Copyright © 2019 Samuel Isaacson
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 9781700414458
DEDICATION
To my four lovely boys, who have already made
my world a better place and will one day
take the rest of the universe by storm.
CONTENTS
Rules for play
Background
Story
About the author
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’m grateful to many people who have made this book come into existence.
The various authors and illustrators of the gamebooks that I grew up loving: thank you for giving me permission to enter your worlds, in particular Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone for the Fighting Fantasy series, Carl Sargent & Martin McKenna for Legend of Zagor, Russ Nicholson for everything, and Dave Morris & Jamie Thompson for starting Fabled Lands and Paul Gresty for continuing it.
The Fighting Fantasy (and other gamebooks) Facebook group, which is a regular source of entertainment and companionship, and the Gamebook Authors Guild for the repeated encouragement to keep going.
Victoria Hancox: thank you for Nightshift and for your indescribably valuable help assistance in making this better. It was good, and now it’s better than that.
Steve Page: you are a great friend and encourager, and have been a tangible companion in a hobby that cries out to be shared.
Anna: thank you for allowing me to be myself and for trying to understand why I think it’s fun to roll dice by myself.
RULES FOR PLAY
Welcome to The Altimer. The star of this story is…you! You are about to be thrust into a world not so distant from our own as you begin a journey in which you may become the saviour of the universe or a footnote in its destruction. This will be determined by the choices you make; the book will present you with options to continue reading at two or more different locations based on what actions you will perform. As you turn to that section number and read on, the text will make sense in context and you will be able to continue the story.
BEWARE! The story is a branching narrative that at times will lead you to less-than optimal endings (typically involving your life ending in various ways), red herrings that send you away from the one true path and clues that may not be everything they first appear. Make notes and a map on your way and enjoy the experience of fictional death! Re-read the story to make better choices next time and I expect you will find a compelling universe in which you almost figure out the truth several times before ultimately overcoming it.
You will also affect the story through determining the outcome of random chance at certain points, which will require you to use a pair of six-sided dice throughout. This will particularly be true during combat to simulate the unpredictability of swiping through the air and hoping to connect your fist with the chin of the assassin who is simultaneously trying to stab you in the ear.
To make that possible, you will need to generate a series of numbers to represent you in this universe.
Creating your character scores
There is a template adventure sheet below for you to make a copy of. Your scores are very likely to change, particularly the first few times you read it.
The following instructions will take you through the character score generation process.
Roll one die and add 2 points. This is your BODY score, indicating how quickly, strongly and skilfully you can move yourself. This score is used for combat, so can prove very handy when things go downhill.
Roll one die and add 2 points. This is your MIND score, indicating your cognitive abilities, including your perception, intellect, memory and reasoning abilities.
Roll one die and add 2 points. This is your HEART score, indicating your ability to connect with and influence other people, and deal with stressful situations.
Roll one die and add 5 points. This is your SPIRIT score, indicating your ability to continue your adventure.
What the numbers mean
The numbers indicate your skill in that area. An average functioning adult would typically have 3-4 in each of the areas; you can see how you would rank based on the following:
3-4: amateur
4-5: talented
6-7: professional
8: superhuman (e.g. Mensa/Olympics standard)
At certain points in the text you will be instructed to make a check against one or more of those skills, and it will provide you with a difficulty level. When that happens, roll two dice and add the relevant score. If you are told to check against two skills, add both scores. If your total is equal to or higher than the difficulty level, you have been successful; if not, you have failed.
For example, if you are told to make a MIND check at difficulty 8, you will roll two dice and add your MIND score. Let’s say your MIND score is 4, that means you will need to roll a 4 or more to be successful.
Important notes on your scores
Only one of your BODY, MIND and HEART scores is allowed to be greater than 6 as you begin the book. If you have rolled more than one score to be higher than 6, you may choose which one you will keep at the higher level and which you will reduce to 6.
As you progress in the story, your BODY, MIND and HEART scores will be reduced and increased. They can never be increased to more than 10 and can never be reduced to less than 2 points under any circumstances, regardless of what is stated in the text.
Finally, if your SPIRIT score ever reaches zero, you have either died or have lost all motivation and mental capacity to continue. Unless the text directs you otherwise your story has ended and you will need to start again.
Combat
Fighting also requires you to roll dice. Each enemy you are presented with will have a BODY score and a SPIRIT score, included in the text.
Fighting takes place in combat rounds and follows these instructions:
Roll two dice and add your BODY score, then reduce this number by the enemy’s BODY score to determine the damage you have dealt, and take this off its SPIRIT score.
If the enemy is not dead, roll two dice and add its BODY score, reducing this number by your BODY score to determine the damage it has dealt, and take this from your SPIRIT score.
For example, let’s say you have a BODY score of 5 and a SPIRIT score of 7, and your enemy has a BODY score of 4 and a SPIRIT score of 8. You begin by rolling two dice and you roll a 6. 6 plus your BODY of 5 is 11, which reduces by the enemy’s BODY of 4 to give you 7 damage, so its SPIRIT is reduced to 1.
You can probably tell from this that combat can be deadly, as it can in real life.
Equipment and codewords
Over the course of your story you will pick up various items of equipment and be told to record codewords. Both may be important for success, set you up to fail or have no impact whatsoever.
Final thoughts
This should be fun to read and play, and I hope you enjoy getting to know the characters and the world we are about to create together.
Now turn the page, and begin your story…
Adventure sheet
BODY
MIND
HEART
SPIRIT
CODEWORDS
EQUIPMENT
NOTES
BACKGROUND
You arrive early for your first morning as a trainee astronaut and can feel your fingers shaking with anticipation on the window as you begin to see signs for the training complex. The familiar symbols on the Global Interstellar Group logo that you manage to glimpse as you speed past in the autonomous car they sent for you give you the same exhilarating rush they have always done, and the thought that you are about to become a part of that world fills you with excitement.
The year is 2162.
Following the Second Space Rac
e between the US, India and China, space travel became increasingly accessible. The first Martian colony, New Gaia, was established in 2046 and at its height was inhabited by nearly 200,000 people, predominantly engineers and scientists, not to mention a purpose-built tourism industry unlike anything earth had ever seen.
Then the Great Climate Crisis hit with devastating consequences for the developed world. Fossil fuels were not reduced enough until they ran out, by which time it was too late. Temperatures soared, leading to drought and famine, and then plummeted, hurling most of Europe, Canada and Russia into a full-on ice age and leading indirectly to four catastrophic nuclear meltdowns within a five-year period in the 2090s. Political turbulence swept the globe and refugees from areas like Britain and Scandinavia flooded the new Mediterranean archipelago and the Sahara desert, by this point the largest crop-producing space the world had ever seen.
Mars, in the meantime, entered maintenance mode and inter-planetary transport was reduced to key workers. But that all changed with the reception of some sort of message from what was quickly confirmed as having been initiated by extra-terrestrial intelligent life. Efforts to respond were a pleasing distraction for earth’s troubled politicians, and although the precise location of the message has still not been determined to this day, several meaningless messages have been sent and received in the interstellar equivalent of grunts and wild hand gestures. Unsurprisingly, the discovery piqued a new interest in space travel and a new population of astronauts started getting trained in the 2150s.
You were one of that generation who cheered on the first Deep Space Travellers and dreamed of one day joining their ranks. Not that you would have ever expected your dreams to become a reality, of course. You’d not done too badly for yourself, given your background. A father who left you when you were too young to remember and a mother who spent all of her time working to provide for you until David arrived. You muddled your way through education, your natural abilities lending themselves to being prioritised over the addictive entertainment binges that many of your schoolmates spent every waking moment indulging in.
And so it was that you got a job as a software developer for a big renewable energy company. Not the best job in the world but certainly not the worst, and markedly better than the state many of your peers were in, given the current jobs market. Then one year ago you received a phone call out of the blue from someone who said they would like a conversation about the blog you had started on the history of New Gaia. That conversation turned out to be a job opportunity at a government research laboratory, and even that was a cover story for the GIG astronaut training programme, a fact that blew your mind when you first heard it. In fact, you still have not fully comprehended it, despite now sitting in a GIG-funded car as it takes you to the place you’ve dreamed about for as long as you can remember.
The turn off the main road is understated, and you enter an intricate system of one-way roads that lead through a series of barriers and into different car parks. You can’t stop yourself from staring at every sign as you travel through the complex, feeling convinced this is all going to turn out to be a huge mistake or a practical joke, when you spot the reference you were directed towards, set back a fair way from the road and through a small tunnel. The car slowly moves forward and stops just before the barrier, and the window automatically opens. An armed guard with her ponytail poking through the back of a GIG baseball cap approaches you and, not unkindly, simply says, “ID?”
You scrabble around in your bag and pull out your International ID card, which she inspects in great detail before consulting a device hanging on her belt and turning back to you.
“Welcome to GIG. Your car will drop you over there for the shuttle bus.” She taps something on her device and the car hums in response. The window closes and the car moves forward until it reaches your spot and you extract yourself and your luggage.
As you get out of the car, you catch your first glimpse of the enormous, gleaming white tower that is GIG HQ in the distance and take a deep breath. This is really happening!
You use your waiting time to remind yourself of the process so far. Being picked out by name, making it through the initial interviews and physical checks…and you’re acutely aware that the coming weeks are no more than an extended assessment period in many ways.
The bus trip is only a few minutes long, and you spend the time staring out of the window at the campus that will be your home for the next six weeks. Everything is pristine, with perfectly manicured lawns and tall white buildings in every direction. As the bus pulls up outside reception, you can’t help but stare in wonder at the enormous, slender model of the famous Crystal v3.0 rocket, caught mid-launch. You try to picture what it must feel like to be sitting inside it as it sends its inhabitants – and the whole of humanity – on a necessary journey of discovery and exploration. You say a silent prayer that you will get to experience that for yourself one day, and walk into the building’s reception.
Turn to 1.
1
The impressiveness of the reception area matches your perception of everything outside. Polished marble, enormous windows, and intricate models of everything GIG has ever done every few paces. You make your way slowly to the desk, taking your time to appreciate where you are. You find yourself breathing deeply, experiencing with gratification the scent of the moment you have spent your whole life desperately waiting for.
The reception is not busy, and you are soon speaking to a charming young lady sitting behind the large, grand reception desk. She indicates that you should proceed through a door to one side, and a friendly-looking security guard accompanies you through it and into a starkly-lit lecture hall, where you are handed a welcome pack and invited to leave your bags to one side. You take your place in one of the two hundred or so seats laid out in semi-circular rows around a large screen and lectern.
Over the next twenty minutes, the remaining seats are filled by those you presume are your fellow trainees. A soft buzz of energy hums around you as you feel the excitement of those around you, who may turn out to be your comrades on an off-world team or your competition in getting an active place.
Despite the opening presentations being delivered by a less-than-charismatic lecturer, Professor Jill Harvey, you cannot help but sit enthralled for the three hours she speaks for. She says many things you already know about the history of GIG, some of the challenges you’ll be facing in the training regime over the coming weeks, and the drop-out rate of 75%, a number that seems to physically shake the room despite its brutality being well known.
Professor Harvey drops a teaser that the next session will introduce you to some of the concepts of extra-terrestrial communication, then announces that it is time to break for lunch. Turn to 117.
2
The door slides open easily, revealing a large bathroom. Tall, pristine mirrors line the left-hand wall, the reflections of the emergency lighting playing with your eyes, and to your right you see a series of toilet and shower cubicles. At first glance, the room looks empty, although all of the cubicle doors except for one are currently closed.
“Perhaps Bartu just went to have a shower?” suggests Catalina.
You can explore this room if you like (turn to 59), or turn around and go through the opposite door if you haven’t already (turn to 253). Alternatively, you can leave both rooms and continue down the corridor (93)?
3
Turning to the right you run down the stairs, closely followed by your pursuer. At the base of this flight is another T-junction, with an option to turn right or to continue straight forward, where you can see the alleyway bends round to the right ahead.
Do you turn right (turn to 226) or continue running straight on (turn to 294)?
4
You share your thought with the team that you’d like to follow the arrow towards the armoury, and the rest of the team looks around nervously.
“Well, I’m going to head this way,” says Pauline, pointing in the direction of the sh
uttle bay. “I think we really ought to split up. It’s possible that the bridge is on the opposite side of the ship from the shuttle bay, so maybe you can speak to us on the ship’s comms when you get there and we can get the shuttles set up to get us off this ship.”
“I agree,” says Catalina, turning to you. “How about I go with Pauline and James goes with you?”
Everyone agrees this seems sensible. You watch Catalina and Pauline pushing themselves off and heading into the darkness, and you look at James, who smiles encouragingly before his face falls, betraying his concern about the situation you have all found yourselves in.
You begin to follow the corridor, James shadowing your left side, your hands trying to avoid the sleek, cold, blood-stained walls and failing badly as you push yourself forward. The sound of the alarm is ringing in your ears and the corridor ahead of you is hidden from view by the dim lighting. Before long, you come across a pair of doors, one set into the right-hand wall and one directly in front of you. The blood looks like it continues around the edges of the door in front of you but not around the one to your right.
Do you go through the door to your right (turn to 108) or the door ahead of you (turn to 88)?
5
As captain, Pauline is already in the room as Travis shows you in.
“Right,” she says, “This absolutely sucks, and I know I don’t necessarily get on well with you as friends. For the moment I can’t help that, but I know we’ve been through something together, so just listen up because this is important. I can’t believe that any of us had anything to do with this, regardless of how incompetent you all are. The blame for this must lie somewhere else, and I can only think of three possibilities. Perhaps someone back at GIG sabotaged us – unlikely I think, but not impossible. Or maybe Mel or Bartu orchestrated the whole thing. That’s more possible. And getting themselves killed in the process feels about right, I’m sure you agree. Or, finally, maybe those creatures boarded while we were in cryogenesis and managed to override the systems themselves somehow. No matter what, it can’t have been one of us, and I think we just need to head into this trial knowing that.”
The Altimer Page 1