The Warlock of Firetop Mountain: Rumours

     The day after her 46th birthday Henrietta Chalk looked around her empty home and asked herself what she was doing there. Her husband, gods rekindle his spirit, had died of infection two years ago. Her children had all grown up and sought fortunes better than their little farm. When she was unable to answer the question, Henrietta Chalk picked up her late husband's sword, rucksack, and an old potion that they'd stashed away for a rainy day, and headed out to seek a fortune of her own.

Skill: 7
Stamina: 19
Luck: 11

1 Fortune Potion (2 Measures)

     On a technical note, I'm going to crop some of this text to focus on specific lines. Don't worry, I'll still include it all, just a little more focused.

     You have no idea how much I wanted to just stop reading Rumours after this sentence.

     Oh, you can get along with anyone if you have the right recipe for strawberry tarts. Put in some work to help around the place, and make an unforgettable dessert, and every town is home. That's what I always say.

     Well, Brunhild, that's Mrs. Chambers, told me her son married a princess, so her tales are up on stilts. I think Linda is the honest one, and her children are just the dearest little things. Proper raising there, comes from honest parenting.

     I won't lie; I swallowed hard at the grizzly tales. Had to struggle to keep my tea down. But, my mind was set and that's that. I've brought children into this world and watched them leave it. No miserly Warlock is as scary as that.

Wizard publishing certainly thought he was young.

     I have no earthly idea why these particular rumours seemed to have some truth. I don't know how any of the adventurers came out knowing the exact number of keys, let alone how this very minor titbit got disseminated through the peasants. If I'm going to sit around telling adventurers stories about their unlucky predecessors you can bet I'm going to go on about the monsters, and entirely forget the number of keys involved.

     Either way, he's clearly just a street magician.

I'm sure we're going to get a nuanced and considered view of fantasy race politics on this adventure.

     Well, who isn't, dearie? Bit of a sneaky pie and a sip of ale never hurt anyone.

     

     You know, this whole section would have made more sense if the ferryman came to town to spend that gold every so often. Maybe got drunk and started going on about the damn keys. I also have questions about this river. Is it entirely subterranean? Could Henrietta get a boat and ride it along the river till it goes under the mountain, and just skip the first part of the dungeon?

    I was going to make a point about just swimming across the river, but then I realized that unless the book blatantly contradicts me on this, Henrietta can't swim.

Okay. Now I'm facing the pillow.

     Ah, they were such sweet dearies. I can't tell you how much the people of Mossbottom pulled at my heartstrings. I could have just settled there. Maybe become an auntie to all the little children. But, no. It's time for something new. I turned over to the mountain and began the hike.

     Personally, I think "Turn the page" is a better instruction than "Now turn over." Still, it creates a nice effect to have the big blank space and then the command all on its own. Creates tension and adds gravity to the start of the adventure proper. 

     The whole scene does rather paint the player as an idiot. People are literally crying because I'm about to go die, and I still don't stop to try and get a friend to go halfsies on the loot with. Hades, the villagers literally talked about other adventurers passing through. I could just wait for the next one and hook up with them.

     But, I suppose Henrietta knows that if she stayed here much longer she'd never leave.

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain: Elaboration

     Note to the audience: this post is going to be a long one, and it's mostly about the "elaborate combat system" that the books promise. It's going to have a lot of reading of the actual book, and if you're not interested in the game mechanics of Fighting Fantasy, you might want to give today's installment a miss.

     Having passed the dragon some nighttime cold medicine, we enter into the book proper. After the usual copyright information we reach a table of contents. Keep in mind that this book is 187 pages in print.

It's like if mapquest gave up after your driveway.

     I know that a table of contents after the game part begins is pretty much impossible, because of how you progress through the book, but I still get a chuckle out of it stopping at page 23. You could so easily not have a table of contents and just flip through the handful of pages looking for the big title texts. That's what I used to do.

     There is one more thing before we get to the actual content of the book. It's small, but I wanted to point it out:

No jokes. I just thought this was sweet.

     I have no idea who these people are, but they know, and maybe someone reading this knows. In any book dedications are a nice touch, and I like the way these compliments are framed.

     But, enough sappy delays, it's time for the good stuff!

Now that's a Dreamworks movie I'd watch.

     I've been debating how to actually go through this section. Whether to show it page by page, or just summarize it. I think for full context I'm going to provide the introductory text in full, broken up with commentary, but probably only for this first book. Later books I'll talk about changes and maybe individual sections, but for this first journey let's experience the game in full.

Pretty sure my strength is 'too lazy to get into danger'.
My weakness is 'unable to cope with danger'.

     Okay, the prose here is... abominable. No amount of nostalgia is hiding that. I know it's just the rules text and being informative is the primary concern, but it's all so stark and imageless, especially for the first page. It doesn't draw me in to this world, or in to this vague character it's starting to shape. It's too detached for either an immersive dive, or the promise of challenge.

     I do now have some context. I'm on an adventure. I've got provisions (which need explicit explanation, but I guess not every kid has a dictionary), a rucksack, a shield and a sword. Nice barebones list. Hope I have something to wear, but I guess that wasn't important. The adventure is something I've had time to prepare for, which means my character is going to be at least somewhat competent at this.

Because random character stas is never controversial.

     That advice on using a pencil is a filthy lie! As a child naive enough to take the game at its word, I readily grabbed up my pencil to record the details, only to find that a sharp pencil pierced the cheap paper, and a blunt pencil's marks smudged and vanished when the book closed. Much better to just apply your stats on your own scrap paper. If you're really smart you can use your character sheet as a bookmark when your parents yell at you to turn the lights off.

     I'm going to jump ahead and show the character sheet here:

     The character sheet is pretty good. Spaces are a little undersized for my giant handwriting, but that can't be helped with a small paperback. It has all the information laid out neatly enough, and the flourishes of the fake parchment are nice. My only real complaint is how that flourish conflicts with the very boxing writing spaces.

     Oh, right, and the fact that it's spread across two pages early in the book, so getting it properly spread out and open means messing up the spine, and even then it can be hard to read text that ends up in the seam. Flipping back and forth to it was such a pain. I'd keep one finger on my page, and open to the sheet, and then half pull the book apart to try and get it all visible. Ugh.

     These days, printers often have photocopiers built in. Or you can go to your local library or an office supply store to get photocopying done. I was seven and it was 1997, so no chance there. Stick to scrap paper.

     Now where were we...

One die? Let me find my d20...

     Oh, we're already on rolling, okay. Book never specifies what type of dice to use, but I think it's safe to default to d6. After all, this was before there was any expectation of specialty dice.

     For convenience, I'm going to use Orokos.com for my dice rolling. My first roll, 1d6+6, is...

7

     And I'm off to a perfect start! My stalwart hero may not be exactly without skill, but they have the bare minimum skill to be the vague adventurer type.

Both dice means percentile, right?

     A chance to redeem myself for all those times I cut my own hand in training! I can still be big and burly and...

19

     Exactly average for this roll! As sturdy and brawny as the typical adventurer, but as unskilled as they come. Well, guess I'm ready to go off and–

We will now decide your luck by using luck.

     Oh. Huh. I thought after only Skill and Stamina were mentioned in the intro they'd be it. Guess I have to worry about the number of clovers I stuck in my hair, too.

11

     

     Huzzah! Okay, so almost as lucky as these adventurers get, highly unskilled, and average stamina... kind of lines up with a bit of a fool. From these germs will grow the character. Right after I get some more context.

     But, wasn't this supposed to be about the actual fighting? Let's get to it!

Rub out your scores, and the page, and the page behind it...

     I can't stress enough how bad an idea the eraser is. If I managed to get pencil marks without destroying the paper, taking up the eraser to banish the memory of a dead adventurer would certainly shred the cheap pulp till it was more hole than page. 

Pretty sure all the definitions just use the next word in the thesaurus.
Except for LUCK, which uses its own adjective form.

     Alright, Luck is an actual thing in this setting. This "fantasy kingdom". Great.

     ... what kingdom is that exactly?

     It's a bit misleading to say we'll be exploring a fantasy kingdom. I'm pretty sure that no page in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain ever leaves the mountain. It will be at least a couple books before Fighting Fantasy has much of a world.

You MUST resolve it in that way, or you'll grow bat ears or a lion's tail or something.

     In the grand tradition of roleplaying games, we're going to have combat rules, and only combat rules. We're talking about how to roll the dice before we even talk about the counterintuitive way you read the actual book.

Monsters are very good at providing names and stats. It's a census thing.

     I don't think there's any reason to actually keep the list of each encounters, other than your own amusement. The Adventure Sheet only has room for 12 such encounters... which I suspect is not enough for a long run. Maybe I'm wrong, and it was all carefully planned out.

Nothing says thrilling action like a list!

     Ah, the coding for the actual fights has arrived. Okay, I make fun of the prose and the very bland presentation of information, but one thing I can say is that it's extremely clear. There's a bad habit in some roleplaying games to mix the prose and rules too much, and make things unclear. And those games have decades of previous titles to draw on. Livingstone and Jackson were forging into brand new territory.

     Still, it is a pretty bland and un-evocative display. Not only is it pure numbers with almost no attempt to translate into action (other than the word 'wound'), but you can't actually do anything in the conflict except spend Luck. There appears to be no escape except absolute death.

    Or, sometimes, escaping.

Running away not available at all battles. See monster for details.

     It's interesting that running away is automatic at cost. No roll. Makes it an interesting decision, because you get a hit, and probably lose whatever the combat might yield, but you don't risk anything.

It's either a mosh pit or single file.

     This feels like it could have been cut. You always follow instructions on the page, so it's not like this is a special case or anything.

It does suck when your Luck is unlucky.

     Huh... so sitting here with 11 Luck, I can only fail on a 12. If I'd rolled 1 higher, I would always succeed. Provided I don't spend Luck. Which I certainly will.

     Mechanically, it's smooth enough to make a roll under a success. Does cause some weirdness with 2d6, though. Since 2d6 follow a belle curve, it's a lot different to be over or under 7. I'm also not thrilled that all other dice mechanics presented so far give you better results on high rolls, but this one gives good results on low rolls. Not unworkable, but it's inelegant to have these things in opposition.

"Test your Luck" is how I challenge people to button-mash Mortal Kombat.

     Ah, so it gets spent when used. That's a good mechanic. Have to pick uses carefully. I have no Earthly idea what foul trickster convinced them to name the procedure after explaining the whole thing.

Of course, if you were really lucky, you wouldn't be wounded.

     I know these books had younger audiences in mind, but there's a lot of redundancy here. They just explained how to Test your Luck, and now they're bringing it up like it's never been mentioned before. Heck, they mentioned spending Luck in battles and when you can do it already, too.

It's good to know Luck is not only real, but dangerous.

     So, you spend a Luck to Test your Luck and see if you're lucky? Putting aside how the word "Luck" is starting to lose all meaning, how crazy is it to spend a point on a Test that might make things worse? Depends on Monsters' Stamina, but I don't think the rewards are going to outweigh the fact it has both a cost and a risk for just 2 damage.

Of course, if you were really lucky you wouldn't be... I already did this joke, didn't I?

     The word "restore" introduces some issues of interpretation. If it was "reduce by 1" I'd be fine. But, if I hit zero health from the attack, am I dead before I can Test my Luck? If I have 1 life and take 2 damage, is Restoring 1 enough to be back at 1 Health, or am I at -1 and that just makes it 0?

Trust me, that rule is unforgettable.

     Well, that answers none of my questions.

Come on, I'm sure cellar taping the swords together will make them twice as effective!

     Skill is about the only stat I thought would make sense to go past it's initial level, but I suppose the dungeon is insufficient for hardcore training. It's good to establish the rule about only wielding one weapon. For all my complaints about redundancy, it would probably have been wise to repeat the 'only one weapon' rule in the forthcoming equipment section.

I choose to believe the provisions are all protein bars and energy drinks.

     Naturally you can only eat when allowed to. Couldn't just stop and cram food into your face any old time. I get that it's also about resting, and resting isn't always safe, but you don't need provisions to take a nap. Not much else to say. Health goes down with hurt. Health goes up when you eat. Keep a balanced diet and maybe keep alive. Simple, but an effective management task.

Being lucky is how you get Luck. It's like being wealthy and getting money.

     Ah, so Luck can go over the initial value, if you have a potion. That sounds useful.

No soap, which might be why you're here alone.

     I like that this time they define rucksack instead of provisions. Do I have to worry about oil for the lantern? What about a whetstone for my sword? A blanket to sleep in?

     I really feel the fool idea getting stronger, because I am clearly not ready for this trip. I didn't even bring a friend or business partner to watch my back.

"May take"? Who's going to turn down free potions? Are they high in carbs? Carcinogenic?

     Oh, hey, another actual choice. Obviously I'm grabbing the Fortune Potion. It let's me play to my strength. It appears Luck goes down the most frequently than the other stats and is the hardest to restore. Plus, the Fortune Potion increases the Initial value which is a pretty good boon. After the first potion I get 12 Luck and a guaranteed success on one Test your Luck. Second time it goes to 13, and I have two guaranteed successes. That seems more than worth it.

     By the by, calling Luck Fortune would have helped not make the repeated use of Luck, lucky, unlucky, test your luck, so ugly to read.

     Well, I'm all geared up, any last advice?

Unfortunately, you'll be dead after the first attempt.

     If I were playing the game like a reasonable human, this would be good advice. A lot of trial and error gameplay to find the correct moves. The phrase 'one true path' stands out to me. Implies that there is only one set of choices that will lead the way, rather than some wiggle room for basic failures. Not sure if that's exactly true or not.

     I don't think I ever drew maps. Not even in Scorpion Swamp where it would have been really useful. Usually just remembered page numbers of note.

The geese were originally brought in to feed the goblins, but have since gone feral in the dungeons.

     More than ever I'm reminded of the little booklets that used to come with my Gameboy Games, explaining the plot and some of how to actually play. It's terribly non-diegetic. Surely figuring out that you need keys should be something you do in the story. Overhearing goblins arguing about it, or asking prisoners you save, or finding post its from the forgetful Warlock, or anything besides just knowing it.

     Still, it's good to have a clear goal. Go hunt keys like a piano repairman after a bombing in the hope some of them fit neatly into the Warlock's tantalizing box. Though, I'm willing to bet the Warlock hasn't stashed his keys anywhere he could reasonably get to them if he wanted to actually spend some of his wealth.

All hail the One True Way! It shall bring us to our just desserts!

     And that sounds like all the justification I need for this insane 'one try per game' self rule. Game says that I can do it if I just play smart/lucky enough.

I'd prefer if the gods came themselves.

     There are gods in this world now?

     The lack of setting detail gets to me. It's so vague. But, sure, I'll take the gods' luck. Maybe then they can mess up the next time they have to Test their Luck.

     Okay. I have Stats. We all know how to play, and I've written way too much for one post. We've still got Rumours before the first page, but that'll have to wait. Besides, I can actually start roleplaying there.

     

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain: Judging by the Covers

     Here comes book one. The 1982 classic that started it all:

Oh, sweet Merlin 

A Cover Letter:

     I'll be pulling my excerpts from this book off of a scan of the 1984 edition. Partly because I want to represent the early print runs, but mostly because I'm having trouble finding digital editions. This comes from one of Puffin Books's 1985 print runs. I won't lie, the lines of the bent cover are really taking me back to pulling this book's descendants from the library shelves. Worn and torn with the adventures of those mysterious readers who had come before, sometimes the whole spine broken and the innards spilling out. The books were worn and weathered, and ready for more.

     The art is fine, but it doesn't really grab my eyes. It just doesn't 'pop'. The dragon is a mixed bag. Body seems way too thin compared to the head to feel particularly big and strong, but I love those scowling eyes and the long sinuous tongue. The warlock mostly just looks high. I quite like the crystal ball and the rainbow mist that forms into the dragon. Very evocative of a magical summoning. Puts me in mind of The Page Master film.

Forgive his grumpiness, it's been ages since his last visitor.

     The back cover is unimpressive, but highly informative. It tells you that you'll need dice, a pencil and an eraser, and then a summary of what to expect. The only things I really want to comment on are the poor choice of green on green for the tagline text, and the claim of an "elaborate combat system". Elaborate is very much not the appropriate adjective, as we will see. You'll notice they emphasize the idea of dying and replaying even in the blurb. Really needed to get that across to the audience.

I feel like the text is doing its take for a composite shot.

     The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is of historical and nostalgic significance to the line, and as such has gotten a fair number of reprints. Let's take just a moment to look at some variants. In 2003 we got this gem published by Wizard Books. A nice stylistic update with the same basic shape. Bombastic title text and a roaring dragon made of swirling light really brings the power. Shame that over the last twenty one years the warlock has lost any facial expression, and aged backwards into a bland ponce. I love how his shoulders are so out of whack they don't look like they belong to the same person, but his neck remains perfectly straight. I'm not a big fan of the color palette either. Anyone who has the epitaph 'of Firetop Mountain' needs to be an autumn.

Young man, please step aside, you're hiding the Warlock!

     In 2009 Wizard Books blessed us with another reprint and... oh dear...

Put on your 3D glasses, so he can yank them off.

     Wow... that's just... Well, at least the warlock has an expression. What art there is is good, it's just that the motif strips it of character. I don't know why Wizard Books decided that the appropriate way to grab readers attention was to have main antagonists leaning out of a metal window, but this is how their 2nd print series tended to go. Not that it was the first reformatting for a recognizable serial look hurt the aesthetic. After all, the original 1982 cover looked like this:

Seems they finished the composite shot 3 years early.

     This wrap around, without blocky green borders, really works for me. Colors are a bit more faded, but it gives it a nice blend. My favorite variant, however, probably belongs to the 2017 Scholastic edition:

Sure, he looks completely different, but the warlock has returned to his stoned roots.

     Just look at those colors pop. Those warped hands full of enigmatic starlight. That dragon made of fire emblazoned before the towering mountain. The hero tagline is punched right up, and the FF brand feels like a seal of approval. It even gets the title down below where it won't compete with the dragon or the mountain looming over you. Oh, yeah, and it has the mountain right there. It's only in the book's title, after all! Climbing the blasted thing is the story.

     It really is nice to see all these editions and covers. Gives a feel of respect for the endurance of the book within. These aren't even the only covers. Variations exist for the Warlock of Firetop Mountain board and video games. It really has gotten around.

     I am so ready to delve inside!

"Oh, man, I think I hot boxed myself..."

     Give me a moment. Just... just...

So this is what Puff looked like after
"green scales fell like rain". 

    I mean no offense to Russ Nicholson, but that dragon is not the way to start off your adventure. It looks like it has a cold. Or is mildly concussed. Its neck is turning at such a lazy angle the poor dragon looks half asleep. The wings are too forward and bent at almost ninety degrees, in a way that just looks painful. And to cap it all off, the squat proportions of the body remind me of nothing so much as a chubby bulldog. I'm sorry, but I just laugh whenever I see it.

     Please, give me a moment to adopt my serious face and press on.