From: irilyth@fenris.claremont.edu (Josh Smith)
Subject: Re: NUTMEG GAMES (aka NOVA Games, creators of "Bounty Hunter")
Originator: irilyth@fenris
Organization: Evil Geniuses For A Better Tomorrow
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 01:05:44 GMT

Ken Duisenberg (duizie@leland.stanford.edu) writes:

> 	LOST WORLDS PICTUREBOOK SERIES
> 1001 	Man in Chainmail w/Sword & Shield		 4.00
> 1002	Skeleton w/Scimitar & Shield			 4.00
> 1003 	Dwarf in Chainmail w/2-Handed Axe		 4.00
> 1004	Giant Goblin w/Mace & Shield			 4.00
> 1006	Hill Troll w/Club				 4.00
> 1007  Barbarian w/2-Handed-Sword			 4.00
> 1010	Cold Drake					 4.00
> 1012	Lizard Man w/Scimitar				 4.00

Steve Spencer (stv@unislc.uucp) asks:

> Apologies if this is a stupid question, but are these posters that we
> are talking about here? 

Nope; they're books for Lost Worlds, a "flipbook game" or "picturebook game"
like Ace of Aces. Ace of Aces is an aerial combat game; Lost Worlds is
fantasy melee. Each book comes with a 32-page book and a card with a list of
maneuvers. The card has pictures of the character described on the card; you
and your opponent start the game by trading books and turning to a
particular page.

The basic concept is that when you look at your book, you see a picture and
a description of the other person's state. The pages are numbered with two
numbers per page, one odd and one even. The even numbers are maneuvers, and
correspond to result tables, the odd numbers are results, and correspond to
pictures of your enemy. For the example below, let's say you picked the
Wraith with Sickle, and he picked the Ninja with Ninjato.

You and your opponent each pick a maneuver from those listed on the card,
and remember the number associated with it. Then, you shout it out roughly
simultaneously, and look up the result. Let's say you decide to do a Down
Swing Bash while your opponent does a Duck. You say "ready", he says
"ready", and you call out "36" while he calls out "20". You then turn to the
page with a 36 in the bottom box (which also has a 35 in the top box), and
look up 20.

In the 36 box are a bunch of pairs: 2--5, 8--33, and so on. The first in
each pair is an even number, corresponding to a maneuver your opponent might
have made; the second is a result page, corresponding to the result of your
manuever in light of their maneuver. So, if you'd done a 36 and your
opponent had Dodged (8), you would turn to page 33. Since he did a Duck
(20), you turn to page 36 (your maneuver), look up 20 (his maneuver), and
find that it says to turn to page 7 (the as you see it). His character looks
on page 20 (his action), looks up 36 (your action), and finds that he is to
turn to page 15.

When you look on page 7, you see a picture of the Ninja being hit in the
head, and the text "DAZED: Score 7". Your opponent takes 7 damage, modified
by whatever bonus you have for a Down Swing Bash (+3 in this case), so the
Ninja takes 10 damage. On his page 15, he sees a picture of the Wraith
swinging down, and the text "SWINGING DOWN". You take no damage: you tried
to slice him in two, while he ducked--and you almost succeeded (he had 12
points to start, so he's almost dead).

You then pick another maneuver, and continue like this. However, at the
bottom of page 7, you read to the Ninja: "Do no Red, Orange, or Gimick next
turn". Because you whacked him so good, he can't do any Strong (orange) or
High (red) maneuvers next turn, or use his special Ninja gimicks. Each
maneuver on the card has a color associated with it, so these limitations
can interfere with your range of choices, and your ability to outguess your
opponent. On the Wraith's page 15, the Ninja player reads "Do no blue next
turn"--the Wraith's sickle is heavy, and he can't immediately turn from a
down swing into a low attack.

That's basically the game. It's a fun way for two players to kill a few
minutes. The characters differ in the range of maneuvers they can do (the
Ninja, for example, has four feint attacks, whereas the Wraith has none,
because the Wraith's sickle isn't much good for feinting), the amount of
damage they take from attacks (the Wraith's page 7 only sees him taking 3
points of damage, because Wraiths are hard to kill), the modifiers to the
damage done by their attacks (the Wraith and Ninja are actually pretty even
here, but other characters have different bonuses), and the results tables.
Be warned that some characters are much weaker than others: the Wraith and
Ninja seem pretty even, but the Ninja can trash the Goblin with Mace (for
example) with nearly trivial ease thanks to his wider range of maneuvers and
kinder results tables (an attack that cripples the Goblin only grazes the
Ninja, because the latter is so much faster). We came up with a rating
scheme for the various characters we owned, and managed to come up with a
decent set of characters who worked well against each other.

Anyway, that's probably more than you ever wanted to know, but I haven't
played Lost Worlds in a while, and you reminded me of some of the fun we had
with it in high school (lo those many years ago, grin). It's a fun game to
kill time with, but I wouldn't class it as something worth pursuing in any
sort of serious way.
-- 
Josh Smith, User Support Coordinator  ::  irilyth@fenris.claremont.edu
Harvey Mudd College, Claremont CA     ::  consult(std-disclaimer.pl).
"It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man."
Newsgroups: rec.games.board