Yet another attempt... need some help

[zipp]

After several unsuccesful starts, I've finally started another gamebook. It's set in the Summer country that the Sommerlending originate from, set about 1000 years after they left. I don't want to give any more details at the moment, but I did have some questions.

I'm using the LW combat rules, so there's one less thing for me to think about. But a couple things have thrown me. First of all, how did Dever choose whether to have you fight enemies as a group (one CS and EP score) or to fight them individually (several CS and EP scores)?

Secondly, the deciding on how to stat enemies... I've noticed that -6 on the Combat Results table is actually the most balanced of the ratios, with LW and the enemy losing similar health on each hit. The system I'm going by now would state that an enemyu with 15 CS and 25 EP would be an exactly medium difficulty fight, but since the ratio table is skewed in LW's favour, I'm not sure this is correct. Any thoughts?

[Samildanach]

Ok.

1) My interpretation is that he groups them together if each one individually would be too weak, and keeps them separate if they'd be too strong together. Could be wrong, but that's the way it seems to me.

2) I think the fights need to be slightly weighted in the player's favour. Giving the enemies a fair chance is a recipe for player frustration.

[Doomy]

I guess the decision was based on whether a single member of the group would have a reasonable COMBAT SKILL compared to Lone Wolf.
How do you define "medium" difficulty when players start with random stats?
Play Highway Holocaust on PA for an example of what happens when players and enemies are on a more-or-less equal footing. Things get very frustrating.

[Beowuuf]

1) I think if an enemy can flank or surround Lone Wolf and he cannot do anything about it, then it is a single enemy. If the enemy is forced to attack in confined quarters, or Lone Wolf could tactically move to take them one at a time, then it's one at a time.

2) Yeah, the 'fair' system at -6 means LW can die 50% of the time in that combat to a similarly EP'd enemy, and be reduced to single digits most likely otherwise. -6 is a war of attrition, and hence you need to meta-game that one - only big bad villains of comparable importance (not combat skill) need to go there. Or, it's the price of having a very weak character.

I say you want to balance around the 0CR axis as designed. As the plucky hero who can outthink his way and who fate looks out for, at 0CR you should be allowed to get more blows in and lose less Endurance, while it being a fight. Therefore, take the 16-17CS as this point (that's a 14/15CS plus one bonus item/skill). If you have a high initial CS, then you have the flexibility of either a) loading up on items/skills and being able to brute force any situation, or b) taking a more esoteric skill choice for diverse paths. Whereas someone on the lower end could probably stand a fight once in a while, but would be best served either a) powergaming or b) avoiding fights.

As long as you make the use of skills interesting and the rewards for beating enemies feel good without being game-dependant, then it should make playing and replaying with different stats worthwhile.

[Samildanach]

Of course, the most effective way to work this out is probably to write the thing then have people test it. I'm sure you want to get it 'right' before that, but some things will really only come out in a test - like the CS balance.

[Black Cat]

Hey? And what about the legendary combat? Have you abandoned the concept?

[zipp]

To be honest and unhumble, I think the legendary fights were among the best of the LW related work I produced. The concept is in these new gamebooks. Each book has a major boss fight which uses the system. As for the LW versions, I haven't decided whether to move forward on them or not. The republishing of the series sort've cut some of my enthusiasm for the project, since now there are new and improved books out there (that I don't have access to), but it still has a place in my heart.

The comments here seem to resemble my own as far as CS goes. I've been balancing the fights so far based off of what I remember basic enemies having for stats in the LW series. I'll have to do some playtesting when the book is done to make sure.

Humourously, the comments recieved about grouped CS scores mirrors BOTH possibilities that came to my mind, leaving me still undecided. I had initially been basing it off of stats. Two low CS enemies are easier to kill than one hard (or even medium) CS enemy. However, two medium or hard CS enemies are harder to kill than one medium or low CS enemy. To this degree, I think Dever choose groups fights more often because they were easier overal.

Of course, the other possibility is that it's situationally based, as Beowuuf said. However, I've been looking through the first few books, and I can't seem to find a hard and fast rule for position of enemy relating to CS score. There are times when three giaks in the woods fight as one, and other times when they fight seperately. If anyone can find some examples, I would be interested.

Anyways, current ETA for this first book is December 1st.

[koreth]

I'm fairly certain that JD had more individual combats (eg, Doomwolf 1, Doomwolf 2, Ice Barbarian Guard) in the low level books as a means to make the competition easier, and did it via plot devices. Eg, in LW#3, Lone Wolf is a narrow corridor and the doom wolves are unable to attack simultaneously. A similar thing happens when Lone Wolf becomes the mass-murderer of Gorn Cove.

Handy,but also realistic as I'd have a hard time seeing it be anything but instant death to take on 3 opponents in the open at the same time at the Kai stage of skill.

In the later books, I just don't recall seeing this at all. Maybe because it's simpler to write.

[zipp]

Pleased to announce that after a week of work, the project is well on its way. The first hundred sections are stated out. I expect between 300 and 400 further sections.

[zipp]

Update: things are going well. I'm nearing completion of part two, which is a sea journey, and coming to part three.