The Dark Usurper - Attempt 2 & 3

Hi all, I'm back from enforced lockdown with another post on "The Dark Usurper," the serialised Fighting Fantasy adventure from White Dwarf magazine.

For this attempt, I rolled a Skill of 7, a Stamina of 17, and a Luck of 10.  Not great stats, but most of the enemies I fought in my first go-around had Skills ranging from 3 to 5, to I'm not all that worried about it.

ATTEMPT 2

As you might recall, the adventure begins with the hero, Corwin Calbraith, imprisoned in a tower while an evil brigand (who you might describe as a "dark usurper") lords it over the surrounding lands of Skeln.  Last time I escaped by knotting my bedsheets and swinging out the window; this time I decided to try prising up the floorboards. Surprisingly this worked, and I was able to create a hole and drop through to the stairwell below.  Skeln really skimped on flooring when it built this castle, but it's paid off in the long run.

After killing some goblins I escaped into the courtyard.  In the last game I ignored the armoury, figuring that it would be more likely to be guarded.  This time I checked it out, and it turned out to be a good move: I found a loyal subject there who told me all about how the evil Barnak took control of Skeln (the second part of the adventure assumes you have this knowledge regardless of whether you learn it).  He then led me through some tunnels outside of the castle, to a small chamber where my father's sword Stroma was hidden. I took the sword and climbed up into the forest, bidding my servant farewell.

After summoning my horse Aryll with a whistle, I rode off into the forest and slept the night (ending the first part of the adventure).  In the morning Aryll was gone.  Heading deeper into the forest, I met a pair of pumas, who led me to a clearing where an old man was being menaced by goblins.  I saved the old man, who was really the wizard Asmund, and he took me back to his cave, where he outfitted me with some rad clothes and told me about a prophecy saying that I would save the country.  (I gave this more detail in the previous post, but this sequence is very linear so I'm not going to go over it again.)

I left the old man and made my way to the village of Kari, where I met up with Jorkell, the captain of the local guards.  We overthrew the local goblin garrison, and went out to scout the countryside.  On our way back, we were forced to battle a small army of 200 goblins that outnumbered us four-to-one.

I decided to split my force, and attack the goblins from both sides.  I mentioned in my last post that I had some trouble deciphering the rules for mass combat; as written it seemed as though it was impossible for my army to lose.  It says to roll two dice for every 5 men you have, and on a roll of 1 or 2 you lose that many.  Then you multiply the result by the other die, and those are your casualties.  I'd been applying enemy casualties for every roll, but I on a second reading I think I'm only meant to do so when I roll a 1 or 2.  It certainly works out a lot closer when doing it that way, although it does draw the battles out a lot.  It was all a bit of a moot point anyway, because every round you have to roll for yourself and Jorkell as well, and I managed to get myself killed by rolling a 1.

ATTEMPT 3

That was a quick go, so I decided to have another crack. For my third attempt, I rolled a Skill of 11, a Stamina of 21, and a Luck of 9.

At the beginning there was one escape option I'd yet to try: attacking the guard when he brought my food.  As soon as he entered the room I kicked his sword away, then killed him with my bare hands.  After that it was a simple matter to escape the castle by going to the armoury and having my servant lead me outside.

I met the wizard Asmund, made my way to Kari to join forces with Jorkell, went out scouting, and beat the goblin army by charging right up their middle (which seems to be the best of the options for fighting them).

At the beginning of part 3, I was holed up with Jorkell and an army of 600 in Kari, awaiting the arrival of Barnell's forces.  Rather than sally forth to meet them, I decided to stay in Kari and make use of our defensive position.

The attack soon came, and the fighting seemed to be heaviest at the east wall.  I sent 100 men (the maximum possible) to reinforce, and we drove them back.  I decided then to seize the initiative and counter-attack, inflicting great losses on the enemy.(I had to roll 2d6x10 for my own casualties, and 4d6x20 for theirs.)  Having lost more men than me, the enemy fled in rout, and I sent my men in pursuit to cut them down.

With the main enemy force in retreat, I decided to go and meet Berwin, an ally with an army who I'm not sure has been mentioned prior to this moment.  My forward scouts spotted a group of 40 goblins, and we rode them down and slaughtered them.  Soon we met with Berwin and joined our armies before heading for Barnak's castle.

At the castle, I had three options: a frontal assault, a lengthy siege, or entry by subterfuge.  The third options seemed like the one to involve the least casualties, so I took ten volunteers with me through the servants' tunnels (the same ones by which I had escaped).  We reached the tunnels without being spotted (due to a successful Luck test).

Once inside the castle, I had the option of freeing Asmund, freeing Evald (the regent who let Barnak take over), or finding Barnak right away.  I figured that Evald would be useless, and besides that I had no idea if he was even alive.  I'd have liked to find Asmund, as a powerful wizard is always handy, but I had no idea where he might be.  Rather than waste time taking a guard prisoner, I decided to be done with the whole thing and go kill Barnak.

I found him in the throne room surrounded by thirty guards.  At that moment the sounds of battle grew louder: Jorkell was leading an assault on the castle.  Half of Barnak's guards left, but I decided to be patient.  While I was waiting, I spotted Asmund in a cage, and near him was a gem on a statue by the door.  I decided to take the gem from the statue and fit it in the pommel of my father's sword.  (This required an "ideas roll", a simple 50/50 shot in 1d6.  The sword previously had a magic gem in it, which I had given to Asmund in part 2.  Where this gem in the statue came from is anyone's guess, unless it's the same one.  Even then, there's no explanation for why it's been placed on a statue.)

With my father's sword pulsing with power, I turned to face Barnak.  He was a formidable opponent (Skill 9, Stamina 10, which is practically god-like by the standards of this book), but I hacked him to death with ease.  (I was already at Skill 11, and the gem in the sword boosted that to 14.)  Barnak was dead!

I freed Asmund, and went to find Evald, but I was too late: he'd already been murdered in his cell.  Emerging into the courtyard, I saw that my forces were still locked in battle with those of Barnak.  I shouted out that Barnak had been killed, and the leaderless enemy surrendered. Tired of the slaughter, I ordered them rounded up and exiled from Skeln.  It was time to assume the reins of leadership, and I became Duke of Skeln, with Jorkell and Berwin as my generals and Asmund as my chief advisor.

THE POST-GAME

Well, I'm glad that was quick.  It's all rather linear, and most of the choices don't really matter, dying in mass combat is pretty much the only way to lose unless you do something really stupid or ignore the advice of Asmund.

For reasons I'll elaborate further on below, I'm going to wrap this one up quickly and give it a S.T.A.M.I.N.A. Rating now.

S.T.A.M.I.N.A Rating:

Story & Setting: Not being set on Titan, this adventure has something of a unique flavour for FF.  It's very clearly inspired by the Crusades, and it has a real-world English/Celtic vibe.  I think some bits of magic and a few goblins and trolls are the only fantasy elements in here.  The story isn't one that FF has seen before, but it's somewhat cliched nevertheless.  It's also marred by some continuity glitches, as well as a whole load of things that never really pay off.  The authors go out of their way to give you awesome gear, some magic, and a pair of pumas that follow you around, then basically ignores them all.  Not to mention the prophecy, which is just there for no reason. Rating: 2 out of 7.

Toughness: As I mentioned above, the adventure really goes out of its way to funnel you into the right direction, as all of your choices generally lead to the same result.  It's also very difficult to lose, unless you roll badly during mass combat.  Rating: 2 out of 7.

Aesthetics: Being split across three issues of White Dwarf don't help it here, but it does have some rather nice illustrations from Bill Houston, who also illustrated Temple of Terror.  Of particular note is the painting in part two by Alan Hunter, which enhances the adventure's Celtic vibe.  Rating: 3 out of 7.

Mechanics: Mechanically this might be one of the worst gamebooks I've ever read.  There are options that point to the wrong number.  There's an entire paragraph missing from part 1 (luckily not one that's necessary to winning).  Continuity glitches are rife, especially surrounding your horse in the first part, something made especially egregious when your horse ditches you at the start of part 2.  It's a mess really, and that's before you factor in the ambiguous rules for mass combat.  Rating: 2 out of 7.

Innovation & Influence: The setting and story for this are somewhat novel for an FF, and I have to give it some props for its focus on mass combat.  The rules are a little difficult to interpret, but the choices outside of that system are fairly well done.  Rating: 3 out of 7.

NPCs & Monsters: In terms of monsters this adventure is thin on the ground, with only goblins and trolls.  It has a few NPCs, but none of them rise above the level of cliche, and Barnak is a paper-thin villain. Rating: 2 out of 7.

Amusement: I can't say I loved it, but I can say that it was short. Rating: 2 out of 7.

With no arbitrary bonus point, the above scores add up to 16; doubled that gives it a S.T.A.M.I.N.A. Rating of 32. That places it dead last, a full 4 points below such luminaries as "The Dervish Stone" and the preview version of Caverns of the Snow Witch.

NEXT: Well, I'm sorry to say that there may not be a next.  I'm currently at the beginning of six weeks of enforced lockdown, separated from my family through no choice of my own, and I'm pretty much reevaluating my entire life at this point.  You might have noticed that I sort of half-arsed this post; blogging's not really on my mind right now.  So, I'm taking a break.  Will I be back?  Honestly, I have no idea.  I enjoy blogging about various things, but it really has been taking up way too much of my time.  So I might be back, at some nebulous time in the future (possibly with a format change that sucks up less of my time).  Or this might be my final farewell, in which case, I say thanks to everyone who dropped comments over the years, especially such regulars as Ross Nolan, Ed Jolley, the mysterious Unknown, Mike, and my Best Internet Friend Tim Byrne (aka Aussiesmurf).  You guys made all the effort worth it.  I'll still be on Twitter (@NPMahney) if anyone wants to keep in touch, or hassle me into bringing this blog back to life.