GURPS Conan Beyond Thunder River (Solo/Solitaire Adventure)

[Stripe]

Being one of those who love solitaire GURPS adventures, I was happily surprised to find GURPS Conan Beyond Thunder River released as a PDF. I quickly ordered and am downloading it now. Good buy for just $5.99! Can't wait to play!

As an eighth grader teaching myself GURPS 3rd Edition Revised, I loved All in a Night's Work, the solo adventure in the back of the Basic Set. I also loved the Lone Wolf gamebooks, but I never did get into the "other" Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy gamebooks; it was a time before the Internet, so I knew nothing of them.

Not long ago, I started writing a HUGE fantasy solo/solitaire adventure. Never did finish it, though I probably made it to better than 75 percent completion. Had nearly 400 entries. Had about five good play testers that did a great job playing every update and letting me know if they found issues.

It was called Zuul's Tower and centered on a tower that could be entered and worked from at least two, if not three different locations. That added a lot of re-playability.

Just got burned out when I tried to start converting the whole thing to advanced combat with maps. That just added way too many complications for the open nature of my game. It was such an open sandbox.

There was a drunk ogre that could be awoken, a couple zombies and a couple skeleton warriors in addition to a skull spirit and a sinister force. An abstract time system was implemented with some entries instructing the player to add units to it. If time ran out, the tower's master, Zuul, appeared and if the player had removed the item that was being sought, the master would come looking for it.

None of that was overly complex, but the role-playing encounter I added was too much. Too many ways the player could handle the situation. Just couldn't bring myself to remove it.

It would take a lot to reconstruct it and take out the advanced combat and role-playing encounter, and if you've ever tried to make one of these things, you know how dangerous messing with numbered entries can be.

Beyond Thunder River makes me want to revive my efforts on my own solo adventure. It looks really fun and I can't wait to play it.

Anyone else played Thunder River? Anything I should know about it?

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Stripe

As an eighth grader teaching myself GURPS 3rd Edition Revised, I loved All in a Night's Work, the solo adventure in the back of the Basic Set. I also loved the Lone Wolf gamebooks, but I never did get into the "other" Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy gamebooks; it was a time before the Internet, so I knew nothing of them.

I remember fondly the Lone Wolf books. You may be interested in Project Aon, an online version of the books uploaded with the author's blessing. There's even a purchasable Kindle edition which keeps track of the character's stats for you.

I never heard of the Fighting Fantasy books before. I'll have to check them out.

[Lord Carnifex]

Originally Posted by Stripe

Anyone else played Thunder River? Anything I should know about it?

This is a useful article from the old Roleplayer magazine: Conan Beyond Thunder River: from the Cutting Room Floor

Since this article is on the sjgames.com website, I assume it's not piracy.

[Stripe]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

You may be interested in Project Aon, an online version of the books uploaded with the author's blessing.

Yeah, that's the link in my OP. XD

The FF books look really cool, but I've never gotten around to trying them.

Originally Posted by Lord Carnifex

This is a useful article from the old Roleplayer magazine: Conan Beyond Thunder River: from the Cutting Room Floor

Thanks for the link!