In 1986 the first two-player
Fighting Fantasy gamebook experience,
Clash
of the Princes, was published.
“I remember one of the Penguin editors
saying they’d had a submission from Australia which was a two-player FF game,”
Jackson recalls. “We agreed it should be in the FF series.”
Clash of
the Princes was written by Andrew Chapman (author of Space Assassin, The Rings of Kether and Seas
of Blood) and Martin Allen (who would go on to write Sky Lord).
As to what Clash
of the Princes was all about, the blurb on the back of the book said it
all:
At last — a thrilling TWO-PLAYER, two-book Fighting Fantasy
adventure!
The perilous Trial of Kingship awaits you! In the golden city of
Gundobad, you are twin princes – one a Warrior-Prince and one a Warlock-Prince –
each with your own particular skills and strengths. It is time for one of you
to succeed to the throne, and you must face the Trial of Kingship. But
only one of you can win through. Which brother will it be?
Beware! Vile monsters and deadly dangers lie in wait. Two dice, a
pencil, an eraser – and a friend! – are all you need.
The two books that made up Clash of the Princes – The
Warrior’s Way and The Warlock’s Way
– were released as a boxed set. They could be still be played as standard
solo Fighting Fantasy gamebooks but of course they could also be combined
to create a unique two-player role-playing experience. Two new attributes were
used in the two-player version, ACTION and STATUS. These allowed the two players to synchronize
their individual gaming experiences.
The Warrior’s Way
cast the hero as Clovis, Warrior-Prince of the golden city of Gundobad. The Warlock’s Way made the hero Lothar,
the Warlock-Prince, Clovis’s twin brother and rival. In the books, both set out
upon the somewhat draconian Trial of Kingship to see which of them will succeed
to the throne of Gundobad.
The two books were both illustrated by John Blanche, inside
and out. “I think Clash of the Princes
came about because Geoff Taylor recommended me to the publishers,” reckons
Blanche.
Minotaur and Warthog
Guard, by John Blanche.
Both books have a total of 500 references each,
making a grand total of 1,000 altogether. Chapman would later remark on how
frustratingly hard and time-consuming the project was to get right.
Unsurprisingly, it took a great deal of work to make sure the mechanics worked
properly. Chapman and Allen envisaged the books as being released separately
but simultaneously. Puffin, however, made the decision to release them as a
boxed set.
Despite Puffin being keen to push Clash of the Princes as a two-player FF experience, they were not
keen to repeat the experiment. The
Warrior’s Way and The Warlock’s Way
were the first Fighting Fantasy titles to drop out of print as
retailers at the time were not fans of boxed sets, and so Clash of the Princes was not only the first two-player FF gamebook
experience, it was also the last.
The map that appeared in the Clash of the Princes, by Dave Andrews.
