Fighting Fantasy
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, original edition | |
| Designers | Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson |
|---|---|
| Publishers | Puffin, Wizard Books |
| Publication | 1980 |
| Genres | Fantasy |
| Systems | Gamebook, d6 |
Fighting Fantasy is a series of single-player role-playing gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, originally published by Puffin and now by Wizard Books.
Despite common claims to the contrary, Fighting Fantasy was not the very first series of gamebooks. The gamebook format used in Fighting Fantasy was previously seen in a series of solitaire adventures released for the Tunnels and Trolls role-playing game, the first of which was Buffalo Castle [1]. Fighting Fantasy popularised the format and spawned dozens of imitators.
Overview
Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone authored the first seven books in the series, after which point the writing stable was expanded. Note that Jackson should not be confused with the American game designer of the same name, who presently runs Steve Jackson Games and himself authored three Fighting Fantasy books—Scorpion Swamp in 1984, then Demons of the Deep and Robot Commando in 1986.
There are 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. A new addition, Eye of the Dragon was written by Livingstone and published in 2005.
Fighting Fantasy gamebooks were similar to other interactive gamebooks which 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 mechanic used to resolve combat and other situations, not dissimilar to that used in Dungeons and 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 which the character usually must make a choice or roll a die. Each page features several sections with their number at the top in bold. In top corner of each page, where a regular book would have the page number, a Fighting Fantasy book features a range, such as '129–131', denoting the sections which appear on that page.
With the notable exception of Steve Jackson's Sorcery! miniseries, all entries in the series are standalone 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, (The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Return to Firetop Mountain and Legend of Zagor), are undoubtedly more rewarding if played in sequence.
Typically, a Fighting Fantasy gamebook follows the 'collect w, x and y to reach z' mechanic. 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 proceed to the final confrontation. Later books sometimes varied this formula, allowing multiple routes to success.
History
In 1980 Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, founders of Games Workshop, decided to capitalise on the spreading enthusiasm for Dungeons and 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 which 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.
Following on from the success of the first book Jackson and Livingstone began to produce further gamebooks, writing solo in order to better utilise 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 science-fiction Fighting Fantasy, Starship Traveller, and Livingston produced City of Thieves, 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)') 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, Marc Gascoigne and Peter Darvill-Evans.
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 of this 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.
In 2002 Wizard Books purchased 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 (thus far only books by Jackson and Livingstone have been published) and to incorporate the Sorcery! miniseries into the core series. The original cover art has also been replaced. In 2005 Ian Livingstone submitted a new Fighting Fantasy book for the Wizard series, entitled Eye of the Dragon.
On November 29th it was announced that the long awaited lost Fighting Fantasy Gamebook known as Bloodbones, which would have been 60th in the original series, will be released in September 2006. Gamebook number 26 of the new series is written by Jonathon Green and will feature an original cover by Martin McKenna. Also slated for release in 2006 are Talisman of Death and Sword of the Samurai, both written by Jamie Thomson and Mark Smith; these will be the first Fighting Fantasy gamebooks not penned by the original pair to appear in the Wizard lineup.
Setting
The majority of the Fighting Fantasy books are set in the heroic fantasy world of Titan—46 of the 59 core books take place there, plus the Sorcery! spin-off. Like many fantasy settings, Titan corresponds roughly to medieval Europe, with the addition of magic, monsters and several sentient non-human races. Titan consists of three continents; the most commonly utilised by the series is Allansia, then The Old World and finally Khul. The scattered and somewhat incoherent information gleaned about the world of Titan from the gamebooks is consolidated and supplemented by a readers guide titled simply Titan (Gascoigne, Jackson & Livingstone, 1986).
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.
System
The Fighting Fantasy system, in comparison with the mechanics employed in role-playing games like Dungeons and 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. This process usually continues until one party's Stamina reaches 0, at which point they are dead.
Luck comes into play at various points in the narrative, at which point the player will be instructed to roll 2d6 and compare the result to their Luck score. If the result is lower than their score they are considered to be Lucky 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 Luck tests 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.
Cover formats
The original Puffin publication of the Fighting Fantasy series went through three distinct editions, characterised by differing cover layouts and spines, often referred to among fans as the 'original', 'green line' and 'gold dragon' editions. Despite these changes the artwork (cover and interior) was unaffected, with the exception of the first two books, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and The Citadel of Chaos, both of which received new cover illustrations upon release in 'gold dragon' format. The recent Wizard reprint features completely new cover artwork.
The 'original' covers appeared on the first seven gamebooks only, all of which were written by Jackson, Livingstone or both. They feature simple titles and bear the book's number in a large star in either of the bottom corners of the page, with the colour of the book's spine varying depending on the dominant colour of the cover art. The author's name is discretly placed at the top, due to Jackson and Livingstone's lack of celebrity at the time of publication. This layout was used from book 1 through 7, though these have also been published in the subsequent formats as well.
The 'green line' or 'zigzag' format featured a jagged green line across the top of the cover, bearing the phrase 'Adventure Gamebook' and the book's number, and is the first edition to employ the distinctive Fighting Fantasy logo and green spine. The only exception to this rule was the Sorcery! miniseries, which featured a red stripe and orange spine. As with the 'original' editions, the author's name is not highlighted in any way, though it is worth noting that those books written by authors other than Jackson and Livingstone do not feature the author's name on the cover; the books are billed as 'Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone present...', a reflection upon Jackson and Livingstone's growing fanbase. This style was introduced to coincide with the release of book 8, Scorpion Swamp (Jackson(2), 1984), and all previous books were reissued in this format. The style continued to be used on all new books up to book 24, Creature of Havoc (Jackson, 1986).
The 'gold dragon' format features a gold dragon crouched on a large text box displaying the phrase 'Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone present' in bronze-foil print, in many cases in larger type than the title of the book itself; the only exceptions to this rule were those books which were actually written by either Jackson or Livingstone, in which case only the individual in question would be named. This format carried on the green spine from the previous edition, though the second printing did not feature the numbered spine; this was corrected for the third printing. Once again Sorcery! was the exception, bearing a purple dragon and orange spine. This format was introduced with book 25, Beneath Nightmare Castle (Darvill-Evans, 1987) and maintained right up until the series concluded with book 59, Curse of the Mummy (Green, 1995) and once again all previous books were reissued in this format. The bronze-foil print was discontinued after book 51, Island of the Undead (Martin, 1992).
When Wizard began to publish Fighting Fantasy in 2002, they completely redesigned both the cover art and the logo; Publishing Director Simon Flynn states on the official Wizard website that the covers needed to be kept 'looking fresh' because the old covers 'weren't acceptable for today's kids', and the Unofficial Advanced Fighting Fantasy website features a poll on which 63% of fans described the new covers as an improvement. As only books written by either Jackson or Livingstone have been printed in this format it remains to be seen whether the actual author's name will feature on the cover or not.
A limited number of Fighting Fantasy books were published in the United States by Dell/Laurel Leaf in the 1980s. These editions featured new cover designs featuring paintings by Richard Corben.
Interior artwork
All Fighting Fantasy gamebooks are illustrated; most of the art is considered by fans to be of very high quality, especially in comparison to other role-playing products of the time. The cover artwork of the original series are also considered to have played a major role in the original popularity of the series; Jackson and Livingstone reflected this belief by personally signing off on every cover throughout the entire series.
All Fighting Fantasy books feature two forms of interior illustration; full-page pieces which depict the action taking place in one of the sections on the opposing page and smaller, generic pieces scattered at random throughout the book, often serving as breaks or space fillers between sections. The full-page illustrations are generally used for the most dramatic or spectacular sections of the story, while the generic images usually depict items such as skulls, swords, monsters and treasure. The two sets of illustrations are always drawn by the same artist.
Many artists contributed multiple illustrations to the series: Les Edwards and Terry Oakes created 11 and 12 covers, respectively; Russ Nicholson drew the interior illustrations for 13 books, and Leo Hartas provided the maps included in 18 books.
Companion books
Several additional books were published to supplement the core series, the most successful of which was Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series, which was published in from 1983 to 1985 and consists of The Shamutanti Hills, Kharé - Cityport of Traps, The Seven Serpents and The Crown of Kings. Billed as 'Fighting Fantasy for adults', it was the longest and most complex story published in the series and the only one to run over multiple volumes.
In 1984 Jackson produced a guide to multiplayer role-playing using the Fighting Fantasy system and world, a volume simply titled Fighting Fantasy. In 1985 a complete Fighting Fantasy bestiary was released, Out of the Pit, and in 1986 it was followed by an adventure for the multiplayer system, The Riddling Reaver as well as a (then) complete encyclopaedia of the Fighting Fantasy world, entitled Titan. In 1989 a second Fighting Fantasy multiplayer system was released, referred to as Advanced Fighting Fantasy. Three books were produced using this system: Dungeoneer, Blacksand! and Allansia.
Seven Fighting Fantasy novels have also been published. These began with three standalone books, titled The Trolltooth Wars (Jackson, 1989), Demonstealer (Gascoigne, 1991) and Shadowmaster (Livingstone & Gascoigne, 1992). In 1993 Ian Livingstone and Carl Sargent began a four volume series entitled The Zagor Chronicles, reprising the popular villain of Warlock of Firetop Mountain and its sequels.
Clash of the Princes was a pair of books designed to be played or read by two players simultaneously as opponents (although either book could also be read on its own). In the two-player game each of the readers would from time to time be instructed by the book to make a note on a shared piece of paper as they made decisions, which could influence what happened to the other player as his book instructed him to respond accordingly.
Other media
In 1984 a number of Fighting Fantasy videogames were released for the Commodore 64, Amstrad, BBC, and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. They were based directly on specific Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, specifically The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The Citadel of Chaos, The Forest of Doom, Temple of Terror, Seas of Blood, Appointment with F.E.A.R. and Rebel Planet.
1986 saw the release of the Warlock of Firetop Mountain boardgame, followed in 1993 by a second game based on the Legend of Zagor novels.
In 1998 Eidos Interactive published the Deathtrap Dungeon videogame for the PC and PlayStation.
Importance
The Fighting Fantasy series popularised the use of a dice mechanic in gamebooks, a random element which contributed hugely to the suspense and the enjoyment of the play experience. Many series would attempt to emulate the Fighting Fantasy style, with varying degrees of success: Joe Dever's Lone Wolf series enjoyed success nearly equal to that of Fighting Fantasy. Other series included GrailQuest, Fabled Lands and Way of the Tiger. The phrase 'Fighting Fantasy' is sometimes used to refer to all single player role-playing gamebooks, most notably in item descriptions on eBay, where such gamebooks are regularly sold.
See also
- List of Fighting Fantasy game books
- Lone Wolf
- Choose Your Own Adventure
- Way of the Tiger
- The Cretan Chronicles
External links
- Current publisher Wizard Books
- A Fighting Fantasy fan site
- Unofficial web site dedicated to the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks genre
- A fan's review of some of the books in the series
- Official website
- Fighting Fantasy Project, online-playable books in the Fighting Fantasy vein
- A Fighting Fantasy wiki for creating online books written by its community
- Yahoo! group dedicated to the series
- A website with reviews, links and polls
- A website with lots of FF related information
References
- "Fighting Fantasy Web Companion", accessed 2 August 2005.
- "Fighting Fantasy Official Site", accessed 2 August 2005.