THE BATTLEPITS OF KRARTH
Every thirteen lunar months the Magi of Krarth hold a desperate contest to see which of them will rule that bleak and icy land. Teams of daring adventurers are sent down into the labyrinths that lie beneath the tundra, each searching for the Emblem of Victory that will win power for their patron.
Only one team can prevail. The others must die.
Blood Sword is a series of gamebooks by Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson that bridge the gap between conventional gamebooks and tabletop RPGs. As the covers themselves tell us, this is "the first game book series designed for both solo and multi-player adventures", published in 1987 and 1988.
When I was a child, I stumbled upon the first two volumes in the local branch of the library and found them thoroughly fascinating; they were my first exposure to RPG games of any sort. We played through the first one with some friends, though I don't believe we ever finished it. Even if we did, we didn't play the second one.
Last summer, with some difficulty, I managed to acquire a full set of the five books through an antique bookshop. I've been thinking that it might be fun to run a play-by-post sort of thing on the forum, with me as the proverbial DM. I've not played through the books before, and hopefully neither will have the players, which should make it interesting for everyone involved.
For this reason, I'm putting this thread up. Hopefully people will find it interesting and would like to join up, and see if we can make a forum-based gamebook work.
Playing:
Since we're obviously going to be playing this over the forums, here's how I envision it going:
- I post the text of the "episode" the party finds themselves in, and list possible choices;
- The party discusses their next course of action in the game thread, then issues a command using some format (maybe the well-known lime green way) once they've decided what to do;
- I describe what happens next, and rinse and repeat.
Note that the books sometimes contain secret paragraphs only available to individual characters, such as the Sage's ESP, which allows him to detect thoughts. Those will be sent through PMs, and the recipient is free to withhold this information from the party, if they so desire.
The books also occasionally restrict some choices where that wouldn't really make sense (i.e. allowing only one character to utilise a special skill instead of allowing everyone who can to do so), which I'll not be enforcing.
The party can decide how they'd like to achieve consensus about what to do next. I'll try and post updates as frequently as possible.
Hopefully, if people are finding it interesting, we could go through all five books and see what this story is actually about.
Combat:
In the books, combat is usually done in rounds in a similar way to how tabletop RPG combat (usually) works. Since doing this over forum posts would be impractical, I shall be resolving combat "locally", then debriefing the players on how it went. To compensate for this, I'll be a little more lenient in the way things work, since as I recall, the book was quite punishing. No resurrection spells are available, as far as I know, and healing is quite limited, and so on.
I believe that this is thus mostly going to become a story-based journey. Still, there are (or should be) plenty of different choices to make so that the players have something to do.
The classes:
Classes form a fairly standard party composition. All characters start at rank (level) 2.
Class details are in the spoilers.
You are the master of the fighting arts. You have better Fighting Prowess than any other adventuring type at the same rank, and when you strike a blow you inflict more damage. You also have chainmail armour which provides an Armour Rating of three – better than the armour available to other characters.
These advantages give you a real edge in any fight, but you do not get things all your own way. You have none of the other characters' special skills – the Sage's ESP, for instance, or the Trickster's low, devious cunning. Also, because you are of noble birth and follow the honourable traditions of your ancestors, you must be careful to stay true to the code of chivalry. You may take an experience point penalty if you behave in a dishonourable, cowardly or uncouth manner.
I confess to having no idea whether XP penalties are actually a thing, but they might be if the book says so. But yeah, the Warrior is essentially the fighter class. Can't use bows for some undisclosed reason.
Starting stats at rank 2:
Fighting Prowess: 8
Damage: 1 die + 1
Psychic Ability: 6
Awareness: 6
Endurance: 12
Starting items at rank 2:
Sword
Chainmail Armour (armour rating 3)
Coin pouch (10 gp)
These advantages give you a real edge in any fight, but you do not get things all your own way. You have none of the other characters' special skills – the Sage's ESP, for instance, or the Trickster's low, devious cunning. Also, because you are of noble birth and follow the honourable traditions of your ancestors, you must be careful to stay true to the code of chivalry. You may take an experience point penalty if you behave in a dishonourable, cowardly or uncouth manner.
I confess to having no idea whether XP penalties are actually a thing, but they might be if the book says so. But yeah, the Warrior is essentially the fighter class. Can't use bows for some undisclosed reason.
Starting stats at rank 2:
Fighting Prowess: 8
Damage: 1 die + 1
Psychic Ability: 6
Awareness: 6
Endurance: 12
Starting items at rank 2:
Sword
Chainmail Armour (armour rating 3)
Coin pouch (10 gp)
Some Adventurers are honest, chivalrous and honourable. Not you. You are basically a rogue – a likeable rogue, perhaps, but a rogue nonetheless. You live by your wits. If you can win a fight by trickery or by shooting someone in the back, you will. Cunning is your main weapon.
But when you have to face someone in a straight fight, you are no pushover. After the Warrior, you are perhaps the best fighter in any party.
The Trickster is, as the info mentions, a rogue. He is harder to hit than normal, may use bows, and can take an extra turn in a round, once per combat (which is almost exactly the same as the D&D 5e Thief capstone ability, interesting). In addition, the Trickster can occasionally charm or pickpocket people out of combat.
Starting stats at rank 2:
Fighting Prowess: 7
Damage: 1 die
Psychic Ability: 6
Awareness: 8
Endurance: 12
Starting items at rank 2:
Sword
Studded Leather Armour (armour rating 2)
Coin pouch (10 gp)
Bow
Quiver (6 arrows)
But when you have to face someone in a straight fight, you are no pushover. After the Warrior, you are perhaps the best fighter in any party.
The Trickster is, as the info mentions, a rogue. He is harder to hit than normal, may use bows, and can take an extra turn in a round, once per combat (which is almost exactly the same as the D&D 5e Thief capstone ability, interesting). In addition, the Trickster can occasionally charm or pickpocket people out of combat.
Starting stats at rank 2:
Fighting Prowess: 7
Damage: 1 die
Psychic Ability: 6
Awareness: 8
Endurance: 12
Starting items at rank 2:
Sword
Studded Leather Armour (armour rating 2)
Coin pouch (10 gp)
Bow
Quiver (6 arrows)
Your upbringing has been in the spartan Monastery of Illumination on the barren island of Kaxos. There you studied the Mystic Way – a series of demanding psionic disciplines and rigorous physical training.
The Sage is, effectively, a Monk with a dash of Cleric. The Sage fights using a quarterstaff, may use bows, can heal allies at the expense of his own life, and posesses some psionic abilities: ESP (mind-reading), Paranormal Sight (seeing through "soft materials"), Levitation, and Exorcism.
Starting stats at rank 2:
Fighting Prowess: 7
Damage: 1 die
Psychic Ability: 7
Awareness: 6
Endurance: 10
Starting items at rank 2:
Quarterstaff
Ringmail Armour (armour rating 2)
Coin pouch (10 gp)
Bow
Quiver (6 arrows)
The Sage is, effectively, a Monk with a dash of Cleric. The Sage fights using a quarterstaff, may use bows, can heal allies at the expense of his own life, and posesses some psionic abilities: ESP (mind-reading), Paranormal Sight (seeing through "soft materials"), Levitation, and Exorcism.
Starting stats at rank 2:
Fighting Prowess: 7
Damage: 1 die
Psychic Ability: 7
Awareness: 6
Endurance: 10
Starting items at rank 2:
Quarterstaff
Ringmail Armour (armour rating 2)
Coin pouch (10 gp)
Bow
Quiver (6 arrows)
Forget the mundane arts of swordplay. You can use a sword if you have to, but your true forte is in the manipulation of occult powers of Sorcery.
The Enchanter is the wizard class, who needs to prepare spells in a slightly convoluted manner. There's a list of spells, you know all of them, and may prepare any number of them, but every prepared spell reduces your Psychic Ability stat (i.e. your spellcasting stat), making successful casting more difficult. Naturally, preparing more powerful spells reduces your Psychic Ability by a greater amount than less powerful spells.
Starting stats at rank 2:
Fighting Prowess: 6
Damage: 1 die - 1
Psychic Ability: 8
Awareness: 6
Endurance: 10
Starting items at rank 2:
Sword
Silver Armour (armour rating 2)
Coin pouch (10 gp)
The Enchanter is the wizard class, who needs to prepare spells in a slightly convoluted manner. There's a list of spells, you know all of them, and may prepare any number of them, but every prepared spell reduces your Psychic Ability stat (i.e. your spellcasting stat), making successful casting more difficult. Naturally, preparing more powerful spells reduces your Psychic Ability by a greater amount than less powerful spells.
Starting stats at rank 2:
Fighting Prowess: 6
Damage: 1 die - 1
Psychic Ability: 8
Awareness: 6
Endurance: 10
Starting items at rank 2:
Sword
Silver Armour (armour rating 2)
Coin pouch (10 gp)
I'll post all the rules of combat, with all relevant details, once the game begins.
Player recruitment
The party can have only one member of each class. I am thus looking for one player for each class. Applications will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. If you post after someone else, wishing to join with the same class, I'll mark you as a "second", and you'll be the intended replacement if the primary player drops out.
Current roster:
Warrior: Grimmend
Trickster: Shatari
Sage: - Moose!
Enchanter: Xardob
Let's see if this works out. It's probably going to be fun!
