Proofreading a gamebook, then pliloting a mech

For the last few weeks, I have been proofreading and testing a new game book that someone in the community is developing. It’s been a part-time job, but I finished up a few days ago. It’s set in the Dragon Realms universe, and has the brave adventurer hunting a cult that has been murdering people. It was a fun time, and I hope they find success with their book once they put it up on DriveThruRPG.

That done, I can start a new game book!

So I picked Ronin 47, an ACE gamebook by Jonathan Green. These are usually top-notch, and I’m really looking forward to it. So, let’s play!

I pick a balanced build for my character (10 Agility, 10 Combat, the rest into Endurance) because an 11/11 feels like I would steamroll the book, and I’m not ready for that just yet. For my mech, also a balanced build: 3 speed and 3 armor, 3 melee and 3 artillery. For upgrades, enhanced scanners (enemy gets -1 armor), surveillance drones, and reinforced armor.

It’s 2122 and the world has been overrun by kaiju, thanks to coral lovers thinking they could heal the oceans. Yeah, take that, environmentalists! Naturally, the only way to protect the world from building-sized sea-based monsters is to make building-sized Gundam / Robotech robots to fight them hand to hand. So that’s us – the Samurai class kaiju-killer mechs. AWESOME!

So that’s us – the satellite array has picked up kaiju sign in the Pacific Ocean and we’re out hunting. Of course, I know the book isn’t called “Samurai 47” but “Ronin 47” so I know that this isn’t going to go well – if I’m not unemployed and seeking vengeance in ten pages, I’ll be shocked. Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. So, hunting kaiju – and we find it!

The fighting has two parts: long-range combat using 2d6 + our Artillery skills, followed by robot-on-chitin fisticuffs using 2d6 + our Melee skills. So this giant worm thing comes barreling at me, and I have flashbacks to the sand worm in Master of Chaos. I make good with the initial barrage of lasers and missiles and machine guns in my imagination, then make short work of that critter by body-slamming it. Robotech to the rescue!

But one of our number has been damaged badly, and all we can do is flee as his reactor melts down and goes kablooey! Well, shoot – that’s a real downer.

But it’s even more of a downer when we get back to base, and just as we’re reporting to the administrator to debrief, the base is attacked by a whole army of kaiju! They sometimes group up a little but a mixed-species army making a concerted attack like this is unprecedented. Also unprecedented is the computer virus that wipes out the other mechs, killing their pilots inside the cockpits – the only treason I wasn’t affected is because my radio was broken in that initial fray. And through it all, I see two sub-administrators cackling “yes, exactly to plan!” and twirling their curly mustaches as they make their way to a flying mech and escape. The base is overrun by kaiju, and I take the brave way out and flee the scene before I am destroyed too.

So now I’m not a samurai but a ronin – an unemployed soldier with a big ol’ grudge. I pray at a shinto shrine, make some repairs, and review my situation:

• A traitor infected the computers with a virus and made their escape.
• I’m apparently the next-to-last, at least of our force of mechs, and the other is that traitor.
• I take exception to this, and swear vengeance.
• And the kaiju of the world are madder and better organized than ever.

Right.

I’m given two options here: meet a science vessel to see if they have any news about fighting or even un-kaijuing the kaiju, or else head to a secret armory. The armory sounds attractive, but also like an obvious trap, so I go for the science vessel.

Unfortunately, it has been sunk by something big, like bigger than a kaiju. Well that’s bad news. Also, there is a shark-based kaiju here that wants to eat me. So also bad news. That fight does not go well for me; it hits me all five times, and after 5 rounds I’m told it flees without explanation. Well thank goodness, because it was destroying me! I explore the wreckage of the ship, and find a key number relevant to kaiju calls – write that down. Then I’m running out of air and need to get back.

Next stop, the satellite array. I’m not sure why not the armory, because some weapon upgrades would be nice – but it’s just a book.

The satellite control station is guarded by two mechs that attack me, because my radio is still broken and I can’t send the IFF code. But they’re pretty weak and I wreck them with little trouble, but I know that I’m gonna get in trouble for that anyway. Robot-stomping my way to the compound proper, I’m horrified to see the facility staff dead on the grounds, a massacre. I make my way inside, and find the baddies that did it. Vengeance is swift and sweet, but ultimately fruitless. They have already smashed the computers, and I don’t have a working radio, so there’s nothing I can do to get more information, nor to track down the traitor.

Naturally, I then seppuku myself right there in the data center. My adventure ends here.