Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 - one week to go!

Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 will open the doors of Deathtrap Dungeon one week today, at 9:00am on Saturday 7th September 2024.

As well as our Guests of Honour, Sir Ian Livingstone and Iain McCaig, and our other guests - Geraldine Cooke, Malcolm Barter, Alan Langford, Duncan Smith, Tony Hough, Marc Gascoigne, Jamie Thomson, Peter Darvill-Evans, Paul Mason, Steve Williams, Dave Morris, Keith P. Phillips, and Jonathan Green - we will also be joined by a host of traders.

One last minute addition to the roster is Other World Gamebooks, Polish publisher of Storm Weavers.

Storm Weavers is a story-driven solo tabletop game - a unique combination of a classic gamebook with an element of tactical combat taking place on the board. As a dwarven warrior, you undertake a journey across the vast land of Midgard to find and rescue your friend. To achieve your goal you must overcome a sinister adversity. As you travel from location to location, you have to face strong orcs, clever goblins, bloodthirsty wolves, ice giants, almigthy gods, cowardly wizards, greedy merchants, bad people, good people... can they stop you from reaching your goal?

Other World Gamebooks have also published the new edition of Heart of Ice by Dave Morris, who will be attending Fighting Fantasy Fest for the first time this year.

We are down to our last few tickets, but it's not too late to purchase yours - if you hurry!

Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 Livestream Tickets

If you are unable to attend Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 in person, do not worry! You can still enjoy the talks and panels taking place on Saturday 7th September 2024 by watching the FFF5 livestream.

Please note that for copyright reasons, The McCaig Masterclass will not be livestreamed.

Livestream tickets are now available to buy here.

Armies of Death comes to Steam

Armies of Death, Sir Ian Livingstone's 11th Fighting Fantasy gamebook, and the direct sequel to Trial of Champions, has been reborn as the latest release for Tin Man Games' Fighting Fantasy Classics line.

Brand-new artwork has been commissioned from digital artist Joshua Wright for the ad-app-tation and you can see how his initial roughs were transformed into the final art here.

Giant Spider

Calacorm

Dwarf and Shape Changer

As well as new art, the gameplay has been given an upgrade. New features include:

• New army management system to manage your troop numbers along with mass-battle combat between opposing armies.
• Make the gamebook as easy or hard as you like and even turn on a special 'Free Read' mode to play the book like an old-school cheater!
• Map feature makes it easy to keep track of everywhere you have explored during current and previous playthroughs.
• Unlimited Bookmarks allow you to revisit difficult sections as many times as desired.
• Automated Adventure Sheet that keeps track of your stats, inventory and knowledge gained during your journey.

Can YOU defeat the nightmare army of the undead?

Agglax the Shadow Demon is amassing an army of undead warriors to conquer Allansia.

Setting off from Fang with over two hundred veteran fighters, YOU journey east to meet the enemy. But the Shadow Demon is not of this world and special powers are needed to destroy him. The longer you spend searching for these powers the stronger he will be.

Log on to Steam and download Armies of Death today!

Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 - The Schedule

Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 is taking place in just over two weeks and tickets have almost completely sold out!

There is a lot going on in the 11 hours that the Fest is on for. So, to help you plan your day effectively, and work out which books you want to bring to be signed, here is the schedule for FFF5.

The schedule will also appear in the souvenir programme/autograph book that everyone attending Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 will be given upon arrival. 

FFF programmes are becoming quite collectible themselves, and even appear in the Fighting Fantasy Collector's Checklist and Price Guide. Jamie Fry, the Fighting Fantasy Collector himself, will be attending FFF5, so make sure you check out his stand in Fang (the Lammas Hall) on the day, along with those of the other traders who are also going ot be there.

The Warlock Returns - Issue #12

Available now from Arion Games is Issue #12 of The Warlock Returns, the Advanced Fighting Fantasy fanzine.

This issue brings you new material for the Advanced Fighting Fantasy RPG and the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, including...

* Denizens of the Pit - More of Titan's ocean bounty!

* Halfling Heroes - Plus Occupations for AFF2

* Irritaria - How the world of Titan started!

* Director Advice - Articles with rumours and plot hooks

* Psionics on the Run - Stellar Adventures solo game

* One Page Witch Hunt - A fun one page dungeon

* The Legend of Gareus - Agony aunt page

* Stellar Adventures - Into the Doors of Eryx Part IV

and more!

White Hare Games (the team behind The Warlock Returns) and Arion Games will be attending Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 on Saturday 7 September 2024. 

Sir Ian Livingstone signing Magic Realms at the Forbidden Planet Megastore

Sir Ian Livingstone will be signing Magic Realms: The Art of Fighting Fantasy at the Forbidden Planet Megastore in London, on Saturday 14 September 2024, from 2:00pm to 3:00pm.

He will be joined by his co-author, the FF author and historian, Jonathan Green. To find out more about the event, visit ForbiddenPlanet.com. 

The Dungeon on Blood Island - Limited Edition Collector's Hardback

The cover of the limited edition collector's hardback of The Dungeon on Blood Island, Sir Ian Livingstone's new Fighting Fantasy gamebook, has been revealed.

The hardback is limited to 400 copies and will be on sale for the first time at Fighting Fantasy Fest 5, along with the paperback.

The Dungeon on Blood Island

Sir Ian Livingstone's brand-new gamebook, The Dungeon on Blood Island, written to mark 40 years since the publication of the seminal Deathtrap Dungeon, will launch at Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 on Saturday 7 September 2024.

Jealous of Baron Sukumvit's Deathtrap Dungeon, Lord Carnuss forced six hundred shackled souls to build the ultimate dungeon on Blood Island. ​​ He filled the labyrinth with savage creatures and deadly traps, and offered the fabled prize of the Golden Orb of Fang to any brave Adventurer who could find it and escape from the dungeon alive. ​​​

Are YOU brave enough to enter the Dungeon on Blood Island? 

The adventure has been illustrated by Hungarian artist Krisztián Balla, who impressed Sir Ian with the illustrations he produced for the Hungarian edition of Assassins of Allansia. Krisztián also produced the cover artwork for a number of the translated FF adventures published by Chameleon Comix.

The book also features brand-new cover art by none other than the original Deathtrap Dungeon artist Iain McCaig, who will also be attending Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 this year as one of our Guests of Honour, alongside Sir Ian Livingstone.

Not only that, but there will be a limited number of signed and numbered hardbacks of Sir Ian's new gamebook on sale on the day. The dustjacket cover art is the same as the paperback but on the back, there is an updated map of Allansia by everyone's favourite FF cartographer Leo Hartas.

So, to be one of the first people to secure a signed copy of The Dungeon on Blood Island, make sure you've got your ticket for Fighting Fantasy Fest 5.

Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 merchandise on sale now

The official merchandise for Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 is now on sale, via Zazzle. You can pick up T-shirts, in three different designs, hoodies, magnets, headwear, and even a tote bag.

40 Years Trapped inside Deathtrap Dungeon

Deathtrap Dungeon 1984-2024

Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 T-shirt

With the T-shirts and hoodies, as well as choosing the size you can also customise the colour.

If you are planning to attend Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 you are bound to want to pick up a T-shirt to wear on the day and even if you aren't able to attend the event, you're sure to want to add an item to your FF collection to mark 40 years of Deathtrap Dungeon.

The Shape Changer is coming to Fighting Fantasy Fest 5!

Fans who attended Fighting Fantasy Fest 4 will remember the 75mm model of Zagor the Warlock Atlantis Miniatures/Blue Giant Studios produced especially for the event.

Blue Giant Studios will also be attending Fighting Fantasy Fest 5, on Saturday 7 September 2024, and this year they are bringing the Shape Changer with them.

The new model has been sculpted by Dan Jack and is based on Iain McCaig's* classic cover art for Sir Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy gamebook The Forest of Doom.

The 75mm Shape Changer is limited to 400 models and each one comes in a white box with a numbered product sticker (unsigned). You can pre-order yours now to collect at FFF5.

* Iain McCaig is one of our guests of honour at Fighting Fantasy Fest 5.

YOU ARE THE HERO: An Interactive History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks

Available now from Snowbooks is the 40th anniversary interactive edition of YOU ARE THE HERO by Jonathan Green, featuring brand new cover art by none other than FF legend Iain McCaig.

Fighting Fantasy gamebooks – the publishing phenomenon of the 1980s – has sold over 20 million books worldwide, in over 30 languages. But when Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone sat down to write the original Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, they could not have predicted that this one, simple adventure would go on to spawn over 100 titles, let alone begin to guess at the impact it would have on a generation of children growing up in the 80s.

Part history, part celebration, YOU ARE THE HERO chronicles four decades of the Fighting Fantasy phenomenon. Written by Jonathan Green (author of eight Fighting Fantasy gamebooks), this mighty tome will appeal to anyone who ever whiled away a washed-out summer holiday with only two dice, a pencil, and an eraser for company.

As well as updating and revising the text from the original two volumes of YOU ARE THE HERO, there is a significant amount of new content, particularly concerning the 40th anniversary of Fighting Fantasy in 2022.

Not only that, but you can either read YOU ARE THE HERO: An Interactive History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks from cover to cover, or you can read it as a gamebook. The blue boxes you can see in the sample spread above give you the option of turning to different sections (there are 400 in total, of course) that are in some way related to the paragraphs you have just read.

As well as being available from Amazon, YOU ARE THE HERO: An Interactive History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks will be on sale at Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 as well.