To be more detailed is impossibly arcane for non-mathies (and just a bad idea), to be simpler would necessitate a narrative force.

Agh, it sucks. Part of my issue with it is the reliance on dice rolls as opposed to intuiting on the player’s behalf. You could argue this is impossible, a meta-element befitting a roleplaying scenario, and I’d agree.

And yet the Mario series of books (can’t believe I’m doing this) has a good take on this idea. They’re much simpler in scope, obviously (but it helps with context), but their take on ‘player freedom’ is interesting. Basically each major decision (not the minor ones which often involve clue hunting) is determined by a puzzle. Solve the puzzle (often multiple solutions, some leading to items) and change the story.

I dunno. I feel like somewhere in Fabled Lands, there’s a missed opportunity for player character design and interaction. But I played a lot of it, so whatever that means. Man, I used to ‘play’ books like this all the time.

I really like how quickly your fortunes can shift in this game, it’s not afraid to present you with death, loss of property, and horrible donkey curses. You tumble through a narrative where failure is just as interesting as success, if not more–something game devs still haven’t learned 20~ years after the fact. Get shipwrecked, turned into a monster, sold into slavery…so much cool stuff going on.

This is pretty fascinating stuff.