Puffin Books, £3.95, ISBN 0-14-031860-7
Sci-fi, 1985
The Rings of Kether takes you to a distant galaxy, and yes, the sci-fi campaigns of Fighting Fantasy tend to be more misses than hits. Don’t cringe too hard, though, as this one has its share of good points!
Now, in the Aleph Cygni system is the planet Kether. It’s like Tatooine, only overrun with drug dealers and worse, and the drug rings in particular have vexed the Galactic Federation for a long time ago. This is where you come in. You’re a Narcotics Investigator, one of the best, and now you will be going undercover to bust up the drug rings on this planet.
Since you are now a space hero, you can also use a blaster to pew pew your enemies (the blaster takes off 4 Stamina on a success roll, but it also leads the enemy to retaliate in kind), as well as have spaceship battles. The latter uses a modified version of the standard combat rolls, so it’s nothing too complicated once you get the hang of it. The rest of the combat system is the same as the more fantastical Fighting Fantasy campaigns.
You are said to be the best, which means that the Galactic Federation must not be the best, as you land on Kether completely without any clue as to where you should start to look. You are given three choices, but you have no leads or hints as to which one is the best place to start. You just go pick one based on a whim, and there you are. The best Narcotics Investigator, ladies and gentlemen and aliens and all.
“Hi there!” you shout at a bar-wench. “I’m new in town and I’m sort of looking for somebody who can help a young, unscrupulous type of person, like me, get along without having to work in a regular way, see?”
Uh…
“I’m a chemist. I make funny little crystals for people to stick in their bloodstreams,” you yell.
Great balls of Mammon, just how many of those funny little crystals are there in Andrew Chapman’s bloodstream?
What is really hilarious is that, should you carry on like this, the folks you interact with can get annoyed and beat you senseless.
You are beaten, as they say, almost to a pulp. Lose 2 STAMINA permanently.
Permanently. Ouch. Clearly, this campaign does not reward you when you think you can act like a MCU hero auditioning to be in the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
The actual campaign itself isn’t anything to shout about. It’s pretty generous in a way, as there are two good endings instead of the usual one, and on the whole, it is pretty easy. There are ample ways to heal yourself, so barring some really dire rolls, it can be hard to lose here!
The pace is for the most part fine, although there is one initially exciting chase sequence that ends up going on for too long.
However, you will also have to make many rolls against your Skill—so much for you being the best, hah—so you probably want to make sure that you start out with maxed or near-maxed Skill, heh. You’ll also have to keep an eye on your money, as you will understandably need to bribe people and get good gear as you progress.
On the other hand, there are the usual typos that will send you to the wrong paragraphs and the occasional oddity like the campaign assuming that you already have an item when you actually don’t. Still, there is nothing too campaign-breaking here.
However, the storytelling elements—those push this one from competent to fun territory. Younger players may find a lot flying over their heads, but much of this campaign seems patterned after common tropes and flavors of the golden era of pulp, and the result is a cheeky, memorable setting full of delightful NPCs and Easter eggs to popular space movies.
Also, this campaign allows some leeway in your character’s approach to busting up the drug ring. Let’s put it this way: if this had been a Mass Effect game, you can opt for the Paragon or Renegade route. Interestingly, when you opt for the former, you eventually get to the appropriate happy ending that is tad cold, as if Mr Chapman was patting you in the head and going, “Yeah, good job being a by-the-book goody-two-shoes, now be off with you.” If you go the Renegade route, however, blowing crap up like nobody’s business, there is a discernible glee in the narrative, as if Mr Chapman were whooping and hollering with glee with every step of your way.
The Rings of Kether therefore is a somewhat of an odd gamebook, in that reading it is more fun than playing it. If you’re not concerned about the story, and you just want to have a good time rolling dice and whooping people’s rear end in memorable ways, this one can be a rather forgettable campaign. However, if you just want an interactive story, and you can spot and appreciate the various flavors, nods, and homages to classic sci-fi movies and books, then this one will be a fun and campy ride.
Therefore, adjust your expectations accordingly before strapping yourself for that ride to Kether!
