Monday, October 3, 2022

Live or Die: The Choice is Yours

7 comments:

  1. I instantly recalled seeing this cover in my local games shop, but only knowing what I know now does the Flint Dille stand out as seeming out of place!

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    1. what do we know about Dille?

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    2. Presumably it's something to do with his sister Lorraine Williams.

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    3. Yes, Flint Dille was Ms. Williams' sister and a key part of the Gygax/TSR dalliances with movies and television in California. Whatever one thinks of the work as a whole, Ben Riggs' recent book "Slaying the Dragon" has what strikes me as a good discussion of this period and these connections. As ever, other's mileage may differ.

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    4. He had a book out recently. The book was a lot of self-promotion and not much about the D&D years.

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  2. The UK book covers from Corgi (the first three are pictured above) were far better than the US covers from Archway, which, like the US publisher of Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf, presented the hero as a coming-of-age youngster, and thus had a very juvenile look to them.

    I was in love with all manner of solo adventure gamebooks in the 80s and the Sagard Saga was no exception, adding four more to my collection. It's presented differently than Fighting Fantasy/Lone Wolf/Tunnels and Trolls. Each "Section" has a title (like titles given to chapters in books) and varies in length from a few lines to a page-and-a-half, and ends with a choice or, usually, a fight. There are fewer sections and more fights in these than in Fighting Fantasies and the books progress in a mostly linear fashion.

    Despite that, or maybe because of it, I found them all entertaining! Each title being better than the one that preceded it.

    Combat is resolved by rolling a d4 and cross referencing the d4 roll with Sagard's level. Sagard starts book 1 as a Level 2 Fighter. The cross reference produces a number to deduct from the monster's hit points. Then you roll the d4 for the foe and cross reference its level with the die roll to deduct hit points from Sagard. I don't recall any other mechanic in the game. The tougher fighter is the one with a combination of more hit points and a higher level.

    All in all, most gamers would find the four book Sagard Saga surprisingly enjoyable I think, with game-stories better than the solo adventures produced for most of the fully fleshed out RPGs (RuneQuest, T&T, and the dreadful solos for D&D), but probably not quite as good as those created to be solo only (Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, Way of the Tiger, etc.).

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  3. thought this was going to be a saw reference

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