April A to Z - Y is for Yourself

He's not a nice man.
If you meet him, you
may feel cut up about it.

For this post, I will count the mercenary leader in Crimson Tide as yourself as that is one of the interpretations of what you are told in the book.

Appears in:  Crimson Tide (Fighting Fantasy 47) by Paul Mason.

Summary:  The mercenary leader wears a demonic mask and leads a band of mercanaries.  They raze your village, kill your father and carry off your mother to be a slave.  The aim of the book is to avenge them.

Prominence:  The leader and his men appear a few times in the book before the showdown, including in your mind as well.  5/10.

Hardness:  The mercenary leader has a skill of 12 and a stamina of 18, making him very hard.  He is heavily armoured.  There is not much chance of slaying him in combat although he is vulnerable to magic.  7/10

Ambition:  He just wanders around the country causing trouble.  Of course, he may be some aspect of your dark side so it's pretty hard to tell.  5/10.

Style:  It's all about the mask.  Is it magical?  does it represent you being taken over by your rage and hatred?  If you put it on, a crimson tide descends forever.  Your opponent has a face similar to yours when you finally see it.  Beyond the mask, he's just a tough warrior.  4/10

Diabolical genius:  He's probably a good tactician but he has no grand plan.  4/10

Total score:  You should be glad that your dark side is just basically a powerful warrior with nothing else to do.  25/50

So that is 'yourself'.  However, there are plenty of times when you are your own worst enemy in gamebooks and in a future post, I will list stupid decisions that you can make in gamebooks.