Sir Ian Livingstone at Lucca 2024

Last weekend, Sir Ian Livingstone was a guest at the week-long Italian comics and games fair, Lucca 2024.

Sir Ian Livingstone at Lucca 2024 with Karl Kopinski, cover artist for the hardback of Assassins of Allansia.

During his time there, he joined with others in celebrating 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons, including Luke Gygax, son of the late Gary Gygax.

Sir Ian Livingstone (centre) and Luke Gygax (second from right).

He also met with many Italian Fighting Fantasy fans and was even presented with an award for Best Foreign Gamebook.

Sir Ian's award for Best Foreign Gamebook.

Fighting Fantasy returns to Spain

Celaeno Books are preparing to launch a crowdfunding campaign to bring Fighting Fantasy gamebooks back for Spanish readers.

The first four titles they have in their sights are the classic The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and Return to Firetop Mountain, and the 40th anniversary titles Secrets of Solomonis and Shadow of the Giants.

The books will feature classic cover art, where possible, and the original illustrations. There are also plans for a special limited and numbered edition of only 1,000 copies of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain exclusive to Spain with the original cover painting by Peter Andrew Jones.

You can find out more information and sign up to be notified when the crowdfunding campaign goes live here.

Steve Jackson Games Tapped As US Fighting Fantasy Publisher

The classic solo adventure gamebooks are returning to the United States after more than 20 years.

In 1982, British game designers Sir Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson introduced Fighting Fantasy, a revolutionary set of solo adventure books that combined nonlinear narratives with dice-rolling tabletop RPG mechanics. Now, this fantastical, multi-million-selling book series returns to the United States thanks to an historic 50-book publishing collaboration with Steve Jackson Games. The first books in the series will be available in early 2025.

Fighting Fantasy debuted with The Warlock of Firetop Mountain in 1982. Since then, over 20 million copies of the exciting series have been sold worldwide. In Fighting Fantasy, players embark on a solo adventure where their decisions – and dice rolls – determine the outcome of the story. This combination of nonlinear narrative and classic tabletop action sets the series apart from other gamebook franchises.

Fighting Fantasy co-creators Sir Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (UK) stated how thrilled they were to sign a US publishing agreement for Fighting Fantasy with Steve Jackson Games. Sir Ian says:

“To have a new publisher in the USA is a special moment in the history of Fighting Fantasy. We have known Steve Jackson (US) for more than 40 years, having distributed Steve Jackson Games in the 1980s when we owned Games Workshop. Steve also wrote three fantastic Fighting Fantasy books which caused a lot of confusion at the time when people didn’t realize there were two Steve Jacksons! We look forward to exciting times ahead in the USA for new and existing Fighting Fantasy fans.”

The first five books - The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The Citadel of Chaos, The Forest of Doom, City of Thieves, and Deathtrap Dungeon - will be released in early 2025, with an additional five volumes - Island of the Lizard King, Scorpion Swamp, House of Hell, Creature of Havoc, and The Dungeon on Blood Island - later that year.

About Steve Jackson Games: Steve Jackson Games, based in Austin, Texas, has published games, game books, and magazines since 1980. SJ Games has an extensive catalog of hit games, including Munchkin, Zombie Dice, Car Wars, the GURPS roleplaying system, Ogre, The Fantasy Trip, and more. Munchkin, Ogre, and Illuminati also have digital versions on Steam and other platforms, bringing tabletop classics to a new generation of fans.

Advanced Fighting Fantasy: Dark Dungeons - The Board Game

Advanced Fighting Fantasy - Dark Dungeons: The Board Game, by Arion Games, is now funding on Kickstarter. Check out the video below and follow this link to pledge your support.