"This is taking longer than I thought," I wrote previously, followed by "TO BE CONTINUED."
It pays to map accurately when playing Fighting Fantasy, but even so, one can get hopelessly lost in mazes if one refuses to search for secret doors because searching for secret doors often carries an unreasonable and monotonous penalty.
I'm still lost in that maze.
Fighting Fantasy (as many, but not all, will know) is a series of fantasy adventure books published in the UK that is something like a hybrid of Choose Your Own Adventure novels and Tunnels & Trolls solitaire adventures. It requires two six-sided dice, a writing utensil, and some paper on which to record your character and make a map of the location to be explored. You can even dispense with the dice by randomly flipping to any page and reading the dice result at the bottom.
A brief section at the back of the book provides rudimentary rules for creating a character and interacting with the fiction in a limited way. First, you determine your Initial scores of SKILL (1D6+6), STAMINA (2D6+12), and LUCK (1D6+6), all of which are likely to fluctuate throughout the adventure. [Italics not mine.] You are given Provisions for ten meals, a sword, a shield, leather armor, a backpack, and one of the following: a Potion of Skill, a Potion of Strength, or a Potion of Fortune. (I don't know if starting equipment varies from book to book, but this is from The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.) There are very simple rules for fighting battles, escaping from battles, testing your LUCK in and out of battles (the correct term is Test your Luck [italics not mine]), and restoring lost SKILL, STAMINA, and LUCK.
Once you have your character recorded, you are ready to begin by reading the first entry during which you will usually be presented with two or more options. The option you choose will direct you to another entry elsewhere in the book, which will in turn present two or more options. You map your journey as you go, sometimes engaging in battles, sometimes fleeing them, using resources, gaining resources, finding clues, interacting with characters, and generally striving to make it through the adventure alive and preferably richer.
Overall, I was impressed by the flow of the adventure and how the rules and fiction interacted, at least until an iron gate slammed shut behind me and I was forced to wander a maze with no apparent escape. I still think the solution is to find a secret door (as annoying as the process is), and I'll try again, but before I do, let me mention my frustration with combat in solitaire gaming.
I am frustrated with combat in solitaire gaming.
Choose Your Own Adventure novels had no rules for combat. You simply hoped you made the right decision. Tunnels & Trolls solitaire adventures were revolutionary in that they used the same combat rules as T&T proper, which was good because you were rolling dice and recording damage, but it was bad because you were rolling dice for both combatants over the course of multiple rounds and you were constantly recalculating the Monster Rating of your foe, which altered not only its capacity to withstand damage but its capacity to inflict damage. Fighting Fantasy avoided the death spiral mechanic, but you're still left with rolling dice for both sides over and over until one or the other dies. You can choose to escape from a battle, but only if the text gives you that option and only if you can survive the loss of 2 points of STAMINA as your enemy gives you a parting blow. In any event, the excitement of battle quickly turns to boredom as you roll dice, record damage, roll dice, record damage until your mind wanders or you nod off. I honestly think the solution is to resolve every battle (in both FF and T&T) with a single contested roll or, at most, a best-two-out-of-three series of rolls.
Meanwhile, I shall try again to escape this damnable maze.
TO BE CONTINUED
