The Forest of Doom - published 40 years ago!

The Citadel of Chaos wasn't the only new Fighting Fantasy gamebook to be published 40 years ago on 31st March 1983. The other was Sir Ian Livingstone's first solo-penned adventure, the seminal The Forest of Doom.

His tale had the hero braving the perils of Darkwood Forest in order to recover the pieces of the stolen Hammer of Stonebridge, fashioned by the Dwarfs to protect their village from the predations of Hill Trolls. 

“I’d thought about writing another dungeon crawl,” says Livingstone, “but coming out just months after Warlock, I decided to set the adventure above ground. But where? I had two ideas in mind. One had a working title of Blackhill Manor and the other was called Doom in Darkwood Forest. I finally decided on the forest adventure. For the book title, I had a shortlist of three; Doom in Darkwood Forest, The War Hammer of Darkwood Forest and the third – The Forest of Doom.” 

The book introduced several characters and locations that would reappear later throughout Livingstone’s contributions to the FF series, including the village of Stonebridge, Darkwood Forest, and the wizard Yaztromo.

Interestingly, while his tower does appear in an illustration, Yaztromo does not. Despite this, he has been drawn into numerous illustrations by various artists since.

Yaztromo the wizard, as illustrated (from left to right) by Bill Houston, John Sibbick, and Martin McKenna.

Livingstone: “When writing Fighting Fantasy books, I like to create names and places that are both descriptive and evocative. Readers would know what to expect when they read the words The Forest of Doom or Darkwood Forest. The creature on the front cover of the book I named the Shape Changer as that was exactly what it was when it metamorphosed from a goblin into a flesh-ripping reptilian man-eater! I also came up with names that had something to do with my own world. The grand wizard Yaztromo is a good example of this. Ridiculous as it may seem now, the name was made up by combining the nickname of a baseball player (Carl Yastrzemski of the the Boston Red Sox, a power hitter whose nickname was ‘Yaz’) and a spaceship (the USCSS Nostromo from Ridley Scott’s Alien)!"

Carl Yastrzemski and the USCSS Nostromo.

Yaztromo was the most commonly recurring character in the Fighting Fantasy series, appearing in numerous gamebooks and novels, even out-doing Zagor the Warlock in terms of the number of guest appearances he made. 

Illustrated by Malcolm Barter, The Forest of Doom was the last Fighting Fantasy gamebook to have every full-page illustration accompanied by a caption until Scholastic started publishing the series in 2017.

“The commission came via my then agent John Craddock,” says Barter. “I remember, along with a couple of other illustrators I was asked to submit a sample picture, as the original artist Penguin had intended to use was unavailable… I was fortunate enough to get it.”

The Forest of Doom illustrations by Malcolm Barter.

But what of the book’s seminal cover? 

Livingstone: “When I finally finished writing the adventure, I wanted to make sure that the art reflected my own vision of the creatures of Darkwood Forest. It was at that time when I was lucky enough to meet a young artist called Iain McCaig who visited us at Games Workshop looking for a commission. I looked at his portfolio and asked Iain if he would like to illustrate the book cover, and was very happy indeed when he said yes. We talked about the cover a lot and settled on the Shape Changer as the central character. It is still one of my favourite Fighting Fantasy covers, beautifully painted, full of threat and atmosphere. I purchased the original painting from Iain – an amazing water colour – and today it hangs proudly in my home with my other Fighting Fantasy book covers.”

Martin Gooch and Sir Ian Livingstone in Sir Ian's home art gallery.

The Citadel of Chaos - published on this day 40 years ago!

The Citadel of Chaos by Steve Jackson was published 40 years ago today on 31 March 1983.

"After Warlock had done so well, Puffin wanted to know if we could turn this into a series," recalls Steve Jackson. "And yes, we could. At a meeting in Philippa Dickinson’s office, she wanted to know what we should call this series. Ian came up with ‘Fighting Fantasy’. I think at the time it was just expected to be a working title. But it never got changed!”

Work started immediately on another two titles, with the authors of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain now working on one new book each.

Jackson did not stray that far from the familiar format of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Although it was set within a castle, The Citadel of Chaos was effectively another dungeon bash, but with the addition of rules for using magic.

Atop his sinister Black Tower, the dread sorcerer Balthus Dire is making plans of conquest. The hero of the adventure is a student of the Grand Wizard of Yore, charged by King Salamon with penetrating the stronghold of the fell magic-user, and stopping the fiend before he can unleash his army upon the peaceful Vale of Willow.

Before beginning the adventure, the hero has to determine his MAGIC score and then choose a corresponding number of spells from a pool of twelve that includes such enchantments as Creature Copy, Fool’s Gold and Levitation. But where did the inspiration for Balthus Dire and the lethal Ganjees come from?

Jackson: “Creating names for new characters monsters and places was always a brainstorming exercise. I’d write lots of contenders on a sheet of paper and eventually pick one which to my mind sounded evocative... ‘Balthus’ was the name of a French painter. At the time I was constantly on the lookout for inspiration for names for characters, places and creatures. I came across Balthus the artist – his name, not his art, which I have never seen! I thought: ‘Yes. That’s a cool name. Sounds kind of demonic, or like a dark religious pontiff.’ I used to use a thesaurus a lot for inspiration. ‘Dire’ sounded particularly bad. And thus Balthus Dire became the boss of the adventure.”

Internal art was by Russ Nicholson, while the cover was produced by the enigmatically-named Emmanuel.

Gark, by Russ Nicholson. (© Russ Nicholson, 1983 and 2014)

“The only art I really didn’t like was the cover of the original Citadel of Chaos,” reveals Jackson. “As this was the second book in the series, it could have been interpreted as a significant statement of art intent. But it was followed by Iain McCaig’s cover of The Forest of Doom which set a new standard. I asked Penguin many times to have the Citadel cover recommissioned. Eventually they gave in and Ian Miller did a fine job.”

One of the rewards sent out to backers of the Kickstarter to fund production of YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2, the second part of Jonathan Green's history of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, was an 'album' of music inspired by the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. One of these was a track inspired by Steve Jackson's first solo gamebook...

Coming Soon...

Secrets of Salamonis Live Readthrough!

Join K. R. Boyter at 7:00pm UK time tonight (Tuesday 21st March 2023) on the Mythical Tales from Edra Twitch channel for a live readthrough of Steve Jackson's Secrets of Salamonis!