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Post by Balgin Stondraeg on May 9, 2008 12:35:25 GMT -5
*chuckles* Gads, expansive is right. Are you sure you actually want to be that expansive? That's not a gamebook, it's Fighting Fantasy book thirty something : Daggers of Darkness (the really discoordinated jerky one where you kept getting "teleported" (carried by big birds etc) around from place to place without ever spending long enough in any one place to get a feel for what it was actualy like or form a cohesive idea of what the heck was going on).
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Post by Doomy on May 9, 2008 12:38:39 GMT -5
Is that the one with the Poison counter and the bloke with a tiger on the front cover?
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Post by Balgin Stondraeg on May 9, 2008 12:43:47 GMT -5
Is that the one with the Poison counter and the bloke with a tiger on the front cover? Yes. The one that gives you impossible options (if you're very careful and obscenely lucky you can gain the skill of necromancer fighting which allows you to hurt the necromancers. However, if you obtain the skill all possible routes through the adventure cause you to meet no necromancers. If you don't get the skill you are given the opportunity to use it almost every time you meet one). It's not as bad as Revenge of the Vampire 'though where you need to spend all your money to buy a horse and then need to spend money you haven't got in order to gain a plot essential item and a magic sword (there is a much more powerful magic sword later in the adventure but to get it you have to battle many creatures that can only be hurt by magic weapons, that book is actualy unplayable unless you cheat due to being badly thought out and not checked enough before printinhg).
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Post by Doomy on May 9, 2008 12:49:46 GMT -5
Ah, Revenge of the Vampire. I got a copy in a library clearance not so long ago. The adventure sheet has three SKILL boxes and none for STAMINA or LUCK. That kind of sloppiness shows the FF series was in its death throes by this point. Mind you, FF books were often impossibly hard or otherwise broken. However, it might just be that I lacked patience as a pup. On the same day I picked up Appointment With Fear (a book I used to think was impossible) and beat it with two different powers, with no cheating whatsoever. Didn't really try it with ETS though.
Hear that screeching sound? I think this thread just veered violently off-topic.
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Post by Agrarvyn on May 9, 2008 17:35:36 GMT -5
Fighting Fantasy books were near impossible, unless you literally sat down and plotted out every course as a spider-flow-chart first.
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Post by Balgin Stondraeg on May 9, 2008 19:14:40 GMT -5
Fighting Fantasy books were near impossible, unless you literally sat down and plotted out every course as a spider-flow-chart first. That only applies to the late 40's and the 50's. Everything up to the mid 30's wasn't too challenging (with one or two exeptions). What? Maybe I just really think like a hero or something .
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Post by Agrarvyn on May 10, 2008 3:52:38 GMT -5
Well that and you're really rather good with mazes, which they invariable had under different names
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Post by zipp on May 10, 2008 13:29:32 GMT -5
Maybe away from crappy gamebooks and back to my awesome gamebook? Or at least info on Southern Magnamund?
Or should I consider this topic a lost cause?
As for the gamebook itself, I've already got the first 50 or so pages planned out. It should be a really fun one. I've used the LW combat system with a couple added statistics that give you more control over combat and random number choices.
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Post by Maerin on May 10, 2008 16:26:58 GMT -5
The Buccaneers of Shadaki has only a few, sporadic references that you might find of interest. That book is set in roughly MS5083, just for reference purposes. The references are relevant to the following nations on your list:
Karnali Sadi Desert Korli Forlu
The book generally implies that, while the Shadakine were generally driven into the Sadi Desert after the destruction of Shasarak, there were plenty who slipped through the net there. This group included the pirates who, by this book, are collectively called the Buccaneers of Shadaki. Since much of the book involves the NO Grandmaster traveling along the coasts of Shadaki from the north end o the the continent to the south, it does seem like a fair number of these former Shadakine have established themselves as powers in the various cities (makes sense, considering the sheer distance from Shadaki itself). Considering some of the people the NO Grandmaster encounters while traveling through Shadaki, there is at least some suggestion that other Shadakine "renegades"/Shasarak loyalists just hid in plain sight and disappeared into the crowd after Grey Star brought down the Shadakine Empire.
Further, the book hints at some more recent events, such as at least scattered Shadakine influence returning and causing increasing unrest, particularly in Shadaki (the references to unrest in the rest of the Free Alliance aside from Shadaki are fairly muted in comparison, but there is, for instance, a fair amount of suspicion of the NO Grandmaster in Suhn despite the obviously widespread Suhnese maritime trade). These recent events have included references to a rise in piracy, which has impacted nations of the Free Alliance like Forlu, Korli, and Suhn.
Relevant to Grey Star and his leadership of the Free Alliance and Shadaki, it is said that he disappeared somewhere into the west a short few months before the book is set, which means he obviously remained leading the Free Alliance between the end of his series (MS5054) and this one (MS5083). There is no mention as to what his disappearance might have been caused by, but the Port of Suhn obviously considers him still their leader (a bust of Grey Star is still the latest in the line of busts of former Suhn rulers that characterizes the harbor).
The last reference of significance seems to be that the Freedom Guild patrols the waters of the Sea of Winds that edges on Shadaki, Korli and Forlu. Since Karnali is on the opposite side of the Free Alliance, that suggests that the Freedom Guild might provide some sort of "confederation" military or security force for the Free Alliance. Considering Karnali itself does not particularly appear to be a significant navy-type power (or even a very good harbor, persay), that is suggestive that the Freedom Guild has become something more/different in recent decades than what it was at the time Shasarak was brought down.
I will see what can be summarized out of further NO books as I find the time this weekend.
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Post by Maerin on May 10, 2008 23:11:15 GMT -5
Mydnight’s Hero is probably one of the most setting-detailed of the NO series. Consequently, while I will try and summarize details that show up in the book, there is quite a bit there, both in terms of descriptions of towns, descriptions of geographical features, and descriptions of people met over the course of the book. Again, this book is also set in roughly MS5083, though enough time elapses over the course of Books 21 through 23 that we are probably getting fairly close to MS5084 on or before the end (the holiday described in Mydnight’s Hero suggests the season may be autumn). This summary is relevant to the following nations on your list:
Lunarlia Siyen Bhanar
First, it is worth noting that, by this book, it is clear that Siyen is a major mechantile power in southern Magnamund, as well as alleged to be Sommerlund’s wealthiest ally. The NO Grandmaster encounters Siyenese merchant shipping during Books 21 and 22, largely irrespective of location or distance from Siyen itself. Further, Lord Xavial, the High Chancellor of Siyen, apparently travels to Sommerlund to directly ask Lone Wolf’s assistance at the beginning of the book (and there is apparently sufficient resource, likely in the form of a skyship, to get Xavial to the Kai Monastery within 10 days of travel and back to Siyen in time for the coronation without attracting suspicion; which implies a really significant connection between the two nations by this point in time).
The premise of the book is King Oridon (it is never explicitly said, but might be assumed to be King Oridon IV) is assassinated. The NO Grandmaster has to find the King’s heir, Prince Karvas, and get him to Seroa in Siyen in a mere 60-days time to be crowned as the new king. Otherwise, another claimant, Baron Sadanzo (the ruler of a wealthy eastern province of Siyen called Cavalia), who has apparently taken control of the Siyenese court, will become the king with potentially dire consequences. It is worth noting that the NO Grandmaster may learn that the assassination was commissioned by Sadanzo with the Assassin’s Guild of Avalar (Lunarlia).
Karvas was exiled from Siyen 10 years previously, and had apparently lost himself in the transient population of the island of Sheasu, off the western coast of southern Magnamund. Consequently, the journey back to Siyen covers some of the area you describe in your list of nations of interest.
The exile was apparently over a romance between Karvas and the daughter of the King Lunarlia (named Amarelda). At least by that point in MS5073, Siyen and Lunarlia are still adversaries (they are described as such in Magnamund Companion). It was considered that their marriage might have finally reconciled the two nations, but King Oridon suddenly changed his mind and forbid the match. Prince Karvas chose exile, and Amarelda defied her father to do likewise. They were married in the city of Mydnight and lived together for much of the 10 years, though Amarelda apparently dies of fever a few days before the NO Grandmaster finds them.
The journey takes them to Bakhasa, a city in Bhanar that sits on the River Tehda. The “plainsland” between Bakhasa and the Kelderwastes has been heavily deforested by the Bhanarians (mostly for shipbuilding in the city of Otavai), and is fairly desolate (as over-harvested areas typically are). The primary evening characteristic of Bakhasa is apparently extensive torches and other fires that illuminate the city and surrounding area. Timber seems to be the primary industry of the city, though Bhanar is renown as a whole for its horses.
Bhanar has an apparently well deserved evil reputation, quite aside from its ruler. In fact, it is probably the most straightforward and powerful “evil nation” in southern Magnamund. A tiger-like creature with fangs is the emblem of Autarch Sejanoz.
Bhanarian armor is shiny, made from lacquered steel scales and hardened leather. Though armed with the usual maces, spears, bows, etc. one might expect, the NO Grandmaster also encounters steam-propelled “guns” in the hands of more elite soldiers (possibly with a religious connection, as they also carried a powerful shrine that they used to track the NO Grandmaster until he destroys it). The NO Grandmaster faces off against a Bhanarian warrior-mage called a Zhakka on horseback, who uses a black firebolt-throwing staff that morphs into a lance when melee combat ensues.
Crossing the Dammerdon Mountains, the travelers end up at a Lunarlian trading town named Jaroc, which is apparently a stop for the Lunarlian horse-riding nomads of the plains north to trade in its tented market. During this journey, Karvas indicates his wish to end the centuries of war between Siyen and Lunarlia, so that is something to keep in mind if you set your gamebooks at some later date.
Siyen is ruled by Barons, with each apparently having his province and or city of responsibility. It is apparent that at least some of these Barons die in the course of Sadanzo's attempt to rise to power.
Siyen is apparently very sophisicated in a high medieval sense, with not a little magic mixed in too. In addition to magical enhancements that Sadanzo provides his knights, there are more spiritual powers in the hands of other Barons (one is used to test Prince Karvas' validity by exposing him to the spirit of a dead paladin knight).
In the end, either Sadanzo is killed in combat with the NO Grandmaster when his treachery is revealed; or he is executed after Karvas is crowned.
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Post by writingwolf on May 15, 2008 17:30:25 GMT -5
Well if you fancy using my continuation of the LW books from Destination: Sommerlund, which has Chai and the Free Kingdoms occupying Bhanar after the defeat of Sejanoz, that could have potential for a story. I'm thinking something along the lines of rebel Bhanarians or something. I think the offical LW books pretty much assume that ending too, although it's not specifcally said.
If you go before book 28, then Bhanar is of course ruled by Autarch Sejanoz, who sold his soul to Agrasah.
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Post by Mantiz Lord on Jun 1, 2008 4:01:58 GMT -5
Hello Zip & Others - I would definitely like to contribute to SOUTHERN MAGNAMUND ! ...... that is my Location and domain where I reside and rule - It is deep below the Ground underneath AZANAM , there my many thousands of minions serve me 'The Lord of Mantiz' in the colony nest. #### You should read the first GREY STAR , find it out of www.projectaon.org ##### You can then finaly learn more about my world - or I can teach you all about Southern Magnamund................... ALSO , heres a link about a possible LW Battle System ; daziarn.proboards54.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=lorespirit&thread=183&page=2
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Post by Black Cat on Jun 1, 2008 22:04:46 GMT -5
I think that people here all know about PA. We almost all joined this community thanks to them! Be welcome Mantiz Lord! Please visit the Dormitory section of the forum so that we can learn more about yourself. Do it, or otherwise I'll take out the brand new Kai Weapon that I've just created: the Bug Killing Spray (+15 CS when used against an insect).
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Post by Agrarvyn on Jun 2, 2008 14:50:14 GMT -5
Welcome Mantiz Lord I'll second the "joining because of PA" motion!
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Post by writingwolf on Jun 2, 2008 17:17:34 GMT -5
The Telchos setting, taken from the RPG book, sounds quite interesting. As does that realm with the "Mad King", Taklalot. A detailed map would be nice.
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