Hello, everyone. This particular FF Let’s Play is rather special, as its establishment means that we now have a thread for each of the 59 books published by Puffin Books from 1982 to 1995 as well as all of the original books published by Wizard Books from 2002 to 2012. Which is an enormous accomplishment for any forum to achieve and is something that can hopefully allow it to make its mark among the Internet’s many message boards. The book that we will be playing to conclude this batch will be Book #65, which was published in 2012 in an attempt to join in on the zombie apocalypse craze that was prominent at that time. Unfortunately, this particular book is the most insane when it comes to difficulty. Forget Crypt of the Sorcerer and Spellbreaker. This book is far harder than both of them, as a character with the perfect setup who follows the optimal path ends up with less than a 0.00001% chance of victory without any editing. We will therefore play this adventure with some adjustments in order to have a somewhat tolerable experience. Anyone brave enough to join this ridiculously written adventure is welcome. I will try to update this series on a twice per day basis, with the exception of the Thanksgiving weekend, where I will not have access to the Internet during that time.
FOREWORD
How will you start your adventure? (according to the table of contents, below paragraph has no official heading other than the Fighting Fantasy logo)It seems like only yesterday, but it was in fact 30 years ago, in August 1982, that The Warlock of Firetop Mountain first went on sale in bookshops around the UK. Steve Jackson and I were very excited – at last we got to see our first Fighting Fantasy gamebook on the shelves. We had been running Games Workshop since 1975 and were convinced that fantasy role-playing and interactive entertainment were the future – well, at least they were for us. In [i[Warlock[/i] we had created a story with a branching narrative and an attached game system. We hoped its appeal would go beyond hardcore gamers, but we didn’t anticipate just how popular Fighting Fantasy would become. Written in the second person present, these strange interactive adventures in which ‘YOU are the hero’ became a worldwide craze in the 1980s, with millions of copies being sold. Who would have thought it? Not us.
I started writing this book in 2009. I had first thought about writing a book linked to Firetop Mountain, but I didn’t want to do that without collaborating with Steve Jackson. Hopefully we’ll do that for the 40th anniversary! Having worked in the video games industry for the last twenty years, I’m aware of the everlasting popularity of zombies, and it seemed an omission on my part that I’d never written a zombie Fighting Fantasy book. So I got to work. I started writing the story set in Allansia as usual, but I then changed my mind, and switched it to a contemporary setting. That was a BIG decision for me – moving away from medieval fantasy. You’ll notice that I kept the adventure in a castle, though, rather than asking the reader to run around shopping malls and 21st-century streets – I guess old habits die hard!
It was very satisfying to write a new book and I hope it’s a worthy addition to the series. Thanks to Twitter, I had a lot of encouragement along the way, and I would like to thank all those people who spurred me on, especially when I lost a chunk of the book to a computer crash. I would also like to thank Simon Flynn and the team at Icon for their continued faith in Fighting Fantasy, Greg Staples for the amazing cover, Kevin Crossley for the incredible interior illustrations, Andi Ewington for his invaluable help with production and, of course, Steve Jackson for a lifelong friendship of killing monsters together.
So here it is – Blood of the Zombies, a brand new Fighting Fantasy gamebook. And for the digital age, it is also available to download as an app. I hope you have fun with the zombies – you’ll find a lot of them running around Goraya Castle.
Can YOU survive?
Ian Livingstone
For the purposes of this thread, the Adventure Sheet will be hand-made and will be periodically displayed.Blood of the Zombies is a Fighting Fantasy gamebook, an interactive adventure in which YOU ARE THE HERO! You can only win through by choosing the correct path, finding equipment, avoiding traps and surviving combat. There are Adventure Sheets at the back of the book for you to keep a record of combat, and of everything you discover along the way, such as information, food, money, weapons, and useful items of equipment. It is important to make a map as you go, and to keep a running total of all the Zombies who have been killed, or you’ll be sorry!
COMBAT
Here’s the thing. Even if our hero is provided with the maximum value that the book allows for initial Stamina, there is virtually zero chance of success. So the first change will be to add 70 to the number rolled from the two dice instead of just 20 like the book calls to do when calculating initial STAMINA. Making the roll and applying this new modification yields an initial STAMINA score of 75.COMBAT takes place in a series of Attack Rounds. Most of the enemies you will face are Zombies. They are usually slow and unarmed, allowing you to attack first. Combat involves rolling dice which affects two attributes – STAMINA and DAMAGE.
STAMINA represents how strong you are. The higher your STAMINA, the stronger you are. To calculate your initial STAMINA, roll two dice (or use the virtual dice by flicking through the book and stopping on a page to give you a random roll of two dice). Add 20 to the number rolled and enter the total in the STAMINA box on your Adventure Sheet. STAMINA will go up and down during the adventure. For example it will increase when using Med Kits (which can only be used once) and it will decrease due to injuries and wounds. If your STAMINA falls to zero, you die and your adventure is over. Note that Zombies only have 1 STAMINA point each.
DAMAGE reduces STAMINA. When fighting enemies, DAMAGE is calculated by rolling dice according to weapon type. The number rolled decides the number of Zombies (or other enemies) killed, as they only have 1 STAMINA point each. Whilst they may be easy to kill, Zombies often attack in large numbers, making it difficult to defeat them all in a single Attack Round. Before combat begins you must decide which weapon you are going to use. A dagger causes 1d6 DAMAGE (a d6 is a six-sided die). A machine gun causes 2d6+5 DAMAGE. Remember to note down a weapon’s DAMAGE dice on your Adventure Sheet. After your first attack, any surviving Zombies will each reduce your STAMINA by 1 point before the next Attack Round begins. Armed Zombies may inflict more than 1 point of DAMAGE. Attack Rounds continue until you have defeated all of your enemies or you have died in combat. If you do not have a weapon, you must fight barehanded (1d6-3).
Example: You enter a room to face a pack of 14 Zombies. Your current STAMINA is 15. You select a shotgun which inflicts (1d6+5) DAMAGE to start the first Attack Round. You roll a 3 and add 5, resulting in 8 Zombies killed. You suffer the loss of 6 STAMINA points (1 DAMAGE point taken from each of the surviving 6 Zombies), reducing your current STAMINA to 9 points. You kill off the remaining 6 ZOMBIES automatically in the second Attack Round because the shotgun causes a minimum DAMAGE of 6 points (1d6+5). Note that you must find ammunition before firearms can be used, but once found it is unlimited.
Hopefully you will defeat the hordes of Zombies you are about to encounter and escape to tell the tale! Good luck – you’ll need it!
Another change will be to give our hero 6 resurrections, just like I did when I ran the uber-difficult gamebooks. Upon dying, our hero will use a resurrection to be sent back to the point where the first critical mistake was made in order to make the adventure winnable once more. The Adventure Sheet will also be reverted to what it was at that point in the story.
Also, any healing items will restore twice as much STAMINA as the book says they do to provide meaningful recovery from the wounds that our hero will certainly take in the course of this adventure.
The main objective of this adventure is to kill all of the Zombies in Goraya Castle. Failure to do so will result in a terrible death for our hero. However, it can be easy to miss at least a few Zombies. To address this, any remaining STAMINA points that our hero has will be used to fill the Zombie killing quota at a rate of 2 Stamina points per missed Zombie, rounded down. The same rate will also apply to any healing items that our hero has at that point, and each unused resurrection will be converted to 75 STAMINA points for the purposes of helping our hero pass this requirement.
Please keep all spoilers covered out of respect to those of us who want to have a blind experience. Any ties will be broken by me based on my personal instincts.
BACKGROUND
NOW TURN OVERWas it the cold iron shackles biting into your bleeding wrists that woke you, or was it the terrible hunger in your belly? It doesn’t matter. You are awake again for at least the tenth time tonight, if in fact it is night. It is not easy sleeping on a cold concrete floor at the best of times, but when your wrists are chained to a wall it is virtually impossible. The gloomy cell in which you are imprisoned would be in total darkness were it not for the bare light bulb fixed to the ceiling above you; a small globe of pale, flickering light. Cockroaches scurry across the floor but you don’t even care. How long have you been held prisoner? Is it five or six days since you were thrown into the cell? It is impossible to tell. Time passes slowly. The only break from your solitude comes when you hear the grating sound of the bolt on the heavy steel door sliding back. That signals the entrance of a thickset prison guard who staggers into the cell limping from an old wound and usually drunk. If you are lucky, he will be carrying a small bowl of foul-tasting stew that slops over the rim as he lurches along. If you are very lucky, he will also bring a chunk of stale bread and a mug of pale coffee made from dregs. He always places the food on the floor just out of your reach, his cruel, pockmarked face momentarily smiling as he enjoys the moment. He knows that if he does this you have to stretch to reach the bowl with your feet, making the shackles bite deeply into your bleeding wrists. He never speaks, but always kicks you hard in the ribs on his way out, before slamming the door behind him and bolting it shut. He doesn’t seem to care whether you live or die.
It was hard to come to terms with the fact that you are a prisoner. As a second year student of mythology at Bolingbroke College, it had been a great summer for you – until now. You had spent six weeks of your holidays travelling through Southern Europe trying to find evidence of legendary beasts. You started your quest by flying to Crete in search of Minotaur bones and the cave of the Cyclops, alas without success. From there you went by boat to Sicily looking for evidence of werewolves, again without success. Then you travelled by boat and train to Hungary where you searched for ghosts and spectres, in the shadows of misty graveyards and ruined castles. Much to your disappointment, none materialized. Hitching rides in open-top trucks, you ended up in Romania, in the part once known as Transylvania where Count Vlad, the notorious vampire, reputedly drank the blood of his many victims. During a week spent asking the locals if they knew anything about the existence of vampires you were met with only blank looks and shaking heads until you encountered a wrinkled old man who was willing to talk to you for the price of a new hat. He took you some three kilometres north of his village to a stone crypt, its entrance overgrown and virtually hidden by brambles and ivy. Whilst you cut back the weeds covering the steps down to the entrance, the old man disappeared without a word. The crypt door was locked, but the wood was rotten and you were able to kick it open. You shone a torch down the stone stairs and made your way slowly down to a damp chamber. Brushing back thick cobwebs, you saw an ancient dust-covered coffin set on a stone plinth at the back of the chamber. With your heart pounding, you crept forward and lifted the lid. But the coffin contained a yellow-boned skeleton, not the sleeping vampire you had hoped to find. You went back outside to find three burly thugs waiting for you. Armed with clubs, they set upon you as you tried to make a run for it. You struggled, but barehanded it was a fight you were always going to lose. You were handcuffed and gagged, before being bundled into the back of an old black car and driven for miles along a narrow road that carved its way through a dense forest to a range of hills. There you saw a foreboding-looking castle built of dark stone nestled in a valley between two hills. The thugs grinned at each other, agreeing that you would be sold for a good price at the castle. You realized you were in grave danger; not only had you been kidnapped but you were about to be sold to a modern-day slave trader or perhaps worse. The car sped on up the hill until it reached the high-walled castle, where it screeched to a halt outside arched entrance doors. The thugs dragged you out of the car as the castle doors slowly creaked open to reveal a courtyard with some people milling about in it. You were blindfolded and handed over to an unseen person who led you into the courtyard. You heard groaning voices all around you. Dogs brushed against your legs, sniffing curiously. Somebody bumped into you. The strange gurgling sounds erupting from their throats were like nothing you had heard before. You were jostled and pushed around until the crack of a whip and a commanding voice drove the unruly mob away. Much to your relief you were taken indoors out of the burning sun, and marched along what must have been a long corridor. Doors opened and slammed shut behind you, and it became noticeably cooler as you were led down several staircases. You were bundled along more passageways, stumbling against walls and banging your head against low door frames, until at last you were ordered to stop. Then you heard for the first time that now-familiar grating sound of the steel bolt of your prison cell sliding open. You were kicked inside and your handcuffs were removed, replaced by heavy shackles that were chained to the wall. Your blindfold was taken off, and you set eyes on your fat-faced prison guard for the first time. His pot belly strained against his filthy white t-shirt as he swung his army-booted foot into your ribs as he would many times over the next few days. Sweating and panting from the effort of kicking you, he spoke to you, a few words in a deep, sneering voice, ‘Welcome to Goraya Castle. My name is Otto. My master is Gingrich Yurr. He’s going to kill you.’ Ignoring your pleading questions, he left the cell, roaring with laughter. It was the only time he ever spoke.
Who is Gingrich Yurr? Why does he want to kill you? You tug helplessly at the chains in anger, trying to get free. Eventually you give up and focus on the challenge of reaching the stew and bread before the cockroaches do.
1
You kick the cockroaches away and stretch to reach the bread with your feet. You drag it towards you, grabbing it with one hand. You break off small pieces, flicking them one at a time into your mouth. You make a stupid promise to yourself that one day you will do this as a party trick for your friends, if you live to tell the tale. You breathe in before stretching even further, this time to reach the bowl. The pain is unbearable as the shackles dig even deeper into your lacerated wrists, causing fresh blood to trickle down your arms. A few weeks ago, you could not have imagined putting yourself through so much agony just to eat a bowl of old stew, but now hunger drives you on. With one last excruciating effort, you just manage to get both feet around the bowl, lifting it up carefully and passing it to your shackled hands. You tip the contents of the bowl into your mouth, gulping down the foul-smelling slop. It tastes so bad that for a moment you think you are going to be sick, but you are so hungry that you devour every morsel, gristle and all. But a few chunks of rotten meat are not enough to keep a mangy dog alive, let alone a starving prisoner. Something has to be done before you die of hunger. And if it is true that Gingrich Yurr is going to kill you, there is nothing to lose. You are going to have to try to escape from your prison cell.
If you want to call out to Otto, turn to 59. If you would rather wait to talk to him when he next enters your cell, turn to 194.
In addition to the above choice, what name do you want to give our hero? Please make your decisions before 9:00 AM PST to guarantee that they will be counted.
