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Ah, Sorcery. Those of us who grew up playing CYOA's are probably very familiar with the Fighting Fantasy series, but for me, the Sorcery tetralogy was probably the most interesting of the lot, thanks to the quirky but suitably epic plot, enhanced by the weird and unique artwork. Probably my second favorite CYOA series after Fabled Lands, and much more suited for an LP thanks to its linear nature.
The story is as follows:
A McGuffin was stolen, and we're going to take an epic four book journey to retrieve it.
You're probably familiar with the basic FF system, but here's a review of the rules:
I'm blatantly stealing the short version of the rules from the last Sorcery LP:
Skill: This is your ability with weapons, so determines how well you fight, not as important for a mage as a fighter. Also may come in handy when avoiding rocks, smashing open doors etc. e.g. ?make a skill check to avoid being flattened?
Stamina: Your HP (health points) you lose it when hit in battle, you regain it from sleeping in nice places and eating nice food as well as from health potions. You also lose it when you cast spells. Once its zero your dead, time to reload, so don?t cast a spell that drains 4HP when you?ve only got 3.
Luck: Luck rather obviously defines how lucky you are. At various times you must test your luck to see if you are lucky, bad things happen when you?re not. To do this two dice rolled must be equal to or less than your luck, so a high luck score is rather good. Every time you test your luck, your luck score decreases by 1 therefore making it harder to be lucky multiple times in succession. This does not decrease the Initial starting luck, and current luck scores can be increased (up to the initial score) at numerous times in the book.
luck in fights: luck can also be used in fights to either double damage to an enemy or halve damage to yourself. However if you are unlucky you only do half damage/an enemy does 1 more extra point to you. This also requires luck to be decreased every time it?s used.
Provisions: Restore 2HP the first time you eat a meal a day but only 1HP for each subsequent meal per day. They may only be eaten in specific places where the option is given (so no food binges to restore full health). If you don?t eat at all during a day you lose 3HP.
Inventory: you can fit all the shit you find lying around on your adventures in here. Unless it tells you to get rid of stuff in exchange for taking something else
Gold: GP, you spend it on crap
Magic: at each fight (and other times) you will be given a chance to cast various spells. You are given the spells 3 letter code e.g. ZAP, HOT etc. Some of these will be fakes to trick you and some will be completely inappropriate for the situation, but the best spells can end a battle in a blast of (text-based) lightning. Furthermore, some of the spells require spell artefacts e.g. a gold backed mirror or some goblin teeth. If you try to cast the spell without the correct artefact, it?s a bit of a fuckup.
The Goddess Libra: Your Deity Libra ? the goddess of Justice ? watches over you as you journey to Mampang. You are able to call on her once only per book. This can be for only one of three things:
Revitalisation: Restore skill, luck and stamina to their initial values (no text references can be done any time, once per book)
Escape: If you get yourself into an inescapable pickle Libra can fish you out, more common than you might think (given as text references).
Removal of Curses and Diseases: Cures all curses and diseases you may have caught from diseased beggars and the like (Can be done any time, once per book, no text reference).
How we fight:
Role 1 die, add it to your skill, role another add it to the enemy?s skill, the higher one wins, loser loses 2HP. Simple as that.
Quote ends here. Sorcery is fairly complicated (there's a whole separate supplemental book for those interested in pursuing the magely arts in this series, full of neat illustrations. You should find it somewhere and check it out, but here's are the rules and spellbook contents in text form:
Spellbook
The Spell Book
A brief summery of all 45(!) spells, all important info from the spell book summarised nicely.
Spell Name: ZAP
Effect: Motherfucking lightning bolt. Effective against most non-magically defended creatures
Requirements: none
Cost: 4HP
Spell Name: HOT
Effect: Fireball equivalent of ZAP. Great unless something is flame-retardant
Requirements: none
Cost: 4HP
Spell Name: FOF
Effect: Magical/physical barrier, keeps out all magic/non-magic intruders. V. strong and malleable
Requirements: none
Cost: 4HP
Spell Name: WAL
Effect: Creates an invisible wall, impervious to missiles, creatures etc
Requirements: none
Cost: 4HP
Spell Name: LAW
Effect: Takes control of an attacker?s will. Non-intelligent creatures only, short duration
Requirements: none
Cost: 4HP
Spell Name: DUM
Effect: Creature becomes clumsy and uncoordinated and drops its weapon
Requirements: none
Cost: 4HP
Spell Name: BIG
Effect: Makes you fucking massive. Great against large opponents, bad in small spaces.
Requirements: none
Cost: 2HP
Spell Name: WOK
Effect: Creates a 3 foot diameter invisible metal shield on your left arm.
Requirements: 1GP (unusable afterwards)
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: DOP
Effect: Unlocks all non-magically locked doors
Requirements: none
Cost: 2HP
Spell Name: RAZ
Effect: Doubles a weapon?s damage for a single battle
Requirements: Edged weapon (i.e. not your fists), Beeswax (used up afterwards)
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: SUS
Effect: Tells you if there is a trap coming up and if caught in a trap, how to escape it (most of the time).
Requirements: none
Cost: 2HP
Spell Name: SIX
Effect: Sorcery!?s answer to mirror image, creates 5 other copies of you, enemies don?t know which is the real you
Requirements: None
Cost: 2HP
Spell Name: JIG
Effect: Makes an enemy dance a merry jig until you stop playing/scarper.
Requirements: Bamboo Flute
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: GOB
Effect: summons goblins to fight for you for 1 battle
Requirements: 1 Goblin tooth per goblin (used up afterwards)
Cost: 1HP per goblin
Spell Name: YOB
Effect: Summons a kickass giant
Requirements: Giant?s tooth
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: GUM
Effect: sticks something (monster) to something else (floor)
Requirements: A vial of glue (used up: e.g. you throw it)
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: HOW
Effect: Gives info about escaping from a perilous situation/defeat seemingly invincible enemies, like SUS but for when traps aren?t involved
Requirements: none
Cost: 2HP
Spell Name: DOC
Effect: cause a health potion/blimberry juice to be ?upgraded? to heal full health.
Requirements: medical potion or Blimberry Juice
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: DOZ
Effect: Slows an enemy to 1/6th speed making it easier to fight/evade
Requirements: none
Cost: 2HP
Spell Name: FAL
Effect: causes you to float gently to the ground, useful when you step off a cliff/fall down a hole
Requirements: none
Cost: 2HP
Spell Name: DIM
Effect: Causes a creature to become muddled and confused, be careful it doesen?t turn on you in its deranged state
Requirements: none
Cost: 2HP
Spell Name: FOG
Effect: renders a room pitch black to all but the caster i.e. blindness
Requirements: a sealed room with no windows
Cost: 2HP
Spell Name: MUD
Effect: Creates a patch of super effective quicksand on the floor
Requirements: Grains of sand
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: NIF
Effect: Makes a bad smell, everyone vomits. The bigger the nose the harder it hits
Requirements: Nose plugs (to protect yourself)
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: TEL
Effect: read the mind of an intelligent creature to find out strengths, weaknesses, fetishes etc.
Requirements: Cloth Skullcap
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: GAK
Effect: Freaks out enemy, depends on the creatures initial bravery
Requirements: Black facemask
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: SAP
Effect: Demoralizes a creature
Requirements: none
Cost: 2HP
Spell Name: GOD
Effect: everyone suddenly really likes you, may produce conflicts with duty
Requirements: Jewel of Gold
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: KIN
Effect: Creates an identical replica of the creature you?re fighting, same skill & stamina etc to fight for you.
Requirements: Gold Backed Mirror
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: PEP
Effect: Super strength
Requirements: Potion of firewater
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: ROK
Effect: Sorcery!?s answer to ?stone to flesh? petrifies an enemy
Requirements: stone dust
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: NIP
Effect: Super speed
Requirements: must snot ?yellow powder? :S (used up in the snorting process)
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: HUF
Effect: a tremendous wind out of the horn capable of blowing things over, or off shelves etc.
Requirements: a Galehorn
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: FIX
Effect: holds an animate/inanimate object fixed in space unable to move, even in midair. wears off as you leave.
Requirements: an oak sapling
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: NAP
Effect: sends an enemy to sleep, requires your attention as you have to swing the pendulum.
Requirements: a brass pendulum
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: ZEN
Effect: Levitation
Requirements: Jewel-studded medallion
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: YAZ
Effect: makes you invisible, you can still be heard though. Unintelligent creatures aren?t as fooled as intelligent ones
Requirements: A fine pearl ring
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: SUN
Effect: Makes the jewel glow brightly. Brightness is controlled by you, anywhere between a blinding light and dim illumination.
Requirements: yellow sun jewel
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: KID
Effect: creates an illusion of anything you want. Only works on intelligent creatures.
Requirements: Bracelet of bone
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: RAP
Effect: Talk to intelligent creatures in their own language
Requirements: green-haired wig
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: YAP
Effect: talk to animals
Requirements: green-haired wig
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: ZIP
Effect: teleport a short distance away, rather unpredictable
Requirements: Ring of green metal
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: FAR
Effect: see briefly into the immediate future, non controllable
Requirements: a crystal ball, how clich?
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: RES
Effect: brings someone back to life, they are rather groggy after the resurrection.
Requirements: Holy water
Cost: 1HP
Spell Name: ZED
Effect: No one knows, the only person to cast it disappeared. Must be pretty awesome though?
Requirements: none
Cost: 7HP
In theory, you're supposed to memorize what the spells do and never refer back to this section throughout the adventure. In practice, we all cheated a bit, and I can't stop you from doing so here. Still, I think it will be more interesting it you take a look at the spell chart and don't check it again when the option to cast spells is presented.
Finally, the game world map:
We start in the lower left corner, and must progress to the upper right.