City of Thieves

Background - 

So it is still 1983 and we are already up to book 5 in the series.  The guys were fairly pumping them out at this stage.  Its back round to Ian Livingston again and he sticks with the same formula for the gameplay.  While Steve was changing the rules each time Ian was keeping it simple and instead experimenting with locations.  After giving us the first outdoor adventure in Forest of Doom he now takes us into a fully fledged city.  I have played this a few times and I seem to remember that its quite good.  Pretty sure there are some items to hunt down as well, including some hag's hair I think?

Covers - 

So the same art was used for the original, green zig zag and the dragon editions so I will just show this one as the its the one I have.  

So we have the main villain on the front page.  One Zanbar Bone.  Trying to look menacing with his scythe, I just never found it intimidating even as a kid.  Maybe its his lovely bone ruffle he sports.

The city in the background I really like as a picture, but not as a city.  It looks smaller than the Citadel of Chaos.  

But I guess the biggest talking point is the severed head on a spike, on a children's book....

 

Funnily enough when Wizard republished City of Thieves they dropped the old cover for a completely different cover.  Now we are in a tavern and looks like we have met some thieves.  Appropriate.  Its ok but a couple of issues from me.  The green goblin guy I can not take seriously.  If that is meant to be a menacing look it has failed.  But my biggest complaint is the Word 97 clipart that's been used for the items on the table. 

I draw your attention to the mugs of ale in particular.

Can Scholastic do any better with their cover?  Well its gone back to the main man Zanbar Bone.  He is in a city as well so check.  To be honest even though its not my cup of tea its the best scholastic one so far.  It certainly better than the Wizard effort.

And here we go, always a highlight its the US cover!  Wait a minute, what's going on here?   Its actually pretty good?!  I mean Zanzibar actually looks pretty scary here.  And the city in the background I really like.  Oh no, if these start being good what will I take the piss out of?  

Wait what's that there?

Is that a tongue?  A giant nose?

What the hell is this guy?  Well just as well he and his ridiculous appendage were here or the US cover might have taken home the spoils as the best cover and ruined my running joke.

Premise - 

Well, well.  City of Thieves has five and a half pages of background!  Its got a whole story of setup.  Lets see, I am already a famous adventurer and when I appear in a village people come out to see a dragon slayer.  Well if I hope my skill score reflects these dragon slaying abilities.  Anyway we pick up when I arrive at Silverton.  Normally a well off place something is clearly amiss as when nightfall arrives everyone starts running to get indoors.  

I causally make my way over to the Old Toad inn and before I can be served the innkeeper locks the door with quite a ridiculous amount of bolts.  Still waiting to get served someone starts frantically knocking at the door and the innkeeper has to go back through the whole process of opening all the locks, letting the man in and then locking up again.  At this rate I will never get served.

Anyway it turns out my fame has once again preceded me and the mayor of Silverton, Owen Carralif, has come to speak to me.  Finally we sit down and he treats me to a slap up meal and relates a story of woe.  Ten days ago two of Zanbar Bone spirit stalkers arrived demanding the town hand over the mayors daughter.  Going by his erm skeleton appearance, I am not sure what he would want with the young lady.  I am going to assume its not the usual reasons.  Anyway they of course say no and this apparently upsets Zanbar so much that he send in the Moon Dogs!

The first night the Moon Dogs attacked without warning, killing 23, and they have appeared every night since.  Now as soon as night hits people lock up their doors and hide as the moon dogs have the run of Silverton.  There is even talk of sending Owen's daughter to Zanbar which as you can imagine he is not keen on this option.  

But it's ok as our pal Owen has a plan.  He has an old wizard friend called Nicodemus who he is sure will help him.  Only problem is that he is in Port Blacksand, the City of Thieves.  He gives me 30 gold pieces up front and also a sword which I can keep.  Things take a bit of a weird turn here when we get a long description of the detail on the sword which ends with the line "You have never wanted anything so badly in your life before."  Wait what?  What kind of person am I and what life have I lived that I have not wanted something so badly before?  I am starting to feel less like a hero and more like a psychopath.

I spend the night in the Old Toad Inn but I do not have a good nights sleep due to the Moon Dogs howling and sniffing around.  Its all very good stuff and atmospheric but if I am capable of killing a Dragon I do not know why I don't just go out there with my new shiny sword and kill them?  Well I guess because that would not be a great game book.

Playthrough -

Its back to a standard set up.  We have the fancy sword, leather armour, ten provisions and a potion of my choice.

Skill - 9

Stamina - 23

Luck - 7

Not great Skill and terrible Luck score.  For that reason I decide to take the potion of fortune with me.

So a quick description of the trip to Port Blacksand followed by a description of the sights and smells of the city as you approach.  But before I can get into the city you have to get past the guard.

Why would a city full of thieves care about who came into their city?

Now I will talk about the artwork in that section but wow, easily the best art so far to start the adventure.  Anyway I have the choice of being honest, lying or attacking.  Well as its an evil place I decide to use the same strategy as Citadel of Chaos and act like I am a bad guy (that and my skill is too low to fight my way through).  I tell him I have stolen some silver chalices from Silverton and need to fence them.  Of course he wants to check them out first.  I tell him that's a bad idea as they are cursed and I need to find a wizard to help.  Hopefully this will lead to him pointing out Nicodemus's location.  But he does not, instead saying its a likely story (I imagine very sarcastically) but lets me in as I am no different to the rest of the people in here.  Now I am very confused, do they turn good people away?  Anyway I give him three gold coins for advice, hoping to learn my lesson on not getting the crows advice in Forest of Doom.  Its not great, he just tells me if I am caught without a pass I will be killed so get one as soon as possible.  No advice on how to get one.  Surprised that its not something the guards at the gate deal with!

So as usual its the old East, West, North choice to start but at least this one has a bit of flavor, as it also provides street names.  Key street sounds obvious though as most adventures need a key of some kind so I head that way.  Right enough it was a literal description as I arrive at a locksmiths.

Not sure why a Dwarf would have a tall key cutting machine.

So I can ask him for a Skeleton Key or if he know where to find Nicodemus.  I ask for a key first as in an adventure in a city about a man named Bone makes me think I will need one.  Costs 10 gold though but sure its worth it.  But then to my horror I just leave.  Wait I want to ask about the wizard as well?  Could have easily had an option that said if you have not already asked him about Nicodemus you can ask now or leave.

The street swings North and an urchin appears to give me a note which says six bows are trained on me, leave 10 gold to pass.  It says if I do that I will lose 2 luck points.  Well my luck is already low and this place is called the city of thieves so its probably a scam so I walk on.  

Well it was not a scam.  You have to roll a dice and lose 3 stamina for each hit.  Of course I roll a 6 and lose 18 stamina in one go!  And what's even worse?  I still loose 2 luck points!!  One street along and already clinging to life.  I decide to drink my potion of fortune to go up to 8 luck and four meals!  Not entirely sure how eating more and more food helps with all the arrows sticking out of me but hopefully it helps me not have a really short adventure.  Brutal.

I am told I feel like a pincushion and a little girl beckons me to enter a house.  Erm after that experience no thanks I will keep moving away from this area.  

As I walk along I see one house with a welcome sign in front of it.  I pop my head in and see some stairs, a small gold scorpion and a small silver scorpion.  I do not like 50/50 choices.  I pick up the gold one and I get 2 luck points for having a nice broach.  Sigh, I just restored my Luck with the potion.  Now I get all the options again like I should have had at the locksmiths!  No way I am touching the other one so I have a wander up the stairs.

Oh hello mam,  Is this where I pay for the lovely broach?

Its a Lizardine and it is outraged I have stolen a broach and fights me.  Wait the sign said welcome and I do not get the option to pay for it?  What kind of enterprise are you running here?  Skill 8 means this will be close and it also has a fire attack which has a 50/50 chance of hitting me for more damage every round.  I manage to win and only lose 6 stamina points which is not a disaster.  I find 4 gold coins which I scoop up and option to pick up a bronze scorpion broach.  After getting lucky with the first one I decide not too touch any other broaches and move along.  

Where I am stopped by the guards and asked if I have a pass.  Of course I do not so a battle ensues but luckily they attack one at a time.  Also the city guard appear to be some of the weaker creatures in Port Blacksand so I only take one hit.  Still I have another meal to get my stamina back up to 17.  Already half my provisions are gone.   I am rewarded though with 7 gold pieces, a set of keys and some stale bread so I am glad I did not have the pass.

As I walk on I see a pair boots on a rubbish pile that look about my size and asked if I want to try them on?  No  I do not!  Why would anyone who is already wearing perfectible good boots see a pair in a rubbish heap and want to just try them on?

I arrive at a four way junction complete with street names but in typical fashion I see a crowd and decide to follow them North, always being forced North in these things.  All the commotion is people throwing rotten fruit and eggs at an unlucky man.

My character take these eggs (No choice) and joins in with the bullying.

I do not get any other option but she pick pockets me for 1 gold piece as well.  Maybe that's a fair price for some eggs to throw.  The note says Ye Good Two Shoes. I make a mental note it does not pay to be a hero in Port Blacksand.  I go to the food stalls and get a nice hot fresh meal for 1 gold.  It only restores 2 stamina points which makes me question what the hell is in my provisions?!  A man then offers to play a song of fortune on his lute for 3 gold.  I decline his offer and move on to the next stalls.  

Did not go well for the last guy.

I am offered a game of drop the cannonball.  The prize is that the loser pays 5 gold to the other.  Well I am not short of gold and I guess its skill based and my Skill of 9 is not great so I decline.  Plus he has clearly oiled up which would no doubt make the cannon ball all slippery.

Next stall has some stuff for sale so I decide to buy it all.  I pick up a throwing knife, climbing rope, butchers meat hook, iron spike and a lantern.  Hopefully the folks of the city of thieves did not see me splashing the cash!

Next stop is at a fortune teller which as its a fantasy world I decide to check it out.  

Unlike Mystic Meg this one actually gives me some useful information!

2 gold pieces is all it costs and tells me the person I am looking for is to the North and lives under a bridge in a hut.  But be careful he does not like visitors.  She then looks horrified and shoos me out.  No doubt she has seen my inevitable death.

So I head North to bridge street (no choice, so not sure I needed the information I just got).  It starts to rain and I see a derelict house with the option to shelter in it.  Hmm how bad must it be for a house to be derelict in this place.  I decide to put up with the rain.  

I have arrived at the bridge!

I get the option to wait for the one legged man crossing the bridge but as the other option is to go down the stairs I take that instead, trusting in Mystic Megs advice.

And sure enough I find Nicodemus's hut.  He is not happy but as soon as I tell him about Owen in Silverton he changes.  He says he is too old to do anything about it himself but he will tell me how to defeat Zanbar Bone myself.

You seem a rational and sensible person, how should I defeat Zanbar Bone? 

So I have to fight him at night as during the day he exists on another plane!  I have to shoot him with a silver arrow.  And then rub in some paste into his eyes made of black peril, hags hair and a lotus flower.  Sounds difficult enough but by far the best part is what I am told I need to do to protect from his stare.  I need to get the tattoo of a unicorn in a yellow sun on my forehead...

What in the blue hell is Ian thinking about here?  I am all for suspending disbelief for fantasy but who would do this?  At this point I say thanks and take my remaining gold and my nice sword and leave Port Blacksand to find another adventure which does not feature having to tattoo my forehead.  Oh wait no I am told I continue on.

Next choice is Candle Street or Harbour Street.   Well looking at my shopping list I think ill head for the harbour as black perils are associated with pirates and probably best place to find them.  I see an alley way and decide to investigate as I need to find objects.  All I find are some wild dogs which I have to dispatch and nothing else.  

Walking down the street I hear a carriage coming down the street.

Will you jump out of the way or stand your ground?

I jumped out of the way as they shout its Lord Azzur, he is not going to stop for a nobody like me.  But the driver whips me as I dive out of the way and lose 1 stamina point.  But with that I find myself at the harbour.

Well what do you know, a Pirate ship!  And for the avoidance of doubt a Pirate is photobombing in the corner long before the invention of the camera.

Do you want to board the ship?  Hell yeah!  I decide to go for the Assassins Creed approach as I climb up the netting and sneak below decks to avoid any combat.  I hear snoring from a room and decide to check it out.

Sleeping off hangovers.

I get the option to cut the leather purse from the pirate neck.  Looking at it in the picture, well it could contain pearls.  I go for it and fail miserably.  I have to fight all three pirates.  I take a few hits but dispatch them and find 6 black pearls!  Great news.  I sit down and eat another meal before going through the next door.  There is waiting bath and I get the option to be a pervert and wait and see who comes for a bath.  I really don't want to but its too intriguing and option for a blog writer to ignore so I wait and the captain appears.  Once he is in the bath I press my sword against his neck for information.  He tells me to get a silver arrow speak to Ben Borryman on clog street.  My voyeurism has paid off, maybe not a great message for kids!

I leave the ship and immediately go to clog street to look for this silversmith.  There I see a fallen child and go to help.  But its a trick and actually a goblin thief.  Luckily he has terrible stats and I kill him.  2 more gold in the pouch, some old knucklebones and a clove of garlic (Vampire alert).  I find Ben's shop and go in.  You have the option to attack him but I speak to him instead.  He will make a silver arrow for 10 gold, luckily I still had 14 left so I give him the money and check off another quest item.  

Next I can go down Tower Street or Stable Street.  Well I do not need a horse so I go for Tower street.  I see a man getting attacked so I go to help.  Its a  tough battle against two robbers but I survive with 10 stamina left.  The man takes me to the Hog and Frog Inn and gives me a drink and some ointment which restores 5 stamina but that's it.  No essential items.

As I continue on I see men with sacks on the bridge above me.  I shout out and they shoot me with a crossbow.  One failed luck test later (I have not been lucky once) another 3 stamina points go.  I eat two more meals and carry on under the bridge.  I find the junction with stable street and instead of going south down stable street I am once again forced North.  What does Ian have against the direction South?

After speaking to a blacksmith and not having anywhere near enough gold to pay for a chainmail coat I am next accosted by a man with a ball and chain around his leg trying to escape the guard.  He says he was robbed and could no longer afford his taxes so he was thrown in jail.  I decide to try and help him by cutting the chains with my sword but it bounces off (But I have a Skeleton Key and a set of keys from guards I killed earlier).  The guards arrive and looking at my stamina and dwindling provisions I decide to pretend I caught him.  They buy it and give me 5 gold coins, they say he was a murderer so I do not feel too bad.  

Wandering on I come to the public gardens.  It only cost 1 gold for entry and well I am looking for a Lotus flower so probably the best place to be.  

Oh look, the bushes have been cut in the shape of animals, I wonder what is going to happen?

Well I find the Lotus Flowers but it says their is a sign saying do not pick the flowers.  Well I have no choice I need them so here we go.  I am asked if I have a ring of fire.  Only after a curry so no.  Its a fight against the leaf beasts instead.  Luckily they are not as tough as they appear to be and I only get hit once.  I run out of the garden with another item from the shopping list!

We now travel onto Mill Street and because I am now searching everywhere for fear of missing an item I go down another alley.  I have found the tattooist.  I explain my daft need but I can not afford his price of 10 gold as I only have 8.  Luckily it is not game over as he sends me next door to the pawn brokers.  I sell my scorpion broach and knucklebones for 11 gold.  So I get my tattoo and check in the mirror, I find my appearance strange and shrug my shoulders...again what kind of person is ok with this?!

As I leave I see two troll guards, who are apparently Elite guards.  I can walk past them or climb a tree and jump over the wall.

They do not loo particularly elite to me.

I decide as I have a fresh probably bleeding unicorn tattoo on my head to walk past.  Cant imagine they will want to mess with such a clear psychopath.  It does not work though and again I do not have a merchants pass so I can either give them all my gold and get kicked out of the city or spend a year in jail.  I give them the gold apart from 1 that I hide and I am literally kicked in the ass out of the north gate.  

It is here I get asked if I have everything I need but I am missing the hags hair.  I am told it is too dangerous to go back to Port Blacksand so I must journey back to Silverton and report my failure.  My adventure is over.

Wait a minute, I just got a bloody tattoo of a bloody unicorn in a sun on my forehead and my character gives up like that!!!??  I have black perils, lotus flower, a silver arrow!  Lets go back to Silverton, tell Owen the plan and get some help.  Their must be hags in other locations than Port Blacksand!  I like to think of the adventure myself, Owen and a band from Silverton go on.  Getting the last ingredient and then going on to defeat Zanbar Bone.  Hopefully I use the reward money on laser surgery to remove the tattoo.  

Notable Moments - 

You mean more notable than getting a unicorn tattoo on your forehead?  Lets have a look. 

If I could had started my adventure going up Market Street I would have come across the Spotted Dog Inn.  Now my friend has a shed converted into a pub in his back garden also called the spotted dog but this on appears nothing like it.  Certainly sounds friendly but you go in and its not the most welcoming.

This is a local pub for local people.

What I really liked was the sheer amount of options in here.  Not being served by the barman who summons a troll bouncer to throw you out.  Playing a game of chance with Dwarfs, playing a game of don't stab yourself or even getting into a fight with some goblins.  It is very atmospheric and varied.

One of the more bizarre encounters is when you hear a commotion and decide to go into a house to investigate and find these two.

Erm ok.

They are two old women who dress and act like children.  They are fighting over toys to torture.   You do not really interact much with them other than drinking their foul tasting soup.  I just want to know what was going through Ian's mind when he came up with this idea.

But my favorite encounter that I missed is this one - 

Love the score boards in the background.

So you come across a small stadium and climb in to find a bunch of creatures called Bays playing a game.  The game is called.....wait for it...... Bays Ball.  Yep turns out Ian likes baseball and managed to get it into a gamebook.  You basically hit a home run and are mobbed as a hero or miss and get mobbed by an erm, angry mob.  Its a shame as might have been able to do a bit more here.  Funnily enough Games Workshop would end up making a game based on a fantasy version of an American sport.

Blood Bowl is my all time favorite game.

Artwork - 

So Iain McCaig is doing the internal illustrations for the first time.  And he is making writing a comedy blog very hard.  The reason for this?  Well just look at the art in the playthrough.  Its fantastic.  If you have read the previous posts you will know that I hate a blank or poor background.  Well finally we have detailed backgrounds and they are fantastic.  From as soon as you arrive in Port Blacksand and see all the madness in the background it really immerses you in it.  And do not take away the fact that the main picture also looks great.  Its Fighting Fantasy at its very best here.

The Serpent Queen, a mix of Princess Leia and a Snake!

In the bottom left of the beggar  picture there is a discarded copy of white dwarf!

Look at the detail of the Man-Orcs shop!

The Silversmith before he swallows his key when you attack him.

I told you when I found the garlic there would be a vampire.

When you look at the previous entries then this art is just in another league.  Especially coming straight off the heels of Starship Traveller.  I can only assume Ian blew the art budget on his book leaving Steve to have to get the local primary school to do the artwork for his boom.  

I do like Russ Nicholson's art but a lot of the time its too empty.  Just compare the Giant rats from warlock to the Giant rats in City of Thieves - 

Only one winner I am afraid.

The Big Bad -

Ok I may have thought his name was Zanzibar Bone when I was younger so I got a bit of a shock to find its actually Zanbar.  So the build up of his threat is pretty good but to be honest when I was running around Port Blacksand I kind of forgot about him.  But once you are thrown out you move to his tower as the final location.  The best part I liked about his tower is that unlike your typical bad guy he is not at the top!  You can go right past him, all the way to the roof before having to go back down to his location.  When you do find him, he is tough.  For a start he is disguised as a cat, yep really.  Unless you pick up another item in the tower you do not see this illusion and you are dead.  If you do get past this and he is revealed bet hope your luck is still high as you need to pass a luck test to make the shot with the silver arrow.  And then when you apply the paste you have a 33.33% chance of having the right combination.  There is a 2/3rd chance that you have the wrong combo at which point you die.  There is no way to engage him in hand to hand combat so even skill 12 killing machine heroes will have no advantage here.  Its a very tough final boss but it is possible.

He is upset about being Skeletor's less famous brother.

Actually we should take inspiration from - Grumpy Skeletor and have a parody FF account of some kind.

Menagerie - 

As you would expect there are a quite a few encounters with thieves, gangs and vagabonds.  But although most encounters are human related there still feels like quite a variety of enemies.  The city guards Sournose and Fatbelly are particularly tough and interesting.  If you go down a sewer to find a hag you can come across a giant centipede.  The Hag herself can be pretty tough.  I particularly like when you are in the rich persons house that they set a Fire Imp after you.  You can pretty much get into a fight with most shopkeepers.  Ian introduces a Man-Orc which shows a more cross breeding after the Gark appeared in Citadel of Chaos.  The serpent queen though is a bizarre combination but it show even this early they are trying to think of new monsters to encounter. 

It feels more natural having these creatures all in this city as it is described as a wretched place.  But as soon as we move to Zanbar's tower everything changes to an undead theme, eg.  Vampie, Zombies, Skeletons so it is thematic.   I just found it a bit jarring after Port Blacksand.  You do have to fight two moon dogs though that you can not avoid just outside the tower.  A skill 9 and skill 10 so I doubt I would have been able to win this battle.  This means you need a high skill score to get to Zanbar.  If things like the chainmail gave you +2 attack rather than +2 skill then a low skill hero would have a chance but the rules do not read that way.  Something that could easily be changed in later editions.

Entertaining Deaths - 

When you are trying to avoid Sournose you can elect to climb up a tree onto the city walls.  This can led to twenty guards appearing and arresting you.  After being taken to the dungeons, Sourbelly and Fatnose beat you up a bit and then sentence you to five years!

But what better is if you try and jump off the wall, where you land badly and break your neck.  Adventure over.  

But the award has to go to this one.  After you arrive at Zanbar's tower (either as a guest or you broke in) you find a bedroom where you get the option to have a sleep.  Unsurprisingly this will result in some poison gas being released from the bed during the night and you are added to Zanbar's undead army.  I mean who gets to the big bads lair and then decides, well you know what, I sleep in a strange bed in a strange room of the person I am going to kill is just what I need right now?

Pete's Corner - 

Don't eat the Hags Stew, Because I am in it.

Pete's head, like so many others, is now staked outside Port Blacksand

Final Thoughts - 

Right let me get the negativity out of the way.  First their is a street called Candle Street, but the candlemaker shop is in Clogg Street?  What the hell!?

My main gripe is how my adventurer ended, because in the very next paragraph Nicodemus sends you a letter which says he has got the ingredients wrong and you only need two!  I had two!   It should have given you the option that if you had two you make that type of potion.  Ok I did not have the correct ones but it would have been nice to be able to keep going.  

Also sometimes in Port Blacksand you get the option to backtrack, which is great and much needed but crucially as I went up tower street I could not backtrack to the part of stable street that led to the sewer so there is a crucial 50/50 decision choice.  And a strange decision to have yet another required item in the tower itself.

These gripes aside, I really enjoyed this book.  The atmosphere that is generated in the writing and the artwork really comes through.  Port Blacksand and the city setting really works well.  Even from the start with the longer background setting, you really feel you are in a story.  I loved the Moondogs keeping you awake as you try and sleep in the inn.  Then reaching and exploring Port Blacksand is great.  You really feel you are in claustrophobic and dangerous city with plenty of varied encounters.

And oh man that artwork, it really is inspired and shows what a difference it can make to the story.  I am hoping Ian McCaig is on pen duty more during this series.  

Easily the best one of the series so far.

Score - 8 out of 10