[AD&D Gamebook] Sceptre of Power (Kingdom of Sorcery, book 1 of 3)

[Joshua Randall]

Inspired by @Whizbang Dustyboots and as part of my New Year's resolution actually to do some of the things I claim to want to do, here is a Where I Play of the first book in the Kingdom of Sorcery gamebook series.

My thread, my rules:

• I won't explicitly poll the audience for decisions because that really bogs down the pace, but please do suggest courses of action when the spirit so moves you!
• I will roll back from any deaths because I think the story is more interesting when it gets to a successful conclusion. However, I will keep track of the number of times I die, so I can feel the appropriate amount of shame.
• I will alternate paraphrases of the gamebook's numbered paragraphs with digressions about the game mechanics and so forth.

And on that third point above, I'm going to jump right into the book!

Here. We. Go.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Scepter of Power
by Morris Simon
cover art by Keith Parkinson
interior art by George Barr
copyright 1986

We can see from the cover that this is Volume 1 in the Kingdom of Sorcery Trilogy and it's part of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Gamebook line, #7.

The intro tells us this is "based on" AD&D but "without complicated rules to slow down the story." So, enough blather -- let's do this!

---

Intro

We play as Carr Delling, an orphan (of course) whose father was an archmage (cool!) who was killed under mysterious circumstances shortly after our birth (not cool; but also, of course).

We're on "rugged Seagate Island" where our uncle Beldon runs the College of Arcane Sciences. Sweet! Surely our blood relative will use that most time honored of traditions, nepotism, to take in his poor orphaned nephew and teach us the ways of magic so we can seek REVENGE upon whomever killed our father.

 

[Joshua Randall]

1

We are dropped right into the action as we struggle down a snow-covered track, pulling a cart that carries the unconscious form of our mother, Marla, who has been sick for five days. We are just outside Delmer, her "clan village". Not sure why we waited so long to seek treatment for her….

The book here does a nice job with subtle flavor text that tells us about ourselves and our world: we're on a mountain trail, specifically near a rugged cliff down to the ocean. We have well-muscled legs and we wear shepherd's boots. Our mother is swathed in thick furs. People organize themselves into clans.

We can picture the scene in our head. We can see our breath in the air, feel the cold through the soles of our boots. Sense the desperation in our hearts about our mother.

We're met just outside the village by Ulrik, our mother's first cousin, and two unnamed flunkies. Surely this other blood relative will be eager to save the life of --

"Marla Delling will not enter Delmer, dead or alive!" Ulrik snarls as he draws a worn but sharp cutlass. "That was decided when she wed the demon who sired you!"

Oh. It's like that? You threaten our mother's life AND you insult our dead father?

But we can see that he's afraid: his hand shakes on the cutlass and the flunkies don't want to get any closer to us.

[We are simply given the information that they are afraid rather than required to suss it out mechanically, which is disappointing. But fear not. Our first roll of the game is coming up next.]

We can…
(12) force our way past these men
(40) bluff our way past using their fears of our father's sorcery

 

[Joshua Randall]

40

This is the Kingdom of Sorcery trilogy, not the Kingdom of Badass Fighters trilogy, so of course we are going to lean into any opportunity to sorcery things. Bluff or no bluff.

Although we are outnumbered 3-to-1, and although our mother forbade us to learn magic after our father's death (of course), these are "superstitious peasants". We make some fake mystical gestures and threaten to call upon our father's spirit to destroy them.

We have to make a Charisma test here, so time out while I explain the gamebook mechanics.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Gamebook Mechanics

As the book informs us, OUR Carr Delling will be different from anyone else's because WE helped to create him.

We are instructed to tear out the bookmark that also serves as our character sheet. And, because we will no doubt play this adventure many times (due to inherent love for replaying adventures? or because of how lethal it is), we should use pencil so it can be erased easily.

We were also given permission to photocopy the card, but 13-year-old Joshua didn't do that, unfortunately. So you can see my stats from the last time I played!

The book next explains the "Scoring System". I find that language weird; are these really "scores" like in a competitive sporting event? At any rate, we have Hit Points; Skill Points [analogous to Ability Scores in AD&D terms], and Spells.

Hit Points

Our "life strength" and when they are gone, Carr "ceases to exist". (Perhaps "is dead" was considered too harsh?) We're told that we may not realize it yet, but we're a magic-user, "a class not known for great physical strength."

Umm. Strength is its own ability score in AD&D. It doesn't affect your HP at all. Constitution does affect HP, although as we'll see, we don't have that as an ability score. But anyway.

We start with 8 HP plus the higher of two d6 rolls. Google handily rolls us a 3 and a 6, so we have 14 HP. Way more than any 1st-level AD&D magic-user I ever played!

Skill Points

These are how we do stuff in the game and we only have three of them, Intelligence, Dexterity, and Charisma.

To test our skills we roll 2d6 and add that total to our score. If it equals or exceeds the target number, we succeed.

The book explains what each skill measures, but I'm sure everyone reading this already intuitively knows.

Our base skills are

• INT 13
• DEX 11
• CHA 11

We then have 5 more points that we can distribute among the skills with the caveat that INT must always be highest, and we have to put at least 1 point into each skill.

Now, I can recall playing against type where I did…

• INT 13+1=14
• DEX 11+2=13
• CHA 12+2=13

… but I won't be weird for this Where I Play. We'll go all-in on what the book tells us is our most important skill. So,

• INT 13+3=16
• DEX 11+1=12
• CHA 11+1=12

Those would be pretty great ability scores for an AD&D character if you had rolled them!

Spells

For the purposes of this gamebook, we must first learn a spell before we can cast it. And then, once we cast it, it's gone; we only get to cast each spell once: "whenever you use a spell you have learned, you must erase it from your spellbook." Yikes!

There's also an INT roll to cast a spell, so it's not guaranteed to work.

The bookmark-slash-character-sheet divides up our spells into three categories. At this point, we are not given any more information on what these do. Of course, if we've played AD&D before, we might know.

Cantrips

• Exterminate
• Tweak
• Cough
• Hairy
• Unlock

Weak Spells

• Friends
• Unseen Servant
• Spider Climb
• Feather Fall
• Comprehend Language
• Burning Hands

Strong Spells

• Armor
• Light
• Detect Magic
• Read Magic
• Sleep
• Find Familiar

The differentiation between Weak Spells and Strong Spells feels pretty arbitrary to me; why is a primo 1st-level AOE damaging spell like Burning Hands considered weak, while a utility spell like Light is considered strong?

So those are the game mechanics. Now back to the story.

 

[Joshua Randall]

We attempt to bluff Ulrik and his flunkies with our fake magic. CHA test vs. 17. We roll 1 & 2, add it to our CHA 12, for a grand total of 15.

(49) if we roll 17 or more
(17) if we roll less than 17

[I just realized how confusing this is… couldn't they have used a different paragraph number?!]

---

17

We briefly see Ulrik's eyes go glassy and we think our magic, or our bluff, will work. One of the flunkies shouts a warning. Ulrik is still bewitched.

But just then (what incredible timing!) our mother tries to raise her head as a coughing fit overtakes her. We jump into the cart to ease her suffering.

Ulrik snaps out of it and tells his men to push us over the cliff. Wow. We've gone from "don't let Marla and her brat into the village" to "straight up murder them"!

We try to stand up, but the men have already started to heave the wagon over the cliff. We try to dive forward out of the cart (perhaps abandoning our mother to her fate?!), but it's too late. We plunge into the icy water and die in shock.

DEATH COUNT: 1

[Well, that was sudden! With a more average roll on our CHA check, we might've been able to bluff Ulrik successfully. But I'll pause here to reflect on my ignominious death.]

 

[Joshua Randall]

1, redux

We can…

(12) force our way past these men
(40) bluff our way past using their fears of our father's sorcery

Perhaps knowing that we are considered literal demon spawn discourages us from an attempt at a sorcerous bluff.

Let's get past Ulrik and his flunkies the physical way. We turn to (12).

---

12

First, we angle the cart towards the side of the mountain so it doesn't, y'know, roll off the trail and over the cliff into the freezing cold ocean. [We don't have INT 16 for nothing!]

Then we take note of the fact that Ulrik and his friends are scared to be touched by us. So after pushing the cart to the side we, "in one fluid motion", rush toward Ulrik in the hopes that he will stumble back into his men.

We roll our DEX test.

(20) if we roll 19 or more
(31) if we roll less

We roll 5 & 1 and add it to our DEX 12 for a total of 18. Not good enough. Uh oh….

 

[Joshua Randall]

The geography plus physical movement doesn't make sense here. When we turn the cart sideways, we are no longer facing Ulrik et al. on the trail. There is no "one fluid motion" that would allow us to turn away from them, secure the cart, then turn back towards them. Also, what does Ulrik think while we're doing this? "Oh, the demon child is going to lodge the cart sideways so he can converse with us in a Socratic dialogue."

Maybe if this were described as: Carr pretends to turn the cart around to leave and then rushes Ulrik, it would make more sense, both physically and as an explanation of how Carr could catch Ulrik off guard.

This bothered me even as a teenager!

 

[Joshua Randall]

31

We charge forward directly into Ulrik's fist, which knocks us to the ground. His two friends seize the cart and move to dump our mother over the cliff. Oh no! It's happening again! Err, I mean, holy crap these guys are going to MURDER her!

But suddenly Marla starts to glow, stands up, and her eyes "blaze with an inhuman fire" as she casts a fear spell. All three men run away. Way to go, mom!

We rush to her side and brush her sweat-plastered hair away from her forehead. She tells us that her illness is beyond the skills of Wendel the shaman and our ancestral spirits. She advises that we should seek out her brother Beldon in Freeton.

And then she dies.

Sobs wrack our body as we weep for our loss. We are now officially the orphan that the gamebook promised we would be.

We need to take our mother's body to Wendel, the village shaman, for proper funeral rites. Another spirit has joined our ancestors.

Turn to (58)

(Oh, and we pick up Ulrik's cutlass, which he dropped when he fled.)

 

[Joshua Randall]

There's a weird dichotomy between the two paths we can take from the first numbered paragraph.

Play to type: we bluff being a sorcerer and if we fail, we die. (We are also about to find out that we already have minor sorcerous powers, so why couldn't we use those for real, instead of bluffing?)

Play against type: we "force" our way past Ulrik ["force" is the exact word in the book!], and if we fail, not only do we not lose any HP, we come away with a free cutlass.

There is no downside to choosing the non-magical path, and a lethal downside to the magical path. So again I write: weird!

Either way, as long as we're not dead, we end up going to Wendel's house.