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Ynaniss Silverblade a popular author from Chalice has disappeared. City officials are treating her disappearance as unusual in light of her recent work revealing that Zharradan Marr was the son of the notorious witch, Romeena of Dree. |
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Would you like to see the release of the Fighting Fantasy™ Novels? Yes! No! View result without voting |
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Do you ever play the Gamebooks without using the book dice or
real dice? |
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Which is your favourite FF interior illustrator? |
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Q) How does an Allansian adventurer talk to a giant? A) Use big words. |
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Q) Why do you never see a skeleton chasing an adventurer across a road? A) He didn't have the guts. Ho Ho He He! |
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The
city of Zengis (also known as the City of Wares) has the largest
concentration of temples, priests and priestesses in Allansia.
A plethora of religions are worshipped by the inhabitants. Zengis’s
largest church is the Celestial Hall, a temple to Asrel under
the control of the High Priest Fhan Myorang. |
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The famed Strong arm adventurers known as Armstrong, Bigneck and Crystal were recently welcomed by the local inhabitants of Silverton after a perilous quest to the Mountain of Deathrise in western Chiang-Mai. |
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Did
you hear that Razaak the necromancer walked into a pub in Chalice
with his loyal ghost servant . The bartender told him : 'Sorry
Sir, we don't serve spirits...' He He! |
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Q) Why did a female Troll dye her hair yellow? A) She wanted to see if blondes have more fun. Ha Ha Ha! |
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Q) What did an Orc in Port Blacksand do after he lost a hand in a fight? A) He went to a secondhand shop on Clock Street? He He! |
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How many Gamebooks do you own? Wizard
- 1 to 5 |
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| The Chiang-Mai nation is divided by several rivers, both large and small that run across the country. The most significant river is the River Kok, which runs down to the Kalong Marsh in the far west from the Forest of Fiends, the Dire Mounds and Troll Hills in the east. The river Kok runs through Chiang-Mai and its capital Fang, as well as its neighboring nation state Kaypong. It is the most heavily used river in Allansia for commerce and watercourse is always filled with merchant ships and barges that pass through on their way to the coast. |
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Q) Why do you never see a skeleton at a party in Allansia? A) Because they have no body to go with! |
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The Troll Moors are a high saddle of rocky, forbidding rolling hills situated between the River Kok and Pagan Plains. This forbidding area is commonly avoided by travelers, and is broken by hidden valleys and thick, twisted copses of elm, oak and beech. The Moors are often shrouded in dense mists and are inhabited by several large Troll tribes, as well as Goblinoid races. These evil inhabitants often raid the surrounding areas, so passing merchants often hire large groups of strong-arm guards when passing near it. |
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The
Tanglewood is a large area of forest in the rolling hills and
land north of Kaad. The forest is dark, gloomy and dangerous mainly
consisting of deciduous trees such as oak. It is densely overgrown
and the interior is covered with thick shrubs, scrub, moss, ivy
and fungi that make traveling difficult.
Within the confines of the forest are large areas of dangerous Strangle Weed and a variety of creatures and game, including a community of 200 goblins led by King Grolik Fatnose, (commonly referred to a Bonebreaker due to his fondness for bone marrow). |
COMPETITION 3: Tricks
n' Traps All the Fighting Fantasy™ Gamebooks have some pretty terrifying creatures that you may encounter on your travels. How many of you read the Warlock of Firetop Mountain and discovered the portcullis levers, or even worse fell to the many devious traps and puzzles in Baron Sukumvit's deadly Deathtrap Dungeon in both the Gamebook Deathtrap Dungeon and the Trial of Champions? Joint Winner 1: - Heart of the Dungeon! by John Picot I will first set up the encounter like a typical FF paragraph complete with choices. Afterwards I will explain the logic behind the trap. 1 You open metal door to a strange room. The walls, ceiling, and floor are all constructed of some sort of metallic marble. The "veins" of marble seem to throb with a soft red light in a rhythmic pulsation. Bound to the wall on the opposite side of the room is a lovely young woman with black hair and white skin. She is bound by a set of metallic cables that seem to be imbedded in the wall itself. She notices you and begins to plead for release from this accursed place. Will you; rush to her aide and begin trying to free her from the cables? Turn to 3. Ignore her cries for release and close the door and proceed on down the passageway? Turn to 2. 2 The passageway continues on to the rest of the adventure and presumably greater challenges. 3 You rush to the woman's side and jump with a start as the heavy door closes with a loud slam! You turn back to the girl and she smiles at you strangely as you begin to feel weaker. Lose 1 point of Stamina. The cables that bind her loosen and lengthen as she assumes a fighting stance and now that you stand this close to her can you see that her lovely white skin is really some sort of painted metal, and the cables that bound her are actually part of her wrists. You have unwittingly been drawn in to the Heart Of The Dungeon and must now fight your way out or become the Dungeon's next meal. Heart Of The Dungeon Skill 9 Stamina 7 Each round that you fight deduct 1 point from your Stamina and add 1 point to the Heart Of The Dungeon as the room drains your life away to feed itself. If you have a vial of metal solvent and wish to use it turn to 4. Otherwise you must defeat the Heart with your weapon. If you win turn to 5. 4 You fling the vial at the woman and it shatters against her metal skin. She screams in agony as it dissolves her body more rapidly than she can drain the life from you. Within moments she lies on the smoking metal floor, a ruined parody of a real woman. The strange marble stops pulsing and slowly turns black. You feel a strange power lifting from the dungeon as you bind your injuries. At any time you must fight an encounter throughout the rest of the adventure you may deduct 2 points from the creature's SKILL and STAMINA reflecting the loss of control and power that the Heart Of The Dungeon had. You exit the room with a sense of accomplishment. Turn to 2. 5 With a wail of agony the woman crashes to the metal floor with a loud clunk. The strange marble stops pulsing and slowly turns black. You feel a strange power lifting from the dungeon as you bind your injuries. At any time you must fight an encounter throughout the rest of the adventure you may deduct 2 points from the creature's SKILL and STAMINA reflecting the loss of control and power that the Heart Of The Dungeon had. You exit the room with a sense of accomplishment. Turn to 2. How The Trap Works I suppose it may not be fair to call HOTD a "trap" per se, but rather an obstacle that the hero must surmount if he is to get through to his final objective. Defeating the HOTD gives the player some breathing room in the battles to come, and provides an important component of the dungeon, a controller. Since most gamers accuse the FF series of having "Vacuum Packed Dungeons" (i.e. a dungeon environment that seemed frozen and without the benefit of the interaction that a true RPG gave), I use the idea of a strong-willed controlling entity like the Heart of The Dungeon to administer the day to day affairs. After all, what keeps the Cave Troll in encounter 124, from wandering over to the pantry in encounter 30 and stealing the spare provisions from it? Who sharpens the spikes, and cleans the blood off the floors of the trap (presumably so the adventurer won't suspect it's there) in area 93? So basically the HOTD is like a living computer that maintains control over the monsters and makes sure things like the traps and puzzles are maintained and in good working order. It might also make sure things like the Slime Beast in encounter 47 is fed since it can't leave it's pool. I got the idea from the old Space Assassin book, where you either had to befriend the robot pilot of the Vandervecken, or blast some holes in the main computer in order to keep the villain from escaping the ship. I liked having that extra condition on my game before I could reach the end, and it made sense that there had to be something besides the villain coordinating everything. Well the Vandervecken was a high tech spaceship and lots of the defenses were automated, so that explained it quite well, but what about the primitive environments of a dungeon? It's too easy to say "Oh well Archmage Mugwort, who is the final villain maintains control over everything". But I thought that would be a lot of work for one person, who is also trying to expand his own personal power to deal with day to day operations of a chaotic dungeon. Even in the very first book (Warlock Of Firetop Mountain), Zagor had someone in charge of the Maze Of Zagor, and an Orc Chieftain keeping the greenies in line. Besides, these ideas behind it, it also uses the classic "damsel in distress" motif to lure in potential victims, and as can be read, it has the potential to be a very deadly encounter, as the Heart can defend itself quite effectively. It also allows for a hero to have several ways to overcome the obstacle either in the form of the metal solvent which can be found in another location, or by adding more choices to the battle such as cutting the "damsel's" cables to disable her. (Congratulations John! This was an excellent entry with an original idea. Your signed A3 poster will be with you in the new year! - Ed!) |