Fighting Fantasy

[Reinhardt]

I was bored and downloaded bunch of Fighting Fantasy books. Which are the good ones? I'm mostly interested in horror adventures.

 

[Melan]

House of Hell is gruesome 80s Satanism scare horror set in the modern world. Highly recommended if you want horror. (It is one of the harder FF books, though. Prepare to die horribly, multiple times.) Caverns of the Snow Witch (no spoilers) is not horror per se, but it was plenty horrific for 11-years-old me.

The best FF books IMO are Seas of Blood (compete with a rival pirate captain for the loot and plunder of a Medkterranean/Babylonian-inspired sea setting), Deathtrap Dungeon (the iconic dungeon crawl, great illustrations), Scorpion Swamp (this is by the American Steve Jackson, and features three posible missions and free non-linear exploration), the four-part Sorcery! (grotesque, surreal journey into a land of evil, illustrated by the absolute master, John Blanche), Island of the Lizard King (tropical island adventure), and City of Thieves (lovable city of scum and villainy, great illustrations here, too).

The newly written Assassins of Allansia is pretty cool, too, vintage Ian Livingstone assholishness. My first character died about ten entries in, the second a bit later. The fourth failed his quest right before the very end! The illustrations in the English edition are not too good anymore, though.

 

[Reinhardt]

 

[Stella Brando]

If you want some horror FF, try the ones by Steven Hand: Dead of Night (40), Legend of the Shadow Warriors (44), and Moon Runner (48).

In Dead of Night you're a "demon stalker" (and dedicated river-barge passenger). Your parents go missing during a demonic invasion.

In Legend of the Shadow Warriors you're a war veteran charged with hunting down the shadowy fighters of the title (no relation to Lo Wang), you meet ancient gods and pumpkin-heads (and a determined tax collector).

In Moonrunner you're a detective/bounty hunter searching for a escaped war criminal in a shit-hole city, it's pretty cool. The ending isn't what you'd expect in a series like this.

These three books are written by Steven Hand, not Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. They're set in the 'Old World,' a part of Titan which feels very different to Allansia, the most common FF location. Allansia is an adventure-filled wilderness, with orcs, elves, dwarves, huge grassy plains, verdant forests and struggling city states.

The Old World has developed cities, and settled nation states, and the evils you are like to find include ghosts, demons, vampires, werewolves, etc. Technology can seem more advanced (you can ride a stagecoach, for instance) but in some ways also medieval. There's no guns, I don't think. The Old World is decadent, crumbling, and gothic.

Anyway, read these three books if you can, they're a good horror-trilogy. Hand was planning a fourth book, but it was cancelled when FF stopped publishing books, around 1992.

 

[Gunnar]

Creature of Havoc is a must read FF book where you play as a monster and feast on sweet hobbit flesh.

 

[Stella Brando]

It's also impossible unless you cheat. God damn Steve Jackson.*

*British version.

 

[Reinhardt]

There's no guns, I don't think.

There is one in Howl of the Werewolf(started from it because i like werewolves)

 

[Stella Brando]

Oh yeah, that's a 'new' one (actually a little old by now)

I can only autisticly recall the ones I read and re-read as a kid

 

[Melan]

It's also impossible unless you cheat. God damn Steve Jackson.*

*British version.

Masks of Mayhem has a puzzle where you have to guess a number based on whom you suspect as a traitor to the kingdom.

Spoiler

The correct answer is 40, from someone named Ifor Tynin

They didn't translate that name in the Hungarian version. Therefore, after killing the evil enchantress Morgana, you would always die from an assassin's dagger, with no legit chance for victory.

 

[Stella Brando]

That one was on the continent of Khul, which had some really weird world-building, with steppe barbarians next to Arabian Nights next to standard fantasy next to Japanese. The middle of the continent was a desert with strange creatures which felt kind of like bizarro-Australia. Different writers would just slot in whatever culture inspired them, and art and writing styles were more weird and original. Check out this weird tiger-guy, for example.

Fighting Fantasy was my first detailed made-up world, and must have influenced my imagination a lot, but the world of Titan was put together without any consistency at all.



Oh, I almost forgot, check out Beneath Nightmare Castle, the most Lovecraftian adventure.

That woman is in a suit of armour that acts on its own, she's forced to watch herself killing people.


I can remember now, there was a Chinese-style you-are-the-monster, discover-your-past adventure, which you could only win by failing a luck roll at the start. And one of the Chinese magic words used could be translated as something like 'freak' or 'homo.' That was Black Vein Prophecy.

 

[Erebus]

Howl of the Werewolf is arguably the best gamebook in the entire series. It has a decent plot (the hero is infected with lycanthropy and must kill a werewolf lord in order to cure himself), enjoyable encounters and a good atmosphere (very Ravenlofty). It's also one of the very few FF gamebooks in which your initial Skill score can't be so low that you're doomed to failure from the very start.

Other enjoyable horror adventures include Dead of Night and The Keep of the Lich Lord ; as with Howl, the difficulty is reasonable and you can reach the end by following different itineraries. Night of the Necromancer is mostly good, but the last third of the adventure is a bit weak.

Fighting Fantasy gamebooks are seldom easy and some of them are ridiculously difficult. Unfortunately, that includes several of the most creative books in the series : Creature of Havoc and all the books by Paul Mason (Slaves of the Abyss, Black Vein Prophecy, etc.).

 

[Reinhardt]

 

[Arrowgrab]

 

[Stella Brando]

Wasn't there more of those?

 

[Arrowgrab]

Wasn't there more of those?

https://mightygodking.com/2008/06/23/bad-habits/

 

[Reinhardt]

 

[Stella Brando]

The gamebook review thread:

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/the-gamebook-review-thread.107092/

 

[HeroMarine]

You might like this book:

 

[BruceVC]

This is such an excellent thread and one I was thinking of starting because Final Fantasy books are part of my fantasy paraphernalia and history I collect or use to collect

And I have to explain my history with these books and how grateful I am to the likes of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone for creating the franchise

In summary Apartheid sanctions in the 1980's meant it was very hard to buy most fantasy games like AD&D\D&D but my dad was an investment banker and in the 1980's he travelled to London and NY 2-3 times a year so we ask could him to buy us fantasy goods if we knew what we wanted. And then from 1987 onwards we were very fortunate to go on holiday once a year to London so on those trips I could buy my own tabletop games ( and we had almost NO access to PC related games because PC were part of the sanctions until about 1990 onwards when Apartheid ended )

But the sanctions didn't stop educational imports and the Fighting Fantasy books were considered educational products. Up to then I had only read this " strange concept of Choose your own Adventure " and I loved it, anyway I was browsing in 1984 in the local bookstore for Choose your Own Adventure and I suddenly noticed this book called the " Warlock of Firetop Mountain " ...this version

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Warlock_of_Firetop_Mountain

That was the beginning of my greatest hobby and love, fantasy RPG. I became an absolute fan of all Fighting Fantasy, the Sorcery Series being my favorite, and that led to my dad buying for me in London in about 1986 my first exposure to D&D with the classic Red Box version, this version.

https://ddowiki.com/page/File:1983DnDRulebook.jpg

I stopped collecting FF books from about number 30 because I focused on Games Workshop and AD&D but I also collected the whole Lone Wolf series which was very entertaining

I have played the Sorcery PC games and they good. Anyway I also got to meet Steven Jackson in the 1980's when he came to SA on a book tour and even though I was a kid I remember him being very friendly and incredibly approachable and likeable.

It's also impossible unless you cheat. God damn Steve Jackson.*

*British version.

I remember that book, Creature of Havoc and I will maintain it is the hardest book in the series. The objective to confront Zharradan Marr as a beast was completely unique. But I dont recall having to cheat because even though I died loads I vaguely remember once you learn the translation of language technique you can understand what people are saying and then their is code you learn where you finally confront Marr in this room with a mirror and if you use the code you can step through the mirror or something similar ?

I may be forgetting it but where did you have to cheat ?

 

[Erebus]

I don't think it's necessary to cheat to finish Creature of Havoc, but it is an extremely unforgiving gamebook. For instance, halfway through the adventure, you'll reach a village ; there are three or four buildings that you're allowed to visit ; but the right choice is to cross the village without entering any of them ; if you don't, you'll miss a temporary companion and, without him, you'll automatically get killed a bit later ; there's no way of knowing that in advance.

The Fighting Fantasy books that make it nearly impossible not to cheat are the ones where the fights (and other perils involving dice) are so unbalanced that you'd have to be extraordinarily lucky not to get killed, even with max Skill. Crypt of the Sorcerer, Bloodbones, etc.

 

[Melan]

For anyone who likes this sort of thing - a crowdfunding campaign that makes even the most cold-hearted gamer go "I... must... consoom...": the story of Steve Jackson, Ian Livingstone, Fighting Fantasy, and a wee little game company called Games Workshop.

Yes, there is a version signed by both Ian AND Steve.

 

[Lord Rocket]

Goddamn Ian's moustache was so fuckin good

Back when I was a kid, he was my favourite of the two just for that (also because he wrote Forest of Doom which was my favourite for some reason but mostly the moustache)

NOW look at him:

why did you do that to yourself Ian

 

[Zizka]

I don't think it's necessary to cheat to finish Creature of Havoc, but it is an extremely unforgiving gamebook.

I think he meant the misprint about the secret passage which forced you to cheat. I think that was fixed and subsequent edition:

The pendant really comes in handy for finding secret passages. But it was unfair that the phrase "You find yourself..." was not part of passage #213, although you still need to add 20. Apparently printings of the Gamebook 2002 had this error corrected.

 

[Great Deceiver]

There are some Android versions of FF books - are they any good?

 

[BruceVC]

There are some Android versions of FF books - are they any good?

I have been following the entire translation of the FF books to PC and Im planning on playing them

They very well supported and they on Steam

https://store.steampowered.com/app/856880/Fighting_Fantasy_Classics/