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Welcome to the Faerie Mound of Dragonkind, the first of the Catacombs series of solo adventure books published by TSR back in the late '80s. There were several different solo adventure series back then, from Fighting Fantasy to Lone Wolf and so on. These books were much larger and featured much better art, however, none of which is important in a digital format.
So, let's talk about how the game mechanics work. Combat is remarkably simple - all die rolls involve a d12, and are successful if we roll below a certain number, either 7 or 8 (more on that later). Nonmagical weapons that aren't daggers and darts do 5 points of damage, while daggers and darts do 3. There's no initiative - we strike first against any baddies unless the game text says otherwise, and then it's back and forth until one side or the other runs out of life points.
Now, if you're familiar with these types of books, then you also know they're often incredibly unfair - it's fairly easy to find yourself choosing a section on limited information and finding out that your decision ends up getting you killed. That's not fun, so we will have three "life gems," which will allow us to ignore three insta-deaths or defeats due to combat. After that, though, we're on our own.
Finally, exploration decisions will be based upon popular vote. This game is completely public - people can join in and vote at any time to influence what actions they'd like to take, and the majority rules after voting has closed will determine the next action.
So, let's talk about our first decision point! You'll notice I haven't said anything about our character - that's because there are two!
Option 1: Brennies, the fighter. A charioteer in service to a lord who has been afflicted with a strange wasting disease, the only cure to which lies within the mound. Brennies will be leaving behind his horse and chariot to enter the mound, but is not going in empty handed. He wears his bronze platemail and wields Heartseeker, a magical sword. Brennies strikes foes on a roll of 8 or lower, but Heartseeker's +2 enhancement increases that to 10 or lower, and deals 7 damage on a successful strike. Additionally, he carries a potion of healing, which can heal 3 life points of damage, a ring of protection, which negates the first life point of damage he receives in each new battle, and a sphere of time, which when smashed allows him to completely redo an unsuccessful encounter from the encounter's beginning. He can also use any weapon he finds within the mound, and has 50 life points.
Option 2: Riderch, the bard. Already a skilled musician, performer, and songsmith, Riderch is questing to find a mystic harp that lies within that will allow him to create masterpieces that will live on for centuries. Riderch's music is he primary weapon - and he has relied on Cwythia, his enchanted pan-pipes, to avoid fights whenever he can. Before fighting starts, Cwythia can charm a creature into harmlessness on a 6 or less. If that fails, though, he must draw his sword and attack, hitting on a 7 or less and dealing 5 damage. He also brings a potion of extra healing, which can heal 6 damage, a ring of the faeries, which prevents him from being blinded by any sort of magic, and a sphere of defense, which when smashed allows him to always defeat one type of creature in the faerie mound. Riderch's weapon skills are more limited - he can only use axes, daggers, spears, and bows and arrows, and has 40 life points.
I'll leave the voting up for this initial round until Sunday evening - after that, we'll embark into the Faerie Mound itself!
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I vote for Riderch the bard. I’ve always preferred magic-and-guile type heroes as opposed to beatsticks. Besides I suspect you won’t be going into faerie mound without faeries..and how can you succeed in your epic quest if not by speaking nicely to the faeries? And that’s where the bard comes in.
I’m also not fond of murderhoboing everything I meet.
I'm fine starting now :P
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About me:
I’ve played the entire Lone Wolf series – I like disciples like Kai Alchemy, Sixth Sense, Pathsmanship, Healing(especially the first 5 books, after 10 it isn’t that good). Not so much of a fan of weapon mastery or the more offensive kai disciplines.
In Pathfinder – I generally play some kind of spellcaster – divine/arcane doesn’t matter so much, though I seem to go towards divine spellcasting fairly often.
I can’t for the life of me keep track on where we’ve been in a dungeon, being directionally challenged, so I will need help with that.
I’m not what I’d say phenomenal at riddles and solving random puzzles when you get to them – but I suppose I am passable – since I managed to solve the thornkeep riddle at 3 am at night. Though I suspect my answer was yelled generally out of frustration at having to solve the riddle at 3 am in the night…
I have what most would call crazy activity. I’m on GMT +8 timezone, I start the day at 7 am and usually go to bed by 11pm latest. If its just us both - assuming you’re of a compatible timezone, we could probably run through several decisions per day. Which would make me very happy since I always love to see things moving.
I also vote for the bard.
I check the boards a lot. I don't think I will slow you down.
I like the bard because it seems like more of an interesting choice, and I want to see how he solves things rather than the more blunt way that a fighter might.
Bard
I feel that despite the fighters better combat stats, the bard stands a better chance due to his ability to completely take a creature out at the beginning of a fight. potentially saving him some particularly draining fights.
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Bard it is, then!
I'll add Riderch's stats to the adventure description, so they'll be easily accessible during play. It will include your life points, along with your inventory. You can carry three potions, two weapons, three rings, and three other objects, in addition to the stuff you're bringing into the Faerie Mound. Conveniently, this mirrors how the gamebook did it - Brennies and Riderch had a bookmark where this information could be written, with the elf being the third.
Which leads me to how the gamebook handles wandering encounters! The elf bookmark is randomly placed somewhere in the book, and if your decisions lead you to the pages where the elf is located, then you have to deal with the elf before you can deal with the repercussions of whatever you had planned. So, let's randomly place him!
There, the elf is now settled into page 45. If our travels take us there, then we'll see what we have to deal with.
Let's begin!!!
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Zanbabe - if I'm shocking you with my rampant murderhoboism, my reaction is mainly because the first thing he did when he saw us was yell smash the ant and try to stomp squish us. If he had asked us why we were trespassing, I would have been willing to leave him alone or even help him. You don't reason with a mad dog, you put it down.
So, wait... you are a Pixarian Onion Cat, with levels in Murder Hobo?
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No, I'm a multiclassed ranger/wizard/assasin who may have arcane trickster levels.
I question my alignment but peg it to LN, and I have a special feat to let me ignore the evil alignment pre requisite of assasin.
I used to be fluffy, then things happened and I picked up those assasin levels(too many people trying to turn me into a fur coat). And I hide my inner self under a cold, cynical, uncaring exterior - thus the reference on onions.
And like all adventurers since time immemorial, I'm loot-greedy and love my shinies.
Might be in part due to playing fighting fantasy as the books tend to be a treasure hunt. Get to BBEG without a certain item? Splat.
Interested. (If I'm allowed a say: Investigate the fountain, but do not drink yet)
You are allowed a say, but just post in gameplay... jump in.
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There is a series called Grailquest, where you are expected to die, restart, repick up your items, and do it again until you complete the book.
That is because things have to be done in a particular order, and without playing through there are no hints to tell you what order it is.
So far more likely on your first try, you will get halfway, realize you don't have a particular event checked and die horribly.
So restarting to me sounds fine, since we will remember where we got the items, just need to backtrack to them. Standard Grailquest Operating Procedure.
Might sound cheesy, but that's the premise of the entire book. The death scenes in there are fking funny as a consolation, like you can be torn apart by chickens.
That does sound like a fun series, but also very frustrating. I want to find out what happens at the end, not play the beginning 34 times. ... I mean, if we lose all our gems, we'll have to anyway, so why rush it?
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You have a point.
That is also why I suggested more then 3 life gems at the start.
Gamebooks can be of the you can get it right on first try(Lone wolf series, though bad rolls can still fk you up), to you're expected to playthrough multiple times(I'm still trying to complete Hellfire from Fighting Fantasy). Don't ask how many times I've restarted, I've lost track.
In Grailquest I basically see how many amusing ways I can get myself killed.
I have completed most of my FF books on the third or fourth try (admittedly I only have 3 or 4) but that is mostly due to my habit of trying all the possible paths no matter how stupid or absurd they are
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I challenge you to do hellfire.
Don't read the walkthrough, tell me when you're done ;-)
Even with reading the walkthrough, I'm still not done yet...ahahha
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Secondly, I'll be going on vacation from 6th October to 9th October to hike in the jungle.
I will have very limited internet access during those days, since there is no wifi in the jungle and only when I am at my room in guesthouse at night and in the morning will I have internet access(which is likely to be spotty), so my apologies in advance. Feel free to not bother to wait for my vote during those days.
Have fun in the jungle. :)
Bump.
Are we going to continue this?
I'm guessing no. Before you brought the thread back from the dead, the last post was mid-November. That's two months. I liked the game, but it was probably taking a chunk out of Misroi's day that he might not have anymore. If he's here and he wants to continue, he'll respond. If not, let it die, and don't bump it anymore.
Just checking. Sometimes when their are no new posts people can forget about a game.