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Author Topic: [Let's Play]The Cretan Chronicles  (Read 1199 times)

Warmduscher

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[Let's Play]The Cretan Chronicles
« on: December 18, 2009, 06:04:44 AM »
I recently got the complete triology of The Cretan Chronicles from a friend and after paging through them I think these deserve the same attention as any of the others. I'm going to post the paragraphs and you guys  vote on the choices we make. Bear with me while going through the rules as these are a tad different then the ususal Fighting Fantasy model.

So stay with me and have fun with The Cretan Chronicles 1: Bloodfeud of Altheus

First some background:

Quote

"Theseus is dead." replied Hermes. "His body lies yet at the heart of the Labyrinth of Minos. The spirits of your ancestors cry out from the halls of Hades, lusting for retribution. Aegeus, your noble father, mourns the loss of his strong-armed son. His spirit, fired with soul-searing anger, urges him on to revenge, but his feeble frame cannot undertake the task. It is you, amicable Altheus, who must journey far across the sea and destroy the scourge that threatens the city of your birth." So it was that Hermes spoke, and in a wisp of smoke he vanished before you.
For those not that proficient with the Greek legends Theseus was the one who slew the minotaur. In this gamebooks though he failed and now it falls to his brother Altheus to take revenge.


Attributes:

Now to the rules of the book though. Altheus got several attributes, Might, Protection, Honor and Shame. Might is how good you're at hurting people, protection how hard it is for them to hurt us. We start with a natural Might of 4 and Protection of 10 plus any equipment boni.

Honor:

Honor and Shame work a bit different. You can use up honor to boost your might for an attack in combat, but if you at any point have more Shame then Honor you promptly kill yourself (or if you lack a sword to disembowel yourself Zeus lends a hand and just zaps you with lightning and your spirit will go whining through the dark halls of Hades the life-destroyer). Its pretty easy to gain and lose Honor, but getting shame is a big deal and it almost never drops again (also if your honor ever falls to zero it can't raise again until you made special atonements). Things you get shame for is slaying a surrendering opponent, failing to commit heroic deeds, retreating from a fair fight and really ugly stuff like patricide, marrying your mother and failure to take proper care of your armor. We start with 7 honor and no shame.

Combat:

Combat works by rolling two d6 + might against the opponents protection. Situation dictates who strikes first and as noted above you can burn honor to boost your might for one strike or your protection against a strike. Also rolls of 2-3 always miss and 11-12 always hit regardless of protection. We don't have hit points here, we have wound levels. Healthy-->Wounded-->Severely Wounded-->Dead. When at severely wounded you also roll only one die for combat. There 1 always misses but 6 isn't an automatic hit. Human opponents usually surrender at this point and you sometimes have the opportunity to surrender here too. Only when both opponents are at severely wounded and its impossible to hit each other you roll two dice again. You have to take an opponents surrender usually or get two shame points and when you surrender yourself it nets you one shame point. You can also try to retreat as long as you're only Healthy or Wounded. Attempting this costs you an Honor point and its successful on 1-4 on d6. success nets you a shame point and you escape. Failure means that you have to fight this out.

Gods:

One of the things you can do is pray to Zeus for help. You can do this only once in a book though and it does:

1.: Resurrect you unless you died from Shame
2.: Gain 1d6 Honor
3.: Gain 1 honor when you're at 0 Honor
4.: Set the attitude of all gods to neutral

What brings us to the other gods. You'll have the opportunity to choose a Patron god who is especially favorably disposed towards you and all the other Gods start as neutral. This can sure change though, you can get Favor or Disfavor. Having a patron god helps you in all situation where he applies and as well when a god is in Favor towards you. Disfavor can be a very bad thing on the other side.

Equipment:

So far we only got a Club (+1 Might and 0 Protection) and in principle we can carry as much stuff around as we can get our hands on. The only restriction is that we can only carry around two armor pieces of the same type (say two breastplates).

Taking a Hint:

Whenever the paragraph number is in italics you can say that you take a hint instead of using one of the choices. That simply gets us to the paragraph number+20 and offers alternate stuff you can try. This can save our hide sometimes or admonish us for Honor loss/Shame points. So that is always a gamble.

So much for the rules part. Ask if anything is unclear and I'll start with a few pictures and the first paragraph in a few hours.

Warmduscher

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[Let's Play]The Cretan Chronicles
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2009, 08:17:32 AM »
First a map:



Quote
1

Trembling with terror at the tale of Hermes, you rush out of your cottage and into the fields. You search for your mother, Aethra, and find her huddled under a spruce tree tending the goats. In haste you blurt the words of the god.

"My son," repliese your mother, "the words of the god fill me with sorrow, but they are true, for the gods never lie. you must follow the orders of the winged messenger. Travel to violet-crowned Athens and seek for your father Aegeus. Take with you my jewel, for it was once your father's and he will surely recognize it. But first visit Passes, High Priest of Troezen, and take what advice he can give you. Good luck my son: prove worthy of your noble father and your dead brother."

Having spoken, she turns away lest you catch sight of her tears. You linger a moment, then, with the jewel clasped firmly in your hand, you rush away down the hillside into the town. It is dawn and rosy-fingered Eos has only just tinged the horizon with red. The streets of Troezen are empty, save for a handful of scurrying slaves already about their masters' business, and you come quickly to the temple. The High Priest greets you; he already knows of your errand.

"Altheus, before you lies a great journey to lands of which you have never even dreamt. Many dangers await you; without the aid of a god you cannot prevail. Choose now a patron god or goddess to guide and help you.
Grey-eyed Athena offers you the gift of wisdom; Ares, god of war offers strength. If beauty tempts you, think of Aphrodite. Apollo, the archer god controls the gift of prophecy, while Hera, queen of the gods, has influence over Zeus. Your travels are sure to take you across seas and oceans, and these are Poseidon's province. Choose now one of these six to aid you, and pay them homage. Good luck, Altheus son of Aegeus.

Aphrodite (42)
Ares (71)
Poseidon (117)
Athena (168)
Hera (203)
Apollo (352)


And our poor mother:



So, there we start and are at our first choice. What god to choose as patron? To get a bit into metagaming, taking Apollo is pretty much playing this book in the very easy mode; I wouldn't recommend it.

Joshua Ford

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[Let's Play]The Cretan Chronicles
« Reply #2 on: December 22, 2009, 08:59:16 AM »
Poseidon
 

Lawbag

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[Let's Play]The Cretan Chronicles
« Reply #3 on: December 24, 2009, 02:43:57 PM »
nice idea, but I see the "Lets Read Dragon from the Beginning" ending first...
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madness

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[Let's Play]The Cretan Chronicles
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2010, 02:07:57 AM »
Thanks for sharing such a nice sharing.
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Ghost Whistler
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[Let's Play]The Cretan Chronicles
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2010, 06:45:44 AM »
I miss gamebooks.

What magic they were; from a simpler time. A time of imagination where the words on the page sparked more than any cutting edge graphic card ever could.

Back then I was a giantkiller: I took down Warlocks and Necromancers, all with the roll of a dice.

Now I struggle to contain my nerdrage as I impotently stare at a screen telling me how i was owned by some obstreperous adolescent barely out of e-diapers.

I played more boardgames then: my favourite was 'Mystic Wood' and it's sister game 'Sorcerers Cave'. Nothing more simple than an assortment of cards laid randomly (as you travelled through) to reveal an ever changing map with commensurate encounter cards (and treasure). Imagine that: an ever changing fantasy world! Nowadyas Microshaft would have you pay for each incarnation of the Mystic Wood each time you played.

I am the last of the Kai, and that was my story. I am a Starship Traveller keeping an Appointment with FEAR.
“Ghost Whistler” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Parental death, alien battles and annihilated worlds.