The Second Swordsman – Your Adventure Ends Here (Part 2)

Last week we presented the first part of Malcolm Garcia's 17th and final The Second Swordsman post. And now it's time for Part 2...

The Second Swordsman – Your Adventure Ends Here

By Malcolm Garcia

At the start of last year I decided to test an idea – could I complete any FIGHTING FANTASY adventure by always choosing the second option? Many of the books in the series are notoriously difficult, punishing even the slightest deviation from the ‘one true path’ with an instant death or worse, not finding an essential key or jewel.  But would the path to success ever be something as elementary as always making the second choice? Only the authors of those books would know, but could I discover their secret?

Having attempted 47 of the books in the series, the conclusion I’ve come to is (perhaps unsurprisingly) ‘no’. However, although every one of these adventures ended in my failure to find the treasure, protect myself, or kill the ‘Big Bad’ and save the world, I did find a lot of enjoyment and learned a few things along the way.

(To read Lessons 1-3, follow this link.)

Lesson Four. It’s not just about SKILL and STAMINA. For much of my adventures, by choosing every second option my goal was just to stay alive. This meant defeating every creature I came across, relying on my own SKILL and STAMINA to be better than theirs. But in many FIGHTING FANTASY books there was more to it than that. As early as Citadel of Chaos there were often extra attributes to take into account that could help or hinder your journey.

In Citadel of Chaos I chose to take every second spell available, which meant I took several duplicates with me into Balthus Dire’s fortress. Because I lasted a while in this book I actually managed to use a number of these (including burning through all of my Levitation spells), although I’m unsure whether I took the right combination with me from the very beginning. Phantoms of Fear also gave me the ability to use magic, in the guise of the POWER score. Alas, I barely managed to use this, casting just one fire and one weaken spell. On the other hand, the FAITH score in Vault of the Vampire enabled me to avoid fights against several creatures and probably some unsavoury situations, and in Howl of the Werewolf the CHANGE score gave me some useful abilities to turn me into an almost unstoppable killing machine towards the end of the book. While on the subject, the ability to instantly kill an adversary in Creature of Havoc added to the enjoyment of this adventure, and I wish I’d seen it used more often than just the five times in the nine fights I had.

In two of the gamebooks written by Stephen Hand, Moonrunner and Dead of Night, YOU are given the opportunity to personalise your character by choosing from several Special Skills, and in Midnight Rogue, YOU can also choose what specialities your thief has trained in. This provided a new dynamic to the books as it was no longer a matter of just choosing the second option; the second option had to be something YOU are able to do. As with Citadel of Chaos I was unsure in these books whether choosing the wrong skills even before section one dooms a player to failure. When I tried Appointment with F.E.A.R. my chosen skills not only turned out to be useless, but I ended up being killed by my own energy blast.

In other adventures an extra factor can work to make success that much harder. In most of the books with these I didn’t live long enough to notice any effects. But in Daggers of Darkness the poison that I am inflicted with by the assassin in the prologue seemed to be spreading rapidly through my body, mainly because I was constantly physically exerting myself throughout the course of the adventure in combat. Of a maximum allowed POISON score of 22, I had gained 15 points by the time I failed – and I was nowhere near the end. The most memorable complicating factor I encountered was, of course, House of Hell’s FEAR score. Set by the initial whim of a dice roll, relentlessly accumulating, and likely to be accrued at almost any time, the FEAR factor must surely narrow the path to victory in a book where YOU already start with a SKILL penalty for being unarmed. In my attempt at this book I was only one FEAR point away from being scared to death when I failed, and I was nowhere near escaping.

All of this is not, of course, to ignore the other third of the three main character characteristics – LUCK. In general, the longer I lasted, the more I tested my LUCK. I underwent six LUCK tests in each of Battleblade Warrior, Legend of Zagor and Seas of Blood (where failing the final test had me crashing into an iceberg and dying). I also used LUCK during every round in my fight against the Basilisk in Night Dragon – which also killed me when the dice went against me and I was petrified.  However throughout my long-lived adventure in Howl of the Werewolf I only tested my LUCK twice. And I only used this factor three times throughout Stormslayer and twice in Stealer of Souls. Even in The Forest of Doom I was able to cross Darkwood Forest from north to south and only tested my LUCK twice.

As mentioned above, failing a LUCK test did bring about my demise in Seas of Blood and Night Dragon. I also failed the second LUCK test I had in Forest of Doom and was torn to shreds by a hail of arrows. The other adventures where a failed LUCK test sealed my fate were Crypt of the Sorcerer (where I was thrown from my horse and knocked unconscious), Tower of Destruction (where, during my exploration of the interior of a mysterious flying ball, I was unable to avoid a fire trap which burned off my remaining STAMINA), and Scorpion Swamp (where in my rush to explore the swamp I fell into a muddy hole and disappeared).

Lesson Five. Taking the second option doesn’t mean having a second-rate adventure. In the FIGHTING FANTASY books where I survived beyond a few choices, the series’ authors were able to create story worlds where I actually cared about the fate of my character and felt as if they were part of a larger world, either through the physical scope of the book, the importance of the quest, or the ability to interact with the locals.

Gathering McGuffins on dungeon crawls can be notoriously tiresome, but in Creature of Havoc even though I often had little control over my destiny, the sheer volume of fights I had and the one-hit kill ability made this into an enjoyable adventure - who doesn’t like eating hobbits for a snack? Although I ignored plenty of opportunities to explore some of the trees, caves, taverns and shops in both The Forest of Doom and City of Thieves, Darkwood Forest and Port Blacksand seemed to be places where a whole ecosystem of characters existed, independent of my presence.

While above-ground, there were several notable adventures where the author created the sense that I was moving across a much larger world, if I survived for long enough. This was certainly the case in the aforementioned Battleblade Warrior where I crossed the entirety of the included map in the one attempt. The ‘hub’ design of Stormslayer allowed me to choose which part of Femphrey I would explore first, with progress from one place to another taking several days, but without getting bogged down in minute choices. Midnight Rogue had a similar mechanism and did not force me to decide which individual street of Port Blacksand I should follow. Although, as with Stormslayer, I’m unsure whether, in spite of this apparent freedom, each place needed to be visited in a specific order to be successful.

In every FIGHTING FANTASY adventure the odds are stacked against success, particularly when subject to the self-imposed constraint of always choosing the second option. And in a good number of these books the writers have created a delightfully depressing atmosphere where YOU feel that the whole world is against YOU. One of my favourite examples of this was Moonrunner. As soon as the adventure began, with the death of my boss, there wasn’t a moment when I felt as though anyone in Blackhaven was going to actually help me. In Dead of Night the demonic blight that had settled over Gallantaria gave the book a medieval grimness, a sense that I also found in Spellbreaker (although I didn’t exploit many of the opportunities to interact with the locals). And once my character entered the diseased forest in Phantoms of Fear I knew I would be completely on my own as I descended into the underworld of the Demon Prince Ishtra.

What also created a great sense of atmosphere in several of the FIGHTING FANTASY adventures was knowing that I was not the only person in the world. In some books the NPCs were an important part of the story, not just an opportunity to test your swordsmanship, and how YOU interacted with them would directly affect your chances of success. In Legend of the Shadow Warriors an NPC brought about my failure because I’d failed to pay my taxes – and I never had an opportunity to run him through! In Dead of Night and Howl of the Werewolf I moved from depressing village to depressing village, and the locals would likely have helped me in my quest had I bothered to assist them, even just a little bit. Both Midnight Rogue and Moonrunner were set in cities and, partly to avoid attracting unwanted attention, I could not just attack every living thing in sight. But my favourite adventure with NPCs would have to be Vault of the Vampire. Within Castle Heydrich there were a few people who were just as keen to see the end of the Count as I was, and so they were willing to help, in varying degrees (although this did not stop the Second Swordsman process from having me kill one of them in cold blood).

My adventure ends here.

As I only attempted 70% of the FIGHTING FANTASY series by choosing the second option, I remain hopeful that in one of the other books the Second Swordsman process could lead to ultimate success. And while I did experience universal failure, in varying degrees, I was also entertained numerous times over the past seventeen months. I chose the right weapon to tackle the Bonecrusher Beast, rescued and used a genie, was saved from a pirate ship by seagoing dwarves, had a nap in a dungeon, was turned invisible by a witch, collected a tapestry, was guided underneath a volcano by a dwarven brewer, set a pair of gigantic aquatic monsters against each other, and got out of an abandoned city by catapulting myself into the ocean. My adventure might end here, but there are still plenty of stories of orc, dragons, treasure and magic to entertain readers everywhere.

A huge thank you to Malcolm for his hard work over the last 17 months. If you have enjoyed his Second Swordsman posts, you may be interested to know that Malcolm's debut novel is out now.

Remember, if you have an idea for a guest post, or even a series of posts, you can contact the Warlock at mail@fightingfantasy.com.

The Second Swordsman – Your Adventure Ends Here

Today is a momentous occasion, for today we present, for your delectation, part one of Malcolm Garcia's 17th and final The Second Swordsman post, entitled...

The Second Swordsman – Your Adventure Ends Here

By Malcolm Garcia

At the start of last year I decided to test an idea – could I complete any FIGHTING FANTASY adventure by always choosing the second option? Many of the books in the series are notoriously difficult, punishing even the slightest deviation from the ‘one true path’ with an instant death or worse, not finding an essential key or jewel.  But would the path to success ever be something as elementary as always making the second choice? Only the authors of those books would know, but could I discover their secret?

Having attempted 47 of the books in the series, the conclusion I’ve come to is (perhaps unsurprisingly) ‘no’. However, although every one of these adventures ended in my failure to find the treasure, protect myself, or kill the ‘Big Bad’ and save the world, I did find a lot of enjoyment and learned a few things along the way.

Lesson One. Curiosity might kill the cat, but a lack of it won’t help much either. In nearly every FIGHTING FANTASY book, choosing the second option meant I ignored opportunities to find treasure, discover special objects, or learn something that could help me in my quest. Just how much ignoring I did depended on the mechanics of the book. Where the choices were between doing something, or not doing something, there was a tendency for my character to race through the adventure, hoping that just getting to the end with my sword would be enough.

The very first adventure I tried to complete using the Second Swordsman method was The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and during this attempt I blitzed past a total of nine doors. While some of these would have almost certainly contained dangers, and so I may have lived a little longer by avoiding them, I also gained nothing to help me later on. A similar fate befell me when trying Eye of the Dragon and Armies of Death where I, respectively, ignored a total of 13 doors and raced across northern Allansia to find Agglax without making any attempt to supplement the size of my eponymous army.

The Second Swordsman process also resulted in me racing across Stayng Island, in Keep of the Lich Lord, seemingly determined not to let any interesting caves or cemeteries distract me from reaching my goal, and I hurried through Port Blacksand when trying City of Thieves, ignoring all sorts of opportunities for adventure. In the one space-based FIGHTING FANTASY adventure I tried, Starship Traveller, following the process of choosing the second option led to me zooming from planet to planet, but nearly every time I decided not to beam-down and investigate (although when I did, I enjoyed killing the local fauna for food), but to instead travel to the next planet.

In both of my attempts at completing water-based adventures, using the second option meant I forwent several chances for diversions. In Demons of the Deep I avoided assisting the spirit of a sea captain and a dolphin being attacked by a shark and I never managed to learn anything about the black pearls and how they could be used to help me seek revenge. In Seas of Blood I made few attempts to find significant sources of treasure, such as not visiting the Dead City or exploring the Island of the Roc, and I seemed to focus more on the time limit part of the challenge with Abdul the Butcher, which meant that I hurried to my doom.

On other occasions the choices were set up to do either one thing, or do something else entirely. This was the case in Howl of the Werewolf. On almost every occasion where I was given the choice between embarking on a side quest, or pursuing my quarry, I chose the latter. Although this probably allowed me to live longer it also almost certainly kept me from some interesting encounters. On another adventure in the Old World, Dead of Night, I chose not to stick around and purify the graves of my parents and decided not to help some grieving villagers.

In some books there would be a ‘hub’, from where I could take turns to choose different sections of a location to explore, although I’d often then ignore most of the opportunities in each particular section. In Legend of Zagor the design of the adventure meant I probably visited every room in Castle Argent, but I didn’t subsequently search them with any vigour. And while looking for the mystery behind the Island of the Undead I went to most places on the island, but when given an opportunity to investigate closely, my usual choice was to move on quickly to the next location.

Lesson Two. It’s called FIGHTING FANTASY for a very good reason. As mentioned above, all of my attempts at success by choosing the second option met with failure. And of those 47 attempts, on 11 occasions my death came about by fighting one of the very many creatures in the FIGHTING FANTASY universe. In just under half of these, I lost my life in a battle against an enemy that had a SKILL score of ten or greater; these probably account for less than 15 per cent of all FIGHTING FANTASY creatures. The Fire Elemental in Stormslayer was not only strong, but while under Mount Pyre I was impeded by a two-point SKILL penalty, which made defeat almost inevitable. Legend of Zagor’s SKILL twelve Thief was an unusual encounter that in hindsight I feel should have been avoided. The same goes for the Giant Sandworm in Temple of Terror, unless I missed a SKILL-enhancing weapon. The Kraken in Demons of the Deep had the added complication of an almost insurmountable STAMINA score of 30. Against the Doppelganger in Eye of the Dragon I should have had a chance, if not for some poor dice rolls and a two point SKILL penalty.

However it didn’t always take a strong enemy to best me. There were some fights I just wasn’t meant to win. Beneath Castle Heydrich, in Vault of the Vampire, my SKILL was inhibited by two in a fight against the Stench Ghoul, and so it ate me. Although I managed to find the Minotaur in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain’s labyrinth, the dice went against me one too many times, as it did in a skirmish against a Baboon in Curse of the Mummy and a Knight in Fangs of Fury. The Fighting Slave in Trial of Champions was just dastardly, particularly since there were no opportunities to recover STAMINA from my earlier trials. And in Phantoms of Fear I was defeated by the worst enemy of all – myself.

Although when I lost a fight, it was often against a powerful enemy, I also defeated my fair share of strong creatures.  Both the Swamp Mutant and Warrior King didn’t survive their encounters with me in Battleblade Warrior. Nor did the Fog Wyvern and Skeletal Dragon in Legend of Zagor. I lasted long enough against the Kauderwelsch Monster in Moonrunner to be rescued by a prison riot. While I didn’t last long in Chasms of Malice, I did take out one of the seven Khuddam before I fell and I bested the Easterner in Trial of Champions. The Sith Orb, in Seas of Blood, remains one of the strangest encounters I ever had, but while it was strong, I was stronger. And in Caverns of the Snow Witch, I faced and defeated the big three of the Yeti, the Frost Giant, and the White Dragon. And while it didn’t have a high SKILL score, I still detest the Vampire Weasel for its endless series of cheap shots that drained seven of my STAMINA points in Vault of the Vampire.

In some of the later adventures in the series I noticed that the book’s authors added more fights earlier on. Whether this was to get the reader accustomed to the combat process sooner, or to weed out weak characters is unclear. But in Howl of the Werewolf, Stormslayer, Bloodbones, Spellbreaker and Curse of the Mummy I had battles within three choices of section one (coincidentally these were all written by Jonathan Green*). Caverns of the Snow Witch was the first book in which I noticed this early-combat element (against the Mammoth), but it was also used in Phantoms of Fear, Stealer of Souls, Tower of Destruction and Island of the Undead – the latter three being authored by Keith Martin.

Usually the longer I survived, the more fights I would have. In Battleblade Warrior, Howl of the Werewolf and Stormslayer I faced off against 22 individual enemies. While in Legend of Zagor and Phantomsof Fear I had 16 such encounters. A noticeable exception to this was that while I didn’t very last long in Creature of Havoc, I did manage to fight a total of nine creatures.

Lesson Three. Choosing the second option doesn’t mean dying within seconds. Yes, choosing the second option led me to an instant death within one choice in Beneath Nightmare Castle – but it was a memorable ending! And I was dead within two choices in Master of Chaos, Scorpion Swamp and Crypt of the Sorcerer. But in the last two of that trio it was a failed LUCK test that killed me instantly. And within four choices I’d failed in Island of the Lizard King as I made a cowardly run from the Giant Crab that had grabbed poor Mungo.

But the second option didn’t always doom me to an early end. And when I did get a long way, my failure was usually from one of the aforementioned difficult fights, rather than an instant death. Unfortunately, when I did get a long way, because I’d usually ignored things along the journey it was unlikely I’d have what I needed to get closer to the end, or to win. Having said all that, I came so very close to victory using the Second Swordsman process in two of the 47 FIGHTING FANTASY books I attempted.

In Battleblade Warrior, I fought my way through the siege of Vymorna, survived the perils of the plains and jungles beyond (by riding on a lizard, battling a dozen lizard men, and visiting an orc funeral), and journeyed into the lost city of Kharnek, and found part of the mystical sword I had been seeking. After slaying the Warrior King I left aside his jewelled crown and kept going. But because I inexplicably ignored that jewel, I was instantly killed by a traitor within sight of the end.

After being attacked at the very start of Howl of the Werewolf I battled my way across Lupravia, usually sticking to the path which would lead me Castle Wulfenstein. Along the way, amongst other things, I stayed clear of a local carnival, participated in a futile beast hunt, and ignored a creepy hole in the basement of a crypt. I also picked up some useful were-skills that helped me in the numerous fights I had. When I arrived at the castle I slew everyone in my path and bested Count Varcolac. But he then came back to life in demon form and, because I didn’t find the sword that was hidden deeper in the crypt I’d avoided earlier, I was instantly killed.

Along with the aforementioned early failures, choosing the second option did give me some other memorable instant-deaths. In Starship Traveller I captained my crew into a black hole from which we never re-emerged, and in Masks of Mayhem I walked into some fog and disappeared from the face of Titan forever. In Moonrunner I succumbed to a poisoned letter, and although Deathtrap Dungeon is renowned for being filled with a multitude of fiendish traps and beasts, I failed because I ate some fungus that made me grow bigger. While searching for a medallion in another labyrinth, this one in Daggers of Darkness, having to roll a dice too many times resulted in me being impaled by a spear trap. And in House of Hell following the second-choice path meant that I chose to go into the kitchens where, although I finally found a weapon, I was set upon by a ghoul who I killed, but not before the residents of the house were alerted to my presence and I was captured, to be subjected to an unspeakable fate.

As stated at the start of this post, Malcolm's final Second Swordsman post is so long that we will be publishing Part 2 next week. So don't forget to bookmark this site and make sure you're here in seven days' time...

* Or perhaps un-coincidentally - The Warlock.

The Second Swordsman – More of Martin’s Mêlées

This week, Malcolm Garcia is back with his 16th Second Swordsman post, which is intriguingly entitled...

The Second Swordsman – More of Martin’s Mêlées

By Malcolm Garcia

After the recent enjoyment of exploring Castle Heydrich in Vault of the Vampire, I chose to have a go at a few other adventures which had been written by its author, Keith Martin (the writing alias of Carl Sargent). I’d previously tried the Second Swordsman process in his books Stealer of Souls (where I found my way into the Empire of Illusions beyond the Iron Crypts), Night Dragon (where I actually got to encounter several dragons) and Legend of Zagor (where I survived for quite some time before being killed by a thief with an unusually high SKILL). This time I would see whether always choosing the second option would lead to similar longevity in Martin’s Island of the Undead, Master of Chaos and Tower of Destruction.

Island of the Undead, illustrated inside by the prolific Russ Nicholson, started well enough, with some promising numbers and a Presence score to keep track of. Some of Martin’s other books also have extra scores to influence the gameplay – the Faith value in Vault and the Honour, Nemesis and Time values in Night. I did, however, start Island with just a knife for a weapon, which imposed not only a SKILL penalty, but also made it likely I’d inflict only half my usual STAMINA damage. I’m not usually a fan of these sorts of impediments, but I suppose they do mean you’re more likely to fail early if you don’t find the right gear, rather than wasting time marching to your inevitable doom.

The backstory has YOU on a ship en route to the Island of Solani to investigate why storms have returned to your village on the Strait of Knives in southeastern Allansia. The vessel sinks and section one has YOU immediately thrown into a battle against a Sea Zombie. While a fight at the very start is what I’d usually expect in a Jonathan Green adventure, Stealer also had a similar early fight – and that was against the much harder Giant Stormbird. After winning this skirmish I started exploring the island, but it became obvious pretty quickly that always choosing the second option meant I was aimlessly wandering around and missing out on opportunities to find information or objects that would assist me in my quest. Not only did I fail to find a sword, but I didn’t find a book about fungi, I never learned the name of a hermit who lived in a tree, I had no special green cream, and I neglected to explore a monastery when given the opportunity.

Because I chose to attack the aforementioned hermit I contracted the lung rot disease which eroded my STAMINA and, while not immediately fatal, was an annoyance. Other than the aforementioned Sea Zombie I only managed to defeat one other adversary, the tree-dwelling Grupplers (sort of a cross between a monkey and a frog), but not before my lung rot cost me some more STAMINA. Soon afterwards I fell into some swamp water and, while I didn’t drown instantly (as I did in Scorpion Swamp), an unlucky dice roll meant I was eaten by a Swamp Alligator during the middle of a fight against it.

In my attempt at Master of Chaos (which coincidentally had the same ranking in the Fighting Fantazine poll as Island) my starting scores were again decent, but once again there were some penalties to apply. The adventure started with YOU going undercover as a galley slave on a ship bound for Khul, thus earning Martin the rare trifecta of having a book set on each of the three continents of Titan. Once there YOU are expected to find your way to the desert ruins of the city of Kabesh, where a magical staff has been taken. While going undercover YOU possess no weapons, which means that in any fight your Attack Strength will be reduced by two, and you’ll do less damage to an opponent if you do manage to strike them. I also had a Notoriety score to keep track of, which measured how much attention I was attracting from local law enforcement, as well as selecting three special skills of my own choosing.

The adventure began with me losing eight STAMINA relatively quickly, partly because of the meagre rations and also because I chose to try and stop a shipmate from being whipped to death. When, soon after, I was given the choice to confront the orc wielding the whip, I did so. And while the orc was killed in the ensuring slave uprising, I was made to walk the plank and (unlike in Demons of the Deep where being forced into the ocean was the beginning of my journey) I soon became the meal for a shark. No treasure. No battles. No knowledge. While dead in just two choices isn’t quite as bad as what happened in Beneath Nightmare Castle, it was a very poor showing. So far, all I had learned was that choosing the second option in both of Martin’s books would result in me being eaten by some of the local fauna.

Returning to the frozen north of Allansia, for the first time since Caverns of the Snow Witch, I began Tower of Destruction with poor initial SKILL and LUCK scores, but mercifully no penalties to my SKILL. Tower does, however, also add Honour and Time values to keep track of. While returning to my village, which sits in the shadow of the Icefinger Mountains, an unusual sphere hurtled through the air and attacked my hometown. Pledging revenge on the sphere, I didn’t leave straight away and chose to linger just long enough to find some climbing equipment, but not helping anyone else earned an early penalty to my Honour – although it would be pretty unlikely that just one person could help an entire village. After being forced to eat my first meal (a process that would soon become irritating) I had my first fight against a Polar Worm. My adversary had a greater SKILL than I, but my higher STAMINA paid off and I defeated the creature, although it did take eleven rounds of combat.

After this initial excitement, my adventure in Tower fell into a routine of following a trail of burned trees while I slept, and ate my way through my provisions. Something similar happened during my attempt at Night, but in Tower the process was much duller – when given the chance to encounter a White Dragon (a creature I’d killed when I found one in Caverns) I instead chose to hide in a cave for a whole day and night, which wasted two meals. Eventually I started eating my meals unprompted, figuring that the penalty for not having a meal when forced to eat was less than what I would gain from eating one. Within a handful of days I found the mysterious sphere and had to fight two Ice Ghost guards. What should have been a fight against two easy enemies was made more difficult by my poor initial SKILL and that, because I must have missed a useful weapon somewhere, my sword only did half the usual damage against the pair of creatures.

I did eventually win the battle and ate my last meal to recover, just as I was attacked by a Demonic Servant. This creature had the same SKILL as me and I left the battle with just five STAMINA remaining and little chance of finding any more local wildlife to eat and rejuvenate myself. But I had at last reached the sphere! As I explored the inside of the device, choosing the second option did not help me to find any useful information or objects and I wandered pointlessly along corridors and up and down stairs. Eventually I did just my second LUCK test of the book and, lacking a special ring, failing this test meant that a trap of fire darts relieved me of my remaining STAMINA. A painful death, but at least I wasn’t eaten this time.

Across these three books of Keith Martin’s, choosing every second option may have made me a nice person but it clearly did not work at all in Master, and in Island I fell into the usual Second Swordsman habit of wandering around aimlessly and ignoring things. Being eaten by a Swamp Alligator actually came as a welcome surprise. My failure in Tower was inevitable given my lack of food and hard fights, but it also reinforced the importance of LUCK, which is often overlooked as a factor in the success of any FIGHTING FANTASY adventure. For although a poor LUCK roll in Tower just helped to finish me off after some difficult battles, in Scorpion failing a single LUCK test actually ended the adventure for me.

Thanks, as ever, to Malcolm for taking the time to chronicle his adventure as the Second Swordsman. This is his penultimate Second Swordsman article for a while, as he has some other writing projects he needs to focus on in the coming months, so I am sure you are just as intrigued as we are as to what the subject of next month's piece will be...

The Second Swordsman - Cover-ing More of Khul

In this, his 15th Second Swordsman post, Malcolm Garcia returns to the dark continent of Khul...


The Second Swordsman - Cover-ing More of Khul

By Malcolm Garcia

Something synonymous with FIGHTING FANTASY adventures are the covers that adorn each book. From the infamous ones on Deathtrap Dungeon and City of Thieves to the oddness of those on (the original) The Citadel of Chaos and Spectral Stalkers, each promised a glimpse of what adventuring lay within. For this episode of the Second Swordsman I chose three covers that have, what I considered to be, quite interesting cover art.

Scorpion Swamp was decorated with the Pool Beast which was drawn by Duncan Smith, Beneath Nightmare Castle had the Spiked Maiden of prolific cover illustrator Terry Oakes, and Masks of Mayhem had John Sibbick’s Golem rushing at YOU through an underground cavern. Only two of these, the Pool Beast and the Spiked Maiden can you fight during the adventure, although with SKILL scores of eight and ten respectively that might not be the wisest choice. Coincidentally, all three books were set in Khul, a place I’d not visited since attempting the trio of Luke Sharp adventures set in the southwest of the continent. But would always choosing the second option give me greater success this time?

Robin Waterfield wrote Masks of Mayhem and the only book of his I’d tried previously was Phantoms of Fear (not being willing to sell a kidney to get a copy of Deathmoor) where I had met my end in a fight against myself. In Phantoms, following the Second Swordsman process had led me to the underground dream world of the Demon Prince Ishtra and so I had some hope that I’d get a fair way into this book. The background to Masks was a bit complex, but it boiled down to a ‘kill the big bad girl’ mission. I started with good SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK scores as well as the much-appreciated ten meals and a potion of strength (the second potion in the list of choices).

Very early in the adventure I reached Lake Nekros where, rather than going into the Affen Forest (which I’d explored previously in Phantoms and would have liked to return to) I instead headed into the hills. While circumnavigating the lake I managed to sprain my ankle in a rabbit hole and incurred a SKILL loss at, what I thought was, a very early stage in the book. Soon afterwards I then chose to go one way down a path rather than another and my adventure was suddenly over. No fights. No treasure. Just what must be one of the most enigmatic sudden deaths in FIGHTING FANTASY, “You walk off through the mist which closes behind your back. You are never seen again, by man or monster, on this earth.” Mysterious and memorable.

I then left northeastern Khul and went west, to the town of Fenmarge for the beginning of Scorpion Swamp. In the FIGHTING FANTASY series, this book was both the first to be penned by an author other than Ian Livingstone or Steve Jackson, the writer being the American Steve Jackson, and was also the first (of the fantasy adventures at least) to not be set on Allansia. With these firsts would Scorpion also be the first book where following the Second Swordsman process would be successful? The only other adventure of Jackson’s I’ve tried was Demons of the Deep, where I got a pretty long way before being slain by the STAMINA-supercharged Kraken.

While I started the book with a magic ring, I had no food and a poor LUCK score. Then, as with my attempt at Demons, choosing the second option meant I began Scorpion by ignoring opportunities to interact with the locals and learn something about my surroundings. This resulted in me paying no attention to talk of a group of wizards and choosing a quest. I hastily headed into the swamp, failed a LUCK test, and fell into a hole and died. No fights. No treasure. No spell gems. Just the final ‘told-you-so’ words of, “Soon, as the villagers predicted, only your bones are left, gleaming in the dim light that filters down between the trees.”

Not too far south of the place of my defeat in Scorpion lies the city of Neuberg, the setting for Beneath Nightmare Castle. This was the third book by Peter Darvill-Evans I’ve attempted – in Portal of Evil I was captured by a group of soldiers early on and in Spectral Stalkers I foolishly tried to swim through a moat of acid after wandering around aimlessly for far too long. The starting scores for my attempt at Beneath were promising, but in the background of the adventure YOU are captured and knocked unconscious. Given the choice between accepting or rejecting an offer of help from an unseen stranger, I chose the latter. And died. Again. And this time I set a record for the quickest failure in a FIGHTING FANTASY adventure – just one choice! My previous worst performance as the Second Swordsman was in Crypt of the Sorcerer (where I failed in two choices). This time there was no disappearing into the mist or a muddy hole, but instead the terrifying, “They kill you slowly and take ecstatic pleasure in your agonised writhings. You go completely insane before you die.”

Never before has choosing every second option met with such abject failures across a range of adventures. Even so, each of these latest poor performances proved memorable because of their suddenness, giving me a different experience than the occasional long and winding path to an inevitable and ignominious death (I’m looking at you Seas of Blood and Armies of Death).

Thank you  to Malcolm for another entertaining Second Swordsman blog post. Which titles will he be tackling next, in his ongoing mission to only choose every second choice in a FIGHTING FANTASY adventure? You're just have to keep logging on to www.fightingfantasy.com to find out!

And remember, if you have any suggestions for items for the official Fighting Fantasy blog don't forget to get in touch via mail@fightingfantasy.com.

The Second Swordsman - The Monster Mash

Almost a month on from the first anniversary of the Second Swordsman feature, Malcolm Garcia is back with his 15th post, which is called...


The Second Swordsman - The Monster Mash

By Malcolm Garcia

As I’ve ventured far and wide across Titan, using the process of always choosing the second option has meant I’ve encountered, and slayed, all manner of ne’er-do-wells, animals, the undead, and occasionally even plants. I’ve also met with universal failure. In this episode of the Second Swordsman I attempted three books where the aim of the adventure is ridding the world of one of the classic monsters of legend.

In Curse of the Mummy YOU are hired by an archaeologist who wants to stop a cult from resurrecting an ancient king who will take over Allansia. In Howl of the Werewolf YOU are in a race against time to overcome the effects of being attacked by a werewolf and turned into a werewolf yourself. And in Vault of the Vampire the aim is a relatively simple one – rather than trying to save the world or yourself, YOU need to infiltrate the castle of Count Reiner Heydrich and assassinate him, for he is the vampire who has been terrorising the locals.

There were several other commonalities across these three books. All were illustrated by Martin McKenna and both Curse and Howl were written by Jonathan Green (Keith Martin, who I last did an adventure of in Night Dragon, did Vault). Howl and Vault were both set in Mauristatia in the Old World (while Curse was set in the Desert of Skulls in western Allansia, where I previously met my end against the Giant Sandworm in Temple of Terror). However the outcomes of choosing every second option were quite different in each adventure.

In Vault even though I fought only four creatures, the adventure was quite enjoyable. I started with promising SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK scores and also had the FAITH score to keep track of. This got me out of several battles as my FAITH was able to keep some creatures at bay. Following the Second Swordsman process had me not waste any time and I caught a coach – which included an early test of FAITH – straight to Castle Heydrich. Upon arriving I explored the castle and met some of its various inhabitants, not all of whom needed to be killed on sight. In fact, even though Vault is an assassination mission, in most of my encounters I chose to talk to people and learn more about the evil of the Count and how I could defeat him. Along the way I met an unhelpful alchemist and his homunculus, a doctor motivated only by money, the castle’s helpful governor, the Count’s harmless brother (who I unfortunately did kill), and the Count’s weird and manipulative sister.

Vault was also enjoyable because choosing the second option was not always choosing to ignore an opportunity for exploration; instead it would give me a different way to proceed. By doing this I managed to find and destroy one of the Count’s coffins, and actually acquired some useful objects, including a STAMINA-restoring ring, a silvered stake and the keys to the Count’s crypt. Unfortunately, I did not find a magic sword, which was referred to several times.

My first fight in Vault was a long way into the adventure, and against a pair of zombies – creatures I haven’t fought since attempting Legend of Zagor. Although they were easily dispatched, the rest of the enemies I encountered were not. After drinking some wine, I was attacked by a vampire bat and vampire weasel. The wine temporarily diminished my SKILL and the weasel scored attacks based on random dice rolls. This meant I lost nine STAMINA in the one encounter, even though the bat only hit me once. Later on, I was attacked by a wraith and, because I lacked the aforementioned magic sword, I was unable to defend myself. While fleeing this fight my STAMINA was reduced by eight and my SKILL by one. Later, in the crypt itself, I faced off against the stench ghoul whose foul odour reduced my SKILL by a further two, which I think was a bit severe. Thus disadvantaged I was paralysed by the ghoul and eaten alive.

I also started Curse with some decent starting scores and was given a POISON factor to keep track of. As in many Jonathan Green books (such as Bloodbones, Spellbreaker and Stormslayer) I had a fight at the very start of the adventure. I then headed into the desert for another fight, after which, choosing the second option meant I returned to the oft-repeated pattern of ignoring opportunities to investigate the desert. During this journey I had some more fights, but then an imposed SKILL loss at the start of a fight against a Great Baboon resulted in a very close battle, from which I came off second best. Thus my defeat in this journey into the Desert of Skulls was even quicker than in Temple of Terror.

The outcome of making every second choice in Howl could not have been more different. Similar to my earlier attempt at Battleblade Warrior, in Howl I fought a lot of creatures – exactly 22 in both (I also fought 22 creatures in Stormslayer). And as in Battleblade, I also came tantalisingly close to success in Howl. But more on that later. I started with poor STAMINA and LUCK scores and, as happened in the other two adventures, had an additional factor to keep track of – the CHANGE score, which keeps track of how dire the hold of the lycanthropy is on YOU. As in Curse I had a fight at the very start, but this only lasted for two rounds before I fell over and got bitten by the werewolf. For the rest of the adventure the Second Swordsman process meant I tended to engage with people if they were by themselves or in small numbers, but ignored larger groupings and towns.

In Howl there are several opportunities to go on side quests, usually to assist the locals who live in this tormented part of Mauristatia. However, I only undertook one of these, and with no success – other than finding another creature to add to my tally. Eventually my own body began to experience the effects of the lycanthropy and I gained some new abilities, as well as additional SKILL and STAMINA points. This pushed my SKILL score to 12, which made most creatures no match for me. I eventually reached Castle Wulfenstein, home of the head werewolf (and possibly a video game from the 1990s) and choosing every second option led me to an amazing healing potion and to Count Varcolac himself. And it was at his feet that my journey ended. Without a special sword (again!) the demon inside the Count defeated me. Having come so close to success I went back and revisited some of my choices. I thus found that had I made one just choice differently (by not ignoring an opportunity to investigate a place) I would have gained the special sword relatively easily, and with it, almost certain victory.

And so, the Second Swordsman process proved to be no match for the evil that surrounded the big three monsters – the vampire, the werewolf and the mummy. Some luckier dice rolls would likely have made all the difference in Curse, and one different choice would have given me a rare success in Howl.  I’d also like to return to Vault, both to try and find the magic sword and grant the Count’s brother the benefit of the doubt. And to give that vampire weasel a damn good kicking.

Thank you once again to Malcolm for his latest entertaining Second Swordsman post. You can read more about the three adventures featured in this month's Second Swordsman in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks. 

The book's author, Jonathan Green, will be attending Bath Comic-Con tomorrow (Saturday 17th March) and will have copies of the book on sale, if you are in the area and would like a signed copy.