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For a list of Fighting Fantasy media, see List Of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks ''Fighting Fantasy'' is a series of single-player Role-playing Gamebook s created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone , originally published by Puffin and now by Wizard Books . Although not the first books to use this format, ''Fighting Fantasy'' popularised the format and spawned dozens of imitators. OVERVIEW British writers Steve Jackson (not to be confused with the US-based Game Designer Of The Same Name ) and Ian Livingstone , co-founders of Games Workshop , authored the first seven books in the series, after which point the writing stable was expanded. There were 59 books in the core series, beginning with '' The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain '' ( Jackson & Livingstone , 1982 ) and concluding with ''Curse of the Mummy'' ( Green , 1995 ), as well as the four-part '' Sorcery! '' series, also by Jackson. Two new books, '' Eye Of The Dragon '', and the long-lost adventure '' Bloodbones '' have been published by Wizard. '' Howl Of The Werewolf '' has also been confirmed. It now seems likely that more new gamebooks will be published. The ''Fighting Fantasy'' gamebooks were similar to other interactive gamebooks that were being published at the time — most notably the '' Choose Your Own Adventure '' series — in that the reader takes control of the story's protagonist, making many choices over the course of the story and turning to different pages in order to learn the outcome of their decisions. The ''Fighting Fantasy'' series distinguished itself by the use of a dice system to resolve combat and other situations, not unlike that used in '' Dungeons & Dragons '' and other role-playing games, though far simpler. The action in a ''Fighting Fantasy'' gamebook is split into small sections, ranging from a paragraph to a page, at the end of each of which the character usually must make a choice or roll a die. Each page features several of these sections, each headed with its number in bold. Where the page number would appear in an ordinary book, a ''Fighting Fantasy'' book gives the range of sections appearing on that page, much as some dictionaries do for the words listed on a page. Most of the early books in the series had 400 of these sections, with the optimal ending being number 400. Some later books had more than 400 sections, and some concealed the optimal ending somewhere in the middle of the book to make it harder for the reader to find. With the notable exception of Steve Jackson's '' Sorcery! '' miniseries, all entries in the series are stand-alone and do not assume any prior knowledge on the part of the player. That said, many of them take place in a single world known as Titan , and the three books which deal with the wizard Zagor, (namely '' The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain '', ''Return to Firetop Mountain'' and ''Legend of Zagor''), are undoubtedly more rewarding if played in sequence, as are the books ''Deathtrap Dungeon'', ''Trial of Champions'' and ''Armies of Death''. Typically, a ''Fighting Fantasy'' gamebook follows the "collect w, x and y to reach z" approach. This means that the player can only reach the end of the book by following the correct path and finding all the items (keys, gems, rings or even pieces of information) that let him or her proceed to the final confrontation. Later books sometimes varied this formula, allowing multiple routes to success. HISTORY In 1980 , Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, co-founders of Games Workshop , decided to capitalise on the spreading enthusiasm for ''Dungeons & Dragons'' by creating a series of single-player gamebooks. Their first submission, ''The Magic Quest'', was a short adventure intended to demonstrate the style of game that they sought to create. ''The Magic Quest'' took over a year to be accepted by Penguin Books , at which point the two creators devoted a further six months to expanding and improving upon their original design, resulting in '' The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain '', the first ''Fighting Fantasy'' gamebook. After several rewrites, the book was accepted and published in 1982 under Penguin's children's imprint, Puffin Books . Following the success of the first book, Jackson and Livingstone began to produce further gamebooks, writing solo in order to make better use of their time. In 1983 , Jackson produced the second ''Fighting Fantasy'' adventure, '' The Citadel Of Chaos '', and Livingstone the third, titled '' The Forest Of Doom ''. Jackson then produced the first book in the series with a science-fiction setting, '' Starship Traveller '', and Livingstone the first with an urban setting, '' City Of Thieves '', as well as '' Deathtrap Dungeon '' and '' Island Of The Lizard King ''. In 1984 , the decision was made to expand the number of writers working on the project, and the second Steve Jackson (from this point on referred to as "Steve Jackson (2)" , see below) was added to the roster with '' Scorpion Swamp '', published that year. From that point on, many more authors began to contribute to the series, including Andrew Chapman, Carl Sargent (aka Keith Martin), Marc Gascoigne (also the longest-serving ''Fighting Fantasy'' editor) and Peter Darvill-Evans . Three of the books ('' Scorpion Swamp '' in 1984 and '' Demons Of The Deep '' and '' Robot Commando '' in 1986 ) were written by the other Steve Jackson , the US -based founder and owner of Steve Jackson Games ). This has led many gamers to mistakenly believe that they are the same person. {Link without Title} {Link without Title} The series enjoyed good sales all through the eighties, but experienced the same difficulties in the early nineties as the rest of the role-playing industry, brought on primarily by the increasing dominance of Video Games . The series was slated to conclude with book 50, ''Return to Firetop Mountain'' ( Livingstone , 1992), but this book was unexpectedly successful, experiencing better sales than any recent gamebook and prompting an increase in demand for the ''Fighting Fantasy'' back catalogue. As a result, ten more books were written, but only nine were ever published, and the series came to an end with 1995's '' Curse Of The Mummy ''. A sixtieth book, '' Bloodbones '', was written but never released, although it was later published by Wizard. The Puffin ''Fighting Fantasy'' series had finished. In 2002 , Wizard Books bought the rights to the ''Fighting Fantasy'' series and has put many of the original titles back into print, making the controversial decision to change the order of the books in order to fit their reduced line-up (initially only the gamebooks by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone were published) and to incorporate the ''Sorcery!'' miniseries into the core series. The original cover art has also been replaced. The Wizard editions have also been criticized for the extensive errors in the rule section of the reprints. Copying and pasting from ''Firetop Mountain'' has introduced errors into the rules, in most cases affecting the rules for Provisions and Potions. These problems have continued in the more recent re-releases as number 24, ''Talisman of Death'', also has these errors. In 2005 , a brand-new ''Fighting Fantasy'' book entitled '' Eye Of The Dragon '' was released by Wizard, written by Ian Livingstone. In 2006 , '' Talisman Of Death '' and '' Sword Of The Samurai '', both written by Jamie Thomson and Mark Smith , were released. This was the first time Wizard had reprinted works by "secondary" authors. Twenty-fifth Anniversary In 2007 , ''Fighting Fantasy'' celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary. To commemorate the event, Wizard are to publish a new 25th-anniversary yearbook and a special edition of ''The Warlock of Firetop Mountain'' that will use the original wrap-around cover image and contain extra material. Three standard gamebooks will also be released in 2007, all written by Jonathan Green. '''', a brand-new adventure that Jonathan Green had previously mentioned in a letter to a fan. SETTING The majority of the ''Fighting Fantasy'' books are set in the , Jackson & Livingstone , 1986). ''Fighting Fantasy'' books]] '' Legend Of Zagor '' ( Livingstone , 1993) is set in a second fantasy world, Amarillia, as are the first, second and fourth volumes of ''The Zagor Chronicles'' ( Livingstone , 1993–94). Magical communication and travel between Amarillia and Titan is possible, suggesting that they are part of the same 'universe'. A third fantasy world called Orb features in book 11, ''Talisman of Death'' ( Thomson & Smith , 1984). Orb is also the setting of Thompson and Smith's otherwise unrelated series of gamebooks '' Way Of The Tiger ''. In addition to these, a small minority of ''Fighting Fantasy'' books employ a Science Fiction setting. It is never specified whether or not these books are intended to be set in the same world, but the lack of consistency between them or mention of common locations seems to indicate that they are not. The science fiction books, in order of publication, are '' Starship Traveller '' ( Jackson , 1983), '' Freeway Fighter '' ( Livingstone , 1985), '' Space Assassin '' ( Chapman , 1985), '' The Rings Of Kether '' ( Chapman , 1985), '' Rebel Planet '', ( Waterfield , 1985), '' Robot Commando '' ( Jackson(2) , 1985), '' Star Strider '' ( Sharp , 1987), and '' Sky Lord '' ( Allen , 1988). '' Appointment With F.E.A.R. '' ( Jackson , 1985) featured the reader as a Superhero in the fictional "Titan City" (presumably named after the regular setting of Titan), again deviating from the usual fantasy environment. '' House Of Hell '' ( Jackson , 1984) is the only ''Fighting Fantasy'' book set in modern-day Earth. It caused perhaps more controversy than any other book on its release because of its extensive use of occult and Satanic themes. SYSTEM The ''Fighting Fantasy system'', in comparison with the mechanics employed in Role-playing games like '' Dungeons & Dragons '' or even the similar '' Lone Wolf '' series, is extremely simple. The player character, in the majority of books, has only three statistics, namely skill, stamina and luck, which are determined randomly by dice rolls at the beginning of the adventure. Whenever the player engages an enemy in combat, the statistics for that enemy are displayed in the text. The player rolls 2d6 (a pair of six sided dice) and adds this number to their skill, then does the same for their opponent. Whichever combatant has scored higher has wounded the other, and the wounded party must subtract 2 points from their stamina. At this point the player has the option to ''Test Luck'', a gamble which either increases or decreases the damage done. This process usually continues until one party's stamina reaches 0, at which point they are dead. ''Testing Luck'' comes into play both by explicit instruction at various points in the narrative, and (at the player's choice) in combat. The player rolls 2d6 and compare the result to their Luck score. If the result is lower than their score they are considered to be Luck y and are informed of their results; conversely, a roll which results in a score higher than the player's Luck will have a different, invariably negative, result. In either case, the player's luck score is decreased by 1 each time it is tested and thus subsequent ''Tests of Luck'' become increasingly difficult unless the player finds some way to replenish luck. (Sometimes the player is given a choice not to ''Test Luck'' and thus to conserve a higher luck score for future occasions.) Some books employ extra statistics, such as '' Sword Of The Samurai '' ( Thomson & Smith , 1986), in which the character also has an Honour score, or '' Beneath Nightmare Castle '' ( Darvill-Evans , 1987) which includes a Willpower score. Other books allow the player to select from a number of abilities, such as the spells available in '' The Citadel Of Chaos '' and '' Temple Of Terror '' (Livingstone, 1985), the special skills in '' Moonrunner '' ( Hand , 1992) or the superpowers in '' Appointment With F.E.A.R. '' (Jackson, 1985). Some books use vehicle combat as well as hand to hand (examples include '' Starship Traveller '' and '' Freeway Fighter ''), and most of the science fiction settings include some form of ranged combat, with a variety of methods of resolution. The ''Sorcery!'' series was the first to feature images of dice at the bottom of each page. These allowed the game to be played without having actual dice to hand, by flicking through the book to a random page. The Fighting Fantasy books published by Wizard used the same device. COVER FORMATS ]]]]The Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks have had a variety of different cover formats. Three different cover designs were used during the publication of the original series by Puffin. Originally each book had the number of the book printed in a coloured star on the cover. The spine and rear cover were the same colour as the background of the star, the colour varying with the book. This design was used for the first seven books in the series. The second design featured a green stripe across the top of the cover, containing the words 'Adventure Gamebooks' and the number of the book. The Fighting Fantasy logo was also printed on the cover. The spine and rear cover of each book were uniformly coloured a light green. This design was used up to the 24th book in the series. The final design featured a large box with a gold dragon design at the top of the cover containing the cover credit. The spine of each book remained uniformly coloured a light green. The colour of the rear cover varied with each book. This design was used up to the last book in the Puffin series. Reprints of the earlier books featured the subsequent cover designs. Books with the final Puffin cover design featured the number of the book on the front and spine of each book until a small number of print runs where all numbers were removed from the books. After this the number of the book featured on the spine of each book, but not the cover. The cover credit was printed in bronze-foil until the publication of the 51st book, after which it was printed in black. The first two books, ''The Warlock of Firetop Mountain'' and ''Citadel of Chaos'' were given new cover illustrations when printed with the second and final Puffin cover design. The Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks republished by Wizard feature a new cover design, a new Fighting Fantasy logo and new cover illustrations (with, so far, the exceptions of ''Appointment with F.E.A.R'' and ''Curse of the Mummy'', which retain their original cover illustrations). The covers were changed because the old covers were not considered acceptable for the modern market. Authors other than the series' co-creators are not credited on the cover, which instead features the phrase 'Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone Present'. These authors are credited on the inside title page. The Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks published in the US by Dell/Laurel Leaf featured a new cover design and illustrations by Richard Corben . Gallery of the various Fighting Fantasy Gamebook cover designs |
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