Back Cover Blurb:
For quite some time, I actually kind of forgot that there's 1 more book out of the last few remaining that isn't an ultra-meatgrinder. One of the only 2 books out of the last 10 not written by Keith Martin, Jonathan Green or Ian Livingstone (the other is Magehunter), Deathmoor may well be seen as a refreshing break from the series of tough-as-nail books within the last few books in the series."An experienced adventurer is desperately needed in the distant city of Arion for a mission of deadly importance - an adventurer like YOU. Telessa, the beautiful Princess Royal, is missing, believed kidnapped. She must be rescued, and she must be rescued fast. Unfortunately King Jonthane has already given the quest to your deadly rival Fang-zen of Jitar! Can you prove that you are the one to find the princess, wherever she may be held, before she can be harmed? Hurry, for time is running out!"
Part of the reason it "stands out" from the other later books is unfortunately also why it can be sort of forgettable, because Deathmoor is very much a "back to basics" book among the midst of several books with its own unique rules attributes. Rules-wise, this is really all we need for this book:
Standard FF Boilerplate Rules:
Skill, Stamina, & Luck
[spoiler]SKILL score: Roll one die. Add 6 to the result.
STAMINA score: Roll two dice. Add 12 points to the result.
LUCK score: Roll one die. Add 6 to the result.
SKILL score reflects your expertise in combat, your ability with weapons, and your dexterity. STAMINA is your general constitution and "Life points". LUCK score shows how lucky you are. None of them may exceed their Initial score unless specifically stated.
Testing your Luck: When instructed by the book to Test your Luck, roll two dice. If the result is equal to or less than your current LUCK score, you are Lucky. If the result exceeds your current LUCK score, you are Unlucky. Whatever the outcome, you must deduct one point from your current LUCK score every time you Test your Luck. The more you use your LUCK, the less likely you are to be Lucky.[/spoiler]
Combat:
[spoiler]SKILL and STAMINA scores are given in the text for each adversary that you face.
The combat sequence is then:
1. Roll two dice for your opponent. Add the total rolled to its SKILL score. This is the Attack Strength of your enemy.
2. Roll two dice and add the total to your own current SKILL score. This is your Attack Strength.
3. If your Attack Strength is the higher, you have wounded your opponent: deduct 2 points from your opponent's STAMINA..
If your opponent's Attack Strength is higher, it has wounded you: deduct 2 points from your own STAMINA.
If both Attack Strengths are equal, you have avoided each other's blows.
4. Begin the next Combat Round, starting again at step 1. This procedure continues until either you or your opponent has a STAMINA score of zero. If your opponent's STAMINA score reaches zero, you have killed it and can continue with your adventure. If your own STAMINA score reaches zero, you are dead.
Using Luck in Combat
You can use your LUCK in combat to inflict a particularly serious wound, or to minimize a wound that has been inflicted on you.
Whenever you wound an opponent, you may Test your Luck. If you are Lucky, you have inflicted a severe wound: deduct an extra 2 points from your opponent's STAMINA. If you are Unlucky, you have merely grazed it, and you deduct 1 point less than normal from its STAMINA.
If you have been wounded, you can Test your Luck in exactly the same way. If you are Lucky, the wound upon you was only a glancing blow and you can deduct 1 less point of STAMINA than usual. If you are Unlucky, the wound is serious: deduct 1 extra point from your STAMINA.[/spoiler]
Since this is not one of those meatgrinders that are extremely demanding on your stats, we will take dice results as they fall for this one:
SKILL roll 3+6 = 9.
STAMINA roll = 4+12 = 16.
LUCK roll = 5+6 = 11.
Equipment:
Again, mostly standard stuff here: sword, leather armour and 10 meals of Provision. Our starting gold is 20 and we also start with a scarlet pearl, which according to the book are only found off the reefs and shoals of the Isles of the Dawn, although the adventure itself started in Arion (the PC just returned from some diving expedition from the former).
Special House Rules:
While this book isn't as unplayable as some of the other books within this range, I will be implementing special rules for boons and extra lives as well. Of course, the way I'm running, it, it's entirely optional on whether you wish to make use of them, because I'd be trading our initial gold and pearl for them, so you are still free to choose not to trade any.
The idea for the boons used in this LP are inspired by a somewhat dubious Easter Egg that can be found in this book: it's possible to encounter a pair of evil plumbers guys named Oiram and Igiul. Thankfully, the Princess to be rescued isn't named Lootsdaot, and the villain isn't named Apook.
In light of this, I'm introducing the following Super Mario-inspired boons and extra life mechanisms:
Extra Lives
Gold: Like in the Super Mario Bros games, Mario the PC can gain extra life through the accumulation of gold coins. For every 10 gold pieces you trade away you can gain an extra life. Essentially, when you die, using up an extra life either allows you to rewind to the last option you made before you hit the insta-death section, or, if you died by STAMINA loss, give you a full STAMINA restore to continue where you left off. Extra lives don't have to be purchased at the start of the game, and can be bought as and when you wish as long as you have sufficient gold.
Scarlet Pearl: We start with 1 of those. There's no price list available for the such an item in the book, or in any other FF book that I know of, so I'm going by something with the closest description: we can pick up a rose pearl in Steal of Souls, and that one is inconsistently priced (in different sections) as worth either 12 or 8 GP, so I'm taking the average and rule that it can be traded to the equivalent value of 10 GP.
Boons:
Boons come in the form of items collectable from Super Mario games. Each boon costs 3 GP, and must be purchased at the beginning of the game. These are what you may buy:
Magic Mushroom: In the games, this turns Mario to giant-sized. In this LP, it temporarily doubles any 1 stat of your choosing, and will last for 1 battle or 1 stat test, ensuring your success or survival in said combat or test. Using 2 such boons consecutively will permanently restore the stat to initial value after the test/combat.
Fire Flower: This boon enables you to do double damage throughout a single combat. Using 2 such boons consecutively allows you to auto-win 1 battle.
Cape Feather: Using this boon allows you to "fly" back to an earlier point - essentially, it's a rewind boon. You can rewind to any point you'd already been to before. Using 2 of these boons consecutively will prompt me to rewind you to the first point where you made a 'fatal' option (i.e. missing an essential item).
Starman: This grants you temporary invulnerability, and allows you to ignore any damage done to any of your stat within the next section that inflicts any sort of damage or stat-reduction. In the case of a combat section, it protects you from damage for up to 5 rounds. Using 2 such boons consecutively allows you to pick the specific section where you wish to activate your invulnerability, provided the section happens after you've used the boons.
? Block: Random mystery "gift" block. When used, the result is determined by dice roll:
1 = Mini Mushroom (the only bad result) - reduces one of the PC's stats by half for the duration of 1 test or combat (the next one he goes through). The players may choose which stat to be temporarily reduced.
2 = Magic Mushroom
3 = Fire Flower
4 = Cape Feather
5 = Starman
6 = 10 gold pieces (equivalent to 1 extra life, although you can choose to spend it like regular cash if you prefer)
Boons differ from extra life in the sense that they must be used before you hit a death section or die via STAMINA loss. (That's why extra life costs more.) If you hit a sudden death ending or run out of STAMINA in a section/combat, it's too late to use a boon (you can, of course, decide whether to use them right before a stat test or combat). Other than that, you can choose to use them whenever you want, and try to pre-empt whether any of these may save you from a failure one or more section later.
Please vote on whether to purchase any boons/how many of each to purchase before we proceed! We have 20 gold and a scarlet pearl (worth 1 GP) to spend, but do keep in mind the possibility of shopping lists in the book too, so you'd probably not want to spend everything.
