[Let's Play] Fighting Fantasy 17 - Appointment with F.E.A.R. (Take 2)

[JourneymanN00b]

I vote to check out what is happening at the Council buildings.

[SGamerz]

You speed off back to Titan City and arrive at the Council Buildings. Everyone seems surprised at your visit. The day has been a peaceful one. Being a holiday, there are few people about. There certainly seems to be no danger. Your Crimewatch beeps again: 'SORRY. FALSE ALARM'. Just what you needed!

You set off home to take some well-deserved rest. The prospect of the F.E.A.R. meeting is weighing heavily on your mind, but for the moment you are well advised to relax for the evening. You may gain 6 STAMINA points for taking it easy. Next morning, you are woken, not by the alarm clock, but by your Crime Watch: beep - beep - beep. This time the message is longer than normal and it repeats itself: 'RELIABLE INFORMATION. FEAR MEETING TODAY. WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN!' You spring out of bed. Today! Do you have any clues as to where the meeting is? Where will you go:

Parker Airport?
Stay in town?
Head towards the waterfront?

So we didn't even get to find out whether or not Macro Brain succeeded in destroying the military base??

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Jean Lafayette
SKILL 11/11
STAMINA 23/23
LUCK 7/7
Items: Circuit Jammer
Super Power: Psi-Powers
Hero Points: 25
Clues:
1) A young boy, Timothy Grant, known as the Brain Child, has extremely vivid dreams which seem to come true In certain instances. He lives on 100th Street.
2) Daddy Rich, an eccentric millionaire who has everything money could buy, gets his kicks by murdering innocent victims and revels in their fear. He has very expensive tastes and lives in a penthouse apartment at 113, 58th Street.
3) Man wearing gold watch is trying to keep some dark secret from the Silver Crusader that involves a pawnbroker's shop that is next to a diner.
4) The F.E.A.R. meeting will be held on 5th Avenue.
5) Watch for the sign of the Mantrapper - a metal slug with a letter M engraved on it. Add 60 to the reference you are on at the time and turn to this new reference when we find evidence of the Mantrapper's activities.
6) If we come across Mustapha Kareem, we may question him about his activities by doubling the reference number we are on at the time and turning to this new reference.
7) The F.E.A.R. meeting will take place at 209th Street.
8) If we are offered the opportunity to search for Sidney Knox, we can deduct 40 from the reference we are on at the time and turn to this new reference to locate him.
No. of failures thus far: 2
[/spoiler]

[Queen of Swords]

We know that the meeting will be held on 5th Avenue, at 209th Street. So... stay in town.

[Thaluikhain]

I guess, unless that intersection is near the waterfront.

(And presumably Macro brain was prepared to fight the military, but not necessarily a hero as well, so...)

[SGamerz]

(And presumably Macro brain was prepared to fight the military, but not necessarily a hero as well, so...)

We didn't stay to fight him though, we rushed off back to town to answer a false alarm.

Also, facing Macro Brain is an auto-fail for all the powers besides ETS. So it looks like Colonel Saunders handled matters better without us.

****

If you are staying in town, you will already be making your way towards F.E.A.R.'s secret meeting-place, which lies along one of the avenues. Which avenue are you heading for? Multiply its number by 10 and turn to that reference. If the result makes no sense, turn to 368.

We're heading for Avenue 5...

You must now decide where you want to go. You may find what you are looking for at the junction with one of the streets. But which one? Add together the street and the avenue numbers and turn to that reference. If the result makes no sense, turn to 368.

209 + 5 = 214

You come to a junction on the edge of Audubon Park. The only likely-looking buildings are on the north-east corner of the junction, where people are going in and pout of a busy diner. Next to the diner is a pawnbroker's. Will you investigate the diner or the pawnbroker's?

[Thaluikhain]

Oh, a pawnbroker's, like that clue we've had for ages. Though this one was a 50/50 guess if we didn't know, not a section number based one.

(And presumably Macro brain was prepared to fight the military, but not necessarily a hero as well, so...)

We didn't stay to fight him though, we rushed off back to town to answer a false alarm.

Also, facing Macro Brain is an auto-fail for all the powers besides ETS. So it looks like Colonel Saunders handled matters better without us.

I meant Macro Brain would have presumably have enough forces to deal with the military base, but might not have counted on a hero as well.
But our presence making things worse seems not out of place for this book

[Queen of Swords]

Go to the pawnbroker's.

[SGamerz]

As you enter the pawnbroker's, the man behind the counter gasps. Before he can scream your name, you reach for him and clap your hand over his mouth to silence him. His fat face is sweating profusely and, as you grab him, he passes out. Something is certainly troubling the man! If you have Super Strength, turn to 68. If you have Psi-Powers, turn to 188. if you have another power, turn to 14.

Just before the pawnbroker passed out, you managed to catch a strong mental image. He was obviously concerned about something, and a vision of a secret trapdoor flashed through his mind. You search the shop and indeed you find a trapdoor, hidden underneath the counter. You open it and step down into a small chamber. Voices are coming from behind the door and a line of light comes from underneath it.

You burst through the door into a smoke-filled room. Six startled faces wheel round to stare at you from their seats around a conference table. You recognize them all as agents of F.E.A.R. At the head of the table sits a man whose face you could never forget. The bald head, pointed nose and eye-goggles belong to Vladimir Utoshski, leader of F.E.A.R. He rises to his feet and speaks: "So! The Silver Crusader honours us with a visit. Could it be that you wish to join us? I thik not. My friend, I will show you how F.E.A.R. must deal with its enemies. This puny specimen is no match for the Titanium Cyborg!" The half-human, half-mechanical man steps towards you, his two electro-assisted arms ready to attack. A glowing light pulses in the goggles he uses for eyes. Do you have a Circuit Jammer with you? If so, turn to 159. If not, you will have to fight the leader of F.E.A.R.:

TITANIUM CYBORG SKILL 18 STAMINA 20

After the third round of combat, turn to 136.

Wait, we recognize them all as agents of F.E.A.R.? So we knew who all the members were all along? Why couldn't we track any of them down earlier?

The one loot item we picked up is, of course, also the essential item.

This fight is otherwise unwinnable even if we ignore the SKILL 18. Section 136 is a Game Over section.

You press the button on your Circuit Jammer. The Cyborg's grin fades as the device affects its electronic functions. Its abilities have been reduced to those of an ordinary man! Now you may battle the creature on more equal terms:

Titanium Cyborg SKILL 9 STAMINA 10

The others watching the fight are frightened to see their leader stripped of his power so easily. If you defeat the Cyborg, they will surrender to you. Turn to 440 if you win this battle.

Unless the other villains are all part-cyborgs as well, they probably shouldn't be affected by the circuit jammer. So it looks like they're all cowards, and probably all ordinary guys with no superpowers so they can't stand against a lone Superhero? What happened to the other supervillains of the group? Like, we know at the very least that Macro Brain is a F.E.A.R. agent, and he auto-pwns this Silver Crusader 1-on-1. Where the hell is he? So I guess Colonel Saunders took him down after all?

COMBAT LOG:
Titanium Cyborg 16, Silver Crusader 21. TC is at 8.
TC 19, SC 17. SC is at 21.
TC 16, SC 15. SC is at 19.
TC 15, SC 17. TC is at 6.
TC 17, SC 15. SC is at 17.
TC 13, SC 19. TC is at 4.
TC 14, SC 16. TC is at 2 and gives in.

He actually fought surprisingly well despite his powers being neutered. Good thing Silver Crusader was well-rested before this fight!

The police are amazed. Single-handedly you have defeated the most dangerous association of criminals known to the world! And the extent of their dastardly plans soon becomes clear. Utoshski had developed a transmitting computer centre which was capable of overriding transmissions from the Pentagon to the US 'Star Wars' satellite orbiting the earth. He was able completely to control the super weapons on board the satellite, capable of decimating an entire city at the push of a button. His objective was the domination of the civilized countries of the world.

But you have foiled his plan. The Pentagon security codes can be changed almost immediately. And the Titanium Cyborg will be closely guarded for the rest of his life. You have earned 10 Hero Points for this victory. You can honestly say that you have saved the world from F.E.A.R. itself!

Congratulations, another book completed!

So, in general, I think I rather like the game design of the book, at least with regards to how 4 different paths are set up, but I think what lets it down somewhat is the writing. I can look past most the clichés and bad parodies considering the time period the series was written, but I'm letdown by how the story unfolds. Whenever the PC isn't responding to an immediate crisis, all he ever does is leisure activities like watching concerts, sports games, going to funfares, shopping, visiting his aunt, etc. Having some of that is fine, but he's almost never shown to be actively looking for ways to make investigations about the F.E.A.R. meeting, and all the evidence he manages to find, he pretty much stumbles upon them by accident. The visit to the military base is pretty much the only time he actively went and make inquiries about the main mission. This IMO is what makes everything in the story feels like just a series of disjointed events without focus. Another point is that because most of the later crimes cannot be solved without the appropriate clue or power, too many of them just lead to dead end. It might have been better to provide alternative ways for the PC to at least partially solve the problems without actually catching the bad guy (like saving the girls at the swimming pool without catching the culprit was one of the slightly better ones, compared to us just wandering around multiple locations fruitlessly trying to find the source of the animal attacks) for most of them.

Anyway, I won't be doing a detailed rundown for the whole book, because there are still 2 more paths for the other 2 remaining powers left unexplored and someone else may want to run/play them in the future. But I may add a few more stuff about our specific path tomorrow. If you have any questions about that, feel free to ask. I will probably post everything in spoiler blocks.

Thank you to everyone who played in this LP, and once again my apologies for my bad slip-up with the initial clue.

Adventure Sheet:
[spoiler]Name: Jean Lafayette
SKILL 11/11
STAMINA 17/23
LUCK 7/7
Items: Circuit Jammer
Super Power: Psi-Powers
Hero Points: 35
Clues:
1) A young boy, Timothy Grant, known as the Brain Child, has extremely vivid dreams which seem to come true In certain instances. He lives on 100th Street.
2) Daddy Rich, an eccentric millionaire who has everything money could buy, gets his kicks by murdering innocent victims and revels in their fear. He has very expensive tastes and lives in a penthouse apartment at 113, 58th Street.
3) Man wearing gold watch is trying to keep some dark secret from the Silver Crusader that involves a pawnbroker's shop that is next to a diner.
4) The F.E.A.R. meeting will be held on 5th Avenue.
5) Watch for the sign of the Mantrapper - a metal slug with a letter M engraved on it. Add 60 to the reference you are on at the time and turn to this new reference when we find evidence of the Mantrapper's activities.
6) If we come across Mustapha Kareem, we may question him about his activities by doubling the reference number we are on at the time and turning to this new reference.
7) The F.E.A.R. meeting will take place at 209th Street.
8) If we are offered the opportunity to search for Sidney Knox, we can deduct 40 from the reference we are on at the time and turn to this new reference to locate him.
No. of failures thus far: 2
[/spoiler]

[Darth Rabbitt]

I'm fine with the book being Silver Age silliness, but it is weird how little of it is the Silver Crusader actively investigating crimes when there's a big one in the making that needs to be stopped. Seeking out the right villainous plots to foil should be in character for a seasoned superhero looking for their archenemies, and it's what the player ends up needing to do anyways.

Thanks for running the LP.

[JourneymanN00b]

Thank you for running this, SGamerz!

[Thaluikhain]

Thanks for running.

And yeah, this book feels all over the place, and is pretty forgettable apart from the nonsensical bits. OTOH, they tried something new, and there's always going to be some failures doing that. Not having lots of items and provisions to keep track of is definitely different from most FF, can't remember another one whee that is the case.

[Queen of Swords]

I'm surprised this ended so quickly. I thought the showdown would also involve lots of wandering around and bumping into villains randomly.

Thanks for hosting!

[SGamerz]

I thought the showdown would also involve lots of wandering around and bumping into villains randomly.

I definitely was hoping for more villain fights at the end when I first managed to track down the meeting several years ago, especially since the meeting is supposed to be full of them.

Anyway, just a few additional stuff about this particular power and the "optimal path":

There's actually one more relevant clue we did not find, but obviously it's not necessary. It basically reinforces the first clue we found: that the location of the meeting is known to a man wearing gold watch. So yeah, out of the 4 clues, only the 2 with numbers references are strictly necessary. Although we also need the Circuit Jammer to win, of course.

Anyway, to find that last clue, we were supposed to get that clue about the Poisoner at the jeweller's (which we did on the second playthrough, but actually missed on the third, although I wouldn't have reminded that far back if we'd failed again, since we don't really need the last clue to win). After that, we were supposed to go to the police headquarters to learn about the Poisoner's deeds instead of going to the swimming pool. He'd be in the verge of pouring poison into the entire city's tap water supply when we find him, and this is actually one of the very few occasions where Psi-powers actually does more than just mind-reading: we mind-control him so that he slowly raises the poison to his own mouth and force him to swallow his own poison. He will plead for us to stop and then confess what he knows about the meeting.

Incidentally, we were also very close to finding the clue about the perpetrator of the swimming pool crime. We would have picked up that clue if we'd stayed to berate the candy shop owner for raising the false alarm over a kid stealing his candy bar.

There is a villain to be found at Wisneyland, but we didn't have the clue to it. It's actually where one of the other powers would have picked up a vital clue about the meeting, but other powers may also find the clue and catch that villain, they just won't get the same clue about the meeting.

The animal maulings were, of course, had to do with the clue about the lion cage which we had to skip, but you probably already guessed that.

[SGamerz]

Not having lots of items and provisions to keep track of is definitely different from most FF, can't remember another one where that is the case.

The first author who did that is actually the same one: Steve Jackson in Starship Traveller. Although we have a whole crew to keep track of there in exchange, so not sure that's an improvement.

Another one that comes to mind is Star Strider. Hmm...is that a trend for the Sci-fi genre?

[Darth Rabbitt]

Space Assassin and The Rings of Kether both have stamina pills that are basically Provisions.