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Post by HuntingWolf on Feb 28, 2006 17:52:03 GMT
Ha. You all are silly. Hm. Maybe Joe could write about where Landar's older brother Jen gets eaten by the Storhg(spelling), his mother and sister cry their eyes out, then the next day some fella from the Kai Monastary comes to Dage looking for kids to become Kai, and Joe could have you do some wild test to prove your worth. I dunno. I like to ramble.
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Post by anotherknight on Feb 16, 2010 15:49:44 GMT
There is something i cannot understand in The Captives of Kaag. I´m in the section 181 with the puzzle. I chose the section 8. And suddenly i´m taking Banedon without any introducing. I do not know how Banedon appeared without any explanation. Perhaps i read this book too fast and i overlooked the encounter with Banedon but i´m not sure. Can anyone resolve me this question?.
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Post by outspaced on Feb 16, 2010 16:12:22 GMT
(Pssst. The answer to the puzzle in Section 181 isn't 8... )
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Post by anotherknight on Feb 16, 2010 18:47:15 GMT
So, it´s funny.Because i thought the 20 was too obvious. But the casual thing is that the section 8 opens the door of another puzzle...No?.
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Post by outspaced on Feb 16, 2010 22:58:41 GMT
Yup!
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Post by Zipp on Feb 17, 2010 6:26:49 GMT
I've decided that the Prisoners of Time is the worst book in the series. For a book which is supposed to take you into a bizarre otherworld, it's pretty boring and blase with a lot of ideas and characters that never seem to see clear development but just sort've show up and then leave. And some stupidly hard fights.
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Post by anotherknight on Feb 17, 2010 14:16:10 GMT
Only agree to the "hard fights" stuff.
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Post by johntfs on Mar 4, 2010 2:58:57 GMT
Favorite book for me was The Kingdoms of Terror. And not even because of the Silver Bow, which is like the Sommerswerd of Bows. It's the SommerBow. No, what I like most is the way that LW becomes a citizen of his world. One thing that got me tired was the way that almost everyone treats LW as super-special.
In TKoT, most people don't know who you are. And they don't care, even if they know. These are people with inns to run, bows to win and cities to take. And if you help them out they're cool, otherwise, they don't have time for you. Plus, so many characters who are as interesting as you are. Roark was a better villain than the Darklords and Vonatar put together. And I love the one Merc captain who'll give you a ride to Tekaro just because you seem like his kind of badass. Plus, the bit where he smashes the one pirate's brain out and quips is just great. I really wish we could've seen that guy again sometime.
Beyond that there's the whole sense of the pressure easing off for once. You're not in some desperate race to retrieve/destroy/kill the Thingamabob of Doohikyland. You're on your own personal quest and you get to relax a little bit, enjoy the scenery and actually meet the people who populate the world you're supposed to be saving.
Worst book beyond question is Fire on the Water. You know this because you are at your safest point in the book when battling hordes of undead on a burning enemy flagship. Much of the book is a frightening struggle to obtain the weapon that will save your life. No, not the Sommerswerd, that stupid Magic Spear.
First, you have to take the correct road (this after making sure you have enough gold to survive the coach trip). Then you have to blindly try to help the speared "man" not be dissuaded by either the Szalls or your own eyes after you look into his pouch. Or by the fact that one of those paragons of virture, a Kight of the White Mountain, is lying dead beside the "poor injuried man" who most likely killed him. Then, after surviving the resulting surprise attack by the Helghast, you have to keep the spear and not give it to Rhyger. Because as written, if you give it to Rhygar, or you don't have it in the first place, you die. It's only if you have the spear that you get a chance to use Animal Kinship to avoid the Helghasts that you'd automatically kill with the Spear anyway.
Probably the thing I hated most about FotW was the "delayed death" syndrome. In most of the books, if you screw up a decision, you pretty well die right there. In this one you can waste a lot of time playing with zero chance of success. There are two or three points where you can make the wrong decision and go through multiple passages before meeting your ultimately inevitable death. There's lacking gold (or a ticket) on the coach ride. There's losing the Seal of Hammerdal. And, of course, that stupid Magic Spear that requires a very specific and not very realistic path to acquire.
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Post by Peregrine on Mar 4, 2010 9:47:28 GMT
Favorite book for me was The Kingdoms of Terror. And not even because of the Silver Bow, which is like the Sommerswerd of Bows. It's the SommerBow. Shouldn't that be the Sommerbew? Not in the Project Aon version!Agree absolutely. If you lose the Seal of Hammerdal, you have to charge headlong at the first opportunity you're given to recover it, or you're never presented with it again. No explanation as to why. And the lack-of-money problem is... annoying.
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Post by johntfs on Mar 4, 2010 18:27:26 GMT
Favorite book for me was The Kingdoms of Terror. And not even because of the Silver Bow, which is like the Sommerswerd of Bows. It's the SommerBow. Shouldn't that be the Sommerbew? It probably should, but it's not going to be. The goofy spelling of "swerd" is plenty for me. True, but I when I replay I stay with the physical books that I have. For that matter, the whole coach trip itself is irritating. You're telling LW can't just swipe a horse in town? After all he has no problem doing it in that village later on. For that matter, the whole confronting the murderer scene is slightly absurd. After Parsion is dead, you find So, you see all this crap, and presumably so does everybody else in the room, one of whom is the skilled Adventuress, Viveka and two of whom are Knights of the Freaking White Mountain. So, why can't you just pull out the Seal of Hammerdal and point out that Parsion was the scumbag who killed the driver and tried to kill you? For that matter, why do you run off when you find all that stuff in the Helghast's pouch (assuming he's not already dead? He's on the ground, helpless, with the Magic Spear in his chest. Can't you just drive it in deeper and finish it off? You know, the way you can do later on in Tarnelin.
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Post by Peregrine on Mar 5, 2010 2:35:26 GMT
It probably should, but it's not going to be. The goofy spelling of "swerd" is plenty for me. It's not goofy, it's archaic, don'tcha know. (Straight from Thomas Malory: "...but she was fals, for the swerd and the scauberd was counterfeet...".) And/or it's Scandinavian -- "sommer" is modern Norwegian for "summer", and while I don't think "swerd" is the modern spelling of "sword" in any language, it's an old spelling in several languages besides English. Sommerlund in general is rife with faux-Scandinavian naming. Actually, so is much of Magnamund... Darklord Haakon, anybody? ("Mund", on the other hand, may look it, but "mund" in Old English and related languages meant "hand" or "protector" -- "mund" meaning "world", as in "mundane" and cognates, is Latin. As is "magna", despite Magnus being a popular Scandinavian name. Wikipedia has an interesting theory on how this came about.) This language geekery brought to you by the letter Æ, the number e, and Peregrine's late starts on Friday mornings.Well and good, but can't you make an exception in this case? Or at least, play it the way the first printings had it (the "you must get the Spear, or die" situation was from a later edition). I expect that would convince Viveka, Ganon and Dorier, but not the innkeeper nor the bumpkin town guards running at you, who aren't likely to stop for explanations. (I always liked to think that your companions saw the evidence for themselves after you'd fled and decided you weren't a mad murderer after all. It's incentive not to take the easy route and kill Halvorc. )
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Post by johntfs on Mar 5, 2010 4:39:14 GMT
It probably should, but it's not going to be. The goofy spelling of "swerd" is plenty for me. It's not goofy, it's archaic, don'tcha know. (Straight from Thomas Malory: "...but she was fals, for the swerd and the scauberd was counterfeet...".) And/or it's Scandinavian -- "sommer" is modern Norwegian for "summer", and while I don't think "swerd" is the modern spelling of "sword" in any language, it's an old spelling in several languages besides English. Sommerlund in general is rife with faux-Scandinavian naming. Actually, so is much of Magnamund... Darklord Haakon, anybody? ("Mund", on the other hand, may look it, but "mund" in Old English and related languages meant "hand" or "protector" -- "mund" meaning "world", as in "mundane" and cognates, is Latin. As is "magna", despite Magnus being a popular Scandinavian name. Wikipedia has an interesting theory on how this came about.) This language geekery brought to you by the letter Æ, the number e, and Peregrine's late starts on Friday mornings.So the Darklands are actually near Sweden? You know, that explains a lot. How else can such a cold country produce such hot women. They've obviously cut a deal with Naar... My edition was first purchased back in 1984. I just replaced it with the same edition that was in better shape. That said, I previously editted mine to reflect the Aon changes. Though that still doesn't really help me much since I almost never play it with Animal Kinship. In fact, the various Animal skills are almost invariably the skill that's missing at the end of a series whether Kai, Magnakai or Grandmaster. Essentially what I do is just eliminate 102 as a choice and have the passage direct you to 118 regardless of your situation. Thus, if you have the Spear but not Animal Kinship, you'll be fine. If you don't have the Spear but have Animal Kinship, you'll also be fine. If you have neither, you're dead, but that would be true regardless. Incidentally, I think you should have a chance to talk to the Noodic with Camouflage as well as Animal Kinship. Camouflage lets you speak local dialects. Plus, having Camouflage robs you of your chance to get the Spear unless you completely ignore the Szalls and don't even bother to look in the Helghast's bag. If it's going to take away the Spear, Camouflage should also provide a way to survive without Plus, the Noodic have a language so Camouflage should let you understand it. In truth, Camouflage works much better than Animal Kinship for this since the Noodic are an intelligent race with language and greed for money. I submit that if revisions are ever done, Animal Kinship should be replaced by Camouflage in that section. True, but I kept expecting Ganon and Doner to be able to say "Hey, siddown and shut up! This man is no murderer! Leave him be!" since Knights of the White Mountain don't lie. And pretty much everybody there knows it since you're in Durenor at that point. But really it's the convoluted business with the Spear that annoys me the most
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Post by Zipp on Mar 17, 2010 2:37:42 GMT
It's worth pointing out that Book 2 is currently the ONLY book where my female Lone Wolf player did something common sense that contradicted the book's own choices. Rather than confront her murdering priest at the inn, she stole a horse and made away into the night.
Should totally be an option in the book.
But barring the rewriting of history, I agree that Book 2 feels forced. It is the only book where I'll see something written and say, outloud, "Hey, I didn't want to do that!"
Well, that and the last two books in the Magnakai series. Okay, hanging above the Daziarn in Torgar also counts.
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Post by Taryn on Mar 17, 2010 3:35:07 GMT
I agree with you there, Zipp. LW might be weak or just want to get out of there without causing any trouble.
Speaking of Book 2's railroading, I was rather disappointed that you can't stay on the Green Sceptre even to Ragadorn no matter what happens. Also, if you do things in the wrong order in Ragadorn after losing the Seal of Hammerdal, you lose your chance to get it back forever as JD just forces LW to get on the coach ASAP.
Also, section 134 >_< How do both forks and every choice after passing the Noodnic (if it's there) lead to the same place?
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Post by Oiseau on Mar 18, 2010 23:39:23 GMT
How do both forks and every choice after passing the Noodnic (if it's there) lead to the same place? This happens a few times over the LW series, especially in enclosed spaces. Another example that comes to mind : Section 190 in Book 3. Heading either north or south leads to the same cave ! ^_^
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