[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 27 - Star Strider

[Beroli]

Stay here. We have much less to lose by them thinking we're weirdly incurious than by them realizing we're opposed to them, if they kidnapped the President.

[JourneymanN00b]

I have registered your votes, and will have Hiryu Aragorn approach the ComTerm in order to break the 1-1 tie.

316
You go up to the screen and look at the information. You know that it is all false and that the screen is just an illusion. The Groms are using a double-bluff technique to see if you pretend to show no interest. You touch nothing and watch the screen. Deduct 2 TIME units and turn to 6.

6
Suddenly a Grom appears in front of you. This is obviously an Illus-o-Scope image, since he is tall and good-looking. He smiles and tells you that their galactic ‘moles’ have got information that you are here to rescue the President. All you have to do is confess and you will be richly rewarded. If not, you will never be released and your mission will fail anyway. Do you admit to your mission (turn to 57) or keep silent (turn to 122)?

Please vote before 8:30 PM PDT to guarantee that it will be counted.

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Hiryu Aragorn
TIME: 16
CLUES:
OXYGEN: 16
SKILL: 10 Initial Skill = 10
STAMINA: 45 Initial Stamina = 24
LUCK: 10 Initial Luck = 10
FEAR: 7
CALCULATIONS:
Circle with a horizontal line through it is a clue
Reference 169A is a clue
London area is a clue
BOONS:
1 Dice Manipulator[/spoiler]

[JourneymanN00b]

Since nobody voted, I will have Hiryu Aragorn keep silent.

122
The Grom begins to look cross. His cheeks puff up and redden, then he vanishes. The room is plunged into darkness and you sense yourself rotating head over heels. Then you lose consciousness. Turn to 249.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

249
[spoiler][/spoiler]

You wake up in a dark, damp, dismal room. You are chained up. You look up and see a hideous sight. A Grom stands before you with snakes growing out of his head. All the time you hear a command inside your brain, ‘You will tell us about your mission, you will tell us about your mission …’ Test your Fear Factor. If you are frightened, reduce your STAMINA by 2 points. Repeat the test twice more: if you lose 6 STAMINA points, your control has broken and you have revealed your mission (turn to 57). If you have lost 4 STAMINA points or less, turn to 47.

The Fear rolls yielded a 3, 6, and 6, so Hiryu Aragorn has lost no Stamina points.

47
Suddenly the scene changes. You are standing by a beautiful beach, the sun is setting and you know that you are rich and powerful, but you cannot remember any details. You are about to remember, when your Rogue Tracer mind-training reasserts itself and you know that this is just another Grom brain-game. The scene fades into darkness. Four doors appear. A voice tells you that three of them lead to death and one leads to freedom, and that the choice is yours. You are also forced into a decision by the wall behind you glowing red hot and pushing you towards the doors. The doors are marked with chess symbols. Do you choose:

The pawn? Turn to 23
The knight? Turn to 166
The rook? Turn to 212
The bishop? Turn to 225

Please vote before 8:00 AM PDT or a 3-vote majority is reached to guarantee that it will be counted.

[Beroli]

One of these pieces has shown up before. The knight.

[SGamerz]

Knight.

[Thaluikhain]

Apparently the Gromulans believe that there is some connection between the founding of Roma and their race.

Huh.

Anyway, knight seems reasonable.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Knight.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes registered, Hiryu Aragorn will choose the knight. And sorry for the delay, as yesterday was seriously chaotic on a personal level.

166
[spoiler][/spoiler]

You have opened the correct door. Add 2 LUCK points. It opens into daylight outside an old high wall. You cannot believe that the Groms have let you go – and then you look to either side of you. Two Excels in ritual duelling armour stand with neutronswords raised above their heads. The beams swish downwards. You drop flat on to the ground. When you look up, you see that one of the Excels has a deep gash through its chest-piece and, while you watch, it falls over in a cloud of acidic self-destruct. The other Excel has lost its right arm. They have missed you and hit each other! The remaining Android comes at you.

ONE-ARMED EXCEL SKILL 4 STAMINA 4

If you lose, you have no excuses. If you win, turn to 328.

The fight:
[spoiler]Round 1: One-Armed Excel Attack Strength: 10, Player Attack Strength: 21;
One-Armed Excel Stamina: 2, Player Stamina: 45
Round 2: One-Armed Excel Attack Strength: 11, Player Attack Strength: 15;
One-Armed Excel Stamina: 0, Player Stamina: 45[/spoiler]

To nobody’s surprise, Hiryu Aragorn destroys the One-Armed Excel without any problems.

328
While you dash off down the back-streets, you hear a craft taking off very close by and obviously looking for you. In your haste you find yourself in a blind alley. There is an open warehouse door on the right and a pile of rubble on a broken manhole on the ground in front of you. Do you go into the warehouse (turn to 365) or down the manhole (turn to 87)?

Please vote before 6:00 PM PDT to guarantee that it will be counted.

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Hiryu Aragorn
TIME: 16
CLUES:
OXYGEN: 16
SKILL: 10 Initial Skill = 10
STAMINA: 45 Initial Stamina = 24
LUCK: 12 Initial Luck = 10
FEAR: 7
CALCULATIONS:
Circle with a horizontal line through it is a clue
Reference 169A is a clue
London area is a clue
BOONS:
1 Dice Manipulator[/spoiler]

[Thaluikhain]

The manhole cover has been buried? Maybe for good reason, and no time to unbury, to the warehouse, says I.

[Beroli]

Down the manhole.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Manhole.

[SGamerz]

The manhole cover has been buried? Maybe for good reason, and no time to unbury, to the warehouse, says I.

This.

[JourneymanN00b]

I have counted your votes, and I will have Hiryu Aragorn go into the warehouse to break the 2-2 tie.

365
You slip into the warehouse as the door slides shut. You look around. It appears to be a Grom Android assembly plant. You are in a room surrounded by immobile, headless Excels. A Forkliftron moves between them. There are two doors ahead. Do you take the left one (turn to 158) or the right one (turn to 290)?

Please vote before 8:00 AM PDT or a 3-vote majority is reached to guarantee that it will be counted.

[Thaluikhain]

Argh, there's description, but not for the doors.

Left again.

[SGamerz]

Right.

We don't want to become too much of an extremist on either side. We tried the moderate approach with alternating between left and right and it served us well. We went left last time, so this time, right.

[pragma]

Left: the warehouse door was on the right, so this is the centrist pick.

[JourneymanN00b]

Once again, sorry for the delay, as I am still dealing with some minor health issues. I have counted your votes, and it look like Hiryu Aragorn will take the socialist approach, as that option won over the Nazist approach by a 2-1 vote.

158
You are in the laser-welding room. There are six chambers, full of Androids, and lasers are firing at them in random order from across the room. You cannot go back, so you have to go past the six chambers to the exit. Throw one die for each chamber in sequence. If at any time the number on the die is the same as the number of the chamber you are passing, then you have been hit, and your mission is over. If you survive, turn to 348.

The odds of surviving this test are roughly 33%, so the dice manipulator boon will be used to have Hiryu Aragorn proceed to the exit.

348
Alarms flash as you get out into the loading-bay. There you see a Grom commercial transport, which is about to take off. The plasti-crates are all marked with a circle with a horizontal line through it. Deduct 2 TIME units. Do you wish to stow away on the transport (turn to 245) or go to the Silverhound terminal (turn to 134)?

Important Note: According to publicly available errata for this book, stowing away on the transport (if that option is selected) should instead direct us to turn to section 239 rather than section 245.

Please vote before 6:00 PM PDT to guarantee that it will be counted.

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Hiryu Aragorn
TIME: 14
CLUES:
OXYGEN: 16
SKILL: 10 Initial Skill = 10
STAMINA: 45 Initial Stamina = 24
LUCK: 12 Initial Luck = 10
FEAR: 7
CALCULATIONS:
Circle with a horizontal line through it is a clue
Reference 169A is a clue
London area is a clue
BOONS:
None[/spoiler]

[Beroli]

The clue! And we don't have to associate it with the London Underground at all. Stow away on the transport.

[SGamerz]

Stow away on transport.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes registered, Hiryu Aragorn will stow away on the transport.

239
The transport is of standard Galactic General Rocket Motors design and you are skilled in stowing away on these. The robo-loader ignores you as you slip between the plasti-crates and raise the lid of the ‘Emergency Humanoid Operators Cab’. You slip in, check the rations and find a good selection. You set your alarm and fall asleep. Add 6 STAMINA points and turn to 208.

208
[spoiler][/spoiler]
The Chronograph wakes you up just as the transport is landing. You get up and stroll through an open hatch. A robot ignores you as it unloads the crates. You look around, but see nothing but a bleak wasteland. The only feature is a tunnel entrance into which the crates are being conveyed. There is a sign above the entrance: a circle with a horizontal line through it. You walk into the tunnel and to your left you see an old poster stuck on a brick wall. Add 4 LUCK points.

Study the poster carefully and use any clues you have acquired in your travels. You are at the southernmost point of the tunnel system. Keep this page marked, since you will have to refer back to work out your relative position.

You walk into the tunnel until you come to a small chamber stacked with crates. The tunnel continues in a north-westerly direction. Beside the crates you see a sophisticated speedboard with several attachments, including an old-fashioned neutronsword. Do you jump on and take it (turn to 274) or approach carefully to see if anyone is around (turn to 323)?

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Please vote before 8:00 AM PDT or a 3-vote majority is reached to guarantee that it will be counted.

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Hiryu Aragorn
TIME: 14
CLUES:
OXYGEN: 16
SKILL: 10 Initial Skill = 10
STAMINA: 51 Initial Stamina = 24
LUCK: 16 Initial Luck = 10
FEAR: 7
CALCULATIONS:
Circle with a horizontal line through it is a clue
Reference 169A is a clue
London area is a clue
BOONS:
None[/spoiler]

[pragma]

Definitely jump on and take. Sword fighting on a skate board is way more rad than caution.

[JourneymanN00b]

Vote registered, Hiryu Aragorn will jump on and take it.

274
You leap on to the board, touch a few pressure pads and glide off almost silently. As you speed away, a horned creature bursts out from behind the crates and shrieks at you. The board is light and easy to control but you are not sure about fuel levels. Do you travel flat out (turn to 253) or at half speed to conserve fuel (turn to 148)?

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Please vote before 6:00 PM PDT to guarantee that it will be counted.

[Beroli]

Half speed. Getting stranded somewhere would be bad.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Agreed.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes registered, Hiryu Aragorn will travel at half speed to conserve fuel.

148
You have heard alarm sirens in the distance and now you arrive at a thick metal door. There is no way through. Fifty metres behind you, another door has shut. You feel the air being drained from the tunnel. Your mission has failed.

Bonus death entry:
”Heaven help me is this a dumb way to go,” said Hiryu Aragorn as the air leaves the tunnel. “How was I supposed to know that the doors were going to close?” As his cheeks feel like a very strong case of the mumps, he feels sorry for himself and for the President, who will shortly surrender the defense codes to the Gromulans and the Empire of the Purple Flag. With regret and shame, Hiryu Aragorn prepares to release his soul to the next world. As his head explodes into a bloody mass of a million pieces in the unpressurized environment, his soul departs from his body, wishing that his next life will be better.

Well, that was a cheap way to die. Since our hero does not have a rewind, his journey comes to a horrible and unremarkable end. The correct move was to travel flat out, where Hiryu Aragorn would have face a Luck Test in order to get past the closing door and continue his journey through London to get to the President.

The life lesson here is to not do anything half-assed and to fully commit to any endeavor that you accept. That is how you get a rewarding life and become successful in fulfilling your goals, such as getting a Ph.D. in my case. Failing to do this screws you over later, as my half-assed attempt to develop a good resume caused me to fail to get a good job before I acquired a large unemployment gap after graduation.

So, now that I have finished my admittedly unpleasant lecture, I will begin a new thread for the next gamebook that I plan to run very soon. Thank you everyone for playing, and I hope to see all of you in my next Let’s Play.

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Hiryu Aragorn
TIME: 14
CLUES:
OXYGEN: 16
SKILL: 10 Initial Skill = 10
STAMINA: 51 Initial Stamina = 24
LUCK: 16 Initial Luck = 10
FEAR: 7
CALCULATIONS:
Circle with a horizontal line through it is a clue
Reference 169A is a clue
London area is a clue
BOONS:
None[/spoiler]