Fighting Fantasy #1 - The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

2012-02-18T22:34:00.000Z

Title: TheWarlock of Firetop Mountain

Author: SteveJackson and Ian Livingstone

Illustrator: RussNicholson

Published: 1982

Level of previousknowledge: Although I remember the premise extremely well, specificencounters and locations elude me. All I remember are the warlock, a dragon, amaze (shudder), and some skeletons… I’m sure the rest will come back to methough.

Plot summary: Um. This isn’t really explained in the version of the book Iown (the green zip-zag version) but apparently I’m supposed to enter a cave ina mountain, fight my way past a horde of monsters and traps, then kill apowerful wizard-type person for no reason other than to steal his treasure.Apparently this will make me a ‘hero’, although I suspect a nominal oneat best.

Rules: The rules are fairly standard for this one as I recall,except perhaps the restriction on eating Provisions only when offered by thetext. I’ll abide by this rule, at least to begin with, as I understand theattempt to prevent players from wolfing down a whole backpack full of food inthe seconds leading up to combat (this is something I’ll try to avoid doing infuture gamebooks anyway).

Adventure Log

Attempt #1

Stats rolled: SKILL10, STAMINA 18, LUCK 12

I selected the Potion of Strength to take with me, notingthat it contains enough for two uses. Surely I’ll be invincible!

While it was nice of the villagers to advise me that the ferryman would requirea gold piece to take me across the river, I would have liked the opportunity toearn or borrow one before wandering off to the mountain. Oh well, maybe the‘warty-faced goblins’ which they warned me guard the entrance to the cave willbe carrying some coinage. If they exist. Which they don’t. Curse you,villagers!

Entering the mountain, I soon arrived at a T-junction whereI picked a direction at random, and found myself in front of a locked door. Intrue adventurer style, and given my apparent motivation for being here (sheergreed), of course I attempted to smash it down. I succeeded heroically, andcharged straight into the pit behind the door. Oho! This warlock is cunning,yes? He was obviously toying with me, as some poisoned spikes orsome kind of hungry pit monster would have improved this trap (from his pointof view) greatly.

Clambering back out, I headed back past the junction, andupon the lack of any option to return to the outside world and nurse my scuffedknee, went down the other passageway. I came across a sleeping goblin, which Iwas forced to attempt to sneak past, rather than the sensible option ofimpaling him in his sleep. Fortunately I was unable to fail this LUCK test andmoved on, arriving at a door, behind which I could hear snoring. Nice to knowthe warlock had top-notch security in case some kleptomaniacadventurer came to visit! Opening the door I found another sleeping goblinwhich I was prevented from callously slaughtering, instead choosing to quietlysteal his wooden box. It contained a gold piece and a mouse, which apparentlymade me so lucky I received 2 LUCK points.

The next door led to an empty room with another small box.Given my 100% track record with boxes so far, I opened this one, only to beviciously attacked by a snake! After crushing its skull under my boot I found abronze key with a number on it, which I threw away as it was obviously useless(OK, I might be kidding).

Judging from the singing, the next room obviously containedsomeone who was actually awake. Confident in my abilities, I pushed open thedoor to meet two orcish-looking guards,and another small box. Unable to resist the lure of potentially great treasure(maybe this one would contain a hamster) I charged in and butchered the drunkencreatures. Opening the box I found a book about Dragonfire, containing thewords of a spell used to fight evil dragons, which I scribbled down, just incase. You never know!

Turning a corner and passing another junction, I arrived atanother door with sounds of life behind it. This time there were five orcs, andafter a quick calculation (2 orcs = 0 stamina lost, 0* 5/2 = 0) I rushed in eagerly.After polishing them off, taking a couple of unlucky wounds in the process, Iwas rewarded with 1 SKILL and 5 STAMINA points, because I was ‘proud of myvictory’. I found yet another box, thistime long and thin, which contained a bow and silver arrow, and a crypticinscription.

My next encounter was with another locked door, which Icharged down more carefully than the last one. Inside was an old man who wasimprisoned for trying to steal the warlock’s treasure. Sadly I wasn’t given theoption to let justice take its course and let him rot (and I guess this mayhave been considered hypocritical) and instead let him go, receiving someuseful information for my efforts. If not for the rule about LUCK not exceedingits Initial score, mine would have been somewhere around the 15 mark by now.

Forcing the next door earned me a shiny shield, and theopportunity to leave any item behind in order to accommodate it. The idea of leaving behind a tinykey in exchange for the shield did appeal to me, but in the end I went for thesensible option of leaving behind my existing shield instead, while making anote to make sure I carry as much junk as possible around in future so I’mnever forced to leave anything useful behind.

The next room saw me take on two goblins who were busytorturing a dwarf. I was under the impression that goblins were generallyweaker than orcs, but these ones had evidently been training hard and put upmore of a fight. No boxes this time, but I took some smelly cheese from one ofthe goblins (see previous paragraph) and moved on.

Following the old man’s advice, I pulled the correct leverat the portcullis and it lifted. Passing by a wooden bench with a sign offeringme the chance to rest (surely any adventurer would consider this an obvioustrap?) I wandered down a few more passagesand started to get rather lost. Eventually I opened a door to find a statue ofa cyclops, with a sparkling jewel for an eye. Surely the consequences ofstealing this should be fairly obvious, but… sparkly jewel! Attemptingto prise it out provoked the expected fight, and the cyclops battered me towithin an inch of my life. Spending 5 LUCK points to scrape through on 1STAMINA, I immediately drank the first draught of the Potion of Strength I hadbrought with me. Phew! As well as the jewel, I found another numbered keyinside the statue. There’s nothing like being rewarded for a bit of greed…

Shortly afterwards a random barbarian threw himself on to mysword, and I found a mallet and wooden stakes. Pondering this item, I came tothe conclusion that I probably didn’t want to find out where it could be used.Rushing straight through the room containing eerie-looking portraits (stoppingfor an art critique seemed like a bad idea), I found some Y-shaped bits of wood(leaving the cheese behind in order to pick them up, ha!) and was throttledslightly by a sentient rope.

I then arrived at the river, and immediately cursed my luck– the villagers had told me to save ‘a gold piece’ for the ferryman (andI had one), but the sign here indicated that the price was double that.Muttering something about inflation, I thought it best not to waste theferryman’s time and headed for the rickety old bridge instead. Remarkably thiswasn’t a disaster and I made it across.

Opening another door, I saw a sleeping man and a dog, whichI assumed to be the pairing the old man referred to as guarding a key to theboat house. I was unsure as to whether I need access to the boat house, buthaving keys generally seemed like a better situation than not having them, so Ithought I’d wake him up (he isn’t a goblin so I decided against attacking, eventhough I was given the option to slaughter his dog) and try the friendlyapproach. Sadly I was too honest about the nature of my avaricious quest and hebecame rather upset, sprouted hair all over his body, yelled something like‘Arooo!’ and attempted to eat me, although he allowed his dog the first bite.Upon slaying them both I took the bunch of keys and wandered back towards theriver looking for the boat house.

I found the correct door almost immediately, unlocked it andwent inside to meet the hard-working skeletonsinside. Foolishly I made up a tall tale about being their new boss, which theydidn’t buy at all (and who could blame them?), so ended up having to smash themall to bits. So much for Firetop Boats Ltd! Finding a silver-bladed chisel andleaving a Y-shaped piece of wood behind, I dodged some more skeletons andentered the next room. This one contained a wooden box (it’s been a while) anda possibly dead/undead-looking person, whom I was not given the option of guttinglike a fish, instead being given the choice of which way to tiptoe. I went forthe box, naturally, and ended up having to fight the thing, which turned out tobe a wight. After it raked me a couple of times I switched to the silver chiselas a weapon, then noticed the ‘If it hits you 3 times’ text and went for thesilver arrow option. Fortunately it hit its mark and I looted the box of itsgold pieces.

Feeling a bit weary of all the undead I seem to beupsetting, I groaned as I entered the next room. Three ‘dead’ bodies, huh?Maybe I should attempt a friendly chat before they spring up and tear me limbfrom limb? Nope, once again I was given the option to tiptoe through, butdecided instead to search one of the bodies, hoping that my adventurer selfwould at least have the sense to check that they were genuinely dead beforerifling through their pockets. Finding some gold pieces, I then pushed my luckby searching the next one, and clumsily tripped over the other one, which turnedout to be a ghoul. Happily I defeated it without a scratch, and found anunhelpful ‘map of the maze of Zagor and a vial of liquid, which I threw away onthe basis that I was fairly healthy and didn’t want to jeopardise that.

Moving on, I finally reached the fabled maze, andwandered aimlessly for a while before stumbling into a room containing theobligatory minotaur. Despite being slightly gored I won the ensuing fight andclaimed another numbered key as my reward. Further wandering around the mazeled me to a study of some kind, where an annoying old man waved his hands at meand teleported me to another part of the maze. After much frustratedmeandering, I managed to find my way out of the maze purely by looking forsection numbers which I hadn’t seen before (which I suppose is the equivalentof peering randomly down slightly different corridors and working out if you’vebeen there before).

The next room, uh,cavern (uh-oh), contained a hole in the roof, which instantly brought to mindthe spell I had memorised earlier – and in true ‘evil dragon’ fashion, heintroduced himself by shooting a jet of firefrom the darkness. I cast the spell (fortunately my character had a goodmemory) and the dragon stomped off with a singed face.

Carrying on along a passageway, I eventually encounter yetanother harmless-looking old man. Remembering where being polite got me lasttime (and frankly suspecting the worst – who would be guarded by a dragon?) , Idrew my sword and burst through the door, trying to put him off his guard. Herevealed himself as the Warlock, and didn’t seem upset in the least that I washere to rob him of his life savings, but I heroically rummaged through my pack(you’d think I would have done this before entering) for something to even theodds. Remembering how I’d almost died in the process of retrieving the sparklyred jewel I thought I’d give that a try first, waved it vaguely in hisdirection and watched as he shrivelled into a heap of dust. Oh.

Quite surprised at this fairly anti-climactic climax, Ientered the treasure room while checking my backpack for keys. I had only threekeys, so my only chance was the single combination they produced. Completelyunexpectedly, the keys turned and the chest opened!

Conclusion: Success! Well, I certainly didn’t expectto finish this one on the first attempt. Having looked at a map since thisplaythrough, there are two east-or-west decisions (one after the other) whichhave to be made correctly, to get one of the necessary keys (the cyclops one).It also seems I was fortunate to miss the key in the boat house (by searchingthe tools rather than the drawers) which would have confused the final decisionsomewhat.

Number of combats:22

Review

Writing: Very much a classic plot – adventurer enters dungeon for noparticular reason other than to loot the place of all its treasure and become ahero. Forgiveable given this book’s status as the first Fighting Fantasy book,but perhaps having been spoiled by much less shallow plots in more recentgamebooks, it doesn’t grab me in the same way. For some this gamebook mightrepresent a gateway to a much-loved hobby, but in my case it wasn’t the firstgamebook I played and therefore doesn’t make me all dewy-eyed with nostalgia. Thewriting is concise, with no unnecessary detail - The dungeon itself makes little sense, withmagical items dotted around for no particular reason, and the keys to theWarlock’s chest scattered at random. However the advantage of the basic plot isits simplicity which makes it easy to play without having to remember all sortsof details.

Writing: 2/5

Artwork: The artwork doesn’t always get across the dank atmosphereyou would expect to experience in a dungeon of this kind and it’s a bit rougharound the edges, but is very detailed and the familiar style does appeal tome.

Artwork: 3/5

Design: Gameplay is fairly straightforward – the player generally movesfrom room to room and has a series of discrete encounters, which when overcomereward the player with items which may or may not be useful for overallsuccess. There are no situations where I felt unfairly punished for exploring –even wandering into a trap wasn’t too crippling, and none of the fights I wasforced into were overly difficult (although the Iron Cyclops would have beenimpossible for a low-skill character and I think the true path requires you tofight him).

I found the fact thatI was forced to drop items at certain points in order to pick up others alittle annoying, and this would have been downright frustrating had I reallywanted to keep hold of everything. This rule made little sense in that therewas no distinction between small and large items, so I could happily have lefta key behind in order to pick up a shield, for instance. By the same token if Iwas carrying nothing but a key I would have been forced to do this. I guessthis is a simplified way of forcing players to make decisions about what theycarry, but I felt like a limited inventory size of 10 items or so would have beena better way to achieve this.

Being partly an Ian Livingstone creation, this book bearshis trademark in that there are certain paths you must take, and certainencounters you must have, or you cannot complete the adventure successfully.Sadly this also means that there are certain paths and encounters you cannotexperience on your way to successful completion, as there is no way to go backto a previous junction and go the other way. This is, in one way, a shame, but whenyou do eventually find that true path, it makes it all the more satisfying.

Design: 2/5

Fairness: Overall this isn’t a difficult gamebook although the oddsare against completing it on a first attempt, due to the fact that one of the requiredkeys is easily missable by taking a wrong turn.

Fairness: 4/5

Cheating index: Perfectly doable without cheating.

0 Razaaks

Statistics

Average enemy stats

Successful path

22 encounters, SKILL 6.3, STAMINA 5.8

Entire book

67 encounters, SKILL 6.5, STAMINA 5.6

Instant death paragraphs: 4

Any player can win no matter how weak initial dice rolls – I doubt a SKILL 7 character could succeed here, so I'm calling this a LIE.

Final thoughts

I enjoyed my romp through Firetop Mountain despite theanti-climax. Maybe it’s because it’s been so long since I played any gamebooksproperly. My final scores for each gamebook will be a combination of the scoresfor plot, design, artwork and fairness, plus my own bias which I reserve theright to apply as liberally as I wish!

Final score: 5/10

Links

Titannica page

Buy The Warlock of Firetop Mountain on Amazon

Introduction

2012-02-16T22:26:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to my gamebook reviews blog!

I’ve been a fan of gamebooks since the 1980s. I discovered House of Hell in my school library whenI was 12 years old, and although it gave me nightmares, I was hooked. For thenext 7-8 years I sought out every last Fighting Fantasy gamebook that I couldget my hands on, and spent most of my spare time in my room, rolling dice and scribblingnumbers on paper. I was gutted after 1995 when I realised that no more FF bookswere to be published, and that combined with the downturn in Lone Wolf books (Inever enjoyed them after #20) led to a complete lack of further purchases formany years. Although I revisited my collection from time to time, eventuallyadult life took over and the books were left to gather dust.

Years later, I discovered Project Aon, a volunteer group ofLone Wolf fans who obtained permission to republish the Lone Wolf books in anonline format. Then I heard that Wizard books had not only republished some ofthe books, but had released some new ones, which I snapped up. Recently, in abored moment I did some random Googling and discovered several websites andblogs dedicated to Fighting Fantasy. After reading about other people’sexperiences with gamebooks, I was imbued with the desire to play through myentire collection again. Not only that, but I thought I’d blog about it aswell. I’m aware that this has been done before, but one thing I’ve learnedabout most gamebook fans is that they can’t get enough of this kind of thing :)

The general plan is to start with the Fighting Fantasygamebooks and work my way through the original series (1-59), the new Wizardbooks, the Sorcery! Series, and thenmove on to the Lone Wolf series (1-20 only, naturally) afterwards. Somewhatfoolishly, I’ll be attempting each book over and over until I finally succeed.I’ll be playing honestly for the most part – certainly for any first attempt ata book, but may resort to minor cheating as the attempts go on! If I find that aFighting Fantasy adventure requires a certain level of SKILL to have a hope ofsucceeding, for instance, I will be creative with rolling my stats – onealternative method I may use is to roll 2D6 for STAMINA as usual, but also roll2 D6s and pick one for SKILL and one for LUCK. Certain books may require agreater degree of cheating than others, and I’ll be giving each book a ratingfor this, out of 5 Razaaks (yes, I remember him!) Also I obviously haveprevious knowledge of the books, although how much I remember of them will varygreatly, and I haven’t read the new Wizard books at all.

I’ll be posting a summary of each attempt, keeping an Exceladventure sheet and posting some stats about each attempt and the book overall.I’ll review each book in terms of its plot, writing, mechanics, design andartwork, and bore you to death with some analysis of how the book is puttogether. If I have any sanity left, I might also post a solution or a map ortwo. It goes without saying that these posts will be spoilerific in the extreme...

The first review will hopefully be up within a week or so,although I can make no promises about how regularly I post!

Gamebook Geek

Fighting Fantasy #1 - The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

Introduction