The Gaming Den

"Will somebody think of the children!"

408
The Disputer says, 'Your argument has merit, but you are an alien with an alien's motives - why should we care what happens to Earth, we can look after our own.' Will you:

Use your Power of Will to take control of his mind?
Appeal once more, asking if he wishes to be responsible for the deaths of countless billions who, although alien, enjoy eating, laughing and loving even as he does?

Let's bank on the fact that these guys are supposed to be civilised and enlightened and presumably will give a shit about a bunch of future aliens they've never met. Using Power of Will could blow everything.

Agreed.

Appeal to their altruism.

The Disputer turns from you and confers with the others. Some are saying that it will cost them nothing to make a law against the building of a factory planet. Another says that if they are not concerned with the future it doesn't matter if they do anyway This amuses them and they turn to you and say that you can have your wish. A law is typed into the computer as you watch You know that their society can only exist without force and weapons because they never break their laws. You have done all you can and you decide to leave before they think to steal the secret of time travel by examining your Strike Fighter.

Your Strike Fighter re-materialises in the Eiger Vault, 3033 AD. It shows no sign of the damage it suffered on Mechanon. You ask CAIN how long. Earth time, you have been away on the factory planet. To your utter consternation CAIN says it can find no trace of anything called Mechanon in its databanks. You hurry to TIME headquarters to report to Jobanque for your debriefing. When the door to his office slides back he seems surprised to see you.

'Ah, Falcon, I was about to call for you. Agidy Yelov escaped from the detention centre nine minutes ago!'

'But that's impossible ...' you begin, until you realise that you have changed history and this is not the same Earth that you left a few hours ago. While you tell Jobanque where you have been he listens in amazement. By convincing the Danikoi never to build Mechanon you have saved Earth and the Space Federation and now it is as if Mechanon had never existed. Even CAIN's data banks have been changed. You are the only one who will ever really know what might have been. Jobanque believes your story and he compliments you on your success.

'No medals this time, Falcon. We would never convince the Federation that your story is true! Sounds like you've had. quite an exciting time! But rest now, take ten days' vacation. I'll arrange a trip to Titan if you like. I'll have to use another agent to track down Yelov (who never died now, of course!). If you go into the recreation centre ask Sparrowhawk to see me. She may know the workings of a fellow Siriun's mind. Happy holiday, Falcon - use it well.' Barely able to adjust to the fact that a part of your life simply never took place as far an your colleagues are concerned, you walk into the recreation centre in a daze. Bloodhound is leaning close to Sparrowhawk who looks troubled. You ask her to report to Jobanque and, as she leaves, Bloodhound asks you how the test flight went.

'What test flight?' you exclaim, and tell him your incredible story.

You cannot tell whether Bloodhound believes you or not he infuriates you, pretending that you are mad, but at last he says, 'Well, you're as sane as the rest of us. Falcon, and I know you would never lie. But if you were changing history, couldn't you have arranged for me to have a solar-racer while you were at it?'

Ignoring Bloodhound's idiocy you protest, 'I have changed history. Why am I the only one to have memories of Mechanon? CAIN was there too.'

'Sounds like a question for the techs to me,'says Bloodhound 'You're a walking time paradox. Ask Skirrow - if he doesn't know, nobody will!' You shrug your shoulders and decide instead to make the most of your trip to the pleasure-dome on Titan.

Thus ends books 2. I'll be posting the score and answering questions a bit later.

Huh, I don't seem to have number 3, so I can't do the code letter scoring thing. Might have to skip that and go on to book 4.

Gamebooks.org says I have #3. I'll see if I can fish it out of storage.

Came across where I'd written my scores from when I played 3 before, which implied I should have a copy, so after a bit more hunting round I found it.

Letter scores for this was: qqqq aa nn h

q is -1, everything else +1, so a total of 1
1-2
Take a three-week refresher course at the Academy.

(If you were wondering, my scores were aafmnnn and more Qs (number I'm not going to reveal) which got me:
-4 or below
You are offered a job you can't refuse - tying Silvermane's bootlaces.)

Oops, double post.

The thing about the way it's played here is that it minimises the number of Qs. If we were playing in real life we would need to go through Crecy, Thrix. Mechanon pt 1, Earth, Mechanon pt 2 and Yelov every time facing roll well or die challenges at each place. Even with a perfect path choice Falcon would rack up the Qs

It would, yeah. Most of the time the odds are in Falcon's favour, though. As an aside, in at least part of the series (thinking of book 5), a few times if you get the perfect path you don't need to roll, you get an instant success. "Roll a 7 or more unless you previously" sort of things.

Mr Shine wrote:The thing about the way it's played here is that it minimises the number of Qs. If we were playing in real life we would need to go through Crecy, Thrix. Mechanon pt 1, Earth, Mechanon pt 2 and Yelov every time facing roll well or die challenges at each place. Even with a perfect path choice Falcon would rack up the Qs

Do we get the positive letters again for making the right choices a second time if we replay, though? Those would help balance out the extra Qs.