Well I didn't get any response to my last board game live-play session journal, but what the heck, I'll do one more. This time the game du jour is Tales Of The Arabian Nights, another game numbered among my favorites based on its heavy storytelling element, combined with a level of intricacy which demands multiple playthroughs. I'll be piloting two "players", who will take the characters of Sinbad and Dunya (selected on the basis of ease of repeatedly typing these names), represented respectively by a blue marker and a red one. They begin in Badghdad as is always the case in this game (it's set in a fantastic version the 1400s, when the "City of Peace" was regarded as the center of the world and the height of civilization). Players who own a copy of the game are encouraged to look up the bolded encounter paragraphs for themselves, as I will be summarizing them rather than copying the flavor text verbatim (this would both be too much work and potentially violate copyright, though the former is far and away the part I care about). Technically I'm playing the "Multiple Statuses Variant" of the game, but it's never really occurred to me to do otherwise; as far as I'm concerned it's the real game.
Each character begins the game with three skills of their choice. I will give Sinbad Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, and Seamanship, while Dunya will get Courtly Graces, Enduring Hardship, and Minor Magic. (I'm deliberately not giving either one Piety since experience has proven that it's ridiculously over-effective and fairly easy to pick up in play.) Sinbad will take the first turn; I'll have both characters playing to 10 Story and 10 Destiny since I've never found a significant incentive to do otherwise. I don't seem to have a copy of the Wealth Track, which indicates players' movement rates depending on their wealth, but I'm fairly sure that I remember these numbers, so I'll be doing my best to reconstruct the track in my head during play.
Sinbad goes first as I said; the movement numbers I remember are 3-if-by-Land and 2-if-by-Sea for a character starting out at Poor wealth, but he has the Seamanship skill, which raises his Sea movement to a minimum of 4. Since staying at home in the Civilized region of the map is not the way to get interesting encounters, he will go as far as his little rowboat can carry him, and I'll choose to have him set off toward north Africa and the Mediterranean, so he goes 1 space to Damascus, 1 to the Forest which apparently occupies the Sinai peninsula (don't ask me, I didn't draw the map), 1 more space to Alexandria, and his last space out into the Med. There, he draws a card to see if he has an encounter, but gets a "Special" Fate Card instead. (This is a fairly common outcome, as something like half the deck consists of Fate cards; in my usual gaming group we have a house rule that separates the decks so that you always get an encounter, but I'm trying the rules-as-written for this solo game.)
Dunya gets to move 3 by land just as Sinbad does, though she lacks the Seamanship advantage. Since she currently has no desire to be anywhere near the other player, she'll go East rather than West, passing through mountains and forests to end up in the city of Shiraz. She draws her card; it's also a Special, and unlike Sinbad's rather conditional one, it's certain to be useful, so now she intends to go hunt him down.
Sinbad goes again; his movement this turn carries him all the way up to Leon, in the north of what is now Spain. He finally gets an encounter, having met a Wizard; this takes me to paragraph 84 in the famous TOTAN "Book of Tales". Leon is "Outside Civilization" (the game is slightly prejudiced in this regard), so a +2 applies to my roll; the total is 4, so Sinbad has met a Needy Wizard. I now use the Reaction Matrix, table B, look up Needy, and discover that my options are Aid, Avoid, Bargain, Trick, or Hire (I could also Court if my character had been female; there's no homosexuality in this game). Choosing to Aid the Needy Wizard seems obvious, so that directs me to Paragraph 203. I roll for "up or down", get "neither" (a 1/3 chance in any case), and go ahead and read 203. A rather vague paragraph describes the wizard requesting my aid without the ability to pay up front; making a 2d6 roll and having neither of the skills which would add to it, I get lucky and produce a 9, which means that Sinbad has successfully Aided the Wizard, enriching them both. Sinbad gains 1 Destiny, increases his Wealth to Rich (which raises his Land movement to 4, and his Sea movement would likewise increase if his Seamanship didn't already have it that high), and gains his choice of two skills, of which I take the more-likely-useful Scholarship.
Dunya's turn, and she's headed back west, though by a slightly more interesting route than she took before. Back to the forest, but she takes a right in Armenia or somewhere thereabouts, passes through the city of Hamadan, and then ends up in the civilized Forest space to the north of Baghdad. Here she has an encounter with a Slave (this sort of thing was permissible in medieval Arabic society, you know), paragraph 97. Being inside Civilization, she adds nothing to her d6 roll, and gets a 1, which on this table indicates it's a Happy Slave! Quite a concept, that. Reaction Matrix D gives her the options to Punish, Rob, Avoid, Question, Abduct, Buy, or Hire. (When properly playing this game, you always give the Reaction Matrix to another player to read off your choices; having looked at the table myself, I can see that Avoid gives a "No Encounter" outcome, which would be important to know if the encounter was with something unpleasant-sounding. Annoyingly, while the game does offer solitaire rules, it does not give you any way of avoiding this loophole, such as imposing a die roll to determine whether or not you're allowed to choose Avoid in such a case.) You don't run into Slaves too often, and they're the only encounters where you have the option to Buy, so I usually choose that in this case, just for the sake of getting more unusual results. Thusly, Dunya will Buy the Happy Slave; this sends her to paragraph 594, but she rolls another 1 and reduces that to 593. Unfortunately, in this paragraph, I learn that the slave is a smart girl who gives you the use of some skills, but you have to be a male character and lack the Wisdom skill, or you refuse to take directions from "some woman". Apparently Dunya is a bit on the catty side, and I don't get to buy anyone after all, nor even gain any Destiny or Story from the decision not to bid. Lame....
Back to Sinbad. He's not sure he likes the idea of this chick coming his way, but he's as far west as it's possible to go, so the best he can do is head north, where he'll take advantage of the novelty of being able to stay on land for a fourth space, and end up in a forest somewhere around Poland or so. He draws another Special card, but it's one used only in a variant of the game, so I discard it and draw again. This time he gets an encounter, the first Terrain Encounter card of the game, and in fact because he's in the Forest, he uses the specific encounter featured in this card's name and picture: the Rhinoceros. (Apparently Poland is a tropical savannah in this time period. Hey, it's a fantasy game, don't argue.) And in the process of checking the rules, I discover that I was wrong about the "NE" thing; apparently you are supposed to read the Reaction Matrix yourself and are free to choose NE if you wish to Avoid. Anyway, in order to actually encounter a Rhinoceros, Sinbad needs to roll a total of 8, meaning he'd currently need to roll a 6 on his die. He gets a 5 instead and encounters "Dark Creatures" on Matrix I; his choices are to Pray, Study, Attack, Follow, Seek Aid or Hide. Having Weapon Use, he figures he'll Attack; this sends him to paragraph 881, except it's actually 880 after he rolls his die. Here, it says he's distrubed by voices in the night, and because he lacks Wisdom or Enduring Hardship, he assumes the creatures intend him harm and jumps out of bed, waving his sword about. Others come to his aid, but they decide he's a panicky idiot, and he becomes Scorned for 1 turn, as well as losing 1 Destiny but gaining 1 Story.
Dunya's turn. Finding that the path west to Constantinople leaves her with a detour through the Yugoslavian woods before she'll catch up to Sinbad, she backs up to a town called Tiflis and heads north through two forest spaces in Russia, hopefully intercepting her man from the East by way of Kiev. She draws the terrain encounter card "Warfleet", but obviously isn't encountering such a thing in a landlocked space (though even if it looked like it was next to the ocean on the map, it would still count as land because it doesn't have the "sea space" icon). Instead she goes to paragraph 55, where she rolls another 1, totalling 3. This means she encounters a Disguised Hunchback on table C; she may Rob, Avoid (which would be No Encounter), Question, Attack, Follow, or Hire. Having thwarted her own effort to Buy something last turn, I decide that she'll settle for the next best thing and try to Hire the fellow. That's a 540, which she rolls to keep; she does indeed hire him (it doesn't say what for), but he runs off with the money without doing his job, and Dunya lacks Acting and Disguise, so she has no recourse but to swear vengeance, gaining 1 Destiny and becoming "Envious".
Well, now that both characters have acquired a nasty status, I think it's a good time for me to break and post this message before it gets any longer. We'll recomplile our characters and continue in a moment. Except that it turned out the Internet had gone down while I was typing, so I didn't get to take quite the break I planned on after all. I guess there's no choice but to continue for a while and hope the problem fixes itself.
Sinbad is Scorned this turn, meaning that he gains Story in place of all Destiny awards and cannot gain Wealth or Skills. That'd be annoying as heck if it lasted more than just the one turn, but as it is, he isn't about to suffer any of the consequences of getting rid of it prematurely. Instead he just heads back west to stay away from Dunya, going down to Rome instead of back to Spain. He draws another Special card, one which allows him to steal a Status from Dunya, but he doesn't want the one she has right now, so he still plans on staying away from her. Scorned goes away at the end of the turn and Sinbad is just as glad not to have had an encounter during it.
Dunya's troubles will not be so fleeting; the Envious status is a nasty one, which prohibits winning the game while it remains. The Envious character is mad with desire for something, probably money, and can only sate this urge either by gaining a Treasure or more than 1 Wealth level at once, finding a player who has Wisdom and can talk you out of your ill humor, or going On Pilgrimage at the cost of 3 Destiny. Since Dunya only has 1 Destiny, she can't do that, so she'll be Envious for a while...and that means that if she meets anyone she's capable of Robbing, she has to do it! Ohhh, this should be fuuun.... Still intent on catching Sinbad if possible, she moves to Adrianople, where she does not find the Pavillion of the Black Giant since that's in the Desert, but instead goes to paragraph 18. (At this point, I luckily discovered that my Internet was back; having misplaced my physical dice, I've been rolling on Invisible Castle and couldn't have continued otherwise.) She yet again rolls 1, adds 2 for being outside Arabia, and is told she's encountered an Old Man on table H. She can and does Rob him, which is paragraph 980, adjusted up to 981. He is in fact an Old blind Man according to the paragraph; not being a desperate sort, Dunya experiences guilt at her act of petty thievery (not that this will stop her from trying it again), loses her Destiny point, gains a Wealth level which doesn't actually benefit her because she's already Poor, and suffers yet another nasty status, "Grief-Stricken", albeit that it remains on a 7 or less each turn. She rolls right now and manages to lose it, so I don't have to bother looking up exactly what it does, but she's still Envious and no closer to ceasing to be so.
And now to see if I can get this posted before continuing. Apparently the answer is "no".
Well, Sinbad can cross the Med and go south of Tripoli into the desert this turn; he draws a City card, which is a Fate card, but you're not allowed to carry more than two of those, so he has to discard something. He dumps the first Special he gained a while back, which would have allowed him to travel to one of the exciting Places of Power, but required him to have a treasure first and then to go rendezvous with Dunya for some reason. So now he has a reason to go somewhere - somewhere named Zarandj, as it happens - and I avoided the need to roll any dice during the turn, since I couldn't.
Dunya the still-Envious chases after her mark and makes it as far as Rome (city cards are secret - well, actually the rules don't state that explicitly, but we've always played that way - so she doesn't know he's going to Zarandj and can't try to head there first and intercept him). She also draws a city card, one even further east called P'an P'an (as a matter of fact this is the very southeast corner of the board, seemingly located on the west coast of Australia), and is free to keep it since she had only previously drawn a Fate card once.
Sinbad proceeds in the direction of his new objective, stopping in the Sinai Forest, and he draws another City card, the much-closer Tripoli. He discards Zarandj and ends his turn.
Unable to catch up due to her low sea move, Dunya pursues as best she might, ending up in the middle of the Med, and draws the Rome city card, happily replacing the P'an-P'an one. Four consecutive turns of not having to roll a die while I'm disconnected, yay. Let's see if I need to continue...nope, connectivity restored, so here goes the post.
TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
I said Sinbad was Rich before but that was a mistake, he is in fact merely Respectable.
Sinbad - W:Respectable, D0, S2, Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship, Scholarship, Robe of Honor (Wisdom)
Dunya - W:Poor, D1, S1, Courtly Graces, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Minor Magic, 1-Use Major Magic, Envious
Resuming play with Sinbad's turn. He heads back to Tripoli - apparently he could have gone further last turn by a different route and made it to Damascus, but what's done is done - and here draws yet another city card, for Herat. Alas, he must immediately discard, so he gives up the card which would let him steal a Status from Dunya if she were to acquire something good to have, and now he plays his Tripoli card, which requires me to roll a die. Rolling a 6, Sinbad gains the excellent status "Robe of Honor" - it turns out it's not quite as awesome as I thought it was, having recently played the modern edition of TOTAN, in which the idea of conditional Statuses and Skills was removed. Therefore, instead of granting the "Respected" status flat-out, Robe of Honor grants a "6 or less" version of it, meaning it has a bit less than a half chance of disappearing each turn - and in fact, let's roll for that now. Yep, it goes away immediately, so nevermind what it does. But otherwise, the Robe of Honor grants Sinbad a Destiny point, and gives him the Wisdom skill as long as he wears the Robe. Not a bad turn, all told.
Dunya finally gets to catch up with Sinbad, but before she can play her card, she has to have an encounter. She draws the card "Palace of 100 Closets", but again needs to roll a 6 (adding 2 for a total of 8) in order to actually find this marvel. Instead she rolls yet another 1, and I find myself suspecting that Invisible Castle is buggy. 1 plus 2 equals Beautiful Princess in this particular version of math, so I go to Matrix A to find out whether Dunya is going to stick with her theme of being heinous to other females and Rob this one. The answer is yes, so it's paragraph 230 after subtracting for yet another roll of 1. At last, one of my skills hits! Because Dunya (despite being a hellacious b***h with a habit for mugging people) has Courtly Graces, she changes her mind about robbing the Princess and instead asks her for "aid" (the vagueness of this game gets to me sometimes). The Princess introduces Dunya to her buddies, and Dunya gains 2 Destiny and a 1-Use instance of any Skill she chooses, which I will decide should be Major Magic, since that seems like it will come up rarely but make a big difference. Now she gets to sock it to Sinbad with her Special card, which lets her choose his reaction in his next encounter; this is obviously more fun if you aren't playing both players, but it still gives me an excuse to do something perverse which will hopefully prove entertaining. Alas, Dunya remains Envious, and I end her turn.
Sinbad now aims to go to Herat, which is in central Asia and just a bit farther off than his former short-lived destination of Zarandj. Damascus is on the way so he stops there, drawing a copy of the same Special card that Dunya just used on him.
Dunya cannot get very far by sea, so she stops off at one of the two Islands in the Med, this leaving her still able to reach Rome the next turn just as if she'd remained in the middle of the water. She draws the encounter card "Dendan" (a giant fish), which would have been scary if she had stayed in mid-ocean, but here on the Island she goes to paragraph 45, rolling something other than a 1 for a change, and encountering a Mild Storm on table G. Since she can't Rob this one, she gets an actual choice: Pray, Avoid, Wait, Examine, or Hide. She has Enduring Hardship and so Wait is probably the "correct" answer, but I have a nice picture in my mind of her ship having put into port on this little island (seemingly Corsica or Sardinia to judge by the picture; the other Island in the middle of the Med is either an exceedingly oversized Malta or a Sicily which has broken away from the Italian peninsula and drifted some distance east), avoiding the storm and allowing her to just watch the serene spectacle of nature raging in the distance. Thusly, I choose Examine, giving me paragraph 695, which I get to keep. Alas, my little fantasy doesn't come true; I decide to cheat and read the three possible outcomes of Examining a Mild Storm, and it turns out that only a "down" roll would have profitted me, with this being the worst paragraph for a character who doesn't happen to have the right skill. Dunya gets rained on and drenched, destroying some of her valuables; she gains 1 Story, and would lose a Wealth except that she's already Poor and can't get worse off. So not an awful turn, but not great either, and she remains Envious.
Sinbad passes back through Baghdad and heads east, finding that there's no direct route to Herat and that he must detour through the mountains of Afghanistan (I have now placed this post on a CIA terror watchlist; relax guys, it's just a game). He draws an encounter card which might involve a Serpent; it instead turns out to be a Ghostly Beast on table I. He may Pray, Study, Attack, Follow, Aid, Seek Aid, or Hide. Well, he's got Scholarship as well as temporary Wisdom, so Study sounds good; going to 933 after the up/down roll, he finds that neither of those skills helped him, and so he gets a glimpse of a beautiful horse but then finds no tracks to prove that it was real, gaining nothing but a good Story to tell.
Dunya sails up to Rome, waiving the right to continue 1 more space now that she's on land; she draws a very exciting Special which gives her the ability to hand her Envious status over to Sinbad as soon as she catches him again, but first she gets to play her Rome card. Rolling a 6 (that's 2 for 2 when rolling on City cards), she has the ability to pay 1D and gain Seduction, and since she has a better plan for ceasing to be Envious than paying 3D to go On Pilgrimage, she takes the trade and gains a stereotypically feminine Skill to go with her Courtly Graces and various flavors of Magic.
Now seems like a good time to try and post again before I continue.
Sinbad - W:Respectable, D0, S2, Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship, Scholarship, Robe of Honor (Wisdom)
Dunya - W:Poor, D1, S1, Courtly Graces, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Minor Magic, 1-Use Major Magic, Envious
Resuming play with Sinbad's turn. He heads back to Tripoli - apparently he could have gone further last turn by a different route and made it to Damascus, but what's done is done - and here draws yet another city card, for Herat. Alas, he must immediately discard, so he gives up the card which would let him steal a Status from Dunya if she were to acquire something good to have, and now he plays his Tripoli card, which requires me to roll a die. Rolling a 6, Sinbad gains the excellent status "Robe of Honor" - it turns out it's not quite as awesome as I thought it was, having recently played the modern edition of TOTAN, in which the idea of conditional Statuses and Skills was removed. Therefore, instead of granting the "Respected" status flat-out, Robe of Honor grants a "6 or less" version of it, meaning it has a bit less than a half chance of disappearing each turn - and in fact, let's roll for that now. Yep, it goes away immediately, so nevermind what it does. But otherwise, the Robe of Honor grants Sinbad a Destiny point, and gives him the Wisdom skill as long as he wears the Robe. Not a bad turn, all told.
Dunya finally gets to catch up with Sinbad, but before she can play her card, she has to have an encounter. She draws the card "Palace of 100 Closets", but again needs to roll a 6 (adding 2 for a total of 8) in order to actually find this marvel. Instead she rolls yet another 1, and I find myself suspecting that Invisible Castle is buggy. 1 plus 2 equals Beautiful Princess in this particular version of math, so I go to Matrix A to find out whether Dunya is going to stick with her theme of being heinous to other females and Rob this one. The answer is yes, so it's paragraph 230 after subtracting for yet another roll of 1. At last, one of my skills hits! Because Dunya (despite being a hellacious b***h with a habit for mugging people) has Courtly Graces, she changes her mind about robbing the Princess and instead asks her for "aid" (the vagueness of this game gets to me sometimes). The Princess introduces Dunya to her buddies, and Dunya gains 2 Destiny and a 1-Use instance of any Skill she chooses, which I will decide should be Major Magic, since that seems like it will come up rarely but make a big difference. Now she gets to sock it to Sinbad with her Special card, which lets her choose his reaction in his next encounter; this is obviously more fun if you aren't playing both players, but it still gives me an excuse to do something perverse which will hopefully prove entertaining. Alas, Dunya remains Envious, and I end her turn.
Sinbad now aims to go to Herat, which is in central Asia and just a bit farther off than his former short-lived destination of Zarandj. Damascus is on the way so he stops there, drawing a copy of the same Special card that Dunya just used on him.
Dunya cannot get very far by sea, so she stops off at one of the two Islands in the Med, this leaving her still able to reach Rome the next turn just as if she'd remained in the middle of the water. She draws the encounter card "Dendan" (a giant fish), which would have been scary if she had stayed in mid-ocean, but here on the Island she goes to paragraph 45, rolling something other than a 1 for a change, and encountering a Mild Storm on table G. Since she can't Rob this one, she gets an actual choice: Pray, Avoid, Wait, Examine, or Hide. She has Enduring Hardship and so Wait is probably the "correct" answer, but I have a nice picture in my mind of her ship having put into port on this little island (seemingly Corsica or Sardinia to judge by the picture; the other Island in the middle of the Med is either an exceedingly oversized Malta or a Sicily which has broken away from the Italian peninsula and drifted some distance east), avoiding the storm and allowing her to just watch the serene spectacle of nature raging in the distance. Thusly, I choose Examine, giving me paragraph 695, which I get to keep. Alas, my little fantasy doesn't come true; I decide to cheat and read the three possible outcomes of Examining a Mild Storm, and it turns out that only a "down" roll would have profitted me, with this being the worst paragraph for a character who doesn't happen to have the right skill. Dunya gets rained on and drenched, destroying some of her valuables; she gains 1 Story, and would lose a Wealth except that she's already Poor and can't get worse off. So not an awful turn, but not great either, and she remains Envious.
Sinbad passes back through Baghdad and heads east, finding that there's no direct route to Herat and that he must detour through the mountains of Afghanistan (I have now placed this post on a CIA terror watchlist; relax guys, it's just a game). He draws an encounter card which might involve a Serpent; it instead turns out to be a Ghostly Beast on table I. He may Pray, Study, Attack, Follow, Aid, Seek Aid, or Hide. Well, he's got Scholarship as well as temporary Wisdom, so Study sounds good; going to 933 after the up/down roll, he finds that neither of those skills helped him, and so he gets a glimpse of a beautiful horse but then finds no tracks to prove that it was real, gaining nothing but a good Story to tell.
Dunya sails up to Rome, waiving the right to continue 1 more space now that she's on land; she draws a very exciting Special which gives her the ability to hand her Envious status over to Sinbad as soon as she catches him again, but first she gets to play her Rome card. Rolling a 6 (that's 2 for 2 when rolling on City cards), she has the ability to pay 1D and gain Seduction, and since she has a better plan for ceasing to be Envious than paying 3D to go On Pilgrimage, she takes the trade and gains a stereotypically feminine Skill to go with her Courtly Graces and various flavors of Magic.
Now seems like a good time to try and post again before I continue.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
I should have moved the "current character display" to the bottom of the last message, since it represents what's true after the turns narrated there; I will do it correctly this time.
Sinbad goes to Zarandj briefly and then continues on to Herat; he draws a card which could have been about an Ape Island, but instead he rolls on table 56, where an adjusted roll of 7 gives him one of the nastiest encounters in the game, one which many years of playing this game (not more than a few times each year, but still) have taught me to dread: Strange Customs. Consulting Matrix H, I am given only 4 options: Honor, Attack, Avoid or Question. Having Weapon Use, Sinbad will Attack, potentially giving him paragraph 1002; he adjusts up to 1003 instead, and it turns out that he's lodged with a rich local merchant, only to receive a shotgun scimitar wedding to his "infidel" daughter! The upshot of this is that he is now Married and Grief-Stricken, how's that for a combo; he also gains back that solitary Destiny point he keeps acquiring and misplacing, and would lose Seduction if he had it (though nothing stops him from gaining it later; apparently being adulterous requires a little extra effort).
It's worth noting that encounters like this one are a primary reason why the "default" Single-Status game is not worth bothering to play IMO; given the choice, you would naturally ditch Grief-Stricken and keep Married (or the reverse, if you're seriously opposed to the Married status's habit of fixing you in place), and the whole encounter loses its flavor. As to what the Statuses do: Grief-Stricken deprives Sinbad of the ability to use any of his Skills; it's potentially contagious, but only if you have the Storytelling skill (even if it's canceled by the status) and can spend 2 Destiny to inflict it on another player after catching up with them. It will go away when his Story total reaches 8, which will be a while at the rate he's going. He can also bribe Dunya to cheer him up, but only if she acquires Storytelling; currently neither of them has it. Meanwhile, Married is still more complicated; it makes Herat his home for the forseeable future, so now whenever he has an encounter in another city, he has to skedaddle back to Herat to see the little woman, or else he's not allowed to end his turn in cities ever again (potentially curtailing his freedom of movement quite a bit, and most significantly depriving him of the ability to win the game since his home city isn't Baghdad and you can only ever win by getting back there). The good news is that getting back to Herat gives him a Story point each time, so he can potentially work off his Grief-Stricken that way; when he returns home, he may also roll to have children, though there's unfortunately a 1/36 chance that this will make him Grief-Stricken again, with the other outcomes possibly giving him Destiny points. So possibly a good status, but inconvenient if you plan on gallivanting about the globe much, which in this game you generally do.
So, all that was just one turn from our glory-hound male; poor little envious Dunya is impatient to get started on her turn of trying to get revenge on him. She's about 12 spaces away, even assuming she stays out of the quagmire that is the Med (to someone who can't afford a fast ship, that is; with at least Respectable wealth or your own Seamanship skill, you can cross the entire thing from Cordoba to Alexandria and still have a space of movement left), so she'd better get started. She goes to Adrianople and draws a city card for Daybul, which is not on the way, so a very lame turn which leaves her even more Envious of Sinbad's excitement.
Y'know what, Sinbad's last turn was so busy that he forgot to play his Herat card; the rules aren't clear on whether you can "return home" without having left home ("Hi honey, I'm back from the corner grocery store, let's reproduce!"...it sounds logical enough, but I guess it's not very Arabian Nights-y), so I'm guessing he has to spend a couple turns making up for the mistake. He decides to go to Samarkand since it's close by, and draws and discards the Timbuktu encounter card, which he could have kept if he'd played Herat last time, oh well. He hasn't had an encounter in another city, so his triumphant return to Herat (where his "her" is @, how convenient) will have to wait even longer.
Dunya heads east, ending up back in the forests beyond Kiev (they were "the forests before Kiev" last time she was here, of course); she draws the "Balts" city card, and has no intention of going back that way, so she discards it. Boring! I can see why we normally don't play this way, even if it does inject a little sanity into the game's madcapness, and greatly speeds it up.
It's legal to simply stay where you are for a turn, so Sinbad does that, only to draw and discard another City card. Argh!
Dunya walks past Bulgars and through the Ural Mountains to end up in a roughly Siberian forest. She draws the encounter card for Gaya, which is even less convenient than Daybul, and ditches it. Still Envious.
Sinbad stays in Samarkand again, oblivious to the doom which approaches him. He draws the Leon city card and dumps it.
Dunya arrives in Samarkand with Sinbad, but can't play her Special until after she checks for an encounter. (The rules say that you can play a special "after your encounter", so it's not clear whether playing one when you didn't have an encounter is legal, but i'm assuming so; arranging to meet up with another player is tricky enough without further delays.) She draws and ditches the Alexandria city card, then lays her whammy on Sinbad, leaving him with four Statuses to her none.
Sinbad - W:Respectable, D1, S1, Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship, Scholarship, Robe of Honor (Wisdom), Married, Grief-Stricken, Envious
Dunya - W:Poor, D1, S1, Courtly Graces, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Minor Magic, 1-Use Major Magic.
Seems like a good time for another break.
Sinbad goes to Zarandj briefly and then continues on to Herat; he draws a card which could have been about an Ape Island, but instead he rolls on table 56, where an adjusted roll of 7 gives him one of the nastiest encounters in the game, one which many years of playing this game (not more than a few times each year, but still) have taught me to dread: Strange Customs. Consulting Matrix H, I am given only 4 options: Honor, Attack, Avoid or Question. Having Weapon Use, Sinbad will Attack, potentially giving him paragraph 1002; he adjusts up to 1003 instead, and it turns out that he's lodged with a rich local merchant, only to receive a shotgun scimitar wedding to his "infidel" daughter! The upshot of this is that he is now Married and Grief-Stricken, how's that for a combo; he also gains back that solitary Destiny point he keeps acquiring and misplacing, and would lose Seduction if he had it (though nothing stops him from gaining it later; apparently being adulterous requires a little extra effort).
It's worth noting that encounters like this one are a primary reason why the "default" Single-Status game is not worth bothering to play IMO; given the choice, you would naturally ditch Grief-Stricken and keep Married (or the reverse, if you're seriously opposed to the Married status's habit of fixing you in place), and the whole encounter loses its flavor. As to what the Statuses do: Grief-Stricken deprives Sinbad of the ability to use any of his Skills; it's potentially contagious, but only if you have the Storytelling skill (even if it's canceled by the status) and can spend 2 Destiny to inflict it on another player after catching up with them. It will go away when his Story total reaches 8, which will be a while at the rate he's going. He can also bribe Dunya to cheer him up, but only if she acquires Storytelling; currently neither of them has it. Meanwhile, Married is still more complicated; it makes Herat his home for the forseeable future, so now whenever he has an encounter in another city, he has to skedaddle back to Herat to see the little woman, or else he's not allowed to end his turn in cities ever again (potentially curtailing his freedom of movement quite a bit, and most significantly depriving him of the ability to win the game since his home city isn't Baghdad and you can only ever win by getting back there). The good news is that getting back to Herat gives him a Story point each time, so he can potentially work off his Grief-Stricken that way; when he returns home, he may also roll to have children, though there's unfortunately a 1/36 chance that this will make him Grief-Stricken again, with the other outcomes possibly giving him Destiny points. So possibly a good status, but inconvenient if you plan on gallivanting about the globe much, which in this game you generally do.
So, all that was just one turn from our glory-hound male; poor little envious Dunya is impatient to get started on her turn of trying to get revenge on him. She's about 12 spaces away, even assuming she stays out of the quagmire that is the Med (to someone who can't afford a fast ship, that is; with at least Respectable wealth or your own Seamanship skill, you can cross the entire thing from Cordoba to Alexandria and still have a space of movement left), so she'd better get started. She goes to Adrianople and draws a city card for Daybul, which is not on the way, so a very lame turn which leaves her even more Envious of Sinbad's excitement.
Y'know what, Sinbad's last turn was so busy that he forgot to play his Herat card; the rules aren't clear on whether you can "return home" without having left home ("Hi honey, I'm back from the corner grocery store, let's reproduce!"...it sounds logical enough, but I guess it's not very Arabian Nights-y), so I'm guessing he has to spend a couple turns making up for the mistake. He decides to go to Samarkand since it's close by, and draws and discards the Timbuktu encounter card, which he could have kept if he'd played Herat last time, oh well. He hasn't had an encounter in another city, so his triumphant return to Herat (where his "her" is @, how convenient) will have to wait even longer.
Dunya heads east, ending up back in the forests beyond Kiev (they were "the forests before Kiev" last time she was here, of course); she draws the "Balts" city card, and has no intention of going back that way, so she discards it. Boring! I can see why we normally don't play this way, even if it does inject a little sanity into the game's madcapness, and greatly speeds it up.
It's legal to simply stay where you are for a turn, so Sinbad does that, only to draw and discard another City card. Argh!
Dunya walks past Bulgars and through the Ural Mountains to end up in a roughly Siberian forest. She draws the encounter card for Gaya, which is even less convenient than Daybul, and ditches it. Still Envious.
Sinbad stays in Samarkand again, oblivious to the doom which approaches him. He draws the Leon city card and dumps it.
Dunya arrives in Samarkand with Sinbad, but can't play her Special until after she checks for an encounter. (The rules say that you can play a special "after your encounter", so it's not clear whether playing one when you didn't have an encounter is legal, but i'm assuming so; arranging to meet up with another player is tricky enough without further delays.) She draws and ditches the Alexandria city card, then lays her whammy on Sinbad, leaving him with four Statuses to her none.
Sinbad - W:Respectable, D1, S1, Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship, Scholarship, Robe of Honor (Wisdom), Married, Grief-Stricken, Envious
Dunya - W:Poor, D1, S1, Courtly Graces, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Minor Magic, 1-Use Major Magic.
Seems like a good time for another break.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
Freshly afflicted with envy, Sinbad remains in Samarkand in hopes of an encounter...and draws the Samarkand city card. Well, dagnabbit, he's gonna have an encounter now, even though his hand is full and he has to discard his Special card...the one about choosing another player's reaction. Crap. That was still affecting him and I forgot; that should have affected him during the Ghostly Beast encounter, which turned out pretty boring because of his intelligent choice. Since Dunya has only one card in hand, I decide to resolve this goof by giving her the card Sinbad just discarded, so she can play it on him again by staying here for a turn. Now Sinbad plays his just-drawn Samarkand card; it grants him the Beast-Form status! Argh. That's five statuses he now has, three of them bad and one double-edged. Beast Form is nasty, and in particular puts a kibosh on your Married attempts to produce a child (you can still try, disgustingly enough, but are unlikely to turn any profit from the attempt since you're not allowed to gain Destiny when you've been turned into an ape); fortunately, there's an easy out. Because Dunya has 1-use Major Magic, Sinbad can pay her to change him back; again the game's timing rules don't clarify whether it's legal to do that right now, but I'll assume so for the sake of convenience. Also unclear is whether this counts as Dunya using the skill up, but I'll assume not, as it'd be rather lame to lose a 1-use skill to another player's actions. So Sinbad goes down to Poor wealth again, Dunya goes up to Respectable, and Beast-Form goes away so I don't have to explain it in further detail.
Not wanting to remain stuck with two cards in hand, Dunya stays here so she can hopefully play the special I just deeded to her, and hopefully have it actually work this time. She draws a card which dictates that she encounter a Prophet on table 85; she succeeds in rolling a 1 again, which becomes 3 with the bonus, and she's encountered a Destitute Prophet. Since he's obviously Destitute, she wouldn't have to try and Rob him even if she were still Envious; her options are Grovel, Aid, Avoid, Court, or Honor, and what the heck she's got Seduction, so she'll Court him. Paragraph 206, +1 for the roll, equals 207; she doesn't have Luck, so the prophet can't marry her on the spot, but he does become her Beloved (a status, and a good one for a change), and she gains a Destiny. Being Beloved gives her a choice; she can accept or reject the offer. Acceptance is simple, but I already have a player who's Married, and we've established that Dunya is not a very nice person, so having Courted the guy into the palm of her hand, she dumps him. This calls for a two-die roll, and she adds 1 for her Courtly Graces; the result is 7, which calls for a reroll, which is 7 again, which rerolls to a higher number finally, so I go to paragraph 778, where it's revealed that the courtship dissolves with minimal acrimony and she gains 1 Story. Now she puts her hex on Sinbad and ends her turn.
Mess of a man that Sinbad is, he still hasn't had an encounter, and of course he's under Dunya's little spell so he isn't sure he even wants one. Still, there's little enough else to try, so he draws his card, which indicates that he might meet the infamous Barber. But nope, it's his turn to roll a 1, and table 68 indicates that he has met a Mad Sage. He can Grovel, Aid, Rob, Avoid, Converse, Attack, Abduct, or Honor; Dunya decides that she likes the thought of her rival Grovelling before a lunatic, and he fatalistically sets off for paragraph 222. Even before rolling "flat" on the up/down die, I had read the paragraph and hoped I'd get it, because it's hilariously absurd; it's clearly also a Court outcome, because the Sage takes offense at the character making "advances" to him (I told you there was no homosexuality in this game; it seems I should have added "successful" there). The Sage calls for guards to take Sinbad away, but being hexed doesn't stop him from using Weapon Use to defend himself. Unfortunately this gets him Outlaw (6 or less) status, and he doesn't roll low enough to immediately dispense with it. So, having had an encounter in a city other than Herat, he's no longer allowed to end in a city other than Herat, and now he's an Outlaw in Samarkand. This means that if he has another encounter in Samarkand, he must attempt to "Avoid" or he'll be Imprisoned, and if he becomes an Outlaw anywhere else in the world, he'll be taken immediately to Samarkand and Imprisoned as well. (Apparently, despite it taking four turns to travel from Rome to Samarkand under your own power, you can be extradited instantaneously by the courts in those cities. Talk about the long arm of the law.)
Dunya is finally through with Sinbad, so she heads for Daybul to cash in her city card, having to pause in Zarandj on the way. Finding something which is definitely not a Volcano, she looks up paragraph 24, where she rolls her favorite number again, adds 2, and encounters a Blind Man (table H). Remembering that she has something of a history with O/old B/blind Men, she decides to try Rob again, despite having other options (Honor, Avoid, Aid, Follow, Question and Pray; the later is unique to Blind men rather than Old ones). A down-adjustment on Robbing a Blind man produces the same result as an up-adjustment on Robbing an Old one, but she rolls another up-adjustment and gets 983. The paragraph here tells me that there are in fact several Old Blind men, and that Dunya attempts to Follow them, but she lacks Stealth and Stealing; they hear her and beat her up, and the paragraph claims that they would have killed her if they were not blind. (Nobody actually dies in this game that I've ever seen.) She gains 1 Destiny, marking the first moment in this game that anyone's Destiny or Story has exceeded 2; she gains Wounded (6 or Less), and fails to get rid of it right away, so she temporarily loses the use of her Seduction and her one-use Major Magic, as well as three other skills she doesn't have (two of which Sinbad chose at the start of the game, so it'll be funny if he can get Wounded too at some point). She has the option of paying to encounter a Healer Sage any turn, though (and frankly that just improves on the usual game situation of not being able to guarantee encounters each turn), so if she can stand to give up Respectable wealth, she has the potential to get rid of the Wound. However it will hopefully go away on its own and let her keep her money.
Sinbad heads back to Herat, where it's not clear whether he has to check for an encounter before gaining the benefits of his Married status, but I'll assume he does. He draws the Bilma city card, keeping it since he has only one card previously; he then rolls for Married, but fails to gain a child. So he finally plays his long-delayed Herat card, rolling a 4 and gaining Wisdom. It's not entirely clear what happens here, but I think from what I've seen of this game, he gains an "instance" of Talent-level Wisdom in and of himself, plus keeping the Talent-level Wisdom which he gains from the Robe of Honor; he can't upgrade to Master, and it's dubious whether he can have two of a skill, but I'm ruling that he can, because there are effects which can cause him to lose a skill, and he is explicitly allowed to use a "companion skill" to fulfill these conditions. (The rules do clarify that if you gain a "conditional skill" while having the skill normally, you ignore the new award, but the reverse isn't detailed, so I'm making the somewhat questionable judgment call that both instances remain. After all, he certainly went through enough to earn this award!) Oh, and he rolls for his Outlaw 6 or less again, and it remains.
Dunya proceeds south to Daybul, draws the Zaila encounter card, and plays the Daybul one. This causes her to become Beloved again! Knowing what will happen if she rejects him (assuming she rolls well, but she hasn't lost her Courtly Graces and already know what outcome is more likely because she has it; the lower-roll situation is probably worse if your Skills make it less probable), having not gained the Skill which might make the breakup more amicable, she decides that she'd better give in and keep the status. She rolls a 7 and just fails to lose Wounded.
Sinbad - W:Poor, D1, S1, Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship, Scholarship, Wisdom, Robe of Honor (more Wisdom), Married (Herat), Grief-Stricken, Envious, Outlaw 6 or less (Samarkand)
Dunya - W:Respectable, D3, S2, Courtly Graces, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Minor Magic, 1-Use Major Magic, Beloved (gain 2D to be Married), Wounded 6 or less.
I think it's time to break again after those three rather eventful turns.
Not wanting to remain stuck with two cards in hand, Dunya stays here so she can hopefully play the special I just deeded to her, and hopefully have it actually work this time. She draws a card which dictates that she encounter a Prophet on table 85; she succeeds in rolling a 1 again, which becomes 3 with the bonus, and she's encountered a Destitute Prophet. Since he's obviously Destitute, she wouldn't have to try and Rob him even if she were still Envious; her options are Grovel, Aid, Avoid, Court, or Honor, and what the heck she's got Seduction, so she'll Court him. Paragraph 206, +1 for the roll, equals 207; she doesn't have Luck, so the prophet can't marry her on the spot, but he does become her Beloved (a status, and a good one for a change), and she gains a Destiny. Being Beloved gives her a choice; she can accept or reject the offer. Acceptance is simple, but I already have a player who's Married, and we've established that Dunya is not a very nice person, so having Courted the guy into the palm of her hand, she dumps him. This calls for a two-die roll, and she adds 1 for her Courtly Graces; the result is 7, which calls for a reroll, which is 7 again, which rerolls to a higher number finally, so I go to paragraph 778, where it's revealed that the courtship dissolves with minimal acrimony and she gains 1 Story. Now she puts her hex on Sinbad and ends her turn.
Mess of a man that Sinbad is, he still hasn't had an encounter, and of course he's under Dunya's little spell so he isn't sure he even wants one. Still, there's little enough else to try, so he draws his card, which indicates that he might meet the infamous Barber. But nope, it's his turn to roll a 1, and table 68 indicates that he has met a Mad Sage. He can Grovel, Aid, Rob, Avoid, Converse, Attack, Abduct, or Honor; Dunya decides that she likes the thought of her rival Grovelling before a lunatic, and he fatalistically sets off for paragraph 222. Even before rolling "flat" on the up/down die, I had read the paragraph and hoped I'd get it, because it's hilariously absurd; it's clearly also a Court outcome, because the Sage takes offense at the character making "advances" to him (I told you there was no homosexuality in this game; it seems I should have added "successful" there). The Sage calls for guards to take Sinbad away, but being hexed doesn't stop him from using Weapon Use to defend himself. Unfortunately this gets him Outlaw (6 or less) status, and he doesn't roll low enough to immediately dispense with it. So, having had an encounter in a city other than Herat, he's no longer allowed to end in a city other than Herat, and now he's an Outlaw in Samarkand. This means that if he has another encounter in Samarkand, he must attempt to "Avoid" or he'll be Imprisoned, and if he becomes an Outlaw anywhere else in the world, he'll be taken immediately to Samarkand and Imprisoned as well. (Apparently, despite it taking four turns to travel from Rome to Samarkand under your own power, you can be extradited instantaneously by the courts in those cities. Talk about the long arm of the law.)
Dunya is finally through with Sinbad, so she heads for Daybul to cash in her city card, having to pause in Zarandj on the way. Finding something which is definitely not a Volcano, she looks up paragraph 24, where she rolls her favorite number again, adds 2, and encounters a Blind Man (table H). Remembering that she has something of a history with O/old B/blind Men, she decides to try Rob again, despite having other options (Honor, Avoid, Aid, Follow, Question and Pray; the later is unique to Blind men rather than Old ones). A down-adjustment on Robbing a Blind man produces the same result as an up-adjustment on Robbing an Old one, but she rolls another up-adjustment and gets 983. The paragraph here tells me that there are in fact several Old Blind men, and that Dunya attempts to Follow them, but she lacks Stealth and Stealing; they hear her and beat her up, and the paragraph claims that they would have killed her if they were not blind. (Nobody actually dies in this game that I've ever seen.) She gains 1 Destiny, marking the first moment in this game that anyone's Destiny or Story has exceeded 2; she gains Wounded (6 or Less), and fails to get rid of it right away, so she temporarily loses the use of her Seduction and her one-use Major Magic, as well as three other skills she doesn't have (two of which Sinbad chose at the start of the game, so it'll be funny if he can get Wounded too at some point). She has the option of paying to encounter a Healer Sage any turn, though (and frankly that just improves on the usual game situation of not being able to guarantee encounters each turn), so if she can stand to give up Respectable wealth, she has the potential to get rid of the Wound. However it will hopefully go away on its own and let her keep her money.
Sinbad heads back to Herat, where it's not clear whether he has to check for an encounter before gaining the benefits of his Married status, but I'll assume he does. He draws the Bilma city card, keeping it since he has only one card previously; he then rolls for Married, but fails to gain a child. So he finally plays his long-delayed Herat card, rolling a 4 and gaining Wisdom. It's not entirely clear what happens here, but I think from what I've seen of this game, he gains an "instance" of Talent-level Wisdom in and of himself, plus keeping the Talent-level Wisdom which he gains from the Robe of Honor; he can't upgrade to Master, and it's dubious whether he can have two of a skill, but I'm ruling that he can, because there are effects which can cause him to lose a skill, and he is explicitly allowed to use a "companion skill" to fulfill these conditions. (The rules do clarify that if you gain a "conditional skill" while having the skill normally, you ignore the new award, but the reverse isn't detailed, so I'm making the somewhat questionable judgment call that both instances remain. After all, he certainly went through enough to earn this award!) Oh, and he rolls for his Outlaw 6 or less again, and it remains.
Dunya proceeds south to Daybul, draws the Zaila encounter card, and plays the Daybul one. This causes her to become Beloved again! Knowing what will happen if she rejects him (assuming she rolls well, but she hasn't lost her Courtly Graces and already know what outcome is more likely because she has it; the lower-roll situation is probably worse if your Skills make it less probable), having not gained the Skill which might make the breakup more amicable, she decides that she'd better give in and keep the status. She rolls a 7 and just fails to lose Wounded.
Sinbad - W:Poor, D1, S1, Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship, Scholarship, Wisdom, Robe of Honor (more Wisdom), Married (Herat), Grief-Stricken, Envious, Outlaw 6 or less (Samarkand)
Dunya - W:Respectable, D3, S2, Courtly Graces, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Minor Magic, 1-Use Major Magic, Beloved (gain 2D to be Married), Wounded 6 or less.
I think it's time to break again after those three rather eventful turns.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
Sinbad may be an Grief-Stricken and Envious Outlaw, but that's no reason for him to just hang around home boinking his wife all day (well, actually...but no). Fun potential is waiting for him all the way in Bilma, so he starts heading back as fast as his Poor little legs can carry him, ending up in the mountains west of Zarandj. He draws the Cordoba city card and ends his turn by rolling to successfully end Outlaw. Almost a pity, he might have enjoyed being yanked back to Samarkand since it's close to where he lives, though he'd have had to get out of jail before he could go home and screw again.
Dunya is a mere 7 spaces by sea away from Zaila, though she has to detour down to Tana (the southernmost of the three cities which appear to be in India, not counting Serendib which is on the island now known as Sri Lanka) to get a ship out into the Indian Ocean; something about currents or prevailing winds, no doubt. Putting her fairly-recently-acquired Respectable wealth to work, she heads out a fair distance and arrives at an interesting Sea space; though in the middle of nowhere, it has a +3 to encounters. She draws the card "Sex-Change Spring", but that only applies in the Desert, so she looks up paragraph 76, rolls her favorite number again, but adds an amazing 5 to get the highest total that could have been rolled at a space within Civilization. Consequently she meets a "Cold Enchantress"...I don't think I've ever met anybody Cold in this game before!
Consulting table B, I see the choices Grovel, Aid, Rob, Avoid, Attack, Trick, or Hire (or Court in the lesbians-enabled version of the game). Not wanting to risk losing Wealth and being stuck at sea for an extra turn (landfall is 3 spaces away, and the difference between Poor and Respectable is huge in terms of sea movement if you don't have Seamanship), she rejects Hire out of hand, but Rob seems unwise, so she decides to try Trick. Paragraph 414 is reduced by 1 (she rolled 2 rather than 1 on the normal d6 I'm using for the up/down die, which is of interest only in that it doesn't add to my mountain of evidence that she's destined to roll nothing but 1s in violation of probability), and in 413 she finds that once again, Acting and Disguise was the Skill required for success. The Enchantress is "cold" not in the sense of being unreceptive to Courting, but simply in being suspicious and hateful; deciding that Dunya was sent by her enemies, the Enchantress has her tied up and thrashed, leaving her Crippled, albeit with her Destiny upticked so that she is now closer to marriage. Crippled status reduces Dunya's move by 1; why this matters when she's moving by Sea I couldn't say, but fortunately it doesn't strand her in the ocean as I was afraid might happen, as she retains just enough movement (sea or otherwise) to make landfall in Zaila as planned. She's now even more incapable of using Seduction than before, but Wounded goes away, so her one-use Major Magic is available again, as would be several other skills which apparently don't suffer from Crippling. Unlike Wounding, however, Crippling leaves Dunya incapable of gaining the Appearance skill, while Wounded merely made it impossible to use that or the other skills (including Seduction). On the plus side, being Crippled potentially makes for a good story, so that plus her high Destiny rating means she's doing substantially better than Sinbad at actually winning the game, in sharp contrast to the earlier situation where she seemed cursed compared to him.
Back to Sinbad. Aiming for either Bilma or Cordoba, he finds that Baghdad is in his way, so he has to detour to the northern woods, leaving both destinations rather distant. He draws the Kiev card, which is a good bit closer and gives him an excuse to discard Bilma.
Dunya limps into her intended port, draws a city card for the northernmost of two Oriental cities which appear on the map as pagodas (Su-Chou; the other one is Lhasa), and plays the Zaila card. My first roll didn't count, although the fact that it was two 1s suggests that Dunya's improbable streak continues; when I succeeded in rolling only 1 die, however, it was a 5, and this granted her the excellent Blessed status. An appropriate status for Dunya in view of that whole "rolling 1s" thing, Blessed lets her choose the numbers she's to roll, up until this sways her fate too much from the actual outcome of the die roll, at which point she still gets what she wants but the status is expended. (There's been some rules ambiguity about whether you can choose a result on an encounter table which is impossible to roll, such as a 1 when you're outside Civilization; for now I'm presuming that you choose a number for the die to roll, but apply modifiers normally, although it would be fun to play it the other way since 1s and 2s are very difficult to get in this game, given how little time you spend in the very small Civilized area.)
Sinbad is still Poor, so he can't quite make it to Kiev, stopping instead in the nearby forests that Dunya well knew. He draws a card which dictates that he encounter a Sage on table 85. It proves to be a Friendly Sage, but unfortunately that gives the option to Rob him, so Sinbad's Envy takes over. Adjusting up to paragraph 232, Sinbad tries to rob a distant relative of the sultan, but is instantly suspected and ends up Imprisoned, gaining D1. It really doesn't look good for our hero; he can't win the game, can't use his skills, and now can't move from what is presumably a small Russian village (with a Sultan). Here, all he can do each turn is have encounters with a Hunchback on table 86; my gaming group has learned from experience that your odds of getting free from prison by dealing with the Hunchback are poor, and have historically houseruled that you're let go after 3 turns, but this time around I'll go with RAW and see just how bad it can get.
Dunya begins her long, slow trek to Su-Chou, finding that a stop back in Baghdad is as convenient as anywhere else on the route. Here she meets an Efreet on table 84; Blessed allows her to just plain read this table before choosing, and she opts to have him be a Bumbling Efreet with a roll of 2 (3 or 4 would be Needy, and outside of civilization he'd have a similarly good chance of being Mad; only here in Baghdad's environs can a Kindly or Bumbling Efreet be found, but choosing Kindly would drop her chances of remaining Blessed to 1/3, so she settles for the second-best option). She does not roll her favorite number or one slightly higher than it, so she ceases to be Blessed already, but hopefully it made the difference; her Bumbling Efreet is vulnerable to all the choices (including Court, which would be tempting if she had Seduction), but the clearly ideal one in this case is to Trick him. Forced to make a standard roll for up/down (the new edition explicitly prevents you from rigging this die roll with Blessed, but as far as I know it was legal in the old one), she goes not to 226 but rather 227, where it turns out that the Efreet is not that foolish after all, and Dunya is also Imprisoned! But in the process, she gains 1 Destiny, which means that she also becomes Married - in Baghdad, the one place where getting Married doesn't detract from your odds of winning the game. Furthermore, she's the first to hit 5 in something, which means all her encounter rolls are +1 henceforth (making it impossible for her to ever meet that Kindly Efreet I mentioned, unless she loses some Destiny - which is not too hard to do, as Destiny tends to be the thing you "spend" in this game, while Story just creeps gradually up). Marriage is somehow not any more inconvenient on the adventuress than it is on the adventurer - either way you go home and produce a child instantaneously - but it does increase her Story points to 3, and once she gets out of jail and can move around a bit, it gives her a fast track to winning the game - just keep going home, having the occasional child, and after at most 7 happy returns and potentially as little as 3 pregnancies, she can win the game that same turn.
Sinbad - W:Poor, D2, S1, Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship, Scholarship, Wisdom, Robe of Honor (more Wisdom), Married (Herat), Grief-Stricken, Envious, Imprisoned
Dunya - W:Respectable, D5, S3, Courtly Graces, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Minor Magic, 1-Use Major Magic, Married (Baghdad), Crippled, Imprisoned
Well, both characters are married and in jail, so this is probably a good time for another breather. When we come back, we'll find out just how hard it is to get past those Hunchbacks and head back to your love shack.
Dunya is a mere 7 spaces by sea away from Zaila, though she has to detour down to Tana (the southernmost of the three cities which appear to be in India, not counting Serendib which is on the island now known as Sri Lanka) to get a ship out into the Indian Ocean; something about currents or prevailing winds, no doubt. Putting her fairly-recently-acquired Respectable wealth to work, she heads out a fair distance and arrives at an interesting Sea space; though in the middle of nowhere, it has a +3 to encounters. She draws the card "Sex-Change Spring", but that only applies in the Desert, so she looks up paragraph 76, rolls her favorite number again, but adds an amazing 5 to get the highest total that could have been rolled at a space within Civilization. Consequently she meets a "Cold Enchantress"...I don't think I've ever met anybody Cold in this game before!
Consulting table B, I see the choices Grovel, Aid, Rob, Avoid, Attack, Trick, or Hire (or Court in the lesbians-enabled version of the game). Not wanting to risk losing Wealth and being stuck at sea for an extra turn (landfall is 3 spaces away, and the difference between Poor and Respectable is huge in terms of sea movement if you don't have Seamanship), she rejects Hire out of hand, but Rob seems unwise, so she decides to try Trick. Paragraph 414 is reduced by 1 (she rolled 2 rather than 1 on the normal d6 I'm using for the up/down die, which is of interest only in that it doesn't add to my mountain of evidence that she's destined to roll nothing but 1s in violation of probability), and in 413 she finds that once again, Acting and Disguise was the Skill required for success. The Enchantress is "cold" not in the sense of being unreceptive to Courting, but simply in being suspicious and hateful; deciding that Dunya was sent by her enemies, the Enchantress has her tied up and thrashed, leaving her Crippled, albeit with her Destiny upticked so that she is now closer to marriage. Crippled status reduces Dunya's move by 1; why this matters when she's moving by Sea I couldn't say, but fortunately it doesn't strand her in the ocean as I was afraid might happen, as she retains just enough movement (sea or otherwise) to make landfall in Zaila as planned. She's now even more incapable of using Seduction than before, but Wounded goes away, so her one-use Major Magic is available again, as would be several other skills which apparently don't suffer from Crippling. Unlike Wounding, however, Crippling leaves Dunya incapable of gaining the Appearance skill, while Wounded merely made it impossible to use that or the other skills (including Seduction). On the plus side, being Crippled potentially makes for a good story, so that plus her high Destiny rating means she's doing substantially better than Sinbad at actually winning the game, in sharp contrast to the earlier situation where she seemed cursed compared to him.
Back to Sinbad. Aiming for either Bilma or Cordoba, he finds that Baghdad is in his way, so he has to detour to the northern woods, leaving both destinations rather distant. He draws the Kiev card, which is a good bit closer and gives him an excuse to discard Bilma.
Dunya limps into her intended port, draws a city card for the northernmost of two Oriental cities which appear on the map as pagodas (Su-Chou; the other one is Lhasa), and plays the Zaila card. My first roll didn't count, although the fact that it was two 1s suggests that Dunya's improbable streak continues; when I succeeded in rolling only 1 die, however, it was a 5, and this granted her the excellent Blessed status. An appropriate status for Dunya in view of that whole "rolling 1s" thing, Blessed lets her choose the numbers she's to roll, up until this sways her fate too much from the actual outcome of the die roll, at which point she still gets what she wants but the status is expended. (There's been some rules ambiguity about whether you can choose a result on an encounter table which is impossible to roll, such as a 1 when you're outside Civilization; for now I'm presuming that you choose a number for the die to roll, but apply modifiers normally, although it would be fun to play it the other way since 1s and 2s are very difficult to get in this game, given how little time you spend in the very small Civilized area.)
Sinbad is still Poor, so he can't quite make it to Kiev, stopping instead in the nearby forests that Dunya well knew. He draws a card which dictates that he encounter a Sage on table 85. It proves to be a Friendly Sage, but unfortunately that gives the option to Rob him, so Sinbad's Envy takes over. Adjusting up to paragraph 232, Sinbad tries to rob a distant relative of the sultan, but is instantly suspected and ends up Imprisoned, gaining D1. It really doesn't look good for our hero; he can't win the game, can't use his skills, and now can't move from what is presumably a small Russian village (with a Sultan). Here, all he can do each turn is have encounters with a Hunchback on table 86; my gaming group has learned from experience that your odds of getting free from prison by dealing with the Hunchback are poor, and have historically houseruled that you're let go after 3 turns, but this time around I'll go with RAW and see just how bad it can get.
Dunya begins her long, slow trek to Su-Chou, finding that a stop back in Baghdad is as convenient as anywhere else on the route. Here she meets an Efreet on table 84; Blessed allows her to just plain read this table before choosing, and she opts to have him be a Bumbling Efreet with a roll of 2 (3 or 4 would be Needy, and outside of civilization he'd have a similarly good chance of being Mad; only here in Baghdad's environs can a Kindly or Bumbling Efreet be found, but choosing Kindly would drop her chances of remaining Blessed to 1/3, so she settles for the second-best option). She does not roll her favorite number or one slightly higher than it, so she ceases to be Blessed already, but hopefully it made the difference; her Bumbling Efreet is vulnerable to all the choices (including Court, which would be tempting if she had Seduction), but the clearly ideal one in this case is to Trick him. Forced to make a standard roll for up/down (the new edition explicitly prevents you from rigging this die roll with Blessed, but as far as I know it was legal in the old one), she goes not to 226 but rather 227, where it turns out that the Efreet is not that foolish after all, and Dunya is also Imprisoned! But in the process, she gains 1 Destiny, which means that she also becomes Married - in Baghdad, the one place where getting Married doesn't detract from your odds of winning the game. Furthermore, she's the first to hit 5 in something, which means all her encounter rolls are +1 henceforth (making it impossible for her to ever meet that Kindly Efreet I mentioned, unless she loses some Destiny - which is not too hard to do, as Destiny tends to be the thing you "spend" in this game, while Story just creeps gradually up). Marriage is somehow not any more inconvenient on the adventuress than it is on the adventurer - either way you go home and produce a child instantaneously - but it does increase her Story points to 3, and once she gets out of jail and can move around a bit, it gives her a fast track to winning the game - just keep going home, having the occasional child, and after at most 7 happy returns and potentially as little as 3 pregnancies, she can win the game that same turn.
Sinbad - W:Poor, D2, S1, Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship, Scholarship, Wisdom, Robe of Honor (more Wisdom), Married (Herat), Grief-Stricken, Envious, Imprisoned
Dunya - W:Respectable, D5, S3, Courtly Graces, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Minor Magic, 1-Use Major Magic, Married (Baghdad), Crippled, Imprisoned
Well, both characters are married and in jail, so this is probably a good time for another breather. When we come back, we'll find out just how hard it is to get past those Hunchbacks and head back to your love shack.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
For what might be a very long time, my choices will be greatly simplified; I won't need the map since neither player can move, so I'll just set Table 86 where I can find it, and see what kind of Hunchbacks (henceforth "HBs") I find. Sinbad is up first, and he adds 2 to his roll since he's imprisoned outside Civilization, so he gets a total of 6 - a Disguised Hunchback. (Which, if memory serves, is actually a something else disguised as a Hunchback, since the reverse makes less sense.) Since Sinbad is still Envious, and has the option to Rob the Disguised HB, he has no other choice; the up/down roll stays flat, and he uses paragraph 227, which I believe we've seen before. Yes indeed, Sinbad is caught and Imprisoned for his crime, what a surprise. Destiny finally gets to 3 for him, but that's all he gets out of it - and he has at least a 1/18 chance of this happening again next turn.
Dunya is doing slightly better of course, having at least enough sense not to invariably rob her jailor if given the chance. She adds only 1 to her roll since she's in Civilization but has too much Destiny to ever produce a 1 (which would be a Friendly HB, but that's still possible on a 2, just not as likely as when she could produce 1 or 2); her roll is 5 before adding the 1, so she also encounters a Disguised HB. Besides the proven-undesireable Rob, the options are Avoid (producing No Encounter and thus not getting you out of jail), Question, Attack, Follow or Hire. Since I can't help but wonder at the logic of Following someone when you're Imprisoned, I'll choose that. 471 shall be the number of the counting, except that Dunya rolls one of her famous home-baked apple 1's, so it's 470; this looks promising, as Dunya apparently sees the HB enter the Sultan's palace (presumably from the window of her cell), telling the guards and getting brought before the Sultan, who confesses to dressing as a beggar (actually a Hunchback jailor, it seems; perhaps he wasn't that bright, letting his prisoner see him go into the palace through the window of the cell he just left).
That Courtly Graces which Dunya has had all game finally pays off, as the Sultan mistakes her for someone very wise (possessing actual Wisdom would have worked too, but let's be honest, Dunya is clearly a silver-tongued conniver); she gets D2, S2 which becomes S4 because of Crippled, Robe of Honor (and thus Respected 6 or less), and arguably the second-best status in the game, Vizier, as well as escaping prison. Robe of Honor we've seen before of course; it gives her 1 Destiny, she gains Wisdom as long as she keeps it, and she gets Respected, but unfortunately she immediately loses it just as Sinbad did. Still, people are bound to respect a Vizier; she gains another Destiny and another Story immediately, increases her Courtly Graces and Wisdom (at least one of which you have if you got this particular award paragraph), and would be anchored to Baghdad just the way marriage does, if she weren't already Married. She also has the potential to acquire Sultan status if she can gain Piety and Scholarship twice over, but at this point that hardly matters, as she's only 1 Destiny and 2 Story (potentially 1 Story, if she can remain Crippled and gets that award from someone who doubles it out of pity for the differently-abled) away from winning the game, and probably doesn't even have to leave Baghdad to make this happen (though obviously she won't be gaining kids if she never leaves town - wait, how is that obvious? your husband refuses to lay with you unless you've been away for weeks? this is a strange marriage indeed).
But we're still not done, because that unbelievable turn has given Dunya the game's first-ever 7s in both Destiny and Story, as well as 9 in the former. The 9 means she's now adding +2 to all encounter rolls, just like when you're outside Civilization but cumulatively with that modifier; the 7 in Destiny also means you have access to Master skills, which are very sexy, and this includes the Wisdom and Courtly Graces which she gained by becoming a Vizier (if she loses Vizier status, those will go away). Meanwhile, hitting 5 Story gave her the Storytelling skill, and hitting 7 would have raised her Wealth if she weren't already Respectable (alas, it's almost impossible to lose Story, so there's not much chance she can spend Wealth and Story like they're going out of style and then try to gain this award again so it will matter). The only award left to gain is Story 9, which is a free Talent skill, and of course making that happen is on her to-do list.
Well, after all that insane jackpot action, poor (and Poor) Sinbad finally gets a turn. He narrowly avoids rolling another Disguised Hunchback, getting a Crafty one instead; Robbing isn't an option this time, so he has the choice to Beat, Enrich, Avoid, Question, Attack, Follow, or Hire. Poor though he is, Sinbad doesn't have much hope of success on any of the other routes; he knows that Following an HB worked well for Dunya, but since this isn't (and couldn't be, as long as he's Envious) the same HB that Dunya Followed, he doesn't count on being able to get the same result. So he settles for trying to Hire the HB, hoping that even Poor wealth is better than what a guy who feeds prisoners has. Chevron 541 encoded and locked; if Sinbad weren't Grief-Stricken, his Wisdom would have applied, but as it turns out, the supposedly crafty HB promises to deliver some love for Sinbad, only to get lost enroute to Herat. Presumably he does get through, for Sinbad's sweetie is "most displeased" (really, the paragraph is quite clear on this part), as is Sinbad himself; the HB comes back and Sinbad proceeds to beat him up, losing 1 Destiny and gaining 1 story (and remaining Imprisoned). Well, his D and S totals are equalized now, however much good that does him; it does mean he's no longer capable of going On Pilgrimage, which I'd forgotten he could do in hopes of ceasing to be Envious, and I really should have done that this round. Looks like Sinbad is going to be stuck robbing HBs for a while longer.
Dunya begins her first turn as a Vizier, figuring that there's no sense in drawing things out when she's two homecoming parties (assuming a little luck on the baby-making roll) away from winning the game and putting Sinbad out of his misery. Rather than stay in town and see what happens, she steps a single space away to the closest city, Makka, in hopes of triggering her Married (and Vizier) statuses so that she can run home again the next turn. Sure enough, she runs into a Beggar, which is on Table 86 again; she makes the same d6+2 roll that Sinbad faces every turn for the forseeable, and gets her favorite number on the die, which with +2 means a Destitute Beggar (instead of the Destitute HB which it would mean for Sinbad). Redundant as this sounds, it offers the options to Beat, Enrich, Avoid, Question, Attack, or Hire (Follow isn't an option, and we know exactly why); since she wishes she had spent Wealth earlier, she's only too happy to Enrich him now, and goes to paragraph 204, which thanks to yet another roll of 1 becomes 203. Sinbad has gotten this one before, a long time ago; Dunya tries it, also not having either of the skills which helps, but she gets lucky on the rolls, and when she pays the beggar for a scheme, he strikes it rich. She gains 1 Destiny, so she unquestionably will be capable of winning after 2 trips home unless she suffers some loss in the meantime; furthermore she becomes Rich, and chooses to gain Bargaining so as to be different from Sinbad's earlier choice of Scholarship (which has yet to do him any good).
Sinbad is still stuck, and so am I it seems; I didn't want to take a break now, with the end of the game so close, but Invisible Castle is timing out on me even though this site is still working, so I'd better upload this post while I can.
Sinbad - W:Poor, D2, S2, Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship, Scholarship, Wisdom, Robe of Honor (more Wisdom), Married (Herat), Grief-Stricken, Envious, Imprisoned
Dunya - W:Rich, D10, S8, Bargaining, Courtly Graces, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Storytelling, Minor Magic, 1-Use Major Magic, Married (Baghdad), Crippled, Robe of Honor (Wisdom), Vizier (master Courtly Graces and Wisdom)
Dunya is doing slightly better of course, having at least enough sense not to invariably rob her jailor if given the chance. She adds only 1 to her roll since she's in Civilization but has too much Destiny to ever produce a 1 (which would be a Friendly HB, but that's still possible on a 2, just not as likely as when she could produce 1 or 2); her roll is 5 before adding the 1, so she also encounters a Disguised HB. Besides the proven-undesireable Rob, the options are Avoid (producing No Encounter and thus not getting you out of jail), Question, Attack, Follow or Hire. Since I can't help but wonder at the logic of Following someone when you're Imprisoned, I'll choose that. 471 shall be the number of the counting, except that Dunya rolls one of her famous home-baked apple 1's, so it's 470; this looks promising, as Dunya apparently sees the HB enter the Sultan's palace (presumably from the window of her cell), telling the guards and getting brought before the Sultan, who confesses to dressing as a beggar (actually a Hunchback jailor, it seems; perhaps he wasn't that bright, letting his prisoner see him go into the palace through the window of the cell he just left).
That Courtly Graces which Dunya has had all game finally pays off, as the Sultan mistakes her for someone very wise (possessing actual Wisdom would have worked too, but let's be honest, Dunya is clearly a silver-tongued conniver); she gets D2, S2 which becomes S4 because of Crippled, Robe of Honor (and thus Respected 6 or less), and arguably the second-best status in the game, Vizier, as well as escaping prison. Robe of Honor we've seen before of course; it gives her 1 Destiny, she gains Wisdom as long as she keeps it, and she gets Respected, but unfortunately she immediately loses it just as Sinbad did. Still, people are bound to respect a Vizier; she gains another Destiny and another Story immediately, increases her Courtly Graces and Wisdom (at least one of which you have if you got this particular award paragraph), and would be anchored to Baghdad just the way marriage does, if she weren't already Married. She also has the potential to acquire Sultan status if she can gain Piety and Scholarship twice over, but at this point that hardly matters, as she's only 1 Destiny and 2 Story (potentially 1 Story, if she can remain Crippled and gets that award from someone who doubles it out of pity for the differently-abled) away from winning the game, and probably doesn't even have to leave Baghdad to make this happen (though obviously she won't be gaining kids if she never leaves town - wait, how is that obvious? your husband refuses to lay with you unless you've been away for weeks? this is a strange marriage indeed).
But we're still not done, because that unbelievable turn has given Dunya the game's first-ever 7s in both Destiny and Story, as well as 9 in the former. The 9 means she's now adding +2 to all encounter rolls, just like when you're outside Civilization but cumulatively with that modifier; the 7 in Destiny also means you have access to Master skills, which are very sexy, and this includes the Wisdom and Courtly Graces which she gained by becoming a Vizier (if she loses Vizier status, those will go away). Meanwhile, hitting 5 Story gave her the Storytelling skill, and hitting 7 would have raised her Wealth if she weren't already Respectable (alas, it's almost impossible to lose Story, so there's not much chance she can spend Wealth and Story like they're going out of style and then try to gain this award again so it will matter). The only award left to gain is Story 9, which is a free Talent skill, and of course making that happen is on her to-do list.
Well, after all that insane jackpot action, poor (and Poor) Sinbad finally gets a turn. He narrowly avoids rolling another Disguised Hunchback, getting a Crafty one instead; Robbing isn't an option this time, so he has the choice to Beat, Enrich, Avoid, Question, Attack, Follow, or Hire. Poor though he is, Sinbad doesn't have much hope of success on any of the other routes; he knows that Following an HB worked well for Dunya, but since this isn't (and couldn't be, as long as he's Envious) the same HB that Dunya Followed, he doesn't count on being able to get the same result. So he settles for trying to Hire the HB, hoping that even Poor wealth is better than what a guy who feeds prisoners has. Chevron 541 encoded and locked; if Sinbad weren't Grief-Stricken, his Wisdom would have applied, but as it turns out, the supposedly crafty HB promises to deliver some love for Sinbad, only to get lost enroute to Herat. Presumably he does get through, for Sinbad's sweetie is "most displeased" (really, the paragraph is quite clear on this part), as is Sinbad himself; the HB comes back and Sinbad proceeds to beat him up, losing 1 Destiny and gaining 1 story (and remaining Imprisoned). Well, his D and S totals are equalized now, however much good that does him; it does mean he's no longer capable of going On Pilgrimage, which I'd forgotten he could do in hopes of ceasing to be Envious, and I really should have done that this round. Looks like Sinbad is going to be stuck robbing HBs for a while longer.
Dunya begins her first turn as a Vizier, figuring that there's no sense in drawing things out when she's two homecoming parties (assuming a little luck on the baby-making roll) away from winning the game and putting Sinbad out of his misery. Rather than stay in town and see what happens, she steps a single space away to the closest city, Makka, in hopes of triggering her Married (and Vizier) statuses so that she can run home again the next turn. Sure enough, she runs into a Beggar, which is on Table 86 again; she makes the same d6+2 roll that Sinbad faces every turn for the forseeable, and gets her favorite number on the die, which with +2 means a Destitute Beggar (instead of the Destitute HB which it would mean for Sinbad). Redundant as this sounds, it offers the options to Beat, Enrich, Avoid, Question, Attack, or Hire (Follow isn't an option, and we know exactly why); since she wishes she had spent Wealth earlier, she's only too happy to Enrich him now, and goes to paragraph 204, which thanks to yet another roll of 1 becomes 203. Sinbad has gotten this one before, a long time ago; Dunya tries it, also not having either of the skills which helps, but she gets lucky on the rolls, and when she pays the beggar for a scheme, he strikes it rich. She gains 1 Destiny, so she unquestionably will be capable of winning after 2 trips home unless she suffers some loss in the meantime; furthermore she becomes Rich, and chooses to gain Bargaining so as to be different from Sinbad's earlier choice of Scholarship (which has yet to do him any good).
Sinbad is still stuck, and so am I it seems; I didn't want to take a break now, with the end of the game so close, but Invisible Castle is timing out on me even though this site is still working, so I'd better upload this post while I can.
Sinbad - W:Poor, D2, S2, Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship, Scholarship, Wisdom, Robe of Honor (more Wisdom), Married (Herat), Grief-Stricken, Envious, Imprisoned
Dunya - W:Rich, D10, S8, Bargaining, Courtly Graces, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Storytelling, Minor Magic, 1-Use Major Magic, Married (Baghdad), Crippled, Robe of Honor (Wisdom), Vizier (master Courtly Graces and Wisdom)
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
And now, the very probable last post of this playthrough. IC is back to functioning for now, if by "functioning" you mean "spitting out the same number as last time"; facing another Crafty HB, Sinbad decides to try Following him, hoping he might manage to be a disguised sultan somehow. Paragraph 474 fails to roll up or down; Sinbad's Weapon Use would prove beneficial if he weren't too sad to use it, but apparently his Grief is so great that he lets himself be ganked by a gaggle of bums and beaten within an inch of his life. He can't lose any Wealth since he's already Poor, but he's Wounded, though he gains S1. (Now he really wishes he'd gone On Pilgrimage last turn.) He is now doubly incapable of using the Weapon Use which would have saved him this turn, as well as the Stealth and Stealing he's also had all game. But, on the plus side, he's now capable of encountering a Healer Sage instead of his usual Hunchback (I guess the prison keeps a medic on hand to avoid complaints of excessive force), and that has the potential to produce some very strange results, assuming he isn't capable of Robbing the Sage.
Dunya goes back to Baghdad, where I again opt to check for an Encounter before resolving Married, though the timing is unclear. The encounter would be with a Lion if we were in the Desert, but I don't think anyone has ended their turn in a Desert space all game (which does seem to be prudent decision-making on their parts); instead, we look at paragraph 51, and roll up Strange Customs! (What? How strange can they be, we're in Baghdad where the players came from in the first place!) Well, crap. Maybe Dunya's quick win isn't going to arrive. She decides she'd better try to Honor the customs, since all her Skills are unlikely to help with any other attempt; Honor is the most unique of these choices, having no results in common with Attack or Avoid, both of which overlap with Question. Rolling flat on the up/down, she gets 1005, and I'm going to break my rule on not quoting the paragraph, because you have to hear this one to believe it. "In a far-off land, you have married a most wonderful member of the opposite sex. You live in bliss for less than a week when your spouse dies of a sudden cold. You are reminded of the custom of burying the surviving spouse with the corpse in a huge pit." Okay, so not only does the paragraph say you're in a "far-off land", even when you're where everyone starts the game, but it also dictates that you marry a stranger, who dies, regardless of whether or not you're already married. This encounter is precisely why my group dreads Strange Customs.
Anyway, Dunya has to choose whether to try and escape the Custom; I can't help but decide that the answer needs to be "yes", even though I cheated and saw that saying "no" would have taken me to paragraph 1006, right next to where I am. But I cheat a little more and see that choosing "yes" calls for you to roll 1d6, even though most of these in-paragraph rolls call for 2d6, and you need to be able to add at least 2 out of 3 skills (none of which she has) to the roll to have any chance of success; without that, you'll just be Crippled (which she is anyway, but still) and end up at 1006 after all. So she goes there, and is again told she's gone to a far-off land and married a guy who died. She gets buried, with a tiny bit of food and water (why bother, I wonder?), and is stuck until someone else gets lowered into the pit, where he refuses to share his food. Dunya slips into a deathly sleep and is then removed from the pit by a grave robber, who assumes she's dead and "strips" her (the exact word the book use, though it applies regardless of gender so they presumably didn't figure it was especially wrong). Dunya gains D1, S1, drops to Peniless wealth (whose effects on movement I don't recall so I'll just assume it's the same as Poor), and becomes Insane.
Insane lets another player pick your reactions in encounters, which would be pretty bad for Dunya here if she weren't back at Baghdad, but she is; I now resolve Married by having her gain her 10th Story point. Now, by the strict rules of the game, it looks like Dunya has to take one more turn before she can claim victory; with her being Insane, this risks her being thrown out of Baghdad and the game continuing. But it's about time for me to go to bed, so I'm not prolonging the game any longer - though I do take a moment to check up on that Healer Sage. Sure enough, he can be Robbed, so Envious Sinbad wouldn't have much chance of getting healed by him, and whether he'd get out of prison when not encountering his HB jailor is anyone's guess, so I'm definitely giving up. The most one-sided game of TOTAN ever is over, and the legend of Dunya the Heinous B***h shall forever be infamous in the halls of the Sultan who hired her as his closest advisor.
Final character statuses:
Sinbad - W:Poor, D2, S3, Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship, Scholarship, Wisdom, Robe of Honor (more Wisdom), Married (Herat), Grief-Stricken, Envious, Imprisoned
Dunya - W:Penniless, D11, S10, Bargaining, Courtly Graces, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Storytelling, Minor Magic, 1-Use Major Magic, Married (Baghdad), Crippled, Robe of Honor (Wisdom), Vizier (master Courtly Graces and Wisdom), Insane
Dunya goes back to Baghdad, where I again opt to check for an Encounter before resolving Married, though the timing is unclear. The encounter would be with a Lion if we were in the Desert, but I don't think anyone has ended their turn in a Desert space all game (which does seem to be prudent decision-making on their parts); instead, we look at paragraph 51, and roll up Strange Customs! (What? How strange can they be, we're in Baghdad where the players came from in the first place!) Well, crap. Maybe Dunya's quick win isn't going to arrive. She decides she'd better try to Honor the customs, since all her Skills are unlikely to help with any other attempt; Honor is the most unique of these choices, having no results in common with Attack or Avoid, both of which overlap with Question. Rolling flat on the up/down, she gets 1005, and I'm going to break my rule on not quoting the paragraph, because you have to hear this one to believe it. "In a far-off land, you have married a most wonderful member of the opposite sex. You live in bliss for less than a week when your spouse dies of a sudden cold. You are reminded of the custom of burying the surviving spouse with the corpse in a huge pit." Okay, so not only does the paragraph say you're in a "far-off land", even when you're where everyone starts the game, but it also dictates that you marry a stranger, who dies, regardless of whether or not you're already married. This encounter is precisely why my group dreads Strange Customs.
Anyway, Dunya has to choose whether to try and escape the Custom; I can't help but decide that the answer needs to be "yes", even though I cheated and saw that saying "no" would have taken me to paragraph 1006, right next to where I am. But I cheat a little more and see that choosing "yes" calls for you to roll 1d6, even though most of these in-paragraph rolls call for 2d6, and you need to be able to add at least 2 out of 3 skills (none of which she has) to the roll to have any chance of success; without that, you'll just be Crippled (which she is anyway, but still) and end up at 1006 after all. So she goes there, and is again told she's gone to a far-off land and married a guy who died. She gets buried, with a tiny bit of food and water (why bother, I wonder?), and is stuck until someone else gets lowered into the pit, where he refuses to share his food. Dunya slips into a deathly sleep and is then removed from the pit by a grave robber, who assumes she's dead and "strips" her (the exact word the book use, though it applies regardless of gender so they presumably didn't figure it was especially wrong). Dunya gains D1, S1, drops to Peniless wealth (whose effects on movement I don't recall so I'll just assume it's the same as Poor), and becomes Insane.
Insane lets another player pick your reactions in encounters, which would be pretty bad for Dunya here if she weren't back at Baghdad, but she is; I now resolve Married by having her gain her 10th Story point. Now, by the strict rules of the game, it looks like Dunya has to take one more turn before she can claim victory; with her being Insane, this risks her being thrown out of Baghdad and the game continuing. But it's about time for me to go to bed, so I'm not prolonging the game any longer - though I do take a moment to check up on that Healer Sage. Sure enough, he can be Robbed, so Envious Sinbad wouldn't have much chance of getting healed by him, and whether he'd get out of prison when not encountering his HB jailor is anyone's guess, so I'm definitely giving up. The most one-sided game of TOTAN ever is over, and the legend of Dunya the Heinous B***h shall forever be infamous in the halls of the Sultan who hired her as his closest advisor.
Final character statuses:
Sinbad - W:Poor, D2, S3, Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship, Scholarship, Wisdom, Robe of Honor (more Wisdom), Married (Herat), Grief-Stricken, Envious, Imprisoned
Dunya - W:Penniless, D11, S10, Bargaining, Courtly Graces, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Storytelling, Minor Magic, 1-Use Major Magic, Married (Baghdad), Crippled, Robe of Honor (Wisdom), Vizier (master Courtly Graces and Wisdom), Insane
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
ThroughTheWell
- .
- Posts: 1045
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
I read this one and the earlier horror story/game. I think the horror one did a better job of creeping me out (story), as well as seeming a bit less luck dependent. But I'm not a fan of horror, so I kind of like this one. If, you rolled a 50%, and half the time chose from both an encounter and a city, and the other half the time just an encounter, that might make this one more interesting. I might even try it with always an encounter and city card each turn, for the extra choices that would give. Aside from the luck of this game, some turns not much happened despite the globe trotting being done.
I survived the forum move 4 times... yeah, I feel old.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
Alright, I've decided to play again, and to do it in this thread rather than starting a new one. This time I'll take the game up a notch, not only picking three characters, but having them use different victory formulas. As a footnote to the previous playthrough, I reread the rules yesterday and discovered that for a two-character game, I should have been using the Second Deck, which might have resulted in some more exotic encounters. Oh well, live and learn. I've located my physical dice, so there won't be any interruptions due to Invisible Castle crapping out (though I might have to, if this takes as long as the last game and then some, which it probably will). Here is the initial status of our characters (in a real game, you roll to see who goes first, but here I'm just playing them in alphabetical order):
Aladdin (male, yellow) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, wins at 15 Story and 5 Destiny.
Azeezah (female, red) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, wins at 10 Story and 10 Destiny.
Ma'Ruf (male, blue) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Appearance, Beguiling, Seduction, wins at 5 Story and 15 Destiny.
We all know who Aladdin is, of course; having him pursue a high Story total seems appropriate. (I obviously would never do anything so biased as to make him the yellow piece just because he was Chinese in the original tale; I'm merely imitating the original edition of the game in which this was apparently done.... The other two stick with the gendering of blue and pink red for ease of memory, as I did in the first game.) I've given him the Seamanship for this game instead of assigning it to the blue piece as I did previously (and unintentionally); this means he gets to travel much further afield than the other characters, going one space from Baghdad to Makka, then far out into the Indian Ocean. Here, he draws the "Magnetic Mountain" terrain encounter card (notable for being the one whose encounter paragraphs are numbered 1-6), looks up "Sea", and rolls a 1, +2 for being outside civilization. The result is that he encounters a Greedy Captain (H), whom he may Honor, Attack, Aid, or Rob. Not too many choices there; I had this happen in the short sample game I tried out yesterday, and there I went with Rob, but that didn't turn out too well, so I think I'll have Aladdin try Aiding him.
Going to 1048 (I'm going to omit mentioning the up/down rolls henceforth); interestingly, this paragraph gives us the captain's name, "Bukhayt", and describes how he distracts a passenger so Aladdin can steal a package from him. Unfortunately the package paralyzes Aladdin magically since he lacks a Magic skill; the owner comes back, finds him, and throws him overboard. He becomes Ensorcelled (meaning that another player of Aladdin's player's choice decides where Aladdin moves each turn), and I continue to paragraph 315 (I'm fairly certain that this means I don't roll for up/down). Here, it says that Aladdin drifts for days and is eventually picked up by a shipload of "rogues", but because he's Poor, they decide he's more trouble than he's worth. They throw him overboard again, but before he can drown, he's taken by mermen to the Undersea Kingdom! First turn of the game, and already I'm at a Place of Power! (He also gains S1 and D2.)
Now having his third damn encounter for the turn, Aladdin looks up paragraph 181, which is where the Undersea Kingdom is described. Somehow, despite the fact that it is a "vast and varied empire", only one thing ever happens there, which is that Aladdin meets a merman whose name is also Aladdin, and the two of them become friends. Three choices are offered in each Place of Power, and I'll take the third one in this case, where Aladdin convinces one of the Sea-Kings to conquer one of his neighbors, with Aladdin leading the army. This rolls to 1369, and as I was hoping might happen, Aladdin's "Quick Thinking" hits here; he masters the art of underwater warfare, and after the conquest he's granted co-rulership of the annexed kingdom, giving him S3, D3, W+3, and making him a Sultan! Except that you have to have at least 12 points between S and D to be a Sultan; having only gotten 9, he becomes Vizier instead, so he's not facing the potential of having a win condition on the second turn of the game (of course, being Ensorcelled and more than 1 move away from Baghdad, that wouldn't help too much anyway, as the other players would certainly play keep-away with his piece for as long as possible).
Vizier is not quite as good a status as Sultan, but it does give him another 1S and 1D, for a total of 11 points between them that he's gained in one turn! He also gains the skills Courtly Graces and Wisdom as long as he stays Vizier, but he's specifically the Vizier of Zaila, the closest city to the Undersea Kingdom, so whenever he has an encounter in another city, he becomes incapable of ending his turn in cities besides Zaila until after he gets back there. With him being Ensorcelled, it might be a very long time before he has freedom of movement again! And now, finally, this insanely huge turn is done.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D6, S5, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Storytelling, Ensorcelled, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces and Wisdom
Gosh, how are you supposed to follow an act like that? I selected Azeezah to play this game because I used her in the mini-game I started yesterday, and she had by far the most success of the six characters I was playing, which looked like this (as best I can recall):
Dunya: Acting & Disguise, Beguiling, Courtly Graces
Azeezah: Minor Magic, Scholarship, Wilderness Lore
Aladdin: Quick Thinking, Luck, Enduring Hardship
Sinbad: Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship
Zummurud (pale): Piety, Wisdom, Storytelling
Maruf (clear): Appearance, Seduction, Bargaining
I forget what exactly Azeezah accomplished last time, other than that she was traveling in Europe and she had gained at least 1 Wealth Level over the other characters. Anyway, I figured I'd try and replicate the experience this time, but with a few modifications so that she wouldn't resemble Dunya (from my last game here) too much. She starts off toward the northwest, stopping in a forest in Turkey, and draws a Special card which is of little use to her, so not much of a followup to the last turn.
Azeezah - W:Poor, D0, S0, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling
In my sample game last night, I was picking out vague personalities for the characters, dividing the skills among them so as not to duplicate anything, and somehow I decided to make Ma'Ruf a himbo, a decision I've repeated here. The only difference is that last time, I had already assigned the skills Courtly Graces and Beguiling (the other two which are suggestive of this personality besides Appearance and Seduction) to other characters, and Ma'Ruf was the last. The game contains 20 skills, but Bargaining and Evaluation seldom come up in the normal game, existing mostly for the benefit of the Merchant variant, and Major Magic isn't a legal pick at game start. So, having given all the other skills out, I was forced to give Fabio Ma'Ruf the booby prize of Evaluation (figuring he mostly uses it on girls rather than goods, though I doubt the game would reflect that). In this game, I instead have given him Beguiling, which is the Skill of lying convincingly and soothing others with blandishments; this is a far better fit.
Anyway, since the other players went southeast and northwest, and the map doesn't really allow you to go northeast very far (the Caspian Sea is in the way, and all the routes past it go either north or east without ever bending back toward each other), he opts to go southwest into Africa, stopping at Alexandria as is typical. There, he meets a Sage, who proves to be Mad, and opts to Grovel before him, figuring that this is the least likely option to go horribly wrong as a result of Madness. Going to paragraph 221...um. Okay, apparently Grovel overlaps with Court here, but the paragraph wasn't written quite right; despite the fact that I'm a male character talking to a male NPC (perhaps there are sages that are secretly female?), my Seduction or (and!) Appearance goes off here, and the sage is overwhelmed with love and showers Ma'Ruf with gifts! He gains 1 Destiny, 1 Wealth, and becomes Beloved; this gives him an immediate choice of whether to accept or reject the offer, and gosh-darned if the idea of gay marriage in 14th-century Arabia isn't too funny not to do. Since we're not playing the game's Quest variant, getting married is very simple; Ma'Ruf just has to earn 2 Destiny, and then he'll settle down in the nearest city and...can start making babies, as per the Married status. (Okay, so I'm really thinking the designers didn't review this scenario closely, or they assumed no male characters would ever take those skills. For now I'll just assume the sage was really a girl in drag.)
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D1 (+2 to marry), S0, Appearance, Beguiling, Seduction, Beloved
Whew, what a round. Now we're back to Aladdin, who isn't allowed to stay in the Undersea Kingdom, and doesn't get to decide his own moves. I debated having his "master" stop him in a "+3" sea space so that he could get into some really unusual encounters, but since I figure the other "players" objective is to get him as far away as possible before he ends in a City, and is then compelled to walk back to Zaila without stopping in another city along the way, it makes more sense just to move him the full 4 spa...oh, wait, he's Princely, he can now go 5 spaces by sea. Which would get him to Serendib, a +2 city, but that's not far enough away, and as it happens there's another "+3" sea space nearby (at the exit from the Dusky Land, another Place of Power). So he goes there, draws the Alexandria city card, and ends his turn with a roll-off, which is 6 vs. 6 and so leaves him still Ensorcelled, yay! (I accidentally drew two cards and the second one was actually the Serendib city, so I'll shuffle the deck before continuing, in the hopes of misplacing it.) Oh, and I forgot that he adds +1 to his encounter rolls because of his D5+, and has gained Storytelling because of his S5, but he didn't have an encounter so fortunately nothing went wrong as a result of my forgetfulness.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D6, S5, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Storytelling, Ensorcelled, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces and Wisdom
Azeezah continues into Europe, reaching Adrianople, and gets the "Pearl Diving" encounter card (numbers 7-12, actually; I wonder how long the streak of drawing terrain cards in sequence will continue). I roll up an encounter and get a Possessed Hunchback...dammit, you face Hunchbacks far too often in this game, courtesy of the Imprisoned status. Oh well, I got this one yesterday, so let's see, what did I do with him? Oh yes, I Beat him, and I believe it didn't end well, but we'll try it again. Paragraph 425....okay, the hunchback turned into a lion! I'd say "possessed" is something of an understatement, there... Azeezah has Wilderness Lore, so she feigns death and the lion wanders away; she gains 2 points each of S and D, and gains the Quick Thinking skill. Okay, a very different outcome from her last Hunchback-Beating.
Azeezah - W:Poor, D2, S2, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking.
The possibly-heterosexual Ma'Ruf is Respectable now, so he can travel 4 spaces by land as is normally impossible, and gets to reach the far-off city of Timbuktu, with a +2 ("plus-tu"?), and see what deviltry he can get up to there. He draws the Pavillion of the Black Giant card (numbers 13-18; I swear these weren't in sequence before I shuffled), but the title encounter only happens if you're in the Desert (and only sometimes then, unlike in the new edition of TOTAN), so he rolls and adds a total of 4, getting a total of 8 on table 18, which means he's encountered Hungry Creatures! It seems logical to try and Aid these by offering them food, so I'll try paragraph 925. "Roofie", as I'm going to start calling this guy, attempts to capture a lion that's been attacking the sultan's livestock (perhaps the same lion that failed to eat Azeezeh; no wonder it's Hungry), but unsurprisingly lacks the Wisdom that's required to have this turn out well, so the lion mauls Roofie and the Sultan's guards kill it, then get mad about the fact that they had to kill such a "noble beast". As a result, Roofie is now both Wounded and Scorned, albeit that both have a chance to go away this turn; he also gains a Destiny point, presumably while the lovestruck sage tends to his injuries and/or defends his reputation. The latter effort seems to have succeeded; Scorned immediately goes away, but Wounded remains, leaving Roofie unable to use his Appearance or Seduction in encounters next turn.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D2 (+1 to marry), S0, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Wounded 7-
Aladdin's turn again. His cruel masters continue moving his piece far out to sea, passing Serendib and going into a dead-end sea space with a +4 to encounters, on top of the +1 Aladdin himself has; rolling a mere 3, he ends up with a total of 8, so nothing that can't happen on the first turn of the game to a player with Seamanship, too bad. Oh wait, I shouldn't even have rolled until I had a card, and it turns out the card he draws is the Bilma city, so the roll was wasted. I guess we'll count it as Aladdin's roll for ending Ensorceled, which means he probably won't - oh, but the other die rolls 1, so he does indeed escape the spell.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D6, S5, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces and Wisdom
Still the poorest player in the game, unlike last night, Azeezah continues her tour of the cities of backwards, barbarian Europe, and arrives in Balts. Here, she meets an Enchantress, who proves to be Noble (not an impossible outcome even in Civilization at the start of the game), and chooses to Bargain with her (though I was tempted to try Groveling instead, if only in the hopes of triggering another homosexual courtship). This is paragraph 249, and apparently the enchantress has heard of a prophecy concerning Azeezah's future. Not having the Luck skill or the Fated status, Azeezah rolls a straight 2 dice, getting 11, and that means the prophecy is "your fate is shrouded in mystery", which is the MORE clear of the two options. Azeezah receives the Opportunity to Enter a Place of Power of her choice, which means she has to get there under her own power, unlike with Aladdin's trip to the Undersea Kingdom. The closest one by far is of course Stonehenge, so she chooses that. She also gains D3 and S1, putting her into the 5-Destiny Club along with Aladdin.
Azeezah - W:Poor, D5, S3, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking, may go to Stonehenge.
Roofie reflects that Timbuktu is a bit far out in the sticks and not the best place to settle down with his lovestruck Sage, so he heads back toward the center of the world, stopping in Alexandria. There he meets a Thief, and in particular a Foolish one, whom he decides to Abduct, being a little foolish himself and wanting the company of a kindred spirit. Paragraph 290 however consists entirely of the sentence "The other flees in terror at your first word", so all Ma'Ruf gains is his first Story point (presumably your S rating indicates how many tall tales you have to tell, so having someone run away screaming when you said "Hello" certainly counts). His wound does not go away, and Roofie ends his turn, still the only player to have had an encounter every turn and not draw any City cards.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D2 (+1 to marry), S1, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Wounded 7-
In control of his movements for the first time, Al the Lad of Din proceeds to catch a favorable northerly current which gets him within 1 space of Zaila (a Fabulous quantity of wealth would have sufficed to get all the way there, but not having a Treasure limits you to merely Princely finances, and the fastest ship you can afford then will only get you there from Serendib, not from the seas beyond). Out at sea, he chances upon an Imprisoned Prince, and chooses to Honor him rather than Aid him (Grovel is the same as Honor in this case, while Converse and Court produce overlapping results in between Grovel/Honor and Aid). Ending up at paragraph 186, he has a chance to apply his Storytelling, and gains S1 and D2. This makes him eligible for Master level skills, and he happily upgrades his Storytelling with the skill award he also gains (the other choice is Wisdom, and I'm not sure whether it's legal to upgrade from "Wisdom while you remain Vizier" to "Wisdom regardless", so this avoids the issue). Aladdin is definitely doing the best in this game.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D8, S6, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces and Wisdom
Azeezah goes to Stonehenge, where the "infidel" Druids are apparently dressed in black; since she has Acting and Disguise, it seems only appropriate that she should disguise herself as a Druid and participate in their rituals. The up/down roll takes her to 1273, where it turns out you need Piety to succeed instead (indeed, it doesn't seem that Acting & Disguise applies in any of these three outcomes, annoyingly enough). The Druids aren't fooled and they blast her senseless, upticking both her stats but leaving her Ensorcelled.
Azeezah - W:Poor, D6, S4, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking.
Roofie goes back to Baghdad, the best possible place to get Married, and draws the Ape Island encounter card (which does have a 19 on it but isn't otherwise sequential with the previous cards, so the trend is more or less broken at last). Not being on an Island, he uses paragraph 56 and a straight, unmodified d6 roll; getting a 4, he discovers a House Fire. I decide to have him Cry Out, which is paragraph 692 after adjustment; Ma'Ruf shouts for aid but nobody responds. I accidentally cheated here and read more than I would know in a real game; watching the house burn would leave Ma'Ruf Grief-Stricken, which is a nasty status I'd rather avoid (even if in this case it has a fair chance of going away on its own). More to the point, it means he'd lose 1 Destiny, and I don't want to have to figure out whether this decrements his progress on the "getting married" task; I'm inclined to think it doesn't, he'd just have to have gained 1D twice or 2D once, not maintained a total 2D higher than before. But either way, I prefer to have him rush into the burning house just to see what will happen there...which is that he goes back a few paragraphs to 689. He is "immediately" crushed by a falling beam, and is fortunate to survive; he gains 1D, so he does indeed get Married now, but his beloved Sage will have to nurse him back to health, because he's now Crippled in addition to being Wounded (except that at the end of the turn he rolls under 7 and isn't Wounded anymore, although Crippled is worse really; I'm pretty sure I'd meant to have Ma'Ruf spend one of his turns encountering a Healer Sage while he was Wounded, but Crippled doesn't offer that option and it won't go away on its own, so I guess I'm screwed). He remains incapable of using Seduction or Appearance, but also can't upgrade them, and his movement (even by sea, stupidly enough) is reduced by 1, though on the plus side, he gets double Story from all people he interacts with, which would have been great if he were pursuing a Story victory.
Strangely enough, being Married doesn't make Beloved go away, so if I'm ever required to lose any one Status, I have a spare that I can give up without cost. Not that I think that actually happens in this game, but still. Since Ma'Ruf is pursuing a Destiny-centric victory, the automatic Story gains from returning home after each adventure won't be as helpful to him as they would be to Aladdin (who already has more Destiny than he needs to win), but if he and his babydaddy (who is a Sage after all, so maybe there's some magic involved akin to that seen in the extremely-NSFW webcomic "Oglaf" with the character of Kronar) get lucky and produce children, there's Destiny to be gained there, although a strict reading of the rules indicates that if you gain your winning Destiny and Story points after entering Baghdad, you can't win until the following turn, and not then if you're Imprisoned and thus unable to leave Baghdad and re-enter it. We'll see whether this problem actually comes up when we get that far.
Right about now I discovered that I'd been using my deck of cards for the game when making reference cards to help me track Statuses, so several of the involved cards maybe should have been drawn instead. I'm going to have to take a short break now while I manually replace the cards I depleted this way.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D3, S2, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Married (Baghdad), Crippled
Aladdin (male, yellow) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, wins at 15 Story and 5 Destiny.
Azeezah (female, red) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, wins at 10 Story and 10 Destiny.
Ma'Ruf (male, blue) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Appearance, Beguiling, Seduction, wins at 5 Story and 15 Destiny.
We all know who Aladdin is, of course; having him pursue a high Story total seems appropriate. (I obviously would never do anything so biased as to make him the yellow piece just because he was Chinese in the original tale; I'm merely imitating the original edition of the game in which this was apparently done.... The other two stick with the gendering of blue and pink red for ease of memory, as I did in the first game.) I've given him the Seamanship for this game instead of assigning it to the blue piece as I did previously (and unintentionally); this means he gets to travel much further afield than the other characters, going one space from Baghdad to Makka, then far out into the Indian Ocean. Here, he draws the "Magnetic Mountain" terrain encounter card (notable for being the one whose encounter paragraphs are numbered 1-6), looks up "Sea", and rolls a 1, +2 for being outside civilization. The result is that he encounters a Greedy Captain (H), whom he may Honor, Attack, Aid, or Rob. Not too many choices there; I had this happen in the short sample game I tried out yesterday, and there I went with Rob, but that didn't turn out too well, so I think I'll have Aladdin try Aiding him.
Going to 1048 (I'm going to omit mentioning the up/down rolls henceforth); interestingly, this paragraph gives us the captain's name, "Bukhayt", and describes how he distracts a passenger so Aladdin can steal a package from him. Unfortunately the package paralyzes Aladdin magically since he lacks a Magic skill; the owner comes back, finds him, and throws him overboard. He becomes Ensorcelled (meaning that another player of Aladdin's player's choice decides where Aladdin moves each turn), and I continue to paragraph 315 (I'm fairly certain that this means I don't roll for up/down). Here, it says that Aladdin drifts for days and is eventually picked up by a shipload of "rogues", but because he's Poor, they decide he's more trouble than he's worth. They throw him overboard again, but before he can drown, he's taken by mermen to the Undersea Kingdom! First turn of the game, and already I'm at a Place of Power! (He also gains S1 and D2.)
Now having his third damn encounter for the turn, Aladdin looks up paragraph 181, which is where the Undersea Kingdom is described. Somehow, despite the fact that it is a "vast and varied empire", only one thing ever happens there, which is that Aladdin meets a merman whose name is also Aladdin, and the two of them become friends. Three choices are offered in each Place of Power, and I'll take the third one in this case, where Aladdin convinces one of the Sea-Kings to conquer one of his neighbors, with Aladdin leading the army. This rolls to 1369, and as I was hoping might happen, Aladdin's "Quick Thinking" hits here; he masters the art of underwater warfare, and after the conquest he's granted co-rulership of the annexed kingdom, giving him S3, D3, W+3, and making him a Sultan! Except that you have to have at least 12 points between S and D to be a Sultan; having only gotten 9, he becomes Vizier instead, so he's not facing the potential of having a win condition on the second turn of the game (of course, being Ensorcelled and more than 1 move away from Baghdad, that wouldn't help too much anyway, as the other players would certainly play keep-away with his piece for as long as possible).
Vizier is not quite as good a status as Sultan, but it does give him another 1S and 1D, for a total of 11 points between them that he's gained in one turn! He also gains the skills Courtly Graces and Wisdom as long as he stays Vizier, but he's specifically the Vizier of Zaila, the closest city to the Undersea Kingdom, so whenever he has an encounter in another city, he becomes incapable of ending his turn in cities besides Zaila until after he gets back there. With him being Ensorcelled, it might be a very long time before he has freedom of movement again! And now, finally, this insanely huge turn is done.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D6, S5, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Storytelling, Ensorcelled, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces and Wisdom
Gosh, how are you supposed to follow an act like that? I selected Azeezah to play this game because I used her in the mini-game I started yesterday, and she had by far the most success of the six characters I was playing, which looked like this (as best I can recall):
Dunya: Acting & Disguise, Beguiling, Courtly Graces
Azeezah: Minor Magic, Scholarship, Wilderness Lore
Aladdin: Quick Thinking, Luck, Enduring Hardship
Sinbad: Weapon Use, Stealth and Stealing, Seamanship
Zummurud (pale): Piety, Wisdom, Storytelling
Maruf (clear): Appearance, Seduction, Bargaining
I forget what exactly Azeezah accomplished last time, other than that she was traveling in Europe and she had gained at least 1 Wealth Level over the other characters. Anyway, I figured I'd try and replicate the experience this time, but with a few modifications so that she wouldn't resemble Dunya (from my last game here) too much. She starts off toward the northwest, stopping in a forest in Turkey, and draws a Special card which is of little use to her, so not much of a followup to the last turn.
Azeezah - W:Poor, D0, S0, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling
In my sample game last night, I was picking out vague personalities for the characters, dividing the skills among them so as not to duplicate anything, and somehow I decided to make Ma'Ruf a himbo, a decision I've repeated here. The only difference is that last time, I had already assigned the skills Courtly Graces and Beguiling (the other two which are suggestive of this personality besides Appearance and Seduction) to other characters, and Ma'Ruf was the last. The game contains 20 skills, but Bargaining and Evaluation seldom come up in the normal game, existing mostly for the benefit of the Merchant variant, and Major Magic isn't a legal pick at game start. So, having given all the other skills out, I was forced to give Fabio Ma'Ruf the booby prize of Evaluation (figuring he mostly uses it on girls rather than goods, though I doubt the game would reflect that). In this game, I instead have given him Beguiling, which is the Skill of lying convincingly and soothing others with blandishments; this is a far better fit.
Anyway, since the other players went southeast and northwest, and the map doesn't really allow you to go northeast very far (the Caspian Sea is in the way, and all the routes past it go either north or east without ever bending back toward each other), he opts to go southwest into Africa, stopping at Alexandria as is typical. There, he meets a Sage, who proves to be Mad, and opts to Grovel before him, figuring that this is the least likely option to go horribly wrong as a result of Madness. Going to paragraph 221...um. Okay, apparently Grovel overlaps with Court here, but the paragraph wasn't written quite right; despite the fact that I'm a male character talking to a male NPC (perhaps there are sages that are secretly female?), my Seduction or (and!) Appearance goes off here, and the sage is overwhelmed with love and showers Ma'Ruf with gifts! He gains 1 Destiny, 1 Wealth, and becomes Beloved; this gives him an immediate choice of whether to accept or reject the offer, and gosh-darned if the idea of gay marriage in 14th-century Arabia isn't too funny not to do. Since we're not playing the game's Quest variant, getting married is very simple; Ma'Ruf just has to earn 2 Destiny, and then he'll settle down in the nearest city and...can start making babies, as per the Married status. (Okay, so I'm really thinking the designers didn't review this scenario closely, or they assumed no male characters would ever take those skills. For now I'll just assume the sage was really a girl in drag.)
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D1 (+2 to marry), S0, Appearance, Beguiling, Seduction, Beloved
Whew, what a round. Now we're back to Aladdin, who isn't allowed to stay in the Undersea Kingdom, and doesn't get to decide his own moves. I debated having his "master" stop him in a "+3" sea space so that he could get into some really unusual encounters, but since I figure the other "players" objective is to get him as far away as possible before he ends in a City, and is then compelled to walk back to Zaila without stopping in another city along the way, it makes more sense just to move him the full 4 spa...oh, wait, he's Princely, he can now go 5 spaces by sea. Which would get him to Serendib, a +2 city, but that's not far enough away, and as it happens there's another "+3" sea space nearby (at the exit from the Dusky Land, another Place of Power). So he goes there, draws the Alexandria city card, and ends his turn with a roll-off, which is 6 vs. 6 and so leaves him still Ensorcelled, yay! (I accidentally drew two cards and the second one was actually the Serendib city, so I'll shuffle the deck before continuing, in the hopes of misplacing it.) Oh, and I forgot that he adds +1 to his encounter rolls because of his D5+, and has gained Storytelling because of his S5, but he didn't have an encounter so fortunately nothing went wrong as a result of my forgetfulness.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D6, S5, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Storytelling, Ensorcelled, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces and Wisdom
Azeezah continues into Europe, reaching Adrianople, and gets the "Pearl Diving" encounter card (numbers 7-12, actually; I wonder how long the streak of drawing terrain cards in sequence will continue). I roll up an encounter and get a Possessed Hunchback...dammit, you face Hunchbacks far too often in this game, courtesy of the Imprisoned status. Oh well, I got this one yesterday, so let's see, what did I do with him? Oh yes, I Beat him, and I believe it didn't end well, but we'll try it again. Paragraph 425....okay, the hunchback turned into a lion! I'd say "possessed" is something of an understatement, there... Azeezah has Wilderness Lore, so she feigns death and the lion wanders away; she gains 2 points each of S and D, and gains the Quick Thinking skill. Okay, a very different outcome from her last Hunchback-Beating.
Azeezah - W:Poor, D2, S2, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking.
The possibly-heterosexual Ma'Ruf is Respectable now, so he can travel 4 spaces by land as is normally impossible, and gets to reach the far-off city of Timbuktu, with a +2 ("plus-tu"?), and see what deviltry he can get up to there. He draws the Pavillion of the Black Giant card (numbers 13-18; I swear these weren't in sequence before I shuffled), but the title encounter only happens if you're in the Desert (and only sometimes then, unlike in the new edition of TOTAN), so he rolls and adds a total of 4, getting a total of 8 on table 18, which means he's encountered Hungry Creatures! It seems logical to try and Aid these by offering them food, so I'll try paragraph 925. "Roofie", as I'm going to start calling this guy, attempts to capture a lion that's been attacking the sultan's livestock (perhaps the same lion that failed to eat Azeezeh; no wonder it's Hungry), but unsurprisingly lacks the Wisdom that's required to have this turn out well, so the lion mauls Roofie and the Sultan's guards kill it, then get mad about the fact that they had to kill such a "noble beast". As a result, Roofie is now both Wounded and Scorned, albeit that both have a chance to go away this turn; he also gains a Destiny point, presumably while the lovestruck sage tends to his injuries and/or defends his reputation. The latter effort seems to have succeeded; Scorned immediately goes away, but Wounded remains, leaving Roofie unable to use his Appearance or Seduction in encounters next turn.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D2 (+1 to marry), S0, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Wounded 7-
Aladdin's turn again. His cruel masters continue moving his piece far out to sea, passing Serendib and going into a dead-end sea space with a +4 to encounters, on top of the +1 Aladdin himself has; rolling a mere 3, he ends up with a total of 8, so nothing that can't happen on the first turn of the game to a player with Seamanship, too bad. Oh wait, I shouldn't even have rolled until I had a card, and it turns out the card he draws is the Bilma city, so the roll was wasted. I guess we'll count it as Aladdin's roll for ending Ensorceled, which means he probably won't - oh, but the other die rolls 1, so he does indeed escape the spell.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D6, S5, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces and Wisdom
Still the poorest player in the game, unlike last night, Azeezah continues her tour of the cities of backwards, barbarian Europe, and arrives in Balts. Here, she meets an Enchantress, who proves to be Noble (not an impossible outcome even in Civilization at the start of the game), and chooses to Bargain with her (though I was tempted to try Groveling instead, if only in the hopes of triggering another homosexual courtship). This is paragraph 249, and apparently the enchantress has heard of a prophecy concerning Azeezah's future. Not having the Luck skill or the Fated status, Azeezah rolls a straight 2 dice, getting 11, and that means the prophecy is "your fate is shrouded in mystery", which is the MORE clear of the two options. Azeezah receives the Opportunity to Enter a Place of Power of her choice, which means she has to get there under her own power, unlike with Aladdin's trip to the Undersea Kingdom. The closest one by far is of course Stonehenge, so she chooses that. She also gains D3 and S1, putting her into the 5-Destiny Club along with Aladdin.
Azeezah - W:Poor, D5, S3, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking, may go to Stonehenge.
Roofie reflects that Timbuktu is a bit far out in the sticks and not the best place to settle down with his lovestruck Sage, so he heads back toward the center of the world, stopping in Alexandria. There he meets a Thief, and in particular a Foolish one, whom he decides to Abduct, being a little foolish himself and wanting the company of a kindred spirit. Paragraph 290 however consists entirely of the sentence "The other flees in terror at your first word", so all Ma'Ruf gains is his first Story point (presumably your S rating indicates how many tall tales you have to tell, so having someone run away screaming when you said "Hello" certainly counts). His wound does not go away, and Roofie ends his turn, still the only player to have had an encounter every turn and not draw any City cards.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D2 (+1 to marry), S1, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Wounded 7-
In control of his movements for the first time, Al the Lad of Din proceeds to catch a favorable northerly current which gets him within 1 space of Zaila (a Fabulous quantity of wealth would have sufficed to get all the way there, but not having a Treasure limits you to merely Princely finances, and the fastest ship you can afford then will only get you there from Serendib, not from the seas beyond). Out at sea, he chances upon an Imprisoned Prince, and chooses to Honor him rather than Aid him (Grovel is the same as Honor in this case, while Converse and Court produce overlapping results in between Grovel/Honor and Aid). Ending up at paragraph 186, he has a chance to apply his Storytelling, and gains S1 and D2. This makes him eligible for Master level skills, and he happily upgrades his Storytelling with the skill award he also gains (the other choice is Wisdom, and I'm not sure whether it's legal to upgrade from "Wisdom while you remain Vizier" to "Wisdom regardless", so this avoids the issue). Aladdin is definitely doing the best in this game.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D8, S6, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces and Wisdom
Azeezah goes to Stonehenge, where the "infidel" Druids are apparently dressed in black; since she has Acting and Disguise, it seems only appropriate that she should disguise herself as a Druid and participate in their rituals. The up/down roll takes her to 1273, where it turns out you need Piety to succeed instead (indeed, it doesn't seem that Acting & Disguise applies in any of these three outcomes, annoyingly enough). The Druids aren't fooled and they blast her senseless, upticking both her stats but leaving her Ensorcelled.
Azeezah - W:Poor, D6, S4, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking.
Roofie goes back to Baghdad, the best possible place to get Married, and draws the Ape Island encounter card (which does have a 19 on it but isn't otherwise sequential with the previous cards, so the trend is more or less broken at last). Not being on an Island, he uses paragraph 56 and a straight, unmodified d6 roll; getting a 4, he discovers a House Fire. I decide to have him Cry Out, which is paragraph 692 after adjustment; Ma'Ruf shouts for aid but nobody responds. I accidentally cheated here and read more than I would know in a real game; watching the house burn would leave Ma'Ruf Grief-Stricken, which is a nasty status I'd rather avoid (even if in this case it has a fair chance of going away on its own). More to the point, it means he'd lose 1 Destiny, and I don't want to have to figure out whether this decrements his progress on the "getting married" task; I'm inclined to think it doesn't, he'd just have to have gained 1D twice or 2D once, not maintained a total 2D higher than before. But either way, I prefer to have him rush into the burning house just to see what will happen there...which is that he goes back a few paragraphs to 689. He is "immediately" crushed by a falling beam, and is fortunate to survive; he gains 1D, so he does indeed get Married now, but his beloved Sage will have to nurse him back to health, because he's now Crippled in addition to being Wounded (except that at the end of the turn he rolls under 7 and isn't Wounded anymore, although Crippled is worse really; I'm pretty sure I'd meant to have Ma'Ruf spend one of his turns encountering a Healer Sage while he was Wounded, but Crippled doesn't offer that option and it won't go away on its own, so I guess I'm screwed). He remains incapable of using Seduction or Appearance, but also can't upgrade them, and his movement (even by sea, stupidly enough) is reduced by 1, though on the plus side, he gets double Story from all people he interacts with, which would have been great if he were pursuing a Story victory.
Strangely enough, being Married doesn't make Beloved go away, so if I'm ever required to lose any one Status, I have a spare that I can give up without cost. Not that I think that actually happens in this game, but still. Since Ma'Ruf is pursuing a Destiny-centric victory, the automatic Story gains from returning home after each adventure won't be as helpful to him as they would be to Aladdin (who already has more Destiny than he needs to win), but if he and his babydaddy (who is a Sage after all, so maybe there's some magic involved akin to that seen in the extremely-NSFW webcomic "Oglaf" with the character of Kronar) get lucky and produce children, there's Destiny to be gained there, although a strict reading of the rules indicates that if you gain your winning Destiny and Story points after entering Baghdad, you can't win until the following turn, and not then if you're Imprisoned and thus unable to leave Baghdad and re-enter it. We'll see whether this problem actually comes up when we get that far.
Right about now I discovered that I'd been using my deck of cards for the game when making reference cards to help me track Statuses, so several of the involved cards maybe should have been drawn instead. I'm going to have to take a short break now while I manually replace the cards I depleted this way.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D3, S2, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Married (Baghdad), Crippled
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
Okay, my little goof has been corrected, so let us continue the tale. A reminder of our players and their current status:
Aladdin (male, yellow) - W:Princely, D8, S6, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces and Wisdom, wins at 15 Story and 5 Destiny.
Azeezah (female, red) - W:Poor, D6, S4, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Ensorceled (forgot to specify this when posting before), wins at 10 Story and 10 Destiny.
Ma'Ruf (male, blue) - W:Respectable, D3, S2, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Married (Baghdad), Crippled, wins at 5 Story and 15 Destiny.
Aladdin makes for the island of Cyprus, which is inside civilization, and there draws the Serendib city card, which he discards since he has no intention of going back that way. His two existing city cards are both within a fairly slight distance of Zaila by land, and he probably ought to have dealt with one of them this turn, but oh well.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D8, S6, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces and Wisdom.
Azeezah is forced to leave Stonehenge, and does not get to choose where she goes; I decide to have her move just one space, landing in the North Sea where there's a +3. Sadly, she doesn't get an encounter, but draws the Su-Chou city card.
Azeezah - W:Poor, D6, S4, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Ensorceled .
Ma'Ruf is able to move 3 spaces whether by land or sea - being Crippled and Respectable is better than being healthy and Poor, it seems. The only player not holding any city cards, he has the option of going anywhere he pleases, albeit not far, and since nobody in this game has really tried to head into mainland Asia, he decides to take a walk out that way and end up in the mountains. He continues his streak of drawing nothing but encounters by getting the Sex-Change Spring card; as appropriate as that would be given his genderbending marriage, it only happens when you're in the Desert, so he instead looks at mountains and rolls up an encounter with a Blind Man. It's been all this time in the game and I haven't done any Praying, so I'll give that a try; in paragraph 989, he finds a blind old man asking alms in the street (what street? I'm in the mountains), and is given the choice of donating a coin (which, I cheat by reading ahead, simply gives him D1) or praying, and I said I was gonna do that, so I roll a die for a 1/2 chance of good stuff happening (it'd be 2/3 if Ma'Ruf had Piety). The roll is nice and high, so the Sultan appears and gives the Man a fistful of gold, causing the Man to become pious - and Ma'Ruf along with him, as he gains the skill. He also gets D1 - any of the three outcomes of this paragraph would have give him that - as well as S1; not a bad turn, all in all.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S4, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Piety, Married (Baghdad), Crippled.
Alright, Aladdin has a Master skill, and those are awesome, so it's high time he worked on applying it. He goes to Alexandria, having a City card for it in hand, and draws for his regular encounter - it's the Serpent card, which applies to Mountains, so in City he instead checks a paragraph, rolls, and adds 3 because of his Destiny. Here he finds an Imprisoned Princess! It's just two turns since he encountered Imprisoned nobility, and we already know that the outcomes fall within a narrow band; this time, however, Court is an option, so Al will try that, even though it'd be a bit risky to gain Married status here in a different city from the one where he's already expected to go (I'm not sure what exactly happens if you're compelled to go to two different places at once, though the rules encourage you to resolve these disputes with "whatever makes for the better story"). Having a Master skill, Aladdin doesn't roll for up/down, but instead looks to see if any of the paragraphs turn on Storytelling, which of course 186 does, so he goes for that and gets the same award as before, except this time he chooses to gain Wisdom. I opt to say that this leaves him with Master Wisdom as long as he has Vizier, and normal Wisdom if he loses it, which is an extremely generous interpretation, but oh well. The D award pushes him past the point of adding +2 to all encounters, while the S point raises him to where he would gain 1 Wealth if he weren't already well past Respectable; seems like that usually doesn't apply by the time it happens, alas, but at least it's progress toward the Story total Aladdin needs to win. He has absurd amounts of Destiny to burn, which might matter if a few rare effects turned up; it'd be more of an advantage if I was using the "use skills on other players" variant, but I'm not ready for that yet.
Seriously, what are the odds of rolling up the same exact encounter like that? Anyway, Aladdin yet has a City card to play, and his roll of 2 on that card gives him a choice between three exciting encounters. I kind of hate these cards, because they offer you more concentrated awesomeness in one place than you can possibly use, even while you starve for it elsewhere. Still, I'll gladly take advantage of it in this case; of the three choices, the most exciting by far when you're sitting at Princely wealth, unable to rise any higher without a Treasure (albeit that if you succeed in this, you lose the ability to move 3 spaces by land, which is otherwise always possible unless Crippled or Diseased - it's not clear whether all these losses are cumulative, and I wonder whether someone who is Crippled and Diseased and Fabulous at the same time, while not next to a Sea route, is simply incapable of movement...I'm inclined to doubt it, but it is a funny thought), is to look at the Small Artifact on table F.
I do not even momentarily consider having Al do anything but Take that artifact; he checks paragraph 1078, fails to find any Storytelling prompts, but does notice Wisdom being called for on 1079, so he goes there. Unfortunately, this is one of several cases where Wisdom is almost a bad thing; offered a gem for free by a "weird old man" (checking table H where the Blind Men and Old Men are found, I'm disappointed to find that Weird Man encounters do not also exist), Aladdin refuses and as a result becomes still more Wise, as well as gaining D1. That didn't help him much, although I rule it does mean his Wisdom can no longer be lost as a result of ceasing to be Vizier. At last, that massive turn is done; Aladdin gets all the excitement in this game dammit.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D11, S7, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces.
Since Azeezah still can't control her own motions, the other players keep her spinning her wheels in the far northwest - ah, except that I forgot to roll for her to get rid of Ensorceled last turn, and doing it now, she does indeed roll higher than her "opponent". So she is in fact free to start heading toward Su-Chou by the shortest available route, which sadly isn't very short. Still being Poor, she can make it no farther than the forests of Lithuania or so, where she draws a Status-stealing Special card that's far more useful than the City card, which she discards (she's still holding the "teleport to a Place of Power if you have a Treasure" card she drew long ago, and I'm not clear on whether she can play both of those upon meeting a single player, but it's moot since she is one of the three players in this three-player game who lacks a Treasure).
Azeezah - W:Poor, D6, S4, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking.
Poor crippled, henpecked Ma'Ruf sticks close to Civilization but decides to try stopping in a Mountain space within this area, just for giggles; for the first time he fails to draw an Encounter, instead getting the Special card which lets him put the whammy on another player and choose their next Encounter reaction.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S4, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Piety, Married (Baghdad), Crippled.
Impelled back toward Zaila by the duties of his vizieral office, Aladdin draws and keeps the Tripoli city card - that's three consecutive Cities in Africa he's drawn, the lucky b****rd.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D11, S7, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces.
Now Azeezah has a real agenda for the first time in the game, apart from her trip to Stonehenge; she's interested in catching one of the boys and stealing a status from them, but unfortunately they're both equally fast as her, and quite some ways away. For now she goes into the forests of the Caucasus, drawing yet another Special; this one would let her give a Status she didn't want away, but since she has none at all, she discards it.
Azeezah - W:Poor, D6, S4, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking.
Ma'Ruf decides to go to sea this turn - the Red Sea, specifically, which puts him still in civilization (as would the Persian Gulf), as well as one space away from Aladdin, who is by far the preferable target for his hex rather than Azeezah. He draws his first City card, for Kiev, and ends his turn.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S4, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Piety, Married (Baghdad), Crippled.
Princely Aladdin goes to Bilma this turn, even though he could have traveled further; here he meets an Efreet, who is yet again Trapped (I guess that's not exactly the same thing as Imprisoned, but same principle). Being so rich, it seems reasonable to assume he can Hire the Efreet, so I go to paragraph 390 and look for my Master skills. None of them apply, so he rolls down to 389, where it seems the Efreet is "suffering from a painful illness brought on by a curse" (rather redundant, isn't that? especially when you're Trapped on top of it?). Not having Scholarship despite being a Vizier, Al can't help the sickly djinn, and gains only S1, though of course that directly takes him past the halfway point of an eventual win.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D11, S8, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces.
Racing to catch up with her potential victims, Azeezah stops in Baghdad and meets a Beggar. Rolling and adding just 1 to the die, but getting a roll of 6, she discovers the Beggar to be Crafty, which is not something that happens in Baghdad unless you have enough Destiny to be boosting your rolls. With Quick Thinking and Acting/Disguise on her side, Azeezah hopes that Following the Crafty Beggar might be profitable, and goes to paragraph 474. I believe someone got the resulting encounter last night, and that someone was a female character, though I don't know if it was Azeezah; either way, it turns out that being female and Following Crafty Beggars has the ability to go horribly wrong. The beggar has friends who attack her, and she defends herself well, but the ruffians are "enraged at being bested by a woman" and get the best of her through sheer numbers, whereupon they "beat you for your impudence". This drops her wealth to the absolute minimum in the game, making her a Beggar herself (though this has no actual game effect other than making it harder to re-earn Respectable wealth; it also makes her Crippled, but at the same time boosts her to D7 and S5, giving her Master Storytelling. So the turn wasn't a complete wash, but far from ideal either - especially since she's now less able to catch up to her intended victims, and has discarded the card which would have let her Cripple one of them instead.
Azeezah - W:Beggar, D7, S5, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Crippled.
Ma'Ruf goes to Bilma and meets Aladdin; drawing the dreaded Hunchback card, which is a bit less annoying than usual since nobody has actually been Imprisoned yet (it's not the game's first Hunchback, but only because one was randomly rolled), Ma'Ruf rolls a 6 and adds 2, and encounters a Dying Hunchback, a rather disappointing outcome since it means there are only three choices, two of which produce encounters. Since Questioning the Hunchback is potentially able to leave you Grief-Stricken, and Robbing him logically might lead to Imprisonment and a never-ending string of additional Hunchbacks, Ma'Ruf opts simply to Avoid this one and have no encounter, but before he's done he plays his Special on Aladdin and sabotages his next encounter.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S4, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Piety, Married (Baghdad), Crippled.
I forgot to have Aladdin play his Bilma card; this sort of thing would be much less likely to happen in a real game, I suspect, but there's nothing to be done but to continue playing according to the rules. He has to go back to Zaila before he can come to Bilma again, and he'll want to discharge his "cursed" encounter first so as not to risk that the Bilma card will give him one that goes horribly wrong. Drawing and discarding the Cordoba city card, Al ends his turn still hexed.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D11, S8, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces, Ma'Ruf chooses his reaction in his next encounter.
As a Beggar, Azeezah can make it no further than the Sinai Peninsula, where she draws the other copy of the "hex another player" Special card, and discards the "teleport to a Place of Power" one since there are still no Treasures. Damn the designers for not letting you hire a Healer Sage when Crippled.....
Azeezah - W:Beggar, D7, S5, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Crippled.
Ma'Ruf has to get home to the Little (Wo?)man, and the direct route takes him to the forested space of Sinai as well, where he sadly can't do anything to Azeezah. He draws the Special card which always gets discarded in games not using its subsystem, draws again and meets a Prophet, who is Friendly. Hoping that his still-active Beguiling will apply instead of his suppressed Appearance (which has a proven record of seducing wise men, but not while he's Crippled), Ma'Ruf attempts to Converse, going to paragraph 234. Disaster! He unwittingly gives offense, and lacks the Courtly Graces to repair the fumble, so he loses a Destiny point! Of which he had only 4, and he can't win until he has 15! He decides to blame Azeezah for this since she happens to be standing nearby, and swears unending vengeance against her as soon as he's gotten Aladdin properly messed up.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D3, S4, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Piety, Married (Baghdad), Crippled.
Stopping off at the Mountains space between Zaila and Bilma, Aladdin meets an Efreeteh, finding her to be Disguised (this is one of those cases where the syntax of the game gets confusing). Wanting to mess the excessively-successful player up as badly as possible, Ma'Ruf orders Aladdin to Attack the Efreeteh, producing paragraph 425, though Al still gets to check for his Master skills. Unfortunately, Storytelling does apply; Aladdin knocks down the Disguised person who he apparently didn't know was an Efreeteh, but he notes the magical design on the saddlebags of the horse that the victim apparently had. So, curse his Lucky hide, Aladdin gains D2, his 9th point of S, and the first Treasure of the game, the Magic Saddlebags.
Hitting S9 lets Al choose a new Skill, and he opts for Piety, hoping that it might help him gain Scholarship as well more likely than the reverse, as the two of them together at Master will get him Sultan status in place of Vizier.
The Magic Saddlebags aren't much of a Treasure in and of themselves; all they do is immunize you to being reduced to Beggar wealth, which differs from the next step up, Penniless, only in being further away from usefully high wealth levels. But it's still good for Aladdin that he has them, because now he's capable of attaining Fabulous wealth the next time he stands to gain any. Potentially he could gain another treasure and sell it, except that unfortunately the rules for selling treasures have never been defined in the rules of the game! Argh.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D13, S9, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces.
Azeezah would rather mess up Aladdin, but she's got two Special cards clogging up her hand, so she'll take what she can get. Leaving and re-entering the space with Ma'Ruf, she checks for an encounter and draws the Warfleet card, which in a forest sends her to paragraph 55 (also found on the Ape Island card). Rolling and adding +3, she comes up with what I think is the first 9 of this whole game, and she has met a Sad Gooleh! (I think all the Gools in this game are female, though I'm not sure. If so, it would match some of the mythology books that I've seen, in which it's said the original arabic "ghul" was definitionally female.) For the first time, Azeezah gets to get in on some of that sweet Master-skill action; not having Piety to Pray for the Gooleh, and not sure it's entirely wise to Aid or Question it, she decides to see what happens if she Honors it, a choice which doesn't entirely make sense but it's worth investigating. This leads to the vicinity of paragraph 1027, and neither it nor its neighbors call for Storytelling, so she rolls up to 1028, where it seems the gooleh is a True Believer who has treed a man and disbelieves his claims of being a Muslim. Lacking Wisdom, Azeezeh cannot usefully intervene and errs on the side of not interfering with the monster, so she merely gains S1 and would end her turn - except that for once I managed to remember my intention to play a Fate card and acquire a good Status from one of the others. Since we've established that Ma'Ruf's wife was a man anyway, Azeezah sees no reason not to make him her husband instead.
Very strange things happen when you steal someone else's Married status, especially if they got it through being Beloved. There's no rules support for the situation, so it's not at all clear whether it means the character who still has Beloved can earn Married status through it again; I'm inclined to think not. Midway through figuring all this out, I remember that Crippled players are supposed to double their Story awards with intelligent creatures, so I review the game's history. Azeezah has only been Crippled for a couple turns, so the encounter she just had was the only one in which it applied; she should in fact have risen to S7, which grants her a Wealth level, raising her merely to Penniless. Ma'Ruf, however, has been Crippled for this entire post, so I have to review all his encounters. In all that time, though, he's only had one encounter give him Story, so that doubles to give him 1 more point.
Meanwhile, I'm still straightening this out. So Ma'Ruf is now Beloved again, and I have to decide what that means, but I'll wait until his turn to do so. Azeezah is Married, and I also have to figure out whether she uses the same Origin as Ma'Ruf, or sets a new one as if she had gained Married any other way. Assuming the latter, the next city she "enters" - probably that means "even while just passing through" - becomes her new home; she can't leave her current space without passing through either Damascus or Alexandria, of which the former is closer to Baghdad and thus a better choice by far. Gaining a Story point for becoming Married (did I have Ma'Ruf do that when he should have? yes, it looks like I did), she finally ends her turn - and I end this post, both so I can take a biology break and so I can think some more about what's going to happen to Ma'Ruf's Beloved status now that he's "divorced".
Azeezah - W:Penniless, D7, S8, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Crippled.
Aladdin (male, yellow) - W:Princely, D8, S6, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces and Wisdom, wins at 15 Story and 5 Destiny.
Azeezah (female, red) - W:Poor, D6, S4, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Ensorceled (forgot to specify this when posting before), wins at 10 Story and 10 Destiny.
Ma'Ruf (male, blue) - W:Respectable, D3, S2, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Married (Baghdad), Crippled, wins at 5 Story and 15 Destiny.
Aladdin makes for the island of Cyprus, which is inside civilization, and there draws the Serendib city card, which he discards since he has no intention of going back that way. His two existing city cards are both within a fairly slight distance of Zaila by land, and he probably ought to have dealt with one of them this turn, but oh well.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D8, S6, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces and Wisdom.
Azeezah is forced to leave Stonehenge, and does not get to choose where she goes; I decide to have her move just one space, landing in the North Sea where there's a +3. Sadly, she doesn't get an encounter, but draws the Su-Chou city card.
Azeezah - W:Poor, D6, S4, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Ensorceled .
Ma'Ruf is able to move 3 spaces whether by land or sea - being Crippled and Respectable is better than being healthy and Poor, it seems. The only player not holding any city cards, he has the option of going anywhere he pleases, albeit not far, and since nobody in this game has really tried to head into mainland Asia, he decides to take a walk out that way and end up in the mountains. He continues his streak of drawing nothing but encounters by getting the Sex-Change Spring card; as appropriate as that would be given his genderbending marriage, it only happens when you're in the Desert, so he instead looks at mountains and rolls up an encounter with a Blind Man. It's been all this time in the game and I haven't done any Praying, so I'll give that a try; in paragraph 989, he finds a blind old man asking alms in the street (what street? I'm in the mountains), and is given the choice of donating a coin (which, I cheat by reading ahead, simply gives him D1) or praying, and I said I was gonna do that, so I roll a die for a 1/2 chance of good stuff happening (it'd be 2/3 if Ma'Ruf had Piety). The roll is nice and high, so the Sultan appears and gives the Man a fistful of gold, causing the Man to become pious - and Ma'Ruf along with him, as he gains the skill. He also gets D1 - any of the three outcomes of this paragraph would have give him that - as well as S1; not a bad turn, all in all.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S4, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Piety, Married (Baghdad), Crippled.
Alright, Aladdin has a Master skill, and those are awesome, so it's high time he worked on applying it. He goes to Alexandria, having a City card for it in hand, and draws for his regular encounter - it's the Serpent card, which applies to Mountains, so in City he instead checks a paragraph, rolls, and adds 3 because of his Destiny. Here he finds an Imprisoned Princess! It's just two turns since he encountered Imprisoned nobility, and we already know that the outcomes fall within a narrow band; this time, however, Court is an option, so Al will try that, even though it'd be a bit risky to gain Married status here in a different city from the one where he's already expected to go (I'm not sure what exactly happens if you're compelled to go to two different places at once, though the rules encourage you to resolve these disputes with "whatever makes for the better story"). Having a Master skill, Aladdin doesn't roll for up/down, but instead looks to see if any of the paragraphs turn on Storytelling, which of course 186 does, so he goes for that and gets the same award as before, except this time he chooses to gain Wisdom. I opt to say that this leaves him with Master Wisdom as long as he has Vizier, and normal Wisdom if he loses it, which is an extremely generous interpretation, but oh well. The D award pushes him past the point of adding +2 to all encounters, while the S point raises him to where he would gain 1 Wealth if he weren't already well past Respectable; seems like that usually doesn't apply by the time it happens, alas, but at least it's progress toward the Story total Aladdin needs to win. He has absurd amounts of Destiny to burn, which might matter if a few rare effects turned up; it'd be more of an advantage if I was using the "use skills on other players" variant, but I'm not ready for that yet.
Seriously, what are the odds of rolling up the same exact encounter like that? Anyway, Aladdin yet has a City card to play, and his roll of 2 on that card gives him a choice between three exciting encounters. I kind of hate these cards, because they offer you more concentrated awesomeness in one place than you can possibly use, even while you starve for it elsewhere. Still, I'll gladly take advantage of it in this case; of the three choices, the most exciting by far when you're sitting at Princely wealth, unable to rise any higher without a Treasure (albeit that if you succeed in this, you lose the ability to move 3 spaces by land, which is otherwise always possible unless Crippled or Diseased - it's not clear whether all these losses are cumulative, and I wonder whether someone who is Crippled and Diseased and Fabulous at the same time, while not next to a Sea route, is simply incapable of movement...I'm inclined to doubt it, but it is a funny thought), is to look at the Small Artifact on table F.
I do not even momentarily consider having Al do anything but Take that artifact; he checks paragraph 1078, fails to find any Storytelling prompts, but does notice Wisdom being called for on 1079, so he goes there. Unfortunately, this is one of several cases where Wisdom is almost a bad thing; offered a gem for free by a "weird old man" (checking table H where the Blind Men and Old Men are found, I'm disappointed to find that Weird Man encounters do not also exist), Aladdin refuses and as a result becomes still more Wise, as well as gaining D1. That didn't help him much, although I rule it does mean his Wisdom can no longer be lost as a result of ceasing to be Vizier. At last, that massive turn is done; Aladdin gets all the excitement in this game dammit.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D11, S7, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces.
Since Azeezah still can't control her own motions, the other players keep her spinning her wheels in the far northwest - ah, except that I forgot to roll for her to get rid of Ensorceled last turn, and doing it now, she does indeed roll higher than her "opponent". So she is in fact free to start heading toward Su-Chou by the shortest available route, which sadly isn't very short. Still being Poor, she can make it no farther than the forests of Lithuania or so, where she draws a Status-stealing Special card that's far more useful than the City card, which she discards (she's still holding the "teleport to a Place of Power if you have a Treasure" card she drew long ago, and I'm not clear on whether she can play both of those upon meeting a single player, but it's moot since she is one of the three players in this three-player game who lacks a Treasure).
Azeezah - W:Poor, D6, S4, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking.
Poor crippled, henpecked Ma'Ruf sticks close to Civilization but decides to try stopping in a Mountain space within this area, just for giggles; for the first time he fails to draw an Encounter, instead getting the Special card which lets him put the whammy on another player and choose their next Encounter reaction.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S4, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Piety, Married (Baghdad), Crippled.
Impelled back toward Zaila by the duties of his vizieral office, Aladdin draws and keeps the Tripoli city card - that's three consecutive Cities in Africa he's drawn, the lucky b****rd.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D11, S7, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces.
Now Azeezah has a real agenda for the first time in the game, apart from her trip to Stonehenge; she's interested in catching one of the boys and stealing a status from them, but unfortunately they're both equally fast as her, and quite some ways away. For now she goes into the forests of the Caucasus, drawing yet another Special; this one would let her give a Status she didn't want away, but since she has none at all, she discards it.
Azeezah - W:Poor, D6, S4, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, Storytelling, Quick Thinking.
Ma'Ruf decides to go to sea this turn - the Red Sea, specifically, which puts him still in civilization (as would the Persian Gulf), as well as one space away from Aladdin, who is by far the preferable target for his hex rather than Azeezah. He draws his first City card, for Kiev, and ends his turn.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S4, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Piety, Married (Baghdad), Crippled.
Princely Aladdin goes to Bilma this turn, even though he could have traveled further; here he meets an Efreet, who is yet again Trapped (I guess that's not exactly the same thing as Imprisoned, but same principle). Being so rich, it seems reasonable to assume he can Hire the Efreet, so I go to paragraph 390 and look for my Master skills. None of them apply, so he rolls down to 389, where it seems the Efreet is "suffering from a painful illness brought on by a curse" (rather redundant, isn't that? especially when you're Trapped on top of it?). Not having Scholarship despite being a Vizier, Al can't help the sickly djinn, and gains only S1, though of course that directly takes him past the halfway point of an eventual win.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D11, S8, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces.
Racing to catch up with her potential victims, Azeezah stops in Baghdad and meets a Beggar. Rolling and adding just 1 to the die, but getting a roll of 6, she discovers the Beggar to be Crafty, which is not something that happens in Baghdad unless you have enough Destiny to be boosting your rolls. With Quick Thinking and Acting/Disguise on her side, Azeezah hopes that Following the Crafty Beggar might be profitable, and goes to paragraph 474. I believe someone got the resulting encounter last night, and that someone was a female character, though I don't know if it was Azeezah; either way, it turns out that being female and Following Crafty Beggars has the ability to go horribly wrong. The beggar has friends who attack her, and she defends herself well, but the ruffians are "enraged at being bested by a woman" and get the best of her through sheer numbers, whereupon they "beat you for your impudence". This drops her wealth to the absolute minimum in the game, making her a Beggar herself (though this has no actual game effect other than making it harder to re-earn Respectable wealth; it also makes her Crippled, but at the same time boosts her to D7 and S5, giving her Master Storytelling. So the turn wasn't a complete wash, but far from ideal either - especially since she's now less able to catch up to her intended victims, and has discarded the card which would have let her Cripple one of them instead.
Azeezah - W:Beggar, D7, S5, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Crippled.
Ma'Ruf goes to Bilma and meets Aladdin; drawing the dreaded Hunchback card, which is a bit less annoying than usual since nobody has actually been Imprisoned yet (it's not the game's first Hunchback, but only because one was randomly rolled), Ma'Ruf rolls a 6 and adds 2, and encounters a Dying Hunchback, a rather disappointing outcome since it means there are only three choices, two of which produce encounters. Since Questioning the Hunchback is potentially able to leave you Grief-Stricken, and Robbing him logically might lead to Imprisonment and a never-ending string of additional Hunchbacks, Ma'Ruf opts simply to Avoid this one and have no encounter, but before he's done he plays his Special on Aladdin and sabotages his next encounter.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S4, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Piety, Married (Baghdad), Crippled.
I forgot to have Aladdin play his Bilma card; this sort of thing would be much less likely to happen in a real game, I suspect, but there's nothing to be done but to continue playing according to the rules. He has to go back to Zaila before he can come to Bilma again, and he'll want to discharge his "cursed" encounter first so as not to risk that the Bilma card will give him one that goes horribly wrong. Drawing and discarding the Cordoba city card, Al ends his turn still hexed.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D11, S8, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces, Ma'Ruf chooses his reaction in his next encounter.
As a Beggar, Azeezah can make it no further than the Sinai Peninsula, where she draws the other copy of the "hex another player" Special card, and discards the "teleport to a Place of Power" one since there are still no Treasures. Damn the designers for not letting you hire a Healer Sage when Crippled.....
Azeezah - W:Beggar, D7, S5, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Crippled.
Ma'Ruf has to get home to the Little (Wo?)man, and the direct route takes him to the forested space of Sinai as well, where he sadly can't do anything to Azeezah. He draws the Special card which always gets discarded in games not using its subsystem, draws again and meets a Prophet, who is Friendly. Hoping that his still-active Beguiling will apply instead of his suppressed Appearance (which has a proven record of seducing wise men, but not while he's Crippled), Ma'Ruf attempts to Converse, going to paragraph 234. Disaster! He unwittingly gives offense, and lacks the Courtly Graces to repair the fumble, so he loses a Destiny point! Of which he had only 4, and he can't win until he has 15! He decides to blame Azeezah for this since she happens to be standing nearby, and swears unending vengeance against her as soon as he's gotten Aladdin properly messed up.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D3, S4, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Piety, Married (Baghdad), Crippled.
Stopping off at the Mountains space between Zaila and Bilma, Aladdin meets an Efreeteh, finding her to be Disguised (this is one of those cases where the syntax of the game gets confusing). Wanting to mess the excessively-successful player up as badly as possible, Ma'Ruf orders Aladdin to Attack the Efreeteh, producing paragraph 425, though Al still gets to check for his Master skills. Unfortunately, Storytelling does apply; Aladdin knocks down the Disguised person who he apparently didn't know was an Efreeteh, but he notes the magical design on the saddlebags of the horse that the victim apparently had. So, curse his Lucky hide, Aladdin gains D2, his 9th point of S, and the first Treasure of the game, the Magic Saddlebags.
Hitting S9 lets Al choose a new Skill, and he opts for Piety, hoping that it might help him gain Scholarship as well more likely than the reverse, as the two of them together at Master will get him Sultan status in place of Vizier.
The Magic Saddlebags aren't much of a Treasure in and of themselves; all they do is immunize you to being reduced to Beggar wealth, which differs from the next step up, Penniless, only in being further away from usefully high wealth levels. But it's still good for Aladdin that he has them, because now he's capable of attaining Fabulous wealth the next time he stands to gain any. Potentially he could gain another treasure and sell it, except that unfortunately the rules for selling treasures have never been defined in the rules of the game! Argh.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D13, S9, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces.
Azeezah would rather mess up Aladdin, but she's got two Special cards clogging up her hand, so she'll take what she can get. Leaving and re-entering the space with Ma'Ruf, she checks for an encounter and draws the Warfleet card, which in a forest sends her to paragraph 55 (also found on the Ape Island card). Rolling and adding +3, she comes up with what I think is the first 9 of this whole game, and she has met a Sad Gooleh! (I think all the Gools in this game are female, though I'm not sure. If so, it would match some of the mythology books that I've seen, in which it's said the original arabic "ghul" was definitionally female.) For the first time, Azeezah gets to get in on some of that sweet Master-skill action; not having Piety to Pray for the Gooleh, and not sure it's entirely wise to Aid or Question it, she decides to see what happens if she Honors it, a choice which doesn't entirely make sense but it's worth investigating. This leads to the vicinity of paragraph 1027, and neither it nor its neighbors call for Storytelling, so she rolls up to 1028, where it seems the gooleh is a True Believer who has treed a man and disbelieves his claims of being a Muslim. Lacking Wisdom, Azeezeh cannot usefully intervene and errs on the side of not interfering with the monster, so she merely gains S1 and would end her turn - except that for once I managed to remember my intention to play a Fate card and acquire a good Status from one of the others. Since we've established that Ma'Ruf's wife was a man anyway, Azeezah sees no reason not to make him her husband instead.
Very strange things happen when you steal someone else's Married status, especially if they got it through being Beloved. There's no rules support for the situation, so it's not at all clear whether it means the character who still has Beloved can earn Married status through it again; I'm inclined to think not. Midway through figuring all this out, I remember that Crippled players are supposed to double their Story awards with intelligent creatures, so I review the game's history. Azeezah has only been Crippled for a couple turns, so the encounter she just had was the only one in which it applied; she should in fact have risen to S7, which grants her a Wealth level, raising her merely to Penniless. Ma'Ruf, however, has been Crippled for this entire post, so I have to review all his encounters. In all that time, though, he's only had one encounter give him Story, so that doubles to give him 1 more point.
Meanwhile, I'm still straightening this out. So Ma'Ruf is now Beloved again, and I have to decide what that means, but I'll wait until his turn to do so. Azeezah is Married, and I also have to figure out whether she uses the same Origin as Ma'Ruf, or sets a new one as if she had gained Married any other way. Assuming the latter, the next city she "enters" - probably that means "even while just passing through" - becomes her new home; she can't leave her current space without passing through either Damascus or Alexandria, of which the former is closer to Baghdad and thus a better choice by far. Gaining a Story point for becoming Married (did I have Ma'Ruf do that when he should have? yes, it looks like I did), she finally ends her turn - and I end this post, both so I can take a biology break and so I can think some more about what's going to happen to Ma'Ruf's Beloved status now that he's "divorced".
Azeezah - W:Penniless, D7, S8, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Crippled.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
Ma'Ruf (male, blue) - W:Respectable, D3, S4, Beguiling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Crippled, wins at 5 Story and 15 Destiny.
Aladdin (male, yellow) - W:Princely, D13, S9, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces, wins at 15 Story and 5 Destiny.
Azeezah (female, red) - W:Penniless, D7, S8, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Crippled, Married (TBD), wins at 10 Story and 10 Destiny.
Having discussed the situation with a friend who plays the game, we came up with the conclusion that it would not be right to let Ma'Ruf get married again, but that he should still have the ability to "reject" his Beloved, essentially to see whether he gets in an argument with his spouse-of-uncertain-gender now that this person has left him for a woman. So before doing anything else on Ma'Ruf's turn, I'll deal with that. Rejection tells you to roll 2 dice, adding 1 for Beguiling (or other skills that Ma'Ruf does not have) and subtracting 1 for Appearance (which he does have, even though he's not allowed to use it because of Crippled; I'm ruling that it does count for this purpose). So it's a straight roll of 2d6, and it goes high, so he goes to paragraph 778. In this, Ma'Ruf convinces the sage to accept that the relationship has ended without making a fuss, and because he doesn't have Wisdom (or the Respected status), they part bittersweetly, giving him S1. It's debatable whether this should be doubled due to Crippled, as it did originally involve a Sage, but I'm judging that it doesn't count as an encounter, so it's just 1 point; this is however enough to get him the Storytelling skill, which he alone had not yet acquired. (Note that the text still doesn't say anything about you losing Beloved, so he keeps the now-redundant status forever I guess.)
Having gotten that out of the way, Ma'Ruf takes his actual turn. He's now free to visit cities again without complications, so he heads up to Hamadan to get further away from Azeezah, lest she do anything else to mess with him. Here, he draws the Rhinoceros card, which in a city means you go to paragraph 60; rolling a flat d6, he gets a 5 and discovers a Con Game. Figuring that he's probably in a foul mood, and can't get more Crippled anyway, I decide to have him Attack the Game; this sends me to paragraph 996. Ma'Ruf enters the city and is told he must buy a "night pass"; when he learns this is a lie, he tries to track the cad down and punish him. However, he lacks Wisdom (again) or Stealth and Stealing, so he's unable to get his money back; it's not enough to make him lose a wealth level, since his current Respectable is the minimum, but he doesn't gain any doubled Story from the encounter, just a point of Destiny, and he suffers the Envious status, which means he'll be on a Robbing spree for most of the rest of the game, and can't win until he satisfies this drive. He could go On Pilgrimage to get rid of this, but frankly I think he'd rather just Rob some people; he is something of a cad himself after all.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S5, Beguiling, Storytelling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Crippled, Envious
Time for Aladdin to head to Bilma and finally play that card I forgot. He encounters a Hag, rolling a 9 and determining her to be Possessed. Well, we've got a pretty good idea what happens if you Beat such unfortunates, and Attack has the same output, logically enough. Rob is going to happen often enough with an Envious player around, so that leaves Question, Follow, and Avoid as options, and interestingly Avoid doesn't produce "No Encounter", so I decide I'll try that. This sends me to paragraph 516, where neither Master skill applies but a straight roll produces no change. Not having Minor Magic, Aladdin simply gains S1 - he's the only player not Crippled, so he doesn't double this - as he rushes past the Hag and ignores her cries. (Rolling down to 515 would have been completely boring, giving S1 with no other possibilities; rolling up would have been more interesting, as the wretch would attack, and Major Magic could apply to give an impressive outcome.)
Aladdin - W:Princely, D13, S10, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces
Stuck moving no more than two spaces, Azeezah doesn't like establishing her Marriage's home further away from Baghdad, but doesn't want to waste time closing in on Aladdin either (her special card is not only good for screwing with him because he's winning, but also would be wasted on Ma'Ruf since he's compelled to Rob if possible). So she reluctantly accepts Alexandria as her new home, and continues past it to a desert space 1 away from Bilma. She draws the Lhasa city card, which she will pretty definitely never use, and ends her turn.
Azeezah - W:Penniless, D7, S8, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Crippled, Married (Alexandria)
Having no better real guideline to control his Envy, Ma'ruf deciddes to pursue Azeezah, and goes back to Sinai, where he draws the Tana city card. I'm definitely inclined to agree with the logic of saying you should always get an encounter each turn, even if that might get slightly insane, as the alternative is rather dull.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S5, Beguiling, Storytelling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Crippled, Envious
Aladdin goes back to Zaila and draws a Slave card; he rolls a total of 10, for the most exotic result yet, an Armed Slave. Normally, I like to Buy slaves when they come up, but that's not an option here (and anyway, I don't really want to reduce Aladdin's Princely wealth, which also vetoes the legal option of Hire). So he opts to Question the slave, giving him an initial destination paragraph of 563. Wisdom and Storytelling don't apply, so he rolls and goes up to 564; he has apparently startled the Slave, who bonks him in the head and runs away, granting him S1 and leaving him Insane for 1 turn! This is a familiar situation, because being Insane means letting another player choose your reaction for you - exactly like those Special cards which have been played on Aladdin once, and will be again soon.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D13, S11, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces, Insane (1 turn)
The freshly matrimonial Azeezah doesn't want to go far away from Aladdin, but there's no point in putting the hex on him now, so she takes a moment to head back to Alexandria and screw her stolen Sage husband. First she has to draw her card (well, arguably that part comes first); she gets another Special and keeps it instead of the Lhasa card. Then she adds 1 Story for having come home, and rolls to see about children, but doesn't get one. So that was that.
Azeezah - W:Penniless, D7, S9, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Crippled, Married (Alexandria)
Ma'Ruf pounces on Azeezah, then draws the Timbuktu card, which replaces Tana in his hand. Unfortunately, he has no ability to actually avenge himself upon her, and gives up his vendetta in favor of the new destination.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S5, Beguiling, Storytelling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Crippled, Envious
The briefly addlepated Aladdin realizes that it might be wise to put some distance between himself and his harriers, not to mention that he can move a lot farther in a boat, so he puts out to sea and sails all the way to the entrance of the Dusky Land, where he is delighted to draw a City card (for Balts), which he discards - and only now do I notice that he still hasn't played that Bilma card. Still, he's happy that Insane is gone without having harmed him.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D13, S11, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces
Azeezah steps outside of Alexandria and then back into it; it's distinctly debatable whether you should be able to count this as "returning home", but for now I'll assume it works. She draws and discards the Adrianople city card, then plays her Special on Ma'Ruf, giving both of them 5D rather than just taking 2D for herself. This does help get Ma'Ruf closer to his victory condition, but he's still got a long way to go - whereas she is now past her intended 10 Destiny, and now she resolves Married, which gets her to 10 Story (it seems that when she attained 9 Story, I forgot to have her gain a new skill, which I'll go ahead and do by giving her Minor Magic), and she rolls and again doesn't get a child. So now she's poised to win the game, instead of that ersatz Sultan Aladdin!
Azeezah - W:Penniless, D12, S10, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Minor Magic, Crippled, Married (Alexandria)
Suddenly a lot more Destined than he was, Ma'Ruf realizes he really wishes he could mess with Azeezah now, but he can't, so he just walks out into the desert on his way toward Timbuktu. He draws the Dendan encounter card, whose Desert version is paragraph 44; for the first time all game he adds more than the basic +2 to it, and comes up with a total of 9, which means he's found a Mysterious Trapdoor. Naturally, his only real choice is to Open it; this is paragraph 1148, and he has no master skills, so he rolls and stays there. Apparently there was a jewelled statue involved which we only just now found out about; the trapdoor in it leads to King Omar's treasure vault, where Ma'Ruf interrupts a pair of thieves. He does not "have Weapon Use and lack Piety", which is the condition of success in this case; why Piety gets you knocked out is not at all clear here, but lack of Weapon Use definitely does, and so he wakes up Imprisoned by King Omar's guards, although it's only if he fails to roll a 6 or less, and he gets a 2, so he's not Imprisoned after all. Still, all he actually gained is D1, though this does get him 2/3 of the way to his win.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D10, S5, Beguiling, Storytelling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Crippled, Envious
Aladdin sails back by way of Bantus and ends up at a +2 desert space; he draws the Palace of 100 Closets card, continuing the freakish regularity with which these things refuse to actually appear in the right place for the title encounter to occur. Rolling a mere 2 but adding 6 to it, he consults his table and encounters Flying Creatures. Having Wisdom, he attempts to Study them, starting with paragraph 947...and 946 through 955 say "No Award", so apparently this game wasn't actually finished when they published it! I've seen some questionable things, but this is the first proof that the game is flat-out nonfunctional. For now I'll settle for picking a different reaction, "Follow", which takes me to 885, and neither the die nor his skills take him anywhere else. He follows a seemingly intelligent bird to a tower with a maiden imprisoned at the top; he rolls two dice and adds 1 for his Luck, and easily passes the "fierce guardian at the gate", and goes to 1389 (very near the end of the book). Lacking Courtly Graces (and being male), Aladdin gets a little carried away; after sneaking and fighting his way through the tower (despite not having Weapon Use or Stealth & Stealing as skills), he rushes in and embraces the maiden, who reacts indignantly at him taking such liberties with a princess. He gains 1 each of S and D, but is Scorned for 1 turn! Some gratitude. However it's actually good for him at this stage, because Scorned turns all his Destiny into Story, and that's something he loves because he's pursuing a Story victory. It does prevent him from gaining that Fabulous Wealth he wanted, and he can't gain any new Skills, but it's still worthwhile to him, and it's almost too bad it only lasts for 1 turn.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D14, S12, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces, Scorned (1 turn).
Still being Crippled, Azeezah can't reach Baghdad from Alexandria, so she has to stop back in the Sinai Forest rather than continue to Damascus and then have to run home to hubby. She draws the Special card which lets you advance the deck marker by meeting another player, which I wish had showed up earlier; now it doesn't really matter and she ends her turn.
Azeezah - W:Penniless, D12, S10, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Minor Magic, Crippled, Married (Alexandria)
Thoroughly screwed and having no real hope to win, Ma'Ruf pulls into Timbuktu just for the sake of having something to do; he could trade Envious status for On Pilgrimage and then give up on the Pilgrimage immediately, but it would cost him 6 Destiny and he can't possibly spare that (Aladdin could, the sonuva). Drawing and discarding the Herat city card, he plays Timbuktu, rolls a 6, and gains a random Treasure! Figures that this would finally happen just as the game is wrapping up. Picking a random treasure is done by selecting one of a set of 2-sided chits; there are 15 of these, of which the one containing both Aladdin's Magic Saddlebags and the Brass Horseman is unavailable, so to roll among the rest of them, I will in fact go to Invisible Castle after all, rather than risk having almost a 1/3 chance of having to reroll a physical d20.
01. 144/5
02. 146/7
03. 148/9
04. 150/1
05. 154/5
06. 156/7
07. 158/9
08. 160/1
09. 162/3
10. 164/5
11. 166/7
12. 168/9
13. 170/1
14. 172/3
The roll is 11, so I roll a D6 low/high to determine which side of it he gets; it's high, so Ma'Ruf gains treasure 167, the Protective Talisman. This is a pretty good one; whenever you encounter an Efreet or Efreteeh, you can ignore anything you don't like in the award paragraph, while still taking whatever you want. Not that these creatures are common, unfortunately, and with Azeezah a turn from winning the game, the odds are very poor that it will come up.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D10, S5, Beguiling, Storytelling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Crippled, Envious
Figuring that Azeezah is about to win, Aladdin does his best to try and share the victory; he could reach Baghdad this turn, but then Vizier would force him to leave, so instead he just hangs out in the Red Sea and draws a card, which gives him an encounter with a Wizard. Adding 2 for his Destiny but not being outside Civilization, Aladdin determines that the wizard is Trapped, just like that Efreet a while back. Finding imprisoned nobles and trapped magical beings seems to be his forte this game. Anyway, he decides to Trick the fellow in hopes that something amusing and non-catastrophic might result, just because it's something I'm certain hasn't been done yet this game. Paragraph 397 is his result (yet again, his master skills don't help), and it calls for Enduring Hardship, which he doesn't have; he has apparently requested aid earnestly from the Wizard, rather than seriously tricking him, but the Wizard can't actually help him and so the only award is D1, which becomes S1 due to Scorned, which now ends. Alas, it wasn't enough to get him the win.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D14, S13, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces.
Azeezah walks into Baghdad to claim the win; drawing a card to see if she gets an Encounter which might throw her out, I found only a Special (indeed, the Special which counters another Special), so she discards the "advance the deck" one and ends what should be her final turn.
Azeezah - W:Penniless, D12, S10, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Minor Magic, Crippled, Married (Alexandria)
Ma'Ruf can't reach Baghdad this turn, so he just walks into the Egyptian desert, where he meets a Princess. He rolls a total of 10, which means a Wicked Princess; despite being Crippled and thus not having Seduction, he sees no reason not to Court her anyway, just to prove he's all man (having failed to retain marital bliss with his Sage boyfriend). Going to paragraph 192...oh wait, nevermind, I forgot I had to Rob her. Going to paragraph 257, Ma'Ruf is caught in the act and brought before the Sultan, who implies that he wants a bribe. Since the game is over I decide to cheat and read over all the outcomes, and this encounter produces the best results if you have Piety; lacking that, Ma'Ruf must either accept his punishment, gaining Enduring Hardship and a loseable Imprisoned, or try the bribe and have a half-chance of being Imprisoned without the ability to lose it, which drops to a 1/3 chance if you have Courtly Graces but he doesn't. Any outcome gives him D1 which he's glad of, even if it's too little, too late, but he'd really rather not end the game Imprisoned, so since the 6 or less roll to lose it after accepting his punishment is about a 13/36 chance, while the bribe gives an 18/36 chance, he tries the bribe. Success! The himsel formerly known as Roofie ends the game a free man, only 4 destiny short of his win condition.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D11, S6, Beguiling, Storytelling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Crippled, Envious
Aladdin took the first turn of this game, and he takes the last; ending the game in Baghdad, he has one last chance at an encounter, but draws a City card instead. Which, I decide, is okay, because I've been playing for about 8 hours with only two short breaks, and I'm rather tired of it. Azeezah wins, and I'm left with a distinctly dim impression of the victory formulas other than 10/10.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D14, S13, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces.
Aladdin (male, yellow) - W:Princely, D13, S9, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces, wins at 15 Story and 5 Destiny.
Azeezah (female, red) - W:Penniless, D7, S8, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Crippled, Married (TBD), wins at 10 Story and 10 Destiny.
Having discussed the situation with a friend who plays the game, we came up with the conclusion that it would not be right to let Ma'Ruf get married again, but that he should still have the ability to "reject" his Beloved, essentially to see whether he gets in an argument with his spouse-of-uncertain-gender now that this person has left him for a woman. So before doing anything else on Ma'Ruf's turn, I'll deal with that. Rejection tells you to roll 2 dice, adding 1 for Beguiling (or other skills that Ma'Ruf does not have) and subtracting 1 for Appearance (which he does have, even though he's not allowed to use it because of Crippled; I'm ruling that it does count for this purpose). So it's a straight roll of 2d6, and it goes high, so he goes to paragraph 778. In this, Ma'Ruf convinces the sage to accept that the relationship has ended without making a fuss, and because he doesn't have Wisdom (or the Respected status), they part bittersweetly, giving him S1. It's debatable whether this should be doubled due to Crippled, as it did originally involve a Sage, but I'm judging that it doesn't count as an encounter, so it's just 1 point; this is however enough to get him the Storytelling skill, which he alone had not yet acquired. (Note that the text still doesn't say anything about you losing Beloved, so he keeps the now-redundant status forever I guess.)
Having gotten that out of the way, Ma'Ruf takes his actual turn. He's now free to visit cities again without complications, so he heads up to Hamadan to get further away from Azeezah, lest she do anything else to mess with him. Here, he draws the Rhinoceros card, which in a city means you go to paragraph 60; rolling a flat d6, he gets a 5 and discovers a Con Game. Figuring that he's probably in a foul mood, and can't get more Crippled anyway, I decide to have him Attack the Game; this sends me to paragraph 996. Ma'Ruf enters the city and is told he must buy a "night pass"; when he learns this is a lie, he tries to track the cad down and punish him. However, he lacks Wisdom (again) or Stealth and Stealing, so he's unable to get his money back; it's not enough to make him lose a wealth level, since his current Respectable is the minimum, but he doesn't gain any doubled Story from the encounter, just a point of Destiny, and he suffers the Envious status, which means he'll be on a Robbing spree for most of the rest of the game, and can't win until he satisfies this drive. He could go On Pilgrimage to get rid of this, but frankly I think he'd rather just Rob some people; he is something of a cad himself after all.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S5, Beguiling, Storytelling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Crippled, Envious
Time for Aladdin to head to Bilma and finally play that card I forgot. He encounters a Hag, rolling a 9 and determining her to be Possessed. Well, we've got a pretty good idea what happens if you Beat such unfortunates, and Attack has the same output, logically enough. Rob is going to happen often enough with an Envious player around, so that leaves Question, Follow, and Avoid as options, and interestingly Avoid doesn't produce "No Encounter", so I decide I'll try that. This sends me to paragraph 516, where neither Master skill applies but a straight roll produces no change. Not having Minor Magic, Aladdin simply gains S1 - he's the only player not Crippled, so he doesn't double this - as he rushes past the Hag and ignores her cries. (Rolling down to 515 would have been completely boring, giving S1 with no other possibilities; rolling up would have been more interesting, as the wretch would attack, and Major Magic could apply to give an impressive outcome.)
Aladdin - W:Princely, D13, S10, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces
Stuck moving no more than two spaces, Azeezah doesn't like establishing her Marriage's home further away from Baghdad, but doesn't want to waste time closing in on Aladdin either (her special card is not only good for screwing with him because he's winning, but also would be wasted on Ma'Ruf since he's compelled to Rob if possible). So she reluctantly accepts Alexandria as her new home, and continues past it to a desert space 1 away from Bilma. She draws the Lhasa city card, which she will pretty definitely never use, and ends her turn.
Azeezah - W:Penniless, D7, S8, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Crippled, Married (Alexandria)
Having no better real guideline to control his Envy, Ma'ruf deciddes to pursue Azeezah, and goes back to Sinai, where he draws the Tana city card. I'm definitely inclined to agree with the logic of saying you should always get an encounter each turn, even if that might get slightly insane, as the alternative is rather dull.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S5, Beguiling, Storytelling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Crippled, Envious
Aladdin goes back to Zaila and draws a Slave card; he rolls a total of 10, for the most exotic result yet, an Armed Slave. Normally, I like to Buy slaves when they come up, but that's not an option here (and anyway, I don't really want to reduce Aladdin's Princely wealth, which also vetoes the legal option of Hire). So he opts to Question the slave, giving him an initial destination paragraph of 563. Wisdom and Storytelling don't apply, so he rolls and goes up to 564; he has apparently startled the Slave, who bonks him in the head and runs away, granting him S1 and leaving him Insane for 1 turn! This is a familiar situation, because being Insane means letting another player choose your reaction for you - exactly like those Special cards which have been played on Aladdin once, and will be again soon.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D13, S11, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces, Insane (1 turn)
The freshly matrimonial Azeezah doesn't want to go far away from Aladdin, but there's no point in putting the hex on him now, so she takes a moment to head back to Alexandria and screw her stolen Sage husband. First she has to draw her card (well, arguably that part comes first); she gets another Special and keeps it instead of the Lhasa card. Then she adds 1 Story for having come home, and rolls to see about children, but doesn't get one. So that was that.
Azeezah - W:Penniless, D7, S9, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Crippled, Married (Alexandria)
Ma'Ruf pounces on Azeezah, then draws the Timbuktu card, which replaces Tana in his hand. Unfortunately, he has no ability to actually avenge himself upon her, and gives up his vendetta in favor of the new destination.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D4, S5, Beguiling, Storytelling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Crippled, Envious
The briefly addlepated Aladdin realizes that it might be wise to put some distance between himself and his harriers, not to mention that he can move a lot farther in a boat, so he puts out to sea and sails all the way to the entrance of the Dusky Land, where he is delighted to draw a City card (for Balts), which he discards - and only now do I notice that he still hasn't played that Bilma card. Still, he's happy that Insane is gone without having harmed him.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D13, S11, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces
Azeezah steps outside of Alexandria and then back into it; it's distinctly debatable whether you should be able to count this as "returning home", but for now I'll assume it works. She draws and discards the Adrianople city card, then plays her Special on Ma'Ruf, giving both of them 5D rather than just taking 2D for herself. This does help get Ma'Ruf closer to his victory condition, but he's still got a long way to go - whereas she is now past her intended 10 Destiny, and now she resolves Married, which gets her to 10 Story (it seems that when she attained 9 Story, I forgot to have her gain a new skill, which I'll go ahead and do by giving her Minor Magic), and she rolls and again doesn't get a child. So now she's poised to win the game, instead of that ersatz Sultan Aladdin!
Azeezah - W:Penniless, D12, S10, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Minor Magic, Crippled, Married (Alexandria)
Suddenly a lot more Destined than he was, Ma'Ruf realizes he really wishes he could mess with Azeezah now, but he can't, so he just walks out into the desert on his way toward Timbuktu. He draws the Dendan encounter card, whose Desert version is paragraph 44; for the first time all game he adds more than the basic +2 to it, and comes up with a total of 9, which means he's found a Mysterious Trapdoor. Naturally, his only real choice is to Open it; this is paragraph 1148, and he has no master skills, so he rolls and stays there. Apparently there was a jewelled statue involved which we only just now found out about; the trapdoor in it leads to King Omar's treasure vault, where Ma'Ruf interrupts a pair of thieves. He does not "have Weapon Use and lack Piety", which is the condition of success in this case; why Piety gets you knocked out is not at all clear here, but lack of Weapon Use definitely does, and so he wakes up Imprisoned by King Omar's guards, although it's only if he fails to roll a 6 or less, and he gets a 2, so he's not Imprisoned after all. Still, all he actually gained is D1, though this does get him 2/3 of the way to his win.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D10, S5, Beguiling, Storytelling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Crippled, Envious
Aladdin sails back by way of Bantus and ends up at a +2 desert space; he draws the Palace of 100 Closets card, continuing the freakish regularity with which these things refuse to actually appear in the right place for the title encounter to occur. Rolling a mere 2 but adding 6 to it, he consults his table and encounters Flying Creatures. Having Wisdom, he attempts to Study them, starting with paragraph 947...and 946 through 955 say "No Award", so apparently this game wasn't actually finished when they published it! I've seen some questionable things, but this is the first proof that the game is flat-out nonfunctional. For now I'll settle for picking a different reaction, "Follow", which takes me to 885, and neither the die nor his skills take him anywhere else. He follows a seemingly intelligent bird to a tower with a maiden imprisoned at the top; he rolls two dice and adds 1 for his Luck, and easily passes the "fierce guardian at the gate", and goes to 1389 (very near the end of the book). Lacking Courtly Graces (and being male), Aladdin gets a little carried away; after sneaking and fighting his way through the tower (despite not having Weapon Use or Stealth & Stealing as skills), he rushes in and embraces the maiden, who reacts indignantly at him taking such liberties with a princess. He gains 1 each of S and D, but is Scorned for 1 turn! Some gratitude. However it's actually good for him at this stage, because Scorned turns all his Destiny into Story, and that's something he loves because he's pursuing a Story victory. It does prevent him from gaining that Fabulous Wealth he wanted, and he can't gain any new Skills, but it's still worthwhile to him, and it's almost too bad it only lasts for 1 turn.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D14, S12, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces, Scorned (1 turn).
Still being Crippled, Azeezah can't reach Baghdad from Alexandria, so she has to stop back in the Sinai Forest rather than continue to Damascus and then have to run home to hubby. She draws the Special card which lets you advance the deck marker by meeting another player, which I wish had showed up earlier; now it doesn't really matter and she ends her turn.
Azeezah - W:Penniless, D12, S10, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Minor Magic, Crippled, Married (Alexandria)
Thoroughly screwed and having no real hope to win, Ma'Ruf pulls into Timbuktu just for the sake of having something to do; he could trade Envious status for On Pilgrimage and then give up on the Pilgrimage immediately, but it would cost him 6 Destiny and he can't possibly spare that (Aladdin could, the sonuva). Drawing and discarding the Herat city card, he plays Timbuktu, rolls a 6, and gains a random Treasure! Figures that this would finally happen just as the game is wrapping up. Picking a random treasure is done by selecting one of a set of 2-sided chits; there are 15 of these, of which the one containing both Aladdin's Magic Saddlebags and the Brass Horseman is unavailable, so to roll among the rest of them, I will in fact go to Invisible Castle after all, rather than risk having almost a 1/3 chance of having to reroll a physical d20.
01. 144/5
02. 146/7
03. 148/9
04. 150/1
05. 154/5
06. 156/7
07. 158/9
08. 160/1
09. 162/3
10. 164/5
11. 166/7
12. 168/9
13. 170/1
14. 172/3
The roll is 11, so I roll a D6 low/high to determine which side of it he gets; it's high, so Ma'Ruf gains treasure 167, the Protective Talisman. This is a pretty good one; whenever you encounter an Efreet or Efreteeh, you can ignore anything you don't like in the award paragraph, while still taking whatever you want. Not that these creatures are common, unfortunately, and with Azeezah a turn from winning the game, the odds are very poor that it will come up.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D10, S5, Beguiling, Storytelling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Crippled, Envious
Figuring that Azeezah is about to win, Aladdin does his best to try and share the victory; he could reach Baghdad this turn, but then Vizier would force him to leave, so instead he just hangs out in the Red Sea and draws a card, which gives him an encounter with a Wizard. Adding 2 for his Destiny but not being outside Civilization, Aladdin determines that the wizard is Trapped, just like that Efreet a while back. Finding imprisoned nobles and trapped magical beings seems to be his forte this game. Anyway, he decides to Trick the fellow in hopes that something amusing and non-catastrophic might result, just because it's something I'm certain hasn't been done yet this game. Paragraph 397 is his result (yet again, his master skills don't help), and it calls for Enduring Hardship, which he doesn't have; he has apparently requested aid earnestly from the Wizard, rather than seriously tricking him, but the Wizard can't actually help him and so the only award is D1, which becomes S1 due to Scorned, which now ends. Alas, it wasn't enough to get him the win.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D14, S13, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces.
Azeezah walks into Baghdad to claim the win; drawing a card to see if she gets an Encounter which might throw her out, I found only a Special (indeed, the Special which counters another Special), so she discards the "advance the deck" one and ends what should be her final turn.
Azeezah - W:Penniless, D12, S10, Acting & Disguise, Wilderness Lore, MASTER Storytelling, Quick Thinking, Minor Magic, Crippled, Married (Alexandria)
Ma'Ruf can't reach Baghdad this turn, so he just walks into the Egyptian desert, where he meets a Princess. He rolls a total of 10, which means a Wicked Princess; despite being Crippled and thus not having Seduction, he sees no reason not to Court her anyway, just to prove he's all man (having failed to retain marital bliss with his Sage boyfriend). Going to paragraph 192...oh wait, nevermind, I forgot I had to Rob her. Going to paragraph 257, Ma'Ruf is caught in the act and brought before the Sultan, who implies that he wants a bribe. Since the game is over I decide to cheat and read over all the outcomes, and this encounter produces the best results if you have Piety; lacking that, Ma'Ruf must either accept his punishment, gaining Enduring Hardship and a loseable Imprisoned, or try the bribe and have a half-chance of being Imprisoned without the ability to lose it, which drops to a 1/3 chance if you have Courtly Graces but he doesn't. Any outcome gives him D1 which he's glad of, even if it's too little, too late, but he'd really rather not end the game Imprisoned, so since the 6 or less roll to lose it after accepting his punishment is about a 13/36 chance, while the bribe gives an 18/36 chance, he tries the bribe. Success! The himsel formerly known as Roofie ends the game a free man, only 4 destiny short of his win condition.
Ma'Ruf - W:Respectable, D11, S6, Beguiling, Storytelling, Appearance, Seduction, Beloved, Crippled, Envious
Aladdin took the first turn of this game, and he takes the last; ending the game in Baghdad, he has one last chance at an encounter, but draws a City card instead. Which, I decide, is okay, because I've been playing for about 8 hours with only two short breaks, and I'm rather tired of it. Azeezah wins, and I'm left with a distinctly dim impression of the victory formulas other than 10/10.
Aladdin - W:Princely, D14, S13, Luck, Quick Thinking, Seamanship, Piety, MASTER Wisdom, MASTER Storytelling, Vizier (Zaila) with Courtly Graces.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
Yet again, I have hours to kill, and am of a mind to spend them doing this. I'll go back to everyone playing for 10 Story and 10 Destiny to keep things simple this time, but will bump up to four characters. The gendering of the colors in previous games is hereby reversed, since I'm determined to avoid duplicating characters. Also, I've decided that I officially consider the lack of an encounter every turn lame, so I'm instituting the same houserule we always used to play by, where the City and Special cards are separated out and one secretly dealt to each player at the start of the game; as soon as they use it, they draw another one from the same deck, which is otherwise not used. It's possible this rule will unbalance the game, since the actual deck will be half the size and so we'll get to the 2nd or even 3rd deck much faster, but I figure it's worth the risk. (I'll be ruling that characters have to start a turn away from Baghdad before they can start playing Special cards on each other.)
Ali Baba (male, green) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety. Starts with the 2D/5D special.
Shaharazad (female, blue) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces. Starts with Gaya city card.
Abu Sher (male, red) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship. Starts with a "hex" special.
Juliana (female, yellow) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction. Starts with the Bulgars city card.
We're just about out of famous characters (by my entirely biased definition of famous; the last three characters I haven't played yet are Zummurud, who's less well-known than her alternate Ali Baba, and Naomi and Abu Hasan whom I've never heard of either of), so I picked the last two to take the first turns of the game, followed by more obscure characters selected on the basis of color. Ali Baba will start out toward the north, stopping at a forest in Russia, where he meets an Ugly Hag. Just for laughs, I decide to have him Beat her; he goes to paragraph 461, which proves to be very boring, as she just runs away shrieking and leaves Ali with S1.
Ali Baba - W:Poor, D0, S1, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety.
Shaharazad (whose name I'm spelling in the fashion which is least inconvenient for me) seems like the type to want to stay in Civilization, but I don't want her City card to go to waste, so she'll head east to Shiraz for starters, where she draws the Dendan card and rolls up an encounter with a Lost Dervish. Continuing my trend of antisocial behavior, I'll have her Abduct him; at 588, she tries to kidnap the Dervish, but he states that nobody can afford his ransom. However, since she has Appearance, he decides to hang around with her for a while, granting the Blessed skill along with Quick Thinking, and she gets D1 and S1.
Shaharazad - W:Poor, D1, S1, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Blessed with Quick Thinking.
Abu Sher, whoever he is, wants to sock one of the other players with a Special card, so he decides to stalk Shaharazad this turn and the next in order to get his "hex" played on her, since she's doing better than Ali Baba. This means wasting the advantage of his Seamanship, but so be it. Going to Shiraz himself, he draws a Sage card, determining him to be a Destitute one and choosing to Aid him. Paragraph 203 proves to be a familiar one; rolling 2 dice and adding 1 for his Luck, Abu rolls well and gets rich, gaining the Scholarship skill and D1. Now that his wealth is Respectable, Seamanship is no longer of any special value to him. Oh well.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D1, S0, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship.
Moving on to a character who already has Scholarship; Juliana is the other character in the current game who I don't know from any tales; all I've got to inform my creation of her, besides a set of skills I selected to represent a slightly unique personality, is the Bulgars city card I dealt her at the start of the game. So I'll have Juliana head in the direction of Bulgars, which happens to mean she's stalking Ali Baba. Everyone's traveling in mixed-gender pairs... Julie meets up with an Enchantress, who is Noble, and tries to Bargain with her, going to 249. Again, I've been at this paragraph before; there's a prophecy about the character, and without Luck or the Fated status, Julie has less than a half chance of earning the chance to enter a Place of Power. She rolls snake eyes, so the prophecy is garbled, but it suffices to grant her 2 Destiny and the Fated status, which lets other players choose encounters for her instead of rolling for them. This could be bad....
Juliana - W:Poor, D2, S0, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Fated.
This is meta of me, but since I know Juliana plans to go East from the forests of northern Russia, I'll have Ali go West from there, ending up in the mountains of Czechoslovakia or something. Here he meets an Efreet, of the Disguised variety. Treading cautiously, he offers Aid; this takes him to 354, and this proves to be an ideal destination for someone who I granted Stealth and Stealing to, based on the story he comes from. Apparently the Efreet is on the run from a murderous enemy, and Ali gets his thiefly friends to hide the djinn somewhere until the heat dies down. He gains a point each of Destiny and Story, and is also granted Respectable wealth. You'd think that a genie on the run from something capable of killing it would do better than that, but oh well.
Ali Baba - W:Respectable, D1, S2, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety.
Shari's turn. Unable to reach Gaya this turn, she opts to go to the forests of western India, where she bumps into an Efreeteh. (Despite being nonhuman, TOTAN treats an Efreeteh as resembling an Enchantress more than she does an Efreet, with them using identical paragraphs until Deck 3; the gender prejudice in this game is thick.) Being Blessed, Shaharazad gets to choose what kind of Efreeteh she meets rather than rolling for it; this allows me to choose to meet something I can't recall having ever encountered, a Self-Sacrificial efreeteh. The actual die roll dictates that Shari loses Blessed, unfortunately, and her dervish buddy's Quick Thinking along with it. But she gets to Trick this suicidal genia, which takes her to paragraph 403. Turns out that the efreeteh is a warrior with nothing better to do than fight others' battles; this gives Shaharazad the opportunity to lose a negative status as the efreeteh defeats her enemies, but she doesn't have any status anymore, so she only gets D1.
Shaharazad - W:Poor, D2, S1, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces.
At this point, both male characters are of Respectable wealth, while the two women are still Poor. Abu Sher continues chasing Shaharazad so that he may play his Special on her, even though it means giving up his movement advantage. With the hex discharged, he draws a city card for Daybul, which happens to be one space back the way he came (he's still not using his fast movement to any advantage the next turn), but I'm going to rule he can't continue moving after playing his special, even though the rules are unclear. Instead, he encounters the same forest, drawing the Serpent card, which doesn't produce actual serpents unless you're in the mountain, he instead meets a Dervish of his own, but this one is Garrulous. Since his money is going to waste anyway, he opts to try and Hire this individual; in paragraph 837, rather vague wording indicates that the Hiring was actually the Dervish's idea, and that it turns out not to have been a good investment. The loss of Wealth won't drop a character below Respectable, so Abu loses nothing and gains S1, but he would have gotten still richer if he'd had the Bargaining skill, which I usually neglect to acquire since it's mostly only useful for the Merchant game. This encounter would appear to be an exception; oh well.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D1, S1, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship.
Being Fated, Juliana can choose where she goes but not what happens to her there; she's no particular reason not to proceed to Bulgars as planned, but once there finds herself wishing I wasn't playing this guaranteed-encounters variant. The Valley of Dogs card directs her to a paragraph of choices, from which another player would choose to try and mess her up; being entitled to assign an outcome that couldn't possibly be rolled, I could grant her a Wonderful Artifact or a Jewelled Trapdoor, but on the assumption that the other player would most likely want to screw over a rival, I'll instead select Horrible Creatures. She has Weapon Use, so she attacks them; she goes to 880, and yet again this turns out to be a repeat encounter from one of my earlier games, in which she hears voices in the darkness and jumps out of bed waving her sword around, only to be thought a fool when help arrives and no threat is in evidence. She loses one of her Destiny points (gained at the same time she became Fated), gains a Story point, and is Scorned for the next turn, making it impossible for her to gain any more Destiny that turn, gaining Story instead, and being unable to learn new Skills or increase in Wealth that turn. (As often happens, this encounter pushed my plans to play a City card out of my head, and I opted not to play out of turn when I realized the fact, instead waiting until a future turn to try and play the card.)
Juliana - W:Poor, D1, S1, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Fated, Scorned for 1 turn.
Ali wants to put his newfound wealth to the test, so he goes all the way to the northwest corner of the map, where a palm-tree symbol indicates an Island whose location suggests Ireland. The card "Palace of 100 closets" then directs him to encounter an Enchanted Hunchback; you get pretty sick of Hunchbacks in this game, but I don't think the ones that come to visit you in jail are ever Enchanted, so hopefully this will manage to be an interesting encounter. Having Stealth and Stealing, Ali opts to try and Rob this bizarre individual; this misadventure takes him to 369, where he proves to have stolen cursed jewels from his victim, gaining a great deal of wealth but suffering disastrous luck as a consequence. He doesn't have the Luck skill to lose, fortunately, but he does become Accursed, which is the negative version of Blessed.
Ali Baba - W:Rich, D2, S2, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Accursed.
Time for Shaharazad to suffer her turn of being mind-controlled. Proceeding to Gaya, one of a handful of cities on the board which add an extra +2 to their encounters, she draws her card and rolls well enough to discover the Crystal Palace! I think this is the first time during these three blogged games that I've successfully triggered one of the named encounters on table K. Unfortunately, only three choices for the encounter are offered: Examine, Enter, and Avoid, and there's no way of telling whether Examine and Enter would pay off or go horribly wrong, so the sensible thing for Abu Sher to do would be to have her choose Avoid, which means the turn ends without further incident. I decide, however, that I'm within my rights to play him as preferring to try and screw her more actively than that, even if it might turn out to her benefit instead, rather than being boring. So she'll Enter the Palace, going to 1175; if she'd been a Black Magic Woman or had one of the two Treasures which serves as a flying vehicle, she could have rescued a handsome himsel and flipped off various gender stereotypes, but instead she is unable to get past the guard and simply trades a point of Destiny for a point of Story.
But Shari isn't finished; unlike on Julie's turn, I remembered her city card. She rolls a 5 and becomes Love Struck - rather appropriate given this past encounter, though the two aren't actually connected - and draws Samarkand as her new city. Love Struck is a weird status, and it's pretty clear that the designers of this game didn't really think this through; you're expected to immediately remove the Status after having one special encounter, but it says "this turn, instead of a normal encounter", so I'm assuming that this actually happens on your next turn. But that would be weird because she's Love Struck with someone in Gaya, where she rolled for the status, so I'll assume the encounter is immediate, even though that may not have been the intent. A die roll determines that she's Struck with a Handsome Soldier - maybe it's one of the guards who threw her out of the Crystal Palace? - rather than a Prince; she's required to Court him, and the up/down roll sends her to paragraph 835. It turns out the Soldier is indeed a Guard, who deserted the Sultan and is taken before the court; Shari's Storytelling, which she obviously had to have, proves to be effective here, and she wins a pardon for him, gaining D2 and S1, gaining Courtly Graces if she didn't already have it (or could increase it to Master, but she can't - the new edition got rid of the Destiny 7 prerequisite for Master skills, and methinks that was a good choice), and becoming Beloved. She can then choose whether to accept or reject his love, and because it's hilarious for her to dump him after being Love-Struck with him, that's my choice (arguably this leaves her still possessing a Beloved status that never does anything again, but I'll rule to the contrary this time). She has Appearance and Courtly Graces, which cancel out as she's rolling for an amicable breakup; she gets boxcars and goes to 778, where she suffers no ill effects but no special benefits either, except for another point of Story, making it an even 2 of each she gained over the course of this turn.
Shaharazad - W:Poor, D3, S4, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces.
Finally it's time for Abu Sher to head back to Daybul in hopes of playing his City card. He draws Pearl Diving for his encounter, but of course he's not at sea, so instead he finds a Minor Treasure. Why you might need to Hire Help in such a case I'm not sure, but it fits my pattern of having Abu Sher try to give away his money, so he goes to 1096. Here, it seems that the Magian cult is worshipping the Snakeskin Bed, a treasure I'm not familiar with; despite not being the game's resident thief, I'll have Abu try to steal the Bed, which sends him to the next paragraph (also a possible outcome for the Hire Help choice, if the up/down die had rolled flat instead of low). Had I instead gone to the sultan, I'd have needed Courtly Graces to secure the Bed, otherwise he'd have kept it for himself and Abu would have been left Envious, a nasty status that prevents winning the game. So he tries the theft, but again lacks the relevant skill (Acting this time), and is Envious anyway. He can't afford the Destiny to turn it into a Pilgrimage, so he's stuck robbing whoever he meets next turn.
He still has a City card to try though; with a roll of 1, he loses the point of Destiny this encounter gave him, though it would have been worse if he'd actually had the Stealth and Stealing he wished for last turn. His new City card is Tripoli, which is a good long ways away; he'll finally be making the most of his substantial wealth.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D1, S1, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, Envious.
Juliana begins her turn of Scornage; she doesn't want to use her Bulgars card this turn, so she wanders deep into Siberia where there's a forest space with +4 to encounters, and sees what happens. Meeting a Wizard in this remote place, she discovers him to be merely Mad, rather than Evil, Vengeful, Doomed or Mighty. Hoping that Madness will leave him easy to Trick, she goes to 368; apparently she's hired another woman to seduce him (despite possessing the Skill to do it herself), and she lacks the Stealth and Stealing necessary to avoid him when he comes home early. So he casts a sex-change spell on her! Because characters in this game are represented by 2-sided chits with a different name on each side, this means Juliana is now Sinbad instead; she also cannot win until she restores her true identity (which makes a little more sense than refusing to win just because you've been sex-changed). (At this point I realized that I forgot Juliana was Fated, and thus should not have rolled; meeting an Evil wizard instead would have been fitting, but I guess this will suffice.)
Juliana Sinbad - W:Poor, D2, S1, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Fated, Sex-Changed.
The cursed Ali Baba takes his ill-gotten wealth and comes back across barbarian pagan Europe, traveling down to Rome and meeting a Prince. Another player chooses to say that he meets a Mad prince, even though this makes it likely that Accursed will end, since all the intermediate options sound too beneficial. Accursed manages to beat the odds and remain, and Ali chooses of his own free will to Rob the Mad Prince. Paragraph 227 is yet another familiar one, and indicates that Ali has been captured and Imprisoned for his attempted crime. So begins the Hunchback parade....
Ali Baba - W:Rich, D3, S2, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Accursed, Imprisoned.
Sharazad begins heading north, stopping off in Lhasa, and drawing the Warfleet card. Her roll on the resulting table results in the dreaded Strange Customs, which she Questions, going to 1002. A local noble kills a peasant and she tries to stop him from slaying another; instead he attcks her, and she gets away Wounded 6-. She rolls well and manages to recover immediately, so she's gained D1 and lost nothing...by Strange Customs standards, that's a pretty good outcome.
Shaharazad - W:Poor, D4, S4, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces.
Taking the closer land route to his intended goal of Tripoli, Abu Sher heads back into civilization and goes to a Mountains space (which persistently refused to come to him since he didn't have the right name). Here he meets a Greedy Thief, which he must Rob, so it's 255 for him. Apparently, despite being a thief, he's capable of summoning guards; "Resistance is useless", the book literally says (I guess the guards are Cybermen), so Abu is captured and tortured a little before "repenting" and being let go. (Had he had Weapon Use, it would have gone even worse for him; there's really very little logic in this game to when you suffer for your skills rather than being glad of them.) Failing to roll away his Wounds right away, he ends his turn with more Destiny but no other profit.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D2, S1, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, Envious, Wounded (6-).
"Sinbad" takes "his" first turn, heading back to Bulgars (which I just noticed is a +2 city, so the encounter Juliana had here two turns ago should in fact have gone rather differently). He meets a Slave, and is still Fated, so a rival chooses for him to meet a Greedy Slave, knowing that this will go exceptionally badly given his Weapon Use. Being unable to Court this individual as Juliana might have, Sinbad instead decides to try and Buy the slave, and 598 indicates success in this attempt - although he no longer seems terribly Greedy, instead being more nearly Lazy (not actually a listed option, strangely enough). "Sinbad's" first encounter of the game ends with him gaining D1 and nothing else - though oddly, he's supposed to have bought a slave, and doesn't lose any of his Poor wealth in the process. Also strange is the fact that he presumably has this gluttonous, incompetent slave in his retinue for the rest of the game.
Juliana Sinbad - W:Poor, D3, S1, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Fated, Sex-Changed.
At this point I daresay it's time for me to take a lunch break. The further adventures shall shortly resume.
Ali Baba (male, green) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety. Starts with the 2D/5D special.
Shaharazad (female, blue) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces. Starts with Gaya city card.
Abu Sher (male, red) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship. Starts with a "hex" special.
Juliana (female, yellow) - W:Poor, D0, S0, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction. Starts with the Bulgars city card.
We're just about out of famous characters (by my entirely biased definition of famous; the last three characters I haven't played yet are Zummurud, who's less well-known than her alternate Ali Baba, and Naomi and Abu Hasan whom I've never heard of either of), so I picked the last two to take the first turns of the game, followed by more obscure characters selected on the basis of color. Ali Baba will start out toward the north, stopping at a forest in Russia, where he meets an Ugly Hag. Just for laughs, I decide to have him Beat her; he goes to paragraph 461, which proves to be very boring, as she just runs away shrieking and leaves Ali with S1.
Ali Baba - W:Poor, D0, S1, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety.
Shaharazad (whose name I'm spelling in the fashion which is least inconvenient for me) seems like the type to want to stay in Civilization, but I don't want her City card to go to waste, so she'll head east to Shiraz for starters, where she draws the Dendan card and rolls up an encounter with a Lost Dervish. Continuing my trend of antisocial behavior, I'll have her Abduct him; at 588, she tries to kidnap the Dervish, but he states that nobody can afford his ransom. However, since she has Appearance, he decides to hang around with her for a while, granting the Blessed skill along with Quick Thinking, and she gets D1 and S1.
Shaharazad - W:Poor, D1, S1, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Blessed with Quick Thinking.
Abu Sher, whoever he is, wants to sock one of the other players with a Special card, so he decides to stalk Shaharazad this turn and the next in order to get his "hex" played on her, since she's doing better than Ali Baba. This means wasting the advantage of his Seamanship, but so be it. Going to Shiraz himself, he draws a Sage card, determining him to be a Destitute one and choosing to Aid him. Paragraph 203 proves to be a familiar one; rolling 2 dice and adding 1 for his Luck, Abu rolls well and gets rich, gaining the Scholarship skill and D1. Now that his wealth is Respectable, Seamanship is no longer of any special value to him. Oh well.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D1, S0, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship.
Moving on to a character who already has Scholarship; Juliana is the other character in the current game who I don't know from any tales; all I've got to inform my creation of her, besides a set of skills I selected to represent a slightly unique personality, is the Bulgars city card I dealt her at the start of the game. So I'll have Juliana head in the direction of Bulgars, which happens to mean she's stalking Ali Baba. Everyone's traveling in mixed-gender pairs... Julie meets up with an Enchantress, who is Noble, and tries to Bargain with her, going to 249. Again, I've been at this paragraph before; there's a prophecy about the character, and without Luck or the Fated status, Julie has less than a half chance of earning the chance to enter a Place of Power. She rolls snake eyes, so the prophecy is garbled, but it suffices to grant her 2 Destiny and the Fated status, which lets other players choose encounters for her instead of rolling for them. This could be bad....
Juliana - W:Poor, D2, S0, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Fated.
This is meta of me, but since I know Juliana plans to go East from the forests of northern Russia, I'll have Ali go West from there, ending up in the mountains of Czechoslovakia or something. Here he meets an Efreet, of the Disguised variety. Treading cautiously, he offers Aid; this takes him to 354, and this proves to be an ideal destination for someone who I granted Stealth and Stealing to, based on the story he comes from. Apparently the Efreet is on the run from a murderous enemy, and Ali gets his thiefly friends to hide the djinn somewhere until the heat dies down. He gains a point each of Destiny and Story, and is also granted Respectable wealth. You'd think that a genie on the run from something capable of killing it would do better than that, but oh well.
Ali Baba - W:Respectable, D1, S2, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety.
Shari's turn. Unable to reach Gaya this turn, she opts to go to the forests of western India, where she bumps into an Efreeteh. (Despite being nonhuman, TOTAN treats an Efreeteh as resembling an Enchantress more than she does an Efreet, with them using identical paragraphs until Deck 3; the gender prejudice in this game is thick.) Being Blessed, Shaharazad gets to choose what kind of Efreeteh she meets rather than rolling for it; this allows me to choose to meet something I can't recall having ever encountered, a Self-Sacrificial efreeteh. The actual die roll dictates that Shari loses Blessed, unfortunately, and her dervish buddy's Quick Thinking along with it. But she gets to Trick this suicidal genia, which takes her to paragraph 403. Turns out that the efreeteh is a warrior with nothing better to do than fight others' battles; this gives Shaharazad the opportunity to lose a negative status as the efreeteh defeats her enemies, but she doesn't have any status anymore, so she only gets D1.
Shaharazad - W:Poor, D2, S1, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces.
At this point, both male characters are of Respectable wealth, while the two women are still Poor. Abu Sher continues chasing Shaharazad so that he may play his Special on her, even though it means giving up his movement advantage. With the hex discharged, he draws a city card for Daybul, which happens to be one space back the way he came (he's still not using his fast movement to any advantage the next turn), but I'm going to rule he can't continue moving after playing his special, even though the rules are unclear. Instead, he encounters the same forest, drawing the Serpent card, which doesn't produce actual serpents unless you're in the mountain, he instead meets a Dervish of his own, but this one is Garrulous. Since his money is going to waste anyway, he opts to try and Hire this individual; in paragraph 837, rather vague wording indicates that the Hiring was actually the Dervish's idea, and that it turns out not to have been a good investment. The loss of Wealth won't drop a character below Respectable, so Abu loses nothing and gains S1, but he would have gotten still richer if he'd had the Bargaining skill, which I usually neglect to acquire since it's mostly only useful for the Merchant game. This encounter would appear to be an exception; oh well.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D1, S1, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship.
Being Fated, Juliana can choose where she goes but not what happens to her there; she's no particular reason not to proceed to Bulgars as planned, but once there finds herself wishing I wasn't playing this guaranteed-encounters variant. The Valley of Dogs card directs her to a paragraph of choices, from which another player would choose to try and mess her up; being entitled to assign an outcome that couldn't possibly be rolled, I could grant her a Wonderful Artifact or a Jewelled Trapdoor, but on the assumption that the other player would most likely want to screw over a rival, I'll instead select Horrible Creatures. She has Weapon Use, so she attacks them; she goes to 880, and yet again this turns out to be a repeat encounter from one of my earlier games, in which she hears voices in the darkness and jumps out of bed waving her sword around, only to be thought a fool when help arrives and no threat is in evidence. She loses one of her Destiny points (gained at the same time she became Fated), gains a Story point, and is Scorned for the next turn, making it impossible for her to gain any more Destiny that turn, gaining Story instead, and being unable to learn new Skills or increase in Wealth that turn. (As often happens, this encounter pushed my plans to play a City card out of my head, and I opted not to play out of turn when I realized the fact, instead waiting until a future turn to try and play the card.)
Juliana - W:Poor, D1, S1, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Fated, Scorned for 1 turn.
Ali wants to put his newfound wealth to the test, so he goes all the way to the northwest corner of the map, where a palm-tree symbol indicates an Island whose location suggests Ireland. The card "Palace of 100 closets" then directs him to encounter an Enchanted Hunchback; you get pretty sick of Hunchbacks in this game, but I don't think the ones that come to visit you in jail are ever Enchanted, so hopefully this will manage to be an interesting encounter. Having Stealth and Stealing, Ali opts to try and Rob this bizarre individual; this misadventure takes him to 369, where he proves to have stolen cursed jewels from his victim, gaining a great deal of wealth but suffering disastrous luck as a consequence. He doesn't have the Luck skill to lose, fortunately, but he does become Accursed, which is the negative version of Blessed.
Ali Baba - W:Rich, D2, S2, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Accursed.
Time for Shaharazad to suffer her turn of being mind-controlled. Proceeding to Gaya, one of a handful of cities on the board which add an extra +2 to their encounters, she draws her card and rolls well enough to discover the Crystal Palace! I think this is the first time during these three blogged games that I've successfully triggered one of the named encounters on table K. Unfortunately, only three choices for the encounter are offered: Examine, Enter, and Avoid, and there's no way of telling whether Examine and Enter would pay off or go horribly wrong, so the sensible thing for Abu Sher to do would be to have her choose Avoid, which means the turn ends without further incident. I decide, however, that I'm within my rights to play him as preferring to try and screw her more actively than that, even if it might turn out to her benefit instead, rather than being boring. So she'll Enter the Palace, going to 1175; if she'd been a Black Magic Woman or had one of the two Treasures which serves as a flying vehicle, she could have rescued a handsome himsel and flipped off various gender stereotypes, but instead she is unable to get past the guard and simply trades a point of Destiny for a point of Story.
But Shari isn't finished; unlike on Julie's turn, I remembered her city card. She rolls a 5 and becomes Love Struck - rather appropriate given this past encounter, though the two aren't actually connected - and draws Samarkand as her new city. Love Struck is a weird status, and it's pretty clear that the designers of this game didn't really think this through; you're expected to immediately remove the Status after having one special encounter, but it says "this turn, instead of a normal encounter", so I'm assuming that this actually happens on your next turn. But that would be weird because she's Love Struck with someone in Gaya, where she rolled for the status, so I'll assume the encounter is immediate, even though that may not have been the intent. A die roll determines that she's Struck with a Handsome Soldier - maybe it's one of the guards who threw her out of the Crystal Palace? - rather than a Prince; she's required to Court him, and the up/down roll sends her to paragraph 835. It turns out the Soldier is indeed a Guard, who deserted the Sultan and is taken before the court; Shari's Storytelling, which she obviously had to have, proves to be effective here, and she wins a pardon for him, gaining D2 and S1, gaining Courtly Graces if she didn't already have it (or could increase it to Master, but she can't - the new edition got rid of the Destiny 7 prerequisite for Master skills, and methinks that was a good choice), and becoming Beloved. She can then choose whether to accept or reject his love, and because it's hilarious for her to dump him after being Love-Struck with him, that's my choice (arguably this leaves her still possessing a Beloved status that never does anything again, but I'll rule to the contrary this time). She has Appearance and Courtly Graces, which cancel out as she's rolling for an amicable breakup; she gets boxcars and goes to 778, where she suffers no ill effects but no special benefits either, except for another point of Story, making it an even 2 of each she gained over the course of this turn.
Shaharazad - W:Poor, D3, S4, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces.
Finally it's time for Abu Sher to head back to Daybul in hopes of playing his City card. He draws Pearl Diving for his encounter, but of course he's not at sea, so instead he finds a Minor Treasure. Why you might need to Hire Help in such a case I'm not sure, but it fits my pattern of having Abu Sher try to give away his money, so he goes to 1096. Here, it seems that the Magian cult is worshipping the Snakeskin Bed, a treasure I'm not familiar with; despite not being the game's resident thief, I'll have Abu try to steal the Bed, which sends him to the next paragraph (also a possible outcome for the Hire Help choice, if the up/down die had rolled flat instead of low). Had I instead gone to the sultan, I'd have needed Courtly Graces to secure the Bed, otherwise he'd have kept it for himself and Abu would have been left Envious, a nasty status that prevents winning the game. So he tries the theft, but again lacks the relevant skill (Acting this time), and is Envious anyway. He can't afford the Destiny to turn it into a Pilgrimage, so he's stuck robbing whoever he meets next turn.
He still has a City card to try though; with a roll of 1, he loses the point of Destiny this encounter gave him, though it would have been worse if he'd actually had the Stealth and Stealing he wished for last turn. His new City card is Tripoli, which is a good long ways away; he'll finally be making the most of his substantial wealth.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D1, S1, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, Envious.
Juliana begins her turn of Scornage; she doesn't want to use her Bulgars card this turn, so she wanders deep into Siberia where there's a forest space with +4 to encounters, and sees what happens. Meeting a Wizard in this remote place, she discovers him to be merely Mad, rather than Evil, Vengeful, Doomed or Mighty. Hoping that Madness will leave him easy to Trick, she goes to 368; apparently she's hired another woman to seduce him (despite possessing the Skill to do it herself), and she lacks the Stealth and Stealing necessary to avoid him when he comes home early. So he casts a sex-change spell on her! Because characters in this game are represented by 2-sided chits with a different name on each side, this means Juliana is now Sinbad instead; she also cannot win until she restores her true identity (which makes a little more sense than refusing to win just because you've been sex-changed). (At this point I realized that I forgot Juliana was Fated, and thus should not have rolled; meeting an Evil wizard instead would have been fitting, but I guess this will suffice.)
Juliana Sinbad - W:Poor, D2, S1, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Fated, Sex-Changed.
The cursed Ali Baba takes his ill-gotten wealth and comes back across barbarian pagan Europe, traveling down to Rome and meeting a Prince. Another player chooses to say that he meets a Mad prince, even though this makes it likely that Accursed will end, since all the intermediate options sound too beneficial. Accursed manages to beat the odds and remain, and Ali chooses of his own free will to Rob the Mad Prince. Paragraph 227 is yet another familiar one, and indicates that Ali has been captured and Imprisoned for his attempted crime. So begins the Hunchback parade....
Ali Baba - W:Rich, D3, S2, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Accursed, Imprisoned.
Sharazad begins heading north, stopping off in Lhasa, and drawing the Warfleet card. Her roll on the resulting table results in the dreaded Strange Customs, which she Questions, going to 1002. A local noble kills a peasant and she tries to stop him from slaying another; instead he attcks her, and she gets away Wounded 6-. She rolls well and manages to recover immediately, so she's gained D1 and lost nothing...by Strange Customs standards, that's a pretty good outcome.
Shaharazad - W:Poor, D4, S4, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces.
Taking the closer land route to his intended goal of Tripoli, Abu Sher heads back into civilization and goes to a Mountains space (which persistently refused to come to him since he didn't have the right name). Here he meets a Greedy Thief, which he must Rob, so it's 255 for him. Apparently, despite being a thief, he's capable of summoning guards; "Resistance is useless", the book literally says (I guess the guards are Cybermen), so Abu is captured and tortured a little before "repenting" and being let go. (Had he had Weapon Use, it would have gone even worse for him; there's really very little logic in this game to when you suffer for your skills rather than being glad of them.) Failing to roll away his Wounds right away, he ends his turn with more Destiny but no other profit.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D2, S1, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, Envious, Wounded (6-).
"Sinbad" takes "his" first turn, heading back to Bulgars (which I just noticed is a +2 city, so the encounter Juliana had here two turns ago should in fact have gone rather differently). He meets a Slave, and is still Fated, so a rival chooses for him to meet a Greedy Slave, knowing that this will go exceptionally badly given his Weapon Use. Being unable to Court this individual as Juliana might have, Sinbad instead decides to try and Buy the slave, and 598 indicates success in this attempt - although he no longer seems terribly Greedy, instead being more nearly Lazy (not actually a listed option, strangely enough). "Sinbad's" first encounter of the game ends with him gaining D1 and nothing else - though oddly, he's supposed to have bought a slave, and doesn't lose any of his Poor wealth in the process. Also strange is the fact that he presumably has this gluttonous, incompetent slave in his retinue for the rest of the game.
Juliana Sinbad - W:Poor, D3, S1, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Fated, Sex-Changed.
At this point I daresay it's time for me to take a lunch break. The further adventures shall shortly resume.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
Okay, I ate two sandwiches (one of which was just and the other unjust), got distracted watching the news, left the room long enough for there to cease being enough natural light to game by, and now I'm back to continue playing.
Ali Baba's Hunchback turns out to be just as Ugly as the Hag card he drew on his first turn; since attempting to Beat an Ugly individual last time resulted in him gaining S1, and he needs all the Story he can get to escape this gaol, he goes ahead and tries that. Rolling up to 462 this time, he instead gets beaten and robbed himself, losing both of the wealth levels he gained prior to ending up here! (Only now did I discover that he was supposed to be Accursed with a particular type of Hunchback instead of rolling for one, so I'll have to be more careful next time.) He also loses Destiny and is Wounded 7- (both of the game's originally-male characters now have Wounds), but at least he does gain that S1 he needed. He fails to roll away the wounds immediately, and ends his turn.
Ali Baba - W:Poor, D2, S3, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Accursed, Imprisoned, Wounded (7-).
Eager to quit the site of her narrow escape from Strange Customs, Shaharazad proceeds to Samarkand and finds something that is almost, but not quite, the Elephants' Graveyard. Here she meets a Lovesick Prince; as the only female in the game right now, she feels obligated to Court him. 301 says the prettyboy is in no mood to be solicited, and she lacks the Beguiling or Wisdom to do anything about it, so she walks away with only S1 for her trouble. She's the first character to reach S5, at which you gain Storytelling, but she already has it and can't gain it at Master since she lacks the Destiny, so this opportunity is wasted.
Shaharazad - W:Poor, D4, S5, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces.
Abu is now the only wealthy character in the game, and thus doubly able to outpace the other characters by sea, as well as singly by land; still, he isn't fast enough to reach Tripoli this turn. Passing back through Baghdad and Damascus, he proceeds to Alexandria before running out of steam, and draws the Islands of Camphor card, where he rolls up a Blind Man. Obligated to Rob, he goes to 983, yet another familiar paragraph; attempting to mug several blind men, Abu is heard and set upon, suffering a beating which would grant him Wounded 6- if he didn't already have it. He gains a Destiny point, which he immediately spends along with the existing 2, and goes On Pilgrimage to expunge his Envy. The On Pilgrimage status is slightly broken in a game where encounters are guaranteed every turn, which might be part of why that isn't normally true; Abu was going to Tripoli anyway, so now he can use that as an excuse to gain Piety, as well as gaining back 2 of the 3 Destiny he burned, and 1 point of Story, by making that his official Destination for the Pilgrimage now that he's practically there already. He needs to go there, have an encounter, then go to Makka and have an encounter, and he'll be done; all too easy without the risk of wasting several turns on drawing Fate cards. As if he wasn't well enough off, he also manages to roll away his Wounds.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D0, S1, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, On Pilgrimage (Tripoli).
Sinbad remains Fated, and again forgot to use his Bulgars card last turn, a fact I will blame on my hunger. So for now I'll just have him stay in the city for one more turn, where he draws the Pavillion of the Black Giant card and is directed to encounter an Armed Thief. (I could have picked Strange Customs, which I know is terrible, but that would have bored me; Armed Thief sounds nasty enough even if I don't know it for sure.) Eager to thwart this attempt at sabotage, the erstwhile Juliana chooses to Hire the thief, going to 403 - which I've seen before in this game, though it was an Efreeteh at the time. Again, the character lacks any of the bad statuses which you can remove by lacking Weapon Use in this encounter (somehow, this list includes Under Geas, but it unsurprisingly excludes Fated and Sex-Changed); however, since I designed Juliana to be a butt-kicking girl-power archetype (how ironic that she turned into a much more famous male hero from the Tales), "she's" able to impress the Armed Thief with her own skill at arms, and "he" gains D2, making this two-sexed entity the first character in this game to begin adding +1 to all encounters. Rather fitting, that. S/He also becomes Respected (a thoroughly excellent status), and this encounter is a "Quest Success", which means that it causes Fated to end. Guess I really should have picked Strange Customs if wanting to screw him/her over.
This individual now plays the Bulgars card, which on a roll of 6 grants the Enduring Hardship skill. A bit anticlimactic, that, but I'll take it happily, as this is one of the more useful skills and I hadn't given it to anyone this time around. Her/his replacement city card is Herat, which s/he can reach in two turns despite having to walk the long way around the Aral Sea (for no visible reason other than the need to include a picture of the Haunted House, the map shows no paths leading through the wide stretch of mountainous land between the Caspian sea and the Aral - not that either of these is labeled as such either, as the map really doesn't try to be accurate).
Juliana Sinbad - W:Poor, D5, S1, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected, Sex-Changed.
Finally we're back to Ali Baba. Still Imprisoned and Accursed, he's forced to encounter a Crafty HB, but breaks the curse in the process. He decides to try and Hire the HB, despite having just been robbed; in paragraph 540, yet another painfully familiar one to me, he finds himself swindled by the Crafty creature and left Envious. (You need Acting & Disguise to succeed in this encounter; the text describing the result is very strange, as it seems to indicate that the HB hides from you, then emerges after watching you change clothes.) He manages to roll away his Wounds, but is left in even worse shape than at the start of the turn; not being able to move at the moment, he refrains from declaring a Pilgrimage, even though he knows that Robbing every HB he meets is unlikely to earn him his freedom promptly.
Ali Baba - W:Poor, D3, S3, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Imprisoned, Envious.
Shaharazad seems to have forgotten to play her Samarkand card last turn (obviously this couldn't have been MY fault), so she stays in the city for another turn and meets a Rhinoceros - well, again, not quite, although it's odd to have drawn a Forest-based encounter card for the second turn in a row. Anyway, her actual encounter is a Con Game, which is almost but not quite a good match for her three skills; Beguiling would be very in-character for her, but silly me, I went with Courtly Graces at the start of the game instead. She decides to try and Avoid the Con, which is not a guaranteed success; she rolls the Destiny Die to see whether she'll remain at 999, reduce that deliciously alliterative number by 1, or go up to an even thousand. It's the former, and yet again it's a familiar paragraph; the sultan demands a coin and Shari doubts that the taxman is legit, so she ends up Imprisoned for a turn. Her Destiny also goes up 1, so she joins the cross-dressing Julibad in the "+1 to all encounter rolls" club. Something about being a girl in this game (at least at first) just seems to imply more success with Destiny, though less with wealth.
I almost forgot to play the City card again, but hadn't gotten far enough along in Abu Sher's turn that I couldn't quickly reverse course. Rolling a 4, she's told to "gain 1 Wealth if any Status", and she's got a status just for this one turn, so what do you know, it turns out that getting thrown in jail for tax evasion actually made her richer! Too bad she can't start moving 4 spaces a turn until after getting released. She then draws a Special card which will let her steal a Status from another player, after she goes back to not having any.
Shaharazad - W:Respectable, D5, S5, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Imprisoned (1 turn).
Abu Sher completes the first leg of his pilgrimage without incident, meeting a Foolish Ne'er-Do-Well in Tripoli. Not being Envious anymore, he need not Rob the lout, and opts to Punish him instead, hoping that the Piety he hasn't yet earned from his Pilgrimage won't actually be required to chastise a man of low repute. Going to 460, it turns out that Piety is indeed called for; Abu Sher has committed manslaughter (not quite the unforgivable crime in this setting's justice setting which it might be in our own society, but still not taken lightly); he joins the two previous players in prison, and is like the other male of the set in that his incarceration has no fixed endpoint. So much for the ease of his pilgrimage....
Being in jail doesn't prevent you from playing your City cards, oddly, so Abu Sher rolls on Tripoli's table; his roll of 4 calls for him to have Stealth and Stealing, which he doesn't, so he gains no benefit. His new card is for Timbuktu, which is in the opposite direction from Makka, so he's in no real hurry to go there, when he can in fact go anywhere.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D1, S2, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, On Pilgrimage (Makka), Imprisoned.
"Sinana" finally leaves Bulgars, joining his fellow member of the no-Y-chromosomes-club in Samarkand since it's on the way to Herat (s/he could have stopped in the forest and still been able to make it, but in general I always prefer to stick to civilization, even if the game is a trifle repetitive because of this), drawing a card which might provide a Lion under other circumstances. Instead, making the game's first Destiny-boosted encounter roll, s/he meets a Trapped Efreet, and gleefully Aids him in hope of a Quest Succes which might restore his/her original sex. 293 is yet another paragraph I've seen before; Sinbad frees the Efreet, who proceeds to beat her/him up because he's gone insane from long confinement, leaving Sinbad Crippled while further boosting his Destiny, while he remains at only 1 Story, although fortunately Crippled status can improve that. It will, however, reduce the character's movement, so Sinbad is Singlad that he didn't stop short of Samarkand after all. (Also of interest, a single Quest Success should get rid of both Crippled and Sex-Changed, since there's nothing in the rules indicating that they require separate cures.)
Juliana Sinbad - W:Poor, D6, S1, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected, Sex-Changed, Crippled.
Ali actually gets to roll for his Hunchback this time; he rolls up a Destitute HB, which he cannot Rob, and since I recognize the number of Beating him as undesireable, I choose to Question him. 523 is at least a fairly new paragraph; it proves to be a very strange one which is mostly meant for the Merchant game, not only calling for that game's specialty skills, but having an instruction involving Merchant Arrows which I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to interpret, were I not capable twice over of simply ignoring it. But that leaves only one possible outcome - somehow Ali manages to squander his fortune in prison, being reduced to Penniless wealth, but gaining Wisdom through the expense, as well as D1
Ali Baba - W:Penniless, D4, S3, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Wisdom, Imprisoned, Envious.
Shari begins her single turn in the clink; she gets a Disguised HB, and experience has taught me that these are to be Followed. Rolling to 470, she finds that this is indeed the very paragraph I was seeking; she's spotted Harun al-Rashid (or a thinly disguised Expy of him) traveling among his people in disguise, and since she has Courtly Graces, she is rewarded with Vizier status and a Robe of Honor (and thus also Respected 6-)! I've seen this game-breakingly nice encounter come up before, in this very thread I think; as for now, it makes for quite a compensator for having gone without Statuses for so long. On top of it all, she gains D2 and S2 (not counting the additional point of each for becoming Vizier), which gets her access to Master skills and could have boosted her Wealth, had she not already risen to Respectable. Robe of Honor gives her yet another Destiny point, so she now has encounters at +2...and you know what, I'm not sure I included her +1 when I rolled up the ever-so-important Disguised HB. I'm almost tempted to call a do-over on this possible mistake, but given that I would like to eventually go to bed tonight, I decide I'd better let one player (the most appropriate player, given her name) retain nearly-gamewinning status, even if it wasn't truly deserved. She loses Respected at the end of the turn, but really, who cares, after everything else?
Shaharazad - W:Respectable, D9, S8, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Robe of Honor with Wisdom, Vizier (Samarkand) with MASTER Wisdom and MASTER Courtly Graces.
Abu Sher rolls up an Ugly HB, and decides to Enrich him; 509 clarifies that the wretch is effusively grateful and grants Quick Thinking 6- (supposedly he's a "devoted companion", but that doesn't sound very devoted to me, and anyway it doesn't follow the model for companion skills). Abu also gains D1, but not any Story to help get out of this prison. And he loses the Quick Thinking immediately. I'm beginning to see why the temporary skills and statuses were dropped from the game's new edition.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D2, S2, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, On Pilgrimage (Makka), Imprisoned.
Disgusted with the success of her fellow Samarkandress, Juliana (trapped in the body of Sinbad) avails herself of the fact that she's never been Imprisoned and gets the heck out of dodge, traveling to Herat with the maximum of her movement. The Volcano card rolls up a result of 9 with "Sinbad's" Destiny bonus, and the sex-changed female meets a being from the very Reaction Matrix she desired, a Crafty Efreet. Not wanting to take any undue chances, she Grovels before him and goes to 347...well this at least is new. Uninterested in "Sinbad's" words, the efreet takes an interest in his jewelry (presumably the same jewelry he wore when he was a she, though somehow an actual male would have had some too); lacking Quick Thinking or Evaluation, the transgendered adventurer is given the choice of handing over some of his/her wealth or being Pursued (or losing a treasure, which he doesn't have and probably wouldn't want to give up if he did). Normally I would take Pursued for a more interesting game, but in this case it seems unwise...granted it might mean more QS results, but...oh, wait! Sinbad is Respected, and this status allows for a reroll. (Oddly, it says it only works for "humans", but then includes an efreet in the example, so I've no choice but to assume that efreets count as human for this purpose.) Rolling anew, s/he goes to 345, and gets the desired QS, but at a price. Sex-Changed and Crippled go away, and Juliana is restored to full mobility and muleity, as well as gaining her choice of D2 or W+1, but is placed Under Geas. She chooses to gain Wealth, since the Geas will be satisfied if she gains 3 Destiny or can be broken by losing 4 of it, and she's got so much Story yet to gain before she wins that she can easily afford to suffer a "cannot win" status in the meantime.
Meanwhile, she also gets to roll on Herat, where she gains another Wealth; being perhaps written excessively briefly, this award doesn't have an upper limit as they usually do, so she's free to go to Rich. (At this point I learn that Ali Baba having been Rich did not entitle him to travel 5 spaces in one turn and reach Ireland; yet another of my little goofs, but it hardly matters, as random as this game is.) Amusingly, had she rolled 3, she'd have been placed Under Geas again, redundantly. Her new city card is Zarandj, which is again very nearby.
Juliana - W:Rich, D6, S1, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected, Under Geas.
Imprisoned, Penniless, and Envious; Ali Baba is really not having a great game. He meets yet another Ugly HB, and is required to Rob him, going to 493. The result is that the wretch treats Ali as his old and dear friend, and follows him around all day while talking incessantly, and because Ali has no Courtly Graces, he cannot get rid of the guy, for fear of hurting his feelings! Some robber! He gains his admittance to the D5 club, but becomes Insane and Accursed due to the nonstop chatter! So now, other players roll to decide what kind of HB Ali meets, and then if he can't Rob the HB, other players decide what he'll do instead...and the worst part is, Insane can't ever be gotten rid of while you're Imprisoned, because it goes away only when you get a QS from a Matrix A or B creature, and Hunchbacks are Matrix Cs and are all you'll ever meet while Imprisoned. This is a definite glitch in the game, and if Ali were an actual player, he'd be virtually obligated to ragequit over this thorough a clusterf***. Some "destiny" he has...other players make literally all his decisions and there's no telling when this will change.
Ali Baba - W:Penniless, D5, S3, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Wisdom, Imprisoned, Envious, Insane, Accursed.
Needing to stay out of cities to avoid the downside of being a Vizier (this is a rather goofily executed game mechanic; it makes sense that you'd need to keep going home to attend to your responsibilities, but the fact that you can stay out in the wilderness forever kind of breaks that mold - obviously if you were Lost you'd have no choice, but you can get Lost in a city too, so there's really no logic to it), the clearly-winning player of Shaharazad goes to a mountains space between Zarandj and Shiraz, and consequently doesn't meet the infamous Barber. Instead, she finds Horrible Creatures. Unable to Seek Aid as would seem logical, and lacking skills indicative of Praying, Attacking or Hiding, she decides to see what happens with Follow (probably it won't turn out as well as the Disguised Hunchback, but still, it's something to try). Paragraph 915 indicates that she's being ferried across a body of water, but her pilot is seized by long black arms and dragged down to his doom; she lacks Enduring Hardship, so she...loses Enduring Hardship. This game is screwy, there's increasingly little doubt of that. She gains D1 and S1, which puts her S1 short of winning the game; her Story amount lets her gain a skill, which perhaps ought to be Piety since she passed on the chance to Pray before and ended up regretting it. But she's also Lost, so the skills she's going to want are Enduring Hardship and Wilderness Lore...and since she's just now being directed to lose EH, she definitely takes WL instead, as I think taking it in this way is the only way you could immediately lose it (essentially, this is a roundabout way of making your Lost-ness even nastier and harder to escape). On top of all this, she's Grief-Stricken for a turn, so her new WL won't be available during her first turn of being Lost, only the two skills her Vizier status boosted to Master will remain usable at Talent level. Of course, I forgot to actually check those skills, since they were in fact Master; looking up and down, I confirm that they didn't apply, which is to be expected under the circumstances.
Shaharazad - W:Respectable, D10, S9, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Wilderness Lore, Robe of Honor with Wisdom, Vizier (Samarkand) with MASTER Wisdom and MASTER Courtly Graces, Lost, Grief-Stricken (1 turn).
Abu Sher meets an Impudent hunchback, and figures this is exactly the kind of HB you're expected to Beat if you are a good and devout (though not especially Pious) Muslim in a mythical version of 14th-century Arabia. I'm not sure whether I've ever encountered an Impudent HB in all my years of playing this game; somehow they always seem to be Ugly or Crafty or Disguised. Not rolling away from 463, Abu finds that his lack of Piety costs him, quite literally; while he's whaling on the cripple, his purse gets lifted by a member of the seemingly approving crowd of onlookers. He gains some Story, which at least is progress on getting out of the joint, and strangely if he's offered the chance to bribe someone, his lack of money probably won't actually come up. So it's not the worst turn, but I hoped for more.
Abu Sher - W:Poor, D2, S3, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, On Pilgrimage (Makka), Imprisoned.
As the only player left in the game who is free to move where she pleases, and to do so at 4 spaces per turn, Juliana debates blowing off her rendezvous in Zarandj, finding that it has a 1/3 chance of doing nothing at all. But rolling a 6 would let her instantly ditch her Geas, so she decides to go for it. She draws the Elephant card, but is not in a Forest, so what she gets instead is Strange Customs. Shaharazad managed to do okay by Questioning them, but Juliana has Weapon Use, so she opts to Attack instead. 1002 is the same encounter, but it goes better for her because of this skill; the skill in question is upgraded to Master as a result, and she gains yet another point of D. I'm really beginning to wish I understood the pattern of when you get a slew of D but no S, or the reverse; it might inform an intelligent choice of victory formulas and beginning skills.
Juliana - W:Rich, D7, S1, MASTER Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected, Under Geas.
It seems like a good time to take another short break. The fates of Ali Baba and Shaharazad are so thoroughly skewed that there's serious question why the game is worth bothering to continue, and I figure I should at least see whether I have new email before I make that decision.
Ali Baba's Hunchback turns out to be just as Ugly as the Hag card he drew on his first turn; since attempting to Beat an Ugly individual last time resulted in him gaining S1, and he needs all the Story he can get to escape this gaol, he goes ahead and tries that. Rolling up to 462 this time, he instead gets beaten and robbed himself, losing both of the wealth levels he gained prior to ending up here! (Only now did I discover that he was supposed to be Accursed with a particular type of Hunchback instead of rolling for one, so I'll have to be more careful next time.) He also loses Destiny and is Wounded 7- (both of the game's originally-male characters now have Wounds), but at least he does gain that S1 he needed. He fails to roll away the wounds immediately, and ends his turn.
Ali Baba - W:Poor, D2, S3, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Accursed, Imprisoned, Wounded (7-).
Eager to quit the site of her narrow escape from Strange Customs, Shaharazad proceeds to Samarkand and finds something that is almost, but not quite, the Elephants' Graveyard. Here she meets a Lovesick Prince; as the only female in the game right now, she feels obligated to Court him. 301 says the prettyboy is in no mood to be solicited, and she lacks the Beguiling or Wisdom to do anything about it, so she walks away with only S1 for her trouble. She's the first character to reach S5, at which you gain Storytelling, but she already has it and can't gain it at Master since she lacks the Destiny, so this opportunity is wasted.
Shaharazad - W:Poor, D4, S5, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces.
Abu is now the only wealthy character in the game, and thus doubly able to outpace the other characters by sea, as well as singly by land; still, he isn't fast enough to reach Tripoli this turn. Passing back through Baghdad and Damascus, he proceeds to Alexandria before running out of steam, and draws the Islands of Camphor card, where he rolls up a Blind Man. Obligated to Rob, he goes to 983, yet another familiar paragraph; attempting to mug several blind men, Abu is heard and set upon, suffering a beating which would grant him Wounded 6- if he didn't already have it. He gains a Destiny point, which he immediately spends along with the existing 2, and goes On Pilgrimage to expunge his Envy. The On Pilgrimage status is slightly broken in a game where encounters are guaranteed every turn, which might be part of why that isn't normally true; Abu was going to Tripoli anyway, so now he can use that as an excuse to gain Piety, as well as gaining back 2 of the 3 Destiny he burned, and 1 point of Story, by making that his official Destination for the Pilgrimage now that he's practically there already. He needs to go there, have an encounter, then go to Makka and have an encounter, and he'll be done; all too easy without the risk of wasting several turns on drawing Fate cards. As if he wasn't well enough off, he also manages to roll away his Wounds.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D0, S1, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, On Pilgrimage (Tripoli).
Sinbad remains Fated, and again forgot to use his Bulgars card last turn, a fact I will blame on my hunger. So for now I'll just have him stay in the city for one more turn, where he draws the Pavillion of the Black Giant card and is directed to encounter an Armed Thief. (I could have picked Strange Customs, which I know is terrible, but that would have bored me; Armed Thief sounds nasty enough even if I don't know it for sure.) Eager to thwart this attempt at sabotage, the erstwhile Juliana chooses to Hire the thief, going to 403 - which I've seen before in this game, though it was an Efreeteh at the time. Again, the character lacks any of the bad statuses which you can remove by lacking Weapon Use in this encounter (somehow, this list includes Under Geas, but it unsurprisingly excludes Fated and Sex-Changed); however, since I designed Juliana to be a butt-kicking girl-power archetype (how ironic that she turned into a much more famous male hero from the Tales), "she's" able to impress the Armed Thief with her own skill at arms, and "he" gains D2, making this two-sexed entity the first character in this game to begin adding +1 to all encounters. Rather fitting, that. S/He also becomes Respected (a thoroughly excellent status), and this encounter is a "Quest Success", which means that it causes Fated to end. Guess I really should have picked Strange Customs if wanting to screw him/her over.
This individual now plays the Bulgars card, which on a roll of 6 grants the Enduring Hardship skill. A bit anticlimactic, that, but I'll take it happily, as this is one of the more useful skills and I hadn't given it to anyone this time around. Her/his replacement city card is Herat, which s/he can reach in two turns despite having to walk the long way around the Aral Sea (for no visible reason other than the need to include a picture of the Haunted House, the map shows no paths leading through the wide stretch of mountainous land between the Caspian sea and the Aral - not that either of these is labeled as such either, as the map really doesn't try to be accurate).
Juliana Sinbad - W:Poor, D5, S1, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected, Sex-Changed.
Finally we're back to Ali Baba. Still Imprisoned and Accursed, he's forced to encounter a Crafty HB, but breaks the curse in the process. He decides to try and Hire the HB, despite having just been robbed; in paragraph 540, yet another painfully familiar one to me, he finds himself swindled by the Crafty creature and left Envious. (You need Acting & Disguise to succeed in this encounter; the text describing the result is very strange, as it seems to indicate that the HB hides from you, then emerges after watching you change clothes.) He manages to roll away his Wounds, but is left in even worse shape than at the start of the turn; not being able to move at the moment, he refrains from declaring a Pilgrimage, even though he knows that Robbing every HB he meets is unlikely to earn him his freedom promptly.
Ali Baba - W:Poor, D3, S3, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Imprisoned, Envious.
Shaharazad seems to have forgotten to play her Samarkand card last turn (obviously this couldn't have been MY fault), so she stays in the city for another turn and meets a Rhinoceros - well, again, not quite, although it's odd to have drawn a Forest-based encounter card for the second turn in a row. Anyway, her actual encounter is a Con Game, which is almost but not quite a good match for her three skills; Beguiling would be very in-character for her, but silly me, I went with Courtly Graces at the start of the game instead. She decides to try and Avoid the Con, which is not a guaranteed success; she rolls the Destiny Die to see whether she'll remain at 999, reduce that deliciously alliterative number by 1, or go up to an even thousand. It's the former, and yet again it's a familiar paragraph; the sultan demands a coin and Shari doubts that the taxman is legit, so she ends up Imprisoned for a turn. Her Destiny also goes up 1, so she joins the cross-dressing Julibad in the "+1 to all encounter rolls" club. Something about being a girl in this game (at least at first) just seems to imply more success with Destiny, though less with wealth.
I almost forgot to play the City card again, but hadn't gotten far enough along in Abu Sher's turn that I couldn't quickly reverse course. Rolling a 4, she's told to "gain 1 Wealth if any Status", and she's got a status just for this one turn, so what do you know, it turns out that getting thrown in jail for tax evasion actually made her richer! Too bad she can't start moving 4 spaces a turn until after getting released. She then draws a Special card which will let her steal a Status from another player, after she goes back to not having any.
Shaharazad - W:Respectable, D5, S5, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Imprisoned (1 turn).
Abu Sher completes the first leg of his pilgrimage without incident, meeting a Foolish Ne'er-Do-Well in Tripoli. Not being Envious anymore, he need not Rob the lout, and opts to Punish him instead, hoping that the Piety he hasn't yet earned from his Pilgrimage won't actually be required to chastise a man of low repute. Going to 460, it turns out that Piety is indeed called for; Abu Sher has committed manslaughter (not quite the unforgivable crime in this setting's justice setting which it might be in our own society, but still not taken lightly); he joins the two previous players in prison, and is like the other male of the set in that his incarceration has no fixed endpoint. So much for the ease of his pilgrimage....
Being in jail doesn't prevent you from playing your City cards, oddly, so Abu Sher rolls on Tripoli's table; his roll of 4 calls for him to have Stealth and Stealing, which he doesn't, so he gains no benefit. His new card is for Timbuktu, which is in the opposite direction from Makka, so he's in no real hurry to go there, when he can in fact go anywhere.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D1, S2, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, On Pilgrimage (Makka), Imprisoned.
"Sinana" finally leaves Bulgars, joining his fellow member of the no-Y-chromosomes-club in Samarkand since it's on the way to Herat (s/he could have stopped in the forest and still been able to make it, but in general I always prefer to stick to civilization, even if the game is a trifle repetitive because of this), drawing a card which might provide a Lion under other circumstances. Instead, making the game's first Destiny-boosted encounter roll, s/he meets a Trapped Efreet, and gleefully Aids him in hope of a Quest Succes which might restore his/her original sex. 293 is yet another paragraph I've seen before; Sinbad frees the Efreet, who proceeds to beat her/him up because he's gone insane from long confinement, leaving Sinbad Crippled while further boosting his Destiny, while he remains at only 1 Story, although fortunately Crippled status can improve that. It will, however, reduce the character's movement, so Sinbad is Singlad that he didn't stop short of Samarkand after all. (Also of interest, a single Quest Success should get rid of both Crippled and Sex-Changed, since there's nothing in the rules indicating that they require separate cures.)
Juliana Sinbad - W:Poor, D6, S1, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected, Sex-Changed, Crippled.
Ali actually gets to roll for his Hunchback this time; he rolls up a Destitute HB, which he cannot Rob, and since I recognize the number of Beating him as undesireable, I choose to Question him. 523 is at least a fairly new paragraph; it proves to be a very strange one which is mostly meant for the Merchant game, not only calling for that game's specialty skills, but having an instruction involving Merchant Arrows which I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to interpret, were I not capable twice over of simply ignoring it. But that leaves only one possible outcome - somehow Ali manages to squander his fortune in prison, being reduced to Penniless wealth, but gaining Wisdom through the expense, as well as D1
Ali Baba - W:Penniless, D4, S3, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Wisdom, Imprisoned, Envious.
Shari begins her single turn in the clink; she gets a Disguised HB, and experience has taught me that these are to be Followed. Rolling to 470, she finds that this is indeed the very paragraph I was seeking; she's spotted Harun al-Rashid (or a thinly disguised Expy of him) traveling among his people in disguise, and since she has Courtly Graces, she is rewarded with Vizier status and a Robe of Honor (and thus also Respected 6-)! I've seen this game-breakingly nice encounter come up before, in this very thread I think; as for now, it makes for quite a compensator for having gone without Statuses for so long. On top of it all, she gains D2 and S2 (not counting the additional point of each for becoming Vizier), which gets her access to Master skills and could have boosted her Wealth, had she not already risen to Respectable. Robe of Honor gives her yet another Destiny point, so she now has encounters at +2...and you know what, I'm not sure I included her +1 when I rolled up the ever-so-important Disguised HB. I'm almost tempted to call a do-over on this possible mistake, but given that I would like to eventually go to bed tonight, I decide I'd better let one player (the most appropriate player, given her name) retain nearly-gamewinning status, even if it wasn't truly deserved. She loses Respected at the end of the turn, but really, who cares, after everything else?
Shaharazad - W:Respectable, D9, S8, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Robe of Honor with Wisdom, Vizier (Samarkand) with MASTER Wisdom and MASTER Courtly Graces.
Abu Sher rolls up an Ugly HB, and decides to Enrich him; 509 clarifies that the wretch is effusively grateful and grants Quick Thinking 6- (supposedly he's a "devoted companion", but that doesn't sound very devoted to me, and anyway it doesn't follow the model for companion skills). Abu also gains D1, but not any Story to help get out of this prison. And he loses the Quick Thinking immediately. I'm beginning to see why the temporary skills and statuses were dropped from the game's new edition.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D2, S2, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, On Pilgrimage (Makka), Imprisoned.
Disgusted with the success of her fellow Samarkandress, Juliana (trapped in the body of Sinbad) avails herself of the fact that she's never been Imprisoned and gets the heck out of dodge, traveling to Herat with the maximum of her movement. The Volcano card rolls up a result of 9 with "Sinbad's" Destiny bonus, and the sex-changed female meets a being from the very Reaction Matrix she desired, a Crafty Efreet. Not wanting to take any undue chances, she Grovels before him and goes to 347...well this at least is new. Uninterested in "Sinbad's" words, the efreet takes an interest in his jewelry (presumably the same jewelry he wore when he was a she, though somehow an actual male would have had some too); lacking Quick Thinking or Evaluation, the transgendered adventurer is given the choice of handing over some of his/her wealth or being Pursued (or losing a treasure, which he doesn't have and probably wouldn't want to give up if he did). Normally I would take Pursued for a more interesting game, but in this case it seems unwise...granted it might mean more QS results, but...oh, wait! Sinbad is Respected, and this status allows for a reroll. (Oddly, it says it only works for "humans", but then includes an efreet in the example, so I've no choice but to assume that efreets count as human for this purpose.) Rolling anew, s/he goes to 345, and gets the desired QS, but at a price. Sex-Changed and Crippled go away, and Juliana is restored to full mobility and muleity, as well as gaining her choice of D2 or W+1, but is placed Under Geas. She chooses to gain Wealth, since the Geas will be satisfied if she gains 3 Destiny or can be broken by losing 4 of it, and she's got so much Story yet to gain before she wins that she can easily afford to suffer a "cannot win" status in the meantime.
Meanwhile, she also gets to roll on Herat, where she gains another Wealth; being perhaps written excessively briefly, this award doesn't have an upper limit as they usually do, so she's free to go to Rich. (At this point I learn that Ali Baba having been Rich did not entitle him to travel 5 spaces in one turn and reach Ireland; yet another of my little goofs, but it hardly matters, as random as this game is.) Amusingly, had she rolled 3, she'd have been placed Under Geas again, redundantly. Her new city card is Zarandj, which is again very nearby.
Juliana - W:Rich, D6, S1, Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected, Under Geas.
Imprisoned, Penniless, and Envious; Ali Baba is really not having a great game. He meets yet another Ugly HB, and is required to Rob him, going to 493. The result is that the wretch treats Ali as his old and dear friend, and follows him around all day while talking incessantly, and because Ali has no Courtly Graces, he cannot get rid of the guy, for fear of hurting his feelings! Some robber! He gains his admittance to the D5 club, but becomes Insane and Accursed due to the nonstop chatter! So now, other players roll to decide what kind of HB Ali meets, and then if he can't Rob the HB, other players decide what he'll do instead...and the worst part is, Insane can't ever be gotten rid of while you're Imprisoned, because it goes away only when you get a QS from a Matrix A or B creature, and Hunchbacks are Matrix Cs and are all you'll ever meet while Imprisoned. This is a definite glitch in the game, and if Ali were an actual player, he'd be virtually obligated to ragequit over this thorough a clusterf***. Some "destiny" he has...other players make literally all his decisions and there's no telling when this will change.
Ali Baba - W:Penniless, D5, S3, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Wisdom, Imprisoned, Envious, Insane, Accursed.
Needing to stay out of cities to avoid the downside of being a Vizier (this is a rather goofily executed game mechanic; it makes sense that you'd need to keep going home to attend to your responsibilities, but the fact that you can stay out in the wilderness forever kind of breaks that mold - obviously if you were Lost you'd have no choice, but you can get Lost in a city too, so there's really no logic to it), the clearly-winning player of Shaharazad goes to a mountains space between Zarandj and Shiraz, and consequently doesn't meet the infamous Barber. Instead, she finds Horrible Creatures. Unable to Seek Aid as would seem logical, and lacking skills indicative of Praying, Attacking or Hiding, she decides to see what happens with Follow (probably it won't turn out as well as the Disguised Hunchback, but still, it's something to try). Paragraph 915 indicates that she's being ferried across a body of water, but her pilot is seized by long black arms and dragged down to his doom; she lacks Enduring Hardship, so she...loses Enduring Hardship. This game is screwy, there's increasingly little doubt of that. She gains D1 and S1, which puts her S1 short of winning the game; her Story amount lets her gain a skill, which perhaps ought to be Piety since she passed on the chance to Pray before and ended up regretting it. But she's also Lost, so the skills she's going to want are Enduring Hardship and Wilderness Lore...and since she's just now being directed to lose EH, she definitely takes WL instead, as I think taking it in this way is the only way you could immediately lose it (essentially, this is a roundabout way of making your Lost-ness even nastier and harder to escape). On top of all this, she's Grief-Stricken for a turn, so her new WL won't be available during her first turn of being Lost, only the two skills her Vizier status boosted to Master will remain usable at Talent level. Of course, I forgot to actually check those skills, since they were in fact Master; looking up and down, I confirm that they didn't apply, which is to be expected under the circumstances.
Shaharazad - W:Respectable, D10, S9, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Wilderness Lore, Robe of Honor with Wisdom, Vizier (Samarkand) with MASTER Wisdom and MASTER Courtly Graces, Lost, Grief-Stricken (1 turn).
Abu Sher meets an Impudent hunchback, and figures this is exactly the kind of HB you're expected to Beat if you are a good and devout (though not especially Pious) Muslim in a mythical version of 14th-century Arabia. I'm not sure whether I've ever encountered an Impudent HB in all my years of playing this game; somehow they always seem to be Ugly or Crafty or Disguised. Not rolling away from 463, Abu finds that his lack of Piety costs him, quite literally; while he's whaling on the cripple, his purse gets lifted by a member of the seemingly approving crowd of onlookers. He gains some Story, which at least is progress on getting out of the joint, and strangely if he's offered the chance to bribe someone, his lack of money probably won't actually come up. So it's not the worst turn, but I hoped for more.
Abu Sher - W:Poor, D2, S3, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, On Pilgrimage (Makka), Imprisoned.
As the only player left in the game who is free to move where she pleases, and to do so at 4 spaces per turn, Juliana debates blowing off her rendezvous in Zarandj, finding that it has a 1/3 chance of doing nothing at all. But rolling a 6 would let her instantly ditch her Geas, so she decides to go for it. She draws the Elephant card, but is not in a Forest, so what she gets instead is Strange Customs. Shaharazad managed to do okay by Questioning them, but Juliana has Weapon Use, so she opts to Attack instead. 1002 is the same encounter, but it goes better for her because of this skill; the skill in question is upgraded to Master as a result, and she gains yet another point of D. I'm really beginning to wish I understood the pattern of when you get a slew of D but no S, or the reverse; it might inform an intelligent choice of victory formulas and beginning skills.
Juliana - W:Rich, D7, S1, MASTER Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected, Under Geas.
It seems like a good time to take another short break. The fates of Ali Baba and Shaharazad are so thoroughly skewed that there's serious question why the game is worth bothering to continue, and I figure I should at least see whether I have new email before I make that decision.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
It's quite late, but I think I can manage to wrap this up and still be in bed by midnightish. Oh, and I again forgot Juliana's City card while finishing a post, but this time it's not too late for me to rectify that. Her roll of 4 gives me a choice of two encounters, both of them semi-exotic: Mad Soldier J, or Wicked Vizier H. Of the two, the Soldier is more likely to let Juliana (who is secretly Bad and Sinful, though she's keeping that fact under her skirt at the moment) use her Master Weapon Use. (She also might be able to use Seduction in either case, which she again has use of now that Crippled is gone, even though I forgot to remove the strikethrough before posting her last turn.) Not seeing much point in Robbing the Mad Soldier when she's already Rich, Juliana simply Attacks him, checking in the vicinity of paragraph 550 for her Weapon Use to apply, and finds it called out in that very location. She gains, and keeps for this turn, Respected 6- as well...though actually she already had Respected, but oh well. Still a pretty decent outcome, as it doubled her Story total and boosted her Destiny to within 1 point of both completing her Geas and having the Destiny half of a game win. Her new card is far-off Bantus, which will take a whle for her to reach even at her impressive Wealth.
Juliana - W:Rich, D9, S2, MASTER Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected, Under Geas (need +1D).
First actual turn of this new post, and it's poor Ali Baba in his infinite screwedness. Another player chooses the roll he'll add 3 to, in order to determine his type of HB; this puts Possessed within reach, but Crafty seems mean enough, and doesn't risk a 2/3 chance of ending Accursed. So the die is rolled, and Accursed does indeed end, not that this helps much; Ali still has no control over his reaction to the HBs he meets every turn. Crafty ones can't be Robbed, so a putative opponent chooses to Attack him instead; in 'graph 528, the victim runs away, and Ali's Stealth & Stealing goes off, granting +2 Wealth as the HB flees to a trapdoor which unfortunately doesn't lead out of the jail, but rather to a cache of loot. Ali gains 1D, which he didn't especially need, but also S2, which is major progress toward eventually freeing himself, plus it grants him Storytelling. You have to admit, being jailed while out of your mind with gold-fever, having no choice but to Rob or otherwise mess with the only creature who might eventually help you get out of the stockade, is nothing if not a story-quality experience.
Ali Baba - W:Respectable, D6, S5, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Wisdom, Storytelling, Imprisoned, Envious, Insane.
Shaharazad begins her single turn of weeping miserably and being only a little bit Wise and Graceful, while not at all any of her other skills, by encountering her space; an encounter with badly Lost is better put off until she can apply her Wilderness Lore, she figures. She draws the Magnetic Mountain card, and is indeed in the mountains, so rolling with a +2, she manages to get a 1 on the dice, for a total of 5 - not enough by far to find the actual MagMount. Instead, she discovers a Mystic Fire, this game-session's very first encounter on Matrix G; still having the use of her Wisdom, she figures she has a fair chance of success through Examining it, and goes to 712. (Interestingly, this is the paragraph for both Magical and Mystic fires, which somehow differ on every attempted action other than Examining them; the difference must be invisible to the naked eye.) Not having Major Magic, Shari has enough sense not to go anywhere near a "bobbing cloud of silvery light" (which doesn't sound much like a Mystic Fire to me, but whatever), and so she simply gains S1. She's now capable of winning the game, as soon as she can dispense with Lost and get back to Baghdad without being detoured back toward Samarkand.
Shaharazad - W:Respectable, D10, S10, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Wilderness Lore, Robe of Honor with Wisdom, Vizier (Samarkand) with MASTER Wisdom and MASTER Courtly Graces, Lost.
Abu Sher continues trying to escape the dungeons of Tripoli and continue with his holy quest. He rolls up a Crafty one, and I decide to spend a moment researching possible courses of action based on earlier play experience. None of Abu's skills seems likely to apply, so he takes a chance and tries the never-before-seen Enrich choice on this fellow; 508 shall be the paragraph of the counting, and Abu is Lucky indeed, for the other takes his negligible coin, scuttles off, and actually comes back at some later date, offering 1 use of Beguiling, as well as D1/S1. It's not an escape from jail, but it might come in handy some day, if the game wasn't very close to ending.
Abu Sher - W:Poor, D3, S4, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, (1-Use Beguiling), On Pilgrimage (Makka), Imprisoned.
Back to Juliana for an actual turn. Making tracks for Africa, she gets as far as Basra on what she can currently afford, and makes a roll which is the same for being inside Civilization as it would be if she were outside Civilization without her immense Destiny. She meets a Beggar, who is annoyingly and tragically indistinguishable from a Hunchback, and her roll results in yet another Crafty one, who she knows she absolutely must not Follow while being female, from my bitter past experience in an earlier game. Weapon Use might apply to an Attack, so she tries that, hoping it doesn't produce the same unpleasant result as Follow. Checking around paragraph 529, she again finds it to be right on the nose; they duel each other to a standstill and then call it a draw, which would give Juliana yet more Weapon Use if she didn't already have it (the game does this with irritating frequency), but also gives her S1 and D1, the latter of which completes her Geas.
Juliana - W:Rich, D10, S3, MASTER Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected.
Ali rolls up one of the traditional Hunchback varieties, Ugly, and is mandated to Rob it; 491 sees Ali lose 1 Destiny and gain Wisdom, which can't be Master because he's short of Destiny, and is only going to keep getting shorter every time this occurs. He decides it's time to go On Pilgrimage himself, dropping 3 more Dest....whoa, whoa, hold the phone, this time I'm absolutely sure I forgot to add the +1 for his Destiny, so it wasn't supposed to be an Ugly HB at all, but a Disguised one. So I go back to my original D6 and try the entire turn over; robbing a Disguised HB goes to 228 in this case...and his Quick Thinking goes off! As the HB runs away from Ali's attempted mugging, Ali accuses him of being a thief, and a crowd of onlookers (here in the prison) stop him. Ali goes up to Rich wealth - not enough to end his Envy, but helpful nonetheless - and gains D1 and S1, but most importantly, gains a Quest Success and thus is no longer Imprisoned! (Still Insane, but at least he'll have disastrous rob-happy and otherwise counterproductive encounters with things other than hunchbacks, some of whom might conceivably cure his insanity.) Since his new Destiny total entitles him to Master skills, he opts to keep it and not go On Pilgrimage after all.
Ali Baba - W:Respectable, D7, S6, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Wisdom, Storytelling, Envious, Insane.
Shaharazad has an encounter with Badly Lost; since almost all her Skills depend on contact with other human beings, she decides to start by Crying Out, and hoping that the person who shows up isn't a bandit. She goes to 626, and is indeed rescued - by Magians! This is an encounter I remember from very early in my TOTAN career, which hasn't come up in any recent games, but it was very memorable and helped cement my fondness for the game (indeed, it was an early instance of the "not this again!" syndrome which I've come to consider an inevitable, though not inherently pleasant, part of the total Arabian Nights experience...and nowhere near as bothersome as the Hunchback situation). She's invited back to their house only to be locked in a trunk and Enslaved, but at least she's not Lost, and she gets D2 and S1, not that she needed them (other than as a cushion in the Destiny's case; the 11th point of Story is completely superfluous, since you never lose that). Slave status prevents Shari from gaining any more Destiny points or any Treasures, but for some reason the Magians will allow her to buy her freedom from them (you'd think this would mean she'd go tell the law where to find them, but that's one of many things in this game that just don't work the way we 21st-century people might expect), or she can just gain 1 point of Story and they'll let her go for some reason.
Shaharazad - W:Respectable, D12, S11, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Wilderness Lore, Robe of Honor with Wisdom, Vizier (Samarkand) with MASTER Wisdom and MASTER Courtly Graces, Enslaved.
Still stuck in the middle of what was to have been a milk-run for Allah, Abu rolls up the Destitute Hunchback, which we haven't seen in a while, and happily tries to Enrich him, going to 204. Once again, Abu Sher's Luck goes off, with the one he rewarded prospering in turn and thus being able to repay the favor; he still doesn't escape the prison, but he gains back D2 (getting the +1 to encounters again, and thus guaranteeing he won't meet any more Destitute hunchbacks, but potentially Possessed ones instead), and gains a Wealth Level along with 1 use of the Blessed status (which tends to be fleeting anyway).
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D5, S4, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, (1-Use Beguiling), On Pilgrimage (Makka), Imprisoned, Blessed (1-use).
Juliana proceeds to Zaila, planning to make it to Bantus the next turn one way or another (if she somehow gains a treasure and 2 wealth levels in this one turn, she'll become incapable of getting there by land, but there's still an extremely easy sea route up the nearby river). She draws the Hunchback card, which I am seriously tempted to stop including in the deck. She rolls up a Dying one (better than Wicked, which is a possibility for her, although not for either of the Imprisoned males who have less Destiny), and there are only three options, one of which is Avoid and results in No Encounter. So she takes the one that she hopes is less likely to result in screwage, Question. 457 is the result, and it doesn't even have any text under "No Skill", since she lacks Quick Thinking. The old man mumbles something that she can't understand, and all she walks away with is S1 - though of course, that was rather along the lines of what she needed.
Juliana - W:Rich, D10, S4, MASTER Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected.
Suddenly not doing so bad, apart from a complete lack of free will, Ali leaves Rome for the first time in forever, proceeding to the forests of the Sinai Peninsula, where he finds a Princess. Rolling a 6 and adding 3, he finds her to be Vengeful, and "decides" to give her something to be Vengeful about, by Robbing her. 214 states that, unfortunately, he ends up Imprisoned again, and Wounded 7 or less to boot. But at least he gains D1, and decides he'd better go for that Pilgrimage after all, so that this doesn't happen again once he's finished Insaneing his way through the Hunchbacks in a functionally identical location to his previous prison. Grrr.... He stays wounded (thus losing Stealth and Stealing), which is a godsend, because it means that he can encounter a Healer Sage instead of Hunchbacks...although this would cost him a Wealth Level and thus make him incapable of traveling from his Destination of Alexandria to Makka within one turn. Oh well, he'll do it anyway, if I don't forget.
Ali Baba - W:Respectable, D5, S6, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Wisdom, Storytelling, On Pilgrimage (Alexandria), Insane, Imprisoned, Wounded (7-).
Y'know, Shaharazad doesn't even care that she's a slave; she can win the game that way. She proceeds back to Bagdhad and has her encounter; it's with a Prophet, and she decides that Abu Sher can be her "master" for the turn. Being in the very definition of Civilization, she adds only her +2 for Destiny to the roll, and gets a 4, for a Foolish prophet. While it seems logical to Trick these, past experience has proven that it doesn't always work, and she has no reason to borrow trouble; I'm eager to end the game, so she simply Avoids him and has No encounter. There remains only a single turn in which the other players will try to also win, though it's danged unlikely they'll manage it.
Shaharazad - W:Respectable, D12, S11, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Wilderness Lore, Robe of Honor with Wisdom, Vizier (Samarkand) with MASTER Wisdom and MASTER Courtly Graces, Enslaved.
Abu gained nothing from his brief experience as a slaveowner; he's got a turn of being Blessed and figures he'd better make it count, so he dials up the prison's room service hotline (he's had Minor Magic and Scholarship all game, even if they never seem to have come up, so I don't think letting him use a telephone five centuries before they were invented is that fanciful), and requests a Possessed Hunchback just for laughs, since there's little to be lost in betting absurdly high (he's easily the least capable player of winning, though not by very much over poor Ali - it just doesn't seem as if having a male gender and a two-part name are advantages in this particular session). He Questions the Possessed HB, which is 362 according to the die I dropped on the floor which very visibly produced a 5; since Abu still doesn't have that Piety he wished for earlier, the other's "journey to save my own soul" is out of his pay grade, and he gains nothing but S1, which grants him Storytelling here at the final moment of his game.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D5, S5, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, Storytelling, (1-Use Beguiling), On Pilgrimage (Makka), Imprisoned.
Juliana is the one player who could conceivably accomplish a co-win, though she'd have to somehow gain an absurd 6 points of story to manage it; she can easily reach Baghdad from Zaila, and draws (eerily enough) the Sex-Change Spring card, which for a City and with her total roll of 6, results in....STRANGE F***ING CUSTOMS! IN BAGHDAD! ARRRRRRRRGH! She Attacks the Strange Customs of her home city, going to 1003, which is in fact the "marry an infidel in a far-off land" one I've previously objected to, and makes a particular lack of sense as an Attack outcome (indeed, it proves that it's possible only as a result of Attacking the customs, which absolutely makes no sense whatsoever). This would result in being Married and Grief-Stricken and losing her Seduction (I set her up as a warrior-princess type at the start of the game, and figured that included getting to Court anyone she took a liking to), so she really really really doesn't want it to happen; fortunately, she remains Respected, and thus can get a do-over. I'm not even rolling this time, though; I officially CHEAT and select paragraph 1001 this time, since it hasn't come up. This one at least makes sense as an Attack outcome, kind of; a vizier has given Julie some dates in a leather bag, which are against the law to eat, and when she's executed, her property will go to the vizier. Trying to kill the Vizier might make her the new Vizier, but this wouldn't be enough to win, so I select the "speak in your own defense" option instead, which sends me to a new paragraph, 1380. This, unfortunately, proves to be a false redirect; there's only one outcome to this choice, which could easily have been fitted in the same paragraph to save me some page-turning (likely there are other encounters which also redirect here, but they could have reprinted the paragraph a few times; there's easily enough blank space left on the page for some redundancy). She gains a useless point of Destiny and becomes an Outlaw, which I don't have to bother looking up since the game is ending after one last, miserable turn.
Juliana - W:Rich, D11, S4, MASTER Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected, Outlaw.
Ali Baba the infinitely unfortunate takes the last turn of the game, and would draw the final card in the deck if he weren't Imprisoned and thus unable to have normal encounters. With no better option besides yet more hunchbacks, he hires a Healer Sage, returning to Poor wealth. Of course, he's still Insane, but I figure he picks Abu Sher's player to pick his reaction, and Abu takes pity on him and just has him Grovel, rather than trying to Rob or Abduct the man. Going to 318, which I think is a new one on me, Ali doesn't have Luck, so he gets stuck in a queue and has to roll 2 dice, adding 1 for his Piety (this has to be a record for the least impact Piety has ever had on a game of TOTAN in my experience). Rolling high would remove not only Wounded, but Insane and Imprisoned and even On Pilgrimage (figure that one out); unfortunately that still isn't enough to win, and anyway he rolled too low. So he ends the game just as miserable as he spent the majority of it, and Shaharazad reigns supreme.
Ali Baba - W:Poor, D5, S6, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Wisdom, Storytelling, On Pilgrimage (Alexandria), Insane, Wounded (7-).
And I did indeed finish before midnight, by over an hour in fact. Not too bad, but enough to render my itch for this game (or at least this version of the game) very thoroughly scratched for now.
Juliana - W:Rich, D9, S2, MASTER Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected, Under Geas (need +1D).
First actual turn of this new post, and it's poor Ali Baba in his infinite screwedness. Another player chooses the roll he'll add 3 to, in order to determine his type of HB; this puts Possessed within reach, but Crafty seems mean enough, and doesn't risk a 2/3 chance of ending Accursed. So the die is rolled, and Accursed does indeed end, not that this helps much; Ali still has no control over his reaction to the HBs he meets every turn. Crafty ones can't be Robbed, so a putative opponent chooses to Attack him instead; in 'graph 528, the victim runs away, and Ali's Stealth & Stealing goes off, granting +2 Wealth as the HB flees to a trapdoor which unfortunately doesn't lead out of the jail, but rather to a cache of loot. Ali gains 1D, which he didn't especially need, but also S2, which is major progress toward eventually freeing himself, plus it grants him Storytelling. You have to admit, being jailed while out of your mind with gold-fever, having no choice but to Rob or otherwise mess with the only creature who might eventually help you get out of the stockade, is nothing if not a story-quality experience.
Ali Baba - W:Respectable, D6, S5, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Wisdom, Storytelling, Imprisoned, Envious, Insane.
Shaharazad begins her single turn of weeping miserably and being only a little bit Wise and Graceful, while not at all any of her other skills, by encountering her space; an encounter with badly Lost is better put off until she can apply her Wilderness Lore, she figures. She draws the Magnetic Mountain card, and is indeed in the mountains, so rolling with a +2, she manages to get a 1 on the dice, for a total of 5 - not enough by far to find the actual MagMount. Instead, she discovers a Mystic Fire, this game-session's very first encounter on Matrix G; still having the use of her Wisdom, she figures she has a fair chance of success through Examining it, and goes to 712. (Interestingly, this is the paragraph for both Magical and Mystic fires, which somehow differ on every attempted action other than Examining them; the difference must be invisible to the naked eye.) Not having Major Magic, Shari has enough sense not to go anywhere near a "bobbing cloud of silvery light" (which doesn't sound much like a Mystic Fire to me, but whatever), and so she simply gains S1. She's now capable of winning the game, as soon as she can dispense with Lost and get back to Baghdad without being detoured back toward Samarkand.
Shaharazad - W:Respectable, D10, S10, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Wilderness Lore, Robe of Honor with Wisdom, Vizier (Samarkand) with MASTER Wisdom and MASTER Courtly Graces, Lost.
Abu Sher continues trying to escape the dungeons of Tripoli and continue with his holy quest. He rolls up a Crafty one, and I decide to spend a moment researching possible courses of action based on earlier play experience. None of Abu's skills seems likely to apply, so he takes a chance and tries the never-before-seen Enrich choice on this fellow; 508 shall be the paragraph of the counting, and Abu is Lucky indeed, for the other takes his negligible coin, scuttles off, and actually comes back at some later date, offering 1 use of Beguiling, as well as D1/S1. It's not an escape from jail, but it might come in handy some day, if the game wasn't very close to ending.
Abu Sher - W:Poor, D3, S4, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, (1-Use Beguiling), On Pilgrimage (Makka), Imprisoned.
Back to Juliana for an actual turn. Making tracks for Africa, she gets as far as Basra on what she can currently afford, and makes a roll which is the same for being inside Civilization as it would be if she were outside Civilization without her immense Destiny. She meets a Beggar, who is annoyingly and tragically indistinguishable from a Hunchback, and her roll results in yet another Crafty one, who she knows she absolutely must not Follow while being female, from my bitter past experience in an earlier game. Weapon Use might apply to an Attack, so she tries that, hoping it doesn't produce the same unpleasant result as Follow. Checking around paragraph 529, she again finds it to be right on the nose; they duel each other to a standstill and then call it a draw, which would give Juliana yet more Weapon Use if she didn't already have it (the game does this with irritating frequency), but also gives her S1 and D1, the latter of which completes her Geas.
Juliana - W:Rich, D10, S3, MASTER Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected.
Ali rolls up one of the traditional Hunchback varieties, Ugly, and is mandated to Rob it; 491 sees Ali lose 1 Destiny and gain Wisdom, which can't be Master because he's short of Destiny, and is only going to keep getting shorter every time this occurs. He decides it's time to go On Pilgrimage himself, dropping 3 more Dest....whoa, whoa, hold the phone, this time I'm absolutely sure I forgot to add the +1 for his Destiny, so it wasn't supposed to be an Ugly HB at all, but a Disguised one. So I go back to my original D6 and try the entire turn over; robbing a Disguised HB goes to 228 in this case...and his Quick Thinking goes off! As the HB runs away from Ali's attempted mugging, Ali accuses him of being a thief, and a crowd of onlookers (here in the prison) stop him. Ali goes up to Rich wealth - not enough to end his Envy, but helpful nonetheless - and gains D1 and S1, but most importantly, gains a Quest Success and thus is no longer Imprisoned! (Still Insane, but at least he'll have disastrous rob-happy and otherwise counterproductive encounters with things other than hunchbacks, some of whom might conceivably cure his insanity.) Since his new Destiny total entitles him to Master skills, he opts to keep it and not go On Pilgrimage after all.
Ali Baba - W:Respectable, D7, S6, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Wisdom, Storytelling, Envious, Insane.
Shaharazad has an encounter with Badly Lost; since almost all her Skills depend on contact with other human beings, she decides to start by Crying Out, and hoping that the person who shows up isn't a bandit. She goes to 626, and is indeed rescued - by Magians! This is an encounter I remember from very early in my TOTAN career, which hasn't come up in any recent games, but it was very memorable and helped cement my fondness for the game (indeed, it was an early instance of the "not this again!" syndrome which I've come to consider an inevitable, though not inherently pleasant, part of the total Arabian Nights experience...and nowhere near as bothersome as the Hunchback situation). She's invited back to their house only to be locked in a trunk and Enslaved, but at least she's not Lost, and she gets D2 and S1, not that she needed them (other than as a cushion in the Destiny's case; the 11th point of Story is completely superfluous, since you never lose that). Slave status prevents Shari from gaining any more Destiny points or any Treasures, but for some reason the Magians will allow her to buy her freedom from them (you'd think this would mean she'd go tell the law where to find them, but that's one of many things in this game that just don't work the way we 21st-century people might expect), or she can just gain 1 point of Story and they'll let her go for some reason.
Shaharazad - W:Respectable, D12, S11, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Wilderness Lore, Robe of Honor with Wisdom, Vizier (Samarkand) with MASTER Wisdom and MASTER Courtly Graces, Enslaved.
Still stuck in the middle of what was to have been a milk-run for Allah, Abu rolls up the Destitute Hunchback, which we haven't seen in a while, and happily tries to Enrich him, going to 204. Once again, Abu Sher's Luck goes off, with the one he rewarded prospering in turn and thus being able to repay the favor; he still doesn't escape the prison, but he gains back D2 (getting the +1 to encounters again, and thus guaranteeing he won't meet any more Destitute hunchbacks, but potentially Possessed ones instead), and gains a Wealth Level along with 1 use of the Blessed status (which tends to be fleeting anyway).
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D5, S4, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, (1-Use Beguiling), On Pilgrimage (Makka), Imprisoned, Blessed (1-use).
Juliana proceeds to Zaila, planning to make it to Bantus the next turn one way or another (if she somehow gains a treasure and 2 wealth levels in this one turn, she'll become incapable of getting there by land, but there's still an extremely easy sea route up the nearby river). She draws the Hunchback card, which I am seriously tempted to stop including in the deck. She rolls up a Dying one (better than Wicked, which is a possibility for her, although not for either of the Imprisoned males who have less Destiny), and there are only three options, one of which is Avoid and results in No Encounter. So she takes the one that she hopes is less likely to result in screwage, Question. 457 is the result, and it doesn't even have any text under "No Skill", since she lacks Quick Thinking. The old man mumbles something that she can't understand, and all she walks away with is S1 - though of course, that was rather along the lines of what she needed.
Juliana - W:Rich, D10, S4, MASTER Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected.
Suddenly not doing so bad, apart from a complete lack of free will, Ali leaves Rome for the first time in forever, proceeding to the forests of the Sinai Peninsula, where he finds a Princess. Rolling a 6 and adding 3, he finds her to be Vengeful, and "decides" to give her something to be Vengeful about, by Robbing her. 214 states that, unfortunately, he ends up Imprisoned again, and Wounded 7 or less to boot. But at least he gains D1, and decides he'd better go for that Pilgrimage after all, so that this doesn't happen again once he's finished Insaneing his way through the Hunchbacks in a functionally identical location to his previous prison. Grrr.... He stays wounded (thus losing Stealth and Stealing), which is a godsend, because it means that he can encounter a Healer Sage instead of Hunchbacks...although this would cost him a Wealth Level and thus make him incapable of traveling from his Destination of Alexandria to Makka within one turn. Oh well, he'll do it anyway, if I don't forget.
Ali Baba - W:Respectable, D5, S6, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Wisdom, Storytelling, On Pilgrimage (Alexandria), Insane, Imprisoned, Wounded (7-).
Y'know, Shaharazad doesn't even care that she's a slave; she can win the game that way. She proceeds back to Bagdhad and has her encounter; it's with a Prophet, and she decides that Abu Sher can be her "master" for the turn. Being in the very definition of Civilization, she adds only her +2 for Destiny to the roll, and gets a 4, for a Foolish prophet. While it seems logical to Trick these, past experience has proven that it doesn't always work, and she has no reason to borrow trouble; I'm eager to end the game, so she simply Avoids him and has No encounter. There remains only a single turn in which the other players will try to also win, though it's danged unlikely they'll manage it.
Shaharazad - W:Respectable, D12, S11, Appearance, Storytelling, Courtly Graces, Wilderness Lore, Robe of Honor with Wisdom, Vizier (Samarkand) with MASTER Wisdom and MASTER Courtly Graces, Enslaved.
Abu gained nothing from his brief experience as a slaveowner; he's got a turn of being Blessed and figures he'd better make it count, so he dials up the prison's room service hotline (he's had Minor Magic and Scholarship all game, even if they never seem to have come up, so I don't think letting him use a telephone five centuries before they were invented is that fanciful), and requests a Possessed Hunchback just for laughs, since there's little to be lost in betting absurdly high (he's easily the least capable player of winning, though not by very much over poor Ali - it just doesn't seem as if having a male gender and a two-part name are advantages in this particular session). He Questions the Possessed HB, which is 362 according to the die I dropped on the floor which very visibly produced a 5; since Abu still doesn't have that Piety he wished for earlier, the other's "journey to save my own soul" is out of his pay grade, and he gains nothing but S1, which grants him Storytelling here at the final moment of his game.
Abu Sher - W:Respectable, D5, S5, Minor Magic, Luck, Seamanship, Scholarship, Storytelling, (1-Use Beguiling), On Pilgrimage (Makka), Imprisoned.
Juliana is the one player who could conceivably accomplish a co-win, though she'd have to somehow gain an absurd 6 points of story to manage it; she can easily reach Baghdad from Zaila, and draws (eerily enough) the Sex-Change Spring card, which for a City and with her total roll of 6, results in....STRANGE F***ING CUSTOMS! IN BAGHDAD! ARRRRRRRRGH! She Attacks the Strange Customs of her home city, going to 1003, which is in fact the "marry an infidel in a far-off land" one I've previously objected to, and makes a particular lack of sense as an Attack outcome (indeed, it proves that it's possible only as a result of Attacking the customs, which absolutely makes no sense whatsoever). This would result in being Married and Grief-Stricken and losing her Seduction (I set her up as a warrior-princess type at the start of the game, and figured that included getting to Court anyone she took a liking to), so she really really really doesn't want it to happen; fortunately, she remains Respected, and thus can get a do-over. I'm not even rolling this time, though; I officially CHEAT and select paragraph 1001 this time, since it hasn't come up. This one at least makes sense as an Attack outcome, kind of; a vizier has given Julie some dates in a leather bag, which are against the law to eat, and when she's executed, her property will go to the vizier. Trying to kill the Vizier might make her the new Vizier, but this wouldn't be enough to win, so I select the "speak in your own defense" option instead, which sends me to a new paragraph, 1380. This, unfortunately, proves to be a false redirect; there's only one outcome to this choice, which could easily have been fitted in the same paragraph to save me some page-turning (likely there are other encounters which also redirect here, but they could have reprinted the paragraph a few times; there's easily enough blank space left on the page for some redundancy). She gains a useless point of Destiny and becomes an Outlaw, which I don't have to bother looking up since the game is ending after one last, miserable turn.
Juliana - W:Rich, D11, S4, MASTER Weapon Use, Scholarship, Seduction, Enduring Hardship, Respected, Outlaw.
Ali Baba the infinitely unfortunate takes the last turn of the game, and would draw the final card in the deck if he weren't Imprisoned and thus unable to have normal encounters. With no better option besides yet more hunchbacks, he hires a Healer Sage, returning to Poor wealth. Of course, he's still Insane, but I figure he picks Abu Sher's player to pick his reaction, and Abu takes pity on him and just has him Grovel, rather than trying to Rob or Abduct the man. Going to 318, which I think is a new one on me, Ali doesn't have Luck, so he gets stuck in a queue and has to roll 2 dice, adding 1 for his Piety (this has to be a record for the least impact Piety has ever had on a game of TOTAN in my experience). Rolling high would remove not only Wounded, but Insane and Imprisoned and even On Pilgrimage (figure that one out); unfortunately that still isn't enough to win, and anyway he rolled too low. So he ends the game just as miserable as he spent the majority of it, and Shaharazad reigns supreme.
Ali Baba - W:Poor, D5, S6, Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, Piety, Wisdom, Storytelling, On Pilgrimage (Alexandria), Insane, Wounded (7-).
And I did indeed finish before midnight, by over an hour in fact. Not too bad, but enough to render my itch for this game (or at least this version of the game) very thoroughly scratched for now.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
Nerre
- Game Master
- Posts: 4876
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
Well, this is rather a section to play games run by members of the forum, than a place for game reviews. On the other hand, none of the current subforums reads like it would be the right place for game reviews. On the second glance, it rather looks like a game journal of an RPG-group game you had outside the forum.Well I didn't get any response to my last board game live-play session journal,
You really should put it where people might read it. You should consider: It is very long, and this is a place where people want to play or run games, so most people won't be eager into reading so much text if they don't even know what it is about. Maybe a basic introduction/description what your post is about would help, the little one I spotted wasn't exactly clear to me.
I am kind of sorry for you, but that is all the help I can offer. I for sure got no time to read so much text at the moment.
-
nikohl
- Discussion Moderator
- Posts: 4575
- Location: Ó▓á_Ó▓á
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
I just wanted to chime in and say, I read these. I liked Arabian Nights the one time I played it.
I got Agents of Smersh for my birthday from kickstarter which I think is basically Spy-TOTAN. I'm interested to try it.
I got Agents of Smersh for my birthday from kickstarter which I think is basically Spy-TOTAN. I'm interested to try it.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
A friend of mine was trying that out last week; I'm not into spies, so I passed, but it sounded hilariously surreal.nikohl wrote:I just wanted to chime in and say, I read these. I liked Arabian Nights the one time I played it.
I got Agents of Smersh for my birthday from kickstarter which I think is basically Spy-TOTAN. I'm interested to try it.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
Ho ho ho! I once again have nothing resembling a life, and so wish to play a board game with myself while blogging about it. Previously in this thread, I have been playing a bootleg copy of the original, out-of-print 1970s-era Tales of the Arabian Nights; since then I dropped $60 to pick up the revised edition by Z-Man Games, and have played it once, as well as hauling it along to Game Night twice without anyone playing my copy (once I walked in on a game in progress, so people are playing it sometimes, but I didn't need to carry the weight around). So as not to have my money be a complete waste, I guess I should play it solo some more, so here we go.
The first time I played, I opted not to blog it fully, since this takes a long damn time, and simply noted the results of my turns; I may later do a writeup of that game, since it turned out fairly interesting, but for now I'll leave it and do something new. I was playing with only a single character, just to see what would happen to him while he wandered around and tried to get 10D/10S and maybe fulfill his Quest (the Quests are a new feature of the Z-Man version; there were things called Quests in the original but they worked completely differently, and very poorly). This time, I'll use two, playing them against each other as if I were two people, and we'll actually have a winner. One serious step back in this edition, IMO, is that the original two-sided character chits are replaced with single-character standees, so there are only six total characters you can play, four male and two female, rather than six of each. For tonight's game I have selected Aladdin (Red) and Scheherazade (Green), and Sherry (as I will henceforth refer to her, rather than keep having to spell all that) will play first.
The way Quests work is that, after you've chosen your character but before you choose your Skills, or even your victory formula (also before you roll for first turn, but I'm skipping that step here), you are dealt one Quest card from a deck of, strangely, 19 of them. Sherry will have the "Merchant" quest, where she travels around the world to sell valuable goods for immense wealth, while Al gets "The Pull of the Sea", where he has to travel to Islands and earn the Seamanship skill. He therefore will not take that Skill at the start of the game (he could take it and potentially upgrade it to Master, but there will be enough encounter-related opportunities for that, I suspect), but Sherry will, so it can assist in her travels. She's also mandated by her name to take Storytelling, and I'll be a complete chauvinist pig and throw in Appearance, while giving Aladdin Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, and Luck for reasons of story-appropriateness. Since Al stands to gain 3 Story points from his Quest, he'll pursue a victory formula of 15 Story and 5 Destiny, while Sherry is potentially earning only 1 Story, and just to be different I'll have her seek 12 Destiny and 8 Story.
If there were multiple actual players, each one would have their opponent choose where their Quest will take them; instead, I just choose inconveniently distant locales to keep the characters busy running all over the world. Sherry needs to go to two different "+4" cities, so I choose Bantus and Su-Chou as the two farthest apart; Al has a rougher time of it, because he needs to go to three different Islands, and that means he can easily be sent to the absolute farthest corners of the map, with his destinations roughly amounting to Australia and Ireland, and the third only slightly inconveniently located in the western Mediterranean. Both characters start in Baghdad, and that's that. Let's Play!
Sherry starts out for China, intent on using her Seamanship to travel a relatively short and easy route from east Asia to east Africa. She can make it to a "2" Mountain space between Shiraz and Zarandj, where she draws her Encounter card: a City card for "P'an P'an", in northern Australia. One major change between the two versions of TOTAN: in the old one, City cards were a waste of a turn to draw, because they didn't give an Encounter. Instead, they now give one Encounter regardless of the terrain you draw them in, in addition to letting you keep the card to have a special encounter on a later turn. P'an P'an has the number 78, so I go to that table in the Book of Tales, where 12 possible encounters are listed. Rolling a six-sided die and adding 2 for the space, we get a total of 4, which dictates that Sherry has encountered "Merry Brigands" on Reaction Matrix I. Another change in versions...before, there were a restricted selection of reaction choices depending on what exactly you encountered, but now every option on a given Reaction Matrix is available for every encounter. On Matrix I, Sherry has the choices Honor, Attack, Avoid, Aid, Rob, Follow, Question or Pray. Honor sounds closest to something that involves Storytelling or Appearance, so I read down the Honor column until I find Merry, and am sent to paragraph 2050 (that's yet another version difference, as there are over 2000 paragraphs in the new Book of Tales, compared with exactly 1400 in the first version...I'm not yet clear on exactly how much of an improvement this is). Rolling the high-low "Destiny Die", I get a blank side and remain at this exact paragraph:
"As you draw near, you find the brigands enmeshed in a bitter dispute over which brigand's legacy is greatest; whose blade is fastest, whose name strikes the greatest fear into the hearts of the wealthy and corrupt. Viewing your timely arrival as a sign of Fate, the brigands immediately demand that you settle the matter.
"Storytelling: Pulling out your parchment and your quills, you offer to immortalize the story of the entire gang's many, thrilling exploits. You spend the evening hearing testimonials around a fire, and come morning, the brigands leave you to the business of transforming their deeds into the stuff of legend. Award:D1, S1, W+1 (max: Rich), and Storytelling."
Well, that worked well. First turn of the game and Sherry already has a master skill. Moving on to Al's turn, he decides he doesn't want to tangle with Sherry on his way to Australia, and instead heads toward his other two markers in Europe, getting as far as Turkey where there's a +2 forest space. He also draws a city card, this one being Tana, where the encounters are in paragraph 70. These look to be some of your more interesting encounters...rolling a total of 7, Al finds a Guarded Treasure, how fitting. This is on Matrix E, where he may Examine, Take, Use, Open, Avoid, Sneak, Hire Help, or Enter. Never one to pass up an absurdist response, now that the new edition makes them possible, I will have Aladdin Enter the treasure, going to paragraph 2131, +/- nothing.
"It has been a hot and wearying road, and your travels have been difficult. As you wander the dusty city streets, you long for companionship, love, and passion. A colorful banner catches your eye...a lovely fortune teller beckons to you. You enter her shop and explain your desires. She holds a heart-shaped pendant before you, and explains that donning it will transport you to a fantastic palace. The residents can give you all you need. You give her a sack of coins for the pendant.
"No Beguiling: You arrive in the palace as promised. There, you find countless beauteous and strange residents who welcome you. Soon, you return to the world, but your mind is no longer your own. D1, Ensorcelled."
Whoops...looks like Aladdin partied a little too hard there, not having had sense enough to question a too-good-to-be-true offer. Ensorcelled status means that one of Aladdin's opponents (his player chooses if there are multiple opponents) gets to move him as they see fit, and then he rolls off to see if he can lose the status. So he won't be getting anywhere near his destinations if Sherry has anything to say about it. Back to her turn, then. She makes it to the city of Herat this time; next turn, Su-Chou will be within her reach (silly goose that I am, I forgot she went up in Wealth and could have moved further, but it would only have put her in the wildernes and those spaces are usually unfriendlier, so big deal). She draws yet another City card (I'm beginning to question whether I shuffled adequately), for yet another south Asian city, this one called Gaya. The card's number is 29, and she rolls a total of 7, so she encounters...her own Guarded Treasure! Not having Beguiling, she doesn't especially feel like Entering this one, so she Examines it, rolls a -, and goes to the paragraph before 1101.
"Far from any traveled roads, you come across a fascinating scene. Behind a towering, grim Efreet, you can make out a brass statue. You want to get a closer look, but your only chance is to sneak up behind the Efreet and slip away without being noticed.
No Skill: Before you can get close, the Efreet spots you and bellows fearsomely; you retreat in haste. S1."
Aladdin would have been great at that encounter; he's got both Luck and Stealth, either one of which enables you to get the Brass Horseman from that encounter (apparently, the Efreet has no sense of hearing and cannot notice you sneaking away with a life-size statue of a horse and rider over your shoulder, as long as you stay behind him). Well, Sherry isn't Aladdin, even if she does get to move him, specifically to the Arabic city of Tiflis. He draws a City card, but at least this one isn't for India; it's the city of Zarandj, in south-central Asia, and its number is 68. Tiflis has no +2 on it, unlike most cities, because it's near Baghdad and thus is considered "civilized"; this makes it possible to roll a straight 1 or 2 in the early game, and Aladdin has done just that (the 2 version), so he meets a Crafty Beggar (C). The choices here are Beat, Enrich, Rob, Avoid, Question, Attack, Follow or Hire; sensing that there are substantial risks associated with attempting to harm or aid anyone Crafty, he settles for attempting to Hire the fellow. He rolls +1 to the encounter number of 541.
"The wretched creature makes several bizarre suggestions on how you should conduct your business.
"Quick Thinking (mandatory): The other is obviously a fool. You turn on your heel and go. D-1, S1."
Well that stunk. Al gets his first Story point, but is back to 0 Destiny. On the plus side, he manages to roll well and breaks the Ensorcelling. On Sherry's last turn, I entirely forgot her master Storytelling, so this time I'll be paying attention to it. She goes to Su-Chou and draws the game's first non-City card; it's a Terrain Encounter which, when drawn in the Desert, represents the Pavillion of the Black Giant. In a city, however, it is instead Paragraph 18, and she rolls 6 with +4 from Su-Chou, so her encounter is with a Secret Trapdoor (E). Having the same choices as in her last encounter (and Al's first), she chooses to Hire Help, since Avoid is too boring but she doesn't want to risk leaving the city with a different choice. (The absurdist choice would be to Take the Trapdoor, but I believe I've tried this in previous games and found it underwhelming.) This sends her to 1156, where she looks for Storytelling paragraphs; one is found in 1155.
"A large door, guarding a secret treasure chamber, stands before you. The key to opening it is contained in the arcane writings covering the door, so you brought a wise man who reads the ancient language. You kept him blindfolded, so that he would not learn the chamber's location.
"Skills, one of them Storytelling: Not only did you blindfold him, but you chattered constantly while walking so that he could not memorize the route. You make a fortune. D3, S1, W+3 (Max Princely)."
Well, that's a bit redundant with her Quest that she's just half-completed, but oh well, she'll have money to burn on the trip to Africa. Princely is just +2 Wealth from where she was, so that's all she gains; she now travels 5 spaces on water, making her Seamanship entirely redundant, but on land she's restricted to 3 spaces of movement, so she'll definitely be sticking close to the coasts from now on. Moving on to Al's turn, he hasn't yet irreparably diverged from his itinerary, so he heads up into Russia and stops at the city of Kiev, where he draws the Herat city card and goes to paragraph 36. Rolling a total of 4, he meets a Repentant Merchant, an encounter which I don't recall having even existed in the original TOTAN, although it's entirely possible I just never drew/rolled it. Going to table D, he has the choices Punish, Aid, Rob, Question, Attack, Abduct or Hire, and chooses Question, taking him to exactly paragraph 305.
"The other confesses to a powerful lonliness and sits eagerly, drinking up the respect you show. Soon, you must take your leave, and the other gives you a small gift. D1, W+1 (max: Respectable)."
Well, that was underwhelming, but helpful at least; Al can now reach Ireland on his next turn. It's exactly 4 spaces away, two of them being sea routes, and Respectable wealth is a huge jump in mobility over your starting value of Poor. Sadly, the Mediterranean island where he'll be headed after that is 5 spaces away from Ireland, so he can't reach that in one turn unless he gains two more wealth somehow and becomes Princely like Sherry. Speaking of whom, she now takes her long cruise down the coast of China, making it as far as the city of P'an-P'an, which she has a card for. First, though, she draws a new encounter - the Balts city card, which sends you to table 70 just as the Tana card did. Rolling a total of 6, she finds a Small Artifact...boy, this girl just can't stop stumbling over shiny things. She straight-up Takes this one, targeting paragraph 1078, and Storytelling doesn't apply, so she rolls and goes down to 1077.
"In a shopkeeper's stall, you have discovered an intricately carved necklace. A lovely lady also has her eye on the item and is willing to pay more.
"No Magic: You wait until she is alone then try to rob her. She turns on you, and you are struck dumb by the force of her power. 'Poor fool', she says. 'These gems are potent magical artifacts.' She casually demonstrates on your body, warping you from human form. Your mind is equally warped by the greed you feel for the gems. D2, Envious, Beast Form."
Ouch! Doesn't pay to get grabby with another lady's baubles, especially when you're already rich as King Croesus's spoiled teenage daughter. Two incredibly nasty statuses at once! Envious will force Sherry to go around Robbing everyone, and Beast Form turns off her Appearance skill and denies her access to Court actions, which are a good way of getting Married and manufacturing babies which help you earn huge amounts of Story and Destiny. Now, a curious rules wrinkle...Envious says "if you receive 2 Wealth Levels or a Treasure in any one encounter, you lose this status". There are two questions...one, does receiving W+2 suffice even if you can't effectively gain that Wealth, I'm guessing "no", and two, does fulfilling your Quest count as an Encounter for this purpose, I'm going to say "yes". You can get rid of Envious, which is the nasty "Cannot win" status (unlike Beast Form; it's totally possible to make a monkey of yourself and still win the game), by trading it for "On Pilgrimage" at the cost of Destiny points, but that would require more running around and probably not be worth it, so I'll just see if she can manage to squander her wealth and then complete her Quest to get more
And speaking of Destiny Points, I just now noticed that Sherry should have had +1 to her encounter roll and gotten something entirely different; oh well, too late now. I must remember to pay more attention to these details. We'll pretend she rolled one lower and applied the bonus to get this result; that was at least a possibility here. Anyway, she now gets to have her P'an P'an encounter, so she rolls a d6 and gets the best result, "6: Gain Wisdom plus encounter Elephant (N)." Free skills are always nice, plus she gets to have another Encounter, with something she can neither Rob nor Court. Wanting to get rid of money, she chooses to Bargain with the Elephant (or, more sensibly, with the owner thereof), because really, what little girl wouldn't want to buy her own Elephant. This takes her to 1697, and Storytelling applies one paragraph back.
"While you are exploring the veldt," (what?) "you encounter an intrepid band of hunters. After breaking bread and sharing salt," (ernh?) "you learn that they are seeking the mysterious elephant, and you convince them to allow you to join their group for a small fee.
"Storytelling: During the hunt, you entertain the band of hunters with tales of the mysterious Elephant's Graveyard. After a week, you finally see your elephant: an aged and wrinkled bull. The leader of the band decides to follow it to see if your tales are true. Roll two dice."
You have to get a 10 or higher on 2d6 to actually find the Graveyard in this encounter, and I rolled something that was sufficiently far outside the statistical mean, but in the wrong direction. So....
"If there is an Elephant's Graveyard, this bull didn't live long enough to find it. But at least you can retrieve the ivory without danger. S1, W+1 (Max: Rich)."
Gol-dangit! With the possible exception of finding the Graveyard, none of the 1696 encounters can cost you money; both of the other choices give you more, and Sherry is already too high to gain these awards. Oh, and I didn't even notice that her previous Story total was supposed to make her richer as well, but that didn't apply either. Crud. Welp, her turn is finally over and Aladdin can go. He reaches Ireland, then draws the City card for Cordoba, where he was planning to go next turn. (In the original game, you were never allowed to hold more than two city cards, and the same hand limit also applied to Special cards; the latter no longer exist at all, and the former are now unlimited.) His encounter for this turn is rolled on paragraph 37, and the roll is 7; this amounts to Horrible Creatures (could they be leprechauns?), on matrix J. For some reason, "Run like hell" or even "Avoid" are not options here; having Stealth, he chooses to Hide, and rolls up a +1 to paragraph 914.
"In your journey, you come to a great lake, and hire a man to ferry you across. When you are but halfway across, see {sic} something odd a stone's throw away, and you tell the man to turn towards it that you might follow the ripples on the surface. Suddenly you feel an unholy presence beneath you, and long black arms rise from the water and grasp the ferryman."
"No Enduring Hardship: You watch in fear as the man is carried beneath the surface. In shock, you drift helplessly on the lake, but eventually you come to your senses and return to shore. D1, S1, Lose Enduring Hardship (wait, what? that was clearly a mistake), and Insane for 1 turn."
Well, it just isn't Aladdin's game for retaining control of his own actions; first Sherry could move him away from his goal, and now she can pick the worst possible reaction in his next encounter. But I think I'd better take a little break before I continue.
The first time I played, I opted not to blog it fully, since this takes a long damn time, and simply noted the results of my turns; I may later do a writeup of that game, since it turned out fairly interesting, but for now I'll leave it and do something new. I was playing with only a single character, just to see what would happen to him while he wandered around and tried to get 10D/10S and maybe fulfill his Quest (the Quests are a new feature of the Z-Man version; there were things called Quests in the original but they worked completely differently, and very poorly). This time, I'll use two, playing them against each other as if I were two people, and we'll actually have a winner. One serious step back in this edition, IMO, is that the original two-sided character chits are replaced with single-character standees, so there are only six total characters you can play, four male and two female, rather than six of each. For tonight's game I have selected Aladdin (Red) and Scheherazade (Green), and Sherry (as I will henceforth refer to her, rather than keep having to spell all that) will play first.
The way Quests work is that, after you've chosen your character but before you choose your Skills, or even your victory formula (also before you roll for first turn, but I'm skipping that step here), you are dealt one Quest card from a deck of, strangely, 19 of them. Sherry will have the "Merchant" quest, where she travels around the world to sell valuable goods for immense wealth, while Al gets "The Pull of the Sea", where he has to travel to Islands and earn the Seamanship skill. He therefore will not take that Skill at the start of the game (he could take it and potentially upgrade it to Master, but there will be enough encounter-related opportunities for that, I suspect), but Sherry will, so it can assist in her travels. She's also mandated by her name to take Storytelling, and I'll be a complete chauvinist pig and throw in Appearance, while giving Aladdin Quick Thinking, Stealth and Stealing, and Luck for reasons of story-appropriateness. Since Al stands to gain 3 Story points from his Quest, he'll pursue a victory formula of 15 Story and 5 Destiny, while Sherry is potentially earning only 1 Story, and just to be different I'll have her seek 12 Destiny and 8 Story.
If there were multiple actual players, each one would have their opponent choose where their Quest will take them; instead, I just choose inconveniently distant locales to keep the characters busy running all over the world. Sherry needs to go to two different "+4" cities, so I choose Bantus and Su-Chou as the two farthest apart; Al has a rougher time of it, because he needs to go to three different Islands, and that means he can easily be sent to the absolute farthest corners of the map, with his destinations roughly amounting to Australia and Ireland, and the third only slightly inconveniently located in the western Mediterranean. Both characters start in Baghdad, and that's that. Let's Play!
Sherry starts out for China, intent on using her Seamanship to travel a relatively short and easy route from east Asia to east Africa. She can make it to a "2" Mountain space between Shiraz and Zarandj, where she draws her Encounter card: a City card for "P'an P'an", in northern Australia. One major change between the two versions of TOTAN: in the old one, City cards were a waste of a turn to draw, because they didn't give an Encounter. Instead, they now give one Encounter regardless of the terrain you draw them in, in addition to letting you keep the card to have a special encounter on a later turn. P'an P'an has the number 78, so I go to that table in the Book of Tales, where 12 possible encounters are listed. Rolling a six-sided die and adding 2 for the space, we get a total of 4, which dictates that Sherry has encountered "Merry Brigands" on Reaction Matrix I. Another change in versions...before, there were a restricted selection of reaction choices depending on what exactly you encountered, but now every option on a given Reaction Matrix is available for every encounter. On Matrix I, Sherry has the choices Honor, Attack, Avoid, Aid, Rob, Follow, Question or Pray. Honor sounds closest to something that involves Storytelling or Appearance, so I read down the Honor column until I find Merry, and am sent to paragraph 2050 (that's yet another version difference, as there are over 2000 paragraphs in the new Book of Tales, compared with exactly 1400 in the first version...I'm not yet clear on exactly how much of an improvement this is). Rolling the high-low "Destiny Die", I get a blank side and remain at this exact paragraph:
"As you draw near, you find the brigands enmeshed in a bitter dispute over which brigand's legacy is greatest; whose blade is fastest, whose name strikes the greatest fear into the hearts of the wealthy and corrupt. Viewing your timely arrival as a sign of Fate, the brigands immediately demand that you settle the matter.
"Storytelling: Pulling out your parchment and your quills, you offer to immortalize the story of the entire gang's many, thrilling exploits. You spend the evening hearing testimonials around a fire, and come morning, the brigands leave you to the business of transforming their deeds into the stuff of legend. Award:D1, S1, W+1 (max: Rich), and Storytelling."
Well, that worked well. First turn of the game and Sherry already has a master skill. Moving on to Al's turn, he decides he doesn't want to tangle with Sherry on his way to Australia, and instead heads toward his other two markers in Europe, getting as far as Turkey where there's a +2 forest space. He also draws a city card, this one being Tana, where the encounters are in paragraph 70. These look to be some of your more interesting encounters...rolling a total of 7, Al finds a Guarded Treasure, how fitting. This is on Matrix E, where he may Examine, Take, Use, Open, Avoid, Sneak, Hire Help, or Enter. Never one to pass up an absurdist response, now that the new edition makes them possible, I will have Aladdin Enter the treasure, going to paragraph 2131, +/- nothing.
"It has been a hot and wearying road, and your travels have been difficult. As you wander the dusty city streets, you long for companionship, love, and passion. A colorful banner catches your eye...a lovely fortune teller beckons to you. You enter her shop and explain your desires. She holds a heart-shaped pendant before you, and explains that donning it will transport you to a fantastic palace. The residents can give you all you need. You give her a sack of coins for the pendant.
"No Beguiling: You arrive in the palace as promised. There, you find countless beauteous and strange residents who welcome you. Soon, you return to the world, but your mind is no longer your own. D1, Ensorcelled."
Whoops...looks like Aladdin partied a little too hard there, not having had sense enough to question a too-good-to-be-true offer. Ensorcelled status means that one of Aladdin's opponents (his player chooses if there are multiple opponents) gets to move him as they see fit, and then he rolls off to see if he can lose the status. So he won't be getting anywhere near his destinations if Sherry has anything to say about it. Back to her turn, then. She makes it to the city of Herat this time; next turn, Su-Chou will be within her reach (silly goose that I am, I forgot she went up in Wealth and could have moved further, but it would only have put her in the wildernes and those spaces are usually unfriendlier, so big deal). She draws yet another City card (I'm beginning to question whether I shuffled adequately), for yet another south Asian city, this one called Gaya. The card's number is 29, and she rolls a total of 7, so she encounters...her own Guarded Treasure! Not having Beguiling, she doesn't especially feel like Entering this one, so she Examines it, rolls a -, and goes to the paragraph before 1101.
"Far from any traveled roads, you come across a fascinating scene. Behind a towering, grim Efreet, you can make out a brass statue. You want to get a closer look, but your only chance is to sneak up behind the Efreet and slip away without being noticed.
No Skill: Before you can get close, the Efreet spots you and bellows fearsomely; you retreat in haste. S1."
Aladdin would have been great at that encounter; he's got both Luck and Stealth, either one of which enables you to get the Brass Horseman from that encounter (apparently, the Efreet has no sense of hearing and cannot notice you sneaking away with a life-size statue of a horse and rider over your shoulder, as long as you stay behind him). Well, Sherry isn't Aladdin, even if she does get to move him, specifically to the Arabic city of Tiflis. He draws a City card, but at least this one isn't for India; it's the city of Zarandj, in south-central Asia, and its number is 68. Tiflis has no +2 on it, unlike most cities, because it's near Baghdad and thus is considered "civilized"; this makes it possible to roll a straight 1 or 2 in the early game, and Aladdin has done just that (the 2 version), so he meets a Crafty Beggar (C). The choices here are Beat, Enrich, Rob, Avoid, Question, Attack, Follow or Hire; sensing that there are substantial risks associated with attempting to harm or aid anyone Crafty, he settles for attempting to Hire the fellow. He rolls +1 to the encounter number of 541.
"The wretched creature makes several bizarre suggestions on how you should conduct your business.
"Quick Thinking (mandatory): The other is obviously a fool. You turn on your heel and go. D-1, S1."
Well that stunk. Al gets his first Story point, but is back to 0 Destiny. On the plus side, he manages to roll well and breaks the Ensorcelling. On Sherry's last turn, I entirely forgot her master Storytelling, so this time I'll be paying attention to it. She goes to Su-Chou and draws the game's first non-City card; it's a Terrain Encounter which, when drawn in the Desert, represents the Pavillion of the Black Giant. In a city, however, it is instead Paragraph 18, and she rolls 6 with +4 from Su-Chou, so her encounter is with a Secret Trapdoor (E). Having the same choices as in her last encounter (and Al's first), she chooses to Hire Help, since Avoid is too boring but she doesn't want to risk leaving the city with a different choice. (The absurdist choice would be to Take the Trapdoor, but I believe I've tried this in previous games and found it underwhelming.) This sends her to 1156, where she looks for Storytelling paragraphs; one is found in 1155.
"A large door, guarding a secret treasure chamber, stands before you. The key to opening it is contained in the arcane writings covering the door, so you brought a wise man who reads the ancient language. You kept him blindfolded, so that he would not learn the chamber's location.
"Skills, one of them Storytelling: Not only did you blindfold him, but you chattered constantly while walking so that he could not memorize the route. You make a fortune. D3, S1, W+3 (Max Princely)."
Well, that's a bit redundant with her Quest that she's just half-completed, but oh well, she'll have money to burn on the trip to Africa. Princely is just +2 Wealth from where she was, so that's all she gains; she now travels 5 spaces on water, making her Seamanship entirely redundant, but on land she's restricted to 3 spaces of movement, so she'll definitely be sticking close to the coasts from now on. Moving on to Al's turn, he hasn't yet irreparably diverged from his itinerary, so he heads up into Russia and stops at the city of Kiev, where he draws the Herat city card and goes to paragraph 36. Rolling a total of 4, he meets a Repentant Merchant, an encounter which I don't recall having even existed in the original TOTAN, although it's entirely possible I just never drew/rolled it. Going to table D, he has the choices Punish, Aid, Rob, Question, Attack, Abduct or Hire, and chooses Question, taking him to exactly paragraph 305.
"The other confesses to a powerful lonliness and sits eagerly, drinking up the respect you show. Soon, you must take your leave, and the other gives you a small gift. D1, W+1 (max: Respectable)."
Well, that was underwhelming, but helpful at least; Al can now reach Ireland on his next turn. It's exactly 4 spaces away, two of them being sea routes, and Respectable wealth is a huge jump in mobility over your starting value of Poor. Sadly, the Mediterranean island where he'll be headed after that is 5 spaces away from Ireland, so he can't reach that in one turn unless he gains two more wealth somehow and becomes Princely like Sherry. Speaking of whom, she now takes her long cruise down the coast of China, making it as far as the city of P'an-P'an, which she has a card for. First, though, she draws a new encounter - the Balts city card, which sends you to table 70 just as the Tana card did. Rolling a total of 6, she finds a Small Artifact...boy, this girl just can't stop stumbling over shiny things. She straight-up Takes this one, targeting paragraph 1078, and Storytelling doesn't apply, so she rolls and goes down to 1077.
"In a shopkeeper's stall, you have discovered an intricately carved necklace. A lovely lady also has her eye on the item and is willing to pay more.
"No Magic: You wait until she is alone then try to rob her. She turns on you, and you are struck dumb by the force of her power. 'Poor fool', she says. 'These gems are potent magical artifacts.' She casually demonstrates on your body, warping you from human form. Your mind is equally warped by the greed you feel for the gems. D2, Envious, Beast Form."
Ouch! Doesn't pay to get grabby with another lady's baubles, especially when you're already rich as King Croesus's spoiled teenage daughter. Two incredibly nasty statuses at once! Envious will force Sherry to go around Robbing everyone, and Beast Form turns off her Appearance skill and denies her access to Court actions, which are a good way of getting Married and manufacturing babies which help you earn huge amounts of Story and Destiny. Now, a curious rules wrinkle...Envious says "if you receive 2 Wealth Levels or a Treasure in any one encounter, you lose this status". There are two questions...one, does receiving W+2 suffice even if you can't effectively gain that Wealth, I'm guessing "no", and two, does fulfilling your Quest count as an Encounter for this purpose, I'm going to say "yes". You can get rid of Envious, which is the nasty "Cannot win" status (unlike Beast Form; it's totally possible to make a monkey of yourself and still win the game), by trading it for "On Pilgrimage" at the cost of Destiny points, but that would require more running around and probably not be worth it, so I'll just see if she can manage to squander her wealth and then complete her Quest to get more
And speaking of Destiny Points, I just now noticed that Sherry should have had +1 to her encounter roll and gotten something entirely different; oh well, too late now. I must remember to pay more attention to these details. We'll pretend she rolled one lower and applied the bonus to get this result; that was at least a possibility here. Anyway, she now gets to have her P'an P'an encounter, so she rolls a d6 and gets the best result, "6: Gain Wisdom plus encounter Elephant (N)." Free skills are always nice, plus she gets to have another Encounter, with something she can neither Rob nor Court. Wanting to get rid of money, she chooses to Bargain with the Elephant (or, more sensibly, with the owner thereof), because really, what little girl wouldn't want to buy her own Elephant. This takes her to 1697, and Storytelling applies one paragraph back.
"While you are exploring the veldt," (what?) "you encounter an intrepid band of hunters. After breaking bread and sharing salt," (ernh?) "you learn that they are seeking the mysterious elephant, and you convince them to allow you to join their group for a small fee.
"Storytelling: During the hunt, you entertain the band of hunters with tales of the mysterious Elephant's Graveyard. After a week, you finally see your elephant: an aged and wrinkled bull. The leader of the band decides to follow it to see if your tales are true. Roll two dice."
You have to get a 10 or higher on 2d6 to actually find the Graveyard in this encounter, and I rolled something that was sufficiently far outside the statistical mean, but in the wrong direction. So....
"If there is an Elephant's Graveyard, this bull didn't live long enough to find it. But at least you can retrieve the ivory without danger. S1, W+1 (Max: Rich)."
Gol-dangit! With the possible exception of finding the Graveyard, none of the 1696 encounters can cost you money; both of the other choices give you more, and Sherry is already too high to gain these awards. Oh, and I didn't even notice that her previous Story total was supposed to make her richer as well, but that didn't apply either. Crud. Welp, her turn is finally over and Aladdin can go. He reaches Ireland, then draws the City card for Cordoba, where he was planning to go next turn. (In the original game, you were never allowed to hold more than two city cards, and the same hand limit also applied to Special cards; the latter no longer exist at all, and the former are now unlimited.) His encounter for this turn is rolled on paragraph 37, and the roll is 7; this amounts to Horrible Creatures (could they be leprechauns?), on matrix J. For some reason, "Run like hell" or even "Avoid" are not options here; having Stealth, he chooses to Hide, and rolls up a +1 to paragraph 914.
"In your journey, you come to a great lake, and hire a man to ferry you across. When you are but halfway across, see {sic} something odd a stone's throw away, and you tell the man to turn towards it that you might follow the ripples on the surface. Suddenly you feel an unholy presence beneath you, and long black arms rise from the water and grasp the ferryman."
"No Enduring Hardship: You watch in fear as the man is carried beneath the surface. In shock, you drift helplessly on the lake, but eventually you come to your senses and return to shore. D1, S1, Lose Enduring Hardship (wait, what? that was clearly a mistake), and Insane for 1 turn."
Well, it just isn't Aladdin's game for retaining control of his own actions; first Sherry could move him away from his goal, and now she can pick the worst possible reaction in his next encounter. But I think I'd better take a little break before I continue.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
Continuing the contest between a woman who can't get enough treasure, and a man who would settle for staying of sound mind for three consecutive turns. Sherry is no longer in an especially big hurry to get to Africa, so she decides to head for her next city card, Gaya, but can't make it quite there in one turn by either of two routes. She chooses to stop in a 2 forest rather than a 4 mountain, and draws the Daybul city card - I definitely didn't shuffle well. Might as well go with it, though; the encounter this turn is on table 81, and this time I'll remember to add her +1, so the total roll could be from 4 to 9, ending up at the maximum of that rage. It is a Trapped Efreet, table M! She may Grovel, Aid, Avoid, Bargain, Attack or Trick; once again, it being the only thing that might lighten her purse, she Bargains. This is 2404, very close to the back of the 2600-paragraph book, and Storytelling doesn't apply to any of these three paragraphs, so she rolls and gets the highest one, 2405.
"Love is stronger than faith and might, as the sight before you proves: a huge efreet being lorded over by a tiny human. In fact, the Efreet seems to have no will of its own - is it ensorcelled? You wait for the creature to be separated from its lover (or master!), and when the opportunity arises, you slap him hard. Nothing. You beat the creature about the chest and head, but nothing changes. Finally, you give up, unsure of what it is that compels the efreet to maintain its loyalty to its human love. D1, S1."
Um...well, that was...um. Anyway, moving right along. Actually not quite yet, since Sherry gets to pick a Talent level skill for having gained her fifth Story point (and she also has five Destiny, so her encounter rolls will now be +2). Not sure what else might be constructive, I'll go with Weapon Use since she's apparently going to be doing a lot of Robbing, and is less likely to get beaten up if she can defend herself (or offend against others, but whatever). Only once that's sorted out does Aladdin have his Insane turn, in which he decides it's maybe not that great a plan to play his Cordoba card, since he'd be insane for that one too. Instead he goes to a forest in the middle of France, and draws the Warfleet card, whose forest paragraph is 55. Adding nothing but the space's +2, he rolls a total of 3, and encounters a Disguised Hunchback (C). Fortunately he's not compelled to Rob the fellow, but instead chooses to Follow him, since I know there's a great encounter involved in following beggars and hunchbacks. Going to 471, make that 470, he finds exactly the encounter I remembered, although he doesn't have the skill necessary to make it pay off incredibly.
"To your amazement, you see the beggarly one enter the palace of the Prince of the Faithful. You hurry to inform the guards, who bring you before the Sultan himself. Immediately you recognize him as the beggar you followed! 'It is my sport,' he says, 'to travel among the people as a beggar - but you alone have penetrated the disguise. In return for your silence I offer you my hospitality.
"No Courtly Graces: You apologize for your curiosity, and enjoy a night of revel at the Sultan's expense. D1, S1, Blessed."
Well, I forgot about the Insane thing, so I will require myself to remain Insane for one more turn before becoming Blessed, rather than have to undo that entire encounter. Back to Scheherazade. This time I'll try to actually pay attention to everything she has to modify her turn. Okay? Okay. She goes to Daybul, draws the card which could have been a Sex-Change Spring if she was in the desert, and instead goes to 51. Rolling at a total of +4, she gets a 9, which is a Mysterious Trapdoor - goddammit, nothing but treasures and trapdoors for this woman! This time I am indeed Taking the Trapdoor, which is 2032 (I happen to notice here that Jeweled trapdoors are identical to Mysterious ones when Taken), and Storytelling applies in that very paragraph.
"A beguiling merchant sells you a map to a secret treasure cache. You find the location deep in a cave, but the way is barred by a trapdoor made of a mysterious metal and topped by a large gem. You attempt to raise the door, but nothing you try succeeds. Frustrated, you pry the gem from the door in an attempt to salvage something from the trip.
"Storytelling: You have the gem appraised and it turns out to be worth little. Still, it is impressive looking and it inspires you. In each village that you visit for the next month, you spin a more and more elaborate tale about what the trapdoor hid, and what the gem meant. At the culmination of the story, you display the remarkable bauble to great applause. D1, S1, Storytelling."
Well, it sucks that she already has all the Storytelling she can gain, but it could have probably been worse. Back to Al, and I even more carefully appraise his options and effects, reminding myself that he's Insane and also that he now has +1 to his encounter roll. He goes to his intended Island (Gibraltar?), draws the Tripoli city card, and goes to paragraph 15, where he rolls up a total of 6 - a Minor Treasure (E). Hm, not too much fun that Sherry can have with his Insane reaction to that, other than to have him Use it, whatever it is. 2038, rolled +1.
"On your travels, you come upon the wreckage of a caravan. The guards have been slain, the wagons looted, and the leader of the merchants lies wounded and senseless. When you tend to him, he awakens and blesses your arrival. He tells you of a secret compartment in the bottom of the smallest wagon. Therein rests a fur robe - his most valuable possession. He promises you a reward if you carry him and it to the next city. Midway through the journey, burdened by the portly merchant and wearing his heavy belonging, you question the wisdom of your agreement.
"No Enduring Hardship (dammit, again): The sojourn is too difficult. In time, the merchant must choose between himself and his robe. The garment is abandoned, and your reward lessened fo rit. S1, W+1 (Max Poor)."
Sigh. At least it qualifies as a successful encounter, so Al collects his second quest marker; his business in Europe is concluded, and his insanity cost him little. He now properly becomes Blessed, which means he no longer makes dice rolls (excepting the Destiny Die), and his turn is over. I stupidly forgot to have Sherry play her Daybul card last turn, so I'll have her stay there and draw another card to encounter. It's the Samarkand encounter card, with an 81 at the bottom; she rolls up a 10 and encounters a Mad Wizard, on Matrix O (there was no Matrix O in the original TOTAN, it only went up to somewhere from J to M, I forget which; Wizards were originally B, so this is somehow different, interestingly). Since she's not allowed to Rob him, she's free to attempt Hire, going to paragraph 341. Storytelling doesn't work, so she rolls, getting +1.
"The other sees your actions as an attempt to profit at his expense. (Moron.) Silencing you with a gesture, he cries, 'Bear this one away from me immediately!' Skeletal guards with scharp scimitars appear from thin air and attack.
"Weapon Use: The other is so impressed with your swordplay that he dispels the unholy guards with a gesture. 'Hold,' he cries. 'I shall forgive you your indiscretions and grant your wish if you will be my servant for a time.' D1, S1, choice of skill at Master level (1 use), Enslaved."
I'm not clear on exactly what it means to get one "use" of a skill, but there's been enough general lameness in the game so far that I'm going to give myself a perhaps-overgenerous ruling, that you can apply the Master power to look through possible encounters for that skill, without losing it unless you actually pick an encounter based only on it. Thusly, she still checks for Storytelling, and can pick encounters using that without cost, but if she needs the new skill instead, it's expended. She selects Magic for the skill in question (another edition difference: the original had Major and Minor Magic, while now there's just the one; you couldn't pick Major Magic at game start and that difference has now been eliminated, in part because the special abilities of some of the skills are also gone, apart from Seamanship). Anyway, she may be Enslaved, but she still can't get rid of her money! But she will play her Daybul card. Rolling 6, she improves her Weapon Use to Master level, but then encounters the Valley of Dogs. She decides to Bargain with that too (I debated Seek Aid instead, but that doesn't necessarily mean paid help), and goes to 1987 to check for her three Master skills that she now has. Not one of them applies, so she rolls, going up.
"You tried to cross the Valley of Dogs as quickly as you could so you would not encounter the ruthless beasts that live there. But you were so intent on the dogs, you walked right into a band of bandits who now block your path and demand your wealth! (Finally, it works! Sort of.)
"None of these three Skills with two possible outcomes between them: They are too many for you to resist. You pay them your gold and they allow you to pass. S1, W-2 (Min: Poor.)"
Well, she's back to being Respectable, so now she may be capable of gaining Wealth again, which is good since she now has two statuses that she can only get rid of by gaining money, and only one quest that will gain it for her. Finally, Aladdin gets a turn of being Blessed and not Insane. He gets as far as Damascus, draws the Lion card which has yet another 51 for its in-city encounter, and chooses a roll of 3 to add his +1 for Destiny points to. He rolls a 1 and ceases to be Blessed, but he gets to encounter something unusual: an Enchanted Soldier (L). Struck by whimsy, I choose to Abduct him, going to 297 and rolling -1.
"As you draw closer, you come to believe that the other is not who you had first thought. The other's features flow like water, their perfect beauty uncanny and unnatural. You are inflamed with passion by this beautiful one, and find yourself irresistably drawn to make amorous advances, even overstepping the bounds of decency."
Um. Okay, apparently there's either homosexuality or transvestism in the game now; I'm not at all certain that was true before. Well anyway,...
"No Appearance: The other recoils in horror, exclaiming 'Get away, foul worm! Oh, why must I be cursed this way?' These cruel words break the spell that drew you, tearing at your heart and fill {sic} it with sorrow. D1, S1, Grief Stricken."
Oh boy, another awful Status. As long as this remains in effect - which'll be a while, you need to go up to 8 Story, and he only just attained 5 - you lose all your skills, except Master skills which remain as Talents. The Grief can be contagious if you catch up with your opponent, but frankly I won't bother, since Sherry has Master skills while Al doesn't, so it would affect her less than it does him anyway (plus you need to have Storytelling, which he doesn't, although he's gaining a Skill so he could pick it up - that's yet another change between editions, as normally you always gain Storytelling from your Story points but eventually could gain a choice of skill at a much higher level of either Story or Destiny, I forget which). Picking Seduction as his skill, even though he can't use it, Aladdin ends his turn.
Sherry is Enslaved, Envious, and an ape, but somehow she still remains Respectable. Still killing time, she walks back to Gaya to play another City card. First, though, she must encounter the Pearl Diving card, which for a City is 12. Rolling and adding a staggering 6 for the space and her Destiny, she totals 9 and meets an Unknown Beast (J), which she sadly cannot Buy or Bargain with, so she'll try to Capture it. In and around paragraph 936, she again finds no mention of Magic, Storytelling or Weapon Use, so she rolls a -1 and goes to 935.
"A large cow like none you have ever seen lumbers by, closely followed by a poor man in rags. 'Please help me catch her,' he cries. 'My family will starve without our zebu!'.
"No Quick Thinking or Golden Bridle: The cow is very large and looks ill-tempered. You decide the poor man must depend on Allah for aid, and bid him the best of luck. D-1."
Alas, as a slave Sherry cannot gain Destiny, but she's still capable of hemorrhaging it. Still, she has a City card yet to play. Rolling 2, she gains the excellent status Determined! Now, whenever anything doesn't go her way, she can revisit her choices and select a different path. It will be hard for things to go permanently against her while she retains this advantage. Poor sad Aladdin has no such benefits, and only feels worse about it as he totters off through Mecca and then via an insanely long sea route to the Indian ocean. He draws the game's first Character encounter card, a sexy Enchantress whose type is determined by rolling on paragraph 114, but will always be on matrix B. Rolling and adding 3, he totals 8 and has found a Disguised Enchantress, whom he Grovels before in hopes of rescue from his misery. This goes to 335, rolling down one.
"The other bids you rise, and says, 'There is no need for you to give me anything, for I am happy to assist you. I have much knowledge of ancient legends. No Skill: The other gives you a mysterious magical item. D1, Treasure."
Well, you'd think that would cheer him up a little, but noooo. Ascending to the ranks of the +2-to-encounter-rolls, Al gains the Eagle Censer. This allows you to encounter Efreets on command (it's not clear whether this is instead of or in addition to your normal encounter), but your opponent decides what kind they'll be, and you have a 2/3 chance of losing the Treasure after using it, so I do believe I will just ignore the useless thing and keep it so that I'm capable of (theoretically) gaining Fabulous wealth. That's it for Al, so we go back to Sherry. Now that she's got some decent hope of shedding her unwanted Statuses, she starts heading back toward her eventual destination, stopping at a +5 sea space and rolling with +7 to get a total of 9. This was on the Alexandria city card, with a 22, resulting in her meeting a Crafty Wizard (O). As her first choice, she tries to Trick him, which is 1411. None of her Master skills apply, and she rolls -1.
"The other claims to have been the target of every scam that has ever been attempted in order to bilk him of his wealth and knowledge. You decide to take that as a challenge. No Stealth and Stealing: Before you even make the first step, he is on to you. The guards quietly arrest you before you can even put your brilliant plan into action. D1, Imprisoned."
Ouch. Being a slave, Sherry has to give her Destiny away to Al, bringing him up to her own level. She is now in jail - the brig of a ship, one can only presume, and thus she only encounters Jailers (who are no longer Hunchbacks, thankfully). Oh, but wait - she's not required to accept this outcome, is she? No, she's Determined to try a different tack. Aladdin puts back the Destiny point he didn't earn, and Sherry goes back to the matrix to try Bargaining with the guy. That's 392, and Storytelling applies!
" 'I am willing to assist you,' says the other, 'but a more generous offer from you would better reflect the service I am to provide, would it not?' Storytelling: You know just how valuable the other's services will be, and explain this to him. Moved by your wise words, he is willing to settle for a lower price. W-1, minimum Poor, Treasure, and lose one Status of your choice."
Well, that was quite a bargain. If she had been a Beggar and thus unable to pay anything, she would have gained Magic instead of all that, weirdly enough. But as it happens, she goes back to Poor again, as she had intended. Unfortunately, due to the order in which things happen, she has to give the Treasure to Aladdin before she could remove Enslaved, so instead she removes Envious, despite having planned to get rid of it by fulfilling her Quest. If she fulfills her quest while Enslaved, all she can do is buy her freedom, so she won't actually get the immense wealth...but I'm still doing it this way, since she's already had all that wealth once, and ultimately Envious is the "Cannot Win" status, so it's the one that really needs to go. Besides, Al could use the help. His new Treasure is much more useful this time - the Thunderbolt Sword! It grants him master level Weapon Use, which would have been redundant to Sherry at this point, but she's still a bit sad to have given away some of her uniqueness. Oh well, couldn't be helped; at least she's not Envious about it.
Al remains in his deep blue funk, and cannot reach Australia this turn, but makes it to a 2-if-by-Sea space and draws the Kiev encounter card, going to table 59. Rolling 9, he meets a Mad Enchantress on table O...I'm spending an awful lot of time on table O, amn't I isn't aint? Since his only applicable skill is (non-Master) Weapon Use, he opts to Attack her, going to 550 and rolling low.
"The other dodges your attack artfully. No Quick Thinking (damn!): Avoiding your grasp, (s)he disappears into the night, hooting scornfully at your incompetence. D-1, S1."
Well, I didn't realize they had Hooters girls in ancient Araby. Reduced now to 4 Destiny, Al no longer adds the second +1 to his rolls, unless of course being a non-Slave proves to reflect well upon him during Sherry's turn. Which now begins with her moving to a 2 sea-space, since her newfound Poor wealth won't get her very far on the ocean. She draws the Adrianople card, which goes to encounter paragraph Numero Uno, where she rolls her minimum possible result of 5 - a Mystic Fire on table F. I'm constantly tempted to Drink every Mystic Fire I see, but I seem to recall that it doesn't turn out well, so just in the interest of trying something different, I'll have her Cry Out, something I'm not sure I've ever done. This goes to 734, where Storytelling and Magic apply in the previous and subsequent paragraphs; I opt to use the Storytelling one in order to retain my one-shot Magic access (again, this may have been an overgenerous ruling on my part). 733 reads as follows:
"You scream in terror as a gout of flame issues from the earth around you. Many people come to your aid at the sound of your cry. Before they arrive, the fire disappears as suddenly as it came, leaving no sign of its presence. Storytelling: Your story is so vivid that the others believe you. They are filled with wonder and awe at the marvels of Allah's creation. D1, S1."
Well, that was pretty underwhelming, and I rather wish I'd tried Drinking the Fire first, just so I could fall back on this option, but I think I'll refrain from tempting fate by trying it as my second and final choice. Sherry gains Story, Al gains Destiny and has his +2 back, and it becomes his turn. He arrives in Australia, where he draws the Serpent encounter card...the artist illustrated this like a sea serpent, but it actually belongs in the Mountains, and the Island encounter for Al's current space is paragraph 39. Rolling with +7, he gets a total of 11, finding an Ancient City (E). Never able to resist the urge to Take entire cities home to put on his fireplace, he goes to 2143, or rather +1 from that.
"A road to an unknown, a gleaming city is revealed before you. You take (hahahah, very funny game) the road towards it, but on the way an Efreet appears and glowers at you. 'What is your purpose on this road?'
No Skill: You fall back before the Efreet and turn and flee (wow, all that?). For whatever reason, he lets you go. S1."
Lame to the extrayme, but at least Al has failed to die horribly in the very space where he is to complete his quest. It's debatable whether that encounter counts as "successful", but assuming it does, he achieves the Pull of the Sea, gaining a D point which brings him even with Sherry, and sending his Story skyrocketing past hers, entirely demolishing his Grief Stricken status. (Apparently, you can't be both sad and terrified of efreets at the same time.) Regaining use of his skills, including a shiny new Seamanship, Al is suddenly in a position to quite possibly win the game, being only 5 Story short of his chosen goal, with a Destiny point to spare even. He then draws his new Quest, "Treacherous Siblings!" This has the potential to give him D3/S2, only the latter of which he cares about, and it involes another player placing you on an Island space, from which you must return to Baghdad and be at least Rich. Well, Al is on an Island space right now, and is about as far from Baghdad as you can get - well, actually maybe that's not true. Thanks to that looooong sea route, Baghdad is actually only 9 spaces away from Australia, but Ireland is just as close now that I check, so yeah, Al can stay where he is.
I think it's time for another break.
"Love is stronger than faith and might, as the sight before you proves: a huge efreet being lorded over by a tiny human. In fact, the Efreet seems to have no will of its own - is it ensorcelled? You wait for the creature to be separated from its lover (or master!), and when the opportunity arises, you slap him hard. Nothing. You beat the creature about the chest and head, but nothing changes. Finally, you give up, unsure of what it is that compels the efreet to maintain its loyalty to its human love. D1, S1."
Um...well, that was...um. Anyway, moving right along. Actually not quite yet, since Sherry gets to pick a Talent level skill for having gained her fifth Story point (and she also has five Destiny, so her encounter rolls will now be +2). Not sure what else might be constructive, I'll go with Weapon Use since she's apparently going to be doing a lot of Robbing, and is less likely to get beaten up if she can defend herself (or offend against others, but whatever). Only once that's sorted out does Aladdin have his Insane turn, in which he decides it's maybe not that great a plan to play his Cordoba card, since he'd be insane for that one too. Instead he goes to a forest in the middle of France, and draws the Warfleet card, whose forest paragraph is 55. Adding nothing but the space's +2, he rolls a total of 3, and encounters a Disguised Hunchback (C). Fortunately he's not compelled to Rob the fellow, but instead chooses to Follow him, since I know there's a great encounter involved in following beggars and hunchbacks. Going to 471, make that 470, he finds exactly the encounter I remembered, although he doesn't have the skill necessary to make it pay off incredibly.
"To your amazement, you see the beggarly one enter the palace of the Prince of the Faithful. You hurry to inform the guards, who bring you before the Sultan himself. Immediately you recognize him as the beggar you followed! 'It is my sport,' he says, 'to travel among the people as a beggar - but you alone have penetrated the disguise. In return for your silence I offer you my hospitality.
"No Courtly Graces: You apologize for your curiosity, and enjoy a night of revel at the Sultan's expense. D1, S1, Blessed."
Well, I forgot about the Insane thing, so I will require myself to remain Insane for one more turn before becoming Blessed, rather than have to undo that entire encounter. Back to Scheherazade. This time I'll try to actually pay attention to everything she has to modify her turn. Okay? Okay. She goes to Daybul, draws the card which could have been a Sex-Change Spring if she was in the desert, and instead goes to 51. Rolling at a total of +4, she gets a 9, which is a Mysterious Trapdoor - goddammit, nothing but treasures and trapdoors for this woman! This time I am indeed Taking the Trapdoor, which is 2032 (I happen to notice here that Jeweled trapdoors are identical to Mysterious ones when Taken), and Storytelling applies in that very paragraph.
"A beguiling merchant sells you a map to a secret treasure cache. You find the location deep in a cave, but the way is barred by a trapdoor made of a mysterious metal and topped by a large gem. You attempt to raise the door, but nothing you try succeeds. Frustrated, you pry the gem from the door in an attempt to salvage something from the trip.
"Storytelling: You have the gem appraised and it turns out to be worth little. Still, it is impressive looking and it inspires you. In each village that you visit for the next month, you spin a more and more elaborate tale about what the trapdoor hid, and what the gem meant. At the culmination of the story, you display the remarkable bauble to great applause. D1, S1, Storytelling."
Well, it sucks that she already has all the Storytelling she can gain, but it could have probably been worse. Back to Al, and I even more carefully appraise his options and effects, reminding myself that he's Insane and also that he now has +1 to his encounter roll. He goes to his intended Island (Gibraltar?), draws the Tripoli city card, and goes to paragraph 15, where he rolls up a total of 6 - a Minor Treasure (E). Hm, not too much fun that Sherry can have with his Insane reaction to that, other than to have him Use it, whatever it is. 2038, rolled +1.
"On your travels, you come upon the wreckage of a caravan. The guards have been slain, the wagons looted, and the leader of the merchants lies wounded and senseless. When you tend to him, he awakens and blesses your arrival. He tells you of a secret compartment in the bottom of the smallest wagon. Therein rests a fur robe - his most valuable possession. He promises you a reward if you carry him and it to the next city. Midway through the journey, burdened by the portly merchant and wearing his heavy belonging, you question the wisdom of your agreement.
"No Enduring Hardship (dammit, again): The sojourn is too difficult. In time, the merchant must choose between himself and his robe. The garment is abandoned, and your reward lessened fo rit. S1, W+1 (Max Poor)."
Sigh. At least it qualifies as a successful encounter, so Al collects his second quest marker; his business in Europe is concluded, and his insanity cost him little. He now properly becomes Blessed, which means he no longer makes dice rolls (excepting the Destiny Die), and his turn is over. I stupidly forgot to have Sherry play her Daybul card last turn, so I'll have her stay there and draw another card to encounter. It's the Samarkand encounter card, with an 81 at the bottom; she rolls up a 10 and encounters a Mad Wizard, on Matrix O (there was no Matrix O in the original TOTAN, it only went up to somewhere from J to M, I forget which; Wizards were originally B, so this is somehow different, interestingly). Since she's not allowed to Rob him, she's free to attempt Hire, going to paragraph 341. Storytelling doesn't work, so she rolls, getting +1.
"The other sees your actions as an attempt to profit at his expense. (Moron.) Silencing you with a gesture, he cries, 'Bear this one away from me immediately!' Skeletal guards with scharp scimitars appear from thin air and attack.
"Weapon Use: The other is so impressed with your swordplay that he dispels the unholy guards with a gesture. 'Hold,' he cries. 'I shall forgive you your indiscretions and grant your wish if you will be my servant for a time.' D1, S1, choice of skill at Master level (1 use), Enslaved."
I'm not clear on exactly what it means to get one "use" of a skill, but there's been enough general lameness in the game so far that I'm going to give myself a perhaps-overgenerous ruling, that you can apply the Master power to look through possible encounters for that skill, without losing it unless you actually pick an encounter based only on it. Thusly, she still checks for Storytelling, and can pick encounters using that without cost, but if she needs the new skill instead, it's expended. She selects Magic for the skill in question (another edition difference: the original had Major and Minor Magic, while now there's just the one; you couldn't pick Major Magic at game start and that difference has now been eliminated, in part because the special abilities of some of the skills are also gone, apart from Seamanship). Anyway, she may be Enslaved, but she still can't get rid of her money! But she will play her Daybul card. Rolling 6, she improves her Weapon Use to Master level, but then encounters the Valley of Dogs. She decides to Bargain with that too (I debated Seek Aid instead, but that doesn't necessarily mean paid help), and goes to 1987 to check for her three Master skills that she now has. Not one of them applies, so she rolls, going up.
"You tried to cross the Valley of Dogs as quickly as you could so you would not encounter the ruthless beasts that live there. But you were so intent on the dogs, you walked right into a band of bandits who now block your path and demand your wealth! (Finally, it works! Sort of.)
"None of these three Skills with two possible outcomes between them: They are too many for you to resist. You pay them your gold and they allow you to pass. S1, W-2 (Min: Poor.)"
Well, she's back to being Respectable, so now she may be capable of gaining Wealth again, which is good since she now has two statuses that she can only get rid of by gaining money, and only one quest that will gain it for her. Finally, Aladdin gets a turn of being Blessed and not Insane. He gets as far as Damascus, draws the Lion card which has yet another 51 for its in-city encounter, and chooses a roll of 3 to add his +1 for Destiny points to. He rolls a 1 and ceases to be Blessed, but he gets to encounter something unusual: an Enchanted Soldier (L). Struck by whimsy, I choose to Abduct him, going to 297 and rolling -1.
"As you draw closer, you come to believe that the other is not who you had first thought. The other's features flow like water, their perfect beauty uncanny and unnatural. You are inflamed with passion by this beautiful one, and find yourself irresistably drawn to make amorous advances, even overstepping the bounds of decency."
Um. Okay, apparently there's either homosexuality or transvestism in the game now; I'm not at all certain that was true before. Well anyway,...
"No Appearance: The other recoils in horror, exclaiming 'Get away, foul worm! Oh, why must I be cursed this way?' These cruel words break the spell that drew you, tearing at your heart and fill {sic} it with sorrow. D1, S1, Grief Stricken."
Oh boy, another awful Status. As long as this remains in effect - which'll be a while, you need to go up to 8 Story, and he only just attained 5 - you lose all your skills, except Master skills which remain as Talents. The Grief can be contagious if you catch up with your opponent, but frankly I won't bother, since Sherry has Master skills while Al doesn't, so it would affect her less than it does him anyway (plus you need to have Storytelling, which he doesn't, although he's gaining a Skill so he could pick it up - that's yet another change between editions, as normally you always gain Storytelling from your Story points but eventually could gain a choice of skill at a much higher level of either Story or Destiny, I forget which). Picking Seduction as his skill, even though he can't use it, Aladdin ends his turn.
Sherry is Enslaved, Envious, and an ape, but somehow she still remains Respectable. Still killing time, she walks back to Gaya to play another City card. First, though, she must encounter the Pearl Diving card, which for a City is 12. Rolling and adding a staggering 6 for the space and her Destiny, she totals 9 and meets an Unknown Beast (J), which she sadly cannot Buy or Bargain with, so she'll try to Capture it. In and around paragraph 936, she again finds no mention of Magic, Storytelling or Weapon Use, so she rolls a -1 and goes to 935.
"A large cow like none you have ever seen lumbers by, closely followed by a poor man in rags. 'Please help me catch her,' he cries. 'My family will starve without our zebu!'.
"No Quick Thinking or Golden Bridle: The cow is very large and looks ill-tempered. You decide the poor man must depend on Allah for aid, and bid him the best of luck. D-1."
Alas, as a slave Sherry cannot gain Destiny, but she's still capable of hemorrhaging it. Still, she has a City card yet to play. Rolling 2, she gains the excellent status Determined! Now, whenever anything doesn't go her way, she can revisit her choices and select a different path. It will be hard for things to go permanently against her while she retains this advantage. Poor sad Aladdin has no such benefits, and only feels worse about it as he totters off through Mecca and then via an insanely long sea route to the Indian ocean. He draws the game's first Character encounter card, a sexy Enchantress whose type is determined by rolling on paragraph 114, but will always be on matrix B. Rolling and adding 3, he totals 8 and has found a Disguised Enchantress, whom he Grovels before in hopes of rescue from his misery. This goes to 335, rolling down one.
"The other bids you rise, and says, 'There is no need for you to give me anything, for I am happy to assist you. I have much knowledge of ancient legends. No Skill: The other gives you a mysterious magical item. D1, Treasure."
Well, you'd think that would cheer him up a little, but noooo. Ascending to the ranks of the +2-to-encounter-rolls, Al gains the Eagle Censer. This allows you to encounter Efreets on command (it's not clear whether this is instead of or in addition to your normal encounter), but your opponent decides what kind they'll be, and you have a 2/3 chance of losing the Treasure after using it, so I do believe I will just ignore the useless thing and keep it so that I'm capable of (theoretically) gaining Fabulous wealth. That's it for Al, so we go back to Sherry. Now that she's got some decent hope of shedding her unwanted Statuses, she starts heading back toward her eventual destination, stopping at a +5 sea space and rolling with +7 to get a total of 9. This was on the Alexandria city card, with a 22, resulting in her meeting a Crafty Wizard (O). As her first choice, she tries to Trick him, which is 1411. None of her Master skills apply, and she rolls -1.
"The other claims to have been the target of every scam that has ever been attempted in order to bilk him of his wealth and knowledge. You decide to take that as a challenge. No Stealth and Stealing: Before you even make the first step, he is on to you. The guards quietly arrest you before you can even put your brilliant plan into action. D1, Imprisoned."
Ouch. Being a slave, Sherry has to give her Destiny away to Al, bringing him up to her own level. She is now in jail - the brig of a ship, one can only presume, and thus she only encounters Jailers (who are no longer Hunchbacks, thankfully). Oh, but wait - she's not required to accept this outcome, is she? No, she's Determined to try a different tack. Aladdin puts back the Destiny point he didn't earn, and Sherry goes back to the matrix to try Bargaining with the guy. That's 392, and Storytelling applies!
" 'I am willing to assist you,' says the other, 'but a more generous offer from you would better reflect the service I am to provide, would it not?' Storytelling: You know just how valuable the other's services will be, and explain this to him. Moved by your wise words, he is willing to settle for a lower price. W-1, minimum Poor, Treasure, and lose one Status of your choice."
Well, that was quite a bargain. If she had been a Beggar and thus unable to pay anything, she would have gained Magic instead of all that, weirdly enough. But as it happens, she goes back to Poor again, as she had intended. Unfortunately, due to the order in which things happen, she has to give the Treasure to Aladdin before she could remove Enslaved, so instead she removes Envious, despite having planned to get rid of it by fulfilling her Quest. If she fulfills her quest while Enslaved, all she can do is buy her freedom, so she won't actually get the immense wealth...but I'm still doing it this way, since she's already had all that wealth once, and ultimately Envious is the "Cannot Win" status, so it's the one that really needs to go. Besides, Al could use the help. His new Treasure is much more useful this time - the Thunderbolt Sword! It grants him master level Weapon Use, which would have been redundant to Sherry at this point, but she's still a bit sad to have given away some of her uniqueness. Oh well, couldn't be helped; at least she's not Envious about it.
Al remains in his deep blue funk, and cannot reach Australia this turn, but makes it to a 2-if-by-Sea space and draws the Kiev encounter card, going to table 59. Rolling 9, he meets a Mad Enchantress on table O...I'm spending an awful lot of time on table O, amn't I isn't aint? Since his only applicable skill is (non-Master) Weapon Use, he opts to Attack her, going to 550 and rolling low.
"The other dodges your attack artfully. No Quick Thinking (damn!): Avoiding your grasp, (s)he disappears into the night, hooting scornfully at your incompetence. D-1, S1."
Well, I didn't realize they had Hooters girls in ancient Araby. Reduced now to 4 Destiny, Al no longer adds the second +1 to his rolls, unless of course being a non-Slave proves to reflect well upon him during Sherry's turn. Which now begins with her moving to a 2 sea-space, since her newfound Poor wealth won't get her very far on the ocean. She draws the Adrianople card, which goes to encounter paragraph Numero Uno, where she rolls her minimum possible result of 5 - a Mystic Fire on table F. I'm constantly tempted to Drink every Mystic Fire I see, but I seem to recall that it doesn't turn out well, so just in the interest of trying something different, I'll have her Cry Out, something I'm not sure I've ever done. This goes to 734, where Storytelling and Magic apply in the previous and subsequent paragraphs; I opt to use the Storytelling one in order to retain my one-shot Magic access (again, this may have been an overgenerous ruling on my part). 733 reads as follows:
"You scream in terror as a gout of flame issues from the earth around you. Many people come to your aid at the sound of your cry. Before they arrive, the fire disappears as suddenly as it came, leaving no sign of its presence. Storytelling: Your story is so vivid that the others believe you. They are filled with wonder and awe at the marvels of Allah's creation. D1, S1."
Well, that was pretty underwhelming, and I rather wish I'd tried Drinking the Fire first, just so I could fall back on this option, but I think I'll refrain from tempting fate by trying it as my second and final choice. Sherry gains Story, Al gains Destiny and has his +2 back, and it becomes his turn. He arrives in Australia, where he draws the Serpent encounter card...the artist illustrated this like a sea serpent, but it actually belongs in the Mountains, and the Island encounter for Al's current space is paragraph 39. Rolling with +7, he gets a total of 11, finding an Ancient City (E). Never able to resist the urge to Take entire cities home to put on his fireplace, he goes to 2143, or rather +1 from that.
"A road to an unknown, a gleaming city is revealed before you. You take (hahahah, very funny game) the road towards it, but on the way an Efreet appears and glowers at you. 'What is your purpose on this road?'
No Skill: You fall back before the Efreet and turn and flee (wow, all that?). For whatever reason, he lets you go. S1."
Lame to the extrayme, but at least Al has failed to die horribly in the very space where he is to complete his quest. It's debatable whether that encounter counts as "successful", but assuming it does, he achieves the Pull of the Sea, gaining a D point which brings him even with Sherry, and sending his Story skyrocketing past hers, entirely demolishing his Grief Stricken status. (Apparently, you can't be both sad and terrified of efreets at the same time.) Regaining use of his skills, including a shiny new Seamanship, Al is suddenly in a position to quite possibly win the game, being only 5 Story short of his chosen goal, with a Destiny point to spare even. He then draws his new Quest, "Treacherous Siblings!" This has the potential to give him D3/S2, only the latter of which he cares about, and it involes another player placing you on an Island space, from which you must return to Baghdad and be at least Rich. Well, Al is on an Island space right now, and is about as far from Baghdad as you can get - well, actually maybe that's not true. Thanks to that looooong sea route, Baghdad is actually only 9 spaces away from Australia, but Ireland is just as close now that I check, so yeah, Al can stay where he is.
I think it's time for another break.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.
-
willpell
- Banned
- Posts: 2085
- Contact:
Re: TOTAN Let's Play/Novelization
Let's see if I can finish the game in this post so that I won't spill over to the next page. Sherry seemed to have the game sewed up tight for a long time, but Aladdin is back in the competition. Sailing up a river in east Africa, Sherry arrives at Bantus and draws her first Character encounter, a Beggar on table 86. (Interestingly enough, I have just noticed that there isn't an 89...weird.) Rolling at +6, she gets a 9, which is a Possessed Beggar! That Magic might finally apply here if she chooses the right option...that option is probably not Beat, but just for laughs I'm trying it, since I've got a reroll anyway. This gives 424, and yet again her Storytelling is the skill that comes up. (At this point, the fact that I'm reading my own Book of Tales might have proved inconvenient - if I got this paragraph randomly after having seen that one of my Talents applied, the fact that you're given a choice might become known to me when it shouldn't have. But as it happens, it all works out okay.)
"You strike down the other, but instantly a weird mist envelops his body, and a fierce wind springs up. 'How shall your actions benefit you, fool?' booms a voice from the air. Storytelling (or Scholarship): You are well aware that there are creatures that can strike the living even from beyond death, and you prudently decide to leave the body alone. As you set about freeing the other's horse, you note the magical design on its saddlebags. D2, S1, Magic Saddlebags."
Oh hell no, Sherry's not giving her newly-threatening opponent D2 AND a third Treasure; she'll use Determined to change tactics. Although she's managed to get rid of Envious without being mandated to Rob anyone, she chooses to do so now anyway, going to #215. None of her Master skills apply, so she rolls, going up to 216 (which is awkwardly positioned across two sides of a page).
"As the other draws near, you recognize him as one who hates you. Reconsidering your plans, you flee from his sight. The next place you go, however, he is there before you! This happens again and again. No Piety or Brass Trumpet: Fear trickles like ice down your back, and finally you tell him you will kill him if you see him again. But in your heart you know you are not free of this ill shadow. D1, Pursued."
Welp, Scheherazade reaps the whirlwind of her spiteful greed; she could have gained S1 free and clear, but instead she gives Al a point of Destiny, putting him ahead of her, while keeping an unpleasant Status all to herself. But at least she sells her Merchant goods...she ascends to 10 Story herself, but the whopping +5 Wealth (to a max of Princely, which is 3 above where she is) that she could have gained instead goes to buying her out of Slavery. Her new quest: Exiled! This is kind of a bad one; it gives a risk of being Imprisoned in Baghdad, but offers nice awards if she can get there under her own power after gaining one of several good Statuses, which unfortunately aren't the ones she has. So anyway, it moves on to Al's turn.
I may have miscounted the distance Al has to travel to reach Baghdad; it may have actually been 10 spaces, but it's still a total of three turns transit time, as long as he stays Respectable. In a +2 Sea space, he encounters a Rhinoceros - well, actually not really, he encounters Table 28. Rolling at +4, he gets 8, which is a Ruined City (yet another table E encounter). He decides to Open it, which is 2140, and he notices 2141 contains a possibility for Weapon Use, although again it's weird that I'm reading my own BoT, as there is only some possibility of it coming up. Anyway, I pick that extremely long paragraph, which reads as follows:
"You are being chased by gools intent on slaking their thirst with your blood. Frantically searching for somewhere to make a stand, you top a rise and see a ruined city spread before you. Running among the crumbling buildings, you notice a pair of strangely preserved wooden doors. Perhaps this is a place to hide! You open one of the doors and step through, emerging in an entirely different section of the city. There two other wooden doors await you. Pausing to catch your breath, you hear a chime. A gool steps through the doorway after you. You push through one of the other doors and again find yourself transported to another area within the ruins. Another two doors present themselves."
At this point, Al has to roll two dice, adding 1 for his Quick Thinking since he lacks Scholarship and Wisdom. He gets a miserable total of 4.
"You rush blindly around the city, unable to make sense of the doorway transport. In time, you arrive at the edge of the ruins. You flee back into the wilderness, leaving the gools far behind. S1."
Well, that was underwhelming, and a bit strange; the Weapon Use I used to select the paragraph didn't actually apply to it, since I didn't roll high enough. The game's rules really don't explain situations like this, so I can only conclude I must have more or less done it right. It thusly moves on to Sherry's turn. She has a three-turn grace period on her Exile, of which this is the first turn; she's not permitted to stay in one place for two consecutive turns, but moving around non-stop is pretty consistent with my usual playstyle anyway. For now, she moves up to a Mountains 2 space, then rolls to see if she's Pursued (I assume this is done instead of drawing a card); the beggar does not find her, so she draws the Rome city card, which is 65. Rolling a total of 6, she finds...a FRIGGING GUARDED TREASURE! Welp, she's eager to regain her lost fortune, but this isn't quite the situation where she gained it in the first place; nevertheless, she knows that Entering and Examining both lead to unsatisfying outcomes, so she tries to do what worked well for her before, Hire Help. This goes to 1103, which I believe is new; none of her Master skills apply, so she rolls and gets -1.
"In a strange temple, a fabulous treasure is guarded by hundreds of priests. You yearn to own this treasure and teach the infidels a lesson. You may attempt the robbery yourself or seek help." (Well, I said I'd Hire Help.) "You hire a band of robbers to assist you. Go to paragraph 1103." (I do so.) "You plan to rob an infidel temple and begin hiring useful people. No Brass Trumpet: One of the men, a disguised infidel, betrays your plans; you are taken captive. In a series of bizarre rituals, your memory of all that has occurred is erased. D1, Ensorceled."
I'm not sure the Ensorceling will actually matter to Sherry, since it's not entirely clear where she wants to go at the moment, but at least Al can feel he's gotten a certain comeuppance. On his turn, he makes it to Mecca, one turn away from Baghdad (where he is not in fact quite ready to win the game, but could get there with some significant luck), and there he finally draws a Terrain Encounter which suits his location: the Crystal Palace. For once, he doesn't have to roll; he just goes to Matrix "N" (all the special Terrain Encounters, including the Elephant, its Graveyard, and the Valley of Dogs, are here), and he chooses, well, I kind of wanted to do Examine in the hopes of gaining Story from just looking at stuff, but actually I've got this lovely Thunderbolt Sword right here, so what the heck...ATTACK! Going to 1718, there proves to be a mandatory Weapon Use; Mandatories are usually bad, and the rules don't distinguish them clearly from other skill applications, which is a significant glitch. But anyway, 1718 is selected and here's the result:
"You know the evil king has imprisoned his children in his palace of crystal. There is only a pair of guards at the rear entrance of the palace. Surely they are no match for a mighty warrior like you. With a cry, you attack! Weapon Use Mandatory: Witha leaping attack, you quickly dispatch the pair of guards and make your way into the palace. Your determination to rescue the imprisoned children of this mad king, no matter who should stand in your way, is admirable, but you may have chosen a different tactic if you had known just how many guards the king had at his disposal. D1, Weapon Use, Outlaw."
It's not clear what happens when you gain a Skill which you already have in some conditional fashion, but I'm assuming it works; Aladdin now has talent-level Weapon Use even if he loses the Thunderbolt Sword. The Outlaw status makes Al wanted in Mecca (which is a particularly inconvenient place to have it, given the existence of the On Pilgrimage status); if he has an Encounter there, he gets Imprisoned, and if he becomes Outlaw anywhere else, he's extradited there and Imprisoned. Still, it might not affect him too much. It goes back to Sherry, who can't reach Baghdad this turn anyway, so she stops off in Alexandria to try and play her city card. She checks for Pursuit - and finds it! The Possessed Beggar has arrived! The new edition made a substantial change in the handling of Pursuers, giving them and Vengeful creatures an entire table to themselves. In keeping with my love of the surreal, I will choose Converse as Sherry's first response to the man she's threatened to kill; this goes to 1589, and Storytelling applies in 1590.
"Your attempt to sweet-talk the other out of his anger is a pronounced failure. You then try to extricate yourself with fine words. Storytelling: As part of your oratory, you tell the tale of the Lion and the Mouse, demonstrating that the strong should not abuse the weak. Your listener takes your meaning and allows you to leave unhindered. D2, S2, Quick Thinking, Lose Pursued."
That worked remarkably well. Sherry catches up with Al on Destiny and far exceeds him on Story; she is now at the inverse of her chosen formula. (It has been suggested that people do away with the formulas and just play to a total of 20 between the two; for now, I resist this, but I can see the logic, as it's quite hard to predict what you'll get.) The two adventurers are getting remarkably similar in their skills; Al takes his turn now, no longer the exclusive possessor of quick Thinking, and strolls into Baghdad. Oh, wait...not quite yet; Sherry has a City card yet to play. Rolling on the Alexandria card, she encounters the Sex-Change Spring, which she attempts to Avoid since getting sex-changed (unlike turning into an ape, oddly) is a win-preventer in this rather chauvinistic game. 1246 and its neighbors offer no purchase for any of her Skills, so she rolls; the first blank I've rolled in a while.
"A woman runs screaming into your camp. Her story is most marvelous: until she drank from the spring over the next dune, she was a man! Indeed, you find the crystal pool, which looks quite inviting, as you walk around it. However, if it changes your sex, it is best left alone. No Wisdom: Still, you wonder what it's like to be a member of the opposite sex, and you drink. You fool! The spring works only once. S1, Sex-Changed."
Scheherazade is now a male ape. So much for the game she was winning earlier. Guess she should have remained forgetful of her city card. Al's turn, and he does indeed go to Baghdad as intended, where he meets a Prophet, whom the dice dictate to be Disguised. Well, we know how it goes when you find Disguised weirdoes on Matrix C, but this is Matrix A, so let's see if it works the same way; he Follows this luminary. Actually no he doesn't, there's no Follow here, so he'll go for the next best thing, Abduct. 2246, and Weapon Use applies one number higher.
"You see through the other's disguise and decide to hold them for reward. But the other is not acting alone. Weapon Use: With your blade in hand, you manage to fight your way free and escape. S1."
Well, it was some of what Al wanted; unfortunately I forgot that he needed to be Rich in order to fulfill his Quest, so that's all he gets for now. Still, I think I'll try just leaving him in Baghdad for a while, so that he can win ASAP if he gets the chance. Sherry, of course, doesn't get to stay places for multiple turns, so she...er, "he" decides to prioritize avoiding capture by the Vizier's agents. There's one more turn before the Vizier's men will arrive, so Sherry dawdles in Tripoli for a turn, drawing the Elephant card which sends her to paragraph 71.Rolling 9, the ex-woman meets a Cold Enchantress on Table O. If she was male but not an ape, she'd try Courting the other woman in hopes of becoming a father, but instead, she has to keep things strictly professional, and Grovel abjectly for aid. 347 +1 contains Storytelling as usual.
"The other seems bored by your words and deeds. 'Many come to me speaking fine words. What do you want?' Storytelling: Wisely realizing the chilly disposition of the other, you comment, 'I merely wished to do you a kindness, but I see I am unwelcome. You leave without a backward glance. The other is amazed, calls you back, and gives you a wonderful gift. D2, Treasure."
Not bad, even if it doesn't get rid of the unwanted Status. Sherri hits 10 Destiny, then draws the Sword of Invisibility as her first actually-kept Treasure. The Weapon Use this grants is redundant, but Mr. Sherry now has Stealth and Stealing as well, which would have come in handy several times already. Al stays in Baghdad as planned, drawing the Islands of Camphor card, which goes to table 24 in a city; rolling 2+2 for his Destiny (Baghdad has no +X on it, being the very definition of civilized in this game), he meets a Wise Sage (A), and aims to Converse with him; 248 even.
"Gathering your wits, you speak to the other. No Courtly Graces (damn, knew I should have taken that over Seduction): The other sneers at your words, saying 'You are obviously unused to discourse with those of culture. I will hold my displeasure this time, but do not come before me again without learning the behavior of courteous folk. D1."
That was a waste; at this point, I'm bored enough to have Al try something crazy in hopes of speeding the game up. Time to light the Eagle Censer! Since he's all seductive and everything, he whistles up an Efreeteh (on reaction matrix 116, corresponding to the early-game or "Morning" version, even if you use this Treasure after the game clicks over to Noon or Night). With all of the pique that you might expect of an ex-female ex-human tasked with selecting a female encounter for a male human with Seduction on the brain, Sherry selects for the Efreeteh to be Demonic (other options included Evil and All-Powerful; I'm hoping this is the worst of both worlds). Let's see if Al can put the moves on that; in the old game, Efreets and Wizards were all on matrix B, but Z-Man seems to have put Efreets on matrix M, some wizards on table O, and left others on B still. Presumably this was being done to make it less likely that you could seduce an Efreeteh, who is after all made out of fire; alas, Aladdin has to settle for trying to Trick her into bed with him, which I'm sure will go swimmingly against a demoness. 1449+1 yields the following:
"Your attempts to trick the other fail completely, for (s)he is so concerned with his (her) own business that (s)he pays you no attention at all. You suspect that if you press your case, his (her) indifference will become wrath, and you head on your way. S1."
That could have gone better, but certainly could have gone much worse; it's incremented Al toward his intended goal, which he can now attain by gaining either 3 more Story, or 1 more Story and 1 Wealth, as long as he stays in Baghdad (not that I'm not tempted to go run down his Cities, many of them clustered about the Med and thus not far away, but why take chances?). He rolls and manages to not lose the Censer, so he can continue pursuing this course of action on future turns.
Sherry is now officially a target for the Sultan's hunters, so it's time for her to get moving; she will wander in the deepest parts of the desert to ensure her safety, until and unless she manages to retrieve her vagina. Going as far west as possible for starters, she draws the Elephant's Graveyard card, but Elephants live in Forests in this universe where there are no plains, and so here in the desert, it's just a 25. She rolls a total of 9 in this deep-desert space, not quite exceeding the possibilities in less remote ones, and comes upon a Mysterious River (F). Just in case this flows from the Sex-Change Spring, "he" will eagerly Drink it; 648 does not activate any of her Master skills (not even that long-untouched Magic). S/herry rolls high on the Destiny Die and the following happens.
"You cautiously sniff the water before drinking, and it has a bitter, oily smell. No Wilderness Lore: Afraid of poisoning, you do not drink. When you tell others of the poison river, they laugh at your cowardice. D-1, S1, Scorned."
Screw that. The Determined Sherry instead Cries Out next to the river, which is 657. Still no master skill applicability, but at least one of her Talents might apply if she rolls flat; she instead rolls up, to where Wilderness Lore was again required.
"Your voice echoes eerily across the waters. No skill: As the echoes die, you reflect on the voices which called out here in ages past, and think upon the many souls gone to {sic} Spoiler of Worldly Mansions. S1, Grief-Stricken 1 turn."
An improvement, such as it was. Al's turn. He draws a Hunchback card, going to 86, and rolls up a Disguised Hunchback who he of course Follows. Rolling -1 from 471, he again finds the disguised Sultan, who remains just as impressed the second time his disguise is pierced by the same Chinaman. Again, I kick myself for not taking Courtly Graces; still, he becomes Blessed again, and that's nothing to sneeze at, nor is the Story point he gains (the Destiny point is quite irrelevant).
Now that he's Blessed, Al can use the Eagle Censer and guarantee it's not lost this turn, and in fact that's exactly what he'll do. He goes for a male Efreet this time, to avoid any temptations to treat it as something you can seduce, and in the hopes of inconveniencing Al or even driving him from Baghdad, Sherri chooses a Vengeful one. Al just flat-out Attacks this with his Thunderbolt Sword, going to 422+1.
"As you approach, the other gestures magically and you are lifted and hurled into an old well. 'There you shall stay until I choose to release you! Perhaps I shall have my servants bring you a morsel of bread every now and then.' The other laughs maniacally and leaves. Stealth and Stealing: The rough walls of the well provide ample purchase for one of your talents. You scramble out like the accomplished burglar you are. D1, S2."
Al is now just 1 Story short of his goal, while Sherry remains a fugitive. Al loses his Blessing, but he retains the Censer, and has two chances to earn Story next turn (too bad he's not Determined, or he could have four chances). For what will likely be her second-to-last turn, Sherry goes two spaces east into the still-+4 desert, drawing a Sage encounter on table 85. Adding 6 to a die roll, she gets 8 and finds him to be a Mad Sage (lots of Madmen and -women in this game). S/he Grovels before them, 222...and what do you know, this is an encounter where Seduction or Appearance might help, and s/he's an ape. The Destiny Die sends him/her low, to the very encounter where Appearance would apply if it could.
"You speak to the other in honeyed and poetic words. He thinks your actions are very amusing, but cannot fathom just what it is you want. No Skill: You despair of ever making this dullard comprehend your intent, and depart to return to the company of intelligent folk. Lose Scholarship."
How the heck is a Sage a Dullard? Well okay, he's Mad, but still. I did indeed do that right, and the encounter is harmless, but that's not good enough this far into the game. She Determines her way out of it and now Attacks the mad Sage, which is not likely to get her penis removed (though logically, it ought to offer a way), but at least Weapon Use will probably apply. Now it's 229, and no, Weapon Use doesn't work. She rolls flat, and the following occurs.
"Your victim stands his ground and defends himself valiantly. Nonetheless, you overcome him. Unfortunately, he has nothing of value. No Luck: Worse yet, he has recognized you and identifies you to the local authorities. You become a hunted criminal. D1, Outlaw."
Well that was technically an improvement, since she's now within 1 Destiny of her goal, but oh man, if she'd had Luck, she'd have gotten rid of a Status and gotten D3, S1, Respectable Wealth, and the Robe of Honor status! Bleah. Oh well, back to stupid Lucky Aladdin. He draws the Magnetic Mountain card, which has numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (in the original game, Paragraph 1 described the Magnetic Mountain itself, though you had to roll well to find it; now you always do when you're in the Mountains and draw this card). Number 6 corresponds to Cities, and he rolls a total of 4 on it, so he meets a Doomsaying Prophet; that ought to be good for a Story point. He offers Aid, 2249, and Weapon Use doesn't apply; he rolls +1 and goes to 2250...which, by the way, is yet another paragraph that looks for Storytelling, which he chose never to gain.
"The other grips your arm and clings, desperately spewing a tale of woe. The speed of their chatter sets your mind to whirl, and before you know what you have done you have committed yourself to aiding them. You sit with the other into the long night as they exhaust themselves with their long gloomy tale. Despite the passion of their woe-filled story, and regardless of repeated patient prompting from you, the other never seems to get around to telling you what exactly they want you to do to aid them. No Storytelling: As the sun sets and the night hours grow long, the other slowly sinks into an exhausted slumber, a smile on their lips from having had a captive audience for so long. You quietly take your leave, the vast tract of the other's tale echoing through your skull. S2, Storytelling."
Well, that does the trick. Al even exceeds his target by 1, so Sherry gets one last turn to try and also win, but the only way this even might be possible, given that she's too far away to reach either Baghdad or one of her card-cities, would be to intentionally get herself captured by the Vizier and imprisoned, giving up her Quest and hoping that she somehow manages to gain 1 Destiny while losing Sex-Changed. With only Poor wealth, she can't reach a space within Civilization, so she has at least a +2 to the roll which needs to be 4 or less to get her captured; she'll need to roll a 1 for a free trip to Baghdad's jail. First, her encounter, in the Forest of the Sinai peninsula; it's with a Prince, on table 87. What a surprise, he's Mad. Well, S/herri wants to get arrested, so the male ape who's really a female human Robs the prince. 226, no applicable Master skills; she rolls +1.
"Your victim may be a fool, but he is not so foolish as to fall for your scheme. The other's companions turn out to be heavily armed. You are easily caught and imprisoned for your attempted crime. D1, Imprisoned."
Screw that, she doesn't want to be imprisoned here; she Determines that she will instead Honor the Mad Sage (Grovel might be more on-the-nose, but I suspect it would produce a repetition). This goes to 199, and in the previous paragraph I espy Weapon Use, which she still has at more-than-master-level.
"You bow gracefully before the other. Weapon Use: You happen to look up to see him drawing his sword to attack you. Forewarned by this stroke of luck, you easily parry his blow. Returning the attack upon him, you wound him in one swift stroke. He has not reckoned on your skill with arms and turns on his heels. You give chase, but he is swift of foot and evades you. D1, S1."
Well, that's that. She's still a he, and an ape to boot; s/he does not roll up a free trip Downtown in the Vizier's camel-drawn paddy wagon, and even if s/he had, there's still no winning the game while sex-changed, so Aladdin is the sole victor.
This game sure is random; nigh-infinite replayability is its strong suit, but it does tend to have a few semi-repetititous patterns (such as the Follow the Disguised Hunchback exploit). It gets more fun with more players, I suspect; we didn't even get close to going through the deck, which I suspect really doesn't happen unless there are at least 4 players and more likely 6. But I'm not sure I'll be up to playing a solitaire game of that size anytime soon, so for now, I shall simply close.
"You strike down the other, but instantly a weird mist envelops his body, and a fierce wind springs up. 'How shall your actions benefit you, fool?' booms a voice from the air. Storytelling (or Scholarship): You are well aware that there are creatures that can strike the living even from beyond death, and you prudently decide to leave the body alone. As you set about freeing the other's horse, you note the magical design on its saddlebags. D2, S1, Magic Saddlebags."
Oh hell no, Sherry's not giving her newly-threatening opponent D2 AND a third Treasure; she'll use Determined to change tactics. Although she's managed to get rid of Envious without being mandated to Rob anyone, she chooses to do so now anyway, going to #215. None of her Master skills apply, so she rolls, going up to 216 (which is awkwardly positioned across two sides of a page).
"As the other draws near, you recognize him as one who hates you. Reconsidering your plans, you flee from his sight. The next place you go, however, he is there before you! This happens again and again. No Piety or Brass Trumpet: Fear trickles like ice down your back, and finally you tell him you will kill him if you see him again. But in your heart you know you are not free of this ill shadow. D1, Pursued."
Welp, Scheherazade reaps the whirlwind of her spiteful greed; she could have gained S1 free and clear, but instead she gives Al a point of Destiny, putting him ahead of her, while keeping an unpleasant Status all to herself. But at least she sells her Merchant goods...she ascends to 10 Story herself, but the whopping +5 Wealth (to a max of Princely, which is 3 above where she is) that she could have gained instead goes to buying her out of Slavery. Her new quest: Exiled! This is kind of a bad one; it gives a risk of being Imprisoned in Baghdad, but offers nice awards if she can get there under her own power after gaining one of several good Statuses, which unfortunately aren't the ones she has. So anyway, it moves on to Al's turn.
I may have miscounted the distance Al has to travel to reach Baghdad; it may have actually been 10 spaces, but it's still a total of three turns transit time, as long as he stays Respectable. In a +2 Sea space, he encounters a Rhinoceros - well, actually not really, he encounters Table 28. Rolling at +4, he gets 8, which is a Ruined City (yet another table E encounter). He decides to Open it, which is 2140, and he notices 2141 contains a possibility for Weapon Use, although again it's weird that I'm reading my own BoT, as there is only some possibility of it coming up. Anyway, I pick that extremely long paragraph, which reads as follows:
"You are being chased by gools intent on slaking their thirst with your blood. Frantically searching for somewhere to make a stand, you top a rise and see a ruined city spread before you. Running among the crumbling buildings, you notice a pair of strangely preserved wooden doors. Perhaps this is a place to hide! You open one of the doors and step through, emerging in an entirely different section of the city. There two other wooden doors await you. Pausing to catch your breath, you hear a chime. A gool steps through the doorway after you. You push through one of the other doors and again find yourself transported to another area within the ruins. Another two doors present themselves."
At this point, Al has to roll two dice, adding 1 for his Quick Thinking since he lacks Scholarship and Wisdom. He gets a miserable total of 4.
"You rush blindly around the city, unable to make sense of the doorway transport. In time, you arrive at the edge of the ruins. You flee back into the wilderness, leaving the gools far behind. S1."
Well, that was underwhelming, and a bit strange; the Weapon Use I used to select the paragraph didn't actually apply to it, since I didn't roll high enough. The game's rules really don't explain situations like this, so I can only conclude I must have more or less done it right. It thusly moves on to Sherry's turn. She has a three-turn grace period on her Exile, of which this is the first turn; she's not permitted to stay in one place for two consecutive turns, but moving around non-stop is pretty consistent with my usual playstyle anyway. For now, she moves up to a Mountains 2 space, then rolls to see if she's Pursued (I assume this is done instead of drawing a card); the beggar does not find her, so she draws the Rome city card, which is 65. Rolling a total of 6, she finds...a FRIGGING GUARDED TREASURE! Welp, she's eager to regain her lost fortune, but this isn't quite the situation where she gained it in the first place; nevertheless, she knows that Entering and Examining both lead to unsatisfying outcomes, so she tries to do what worked well for her before, Hire Help. This goes to 1103, which I believe is new; none of her Master skills apply, so she rolls and gets -1.
"In a strange temple, a fabulous treasure is guarded by hundreds of priests. You yearn to own this treasure and teach the infidels a lesson. You may attempt the robbery yourself or seek help." (Well, I said I'd Hire Help.) "You hire a band of robbers to assist you. Go to paragraph 1103." (I do so.) "You plan to rob an infidel temple and begin hiring useful people. No Brass Trumpet: One of the men, a disguised infidel, betrays your plans; you are taken captive. In a series of bizarre rituals, your memory of all that has occurred is erased. D1, Ensorceled."
I'm not sure the Ensorceling will actually matter to Sherry, since it's not entirely clear where she wants to go at the moment, but at least Al can feel he's gotten a certain comeuppance. On his turn, he makes it to Mecca, one turn away from Baghdad (where he is not in fact quite ready to win the game, but could get there with some significant luck), and there he finally draws a Terrain Encounter which suits his location: the Crystal Palace. For once, he doesn't have to roll; he just goes to Matrix "N" (all the special Terrain Encounters, including the Elephant, its Graveyard, and the Valley of Dogs, are here), and he chooses, well, I kind of wanted to do Examine in the hopes of gaining Story from just looking at stuff, but actually I've got this lovely Thunderbolt Sword right here, so what the heck...ATTACK! Going to 1718, there proves to be a mandatory Weapon Use; Mandatories are usually bad, and the rules don't distinguish them clearly from other skill applications, which is a significant glitch. But anyway, 1718 is selected and here's the result:
"You know the evil king has imprisoned his children in his palace of crystal. There is only a pair of guards at the rear entrance of the palace. Surely they are no match for a mighty warrior like you. With a cry, you attack! Weapon Use Mandatory: Witha leaping attack, you quickly dispatch the pair of guards and make your way into the palace. Your determination to rescue the imprisoned children of this mad king, no matter who should stand in your way, is admirable, but you may have chosen a different tactic if you had known just how many guards the king had at his disposal. D1, Weapon Use, Outlaw."
It's not clear what happens when you gain a Skill which you already have in some conditional fashion, but I'm assuming it works; Aladdin now has talent-level Weapon Use even if he loses the Thunderbolt Sword. The Outlaw status makes Al wanted in Mecca (which is a particularly inconvenient place to have it, given the existence of the On Pilgrimage status); if he has an Encounter there, he gets Imprisoned, and if he becomes Outlaw anywhere else, he's extradited there and Imprisoned. Still, it might not affect him too much. It goes back to Sherry, who can't reach Baghdad this turn anyway, so she stops off in Alexandria to try and play her city card. She checks for Pursuit - and finds it! The Possessed Beggar has arrived! The new edition made a substantial change in the handling of Pursuers, giving them and Vengeful creatures an entire table to themselves. In keeping with my love of the surreal, I will choose Converse as Sherry's first response to the man she's threatened to kill; this goes to 1589, and Storytelling applies in 1590.
"Your attempt to sweet-talk the other out of his anger is a pronounced failure. You then try to extricate yourself with fine words. Storytelling: As part of your oratory, you tell the tale of the Lion and the Mouse, demonstrating that the strong should not abuse the weak. Your listener takes your meaning and allows you to leave unhindered. D2, S2, Quick Thinking, Lose Pursued."
That worked remarkably well. Sherry catches up with Al on Destiny and far exceeds him on Story; she is now at the inverse of her chosen formula. (It has been suggested that people do away with the formulas and just play to a total of 20 between the two; for now, I resist this, but I can see the logic, as it's quite hard to predict what you'll get.) The two adventurers are getting remarkably similar in their skills; Al takes his turn now, no longer the exclusive possessor of quick Thinking, and strolls into Baghdad. Oh, wait...not quite yet; Sherry has a City card yet to play. Rolling on the Alexandria card, she encounters the Sex-Change Spring, which she attempts to Avoid since getting sex-changed (unlike turning into an ape, oddly) is a win-preventer in this rather chauvinistic game. 1246 and its neighbors offer no purchase for any of her Skills, so she rolls; the first blank I've rolled in a while.
"A woman runs screaming into your camp. Her story is most marvelous: until she drank from the spring over the next dune, she was a man! Indeed, you find the crystal pool, which looks quite inviting, as you walk around it. However, if it changes your sex, it is best left alone. No Wisdom: Still, you wonder what it's like to be a member of the opposite sex, and you drink. You fool! The spring works only once. S1, Sex-Changed."
Scheherazade is now a male ape. So much for the game she was winning earlier. Guess she should have remained forgetful of her city card. Al's turn, and he does indeed go to Baghdad as intended, where he meets a Prophet, whom the dice dictate to be Disguised. Well, we know how it goes when you find Disguised weirdoes on Matrix C, but this is Matrix A, so let's see if it works the same way; he Follows this luminary. Actually no he doesn't, there's no Follow here, so he'll go for the next best thing, Abduct. 2246, and Weapon Use applies one number higher.
"You see through the other's disguise and decide to hold them for reward. But the other is not acting alone. Weapon Use: With your blade in hand, you manage to fight your way free and escape. S1."
Well, it was some of what Al wanted; unfortunately I forgot that he needed to be Rich in order to fulfill his Quest, so that's all he gets for now. Still, I think I'll try just leaving him in Baghdad for a while, so that he can win ASAP if he gets the chance. Sherry, of course, doesn't get to stay places for multiple turns, so she...er, "he" decides to prioritize avoiding capture by the Vizier's agents. There's one more turn before the Vizier's men will arrive, so Sherry dawdles in Tripoli for a turn, drawing the Elephant card which sends her to paragraph 71.Rolling 9, the ex-woman meets a Cold Enchantress on Table O. If she was male but not an ape, she'd try Courting the other woman in hopes of becoming a father, but instead, she has to keep things strictly professional, and Grovel abjectly for aid. 347 +1 contains Storytelling as usual.
"The other seems bored by your words and deeds. 'Many come to me speaking fine words. What do you want?' Storytelling: Wisely realizing the chilly disposition of the other, you comment, 'I merely wished to do you a kindness, but I see I am unwelcome. You leave without a backward glance. The other is amazed, calls you back, and gives you a wonderful gift. D2, Treasure."
Not bad, even if it doesn't get rid of the unwanted Status. Sherri hits 10 Destiny, then draws the Sword of Invisibility as her first actually-kept Treasure. The Weapon Use this grants is redundant, but Mr. Sherry now has Stealth and Stealing as well, which would have come in handy several times already. Al stays in Baghdad as planned, drawing the Islands of Camphor card, which goes to table 24 in a city; rolling 2+2 for his Destiny (Baghdad has no +X on it, being the very definition of civilized in this game), he meets a Wise Sage (A), and aims to Converse with him; 248 even.
"Gathering your wits, you speak to the other. No Courtly Graces (damn, knew I should have taken that over Seduction): The other sneers at your words, saying 'You are obviously unused to discourse with those of culture. I will hold my displeasure this time, but do not come before me again without learning the behavior of courteous folk. D1."
That was a waste; at this point, I'm bored enough to have Al try something crazy in hopes of speeding the game up. Time to light the Eagle Censer! Since he's all seductive and everything, he whistles up an Efreeteh (on reaction matrix 116, corresponding to the early-game or "Morning" version, even if you use this Treasure after the game clicks over to Noon or Night). With all of the pique that you might expect of an ex-female ex-human tasked with selecting a female encounter for a male human with Seduction on the brain, Sherry selects for the Efreeteh to be Demonic (other options included Evil and All-Powerful; I'm hoping this is the worst of both worlds). Let's see if Al can put the moves on that; in the old game, Efreets and Wizards were all on matrix B, but Z-Man seems to have put Efreets on matrix M, some wizards on table O, and left others on B still. Presumably this was being done to make it less likely that you could seduce an Efreeteh, who is after all made out of fire; alas, Aladdin has to settle for trying to Trick her into bed with him, which I'm sure will go swimmingly against a demoness. 1449+1 yields the following:
"Your attempts to trick the other fail completely, for (s)he is so concerned with his (her) own business that (s)he pays you no attention at all. You suspect that if you press your case, his (her) indifference will become wrath, and you head on your way. S1."
That could have gone better, but certainly could have gone much worse; it's incremented Al toward his intended goal, which he can now attain by gaining either 3 more Story, or 1 more Story and 1 Wealth, as long as he stays in Baghdad (not that I'm not tempted to go run down his Cities, many of them clustered about the Med and thus not far away, but why take chances?). He rolls and manages to not lose the Censer, so he can continue pursuing this course of action on future turns.
Sherry is now officially a target for the Sultan's hunters, so it's time for her to get moving; she will wander in the deepest parts of the desert to ensure her safety, until and unless she manages to retrieve her vagina. Going as far west as possible for starters, she draws the Elephant's Graveyard card, but Elephants live in Forests in this universe where there are no plains, and so here in the desert, it's just a 25. She rolls a total of 9 in this deep-desert space, not quite exceeding the possibilities in less remote ones, and comes upon a Mysterious River (F). Just in case this flows from the Sex-Change Spring, "he" will eagerly Drink it; 648 does not activate any of her Master skills (not even that long-untouched Magic). S/herry rolls high on the Destiny Die and the following happens.
"You cautiously sniff the water before drinking, and it has a bitter, oily smell. No Wilderness Lore: Afraid of poisoning, you do not drink. When you tell others of the poison river, they laugh at your cowardice. D-1, S1, Scorned."
Screw that. The Determined Sherry instead Cries Out next to the river, which is 657. Still no master skill applicability, but at least one of her Talents might apply if she rolls flat; she instead rolls up, to where Wilderness Lore was again required.
"Your voice echoes eerily across the waters. No skill: As the echoes die, you reflect on the voices which called out here in ages past, and think upon the many souls gone to {sic} Spoiler of Worldly Mansions. S1, Grief-Stricken 1 turn."
An improvement, such as it was. Al's turn. He draws a Hunchback card, going to 86, and rolls up a Disguised Hunchback who he of course Follows. Rolling -1 from 471, he again finds the disguised Sultan, who remains just as impressed the second time his disguise is pierced by the same Chinaman. Again, I kick myself for not taking Courtly Graces; still, he becomes Blessed again, and that's nothing to sneeze at, nor is the Story point he gains (the Destiny point is quite irrelevant).
Now that he's Blessed, Al can use the Eagle Censer and guarantee it's not lost this turn, and in fact that's exactly what he'll do. He goes for a male Efreet this time, to avoid any temptations to treat it as something you can seduce, and in the hopes of inconveniencing Al or even driving him from Baghdad, Sherri chooses a Vengeful one. Al just flat-out Attacks this with his Thunderbolt Sword, going to 422+1.
"As you approach, the other gestures magically and you are lifted and hurled into an old well. 'There you shall stay until I choose to release you! Perhaps I shall have my servants bring you a morsel of bread every now and then.' The other laughs maniacally and leaves. Stealth and Stealing: The rough walls of the well provide ample purchase for one of your talents. You scramble out like the accomplished burglar you are. D1, S2."
Al is now just 1 Story short of his goal, while Sherry remains a fugitive. Al loses his Blessing, but he retains the Censer, and has two chances to earn Story next turn (too bad he's not Determined, or he could have four chances). For what will likely be her second-to-last turn, Sherry goes two spaces east into the still-+4 desert, drawing a Sage encounter on table 85. Adding 6 to a die roll, she gets 8 and finds him to be a Mad Sage (lots of Madmen and -women in this game). S/he Grovels before them, 222...and what do you know, this is an encounter where Seduction or Appearance might help, and s/he's an ape. The Destiny Die sends him/her low, to the very encounter where Appearance would apply if it could.
"You speak to the other in honeyed and poetic words. He thinks your actions are very amusing, but cannot fathom just what it is you want. No Skill: You despair of ever making this dullard comprehend your intent, and depart to return to the company of intelligent folk. Lose Scholarship."
How the heck is a Sage a Dullard? Well okay, he's Mad, but still. I did indeed do that right, and the encounter is harmless, but that's not good enough this far into the game. She Determines her way out of it and now Attacks the mad Sage, which is not likely to get her penis removed (though logically, it ought to offer a way), but at least Weapon Use will probably apply. Now it's 229, and no, Weapon Use doesn't work. She rolls flat, and the following occurs.
"Your victim stands his ground and defends himself valiantly. Nonetheless, you overcome him. Unfortunately, he has nothing of value. No Luck: Worse yet, he has recognized you and identifies you to the local authorities. You become a hunted criminal. D1, Outlaw."
Well that was technically an improvement, since she's now within 1 Destiny of her goal, but oh man, if she'd had Luck, she'd have gotten rid of a Status and gotten D3, S1, Respectable Wealth, and the Robe of Honor status! Bleah. Oh well, back to stupid Lucky Aladdin. He draws the Magnetic Mountain card, which has numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (in the original game, Paragraph 1 described the Magnetic Mountain itself, though you had to roll well to find it; now you always do when you're in the Mountains and draw this card). Number 6 corresponds to Cities, and he rolls a total of 4 on it, so he meets a Doomsaying Prophet; that ought to be good for a Story point. He offers Aid, 2249, and Weapon Use doesn't apply; he rolls +1 and goes to 2250...which, by the way, is yet another paragraph that looks for Storytelling, which he chose never to gain.
"The other grips your arm and clings, desperately spewing a tale of woe. The speed of their chatter sets your mind to whirl, and before you know what you have done you have committed yourself to aiding them. You sit with the other into the long night as they exhaust themselves with their long gloomy tale. Despite the passion of their woe-filled story, and regardless of repeated patient prompting from you, the other never seems to get around to telling you what exactly they want you to do to aid them. No Storytelling: As the sun sets and the night hours grow long, the other slowly sinks into an exhausted slumber, a smile on their lips from having had a captive audience for so long. You quietly take your leave, the vast tract of the other's tale echoing through your skull. S2, Storytelling."
Well, that does the trick. Al even exceeds his target by 1, so Sherry gets one last turn to try and also win, but the only way this even might be possible, given that she's too far away to reach either Baghdad or one of her card-cities, would be to intentionally get herself captured by the Vizier and imprisoned, giving up her Quest and hoping that she somehow manages to gain 1 Destiny while losing Sex-Changed. With only Poor wealth, she can't reach a space within Civilization, so she has at least a +2 to the roll which needs to be 4 or less to get her captured; she'll need to roll a 1 for a free trip to Baghdad's jail. First, her encounter, in the Forest of the Sinai peninsula; it's with a Prince, on table 87. What a surprise, he's Mad. Well, S/herri wants to get arrested, so the male ape who's really a female human Robs the prince. 226, no applicable Master skills; she rolls +1.
"Your victim may be a fool, but he is not so foolish as to fall for your scheme. The other's companions turn out to be heavily armed. You are easily caught and imprisoned for your attempted crime. D1, Imprisoned."
Screw that, she doesn't want to be imprisoned here; she Determines that she will instead Honor the Mad Sage (Grovel might be more on-the-nose, but I suspect it would produce a repetition). This goes to 199, and in the previous paragraph I espy Weapon Use, which she still has at more-than-master-level.
"You bow gracefully before the other. Weapon Use: You happen to look up to see him drawing his sword to attack you. Forewarned by this stroke of luck, you easily parry his blow. Returning the attack upon him, you wound him in one swift stroke. He has not reckoned on your skill with arms and turns on his heels. You give chase, but he is swift of foot and evades you. D1, S1."
Well, that's that. She's still a he, and an ape to boot; s/he does not roll up a free trip Downtown in the Vizier's camel-drawn paddy wagon, and even if s/he had, there's still no winning the game while sex-changed, so Aladdin is the sole victor.
This game sure is random; nigh-infinite replayability is its strong suit, but it does tend to have a few semi-repetititous patterns (such as the Follow the Disguised Hunchback exploit). It gets more fun with more players, I suspect; we didn't even get close to going through the deck, which I suspect really doesn't happen unless there are at least 4 players and more likely 6. But I'm not sure I'll be up to playing a solitaire game of that size anytime soon, so for now, I shall simply close.
You either die Chaotic, or you live long enough to see yourself become Lawful.
My long-neglected blog.Glemp wrote:To some extent, you need to be arrogant - without it, you are vulnerable being made someone's tool...for Herbert's sake, have the stubbornness not to submit to what you see instantly, because you can only see some facts at a time.