Let's all play Fabled Lands!

Fabled Lands is a one of a kind sandbox choose your own adventure. Unlike other CYOA books, you can go wherever you want at any time. There's also plenty of choice and consequence, and the gameworld changes depending on your actions through use of code words. It was originally meant to be 12 books, but only the first 6 were written by the authors, and fans are now working on completing the series. (book 9 is done and book 7 is in development)

And it has stats and levels. The stats are:

CHARISMA - the knack of befriending people
COMBAT - the skill of fighting
MAGIC - the art of casting spells
SANCTITY - the gift of divine power and wisdom
SCOUTING - the techniques of tracking and wilderness lore
THIEVERY - the talent for stealth and lockpicking
DEFENSE - kind of like armor or AC, works against the enemy's combat skill

There are skill checks involving all of these throughout the game.

The classes are:

Warrior

CHARISMA 3
COMBAT 6
MAGIC 2
SANCTITY 4
SCOUTING 3
THIEVERY 2
DEFENSE 8

Wayfarer

CHARISMA 2
COMBAT 5
MAGIC 2
SANCTITY 3
SCOUTING 6
THIEVERY 4
DEFENSE 7

Mage

CHARISMA 2
COMBAT 2
MAGIC 6
SANCTITY 1
SCOUTING 5
THIEVERY 3
DEFENSE 4

Rogue

CHARISMA 5
COMBAT 4
MAGIC 4
SANCTITY 1
SCOUTING 2
THIEVERY 6
DEFENSE 6

Priest

CHARISMA 4
COMBAT 2
MAGIC 3
SANCTITY 6
SCOUTING 4
THIEVERY 2
DEFENSE 4

Troubadour

CHARISMA 6
COMBAT 3
MAGIC 4
SANCTITY 3
SCOUTING 2
THIEVERY 4
DEFENSE 5

Finally there's permadeath since it's so hardcore but I'll be turning that off since it won't work well in a let's play.

So, I need recommendations.

Name:
Sex:
Class:

Bobbin Threadbare
Male
Troubadour

Dave Morris is probably the best gamebook author there is, but Fabled Lands totally sucks. The whole series is just a lot of tiny quests, uninteresting exploration, grinding, zero interesting characters and zero atmosphere. Kind of like Storm of Zehir, only without a cool end fight.

I'll let Andy pick the name since he let me name his Pokemon girl Bubbles.

Erebus, I disagree.

The adventures of Bobbin Threadbare.

The approach of dawn has turned the sky a milky grey-green, like jade. The sea is a luminous pane of silver. Holding the tiller of your sailing boat, you keep your gaze fixed on the glittering constellation known as the Spider. It marks the north, and by keeping it to port you know you are still on course.

The sun appears in a trembling burst of red fire at the rim of the world. Slowly the chill of night gives way to brazen warmth. You lick your parched lips. There is a little water sloshing in the bottom of the barrel by your feet, but not enough to see you through another day.

Sealed in a scroll case tucked into your jerkin is the parchment map your grandfather gave you on his death-bed. You remember his stirring tales of far sea voyages, of kingdoms beyond the western horizon, of sorcerous islands and ruined palaces filled with treasure. As a child you dreamed of nothing else but the magical quests that were in store if you too became an adventurer.

You never expected to die in an open boat before your adventures even began.

Securing the tiller, you unroll the map and study it again. You hardly need to. Every detail is etched into your memory by now. According to your reckoning, you should have reached the east coast of Harkuna, the great northern continent, days ago.

A pasty grey blob splatters on to the map. After a moment of stunned surprise, you look up and curse the seagull circling directly overhead. Then it strikes you – where there’s a seagull, there may be land.

You leap to your feet and scan the horizon. Sure enough, a line of white cliffs lie a league to the north. Have you been sailing along the coast all this time without realising the mainland was so close?

Steering towards the cliffs, you feel the boat judder against rough waves. A howling wind whips plumes of spindrift across the sea. Breakers pound the high cliffs. The tiller is yanked out of your hands. The little boat is spun around, out of control, and goes plunging in towards the coast.

You leap clear at the last second. There is the snap of timber, the roaring crescendo of the waves – and then silence as you go under. Striking out wildly, you try to swim clear of the razor-sharp rocks. For a while the undertow threatens to drag you down, then suddenly a wave catches you and flings you contemptuously up on to the beach.

Battered and bedraggled you lie gasping for breath until you hear someone walking along the shore towards you. Wary of danger, you lose no time in getting to your feet. Confronting you is an old man clad in a dirty loin-cloth. His eyes have a feverish bright look that is suggestive of either a mystic or a madman.

‘Well, well, well, what have we here, friends?’ asks the old man. He seems to be talking to someone next to him, although you are certain he is alone. ‘Looks like a washed up adventurer to me!’ he says in answer to his own question, ‘all wet and out of luck.’

He carries on having a conversation – a conversation that quickly turns into a heated debate. He is clearly quite mad.

‘Excuse me, umm, EXCUSE ME!,’ you shout above the hubbub in an attempt to grab the old man’s attention. He stops and stares at you.

‘Is this the Isle of the Druids?’ you ask impatiently.

‘Indeed it is,’ says the old man, ‘I see that you are from a far land, so it is up to me to welcome you to Harkuna. But I think you may have much to do here as it is written in the stars that someone like you would come. Your destiny awaits you! Follow me, young adventurer.’

The old man turns smartly about and begins walking up a path towards some hills. You can just see some sort of monolithic stone structure atop one of them.

‘Come on, come on, I’ll show you the Gates of the World,’ the old man babbles.

Follow him turn to 192
Explore the coast turn to 128
Head into the nearby forest turn to 257

It's an ambush (probably), but follow the guy.

Also, check the red Xes. This series has Russ Nicholson art and I want to see it.

During your short trip upward, the old man regales you with tales of your destiny and fate, continuously arguing with himself as he does so.

You reach a hill covered with a circle of large obsidian standing stones. Despite the bitter wind that blow across these hills the stones are unweathered and seem almost newly lain.

‘Here are the Gates of the World.’ says the mad old man.

The stones are laid in such a way that they form three archways, each carven with mystic symbols and runes of power.

‘Each gate will take you to a part of the world of Harkuna, though I know not where,’ explains the old man. Abruptly, he turns around and sets off down the hill, babbling to himself. His voice fades as he descends the hill, leaving you alone with the brooding stones and the howling wind.

There are three stone gates engraved with ancient runes. Each gate is marked with a name – Yellowport, Marlock City, and Wishport. From here, you can see the coast and the whole island, which is heavily forested.



Explore the coastline turn to 128
Head into the forest turn to 257
Step through the Yellowport arch turn to 8
Step through the Marlock City arch turn to 180
Step through the Wishport arch turn to 330

Jaime Lannister said:

Erebus, I disagree.

Click to expand...

Non-insulting and concise disagreement ? How can you call yourself a Codexer ?

They aren't the worst gamebooks ever (if only because the Fighting Fantasy series has some truly godawful books). But I was disappointed by the lack of depth and never felt immersed in the "story". Let's see if you prove me wrong !

Also, let's explore the forest. It'll be a nice change for our hero after being lost at sea.

Fuck the forest, go explore the coastline! Maybe there'll be some shells to pick up and turn into a necklace or something that you can give to some pretty girl and then you can marry her maybe?

I need a tiebreaker vote! Forest or coastline?

Coastline.

(Also I've been trying to play this hardcore with flapp and I want to punch something. Just brutal.)

Coastline it is.

You make your way around the coast. The interior of the island appears to be heavily forested. After a while, however, you come to a bay in which a couple of ships are anchored. A small settlement nestles on the beach, and you make your way towards it.

The Trading Post is a small village, set up here by enterprising settlers from the mainland. Its main export appears to be furs from the forest.

The Mayor, a fat genial fellow, who greets you personally, insists that one day the Trading Post will be a thriving town. There is not a lot here yet, however: a small market, a quay, the settler’s houses, and a shrine to Lacuna the Huntress, goddess of nature.

Visit the shrine to Lacuna turn to 544
Visit the market turn to 452
Visit the quayside turn to 332
Visit the Green Man Inn turn to 181
Climb the hill that overlooks the town turn to 11
Go inland, into the Old Forest turn to 257

Climb the hill, see what's up there.

Let's head for the Inn, it's more traditional at the beginning of an adventure.

I think we just came from the hill. I second inn.

The inn has no quests and we are at full stamina, so resting is pointless.

We did indeed come from the hill.

Any other suggestions?

Go to the market. Because troubadours hang out in markets.

We're too poor for the market and we don't have a ship for the quayside.

That leaves the shrine, the hill, and the forest.

GO. BACK. TO. THE. HILL.

Godfuckingdammit people!

The Shrine, so we can LARP a paladin

I say forest.

The Hill.

Shrine!

Forest