[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 47 – The Crimson Tide

[pragma]

Thanks for running this, I thought this one had an unusually fun hook, and I enjoyed following along. What do the endings look like if we don't use the secret approach? And where can we pick up magic? (Though that keyword probably dooms us)

[SGamerz]

Regarding the puzzle revealing the option to turn to paragraph 198, we managed to get all of the keywords to do so except getting the word “sword” instead of “crane.” Doing so required us to select working in the kitchen and telling the abbot that we were well pleased with our lot. After getting a monk’s knife, we then needed to tell him that the time is ripe for us to leave the monastery and resume our quest. Finally, we needed to decide to stay and accept the quest to recover the sacred relic.

It doesn't have to be the kitchen, actually. Doing the laundry has a similar effect, just that we get a monk's staff out of it instead of a knife. In both cases, the abbot showed us that our chores actually helped us to pick up the true essence of their martial arts style and we demonstrated that by breaking some blocks with our bare hands without even thinking about it. This is why the white-faced monk is actually a weaker opponent to us than if we chose to deliberately learn martial arts and gain 'wood'. I think it may have been an oversight that they didn't check for 'crane' before that fight.

Cleaning duties was unfortunately the worst choice we could have picked. Once we chose that there's no way to get the codeword.

I do appreciate the imitation of traditional Chinese swordfight novels/movies here: very often, the greatest fighters in these stories turned out to be some seemingly inconspicuous characters who spent years under the radar doing menial chores like kitchen duties and sweeping the yard. The ones who deliberately choose to learn martial arts to fight or kill (especially those who did it by secretly watching without an instructor, like we did in the second attempt) only learn the frills but not the essence, because the urge to fight and beat others run counter to the Buddhist spirit of their style. But for most FF players, it's kind of a counter-intuitive option, because staying as a monk for a year only to ask to leave without doling anything else really seems like a waste of time without any foreknowledge.

The condition of the first codeword is also really awkward. Your STAMINA score is tied to your Ferocity because of the way their initial stats are determined. So it's very likely that you either pass the Ferocity test too easily OR your STAMINA is too low to win the battle against the Death Messenger, either of which will cause you to miss the codeword. Then there's the fact that we start with a SKILL between 1-6, and need to beat the DM who has SKILL 6. This may not be a "meatgrinder" like a Livingstone/Martin/Green book, but it's actually just as demanding on your stats and luck on the dice. The +2 bonus from the sacred sword looks generous, but it's actually quite worthless, because by the time you get it combat is a generally a non-factor.

Rolling an initial STAMINA of 2 (the minimum possible) actually makes the book completely unwinnable, because your early attempted ambush on the mercenary to save Hani where you take the unavoidable 2-point damage is mandatory for you to get that first codeword.

I think a better way to simulate that we start as a child would have been to roll up stats the normal way first, then halve the result. That way, our starting SKILL would be between 4-6, and STAMINA 7-12, which still leaves us weaker than most starting FF adventurers, but won't leave us with ridiculous stats like SK 1 ST 2.

Another counter-intuitive point is choosing whether or not to help the prisoners/victims of the mercenary group. The optimal path actually involves you remaining hidden and not help them at all, but at least in this case, helping them doesn't automatically lead to failure (continuing to shadow them afterwards does, however), but we actually didn't even need to go through the fight against the Mercenary to win.

What do the endings look like if we don't use the secret approach? And where can we pick up magic? (Though that keyword probably dooms us)

After meeting Maior, all the non-secret endings lead to Maior handing matters over to Pantu, who leads us to a trapped room and drops us into a deadly pit.

And where can we pick up magic? (Though that keyword probably dooms us)

That's the "wisdom" we could have learned from Master Yao. It turned out that the palace had some sort of alarm system that is triggered by anything associated with magic, and in turns draws the palace guards to kill us. There's not a lot of explanation. I guess Maior is the only guy allowed to practise magic in the palace (although it raises the question of how Pantu avoided detection, since he's apparently some snake demon.)

Other ways we could have triggered the anti-magic alarm are being possessed by a Silkworm Demon/Spirit, and possessing some paper talisman from Master Yao.

[Queen of Swords]

Other ways we could have triggered the anti-magic alarm are being possessed by a Silkworm Demon/Spirit, and possessing some paper talisman from Master Yao.

Does the same thing happen if we try to break into the palace?

[pragma]

Thanks! Second question: what's with the demon mask on the mercenary that killed or father, should I recognize it? And what happens if we kill him first?

[SGamerz]

Other ways we could have triggered the anti-magic alarm are being possessed by a Silkworm Demon/Spirit, and possessing some paper talisman from Master Yao.

Does the same thing happen if we try to break into the palace?

First, we fight a guard in normal combat. If we don't kill him fast enough, the same alarm is raised. If we kill him fast, we get in, then go through the same magic alarm check. If we pass that, we meet Merzei the same way. Then we get checked for the wooden plaque. If we don't have that, then the only other way we could have gotten in is by killing a guard to break in. The guard's body is found, the alarm is raised, and Merzei turns on us and 1-shots us with a fancy martial arts move.

Incidentally, he also 1-shots us immediately if we came here without a red robe, which is also a highly questionable move for a supposed good guy...

Thanks! Second question: what's with the demon mask on the mercenary that killed or father, should I recognize it? And what happens if we kill him first?

There's not much explanation, but the implication is that the demon mask is the object that controls its wearer and makes him evil. There's an alternative ending where we did not come to Maior, and instead confront the mercenary leader directly in his camp and kill him (a few ways to do that, including using the sacred sword, using magic, or even using the monk knife/staff, which marks the fact that we picked up the true essence of Baochou's martial arts and therefore easily defeat him 1-on-1). If we succeed, we're given the choice to put on the mask. If we do, we take over the mercenary camp as their new evil leader. If we don't, the rest of the mercenaries gang up on us and kill us.

In the scenario where Maior helped us find the mercenary camp, if we choose to kill the leader, we automatically put on the mask (and here again the text tells us that the face we look down upon at the body is our own), and then Maior kills us with his magic.

There's no explanation of why the mercenary leader's face is said to resemble our own, at least none that I know of.

[Thaluikhain]

Thanks for running this.

Unusual gimmick for this book, though I was expecting more traveling the wilds as a vengeful kid with other kids rather than growing older in a monastery.

[Darth Rabbitt]

This kind of gives me Creature of Havoc vibes, where the story premise (which in both I consider excellent) makes it feel like there should be a bunch of semi-successful endings that just aren't there in addition to the golden ending. And it's just completely intolerant of any failure at any point. At least this doesn't have infinite loops.

[SGamerz]

This kind of gives me Creature of Havoc vibes, where the story premise (which in both I consider excellent) makes it feel like there should be a bunch of semi-successful endings that just aren't there in addition to the golden ending. And it's just completely intolerant of any failure at any point. At least this doesn't have infinite loops.

Paul Mason has been on record saying that he considers the book to have multiple semi-successful endings. There are plenty of endings in this book where the PC just gives up on his revenge mission and chooses to settle down to a new life. One of them includes being content to remain a monk at the monastery. Other careers you can end the story as include basket weaver, sailor, arena fighter, mine slave (ok, I don't think many would consider this even a semi-successful ending), merchant, and also one ending where you just return to your home village and rebuild your home. And of course, as I mentioned, it's also possible to kill the mercenary leader (without Maior's help), don his mask, and take over his group, which some may consider a success in its own right.

It's a legit argument that giving up your revenge mission to start over again isn't necessarily a failure, since even the most successful ending has you overcoming your urge for bloody vengeance and spare the guy anyway. Unfortunately, none of the other endings has you succeeding in saving your mother from slavery, and that puts a real damper on any claims of success in those endings.