PDA

View Full Version : Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks!



Mataeus
05-09-07, 02:39 PM
I was thinking, seeing as we're all into Dizzy and he would now be considered 'retro' coupled with the fact he first appeared in the 80's... Does anyone here remember Fighting Fantasy books, originated by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone?

They were like 'choose your own adventure', but you could roll dice and kill stuff... You have the attributes of SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK and the books were (usually) 400 paragraphs long, with 1-3 paragraphs on each page.

Stats were kept track of by yourself on your adventure sheet.

Titles you may remember are The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Deathtrap Dungeon, Creature of Havoc, House of Hell and the four-book Sorcery! series.

I've always been a big fan of Fighting Fantasy having bought my first book in 1988 (they were first published in 1982) and having never looked back. Aside from my C64 and my mates Speccy +2, they are what made up my childhood. I'm 26 years old now. :cry:

Anyway, I'm asking because they are originally a 1980's thing (like Dizzy) so I thought some of you guys may have played them. I still have my collection now, a grand total of 116 books at last count. The original series (1-59) was printed by Puffin and ended in 1995; since then Wizard books have taken up the mantel as of 2003 and have been reprinting them with new cover art and continue to do so. There's even been 3 brand new adventures written, Eye of the Dragon, Bloodbones and the latest of which comes out tomorrow (Howl of the Werewolf).

The great thing is, they don't read like children's books. They still read really well and are great fun to paly. I'm still a big fan of Fighting Fantasy books. Is anybody else out there.....?

ingolemo
05-09-07, 04:06 PM
Yeah, I was pretty into them at one time.

I've played quite a few of them, though I've forgotten most. The Sorcery! series was my favourite, especially The Crown of Kings.

I should even have Titan around here somewhere.

AndyC
05-09-07, 07:01 PM
I remember them well; in fact I've still got my collection in my bookcase.

I only ever bought 9 of them (The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Citadel of Chaos, City of Thieves, Deathtrap Dungeon, House of Hell, Freeway Fighter, Appointment with FEAR, Daggers of Darkness & Vault of the Vampire), but I must have read at least twice as many by borrowing others from friends.

I was never any good at them (I only completed a handful), but always found them very enjoyable. I even had a go at writing one myself and tried to get it published, although no-one ever took it up.

Mataeus
05-09-07, 10:27 PM
Hey, this is great - It's nice to see some other people on here that have enjoyed this fine series as well as me :D

I too haven't completed many of them. Of course, to enhance replayability they have a lot of different paths and some trial-and-error parts in them, and I refuse to cheat so if I die in the book I will start it again. Then I get curious about a path less followed, so decide to explore a different route and die again... lol

Crown of Kings is excellent (and enormous :v2_dizzy_happy:) but again I've not gotten very far in it. With the Sorcery! series, I tend to give myself "save points" at the start of each book keeping the state of the adventure sheet intact with a copy so if I die I don't have to start from book one again.

Mataeus
13-09-07, 04:43 PM
Found this cool new montage advertising FF books, thought I'd share it with you....


http://a72.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/53/l_aff7020ffe5201987036fd9c2727b257.jpg

AndyC
13-09-07, 05:45 PM
I'm sure I saw a couple of them the last time I was down the pub(!) :D
Great picture.

Steven
21-01-08, 02:56 AM
I certainly do like Fighting Fantasy books. :D
Got a huge collection of the books myself.
On the official Fighting Fantasy forums of course too.
No prizes for guessing which one is me though! :v2_dizzy_tongue2:

Meph
21-01-08, 05:57 PM
I had loads of the Lone wolf ones.. Joe Devor or whatever his name was.. in fact i still have them all somewhere... the first one i had was 'castle of death'

i did have the Citadel of Chaos i remember the knifey knifey game.. lol and i had few others from that geezer, and i remember renting some of the Knighmare ones from the library.

AndyC
21-01-08, 09:29 PM
I had one of the Choose Your Own Adventure series that concerned a town where there was a curse that made Cowboys and Indians rise from their graves and slaughter each other (and anyone who got in the way). I can't remember for the life of me what it was called; can anybody help me out?

ingolemo
22-01-08, 12:22 AM
Well, here's the complete list. Try reading through it ans see if you recognise any of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Choose_Your_Own_Adventure_books

AndyC
22-01-08, 03:22 PM
It was "The Horror of High Ridge". As soon as I saw the title it came back to me. Thanks for the link, ingolemo. :tup: