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cynicalninja Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member  Smiling Shinobi
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Book 1 - The Warlock of Firetop mountain. Fighting fantasy books were the brainchild of English writers Ian Livingstone and Steve jackson. Inspired by Dungeons and Dragons which they imported and sold in the UK from creator Gary Gygax (hallowed be thy name !) under their games Workshop company, they began creating solo D & D style adventure books where you the reader were the protaganist. Instead of a flat page following page linear story the books were made up of 400 seperate paragraphs, each paragraph representing a different choice you have made during the interactive narrative, i.e - "You are in a dark damp corridor, a low stooping passage can be seen to the right on your left is a large reinforced wooden door behind which you can hear the muffled sound of voices, to go down the passage turn to 320, to listen at the door turn to 75". The paragraphs were kept far apart so there were no relating paragraphs on the same page so you couldn't and second guess the narrative. Eventually when you had reached your goal defeating all the creatires and traps and conquering the arch villain you turned to the triumphant paragraph 400 to collect your reward, revel in your victory. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Zagor an Arch-mage dwells at the top of firetop mountain where he studies the black arts, he has surrounded his study with a maze of traps, monsters, and riddles challenging any adventurer to try their luck and confront him face to face to claim the undoubted rewards and learn the infernal secrets of his power. The adventure is in two parts seperated by a river, Livingstone wrote the first part and jackson wrote the second part. It is a standard dungeon maze crawl where special items that will be needed later in the adventure (keys, potions etc) are scattered around the interior of the mountain. For the first title on the series it is quite a difficult challenge, there is an elborate maze that requires mapping with a pencil and paper and some fiendish traps and monsters to defeat. Originally released in 1982 the book was a huge success, having a large fanbase and creating an entire sub-genre of literature. Attachment: (Downloaded times)
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cynicalninja Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Smiling Shinobi
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Book 2 - The Citadel of Chaos After the success of book one, Puffin books began to request more titles and quick !, Steven and ian decided to each start work on their own individual adventures to keep the success of fighting fantasy going. Steve Jackson's entry was book 2, The citadel of Chaos. The book is almost like a vamped up version of warlock of firetop mountain, again a quest to reach an arch villain, in this case the satanic general and sorcerer Balthus Dire (great name !). The book is similar to the style of adventure Steve would use in the future, a system of levels, starting outside the citadel itself, then progressing through the court yard, into the lowers levels of the citadel than gradually climbing up and up progressively getting harder as the adventure continued. Again there are some special items hidden somewhere in or around the citadel that are more or less essential if you wish to face Balthus Dire with any chance of success in defeating him. This is a more complete adventure than Firetop, the monsters and encounters are more varied, there are some interesting rooms and puzzles and the interior illustrations are excellent (although the cover isn't great), even better than Firetop (Ian and Steve used established fantasy artists who's work they admired, they went for a more visceral vivid style as opposed to a soft fairy tale feel). Attachment: (Downloaded times)
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cynicalninja Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Smiling Shinobi
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Book 3 - Forest of Doom As Steve jackson worked on Citadel of Chaos, Ian Livingstone decided to go in a different direction. Forest of Doom was the first "wilderness" adventure in the series i.e the book takes place almost entirely outdoors. You are summoned to a tower to visit the grumpy sorcerer Yaztromo who sends you on a quest to help a village of dwarves called Stonebridge who are under seige from a roving band of orcs, trolls and goblins. Your quest is to locate a legendary hammer located somewhere in dreaded forest of doom and deliver it to Stonebridge to inspire the dwarves to rally a comback against the ravening hordes. The change from exploring dungeons to a forest is refreshing, and the chance to pick your own equipment which you buy from Yaztromo is a nice touch that lends itself to real roleplaying games. The interior illustrations are high quality and the cover is great probably one of the most vivid and stylish covers of any fighting fantasy book. The narrative is a bit linear this time, there is only one true way through the forest, but it is a successful book that opens a new door in pace and setting. Attachment: (Downloaded times)
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cynicalninja Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Smiling Shinobi
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Book 4 - Starship Traveller This is the book that highlighted the fact that the fighting fantasy series would crossover into other genres apart from the sword and sorcery of Dungeons and Dragons. Steve Jackson was a big Star Trek fan and admits that it was the biggest influence when writing Starship Traveller. You are the captain of the Starship Traveller, you are sucked into a wormhole and sent thousands of light years to the other side of the galaxy, your quest is to lead you and your crew back to earth before you run out of resources and fuel. This is basically Star Trek Voyager the gamebook although it was written over 10 years before Voyager debuted on television. You are the captain of a large starship and crew as opposed to a lone adventurer, the book features ship to ship combat, crew to crew mass combat and the opportunity to pick which of your officers you want to beam down with you onto alien planets. Your ultimate goal is to find the coordinates for a wormhole that will tack you back home. This is a big departure from previous titles in the series the narrative is completely different, some of the alien encounters are truly bizarre, although there are some recognisible stereotypes from star trek, stat wars et al. It is a nice touch being made to feel responsible for your crew, if an officer dies on an away trip you will certainly miss their expertise later in the adventure. It is also a difficult to complete adventure and perhaps a little too frustrating but the change of genre is nice. The interior illustrations are a little abstract and the cover is perhaps a little misrepresensative of the content. Attachment: (Downloaded times)
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cynicalninja Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Smiling Shinobi
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Book 5 - City of Thieves As Steve Jackson undertook the task of writing his Sorcery series of gamebooks (more details about those later) Ian Livingstone once again took up the responsibilty of carrying on the Fighting fantasy series with the next title City of Thieves. Stepping away from dungeon environments again in favour of bustling heaving city, City of thieves if probably the most atmospheric fighting fantasy book to date. The city of Port Blacksand is a massive metropolis of thieves, murderers, monsters and corrupt officials and city guards. On the outskirts of the city is the lord of the undead Zanbar Bone, who's deadly moondog hounds sniff out and kill the innocent of the city at night. The task of the adventurer is to seek out all the ingredients needed to defeat the ghostly Bone who's tower is located on the outskirts of the city and defeat him once and for all. The book is very atmospheric, the city itself is massive and you end up exploring dark alleys, strange shops, bustling markets, dank sewers, and heaving ports to try and find all the ingredients you think you will need to defeat Bone. You encounter a motley crew of criminals, monsters, tramps, beggars and the ever corrupt city militia who are always after bribes to turn a blind eye to the dealings of adventurers. Ian Mccaig provided the excellent cover illustration and also did all the interior black & white illustrations which only adds to the atmosphere of the book. Attachment: (Downloaded times)
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Saint Forum-Blogger© Pioneer100© Member  Polymath
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I've tried these books before and really like them! You can actually read them more than once and get different endings. This is a trend that is becoming current in videogames as well.
 A^2 + B^2 = C^2 |
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cynicalninja Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Smiling Shinobi
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When I first started reading them I would have been about 10 years old, I was never an avid reader before then, but these books and others like them fuelled my passion for reading.
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cynicalninja Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Smiling Shinobi
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Book 6 - Deathtrap Dungeon Book 6 sees Ian Livingstone going back to a dungeon crawl style adventure. This is often considered a favourite amongst fans because of its simplicity and fiendish difficulty (the book more has more instant death endings than most other titles in the series). Baron Sukumvit holds a yearly contest in the town of Fang, he owns a huge elborate dungeon complex built underneath the town. Every year he invites six adventurers to try their luck and skill at being the first to make it out alive and claim the prize as winner of the Trial of the Champions. You are one of those adventurers, along with a knight, an elven warrior, a barbarian, a ninja and a dwarf. You all enter the dungeon after a half hour gap between each contestant. This is a difficult adventure, the entire dungeon itself is custom made to try and kill you, their are traps everywhere and numerous monster encounters that pop up when you least expect it. Depending which path you take you will probably come across some of your fellow contestants, and adventuring is a dog eat dog world ! The exit of the dungeon is guarded by a gnome and the complex lock is opened using a secret combination of gems hidden throughout the dungeon. This is one of the best gamebooks which was later turned into a computer game by Eidos for the PS1, the cover illustration and interior illustrations are again by Ian Mccaig and include some of his best work. Attachment: (Downloaded times)
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Kimber767 Original500© Member  Ask me about Self Advocacy
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Sounds like good books.
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cynicalninja Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Smiling Shinobi
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Great for older kids if you want to encourage them to read more kimber.
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cynicalninja Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Smiling Shinobi
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Book 7 - Island of the lizard King Ian Livingstone again comes up with trumps with another strong tropical island themed adventure this time. The narrative is more linear here but the atmosphere is different, in what is a mixture of wilderness and dungeon/cave crawling. Men from the local town are being kidnapped and taken to Fire Island to work on the deadly gem mines there as slaves. The Island is controlled by the Lizard king, a lizard humanoid who has an insidiously intelligent parasite lodged into his brain called the Gongchong. Using the added intelligence of the Gonchong, the lizard king has used the black arts to create an army of animal/human mutants to guard his mine and act as his militia. Your task is to release the prisoners and lead them in a revolt against the Lizard Kings mutant army, and then confront the Lizard King himself. This is probably the most linear gamebook to date, again you have to search the island for ingredients, items etc that will help you defeat the Lizard King, there are nice touches to keep the plot going taking advantage of the tropical island locale. Quicksand, cannibals, voodoo, giant crabs and hidden jungle traps add to the narrative. Also this is the first time a mass battle scene has been done between the freed slaves and the mutant hordes and it works quite well capturing the confusion of the battlefield. Ian Mccaig again provides the cover and interior black & white illustrations. Attachment: (Downloaded times) Last edited on 09:31 pm by cynicalninja |
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cynicalninja Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Smiling Shinobi
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Book 8 - Scorpion Swamp Ladies and gentleman I give you what is quite possibly the best book in the fighting fantasy series, Scorpion Swamp. This is the first time an author other then Steve Jackson or Ian Livingstone had been given the pen to add a title to the series and it ranks as one of the best. The book was written by Steve Jackson (no not the original Steve jackson, another bloke called Steve Jackson, confused yet ?). The american Steve Jackson owner of Steve Jackson games in the US was handed the pen by Ian and Steve and certainly came up with a cracker ! This is the first almost completely none linear title, you can explore scorpion swamp anyway you want, go in any direction you want, back track to previous locations (and if you killed the monster/fiend you killed there originally and you go back it will still be dead !) and choose to follow a good, neutral or evil path while you are there. You can either choose to serve a good wizard who is after a healing plant that can only be found in the Swamp, a neutral merchant who requires nothing more than a map of the swamp showing a path towards a town that lies on the other side of the swamp or an evil sorcerer who wants the magical rings from 6 animal masters who live in various lcoation in the swamp. The book is brilliant because its offers so much freedom, playing the book from 3 different starting perspectives makes it very interesting, serving the evil sorcerer Grimslade its suprising how brutal and aggressive your character becomes ! The swamp itself is large and complex and if you don't map your progress you will become hopelessly lost. Magic features heavily, whichever master you serve will give you limited spells in keeping with their dispositions. The only downside is the artwork which is very disappointing, the cover is poor and the interior black & white illustrations aren't much better, but the book itself probably ranks as THE best adventure yet. The writings reigns would be handed over to more writers as the series continued. Attachment: (Downloaded times)
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cynicalninja Forum-Blogger© Original500© Member Smiling Shinobi
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Book 9 - Caverns of the Snow Witch At this point Ian Livingstone was beginning to struggle with the burden of doing all the writing in the fighting fantasy series and running Games Workshop at the same time I think. The first 2/3's of this adventure was originally published in Warlock magazine, a monthly magazine devoted to all things fighting fantasy published by Games Workshop. Warlock featured seperate stand alone adventures by other writers and other articles about roleplaying games, minatures etc. The ice bound setting for this adventure is a change, and the adventure is seperated into three sections, searching through the arctic wilderness for the caverns, finding the queen and defeating her inside the caverns, and then a long section where you try to evade capture by the queens minions and escape the caverns. This is the poorest title so far in the series, the initial arctic wilderness section is too long, the search through the caverns again looking for items with which to defeat the queen is too short (the revelation of what she is makes her quite easy to defeat, she's a vampire !) and the escape from the labyrinth like caverns as her army of orcs etc chase you feels tacked on and doesn't lend itself to any real satifying conclusion. It is quite obvious that this was rushed out to catch the popularity bug and it plays like a rushed job. The cover illustration and interior illustrations are of high quality however its just a shame the adventure itself doesn't match up. Attachment: (Downloaded times)
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