Fabled Lands Role-Playing Game (Part 3)

Returning to our heroes Shagar and Jarna, we find them on a mission to slay the ratmen of the sewers of Yellowport. They stand before an abandoned well in West Port, the poor quarter of the city. Apparently, the well is a gateway to the sewers below, but there is no ladder or other means of descent. Shagar ties his rope to a crossbeam and tests it for strength and secureness. It seems sound, so, with him leading the way, they clamber down the rope and into the depths...

[Climbing down into the sewers requires a Thievery roll at Difficulty 9, plus 2 for using rope. Shagar rolls 7 plus 1 for Thievery and 2 for the rope equals 10, which beats the Difficulty of 9. He makes it to the bottom of the well unscathed. Jarna rolls 7, plus 7 for Thievery and 2 for the rope for a total of 16. She clambers down the rope a good deal quicker and more dextrously than her comrade]

'Show off!' says Shagar, on seeing her rapid descent. They find themselves in a square chamber almost knee-deep in indescribable refuse that gives off an appalling stench. There are four exits, though only the northern one looks big enough for them to venture into. Jarna lights her lantern, and also pulls out a parchment and a stick of charcoal. Shagar readies his sword and shield, and they head north, into a maze of passageways, stopping often to map the various corridors that peel off and away into the darkness. There is the steady drip of water from above and the occasional skittering of rats, but little else in the way of noise...

Sometime later they are advancing cautiously down a damp tunnel festooned with cobwebs. Jarna has stashed her map in her belt and carries her wand in her other hand. The cobwebs begin to get thicker and thicker, and they bump into the husk-like corpse of a ratman, shrouded in webs and hanging suspended from the ceiling. 'I don't like this one bit,' mutters Shagar as they both hear the sound of something moving towards them through the webs. 'Get ready!' Suddenly the biggest spider either of them had ever seen skitters towards them, envenomed fans gleaming in the lanternlight!


By Russ Nicholson (from Cities of Gold and Glory)

 [Combat begins! Strike orders are rolled: Shagar 8, Jarna 10, and the Giant Spider 7. Jarna goes first. She has 2 Action Points and uses 1 to Cast Pacify. This has a Difficulty of 11. Jarna rolls 9 plus Magic 7 and 1 for her wand, for a total of 17. The spider immediately stops attacking and remains quiet. Shagar decides to squeeze past it and check its lair. He spends 1 Action Point moving into the spider's lair and another searching through the remains of its victims. The spider does nothing for its turn, and will continue to do nothing for five more turns or unless attacked. The first Combat Round has ended.

Jarna continues watching over the spider while Shagar searches. The Difficulty of the search is set to 10. Shagar rolls 7 plus 4 for his Scouting, and succeeds! He finds a bag with eighty Shards, and a shortsword and shield of excellent manufacture and untarnished by being in the sewers. For the third Combat Round he gathers up the loot, and goes back to Jarna. There is a brief debate about whether they should kill the spider, but in the end they decide to leave this part of the sewers. The Giant Spider, still Pacified, watches them go with glittering eyes...]

From this brief example of play we can see that the Fabled Lands Roleplaying Game is a fast and action-packed experience. Things happen quickly, thanks largely to the simplicity of the core Difficulty test mechanic, as taken from the gamebooks themselves. At the same time, there are plenty of customizable options for character generations, as with Jarna above, who can get immediately involved in the action. I may be biased, but I think it's a great game in its own right, as well as a much-needed addition to the Fabled Lands world!

This finishes this short series of reviews, though I'll likely be returning to talk about the Fabled Lands RPG from time to time, and possibly continuing the further adventures of Shagar and Jarna...

You can purchase the Fabled Lands RPG here, and find out more here.

Fabled Lands Role-Playing Game (Part 2)

Returning to the Fabled Lands Role-playing Game, and a summary of our newly-created character:

Shagar of Sokara (30yo Male 1st Rank Warrior)

Charisma: 4 
Combat: 5
Intelligence: 3
Magic: 1
Muscle: 4
Sanctity: 2
Scouting: 4
Thievery: 1

Stamina: 11

Armour and Weapons: Sword (Combat +2), Shield (Defence +1) and Chain mail armour (Defence +3)

Other Gear: Dagger (Combat +0) in boot, Lantern, Rope, Water flask

Money: 165 Shards

Powers: Blademaster, Lore (Warfare)

Additional Notes: Shagar is a pox-scarred lesser noble of Sokara whose family has fallen upon hard times following the overthrow of King Corin VII by General Grieve Marlock. He has become a hiresword and mercenary as a result, and his large frame and mop of unruly ginger hair are a common sight in dingy taverns and on corpse-strewn battlefields across eastern Harkuna. A helpful companion to his friends in need, Shagar is also prone to keeping secrets and not entirely trustworthy. But then again, who can you trust in these perilous times?

Shagar's updated profile above includes new errata allowing him to start with 1000 Shards to spend, plus his 100 Shards for being a Noble. This manifests as an upgrade from Leather to Chain mail armour, plus an extra Dagger in his boot.

I'm not entirely convinced of Shagar's ability to brave the dangers of the Fabled Lands alone, so I create a partner in crime for him, as below:

Jarna Jewelspider (24yo Female 1st Rank Mage)

Charisma: 5
Combat: 2
Intelligence: 4
Magic: 7
Muscle: 2
Sanctity: 1
Scouting: 3
Thievery: 7

Stamina: 10

Armour and Weapons: Staff (Combat +1), Dagger (Combat +0)

Other Gear: Potion of Healing, Amber Wand (Magic +1), Lantern, Water Flask, Parchment 

Money: 24 Shards, 2 Pares

Powers: Sorcery (Enchantment), Craft (Magic)

Additional Notes: Jarna was discovered as a baby, bobbing up and down in a crib floating on the waters of the Grimm River estuary. Her elfin frame, silver hair and sparkling green eyes have led some to suspect she may be a changeling from the faerie shee of the Curstmoor. However, Jarna prefers cities to rustic sylvan settings, and has arrived in Yellowport intent on seeing if the rumours of ancient Uttakin ruins beneath the city are true. Her second chosen name refers to the intricate inscriptions carved into her amber wand. Jarna is a brave companion, but an impulsive one...

In the final part of this series we'll catch up with our heroes as they explore the Lair of the Ratmen! Stay tuned for mayhem!

"Guildmaster Vernon is surprisingly eager to see you. He is a hugely fat and bejewelled merchant, and he tells you that a group of ratmen have made a base in the sewers beneath the city. They come out at night to raid the warehouses and homes of the merchants of Yellowport..."

Fabled Lands Role-Playing Game (Part 1)

I've been meaning to post about Greywood Publishing's Fabled Lands Role-Playing Game, by Shane Garvey and Jamie Wallis, for some time. Stuart Lloyd has beaten me to it though, and his excellent review can be found here. Instead then, I thought I'd post an example of character creation and a sample combat to give you some flavour as to how the game actually works.

Character Generation

1. Background. There are 7 choices: Academic, Commoner, Criminal, Fey-Blooded, Military, Noble and Primitive. Each has their own special rules.

Rather than choose, I roll a d8 (with an 8 being a re-roll). I rolled a 6. My character is a Noble. This means my character starts with an additional 100 Shards in currency!

2. Description. While you could presumably develop your character's own description, there are also a series of tables helping you decide things such as Height, Build, Age, Personality (both Good and Bad Traits), Eye Colour, Hair Colour, Distinguishing Features, Birthplace, and Name.

I break out more dice and begin rolling:

Height: I roll a 6. My Noble is very tall (6'7" to 7"), and gets a +1 on jumping tests, and a -1 on hiding tests.

Weight: I roll a 5. My Noble has a Large Frame, and gets +1 Stamina and -1 Thievery.

Age: I roll a 4. My Noble is Mature (30-35 years old), and gains 1 level in a Lore skill.

Good Traits (Personality): My Noble is Helpful.

Bad Traits (Personality): My Noble is a Liar!

Eye Colour: Black

Hair Colour: Red

Distinguishing Features: Disfigured by Pox-marks!

Birthplace: Sokara

Name: Shagar

3. Ability Values. You need to roll 8 dice and distribute the results among the following Abilities: Charisma, Combat, Intelligence, Magic, Muscle, Sanctity, Scouting and Thievery. If the total of all the dice rolled is 20 or less, you may roll again.

I roll the following scores: 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4 and 5. Given my character's large size, I figure I'm heading towards a warrior type, so I assign the values as follows:

Charisma: 4
Combat: 5
Intelligence: 3
Magic: 1
Muscle: 4
Sanctity: 2
Scouting: 4
Thievery: 1

(The Large Frame penalty for Thievery cannot reduce it below 1, so I'm okay there as long as I never have to do any thieving!)

4. Stamina Value. Stamina is an indication of how much damage your character can take before dying. To generate it, you roll a d6 and add 6.

I roll 4, and add 6, plus a further 1 for my Noble's Large Frame. My Noble has a Stamina of 11.

5. Profession. There are eight professions in the Fabled Lands RPG: Barbarian, Druid, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Troubadour, Warrior and Wayfarer. To choose one of the professions you need to have a score of 5 or more in the profession's Primary Ability, and 2 or more in their Secondary Abilities. Each profession also has rules on what Weapons, Armour and Skills they can choose as well as a choice of one special Power.

Given their ability scores, my Noble has to be a Warrior. They start with one skill level in Lore (warfare), and for their Power, I choose Blademaster which allows one 'super-strike' per quest.

Here's where it gets tricky. There's no mention of whether my character gets any other starting Skills, or how many Shards they start with, or even what starting equipment they have. Going through the equipment lists, I decide to award my Noble the following:

• A Sword (Combat +2)
• Leather armour (Defence +1)
• A Shield (Defence +1)
• A Lantern
• A Rope
• A Water flask

All this adds up to 735 Shards, which seems a trifle excessive. I decide to reduce my Noble's starting cash to 0.

That was fun! In the next post I'll summarise my character and run them through some combat from the sample quest Lair of the Ratmen and see how they fare!

Play by Email: A Summary



Figure 1. Necromunda rulebook cover by
Geoff Taylor (from Priestley, Johnson & Chambers, 1995)


[I've been flailing away at the keyboard typing up my thoughts on a second article from National Geographic, but I'll never get it finished tonight. (Trust me, it's worth the wait!) Instead, here's a brief summary of some play-by-email musings that will no doubt be expanded in future into yet another series of overly-detailed posts...]

One of the major hassles of being a geek abroad in a city like Bangkok for the past fifteen or so years, is that you tend to leave your hobbies behind. Friday night geekery becomes playing pool at the local bar, or band practice, or pub quizzing, or footy training, and before you know it, you can't tell THAC0 from HD, or whether the Fimir made it into Warhammer 4th Edition or not. Something therefore that I have done occasionally to bridge this gap and stay sane, is run or participate in play-by-email campaigns with the "old gang" from back home. What follows is a quick look at two favourites that have burned up the inbox and caused me to waste a lot of time in idle thought and semi-pointless book-keeping:

1. Necromunda. (Priestley, Johnson & Chambers, 1995). Games Workshop's cult miniatures battle-game of gang warfare in a future dystopian Warhammer 40K hive-city!  I'd been living in Bangkok for nearly a year and saw this in the toy section at a local department store. Having spent the entire previous year in the Peoples' Democratic Republic of Laos and parts beyond, I was in severe need of a gaming fix and bought it immediately. After a few battles against myself I forgot about it for a bit (though not long enough to buy Outlanders (Chambers, 1996)!), until, on a visit back home, some mates suggested getting some sort of PBEM action going (email being a newish concept back then as we'd previously corresponded via this archaic means of communication known as 'writing letters'), and Necromunda raised its ugly head...

So for the next year and a bit after that, I ran a Necromunda campaign for a large number of different gangs, five of which were 'owned' by my friends, while the others were all 'NPC' gangs either using official rules or stuff I'd swiped off the 'net that looked cool (Wyrds, Chaos Covens, Ash Nomads, Pit Slaves, and so on...). The actual process was simple and fun, though rather time-consuming:

1. Determine who was fighting who for that month(s).
2. Get them to submit some sort of battle tactics.
3. Set up each battle on a card table, and run through it taking copious notes on who did what to whom and how and where.
4. Write the whole mess up as a semi-coherent battle report.
5. Collate all the battle reports and results, and summarise them as a monthly/bimonthly tabloid that read like a fatal pile-up between White Dwarf (the 'bad' post-100 issues) and one of Rupert Murdoch's trashier bin-liners.
6. Repeat.

I think I only managed to get through seven or eight tabloids and it was already starting to get ridiculous - we had Lords of the Spire mini-leagues, Top Ten Killer/Sniper charts, lists of guns for hire and obituraries for slain gangers, and so forth and so on. Because of this, when I was offered the chance to play bass in not one but two bands as a night job, I jumped at the chance, and the Necromunda campaign unfortunately fell by the wayside. Fun times though, and I may even dig some of it out here if the blood-spattered prose isn't too embarassing.

Figure 2. Cover detail from
 Cities of Gold and Glory
 by Kevin Jenkins
(from Morris & Thomson, 1995).

 2. Fabled Lands. A few years later, the bands had both split up, as is the ephemeral nature of expatriate existence in Bangkok, and I was supposedly enrolled in a Masters course in International Journalism. As is normal for me when contemplating tertiary tedium, I started casting around for any sort of digital distraction. Before this, I'd liberated all six Fabled Lands books from storage at home, carted them back to Thailand, and completely deconstructed them into their basest fragments.

'Hey,' I thought. 'Let's run them as a campaign for some mates!'

So for about a year or maybe two, six of my friends chose six different professions, and started wandering about the lands of Harkuna. Altogether they covered most of The War-Torn Kingdom (Morris & Thomson, 1995), quite a lot of Cities of Gold and Glory (Morris & Thomson, 1995), and bits from Over the Blood-Dark Sea (Morris & Thomson, 1995). Most of them travelled solo, and you'd have these strange awkward encounters between PCs when they found themselves occupying the same patch of road between Caran Baru and Trefoille, which reminded me of facing the Thief from Zork I.

Needless to say, their exploits were varied. The rogue sided with the Marlocks, and the warrior with Nergal Corin, so Sokara got fairly messy very quickly, while the mage helped Oliphard the Wizardly and transformed herself into a warrior-sorceress of some power. Two others joined different colleges in Dweomer, and one of these (via a mistaken visit to the master of their college) then assassinated Amcha One-Eye. Again, good times, although they eventually petered out when the book-keeping became too much...

One of the reasons I'm talking about these here, is that I intend to start up a new PBEM campaign, and this blog serves a useful space to thrash out some ideas on how to run it, and more importantly given my previous misadventures, how to make it last a bit longer. As always unfortunately, more will be revealed at a later date...

References

Chambers, A. (1996). Outlanders Rulebook. Nottingham: Games Workshop.

Morris, D. & Thomson, J. (1995). Fabled Lands: The War-Torn Kingdom. London: Macmillan.

Morris, D. & Thomson, J. (1995). Fabled Lands: Cities of Gold and Glory. London: Macmillan.

Morris, D. & Thomson, J. (1995). Fabled Lands: Over the Blood-Dark Sea. London: Macmillan.

Priestley, R., Johnson, J. & Chambers, A. (1995) Necromunda Rulebook: Nottingham: Games Workshop. 

Heart of Ice versus The Fabled Lands (The Final Chapter)

By Russ Nicholson (from Morris, 1994).
Once more, into the wilderness...

Surveying the landscape, you see only a dazzling expanse of snow under a sky of merciless metallic blue. The few other people you catch sight of are hunched anonymous figures in the distance. In these grim and desperate times, a lone traveller is well advised not to seek out company. (Morris, 1994, paragraph 400)

In the upcoming issue of Fighting Fantazine, I talk about two aspects of gamebook design (Wright, 2011a), namely:

- Structure. The physical aspect – how many paragraphs, how many encounters, and how many choices per encounter on average, among other things.

- Form. The style aspect – linear versus non-linear, one true path versus multiple paths, and so on.

We’ve already considered various aspects of a potential form for the Frozen Lands (Wright, 2011b). Essentially, we’re looking at creating a non-linear gamebook with multiple paths contributing to an overall story arc. What I want to consider here, is how do we apply this form to the physical structure of a Frozen Lands gamebook?

6. Structure versus Form. Similar to the Fabled Lands, the action of Frozen Lands occurs on a series of non-linear grids. For ease of organization, it is probably best if we group these grids in three separate tiers of gameplay, based on physical location and transportation. These tiers are:

a) The Base Tier. This is the standard tier common to any Fabled Lands gamebook, and can be further divided into two distinct areas, namely:

i) Land. The terrestrial regions through which the character treks. In our case, it can be subdivided yet again (!) into:

Wilderness. The icy wastes surrounding what used to be the Mediterranean Sea, organized in a non-linear grid format.

Settlements. Nine cities (Daralbad, Kastilan, Venis, Karthag, Tarabul, Kahira, Bezant, Maka, and Sudan), mainly set up as central hub paragraphs with returning choices, and some linear paths representing quests and adventures.

Specials. Ruins such as Marsay and Du-En, and smaller settlements including the Etruscan and Jib-and-Halter Inns with yet more linear pathways for missions to be completed.

ii) Sea. For ferry passengers, these paragraphs would be straightforward linear portals between ports such as Venis and Kahira. However, if your character is lucky enough to acquire a sea-going vessel, this would then unlock a non-linear grid of adventure choices similar to the Wilderness component of the Land section above.

Rules for ships and boats would remain the same as the Fabled Lands (e.g. Morris & Thomson, 1995a, paragraph 555), in terms of crew quality, but the types of ships and cargo would change. Some suggestions:

Ship Types

(taken from Morris, 1994, paragraphs 78 and 309)

Mud-skimmer (Capacity: 1 Cargo Unit)

Ice schooner (Capacity: 2 Cargo Units)

Hovercraft (Capacity: 3 Cargo Units)

Cargo

Furs

Minerals

Tech

Food

Beasts

Cloth

Hazards of the various seas of the Frozen Lands world could include pirates, storms, icebergs, rocky reefs, mutant sea creatures, rogue droids, crew mutinies, engine problems, and mysterious islands, among many others.

b) The Under Tier. This is a small but important tier that connects far-flung regions with a fast and relatively safe transportation system. In the Fabled Lands, this takes the form of the Trau tunnels (Morris & Thomson, 1995b, paragraph 495), and other subterranean nexuses. In the Frozen Lands however, it is instead a continent-spanning subway system with stations in Old Marsay, Karthag, Tarabul, Kahira, Giza, and Maka. Access to the intercontinental subway could be governed by the use of a codeword which is acquired when the character first explores the ruins of Old Marsay for example.

[Amusingly, with reference to this underground system, Jorner (2007) notes: “There’s an intercontinental subway going through one of the world’s most geologically active regions. Yay?”]

Figure 1. Hover-droids
by Russ Nicholson (from Morris, 1994).
Egg-shaped but lethal!

c) The Over Tier. This tier is accessible if you acquire a Manta sky-car (see Wright, 2011c), or some other flying device or vehicle. Essentially, it’s air travel between regions or settlements, and while extremely fast and convenient, there could be dangers such as air pirates, hover-droids (see Figure 1), giant mutant birds such as teratorns (e.g. Naish, 2007), storms, vehicle malfunctions and simply running out of fuel (and then hoping you packed a parachute!).

[I’m still unsure as to whether I’d allow for the refueling of these air vehicles.]

Additionally, and probably through the use of codewords, the Over Tier would also allow access to the orbital space habitat of al-Lat (Morris, 1994, paragraphs 275 and 286 - see Figure 2), which would be a mix of linear paths with a central hub paragraph.

Figure 2. The orbital space habitat of al-Lat,
by Russ Nicholson (from Morris, 1994).

Now that we know the various tiers of gameplay, the next step would be to assign encounter lists and grid locations to each tier to give us a rough estimate of the total number of paragraphs necessary for the Frozen Lands project.

However, I’m not going to go there, yet. It’s a lot of work and a lot of time, and these are things I can’t commit to right now. Instead, I’m going to round out this final post on our Frozen Lands mash-up by tidying up a bunch of loose ends…

7. Miscellaneous Odds and Ends. In the main, the Frozen Lands system would follow that of the Fabled Lands. There are some notable changes however, and these are detailed below:

Gods and Blessings: While there may be faith and religion in the Frozen Lands, there are likely no active gods capable of bestowing blessings upon their followers in exchange for offerings. Thus these two boxes can be deleted from the Adventure Sheet as unnecessary.

One idea I did have, as a substitute for blessings, was to include a sort of ‘luck virus’ that would allow dice rerolls when imbibed. This would likely be sold by somebody such as Malengin (Morris, 1994, paragraph 434). It’s inspired by the luck virus used by Lister in the Red Dwarf episode ‘Quarantine’ (Grant & Naylor, 1992).

Resurrection Arrangements: Although there are no gods or temples in the Frozen Lands, resurrection could possibly be arranged for by including clone vats, similar to the life-vats of Argon the Alchemist (Morris & Thomson, 1995b, paragraphs 192, 244, and 428).

Possessions: Possessions would be limited to a maximum of 12, like the Fabled Lands, and unlike the limit of eight possessions from Heart of Ice.

Codewords: There would be a list of codewords with tick boxes, similar to the Fabled Lands series, but these would not all start with the same letter of the alphabet. Frozen Lands is a projected one volume gamebook adventure, and does not need to distinguish between codewords from different books in the series, unlike the Fabled Lands.

Rank: Because it is only one book, is there any need for Rank, or the Rank titles, or can they be scrapped completely? If this was done, the downside would be that Defence and Stamina wouldn’t increase at all. Perhaps only six ranks should be allowed, as follows:

Rank          Title

1^st             Outcast

2^nd            Loner

3^rd              Wanderer

4^th             Adventurer

5^th                Hero

6^th             Lord

Titles and Honours: These could surely be included and encompass events such as being a member of the Compass Society, joining one of the myriad weird cults and sects (the Seventh Seal Cult, the Church of Gaia, the remains of the Volentine Cult, the Hamadan ascetics, etc. etc.), becoming a Lord of Bezant, and other such professional opportunities.

Money: Money is measured in a currency known as scads, which are recorded on card-like money tokens. Transferring funds is done by touching one money card to another (Morris, 1994, paragraphs 117 and 328).

This is it for our Frozen Lands mash-up of Heart of Ice and the Fabled Lands. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these notes as much as I’ve enjoyed developing them. This adventure may not be written now, but, one day, who knows? Unless of course someone beats me to it…

References

Grant, R. (Writer & Director), & Naylor, D (Writer & Director). (1992). Quarantine [Television series episode]. In H. Bevan-Jones (Producer), Red Dwarf. London: BBC Two.

Jorner, P. (2007, May 31). Reviews part 18: The future’s so bright I gotta wear polarized goggles. Message posted to http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/fighting_fantasy_gamebooks/message/2752

Morris, D. (1994). Heart of Ice. London: Mammoth.

Morris, D. & Thomson, J. (1995a). Fabled Lands: The War-Torn Kingdom. London: Macmillan.

Morris, D. & Thomson, J. (1995b). Fabled Lands: The Plains of Howling Darkness. London: Macmillan.

Naish, D. (2007, November 1). Life-size two-dimensional condors and teratorns. Message posted to http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2007/11/condors_teratorns_both_big_.php

Wright, A. (2011a). The Adventure Game Part 2. Fighting Fantazine 5(January, 2011). Unpublished (but not for long!).

Wright, A. (2011b, January 10). Heart of Ice versus The Fabled Lands. Message posted to http://fantasygamebook.blogspot.com/2011/01/heart-of-ice-versus-fabled-lands.html

Wright, A. (2011c, January 15). Heart of Ice versus The Fabled Lands (Beasts, Steeds and Transport). Message posted to http://fantasygamebook.blogspot.com/2011/01/heart-of-ice-versus-fabled-lands-beasts.html

Heart of Ice versus The Fabled Lands (Beasts, Steeds and Transport)





Figure 2. The Manta sky-car
by Mike Posen (from Morris, 1994).
Surely one of the coolest things in Heart of Ice? 

I keep thinking I’m going to finish this series of posts, but it continues to expand! Hopefully, this is the penultimate post…

5. Pack Animals, Steeds, and Other Forms of Transport. Following on from the previous post on Outdoor Survival (Wright, 2011a), I wanted to talk about three of the main examples of these ‘objects’ that will help you brave the perils of the Frozen Lands.

a) Burrek. This pack animal of sorts is described rather memorably as:

a hulking, thick-shouldered animal with shaggy white fur and a lugubrious snout. ‘The nomads use such creatures when they wish to cross the Ice Wastes,’ the trader tells you. ‘They huddle beside the beasts in blizzards, and when hungry they tap its veins to make a blood pudding.’

        ‘What a sickening thought!’

He nods sagely. ‘Indeed. It is probably only just preferable to dying of starvation. Still, if you intend to cross the Sahara you cannot do without a burrek. This stout animal is for sale at the generous price of thirty scads.’ (Morris, 1994, paragraph 338)

I used to think that the burrek was a kind of weird sheep/goat hybrid, but from this description they sound more like a cold-adapted boar or pig of some sort. This is confirmed by the fact they can’t actually carry anything for you, and just follow you around to be used for warmth and food.

Rules for Burreks: Burreks cost around 10 scads (after haggling). They do not count towards your possessions limit. You cannot own a burrek if you have a Manta sky-car or a camel, as they do not fit in the car, and do not get along with (or can’t keep up with) camels.

Whenever you are told to lose any Stamina points as a result of exposure to the icy weather and environment, you may reduce the loss by 1 point if you have a burrek. In addition, if you run out of food, you can slaughter the burrek which yields 2 food packs worth of rations (and don’t forget to cross it off your Adventure Sheet).

b) Camel. The shaggy camel of the Saharan Ice Wastes appears to be a hybrid of both the old Bactrian and Dromedary species that once existed on Earth. It is used in particular by the nomadic Hamadan ascetics that patrol the slopes of the Atlas Mountains, in the western Sahara (Morris, 1994, paragraph 273). It is also used as a beast of burden in merchant convoys traveling between far-flung cities such as Daralbad and Kastilan, or Bezant and Kahira.

Rules for Camels: Camels cost around 20 scads (after haggling). They do not count towards your possessions limit. You cannot own a camel if you have a Manta sky-car or a burrek, as they do not fit in the car, and do not get along with burreks.

Camels are irascible beasts and you cannot huddle next to one for warmth when out in the wilderness. However, if you run out of food, you can slaughter the camel which yields 4 food packs worth of rations (and don’t forget to cross it off your Adventure Sheet).

The main value of the camel is in carrying extra gear, such as supplies and survival equipment. When you acquire a camel, write ‘Camel (turn to 42)’ on your Adventure Sheet. Whenever you wish to take, use or swap an item carried by your camel, turn to paragraph 42 and follow the instructions there. Make sure you make a note of which paragraph you are on at the time however, as 42 will not direct you back to where you came from. See Figure 1 for an example of paragraph 42.

Figure 1. Your friendly neighbourhood camel...

c) Manta sky-car. This is the best ‘state of the art’ form of personal transport in the world of the Frozen Lands (see Figure 2). Manta sky-cars cannot be bought, only found or stolen:

You arrive at a large circular room. In the centre rests a Manta sky-car, its burnished black chassis reflecting emerald droplets of light. As you step towards it, you notice a caretek unfold its articulated metal body and move slowly around the base of the sky-car, now and then probing with its diagnostic antenna. This is cause for hope. If the sky-care has been regularly serviced by a caretek, it might still be functional. (Morris, 1994, paragraph 435)

Rules for Manta sky-cars: Manta sky-cars require an initial TECH roll at Difficulty 13 to pilot successfully. They do not count towards your possession limit. If you have a Manta sky-car you cannot also have a burrek or a camel as neither would fit inside the car. The Manta sky-car has an expansive storage locker. When initially found or stolen, the locker will usually contain the following items: 10 food packs, medical kit, flashlight, cold-weather clothes, and nylon rope.

When you acquire a Manta sky-car, write ‘Manta sky-car (turn to 99)’ on your Adventure Sheet. Whenever you wish to take, use or swap an item stored in your Manta sky-car, turn to paragraph 99 and follow the instructions there. Make sure you make a note of which paragraph you are on at the time however, as 99 will not direct you back to where you came from. See Figure 3 for an example of paragraph 99.

Figure 3. "I've got a ticket to ride..."

 In addition, owning a Manta sky-car provides a faster and safer way of traveling about the Frozen Lands. This will be the subject of the next post!

References

Morris, D. (1994). Heart of Ice. London: Mammoth.

Wright, A. (2011). Heart of Ice versus The Fabled Lands (Outdoor Survival). Message posted to http://fantasygamebook.blogspot.com/2011/01/heart-of-ice-versus-fabled-lands_12.html

Heart of Ice versus The Fabled Lands (Outdoor Survival)

Returning yet again to our Frozen Lands mash-up…

4. Outdoor Survival. Another aspect of the Fabled Lands that is under-utilized in the interests of speedier gameplay and less book-keeping, is that of supplies and provisions. In fact, one of the few places where rules for this are provided is on the Great Steppes between the Spine of Harkun and the Peaks at the Edge of the World. Here, in the colder northern parts of the steppes, we find the following applicable rules:

The sun is sucked below the horizon, casting its wan rays across the flat and desolate steppes. You camp for the night. If you have a wolf pelt, the fur helps to keep you warm. If you do not, lost 1 Stamina from the cold.

You need to hunt for food. Make a SCOUTING roll at Difficulty 11. If you succeed, you find a wild hare to eat. If you fail, you go hungry and must lose 1 Stamina point. (Morris & Thomson, 1995, paragraph 666)

This is comparatively tame however, compared to the merciless conditions of the Saharan Ice Wastes, and presumably much of the territory that lies between the far-flung cities of Heart of Ice. At this point, we discover the perils of the weather are such that:

       

If you lack both a fur cloak and cold-weather clothing, lose 4 Life Points. If you possess either of those items, lose only 2 Life Points. (Lose 1 less Life Point if you have Survival, and 1 less if you possess a burrek.) (Morris, 1994, paragraph 426)

In addition, all travellers on the wastes need polarized goggles or they will suffer snow blindness (for effects, see Morris, 1994, paragraph 13). The food situation is such that 2 food packs must be consumed per location, or suffer 1 Life Point loss if you have 1 food pack and 4 Life Points loss for none, reduced to 3 if you have Survival, and reduced by 2 if you have a burrek, which you can slaughter (Morris, 1994, paragraph 444). (More on burreks later!)

Previously, Morris and Johnson (1987, paragraph 422) had provided rules for crossing the frozen expanse of the Mistral Sea, in The Kingdom of Wyrd, which make for an interesting comparison. Here, you lose 5 Endurance points for each day on the ice, with the following modifiers:

        One less point lost each day if you have a fur cloak.

        One less point lost each day if you have rations to eat.

        One less point lost each day if you have a bedroll.

        One less point lost each day if you have a brazier.

Also, if you do not have gloves, you suffer frostbite and lose 1 point of Fighting Prowess for the rest of the adventure.

A consideration of all of these sources has led to the creation of the following summary for outdoor survival in the Frozen Lands. As per the Fabled Lands series, this sequence would be included for every location that would be designated an Ice Waste (i.e. not ruins, an oasis (poisoned or otherwise), or the lands around the Lyonesse Swamps), usually after rolling for and resolving random encounters.

Outdoor Survival in the Frozen Lands

- After you enter the wastes, there’s an item check to see if you have polarized goggles. If not, you waste 1 day dealing with snow blindness.

       

- Lose 2 Stamina points each day/location. Reduce this by one if you have a burrek/camel or cold-weather clothing.

- Need to eat 1 food pack per day/location or make a SURVIVAL roll at Difficulty 11 to find some food. Lose 2 Stamina points if you have no food. If you are desperate, you can slaughter your burrek/camel to counter this.

I’ve tried to mix and match here, and create something simple but effective. Wilderness travel should be difficult, but not too punishing for the well-equipped, as they head out into the wastes to trade, explore, hunt, and just wander about aimlessly…

In the next post I will explain the wonder that is the oft-mentioned burrek, and look at adding pack-animals, steeds and transport rules to the Frozen Lands milieu!

References

Morris, D. (1994). Heart of Ice. London: Mammoth.

Morris, D. & Johnson, O. (1987). The Kingdom of Wyrd. London: Knight Books.

Morris, D. & Thomson, J. (1995). Fabled Lands: The Plains of Howling Darkness. London: Macmillan.

Heart of Ice versus The Fabled Lands (Combat)

Getting back to our Frozen Land mash-up of Heart of Ice and the Fabled Lands, the sole conversion issue we’ll consider in this post is …..

3. Combat. Given that it is a diceless, non-random system, combat in Heart of Ice is handled fairly simply. Tubb (2010) summarizes the combat system as follows below:

After walking down the dark alley for about a minute, you are attacked by two thugs armed with knives. If you have Close Combat, turn to #. If you have Agility, turn to #. If you have Shooting and a barysal gun with at least one charge remaining, turn to #. If you have none of these, turn to #.

If you had no applicable skills, you might lose 5 Life Points. If you had Close Combat or Agility, you might suffer 2 Life Points worth of injury, and if you had a charged barysal gun you might get away completely unscathed. As such, the system combines not only missile and melee combat, but also evasive techniques, including persuasive powers if you have the Cunning skill.

By contrast, the combat system for Fabled Lands involves the following steps:

- Roll two dice and add your COMBAT score.

- If you roll higher than the enemy’s Defence (COMBAT plus Rank plus armour bonus) score, you have hit.

- The amount you score above the enemy’s Defence is the number of Stamina points he loses.

- When the Stamina of either combatant reaches zero, they have died (Morris & Thomson, 1995, p. 6).

Interestingly, there is no missile combat system for Fabled Lands, but there are occasions when people shoot arrows and similar missiles at you. These tend to hit automatically, and do one die roll, less your armour bonus, in Stamina points damage (Morris & Thomson, 1995, paragraph 726).

For devising a combat system for Frozen Lands, I’d propose a distinction between melee combat and missile combat, as follows:

a) Melee Combat. This remains exactly the same as the Fabled Lands system. The only real difference lies in the choices of weapons and armour, and their respective COMBAT and Defence bonuses. These items include:

Frozen Lands Weapons Chart

Unarmed (no COMBAT bonus)

Dagger or Knife (COMBAT +1)

Shortsword or Club (COMBAT +2)

Sword or Axe (COMBAT +3)

Double-handed weapon (COMBAT +4)

        Frozen Lands Armour Chart

        No armour (no Defence bonus)

        Padded Armour (Defence +1)

        Speculum Jacket (Defence +2)

        Anti-Laser Armour (Defence +3)

Plated Armour (Defence +4)

Another omission from Fabled Lands is the lack of any cohesive rules for shields, but as they’re not a part of the futuristic world of the Frozen Lands we don’t have to worry about them either!

b) Missile Combat. At the start of any fight, you are allowed to engage in Missile Combat. This consists of making a COMBAT role at a Difficulty of X, where X is the COMBAT score of your opponent. If you make the Difficulty roll and hit the target, the damage done is equivalent to whatever weapon you were using from the following table:

Frozen Lands Missile Damage Chart

Throwing Dagger, Arrow, or Crossbow Bolt (Roll 1 die, and

        subtract opponent’s armour Defence bonus)

Barysal Gun (Roll 2 dice, and subtract opponent’s armour

        Defence bonus)

Grenade (Roll 3 dice, and subtract opponent’s armour Defence

        bonus)

Mantramuktas Cannon (Roll 4 dice, and subtract opponent’s

        armour Defence bonus)

Stun Grenade (Special)

Stasis Bomb (Special)

The only other issue with Missile Combat is keeping track of ammo, and also including places within to replenish ammo supplies or recharge barysal guns. Prices for these services would also need to be established but that is perhaps a topic for another post.

c) An Example of Frozen Lands Combat. Putting it all together, we get the following:

The Road Warrior, COMBAT 6, Defence 8, Stamina 11, Barysal Gun (5 charges), No hand weapon, Padded Armour (Defence +1).

Thug, COMBAT 5, Defence 6, Stamina 8, Knife (COMBAT +1 – already taken into account), No armour.

1. The Road Warrior shoots first, reducing the number of charges by 1 to 4. They make a COMBAT roll at a Difficulty of 5. They roll 3 plus their combat (6) equals 9. A hit! They roll 7. The Thug has no armour and loses 7 Stamina points. They only have 1 left!

2. The Thug lashes out with their Knife. They roll two dice and score 9. Plus their COMBAT score (5) equals 14, which is 6 more than the Road Warrior’s Defence. This reduces the Road Warrior’s Stamina to 5.

3. Having used the Barysal Gun at the start of the combat, the Road Warrior now attacks with his bare hands. He rolls two dice and gets 5. Adding his COMBAT score he gets 11, which is 6 more than the Thug’s Defence. The Thug only has 1 Stamina point left though, and succumbs to his wounds…

Thoughts? To me it seems fairly lethal, but then combat in Heart of Ice is quite a vicious affair. The rules could probably do with some tweaking however.

References

Morris, D. & Thomson, J. (1995). Fabled Lands: Cities of Gold and Glory. London: Macmillan.

Tubb, A. (2010, September 28). Heart of Ice – A solo gamebook adventure in post-apocalyptic Europe and Africa. Review posted to http://rpggeek.com/thread/568777/heart-of-ice-a-solo-gamebook-adventure-in-post-a

Heart of Ice versus The Fabled Lands

Not too long ago, I was supposed to be completing an assignment and I got completely side-tracked by what at the time seemed like a great idea. What if we combined the world of Heart of Ice – the frozen Earth setting that Per Jorner (2007) calls “the best one-shot world design” – with the ongoing campaign system of the Fabled Lands series? I originally thought it might be a fairly amusing diversion for a few days, but it quickly became apparent that the project would be far bigger in scope. However, as my time at the moment is fairly constrained and I’m unable to develop the concept any further, I thought I’d post my notes up here, for comments and discussion. It’s also in the spirit of what Robin Laws (2004) named his Abandoned Ideas Clearinghouse:

Like most writers, I keep a file containing ideas for what might one day become novels or short stories. Since it takes a few moments to think of a project and months if not years to complete one, I now have more ideas than I could possibly develop for the rest of my life. It’s good to have a big store of ideas in reserve; you never know when one will come in handy.

Often a seemingly lame idea will become interesting when cross-pollinated with another one that isn’t quite working. But even so, I can tell that some of these entries will never see the light of day. Some of them are hypothetical books I’d like to read, without being books I’d like to write. Others just plain bite.

In a spirit of magnanimous amnesty, I will periodically use this space to free from its imprisonment a premise which would otherwise be doomed to languish forever in my idea file, alone and unloved.

So, if anyone wants to take this idea and develop it further, feel free (just credit me for inspiration, or something like that!).

The rest of this post covers the first two sections examining how you would convert Heart of Ice to a Fabled Lands style of play, in terms of the gamebook’s form, and its character design. Subsequent posts will look at further conversion details including combat, outdoor survival, gamebook structure, and various miscellaneous rules mechanics.

1. Gamebook Form. As we’ve already seen (Wright, 2011a), Heart of Ice is a ‘one true path’ kind of book, whereas the Fabled Lands are about as non-linear as you can get. They don’t even have a proper ending. How do we combine the two? Bear in mind we have to be especially careful because the storyline of Heart of Ice is one of the things that make it compelling, whereas one of the criticisms labeled at the more non-linear gamebooks is their “endless wandering” (Jorner, 2009). In my view, there are two real approaches we can take here:

a) Retrofit. We presuppose that our mash-up gamebook (hereafter known as Frozen Lands), takes place either well-before or well-after the action in Heart of Ice, and there is no effect on gameplay. Characters may venture to the Lost City of Du-En, but they will not encounter the Heart of Volent there. Instead we can create a series of other quests with which to tempt players. This approach has the virtue of simplicity, in not having to work Heart of Ice into the gameplay, but it lacks any over-arching plot or purpose.

b) Reworking. We incorporate the Heart of Ice plotline into the Frozen Lands gamebook, perhaps as the big final quest after they have built up their character exploring the cities of the Mediterranean region and the icy wastes between them. This gives immediate purpose to the book, but it’s going to take some work incorporating the story of Heart of Ice and the actions of its various NPC adventurers into the Frozen Lands. It also seems like we’re just repeating ourself, using an alternate rules system to tell a story that’s already been told.

I find myself alternating in favour between both of these ideas. Currently I’m leaning more towards the first though, after a long period of preferring the second. What do others think?

2. Character Design. Another danger of this project is that we lose the well-regarded character creation process of Heart of Ice (Jorner, 2007), and replace it with the Fabled Lands model, which has far less flexibility. The redeeming feature of the Fabled Lands system however, is that it is easy to scale up for a campaign game, and allows for a greater series of smaller progressions until the player/character feels up to trying a big challenge (like seeking the Heart of Volent).

As previously noted (Wright, 2011b), Heart of Ice gives us seven different character types, and twelve different skills. Converting this to a Fabled Lands system involves trimming the professions to six, and also compressing the twelve skills into six abilities whose numeric value represents how good each profession is at accomplishing the task at hand (Morris & Thomson, 1995, p. 5). What follows are suggestions for this:

a) The Professions. From the Heart of Ice list of starting character types (Morris, 1994, pp. 7-8), we lose the Trader, and keep the following:

Explorer

Bounty Hunter

Spy

Visionary

Scientist

Mutant

b) The Abilities. Converting the skills from Heart of Ice (Morris, 1994, p. 9) into abilities, yields the following:

TECH: Cybernetics, Piloting

COMBAT: Close Combat, Shooting

PSI: Paradoxing, ESP

LORE: Lore

SURVIVAL: Survival

ROGUERY: Agility, Cunning, Roguery, Streetwise

c) Combining the Two. Assigning abilities and their values to the professions is a tricky business, and I’ve revised my notes at least four times. The current iteration I’ve come up with is:

Explorer: COMBAT 5, LORE 4, PSI 2, ROGUERY 3, SURVIVAL 6, TECH 1

Bounty Hunter: COMBAT 6, LORE 1, PSI 2, ROGUERY 5, SURVIVAL 3, TECH 4

Spy: COMBAT 3, LORE 2, PSI 4, ROGUERY 6, SURVIVAL 1, TECH 5

Visionary: COMBAT 1, LORE 6, PSI 5, ROGUERY 4, SURVIVAL 3, TECH 2

Scientist: COMBAT 3, LORE 5, PSI 1, ROGUERY 2, SURVIVAL 4, TECH 6

Mutant: COMBAT 4, LORE 1, PSI 6, ROGUERY 5, SURVIVAL 3, TECH 2

Although some of these match their corresponding characters from Heart of Ice, there are also a few shifts in emphasis. The Visionary for example becomes more of a dual LORE/PSI mystic type, whereas the Mutant becomes the strongest in PSI but also a decent fighter and thief. The Spy has also become stronger with PSI which is surely useful for their line of work.

That’s it for tonight. Tomorrow I’ll look at some other conversions issues, starting with combat and those dreaded barysal guns.

References

Jorner, P. (2007, May 31). Reviews part 18: The future’s so bright I gotta wear polarized goggles. Message posted to http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/fighting_fantasy_gamebooks/message/2752

Jorner, P. (2009, November 26). Notification of Results for the 2009 Windhammer Prize. Message posted to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gamebooks/message/10494

Laws, R. D. (2004, March 29). Abandoned Idea Clearinghouse: Palindrome. Message posted to http://robin-d-laws.livejournal.com/2004/03/29/

Morris, D. (1994). Heart of Ice. London: Mammoth.

Morris, D. & Thomson, J. (1995). Fabled Lands: The War-Torn Kingdom. London: Macmillan.

Wright, A. (2011a). Heart of Ice (Part 3). Message posted to http://fantasygamebook.blogspot.com/2011/01/heart-of-ice-part-3.html

Wright, A. (2011b). Heart of Ice (Part 2). Message posted to http://fantasygamebook.blogspot.com/2011/01/heart-of-ice-part-2.html