#15 Guide for Rings of Kether
We've had a brief trip back to normality, time to go back to screwing with the rules.
As with most of the books set in space, you need to roll stats for your ship. Weapon Strength (WS) is 1d6+6 and Shields is just 1d6.
Both ship combat and blaster combat follow the "take turns shooting at each other" model while hand to hand fighting is the traditional Fighting Fantasy combat. Blaster shots do 4 damage, hand to hand blows do the normal 2 and your ship's phasers only do 1 (but shields scores are much lower to compensate)
You also start with 2 smart missiles. These are basically get out of fight free cards much like the rockets in Freeway Fighter.
As with Space Assassin, provisions have been deemed insufficiently spacey and are once again replaced with pep pills. Like in Space Assassin, you only get 4 but this time each one heals 6 instead of 5.
And finally, your finances. You begin your adventure with 5000 kopecks.
1 - kether (333), moon (328) or asteroids (372)
Heading to the moon costs you 500 kopecks and accomplishes absolutely nothing.
In the asteroid belt is a pair of interceptors (WS 5 shields 3 and WS 5 shields 2).
After choosing either of these options, it becomes apparent that you have to land on Kether. (it being in the title of the book probably should have been a clue as well)
333 - ask around (394), police (255) or canteen (299)
Asking around the starport accomplishes nothing. If you talk to the police, you roll a die. An even number means nothing happens. An odd number gives you a lead that you can pursue. A more reliable avenue of enquiry (i.e. more than a 50% success rate) is at the canteen.
299 - barmaid (30) or mingle (362)
If you choose to mingle, you roll a die. Roll a 1 and you decide to talk to Arthur. Roll a 2 and you talk to Zera. Roll anything else and you talk to a starship navigator (which is the lead the police would have given you if you rolled an odd number). Talking to the barmaid costs 500 kopecks but lets you decide between Arthur and Zera instead of consigning your fate to random chance. Let's try that.
30 - pay (323) or not (362)
You need to pay her if you want to actually choose instead of having the dice decide for you.
323 - man (314) or woman (343)
Talking to Arthur lets you skip the library section.
314 - He says he can't talk here and invites you back to his hotel *nudge* *nudge*
395 - hotel room (236) or follow man (295)
If you go into his hotel room, you see him dying slowly. this gives you the option of meeting Clive or going to the library.
Following the man leads to a warehouse that gives you the same options but in a slightly more dangerous manner.
236 - room (158) or leave (197)
If you leave now, you go straight to the library. You then need to go to the warehouse and face Blaster Babbett if you want to be able to visit Clive.
158 - meet clive (315) or library (80)
The only reason to go to the library is to look up Blaster Babbett's address so you can learn about the meeting between Arthur and Clive. Seeing as we already know about it, let's just meet Clive.
315 - ask (81) or look up (276)
If you ask about Clive, an assassin attacks you. If you look up his address, you just have Clive's teary eyed wife to contend with.
276 - colleague (237) or officer (198)
If you pretend to be Clive's colleague, she just tells you to go away. (specifically to a club called Spark's). That place is a tad dangerous, let's admit we're a narcotics officer.
198 - ask (120) or not (159)
If you ask to see Clive's papers, you get a choice between escorting his wife to the bank or asking the corrupt customs officer for information. Otherwise you have no choice but to go to the bank with her.
120 - bank (44) or kalensus (142)
Escorting her to the bank is pretty dangerous. This Kalensus guy sounds like a good lead.
142 - lucky (64) or unlucky (103)
The only difference between being lucky and unlucky is that if you're lucky you get the chance to press him for further information.
64 - satellite (36) or more info (25)
If you press him for more information, you might be able to skip right to the end.
25 - lucky (347) or unlucky (386)
Should you be unlucky, you have no choice but to fly to the satellite. If you're lucky, he tells you exactly where on the satellite to go.
347 - Isosceles Tower hey?
320 - left (331) or right (86)
Heading left ends up taking you to an office, a successful search leads to you jumping forward and skipping some encounters. Heading right gives you a chance to raise your damage potential though.
86 - Two thugs attack you. (skill 10 stamina 6 and skill 6 stamina)
47 - lucky (18) or unlucky (369)
You upgrade your blaster, you now do 6 damage per hit instead of 4. If you fail the luck test, a paperweight hits your head killing you instantly.
18 - You dodge the paperweight of doom and demand answers.
125 - You get the co-ordinates for the island where the smuggler base is (which is what you would have found if you searched the office)
330 - ordinary entrance 1 (311), ordinary entrance 2 (301), freight door (67) or antigrav dray (281)
The first ordinary entrance allows you to pick up the key to the reactor core. Sounds good to me.
311 - tuesday (155), satophil (194), wrench (272) or babbet (233)
The password is wrench. Guess wrong and you have to kill the skill 8 stamina 4 robot sentry.
272 - It makes no sense that you could ever guess a password in this fashion but let's keep going.
77 - corridor (340) or side-passage (379)
The side-passage contains the key we need to blow the reactor.
379 - We get ourselves a key then go back and take the corridor.
340 - door (67) or passageway (253)
If you open the door, 4 guards start shooting you. (skill 7 stamina 6, skill 6 stamina 6, skill 5 stamina 4 and skill 5 stamin 4) Kill them and you can search the corpse in the room for 4 more pep pills.
253 - a (214), s (175) or x (136)
The correct answer to the riddle is Antares, which starts with an A.
214 - If we'd gotten it wrong, we'd be up against a skill 8 stamina 8 antarian robot.
58 - left (360) or right (9)
Right leads to a dead end, so you turn around and head left anyway.
360 - gun (321) or hand to hand (282)
However you choose to fight Zera, she is skill 8 stamina 11. A fistfight leaves her alive enough to tell you to go up then left. (this helps you find Blaster Babbet but if you intend to blow the reactor core, then feel free to kill her)
282 - Beat up Zera, it'll make you feel better.
243 - Up then left? Uh, ok?
126 - You find the command room and directions to the asteroid where they produce the drugs.
87 - shoot (48) or avoid (19)
Maneuvering through the minefield is a skill test, fail and you lose 2 shields.
Shooting the mines is a guaranteed loss of 1 shield.
19 - pass (370) or fail (351)
The usual rule applies, if your skill is high enough to win the game, it's probably also high enough that you have little to fear from skill tests.
370 - You make it through safely.
312 - main entrance (117) or emergency airlock (273)
The asteroid defenses are WS 9 shields 6, though every smart bomb you deploy is 2 free damage to it.
Trying to go through the main entrance sees you fighting a skill 9 stamina 4 defence droid. Defeating it leads to the same place as if you landed in the airlock.
273 - tunnel (195) or door (234)
The door leads to a room that has nothing useful in it. You then get sent down the tunnel anyway. Yay for meaningless decisions.
195 - fire (78), dive (39) or kick (380)
Shooting at the sentinel leads to a fight against a skill 7 stamina 10. The other two options result in a skill test where success is avoiding the fight. Fail to dive and you lose 2 stamina, fail to kick and you die. A pretty easy choice.
39 - pass (341) or fail (302)
Fail and you lose 2 stamina, not a major problem.
341 - Fight avoided.
185 - straight (293), left (332) or right (146)
Left is empty and right is a death trap, let's keep going straight.
293 - jump (137) or wend (254)
If you try to wend your way between them you need to pass a skill test to stay alive. If you do, you then decide to jump across them.
137 - pass (59) or fail (98)
Failing costs you 4 stamina but gets you across all the same.
59 - pass (361) or fail (10)
Once again, failure costs you 4 stamina.
361 - pass (244) or fail (322)
Are you really expecting this to be any different? Well, it's not, fail and lose 4 stamina. *yawn*
244 - The exit at long last. On to the next annoying room.
283 - door (166) or corridor (205)
Andrew Chapman has slipped back into his lazy Space Assassin writing and our choices are once again tunnel/door/hatch/corridor. If you go down the corridor, you pick up some Satophil-d and head to the door anyway.
205 - You never know when a bag of drugs will come in handy.
166 - satophil-d (127) or not (88)
Having the satophil-d lets you skip the fight with the skill 7 stamina 10 Arcturian vanque.
127 - The alien eats the drugs and dies.
49 - left (352) or right (20)
The right corridor leads to the reactor core.
20 - key (391) or not (352)
If you have the key, you win the game. The reactor core explodes, taking the drug ring with it. If you don't have the key, you have to continue on to Blaster Babbett and kill him.
352 - Into a cubic room.
225 - front (118), back (157), left (196), right (235), down (274) or up (313)
Pushing the wrong button costs you 1 stamina point. You then get sent back here to keep trying until you push the right one. Zera told us to push the up button first.
313 - The door leads into an identical room.
186 - front (79), back (40), left (381), right (342), up (303) or down (264)
I suspect Andrew was a bit short of the 400 reference requirement and tried to pad his book out with crap like this. This room is identical to the last except the correct door is the left one.
381 - left (69), right (108) or alternate plan (147)
Has looking for an alternate plan EVER been bad in these books? If you shoot either of the visible Babbets, you die.
147 - Blaster Babbet is skill 10 stamina 8. Kill him dead.
400 - And it's all over.
It's better than Space Assassin but that's not a very high bar to clear. Andrew does go some way to clearing his name with his next book though. Though I suspect this is due to the fact that it has a pirate theme and everyone loves pirates.