Greetings everyone. Since I have time from the Christmas weekend, I will be starting a FF Let’s Play. Since there is a gaping omission for Fighting Fantasy book #4 and I happened to have a copy with me, I decided to choose it for my first FF Let’s Play. Anyone wishing to join in is welcome. I will try to update this series on a once per day basis, but my busy schedule due to being an essential worker will probably get in the way of this. I hope that everyone can understand this.
Preface:
Prepare For Your MissionSucked through the appalling nightmare of the Seltsian Void, the starship Traveller emerges at the other side of the black hole into an unknown universe. YOU are the captain of the Traveller and her fate lies in your hands. Will you be able to discover the way back to Earth from the alien peoples and planets you encounter, or will you and your crew be doomed to roam uncharted space forever?
Steve Jackson, co-founder of the highly successful Games Workshop, has created a thrilling adventure amongst the stars. There are three new forms of combat to be used, a full ship’s crew and an adventure sheet to record your gains and losses. All you need is two dice, a pencil and an eraser.
Many dangers lie ahead and your success is by no means certain. It’s up to YOU to decide which route to follow, which dangers to risk and which adversaries to fight!
For the purpose of this series, the Adventure Sheet will be hand-made and will be periodically displayed.You are Captain of the Starship Traveller. The ship itself is the pride of your AstroNavy. Its weapons and defence systems are the most technically advanced in the fleet and its crew are first-rate.
Before you begin your voyage, you must determine the strengths and weaknesses of yourself as Captain and your crew members. The journey through the black hole will do some damage to the weapons and defence systems on the ship.
To determine your starting characteristics, you will need two dice and a pencil to record scores on the Adventure Sheet on page 16. Before writing on the Adventure Sheet, you may wish to take photocopies for use in future adventures. It is unlikely that you will find the way back to Earth in your first adventure.
Unlike previous Fantasy Gamebooks, you will not find rules for fighting alien creatures and ships here at the beginning of the book. Rules for ship-to-ship, hand-to-hand and phaser (laser pistol) combat are given in the text of the book, to allow you to start playing with minimal delay. As you come across combat situations, you will be referred to sections describing the appropriate combat rules. All you need to do here is roll dice to determine the initial scores on your Adventure Sheet.
Your Ship
Making the appropriate rolls and modifications yielded the following initial scores for the ship:Roll one die. Add 6 to the roll. Enter this total in the WEAPONS STRENGTH section of your Adventure Sheet. When shooting at enemy ships, you will need to roll lower than this score to make a hit.
Roll one die. Add 12 to this roll. Enter this total in the SHIELDS section of your Adventure Sheet. When enemy ships hit you, you will lose points from this SHIELDS score. Your SHIELDS will weaken significantly after a few hits have been taken. If your ship is ever hit when your SHIELDS score is zero, your ship will be destroyed instantly.
WEAPONS STRENGTH: 9
SHIELDS: 16
You and Your Crew
So making the appropriate rolls and modifications yielded the following initial scores for the crew:Personnel will perform according to their SKILL and STAMINA scores. Their SKILL score reflects their abilities within their own profession, i.e. your Science Officer's skill with computers, your Medical Officer's skill as a doctor, your Security Officer's combat ability and your own leadership and decision-making skills as Captain.
On your Adventure Sheet you will see entries for your key staff (Captain, Science Officer, Medical Officer, Security Officer and Engineering Officer, together with two security Guards). Repeat the following procedure for each in turn:
Roll one die. Add 6 to the result. Enter the total as that person's SKILL score.
Roll two dice. Add 12 to the result. Enter the total as that person's STAMINA score.
You may now see how each crew member is likely to perform at his/her job; the higher the SKILL score, the better.
Captain SKILL: 11
Captain STAMINA: 18
Science Officer SKILL: 9
Science Officer STAMINA: 22
Medical Officer SKILL: 8
Medical Officer STAMINA: 21
Security Officer SKILL: 7
Security Officer STAMINA: 18
Engineering Officer SKILL: 8
Engineering Officer STAMINA: 21
Security Guard 1 SKILL: 9
Security Guard 1 STAMINA: 19
Security Guard 2 SKILL: 7
Security Guard 2 STAMINA: 21
So our Security Officer and second Security Guard are complete wimps.
Combat
LuckOnly security staff are skilled in combat. They will be your obvious choice in hand-to-hand or phaser fighting. Non-security staff may fight, but their skills lie in other areas. If, by choice or through necessity, you wish a non-security crew member to fight an alien, you must deduct 3 points from his or her SKILL score during the battle. This rule applies to your Science Officer, Medical Officer and Engineering Officer only. It does not apply to you, as the ship's Captain. Your own fighting skills are equal to your professional skills, as befits a true hero.
Performing the LUCK roll yielded the following LUCK score for our hero:Every true hero is at the mercy of the forces of chance. You will find a LUCK box on your Adventure Sheet. Roll one die, add 6 to the roll and enter the total in this LUCK box.
Call it acts of God, The Force or whatever you will – LUCK will play an important part in your adventure.
LUCK: 12
So our hero is super lucky, which partially makes up for the poor SKILL scores of our Security Officer and second Security Guard.
Beaming Down on to Planets
Restoring StaminaWhen you arrive at a planet, you will be given the option of 'beaming down' on to the surface. Sometimes only you will beam down, but often you will be instructed to choose two or three crew members to accompany you. When given this choice, you may choose only crew members listed on your Adventure Sheet (there are some other restrictions limiting your choice – see the 'Losing an Officer' section below). Your Science Officer is a problem solver, your Medical Officer is a doctor, your Engineering Officer has a knowledge of mechanics and geology and your Security Officer and Guards are your fighters. Record your choices before you land on the planet and remember that only those staff actually in the landing party will be able to act for you while on the surface.
Losing an Officer or Security GuardOn some planets you may become involved in fights and other situations which drain your STAMINA scores. There are two ways of restoring STAMINA. You may find a planet with superior medical technology able to restore STAMINA. Instructions will be given in the text. You may also restore 2 STAMINA points to each crew member listed on your Adventure Sheet every time you leave a planet. However, you may only gain the advantage of this medical treatment if you have your original Medical Officer. If your Medical Officer dies, you may not restore STAMINA in this way. Crew members' STAMINA scores may never exceed their initial value.
Your Adventure Is About To Begin!If, during your adventure, one of the Officers or Guards listed on your Adventure Sheet dies or is lost, you must cross him off your Adventure Sheet and he may play no further part in the adventure. His position is taken over by his assistant. You must determine the SKILL and STAMINA scores of this newly promoted assistant and then record them on the Adventure Sheet. The assistant's SKILL score is equal to the SKILL score of the lost Officer minus 2 points, as this assistant is not as skilful as the Officer he replaces. The assistant's STAMINA score is determined in the normal way, i.e. roll two dice and add 12 to the result.
This newly promoted replacement may not be beamed down on to planets or used in any missions where you are instructed to choose a crew member. Being the last available candidate for his particular position, you cannot risk losing him. However, you may use him for routine duties (i.e. where no option is given in the text). A replacement Medical Officer may restore STAMINA to injured crew members on leaving planets (see 'Restoring Stamina' above), but at the reduced rate of 1 STAMINA point per planet.
NOW TURN OVERThe scores you have recorded on your Adventure Sheet will give you an indication of the strengths and weaknesses of yourself, your crew and your ship. You need know nothing of how these scores will come into play – all will be explained as necessary as your adventure unfolds.
In the adventure which follows, you are the Captain of the Traveller, lost in an unknown universe. Your own skill as a Captain will determine whether you and your crew will ever see Earth again. You are about to be flung through a black hole into unknown space. Your only chance of return will be to find another suitable black hole and guide the ship through it back to your own universe.
You are now ready to set off. Take your seat on the bridge and prepare yourself for the adventure ahead.
Please keep all spoilers covered out of respect to those of us who want to have a blind experience. Any ties will be broken by me based on my personal instincts.
One final thing: If we die in this Let’s Play, we’re brown bread. We will not be coming back, as there will be no resurrections here. That is because I do want to introduce that element of real life, and I do want all of us to take this Let’s Play seriously.
1
(Note: I cannot figure out how to directly post illustrations from the book itself. Using the img tags with imgur doesn't work. If anyone knows a better way to share the illustrations, I would highly appreciate such assistance.)
https://imgur.com/a/bvsbSMV
Panic!
From your seat at the helm of the Starship Traveller you study the VDU anxiously. Engineering Section has reported an overdrive malfunction which has locked the warp engines at a 10 per cent velocity gain. You are watching the velocity indicator advancing rapidly through the safe region towards overload. You hit the communicator button and call Engineering for further news ...
It is not good. The malfunction cannot be traced and it will take another thirteen minutes for a system check to provide a full analysis.
You are heading towards the Seltsian Void, a known black hole. You may or may not avoid it, but your Science Officer has another plan. If you swing the ship through its immense gravitational pull, its gravity drag may help reduce your speed as you travel away from it. This is worth a try, but the navigational tuning will have to be precise...
You swing the starship hard to starboard as you enter the Seltsian's gravitational field and fasten your eyes on the velocity indicator. To your great relief the plan seems to be working! The gain comes down from 10 per cent to 5 per cent to zero, to -5 per cent!
Loud cheers come from the crew, but you are still watching the velocity indicator. It is now showing -15 per cent, then -25 per cent and still falling. The ship is being sucked into the Seltsian Void!
You hit the red alert button and instruct all ship's personnel to strap themselves down. The ship begins to whine and shake as it rapidly accelerates towards the black hole. There is nothing you can do to avert the impending disaster.
An almighty explosion rocks the ship and all the crew, including you, lose consciousness. Turn to 256.
256
https://imgur.com/a/9V8GFvz
You and the other members of the crew are regaining consciousness. Again you hit the communicator and call for systems damage reports. All systems appear to be intact, until Engineering reports that the warp drive engines are dead. You are floating in space! But your drive reactors should be operational in twenty to thirty minutes.
Your navigation officer is bewildered. He cannot identify your whereabouts and the computer reports you are in uncharted space. Your Science Officer has run an event analysis and you appear to have gone through the black hole, through a dimension warp, and you are now in what seems to be a parallel universe.
After some delay you regain warp drive. Long-range scan indicates three solar systems ahead, of which two may have intelligent life. Will you:
Press on towards the life-bearing system ahead? Turn to 86
Turn to port towards the other life-bearing system? Turn to 273
Turn to starboard towards the barren system? Turn to 142
In addition to choosing which solar system to visit, we need some names for the crew members. Please make your decisions before 6:00 PM PST to guarantee that your votes will be counted.