[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 51 – Island of the Undead

[SGamerz]

I didn't read it that way

What's your interpretation of this, though?

Parraine will now do you a service three times before you bury his bones.

I guess it can be interpreted as us getting his bones and then not burying him until he's done all the services, but it doesn't sound like what the Good Guy does. That sounds more like us holding his bones hostage.

Of course, the nature of his services mean that we can probably tell him to perform some of them (like healing) right before the burial, but we may not need that at that point. So I'd actively look to use his services over other healing sources like potions during the next portion.

[Thaluikhain]

I didn't read it that way

What's your interpretation of this, though?

Parraine will now do you a service three times before you bury his bones.

That would be me reading that part too quickly and being totally wrong. Note to self, double check that sort of think before commenting.

Though, after double checking, I can't see a time limit on burying him, promising to do so after the immediate threat of evil undead is dealt with seems reasonable, excepting it's apparently dangerous to have him around.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes registered; Shaggy will head southwards into the marshland, and will also use one of Parraine’s services to cure his Lung Rot disease.

6
You enter the scrub margin of the marshland which leads into the denser swamp to the south. There is a track you can follow which keeps your feet out of the inky pools and channels of brackish water that periodically release stinking bubbles of marsh gas. Clouds of insects buzz and drone over the filthy water and the plant life is mottled with a yellow blight. Fronds of mangarel trees blot out the sunlight above you and the swamp has an aura of sickness and disease about it. If you have a vial of Green Cream, smear this on yourself to keep the insects away, otherwise you must deduct 3 points from your STAMINA because of their bites during your trek through the swamp. If you have Lung Rot, turn to 315. If you don’t have this disease, turn to 384.

Since Shaggy used his vial of Grean Cream earlier, he will lose 3 points of Stamina from the insect bites. An Entity Wish can be used to get another vial of Green Cream to avoid this Stamina loss if you want to vote to do so.

Shaggy does not have Lung Rot right now.

384
The trail now splits, forking south-west and south-east. Overhead, you notice a series of interwoven vines in the leaf canopy forming a rope-bridge of sorts and leading directly south. It would be a lot cooler up there than it is down here, and the sweat running off your body lets you know that the head and humidity are already beginning to weaken you. Which route will you take now? Will you:

Take the south-western trail? Turn to 69
Take the south-eastern trail? Turn to 372
Climb up to the rope-bridge? Turn to 84

Please make your votes before 11:00 AM PST to ensure that they will be counted.

Adventure Sheet
[spoiler]Shaggy
SKILL: 11 Initial Skill = 11
STAMINA: 10 Initial Stamina = 17
LUCK: 10 Initial Luck = 10
PRESENCE: 8
TIME ELAPSED: 0 days
ENEMY ENCOUNTER:
None
EQUIPMENT LIST:
Knife
Backpack
Waterskin
Leather Jerkin
Pot of Thick Glue
Sword
2 Potions of Stamina (restores up to one-half of Initial Stamina when used)
Flask of Grog (+4 Stamina, +1 Attack Strength temporary bonus for one combat)
Magic Sword (+1 Attack Strength)
Shield
2 Ropes
2 Small Bottles of Monk’s Herbal Liqueur (each half-bottle gives +4 Stamina)
PROVISIONS REMAINING: 7
POSSESSIONS:
Bottle of Olive Oil
2 Pouches
13 Gold Pieces
Lantern
Pestle and Mortar
Herbiary with 3 Dog-eared Pages (page 311 on Rat-tailed Fungus, page 175 on Pitcher Plant, and page 266 on Axeplant)
Sapphire with 50 Facets
Topaz with 24 Facets
Magical Scroll with ‘Incantation of Light’ Inscribed
Skeleton Key
Wooden Pole
Gold Chain Divided Into 8 Sections with 12 Links Each
Pearl
2 Parraine Services Remaining (can cure one disease, deal 6 Stamina damage as the result of a successful hit in combat, or heal 8 Stamina)
Brass Orb (found in paragraph 63)
Boons:
2 Entity Wishes[/spoiler]

[Queen of Swords]

Climb up to the rope bridge.

[JourneymanN00b]

Vote recognized; Shaggy will climb up to the rope-bridge.

84
[spoiler][/spoiler]

You clamber up towards the vines and, when you get there, you find that the network of creepers and branches forming the rope-bridge makes quite a safe footing. Mercifully it’s cooler up here, and you make good headway along your airy route – until suddenly the bridge gives way and you plunge six metres down into a pool of slime-clogged, bug-infested swamp water! Deduct 2 points from your STAMINA as you emerge, gasping for air. Swarming down on top of you are several creatures unlike any you’ve seen before: they are a metre tall, half amphibian and half human in appearance, with yellow-green, frog-like skin and bulging eyes. They carry sharp wooden spears, and one or two even have stone knives. Fight the Grupplers as a single opponent here.

GRUPPLERS SKILL 7 STAMINA 10

If you win, you see a horde of the little horrors heading towards the spot where they deliberately cut the rope-bridge; they are armed with the same weapons. You are forced to run for your life, returning to the area where you think the trail is. Now you must Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, turn to 147. If you are Unlucky, turn to 327.

The fight:
[spoiler]Round 1: Grupplers Attack Strength: 15, Player Attack Strength: 21;
Grupplers Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 8
Round 2: Grupplers Attack Strength: 16, Player Attack Strength: 24;
Grupplers Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 8
Round 3: Grupplers Attack Strength: 15, Player Attack Strength: 22;
Grupplers Stamina: 4, Player Stamina: 8
Round 4: Grupplers Attack Strength: 16, Player Attack Strength: 19;
Grupplers Stamina: 2, Player Stamina: 8
Round 5: Grupplers Attack Strength: 18, Player Attack Strength: 19;
Grupplers Stamina: 0, Player Stamina: 8[/spoiler]

Thankfully, Shaggy flawlessly slaughters the Grupplers.

Rolling the dice yielded a 2, meaning that Shaggy was Lucky.

147
Fortunately you chance upon the fork in the trail. Now, will you take the south-western route (turn to 69) or the south-eastern fork (turn to 372)?

Please make your votes before 2:00 PM PST to ensure that they will be counted.

Adventure Sheet
[spoiler]Shaggy
SKILL: 11 Initial Skill = 11
STAMINA: 8 Initial Stamina = 17
LUCK: 9 Initial Luck = 10
PRESENCE: 8
TIME ELAPSED: 0 days
ENEMY ENCOUNTER:
None
EQUIPMENT LIST:
Knife
Backpack
Waterskin
Leather Jerkin
Pot of Thick Glue
Sword
2 Potions of Stamina (restores up to one-half of Initial Stamina when used)
Flask of Grog (+4 Stamina, +1 Attack Strength temporary bonus for one combat)
Magic Sword (+1 Attack Strength)
Shield
2 Ropes
2 Small Bottles of Monk’s Herbal Liqueur (each half-bottle gives +4 Stamina)
PROVISIONS REMAINING: 7
POSSESSIONS:
Bottle of Olive Oil
2 Pouches
13 Gold Pieces
Lantern
Pestle and Mortar
Herbiary with 3 Dog-eared Pages (page 311 on Rat-tailed Fungus, page 175 on Pitcher Plant, and page 266 on Axeplant)
Sapphire with 50 Facets
Topaz with 24 Facets
Magical Scroll with ‘Incantation of Light’ Inscribed
Skeleton Key
Wooden Pole
Gold Chain Divided Into 8 Sections with 12 Links Each
Pearl
2 Parraine Services Remaining (can cure one disease, deal 6 Stamina damage as the result of a successful hit in combat, or heal 8 Stamina)
Brass Orb (found in paragraph 63)
Boons:
2 Entity Wishes[/spoiler]

[Queen of Swords]

I looked at the map on page 4 but it didn't give any indication of which direction to take.

So, randomly take south-western route.

[JourneymanN00b]

Vote recognized; Shaggy will take the south-western route.

69
[spoiler][/spoiler]

The trail winds among some heavy clumps of vegetation, and suddenly you miss your footing and slide down into a pool of disgusting swamp water. You accidentally swallow some of the filth and come out, coughing, spluttering and nauseous; deduct 3 points from your STAMINA. Something has taken an interest in your strenuous activity: sliding through the swamp water comes a huge swamp alligator! Its massive jaws open to fasten on your legs and you must fight the thing. You’re half in the swamp, so you cannot flee.

SWAMP ALLIGATOR SKILL 8 STAMINA 10

If at any time the alligator has an Attack Strength of 20, turn to 162. If you win, turn to 188.

Due to swallowing some of the swamp water, our hero is at 5 Stamina. Should Luck be used in this fight? If so, should it be used to reduce the damage that our hero takes or to inflict additional damage?

The first choice to receive two votes (or two votes over all other choices) will be used to resolve this battle. If no option has a winning margin before 4:00 PM PST, I will make the choice based on which votes are cast.

Adventure Sheet
[spoiler]Shaggy
SKILL: 11 Initial Skill = 11
STAMINA: 5 Initial Stamina = 17
LUCK: 9 Initial Luck = 10
PRESENCE: 8
TIME ELAPSED: 0 days
ENEMY ENCOUNTER:
None
EQUIPMENT LIST:
Knife
Backpack
Waterskin
Leather Jerkin
Pot of Thick Glue
Sword
2 Potions of Stamina (restores up to one-half of Initial Stamina when used)
Flask of Grog (+4 Stamina, +1 Attack Strength temporary bonus for one combat)
Magic Sword (+1 Attack Strength)
Shield
2 Ropes
2 Small Bottles of Monk’s Herbal Liqueur (each half-bottle gives +4 Stamina)
PROVISIONS REMAINING: 7
POSSESSIONS:
Bottle of Olive Oil
2 Pouches
13 Gold Pieces
Lantern
Pestle and Mortar
Herbiary with 3 Dog-eared Pages (page 311 on Rat-tailed Fungus, page 175 on Pitcher Plant, and page 266 on Axeplant)
Sapphire with 50 Facets
Topaz with 24 Facets
Magical Scroll with ‘Incantation of Light’ Inscribed
Skeleton Key
Wooden Pole
Gold Chain Divided Into 8 Sections with 12 Links Each
Pearl
2 Parraine Services Remaining (can cure one disease, deal 6 Stamina damage as the result of a successful hit in combat, or heal 8 Stamina)
Brass Orb (found in paragraph 63)
Boons:
2 Entity Wishes[/spoiler]

[Queen of Swords]

Use Luck to reduce the damage we take.

[JourneymanN00b]

Thank you for your vote. Shaggy will use Luck to reduce the damage that he takes.

The fight:
[spoiler]Round 1: Swamp Alligator Attack Strength: 17, Player Attack Strength: 22;
Swamp Alligator Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 5
Round 2: Swamp Alligator Attack Strength: 19, Player Attack Strength: 17;
Luck Roll: 7, Player is Lucky and is only dealt 1 Stamina damage
Swamp Alligator Stamina: 8, Player Stamina: 4, Player Luck: 8
Round 3: Swamp Alligator Attack Strength: 14, Player Attack Strength: 17;
Swamp Alligator Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 4
Round 4: Swamp Alligator Attack Strength: 19, Player Attack Strength: 15;
Luck Roll: 8, Player is Luck and is only dealt 1 Stamina damage
Swamp Alligator Stamina: 6, Player Stamina: 3, Player Luck: 7
Round 5: Swamp Alligator Attack Strength: 18, Player Attack Strength: 22;
Swamp Alligator Stamina: 4, Player Stamina: 3
Round 6: Swamp Alligator Attack Strength: 11, Player Attack Strength: 19;
Swamp Alligator Stamina: 2, Player Stamina: 3
Round 7: Swamp Alligator Attack Strength: 14, Player Attack Strength: 19;
Swamp Alligator Stamina: 0, Player Stamina: 3[/spoiler]

Thanks to the Swamp Alligator getting two hits that dealt only a total of 2 Stamina damage due to Shaggy being lucky both times, Shaggy manages to kill it and is left with 3 Stamina.

188
The humidity on this journey is exhausting; deduct 4 points from your STAMINA due to dehydration. You manage to avoid a hissing, yellow-and-green snake which darts at you from a clump of ferns, so gain 1 LUCK point! Then you spot a cluster of Pitcher Plants: tall, exotic, thick-stemmed plants with a large encircling flower that resembles a vase or pitcher. If you possess a book which refers to Pitcher Plants, turn to the paragraph with the same number as the page referring to them. If you don’t have this book, turn to 283.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Unfortunately, the dehydration is enough to kill poor Shaggy and bring his adventure to a humiliating end, since he has no more resurrections.

Bonus death entry:
“Wow, this is pathetic,” Shaggy thought to himself as the relentless humidity and heat makes the final push to his death. Why did he not take care of himself instead of insisting to himself that he can beat the harsh conditions of the marshlands? This is perhaps the saddest and quickest death that an adventurer had experienced in a lifetime. Shaggy curses to himself as he collapses to the soft green floor in a trance of heavy delirium and he prepares to release his soul into the next world as predators of the marshlands have his way with him. With his body quickly rotting in the heat and providing a feast for the marshlands’ various animals, Shaggy’s soul zooms out of this universe. Soon enough, the body of poor Shaggy was consumed by the hungry predators with his soul deep in the journey to the next universe.

Ouch. Once again, the adventure ends since there were no votes to consume the plenty of healing items that Shaggy had in his possession. If there are any changes to the hero’s Stamina, I post his updated Adventure Sheet to reflect this. Being observant is key to winning Fighting Fantasy adventures, not just with regards to the player’s Stamina, but also with regards to possible clues like the one that almost everyone missed regarding the hermit’s name.

Anyway, the correct route to take was the south-eastern fork, where our hero would have taken much less Stamina damage and be on the path to the Plain of Swords. I will recycle the “be observant” phrase for this Let’s Play’s life lesson, as it is easy to do this and miss important details that can cost you greatly in life. Hell, I made this mistake over the past week in work when I did not add the proper amounts of reagents from a purification kit meant to clean up DNA samples for sequencing. As a result, an upcoming consultant visiting from another country will probably only be able to give limited guidance when he arrives in the coming week for giving a tutorial for a DNA sequencing machine. That in turn is going to result in wasted dollars and time for a company and anger towards me for messing up the preparation steps due to not properly paying enough attention to the preparation process.

Okay, so now that I have finished giving my cringeworthy lecture, I will start a new thread for my most recent acquisition later tonight. Thank you all for playing, and I hope to see everyone in my next Let’s Play. I hope that all of you will be able participate in it as we will certainly need to be on our toes to survive this particular ordeal!

Adventure Sheet
[spoiler]Shaggy
SKILL: 11 Initial Skill = 11
STAMINA: -1 Initial Stamina = 17
LUCK: 8 Initial Luck = 10
PRESENCE: 8
TIME ELAPSED: 0 days
ENEMY ENCOUNTER:
None
EQUIPMENT LIST:
Knife
Backpack
Waterskin
Leather Jerkin
Pot of Thick Glue
Sword
2 Potions of Stamina (restores up to one-half of Initial Stamina when used)
Flask of Grog (+4 Stamina, +1 Attack Strength temporary bonus for one combat)
Magic Sword (+1 Attack Strength)
Shield
2 Ropes
2 Small Bottles of Monk’s Herbal Liqueur (each half-bottle gives +4 Stamina)
PROVISIONS REMAINING: 7
POSSESSIONS:
Bottle of Olive Oil
2 Pouches
13 Gold Pieces
Lantern
Pestle and Mortar
Herbiary with 3 Dog-eared Pages (page 311 on Rat-tailed Fungus, page 175 on Pitcher Plant, and page 266 on Axeplant)
Sapphire with 50 Facets
Topaz with 24 Facets
Magical Scroll with ‘Incantation of Light’ Inscribed
Skeleton Key
Wooden Pole
Gold Chain Divided Into 8 Sections with 12 Links Each
Pearl
2 Parraine Services Remaining (can cure one disease, deal 6 Stamina damage as the result of a successful hit in combat, or heal 8 Stamina)
Brass Orb (found in paragraph 63)
Boons:
2 Entity Wishes[/spoiler]

[Thaluikhain]

Huh, it started out looking like it was going to stick to the theme of icky undead monsters, which was nice (you know what I mean), but then went to the thing of having random monsters all over the tiny island seemingly not interacting with each other, which is typical of FF.

[SGamerz]

Man, I was away for half a day and this happened? Did I not mention to actively look out for opportunities to use Parraine's healing services during this next portion? I didn't vote to use it at the time because our STAMINA was only 7 points below max, and he could heal 8 (same reason I didn't want to use any potions or meals at the time, so we can prioritize using the service). That encounter with the Grupplers left us 9 points deficit, and so it was the perfect time to use it even if we didn't know we're going to lose more STAMINA after that!

Oh well, I didn't expect this LP to last long anyway. Considering how many boons were used for the Trial of Champions LP and it STILL failed (and this book isn't much easier), there was never much of a chance.

You'd better be prepared to give out more of those for Spellbreaker, though. I'd say it's a match for Crypt of the Sorcerer.

[Queen of Swords]

Man, I was away for half a day and this happened? Did I not mention to actively look out for opportunities to use Parraine's healing services during this next portion?

You probably did. My fault, I was the only one replying the last two times, and I was hurrying because I kept looking at the deadlines to reply and trying not to be late. So I forgot about restoring stamina.

[SGamerz]

Man, I was away for half a day and this happened? Did I not mention to actively look out for opportunities to use Parraine's healing services during this next portion?

You probably did. My fault, I was the only one replying the last two times, and I was hurrying because I kept looking at the deadlines to reply and trying not to be late. So I forgot about restoring stamina.

Yeah, no offense to JourneymanN00b, but I think the harsh deadlines for his LP can be a little too stringent, to the point that the GM makes the choices for the players if none of the players are around to vote, which I feel is kind of against the point of an LP. I can understand helping to break a tie for them in a dragged out stalemate situation, but not giving players enough time to choose at all is an issue.

[JourneymanN00b]

Man, I was away for half a day and this happened? Did I not mention to actively look out for opportunities to use Parraine's healing services during this next portion?

You probably did. My fault, I was the only one replying the last two times, and I was hurrying because I kept looking at the deadlines to reply and trying not to be late. So I forgot about restoring stamina.

Yeah, no offense to JourneymanN00b, but I think the harsh deadlines for his LP can be a little too stringent, to the point that the GM makes the choices for the players if none of the players are around to vote, which I feel is kind of against the point of an LP. I can understand helping to break a tie for them in a dragged out stalemate situation, but not giving players enough time to choose at all is an issue.

Which frequency would be the best for this community? Twice a day? Four times a day? I am considering adjusting the deadlines in my Spellbreaker Let's Play to make sure a reasonable amount of time can be provided while avoiding stagnation for the days where I am more active (such as Sundays). The goal is for the story to move at a fast enough speed to encourage engagement from everyone.

[SGamerz]

You probably did. My fault, I was the only one replying the last two times, and I was hurrying because I kept looking at the deadlines to reply and trying not to be late. So I forgot about restoring stamina.

Yeah, no offense to JourneymanN00b, but I think the harsh deadlines for his LP can be a little too stringent, to the point that the GM makes the choices for the players if none of the players are around to vote, which I feel is kind of against the point of an LP. I can understand helping to break a tie for them in a dragged out stalemate situation, but not giving players enough time to choose at all is an issue.

Which frequency would be the best for this community? Twice a day? Four times a day? I am considering adjusting the deadlines in my Spellbreaker Let's Play to make sure a reasonable amount of time can be provided while avoiding stagnation for the days where I am more active (such as Sundays). The goal is for the story to move at a fast enough speed to encourage engagement from everyone.

Understandable, but if you're going to make the decisions yourself when nobody votes, then there's zero engagement from everyone, which defeats that purpose.

I'm not sure there's a good answer with regards to frequency. I myself don't keep a strict schedule, and I don't think I can keep a regular one. But I do think you should at least make sure you have someone voting before you proceed (otherwise you're essentially running demo thread of how you play instead of a multi-player RPG), and maybe leave vote ties a bit longer to give players more chance to resolve and change their votes. Otherwise, I don't think there's anything wrong with your regular update frequency. Just add a bit more flexibility so that players have the time to weigh in each other's opinions if they disagree with each other and can't come to a consensus within the short period. Maybe an extra "shift" till your next usual deadline in such a case? Most of the players here vote more than once a day so they would at least have a chance to see any unresolved issues from their last votes.

And of course, just my thoughts. The other players may like your style just fine.

[Queen of Swords]

Personally, I would prefer that other people got a chance to respond too. It's more interesting to see the thoughts and reasoning behind different choices, and I know I've changed my vote at least once after reading posts from others that made me reevaluate.

[SGamerz]

Yeah, there were times when I have proceeded with just one vote in my own LPs if I'm on a tight schedule and can't update frequently. But I'd certainly prefer a 2-vote majority too at least, if I can get them. And I personally see no point in continuing at all with no votes.

And for those choices which can be performed at any time (like when to eat or use a healing item), I also generally only act on them when more than 1 player votes to do it, although ironically that would probably have doomed us in this particular LP anyway.

[JourneymanN00b]

Understandable, but if you're going to make the decisions yourself when nobody votes, then there's zero engagement from everyone, which defeats that purpose.

I'm not sure there's a good answer with regards to frequency. I myself don't keep a strict schedule, and I don't think I can keep a regular one. But I do think you should at least make sure you have someone voting before you proceed (otherwise you're essentially running demo thread of how you play instead of a multi-player RPG), and maybe leave vote ties a bit longer to give players more chance to resolve and change their votes. Otherwise, I don't think there's anything wrong with your regular update frequency. Just add a bit more flexibility so that players have the time to weigh in each other's opinions if they disagree with each other and can't come to a consensus within the short period. Maybe an extra "shift" till your next usual deadline in such a case? Most of the players here vote more than once a day so they would at least have a chance to see any unresolved issues from their last votes.

And of course, just my thoughts. The other players may like your style just fine.

How about this: Regarding my Spellbreaker Let's Play, I will set the voting frequency to twice a day for now, then depending on how many players vote each day, I will set the frequency on Sundays to be slightly lower than what my last Let's Play was for those days. The exact frequency will be somewhere between twice a day or every three hours, although this could change. This month is rather special though.

[Darth Rabbitt]

Yeah, I tend to be more busy on the weekends, while if nothing else I can probably look in on my phone during my lunch break on weekdays.

Thanks for running, regardless.

[SGamerz]

Like I said, my opinion is that it's not so much about how often it's updated, but more about how willing are you to give some flexibility to your deadlines and extend them slightly if there's the possibility that most players happen to not be around to vote at a particular date or time. If there're no votes for a certain option, or if it's just 2 players being in a deadlock about which choice to take, maybe extend that particular deadline to a later time to give players more time to weigh in. If you can still get 2-3 votes quickly for a certain option to get an easy majority for a choice, by all means update at the same high frequency. At the same time, don't be scared to leave it without update for a day on some rare occasion where everyone is really too busy to come online to vote on that particular day. I don't think that will happen too often in any case, or that the interest will die off just because of that lapse.

Of course, since the topic is about your update schedule for Spellbreaker, you should probably post your idea there and see if the other players like it or don't mind your current style. Like I said, I was only speaking for myself. I'd still play either way.