Fighting Fantasy Update

[Grebn]

First off, I hope people don't mind me posting regular updates on this to the general board. The idea seemed to have generated a lot of interest so I want to keep it flowing.

Anyway, a few folk mentioned that VNS might not be able to support stat controlled battles. I've managed to get a working combat procedure together (takes a LOT of code though!) which emulates the Fighting Fantasy battle system. The main limitation with VNS is that it doesn't allow you to add variables to one another.

So yeah - that's the hardest bit done. If VirtuaLeech is reading this - don't know if you got my emails or not. I have desperate need for a VNS 1.2 - the battle procedure currently occupies 1400 lines of code (most of it cut and pasted, in the main) - as variables can't be increased/decreased by the value of other variables, a procedure condition has to be created for every value a variable can hold (in this instance, the players SKILL, which can range from zero to 12). If I could add the value of SKILL to another variable, 1400 lines would become 22!!

Other than that, VNS is a great program with shedloads of potential..

 

[Captainbubby]

Great news!

If this thing gets up and running I wouldn't mind writing an original story to use with this system

 

[Grebn]

Excellent!

Well what I'll do, when I've got a basic framework, is release the source code so anyone can use it. Ideally before then an update to VNS will be available, making the fighting code more compact.

It would be great to get a load of adventure games out of this system. There's no reason why it shouldn't be able to handle other systems (such as Lone Wolf and Grailquest) - there's so much potential.

Also, it'll probably be self-replicating. The more games that start to come out, and the greater the accumulative interest, I reckon VNS will start to develop alongside it. Hope so anyway!

So yeah - I'll plough on with Firetop Mountain, starting with the system framework which can be lifted and used for other games. This will incorporate:

Determining initial statistics
Combat
Provisions
Equipment (using booleans)
Death
Skill / Luck testing
and, if I can get my head round it, Adventure Sheet

There are minor variations from the FF format - for instance, instead of being able to eat provisions at any point in the adventure, you'll only be able to when it is given as an option (which I think is more realistic anyway - the Sorcery books opted for this as well). This may also be true of checking the adventure sheet, inventory and so on. The idea being that you'd only be able to do it when you're in a 'rest' situation.

 

[Fishbong]

Erm... Fighting Fantasy... That are those books where you can have a one-man pen&paper session, the book being the Gamemaster/Storyteller, right? They´re called Sagaland in Germany.

 

[Grebn]

Yeah - that's right!

Actually, looking ahead a bit, it'd be cool if anyone fancied translating any of these games into other languages when they're done...

Paul

 

[Nilsiboy]

give me the title of the book, maybe i even have the german one....anyway i can try translating it on my own, as my english is quite good imo, and my german...well i live in germany [=

 

[EvilDragon]

Erm... Fighting Fantasy... That are those books where you can have a one-man pen&paper session, the book being the Gamemaster/Storyteller, right? They´re called Sagaland in Germany.

​

You probably mean the Analand-Saga, which is part of the Fighting Fantasy books.
They are called "Fantasy-Abenteuer-Spielbücher" in Germany, and the first one was "Der Hexenmeister vom flammenden Berg" (The Warlock of Firetop Mountain).

The complete list (in order of appearance) is:

Der Hexenmeister vom flammenden Berg (Warlock of Firetop Mountain)
Die Zitadelle des Zauberers (Citadel of Chaos)
Der Forst der Finsternis (The Forest of Doom)
Das Universum der Unendlichkeit (Starship Traveller)
Die Stadt der Diebe (City of Thieves)
Das Labyrinth des Todes (Deathtrap Dungeon)
Die Insel des Echsenkönigs (Island of the Lizard King)
Sumpf der Skorpione (Scorpion Swamp)
Die Höhlen der Schneehexe (Caverns of the Snow Witch)
Das Höllenhaus (House of Hell)
Der Talisman des Todes (Talisman of Death)
Tempel des Schreckens (Temple of Terror)
Stern der Schmuggler (Rebel Planet)
Duell der Piraten (Sea of Blood)
Dämonen der Tiefe (Demons of the Deep)
Das Schwert des Samurai (Sword of the Samurai)
Wettstreit der Gladiatoren (Trial of Champions)
Die Masken von Mayhem (Masks of Mayhem)
Analand-Saga 1: Der Abenteurer aus Analand (Sorcery Epic I: The Shamutanti Hills)
Analand-Saga 2: Die Fallen von Kharé (Sorcery Epic II: Khare - Cityport of Traps)
Analand-Saga 3: Die sieben Schlangen (Sorcery Epic III: The seven Serpents)
Analand-Saga 4: Die Krone der Könige (Sorcery Epic IV: Crown of Kings)

 

[markusdragon]

That's a short list... Was that all the ones they translated?

 

[EvilDragon]

That's a short list... Was that all the ones they translated?

​

Yes. There are about 40 English books by Steve Jackson, but only these have been translated to German.

And these were only the Fighting Fantasy books by Steve Jackson / Ian Livingstone (the best in my opinion!), there are a lot more RPG book series from other authors.

 

[markusdragon]

Yes. There are about 40 English books by Steve Jackson, but only these have been translated to German.

I think theres more than 40... I'm pretty sure it was closer to 60.

I remember #50 was return to firetop mountain...

 

[Belgarath]

Yeh there's about 60 FF books, although Steve Jackson probably only wrote about 10 of them.

 

[kknd_cf]

Man this would be so much better to play on a GP32 rather than use a pen and paper in my opinion. Keep up the good work Grebn.

 

[pakoito]

A complete list of titles published in spain, just look for jackson's ones, there are also their original english names:
http://www.bleuge.com/wp/?t=/estatico/ff.html
My favourites are Lone Wolf (2 books) and Grialquest (8 books)

For those who can speak spanish:

http://www.cyberdark.net/portada.php?edi=6&cod=436 <- Two novels of steve jackson. Citadel of chaos and Creature of chaos (traduced directly, dunno how were they called in english)

http://www.cyberdark.net/portada.php?edi=6&cod=278 <- My favourite one: Lone wolf.

 

[pakoito]

A javascrip aplication to calculate combats in lone wolf (sorry, but once again it's in spanish...) is available in:
http://www.lobo-solitario.com/descargas/pc/ls-combate.zip

It's easy to translade: Destreza->dexterity; resistencia->endurance or stamina; nombre->name; inicial->initial...

 

[Grebn]

Hi all,

There were 59 titles in all. The last one, Curse of the Mummy's Tomb is really hard to get hold of.

Also, just spotted the typo in my original post - the lines of code required for battle sequences is 140, not 1400. Guess my zero finger got stuck...

Paul

 

[LOOM]

Wow... I can't wait for the first one for gp32_console !!!

 

[LHC]

Holy shit I remember reading Lone Wolf books and Jackson/Livingston books years and years ago. Those were the days...

Definitely interested in this.

 

[exael]

I still do think it's a great idea. I have about 35 of 'em but in Portuguese only, though. They shouldn't be very hard to get hold of, shame on me for saying it, on emule or smth, and already on txt or similar format. But I didn't say anything!

As long as the game engine is done and if it's open for everyone I guess everyone inteersted would be giving a hand, though.

And there's also a lot of other gaming books that can be used as well, with minor changes, it's a project that can be huge!

I really do think it's one of the best ideas I've seen around Keep on the good work!

Plus: A game engine wouldn't allow cheating And I did cheat all the way through the books when I was a kid ahaha

Cheers

 

[Belgarath]

For those that don't know, there are many of the Lone Wolf books available free (and legally) to download or play online at Project Aon

 

[Grebn]

I cheated like hell on those books. I mean, who wanted to go into Firetop Mountain with SKILL 7 and STAMINA 14? Not you, not me, not no bugger.

VNS is great, but kind of fussy (or maybe its just me). I really hope there's an update - its got so much potential.

Anyway, its ticking along nicely - a few bugs so far but I'm sure they'll be ironed out...

Hopefully.

Paul