Gaming
 

The Riddling Reaver (book)

From Titannica

Fighting Fantasy Role-Playing Book
Outline
Location Allansia, Titan
Publication Details
Author(s) Paul Mason &
Steve Williams, & edited by
Steve Jackson
Illustrator Brian Williams &
Leo Hartas
Puffin
Cover illustrator Peter Andrew Jones
First published November 20 1986
Number unnumbered
Previous Book Fighting Fantasy - The Introductory Role-Playing Game
Next Book Last in series
ISBN ISBN 0-14-032156-X
No Wizard Reprint


For other uses of The Riddling Reaver, see The Riddling Reaver (disambiguation)

The Riddling Reaver is a multi-player role-playing gamebook written by Paul Mason, Steve Williams, and edited by Steve Jackson, illustrated by Brian Williams and Leo Hartas and originally published in 1986 by Puffin Books. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It was not part of the main Fighting Fantasy gamebook series, but rather one of the many spin-offs. As a role-playing gamebook, it is most closely associated with the book Fighting Fantasy - The Introductory Role-Playing Game in that it is an attempt to extend the Fighting Fantasy concept into a more developed role-playing system, in a basic form. As such, it is an unnumbered addition to the Puffin series (ISBN 0-14-032156-X), often grouped with Fighting Fantasy - The Introductory Role-Playing Game in book listings. There are currently no announced plans to republish this book as part of the modern Wizard series.

Contents

[edit] Creation

[edit] Background

“ Four Fighting Fantasy episodes to be played as separate adventures or as stages in an epic adventure!

The Riddling Reaver is an opponent worthy of the most daring adventurers. His mind is inscrutable — but there is no doubt about the chaos he plans to unleash on the world. He must be stopped, despite the hazards of the task!

This book is a follow-up to Fighting Fantasy: The Introductory Role-Playing Game. It contains instructions and scenarios so that you, as GamesMaster, can conure up adventures for your friends, and send them on their most dangerous and puzzling mission yet — to confront the Riddling Reaver.[1] 		”

The Riddling Reaver is a game designed to work with the basic rules of gameplay set out by Fighting Fantasy - The Introductory Role-Playing Game, working with a minimum of three players and a GamesMaster and a suggestion of "no more" than five players and a GamesMaster. The book requires the GamesMaster to have a copy of Fighting Fantasy and recommends having access to Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World and Out of the Pit for further information to enhance the gameplay. The adventure is divided into four "acts":

After crossing Allansia the players travel South to Kallamehr where they discover Baron Bluestone engaged in a fight atop a tower inside the city. This gets them involved in the plans of the Riddling Reaver who has plans to spread chaos across the continent.

[edit] Rules

The book in general follows the original rules set down in Fighting Fantasy - The Introductory Role-Playing Game.

[edit] Unique Rules

  • Unconsciousness is introduced where if a player's stamina score has been reduced to 0 they have been rendered unconscious rather than dead (a reduction to -1 or lower however counts as death). A dice roll (2d6) then determines how many minutes the player is unconscious.
  • Weapons creates differentiation between the damage various weapons can inflict and skill penalties for hard-to-use weapons such as a Morning Star or Two-Handed Sword.
  • Mighty Strike means a roll of double six results in a mortal blow to an opponent.
  • Magic allows one of the players to be a wizard. This comes at a cost of playing with the minimum stamina score of 14. The player is further penalised with a skill roll of 1d6 + 4. They however have the statistic of magic (2d6 + 6) which determines the number of spells available to the player. The spell list is: Creature Copy, ESP, Fire, Fool's Gold, Illusion, Levitation, luck, Shielding, skill, stamina, strength, and Weakness.

[edit] Equipment List

Unlike the previous book the players are not equipped with potions.

[edit] Cover and Illustrations

Covers

The original cover of the book was designed and illustrated by Peter Andrew Jones.

The Riddling Reaver through the years
1986 1987 1993
Zig-Zag Banner Dragon Format No Bronze-Foil
£1.951 £? £?
  1. Price of 1st Impression

Illustrations

The interior illustrations were by Brian Williams. Unlike the regular gamebooks, due to the smaller than usual number of references there is a larger number of full-page illustrations with roughly one per entry. There were 50 full page illustrations (not counting maps) and 5 minor repeated illustrations scattered throughout the text.

The colour map on the inside front cover and the interior black and white maps were by Leo Hartas. These black and white maps are to be found on pages: 26, 46, 72, 122, 152, 178 and 212.

[edit] Intertextual References

Both the Riddling Reaver and Kallamehr would feature in Slaves of the Abyss, written by Mason and Williams and published in 1988. The Reaver reappears later in Mason's solo gamebook Magehunter.

[edit] Prequel

A prequel exists in the form of The Dreaming Sands, a short multi-player adventure published in Issue 13 of Warlock magazine in which the Reaver also appears.

[edit] Other Media

[edit] Main Characters

[edit] Locations

[edit] Encounters

[edit] Further Notes

  • The Reaver's alias of "Cona Numdrum" is a play on the word "conundrum".

[edit] Errors

[edit] Dedication

To Carolina and my feet (without whom I would have
been unable to get up in the morning)

[edit] See Also

[edit] External Links

[edit] References

  1. ↑ The Riddling Reaver - Back Cover ("Adventure Gamebooks" Edition)
Steve Jackson
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
 The Citadel of Chaos
 Starship Traveller
 The Shamutanti Hills
 The Sorcery Spell Book
 Fighting Fantasy - The Introductory Role-playing Game
 Kharé - Cityport of Traps
House of Hell
 The Seven Serpents
 The House of Hell
 The Crown of Kings
 Appointment with F.E.A.R.
 Creature of Havoc
 The Riddling Reaver
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