[Let's Play] Lost in the Mountains of Death
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2023 3:44 pm
We've finally gone through all of the old Fighting Fantasy gamebook titles that were published under Puffin at least once each. A few remain uncompleted and may be worth another venture in the future, but in the meantime, is anyone interested in another venture into a different gamebook series?
Let's take a look at the books in this poll:
1) Middle-earth Quest — Treason at Helm's Deep
angelfromanotherpin did an LP for the previous book in this series. However, while you can theoretically play/carry the same character across multiple books, there are really no connections between each one, and each has a significantly different background (even though they are all supposedly set in Tolkien's Middle-earth). As you can see, in the previous book the PC is Saruman's apprentice, while for this book, the PC is actually a watchman at Helm's Deep (the events in the book take place before and during the Battle for Helm's Deep). The story centres around the PC spotting what he suspects to be a meeting between a traitor in the keep with an enemy agent of Saruman, and has to find evidence to expose the treason.
Note: the individual books are also written by different authors, so the while the basic mechanisms between the books are the same (character creation, stat assignments, etc), the design can be significantly different between the book. In the last one, there was a unique style of navigation where 90% of it is done via the map. This system is not used for this book, which is navigated more "normally" like most other gamebook.
2) Marvel Super Heroes Adventure — The Uncanny X-Men: An X-cellent Death
angelfromanotherpin also ran an LP for another book in this series. As you can tell from the series title, the player plays the role of a Marvel Superhero in each of these books. And this book is about the Uncanny X-Men.
This book is unique from the others in the series in the sense that it's the only book with more than one PC. No, it's not a multi-player gamebook. The player is still the same person, but the PC's POV switches between 4 characters: Wolverine, Storm, Rogue and Nightcrawler. Each of them has their own stats to keep track of, with different skills and specialties to be tested. The Karma system that is used for all the book in the series is still present here, but here the Karma pool is shared by all 4 of them. Also, any of the 4 getting killed results in a failure overall.
The story centres around the team of 4 investigating mysterious disturbances on an island where some project was being done by the US government. Despite the shortness of the book (there're 201 sections, so about half the length of an average FF book), I think there's decent replayability for this one, with multiple degrees of success and certain information only revealed in the most successful ones.
3) Lost in the Mountains of Death
The one other book in this series with an LP on this board was done by me, not too long ago (at least relative to the 2 by angel mentioned above). Unlike the previous 2 series I talked about earlier, all books in this one are by the same author, so you can at least expect consistency in the style. Most what you see in the other LP probably applies here: no intricate rules, mostly plays like a plain CYOA book, but with individual sections that offer legit survival tips and information for the relevant environments, hazards, plus local flora & fauna mentioned between the accompanying "story" sections. If you enjoyed the previous book, you are likely to enjoy this one. The premise of this book is, of course, exactly what the title says. Not much explanation needed.
4) Stephen Thraves Compact Adventure — Footsteps in the Fog
This series hasn't been done on this board before, as far as I know. Again, all books in the series by the same author, with a relatively simple game mechanism shared by all. Each book generally has 3 attributes to keep track of:
1) The "scoring". This can come in many forms, depending on the book's premise. For a book about murder mystery, it can be a checklist of how many clues you collect. For a monster-slaying treasure hunt, it can be the number of precious jewels you pick up. For this book, which is about you (who plays the assistant to an amateur private detective) trying to track a political assassin, the score is basically the pieces of evidences you find of his guilt.
2) The "life". Not every wrong choice will lead to you getting killed, but the major ones will each take a "life" off you, and if you run out, it's Game Over.
3) The "accessories". It's actually quite standard here, usually 3 items of accessories to be found for each book. There are no elaborate equipment rules, so these 3 would be the only possessions you really need to use. They come in various forms, but there's a map (to help you navigate) for almost every book. The other 2 accessories vary according to the individual book's premise. These accessories essentially provide you the information to make the right choices to usually either earn a "score" or avoid losing a "life", so finding them usually makes all the difference in whether you're playing on "easy" or "hard" mode!
The general premise is that the PC answered an advertisement to hire a detective's assistant under the mistaken assumption that it was posted by Sherlock Holmes because the address was in 221 Baker Street. It turns out that the hirer is another amateur who set up shop across where the famous detective lives, and is pretty inexperienced and unknown, and apparently a bit of an impersonator who dresses like Holmes. When a client finally shows up (because Sherlock Holmes wasn't available and it was an urgent matter that needs immediate attention), the PC essentially takes over the main role and makes all the important decisions as the pair tries to track a political assassin and prevent his next kill.
5) Storytrails 6 — The Stone of Badda
I've run a few books in the series by now. This is another one with no complex rules and mechanisms, and mostly straight CYOA, except written in the first person POV instead of the usual second like other series. Most of the books have a relatively "modern" and real-life setting and background (although several with supernatural flavour). This is the only book where Allen Sharp goes into actual fantasy, with the PC being a sword-wielding guy who goes on a quest to the Underworld to collect magic stones to dispel Demons who had invaded his home valley. He also has a talking raven companion.
I will leave the poll running for 3 days. If there are sufficient interest in any of the books, I will start the LP this weekend.
Let's take a look at the books in this poll:
1) Middle-earth Quest — Treason at Helm's Deep
angelfromanotherpin did an LP for the previous book in this series. However, while you can theoretically play/carry the same character across multiple books, there are really no connections between each one, and each has a significantly different background (even though they are all supposedly set in Tolkien's Middle-earth). As you can see, in the previous book the PC is Saruman's apprentice, while for this book, the PC is actually a watchman at Helm's Deep (the events in the book take place before and during the Battle for Helm's Deep). The story centres around the PC spotting what he suspects to be a meeting between a traitor in the keep with an enemy agent of Saruman, and has to find evidence to expose the treason.
Note: the individual books are also written by different authors, so the while the basic mechanisms between the books are the same (character creation, stat assignments, etc), the design can be significantly different between the book. In the last one, there was a unique style of navigation where 90% of it is done via the map. This system is not used for this book, which is navigated more "normally" like most other gamebook.
2) Marvel Super Heroes Adventure — The Uncanny X-Men: An X-cellent Death
angelfromanotherpin also ran an LP for another book in this series. As you can tell from the series title, the player plays the role of a Marvel Superhero in each of these books. And this book is about the Uncanny X-Men.
This book is unique from the others in the series in the sense that it's the only book with more than one PC. No, it's not a multi-player gamebook. The player is still the same person, but the PC's POV switches between 4 characters: Wolverine, Storm, Rogue and Nightcrawler. Each of them has their own stats to keep track of, with different skills and specialties to be tested. The Karma system that is used for all the book in the series is still present here, but here the Karma pool is shared by all 4 of them. Also, any of the 4 getting killed results in a failure overall.
The story centres around the team of 4 investigating mysterious disturbances on an island where some project was being done by the US government. Despite the shortness of the book (there're 201 sections, so about half the length of an average FF book), I think there's decent replayability for this one, with multiple degrees of success and certain information only revealed in the most successful ones.
3) Lost in the Mountains of Death
The one other book in this series with an LP on this board was done by me, not too long ago (at least relative to the 2 by angel mentioned above). Unlike the previous 2 series I talked about earlier, all books in this one are by the same author, so you can at least expect consistency in the style. Most what you see in the other LP probably applies here: no intricate rules, mostly plays like a plain CYOA book, but with individual sections that offer legit survival tips and information for the relevant environments, hazards, plus local flora & fauna mentioned between the accompanying "story" sections. If you enjoyed the previous book, you are likely to enjoy this one. The premise of this book is, of course, exactly what the title says. Not much explanation needed.
4) Stephen Thraves Compact Adventure — Footsteps in the Fog
This series hasn't been done on this board before, as far as I know. Again, all books in the series by the same author, with a relatively simple game mechanism shared by all. Each book generally has 3 attributes to keep track of:
1) The "scoring". This can come in many forms, depending on the book's premise. For a book about murder mystery, it can be a checklist of how many clues you collect. For a monster-slaying treasure hunt, it can be the number of precious jewels you pick up. For this book, which is about you (who plays the assistant to an amateur private detective) trying to track a political assassin, the score is basically the pieces of evidences you find of his guilt.
2) The "life". Not every wrong choice will lead to you getting killed, but the major ones will each take a "life" off you, and if you run out, it's Game Over.
3) The "accessories". It's actually quite standard here, usually 3 items of accessories to be found for each book. There are no elaborate equipment rules, so these 3 would be the only possessions you really need to use. They come in various forms, but there's a map (to help you navigate) for almost every book. The other 2 accessories vary according to the individual book's premise. These accessories essentially provide you the information to make the right choices to usually either earn a "score" or avoid losing a "life", so finding them usually makes all the difference in whether you're playing on "easy" or "hard" mode!
The general premise is that the PC answered an advertisement to hire a detective's assistant under the mistaken assumption that it was posted by Sherlock Holmes because the address was in 221 Baker Street. It turns out that the hirer is another amateur who set up shop across where the famous detective lives, and is pretty inexperienced and unknown, and apparently a bit of an impersonator who dresses like Holmes. When a client finally shows up (because Sherlock Holmes wasn't available and it was an urgent matter that needs immediate attention), the PC essentially takes over the main role and makes all the important decisions as the pair tries to track a political assassin and prevent his next kill.
5) Storytrails 6 — The Stone of Badda
I've run a few books in the series by now. This is another one with no complex rules and mechanisms, and mostly straight CYOA, except written in the first person POV instead of the usual second like other series. Most of the books have a relatively "modern" and real-life setting and background (although several with supernatural flavour). This is the only book where Allen Sharp goes into actual fantasy, with the PC being a sword-wielding guy who goes on a quest to the Underworld to collect magic stones to dispel Demons who had invaded his home valley. He also has a talking raven companion.
I will leave the poll running for 3 days. If there are sufficient interest in any of the books, I will start the LP this weekend.