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Choose Your Own Adventure with Combat?

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Mon, 02/22/2021 - 02:50
Milostnik
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Hi everyone,

I've recently had an urge to try my hand at a combat driver/roguelike game that doesnt require many pieces, can be played solo. The basis of the idea is the face that I'd want people to be able to play this game on a bus, plane or out and about without having to roll dice and take up room around them - think a choose your own adventure book. The only thing, if its possible to get away with, would be drawing cards from a deck and marking on paper with a pencil.

Seen anything where you could participate in combat or the game, but didnt have to deal with dice, tokens or a board? or am I crazy? haha

Cheers ya'll!

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Mon, 02/22/2021 - 03:36
#1
terzamossa
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Hi Milostnik, I am not an

Hi Milostnik,
I am not an expert on choose your own adventure/solo playing...but those I tried failed to really give a combat-like experience without dice.
If the outcome is decided by items you find on your way, your make choices before combat and not during combat, so everything is established before the encounter.
If the outcome is decided by choices during combat, this feels even more random than if rolling dice (as the different options cannot be too obvious or it becomes boring which is worse than random)
The options ahead can be mixed, without really making any of this better in my opinion (they can still work for a great game, I did enjoy some, I am talking of combat feel, as I think this is your goal!)
What do you want to use the deck for? Could it be a randomiser like in Gloomhaven? If it is the only deck if might feel like a waste of cards, but for example all cards could have a modifier at the bottom and if you draw them in combat you only consider this number and ignore the main text.
Otherwise, there are phone apps which roll dice without taking any space :) don't hate me, this is just a thought!
My main idea is that combat should have mostly strategic decision (or resource management etc) + some unpredictability, to be exciting. I am sure you can accomplish this in a number of ways and you are not crazy at all :) probably some of the aspects of story telling of cyoa might be lost on the way but that might even be desirable if they are not the main focus!
Hope any of this helps, good luck!
Antonio

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Mon, 02/22/2021 - 03:55
#2
X3M
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Joined: 10/28/2013
Construct this yourself?

A die in a box.
Or 2 dice in a box...
Or 3...?

Doesn't matter.
It has a window. Just shake and when they come to rest, you get your input.

Then of course, a little noteblock to keep track of your adventures.

I had a lot of fun this way until my internet started working. That's now like 10 years ago.

No cards, no board. Just a noteblock, pen and the little box.

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Mon, 02/22/2021 - 07:52
#3
let-off studios
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Joe Dever

I suggest you look up the Lone Wolf series of gamebooks from the '80s and '90s, most of them being authored by a guy named Joe Dever. I think this describes something very similar to what you're talking about, although everything is done without cards, and without dice.

For combat encounters and other situations when random numbers are required, there was a grid of numbers in the back of the book that was used. Players kept track of their progress, health, inventory, and other game factors on a character sheet, updating with pencil and eraser.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Wolf_%28gamebooks%29

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Mon, 02/22/2021 - 20:31
#4
questccg
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Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone

Fighting Fantasy Books. They come with a stat sheet to keep track of stats and there is different types of combat too. Here is the WIKI:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_Fantasy

There are French versions of other series such as "Quest For the Grail" (Quête du Graal from Les Livres dont vous êtes l'Héros). I went to French High School ... So we had the French version of those RPG/Gamebooks.

The concept is NOT NEW... Has been around since the early 80s. Check them out both in English and French...

Note #1: One of the original authors "Steve Jackson" (UK) was not the "Steve Jackson" (USA) who is Steve Jackson Games. However it gets more confusing when the USA designer ALSO wrote some books for the series too! So BOTH the UK and USA "Steve Jackson" wrote these Fighting Fantasy books. I had about twenty (20) of them.

I also have about fifty (50) "Choose Your Own Adventure".

In addition to about thirty (30) Hardy Boys Mystery Books.

I was and am a real geek when it comes to adventure books ... Ergo my desire to create "Quest Adventure Cards(tm)" an adventure type of CCG.

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