In The Labyrinth
Released in 1980 as an 80-page, 81⁄2 × 11 saddle-stitched book, In the Labyrinth: Game Masters' Campaign and Adventure Guide added a role-playing system and fantasy-world background to The Fantasy Trip. Released simultaneously and in the same format were Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard: greatly expanded and revised versions of the previously-released physical and magical combat systems. (Character creation was moved from those books into In The Labyrinth, however.)
The three books together formed the complete Fantasy Trip game system. As in the original microgames, each character had Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence traits, each calibrated to 10 for an average human. New (human) characters began with 8 points of each trait, with 8 extra points for the player to add to any of the abilities as they desired.
Perhaps the most novel feature was the use of a point-based skill system, an extension and generalization of the magic system inherited from Wizard. Each character had one talent or skill point per point of IQ, and each skill had a skill point cost as well as a minimum IQ to learn it. What would be different character classes in a game like D&D were covered by different talents instead; for example the thief talent would allow a player to roll against their dexterity to pick a pocket or open a lock. Other talents included standard fantasy skills such as literacy, alertness or weapon proficiency. It was also possible for a wizard to learn mundane skills, or even for a hero to learn a spell or two (with great difficulty.)
Read more about this topic: The Fantasy Trip
Famous quotes containing the word labyrinth:
“And haughtier-headed Burke that proved the State a tree,
That this unconquerable labyrinth of the birds, century after century,
Cast but dead leaves to mathematical equality....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)