Fighting Fantasy 2024

Friday, 20 December 2024

40 years of Scorpion Swamp

Scorpion Swamp will see print again next year, as part of Steve Jackson Games' publication of the Fighting Fantasy series in the US, so today we look back on the history of the first non-Jackson and Livingstone FF gamebook, 40 years after it was first published.

In March 1983, TheWarlock of Firetop Mountain, The Citadel of Chaos and The Forest of Doom topped The Sunday Times bestseller charts. Two more titles, Starship Traveller and City of Thieves, appeared later that same year. Having seen how successful the series was, other publishers began jumping on the bandwagon, rushing out competing gamebook series of their own. But Puffin Books were keen to maintain their position at the head of the game.

“Puffin decided our best battle strategy would be to publish a new FF book every month,” says Jackson. “There was no way Ian and I could write a book a month, so we decided to commission other authors… and called it the ‘Jackson & Livingstone Present’ series.

“As it happens, our first ‘Presents’ series author was Steve Jackson – the American one, designer of GURPS – who had come over to the UK to talk business with Games Workshop. So the book was: Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone Present: Scorpion Swamp… by Steve Jackson. Very confusing!”

“I was visiting London,” explains US Steve, who was already known to the UK Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone since Games Workshop was distributing his games on this side of the Pond. “They described their travails in creating FF books, and the difficulty of flow-charting. I sat down and wrote the first third of Scorpion Swamp, and they liked it.”

There are still people to this day who do not realise that the Steve Jackson who wrote Scorpion Swamp, Demons of the Deep and Robot Commando, and the Steve Jackson who wrote such classics as The Citadel of Chaos, House of Hell and Creature of Havoc are two completely different people.

“Occasionally I am presented with a copy of one of UK Steve’s books to sign,” says US Steve. “I always explain, and if they really want me to, I will sign it ‘The wrong Steve Jackson’.”

Published in 1984, with cover and internal art by Duncan Smith, Scorpion Swamp (FF8) sent the hero into the foetid fens of the title with nothing but his sword to defend himself, and a magic Brass Ring that detected evil as well as letting the hero know which way was north.

Unlike other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, Scorpion Swamp allowed the player to choose one of three quests, from a selection of patrons who were Good, Evil and Neutral. The gameplay was non-linear in design, enabling the hero to revisit locations and explore the swamp as he so desired, and a direct consequence of US Steve’s background in RPGs.

Did you know...?

When the US Steve Jackson visited Games Workshop, the plan was that UK Steve and Ian Livingstone would show him the sights of London. However, having been persuaded to write a Fighting Fantasy book for them that was what he did – right then and there in their office! The planned tour of London never happened, but ever since many thousands of readers have enjoyed exploring Scorpion Swamp instead.

Scorpion Swamp is one of the FF adventures that have been mapped by Qatlas, and you can purchase a copy for your gaming room, or to aid you with completing thne gamebook, here.

To find out more about the history of your favourite FF Gamebooks, pick up a copy of YOU ARE THE HERO: An Interactive History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks today.

Friday, 6 December 2024

40 years of House of Hell

For almost thirty years following its initial release back in 1984, House of Hell remained unique; it was the only FF adventure to have a wholly ‘contemporary’ setting. It was not a futuristic, superhero sci-fi yarn, or a post-apocalyptic adventure, but was Fighting Fantasy’s one and only specifically horror-themed adventure, until Blood of the Zombies was published in 2012.

The setting for House of Hell is the sort of nightmare you could imagine yourself ending up in if your car broke down on a lonely country road in a thunderstorm only for you to discover that you were in a mobile phone dead spot.

Other than the fact that there’s no mention of mobile phones, the plot of the book hasn’t dated in the intervening decades. As a result of the aforementioned breakdown and thunderstorm, the hero takes refuge in an old house, but it’s a decision that turns out to be the worst mistake of his life, since the house is home to a cult of devil-worshippers and their demonic Master.

House of Hell first appeared in a shortened form in Warlock magazine. A significant number of references were modified for the paperback version, with rooms being moved around and secret passageways added.

Although his artwork later appeared on the cover for The Citadel of Chaos, Houseof Hell was Ian Miller’s first work for the Fighting Fantasy series. Steve Jackson was so impressed by Miller’s work on House of Hell that he purchased the original painting.

The book was illustrated internally by Tim Sell. However, one of his illustrations - depicting a naked woman on an altar dripping with blood, with her modesty protected by a convenient cultist’s sleeve - was removed from subsequent printings after a number of complaints were received by Puffin Books.

“That did give us a problem,” recalls editor Philippa Dickinson. “We had a lot of complaints. The media suddenly got hold of, ‘was this suitable for children?’ We had various, no doubt very well-meaning, people claiming that we were encouraging children to believe in Satan and Satanism... But we had a lot of very bonkers letters. Some were genuinely concerned about whether this was suitable, and you could be respectful of their views, and we had a few who quoted Revelations at us.

“It was of that time, and it was because the books were so successful, and boys were getting so obsessed, so what were we doing? They were being obsessed by something, so this can’t be healthy, because they’re obsessed. But they’re reading! What are you complaining about?

“At that time our office in New York was at 666 Fifth Avenue… Every so often, they’d get people saying that the company was clearly run by an agent of evil because we operated out of the offices at 666 Fifth Avenue.”

However, attitudes can and do change, and recently an article in The Guardian newspaper recommended House of Hell as a good title for getting disillusioned children enthused about reading again.

The dedication written by Steve Jackson for the Wizard Books edition of House of Hell reads:

Games Night —
to Clive, Ian, Mark, Peter and Skye.
May their Dinner Winnerships be few.
But always more than mine...

The list of names are the members of an exclusive gaming group that’s been running since the mid-1990s, and which includes Peter Molyneux of Populous and Lionhead fame (and more recently with 22 Cans and Godus) among its membership. Games Night is still a regular event, and at the end of each season a cup is awarded.

If you are struggling to complete House of Hell, you can buy a solution map from Qatlas, and there is also one on the way from Scott Mackay.

House of Hell is now available as an app from Tin Man Games, either as a standalone adventure, or as part of the Fighting Fantasy Classics library.

To read more about the history of the Fighting Fantasy series, pick up a copy of YOU ARE THE HERO: An Interactive History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks today.

Friday, 29 November 2024

Fighting Fantasy at Dragonmeet 2024

Fighting Fantasy co-creator Sir Ian Livingstone and FF historian Jonathan Green will be attending Dragonmeet on Saturday 30 November 2024. You will find them at the Fighting Fantasy stand in the Upper Trade Hall (indicated by the small blue tent under the FF logo on the map below).

Click on the map to enlarge it.

Jonathan will have copies of YOU ARE THE HERO: An Interactive History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks to sell, and Sir Ian will have copies of MAGIC REALMS: The Art of Fighting Fantasy, which they worked on together, and a few hardbacks of The Dungeon on Blood Island.