This Gamebook Friday it's time for the eleventh entry in Malcolm Garcia's ongoing
Second Swordsman series of posts, in which he undertakes classic Fighting Fantasy adventures by only ever selecting the second choice of any list of options.
This week, how will he get on using this process with the works of FF author Luke Sharp?
The Second Swordsman - 'Keep Your Blade Ready and Luke Sharp!'
By Malcolm Garcia
Although his first FIGHTING FANTASY
adventure was the sci-fi themed
Star
Strider, for his other three books Luke Sharp would exclusively explore the
southwestern corner of Khul. In both
Chasms
of Malice and
Daggers of Darkness
YOU are an heir to a kingdom, but to claim what is yours YOU must confront the foul
forces that would take over. While in
Fangs
of Fury YOU are a soldier who is sent on a mission to reignite the magical
flames that defend your kingdom and prevent the evil enchanter Jaxartes from
taking over southern Khul. In all three YOU are sent on your way by the wizard
Astragal and your last view of him in both
Chasms
and
Fangs is him sending YOU down a
hole in the ground.
In all three of these adventures following
the Second Swordsman process (of
arbitrarily choosing every second option) resulted in universal failure. I
variously suffered an instant death due a poor choice, had another instant
death from a roll of the dice, and was killed in combat.
I started each adventure with fairly good
SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK scores; however, I found that I only tested my LUCK twice
– once in both Chasms and Daggers. Each adventure also provided me with a good
supply of provisions and two had the return of the magical potion (which I
haven’t seen since trying Phantoms of Fear). I chose the STAMINA potion (the second option) in both Fangs and Daggers. While Chasms had
no such potion option, it did give me a magical cat that could restore my LUCK
and assist me a total of nine times.
Both Fangs
and Daggers had some additional game
dynamics that added a layer of complexity. In Fangs YOU are racing the clock with an instant death promised if
the 14 walls of the Citadel are breached. And in Daggers YOU are racing the clock with an instant death promised if
poison from a wound inflicted by an enchanted dagger spreads throughout your
body. Daggers also adds to your quest
the possibility of collecting a half dozen medallions that will allow YOU to
cheat a death-in-combat (for a price).
All three of Sharp’s adventures had me
being overpowered by various gangs of locals. In both Chasms and Fangs the Second Swordsman process resulted in me
being captured within a few choices of starting. Sharp could have used these
occasions to instantly kill me, but he didn’t. In Chasms I manage to escape my jailers, thanks to a sympathetic
blacksmith. And in Fangs I was on the
brink of being executed when I was rescued by a mysterious stranger who
butchered my captors and probably would have been better suited to completing the
adventure. In Daggers I wasn’t
imprisoned until later in the adventure, but what this story had in abundance
was the opportunity to be surrounded and automatically surrender. This happened
four times which would have been annoying, but it never led to something bad happening
straight away.
Unlike the last episode of the Second Swordsman, in all three of
Sharp’s Titan-based adventures, I was able to test my blade. In Chasms my first enemy was one of the
seven Khuddam, the ‘big bads’ of the book. With a SKILL of 10 she was one of
the toughest first encounters I’ve ever had (only the Fog Wyvern from Legend
of Zagor and the Mammoth from Caverns
of the Snow Witch had the same SKILL) and she took off nearly two thirds of
my STAMINA before I beat her. In Daggers
I fought a total of eight creatures, all of whom were mercifully weaker, and in
half of the battles I lost no STAMINA at all. In Fangs I only fought six enemies, three of which died without
inflicting a scratch on me, but the last, the Bodyguard Knight, killed me. She
only had a SKILL of 8, which is the equal-lowest skilled creature to defeat
me (the other being the Fighting Slave from Trial
of Champions), but I had poorly managed my STAMINA in the lead up to this
fight and I died for want of eating just one more meal.
My death in Chasms was much more anti-climactic. After defeating Khuddam
Friankara, I fled and paused for a moment, only to be surrounded by a gang of
orcs who weren’t as understanding as the groups who caught me in Daggers. And in Daggers I finally fell victim to a random roll of the dice and was
killed by a spike trap. If I have one issue with Daggers, it is that there are too many of these ‘tests’ where the
outcome is not influenced by your LUCK or SKILL. Not only did one of these kill
me, but I lost several STAMINA points from similar, earlier, trials.
Overall I enjoyed Sharp’s world of
southwestern Khul, especially in Fangs
and Daggers as the books gave the
sense of moving through a world inhabited by a large number of NPCs who have
their own missions and motivations. I would have liked to have eaten more in Fangs (so I would have survived that
particular fight) and to have had the opportunity to use the magical cat in Chasms. It’s not every FIGHTING FANTASY
adventure where YOU get to bring along a pet!
Thank you once again to Malcolm, for his latest
Second Swordsman blog post. If you have any suggestions for items for the official Fighting Fantasy blog don't forget to get in touch via
mail@fightingfantasy.com.
