved should suggest and there are some very impressive images with a real sense of awe and/or terror in them. Some pictures have a sketchier feel whilst others are more realised, but it all works well to my eye. The cover depicting the final episode (by Keith Berdak) is rather less effective and seems over-simplified compared to the rest of the art and rather understates the importance of what it depicts.

As an aside, Proteus’ presentation was less focussed than Warlock’s and this makes reading/playing the game rather disjointed as you have to find your way through a minefield of incidental advert pages that would be better placed after the main event. This is more of a hindrance than an issue, but it is still noticeable as you flick backwards and forwards looking for the paragraph you are turning to.

This is easily the best of Pracy’s trilogy, generally avoiding the irritants that detracted from the previous two. It is the most eventful and certainly the most imaginative, but is also the most reliant on legends for its material. You get a sense of place more easily and it is far easier to immerse yourself in the world around you. There are some flaws, but overall this is an interesting effort which requires close and repeated reading to properly appreciate the setting and concept. The post-dungeon part is much more worthwhile, but the contrasts between the sections suit the plot and add to the impact of the latter parts. You could easily play this without bothering with the first two adventures and it would still be good, but there is something to be said for working through the whole cycle to find out how it all pans out, plus it will definitely make Part 3 seem all the better. Far from perfect, but still a decent offering (if only it had a less inane title...)

The Land Of Changes

THE LAND OF CHANGES

Ruth Pracy

Reviewed by Mark Lain

The second part of Warlock reader Ruth Pracy’s trilogy that started with the snowbound and slightly mystical The Floating City was published in Warlock #11. Set this time around in the interim area that links the first part’s Winter with the final part’s Summer, this adventure takes place in what is basically little more than a forest that lurches violently between Spring and Autumn environments. This transformation process is known as “The Changing” and the intro goes to great lengths to make out how dangerous and unpleasant an experience getting caught up in the middle of The Changing can be. In keeping with the first adventure’s opening spiel, it also pompously sets the scene for what actually seems like quite an intriguing descent into the unknown. Unfortunately, this second instalment is rather weaker than the first (which was functional, but certainly no masterpiece) and is probably one of the least interesting short subjects to be published in Warlock magazine overall.

Unusually for FF, you are given the opportunity to carry over your (presumably victorious) character from the first part, but this presents several issues. Firstly, do you assume that you are fully healed following the rest period that the intro mentions and that you qualify for the full complement of potions and provisions that the rules tell you you have, or do you re-use your previous character in the exact condition that he/she finished Part One? Following on from this quandary, this adventure can be played using either FF or D&D systems. This is a nice idea as Warlock was keen to promote role-playing in general in its later editions as opposed to just being a FF magazine as it was in its early days, and this gives you options for how you wish to approach the mechanics of your adventurer. On the downside, using D&D rules totally precludes you from using your previous character and takes away any sense of continuity between the first and second parts of the story, plus using D&D rules makes the adventure less involving as there are some situations where only FF rule users can gain or be penalised in stat terms making the FF approach feel more nuanced than the D&D route (especially with Luck adjustments.) I suppose as well that the usual problem of how to handle dying comes into play here – if you die in Part Two do you go all the way back to the beginning of Part One again, or do you just carry on from the start of TLoC without having to go through a full re-tread to get back where you are? (I’d imagine most would plump for the latter.)

A criticism of Part One was its sometimes clumsy construction, and that is certainly the case again here, even if this time around you are allowed to eat without being instructed by the text (which is good as this means that you can actually eat this time!):

• ·         The rules mention testing your Skill or Stamina, but nowhere in the text are you required to do either of these (I can find 8 Luck test sections, but that’s it)
• ·         The true path (and most of the false ones) are all very short, meaning there are several multi-paragraph episodes that could easily be cut down into one making the adventure take up half as many sections whilst still being exactly the same
• ·         There are lots of typos and textual inconsistencies, including a shambolic opening ramble that states “who knows where you came from”, then, er, promptly tells you exactly where you came from
• ·        It’s probably a proof-reading problem (and Warlock certainly had plenty of these!), but the punctuation in this adventure is insane, with rogue commas in particular turning up all over the place, making it read very awkwardly and disjointedly – an adventure should be fast-moving and vivid to draw you in, not such a grammatical mess that you spend as much time trying to understand the sentences as you do trying to feel like this is happening to you
• ·         Due to the messy structure and lack of play-testing, there is an additional (and I suspect quite important) alternate (“failure”) ending (paragraph 72) that you cannot reach as it has no linking section, but does result in you finishing up in the Summer lands, which is where you are trying to get to

The flip-side of the Pracy-esque cons is the nicer touches that she also always includes in her adventures:

• ·         You need to gain allies and behave yourself even more in this adventure than in Part One, and the psychotic approach is very much discouraged in favour of using some intelligence to negotiate the key moments and choose your moves wisely
• ·         The true path is not as easy to find this time around (and there is only one as far as I can tell), even if it is disappointingly brief when you do finally figure it out
• ·         You need several items again this time and they can be quite tricky to get hold of (until you figure out how to ingratiate yourself with the locals)
• ·         The interesting feature of “non-win” endings is used again here where you achieve a “victory” of sorts but not the desired outcome, which does encourage you to try to find the optimum ending, although several of these are rather obscurely sign-posted and you will have to make some 50/50 calls that will lead to either victory or failure without you really understanding why
• ·         A particularly neat inclusion is that you can acquire a horn that allows you to escape instantly from the entire forest in various moments of peril. OK, it’s just another way to get to more “non-win, but alive” endings, but it’s an interesting concept

Whilst your actual mission is simply to safely reach your homeland (Summer), the real point of this instalment is to meet a Moss Maiden who gives you your mission for Part Three and tells you that you are the chosen one who has to find the fabled Lost Land. You have to prove that you are the person she seeks and you do this by generally behaving yourself and making a couple of correct key choices at the right testing moments as mentioned above. In adventuring terms though, this means that nothing much happens on the true path other than you accepting the mission for Part Three and this adventure is basically just a fairly mundane bridge between The Floating City and In Search Of The Lost Land. Even the much-advertised “Changing” only happens on the incorrect routes and, whilst it is disorientating and its description does make you feel as sick as your character is meant to feel, it’s a bit of a let-down that you aren’t actually meant to witness it, even if the opening section’s warning is probably intended to alert you to the fact that the true path avoids it.

Similarly, of the always imaginative (and unpronounceable) unique encounters included here (and these are a big plus of RP’s FFs), two can only be found by going the wrong way (the very tough windy beast called a Mazzamarieddu, and the Fechan), whilst the true path is dominated by the Moss Maiden and a group of mischievous but actually very helpful dwarf spin-offs called Brownies (and their evil cousin, the Redcap, which is described as horrific but just looks cute in its picture.) There is also a potentially intriguing encounter with the Gwyllion late on, which provides another challenge, but you might just be starting to get fed up of this adventure's mental tests by this time.

Other than the tough battle with the Mazzamarieddu (which you might as well try to lose as you’ve already lost the game if you’ve met it anyway), the main challenge in this adventure is to make the correct non-kill choices and find the ultimate ending by using your intelligence rather than your sword-arm. There are two excessively harsh moments, one involving an aging curse where you lose 3 Skill and 6 Stamina permanently, the other being a pillar with a choice of four runes where three will lead to instant deaths (including the one you seem to have been told is the right one), but otherwise most of the failures are through finding a survival ending other than the one on paragraph 200, which is a refreshing change for FF even if there are rather a lot of non-win outcomes in this adventure.

As was generally the case with later Warlock mini-adventures, the magazine’s cover image is nothing to do with what is going on here, but Pete Martin’s art within the adventure itself is really good, being full-framed, atmospheric and very highly-detailed, which is especially helpful as the encounters here are mostly unique to this adventure. The key items you need make up the bulk of the incidental between-text smaller images, but this adds flavour and gives you useful hints for when you have failed umpteen times and are trying to work out exactly what you need to find to beat this mission. I am pleased to say that Pracy’s text is less curt this time around, there is much more dialogue (especially with the Moss Maiden), and you do not feel quite so insulted when you make a bad choice.

Despite having some nice touches (especially the art, the need to use your brain, and a sense of environmentalism), there is so little actually going on here that it does make this a rather empty experience if played in isolation. As an interlude between the other two parts of the story it works fine, but it is just too short on substance to be considered an adventure in its own right. If The Floating City captured your imagination, then it’s worth carrying on with the story, but this just does not stand up on its own.

Figure Painting

FIGURE PAINTING

By Mark Lain and Steven Leicester

To accompany my imminent thoughts on The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain boardgame, this “General FF musings” post is on the subject of the six little plastic characters that act as playing tokens as you wend your way through Zagor’s mountain dungeon. As this is a boardgame, Games Workshop had the sense to give you miniatures to make the experience seem more like a table-top RPG (which, in a fashion, it is, given your freedom of movement etc) and in the box you get a Dwarf, an Elf, a Cleric, a Knight, a Wizard, and a Barbarian (fairly close to your rival NPCs in the Deathtrap Dungeon book then.) The decision on which one you choose has no effect whatsoever on the mechanics of the game eg the Wizard cannot use magic, etc, so these are simply place markers on the board. Let’s face it, whether you’re a hat, a dog, a boot, or a car in Monopoly makes no difference either so this sits somewhere between boardgame and tabletop RPG in my book, but we’ll leave the subjective angle for the write-up of the boardgame to be found elsewhere in this blog.

I originally got the game when first released and there was something a little lacking in shuffling these inch-or-so-high red plastic things around the board. Closer examination showed the sheer level of detail (not too far from that found in metal miniatures) on the figures and it was pretty clear that a decent paintjob would raise them to the stellar standards of the metal minis that some of my gaming friends were so covetous of and of which I was so envious. A few trips to Games Workshop to watch and chat with the clever people who showed up there purely to get access to free paints showed me some of the techniques involved and I was convinced I could pull this off. To put this in perspective, I was 12 or 13 at the time and not bad at making model aeroplanes so I assumed the skills could be transferred. I started with the easiest one, the Knight, and, after a couple of coats of silver, the project was cancelled due to there being no correlation between my aircraft modelling skills and my (total lack of) skill in painting things that are highly detailed and only 2 centimetres high! So five red and one half-silver figure remained employed as the player tokens for WOFM boardgaming sessions.

Fast forward another 18 or so years and, now in my early-30s, I have become quite a dab hand at building most kinds of scale model. Cue another attempt at tackling the WOFM figures. This time all six were included and now all six were ruined with shoddy paintjobs using eggshell railway modelling paints that look great on trains but ridiculous on little fantasy people. So the figures got stripped which left them semi-pink due to the stripper bleaching some of the colour out of the original red plastic when it lifted my crappy paintwork... and thus, the six little characters got dumped on my modelling bench and sat in disgrace for just over seven years whilst I tried to find a solution to what was becoming the longest modelling project I had ever attempted and made the four years it took me to still not yet finish a Merlin helicopter kit for my step-brother seem like a quick-looking turnaround.

We are now in mid-2013 and a friend from Facebook’s FF groups happens to post some pictures online of some figures he has painted for a figure painting competition (what else?) Suitably impressed, I email him on the off-chance he might be willing to draw the final curtain on the seemingly never-ending saga of my WOFM boardgame figures and their journey towards having some life and colour to them. I pass the Luck roll and Steven Leicester agrees to take on the commission and, finally, my almost 30-year-long crusade to paint my WOFM minis is at an end. And, in the true WOFM-style collaborative spirit we are now at the river bridge, so we must pay the ferryman to cross over and from here on, in Steven’s words, this is how it was done...

I'd known MALthus for a while from enjoying his blog and some banter on the Fighting Fantasy fans page via Facebook. We share a similar taste in music, went to the same University, and are both FF obsessives!

He'd seen some of the miniatures I had been painting for my own pleasure, which I had posted images of on my own Facebook page, and had some complimentary things to say about my work. It was then the proposal came through. 

"Do you think you could help me realise a 25 year long dream?"

At first I wondered what on earth he could be getting at, but it then became clear the painting of the miniatures featured in the WOFM boardgame was the goal. Well how could I refuse? I own the game myself, and my own set has stayed unpainted for a good few years. Thought it would be good to try someone else's before tackling my own.

Now some of you may be thinking this is what I do for a living. As nice as it would be to earn my crust painting miniatures, I'm by nature quite a slow painter and I couldn't get enough models done to pay my way! For me its always been seen as nothing more than a relaxing hobby, and I would urge anyone who thinks they might enjoy it to give it a go. 

I haven't been painting that long myself. I first picked up a paintbrush in anger around three years ago, and as most miniature painters will tell you, for the first few months my efforts were appalling. But like anything, persevere and you WILL get better. If you do take it up here are my top tips for any beginner:

·         Don't get disheartened at first. Keep at it and you will improve.

·         Make sure you have a good lighting source where you paint. A daylight lamp makes a world of difference.

·         Make sure you always use clean water, and never take the paint straight from the pot. Always water it down a little first on a pallette.

·         A few thin coats are better than one coat that is too thick. Slapping the paint on will obscure the detail on your models.

·         Get a good tutorial book. I'd recommend How to Paint Citadel Miniatures from Games Workshop, as this has been a huge help.

·         Get the best brushes you can afford. I use Winsor and Newton Series 7 brushes. Yes they are around four times the price of non sable hair brushes, but they will last for years and always come to a nice point.

·         Don't be lazy! Clean up after your sessions. Your brushes will thank you for it. Use a brush cleaner after every session. I'd recommend 'The Masters' brush cleaner.

So what are the stages to painting a model? I'll quickly run through these to give you an idea of how to go about it. First you need to have an assembled and built model! Luckily the WOFM miniatures are all one piece so you're good to go with no assembly or clean up. Don't be fooled into thinking painting is quick. I'd estimate each of these models from start to finish took me around 3 hours each.

Stage 1 - Undercoat

You'll need an aerosol can of black spray undercoat/primer. I use either Army Painter black spray or Games Workshop ‘Chaos Black’ spray. You can get loads of other colours than black, but black is good for beginners. Take your model outside and give it a quick undercoat. Stick it to some wood with double sided tape to keep your hands clean! Don't go mad either with the spray, you want to nice thin coat, not a deluge. The undercoat will give a nice smooth surface to paint on.

Stage 2 - Basecoat

Apply a primary base colour to each area. For the Wizard miniature I used a dark grey for his hat and cloak, a sky blue for the undergarments, dark flesh for the skin, gold for the belt, desert yellow for the beard, sliver for the staff top and brown for the staff handle.

Stage 3 - Wash

A wash is a very thin paint, specially designed to flow into the recesses of a model to give shade and definition. Black wash was used on the cloak, hat and staff top. A brown wash was applied to the staff handle. Flesh wash to the skin and finally a sepia wash to the beard.

Stage 4 - Neaten up

Use the same base colours to neaten up any wash which hasn't dried in the recesses.

Stage 5 - Highlights

Simply use a lighter shade of your base coat colours on the edges of the model or any raised sections to create natural highlights.

Stage 6 - Basing

Using PVA glue, apply sand, slate, rocks, artificial grass - anything you like really, to the base of the model to add character.

Stage 7 - Varnish

If you're painting models for gaming, such as the ones from WOFM, you will need to give them a spray of varnish to protect them. This is done in the same way as Stage 1.

I could go on for several pages, but most of you would have fallen asleep reading, or vowed to never visit this blog again! As I said earlier if you want to know more, YouTube, websites like Cool Mini Or Not, or the excellent How To Paint Citadel Miniatures book offer a wealth of information.

So what are you waiting for? Pick up a starter box set of models, some paint, glue and brushes and give it a go. You might find out you love it as much as I do. You might also find you get mentioned on Twitter by a certain Mr Ian Livingstone, but I'll let MALthus pick up the story from here...................

So now I am the proud owner, after many years, of six beautifully painted and finished WOFM minis. The only problem is that now my Legend Of Zagor figures look distinctly uninteresting in their black and cream plastic and, it seems, so do Mr Livingstone’s, but that’s another story. For the timebeing I’m rolling two dice against my Luck score to see if the Trickster Gods of eBay will allow me to win the Limited Edition metal Warlock figure (from the cover of issue 10 of Warlock magazine) so that Mr Leicester and I can collaborate on a second project. Until then, MALthus Dire and Steven Leicester Present... (only kidding!)