Finaly i get into this ffproject. Garden of bone is short, damn good written and hard as fvck. Played 5th time and still cant finish it!
Drekketh Tue Feb 11 07:30:41 2020
Although a short and relatively easy adventure, prose and writing is beautiful.
AW Mon Apr 13 14:27:10 2020
Miss these books
Winner Thu Sep 17 13:00:55 2020
first try
Mage Thu Oct 21 02:01:33 2021
Another one down!
Cable Fri Nov 25 15:39:26 2022
Got em
YARD Thu Sep 14 14:06:26 2023
Another one of the bite-sized 50-ref adventures on here. I maintain that the format is nearly always too small, and at least 70 are needed (i.e. Lair of the Troglodytes) to help avoid the right path feeling insubstantial, as seen with many comments here. Perhaps the only exception I recall is The Cold Heart Of Chaos, which had a more reasonable main path length due to being a lot more linear (and heavy on skillchecks) than this and most other stories of this size. Well, and I guess Impudent Peasant! felt good at 50 refs and quite a bit of freedom, but it did seem to have a lot more text per ref than is usual for these stories as well.
The background here is VERY heavy on references to canon books, possibly setting a record of sorts. The adventure itself feels like Bad Moon Rising where your character can actually die - and not just because both are set in tombs! Besides that, I found the writing of some "action scenes" really reminiscent - refs like 6 or 45 (or the ultimately doomed alternative to 45) are just really cool. Generally, the writing flows well, there are a lot more incidental characters than you might expect from its length and they all do their best to leave an impression, and the final bad ending is actually quite impressive. I also like that unlike too many other stories, this one has been pretty thoroughly proofread already.
At the same time, I am really glad that there are two possible ways to win - in part because viable choices are good, sure, but mostly because one of those ways makes absolutely no sense.
SPOILER
What were those bellows even meant to do originally? Why on Titan did Lucius keep them there, in spite of his whole mistwalker habit? It feels about as contrived as the whole "bottle with powerful restorative potion just randomly floats down the river past your boat" in Rebels of the Dark Chasms.
END SPOILER
Some other encounters also seem weird, particularly considering your stated background.
SPOILER
How did you survive Deathtrap Dungeon in the first place if a single, old guy with a broken sword and Skill 6 was able to instantly kill you? Or indeed, if a single disembodied head was able to ambush you and immediately knock out your sword, regardless of Skill?
For that matter, an EMPTY BOTTLE dealing 4 damage (i.e. twice as much as a sword strike) is incredible, in a bad way. You would also think that someone who had survived a whole gamebook before would know wear a freaking helmet? Or should we take this as a sign that Hakasan Za really was the canonical protagonist of Deathtrap Dungeon, since she also does not seem to like helmets, as seen from the illustrations?
END SPOILER
Some comments on the mechanics as well.
SPOILER
At 14, you lose your sword and fight with a branch, of all things, yet receive no Skill penalty? Those heads are certainly weak enough that you would expect the penalty to be in place. (Not to mention you would expect the Dwarf's axe to be more effective than makeshift clubs.) There is also no Skill penalty at 44?
The Club is not actually added to inventory at 67/63.
Talking to Gunben makes no difference in how you choose to approach 7?
Does the scorpion instakill you at 54 if it wins a round, or only if it rolls double sixes?
Luck point additions are a little irrelevant in the digital version.
END SPOILER
Lastly, I mentioned that the story has already been proofread quite well, so there's not much for me to point out this time.