International Gamebook Day 2023

International Gamebook Day is taking place on Saturday 14 October 2023 and Guest of Honour will be Fighting Fantasy's very own Sir Ian Livingstone.

This year International Gamebook Day has a Halloween horror theme and so Sir Ian will be discussing Blood of the Zombies*, the Fighting Fantasy adventure he wrote to celebrate the series' 30th anniversary.

Make sure you follow the IGBD 2023 Facebook page to keep up to date with developments, such as when Sir Ian's interview will be broadcast on the day.

* Which is 11 years old this year!

Heroes of Titan

Out now from Arion Games is Heroes of Titan, for the Advanced Fighting Fantasy Second Edition RPG.

Written by Andrew Wright, Heroes of Titan contains 80 pre-generated characters for your games of AFF. The heroes contained within its pages include brave warriors, blessed priests, daring rogues, and arcane spellcasters, and they are all illustrated by John Kapsalis.

Not only that but there are five new Adventure Sheets by Dyson Logos, advice on how to create a band of Heroes, tips on customising starting Equipment, and the Ultimate Skill and Talent Index.

You can purchase the PDF of Heroes of Titan here, while the print edition will be available soon.

Livro-Jogo

In case you are a Portuguese-speaker, you may be interested to know that Jambô Editora have published a large number of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks in Brazil.

There are currently 21 titles available, including new editions of Steve Jackson's Creature of Havoc and Sir Ian Livingstone's Crypt of the Sorcerer. They all have different cover art from the English editions and some have alternative interior artwork too.

Fighting Fantasy Adventures Late Pledges

Fighting Fantasy Adventures funded at the end of August achieving an astonishing 444.79% of its initial $30,000 goal.

If you were late to the party, have no fear - you can still place a Late Pledge. To find out how, follow this link.

Sir Ian Livingstone's City of Thieves published 40 years ago!

City of Thieves, by Sir Ian Livingstone, was published 40 years ago, on 1 September 1983.

For his second gamebook with sole writing credit, Livingstone sent the reader to the nefarious Port Blacksand for the first time, searching for the means to save the prosperous town of Silverton from the evil Night Prince Zanbar Bone and his bloodthirsty Moon Dogs.

This was the first occasion on which Iain McCaig produced not just the internal illustrations but also, what has since become, a classic cover.

“I’ve always been fascinated by graveside sculptures of the Grim Reaper,” says McCaig. “I eventually designed one for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Zanbar Bone is an early attempt to bring one to life.” 

The City of Thieves has been revisited again and again, in gamebooks like Midnight Rogue, Night Dragon and The Port of Peril, as well as the Advanced Fighting Fantasy titles Dungeoneer and Blacksand!

There have been various digital adaptations and there is even an original City of Thieves graphic novel on the way. Not bad for the book that was first published four decades ago!

Starship Traveller - published on this day 40 years ago!

Starship Traveller by Steve Jackson was published 40 years ago today on 1 September 1983.

Having only written one fantasy gamebook by himself, why was it that Jackson abandoned an alternative Tolkien-esque past for a gleaming, rocket-fuelled future?

“I liked to try new things out,” says Jackson. “Sorcery! had a new magic system, Starship Traveller was the first SF adventure.”

Set in the distant future, Starship Traveller (FF4) had the hero become the commander of the eponymous starship and its crew. After his interstellar vessel is sucked through a black hole into an unknown quadrant of space, the hero has to search the local star systems for the coordinates to another black hole and the way home.

As well as keeping a track of his own attributes, the reader had to keep a note of the attributes of his officers. Starship Traveller also added the stats WEAPONS STRENGTH and SHIELDS so that the reader could re-enact battles between spacecraft.

Jackson: “I was a big Star Trek fan. Always preferred it to Doctor Who. Mr Spock was my hero. I liked the episodes where Kirk & Co landed on a planet where they encountered alien races and philosophies. Never liked the deep space battle episodes. Starship Traveller was unashamedly based on Star Trek. And the long dedication was a listing of the entire Games Workshop staff as it was at the time. Some of the GW department heads appeared in the adventure too. ‘Bran-Sell’ was a reference to Bryan Ansell, who ran the Citadel division and later became GW Managing Director. There was a race called the Dar-Villians; a reference to GW’s Sales Manager Peter Darvill-Evans. Fioral was Albie Fiore, who ran the Production Dept. And lots more.”

Both the cover artwork and the internal illustrations were by Peter Andrew Jones, a first and last for the Fighting Fantasy series.

Many years later, Tin Man Games turned Starship Traveller into an app, commissioning new full-colour artwork for the adventure in the process.

While the gamebook was reissued by Wizard Books, Scholastic UK have yet to publish the adventure. So, watch this space...