It gives the Warlock great pleasure to announce that All Rolled Up, makers of all manner of gaming accessories, have renewed their lience to produce Fighting Fantasy branded goods. And some of these will be on sale for the first time at the UK Games Expo starting today!
Items on offer includes play mats...
...and new dice tray designs.
And check out the Hero's Companion that is in development!
You will find All Rolled Up at Stand 3-633, while the Fighting Fantasy team will be at Stand 2-359 in Hall 2, but please note that Sir Ian Livingstone will only be attending on Saturday 31st May and Sunday 1st June.
%20and%20Sir%20Ian%20Livingstone%20at%20the%20UK%20Games%20Expo%202024.png)
Paul Toderas from Ulisses Spiele will be demoing the company's new Fighting Fantasy Quest - The Warlock of Firetop Mountain board game at the UK Games Expo this year.
.png)
So why not stop by the Fighting Fantasy stand (Stand 2-359) and try it out for yourself?
Sir Ian Livingstone will signing copies of Fighting Fantasy Adventures with Martin Wallace at 2:00pm on Saturday 31st May 2025 at the UK Games Expo, at the Wallace Design stand (Stand 3A-460).
Please note that this version of Fighting Fantasy Adventures is the retail version, which will be on sale at the UK Games Expo, and not the version backers of the crowdfunding campaign will receive.
On Saturday 31st May at the UK Games Expo, Sir Ian Livingstone will be interviewed by John Robertson (of Dark Room fame) about his 50 Years in Games.
The interview will take place on the Main Stage in Hall 2.
To find out what else is happening at the UK Games Expo this year, follow this link.Sir Ian Livingstone will be attending the UK Games Expo on Saturday 31st May and Sunday 1st June (but not Friday 30th May).
He will be signing copies of the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks (including The Dungeon on Blood Island), Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop, and Magic Realms: The Art of Fighting Fantasy (with co-author Jonathan Green), at Stand 2-359 in Hall 2.
Fighting Fantasy will have a significant presence at the UK Games Expo this year. The event is on from Friday 30th May - Sunday 1st June 2025 at the NEC, just outside Birmingham, and you will find the Fighting Fantasy crew at Stand 2-359 in Hall 2.
In other exciting news, another of the Special Guests attending the event is the American-born games designer Steve Jackson - author of Scorpion Swamp, Demons of the Deep and Robot Commando, and the man who will be bringing Fighting Fantasy back to the US later this year. Talking of which, the first five books are now available to pre-order from Steve Jackson Games.
Others in attendance at the UK Games Expo include representatives of Martin Wallace Games, who are currently putting the finishing touches to Fighting Fantasy Adventures, All Rolled Up, who are going to be selling the first in an extended range of FF-themed products, Dan Jack of Blue Giant Studios, who produce the official Fighting Fantasy Legends miniatures range, and Oscar Carlquist of Sound Realms, publishers of the updated Steve Jackson's F.I.S.T. audio adventure.
Joining Sir Ian and Jonathan on the Fighting Fantasy stand will be Paul Toderas from Germany games company Ulisses Spiele. He will be demoing the company's new Fighting Fantasy Quest - The Warlock of Firetop Mountain board game, so why not stop by Stand 2-359 and try it out yourself?
Lastly, Sir Ian will be giving a talk about his 50 Years in Games, on Saturday 31st May, from 3:00-4:00pm, on Stage B in Hall 4.
If you are going to the UK Games Expo this year, may your STAMINA never fail!
%20and%20Sir%20Ian%20Livingstone%20at%20the%20UK%20Games%20Expo%202024.png)
The majority of the adventure takes place in the waterless wastes
of the ominously-named Desert of Skulls. The book begins with the wizard Yaztromo
(who first appeared in The Forest of Doom)
hiring the hero to thwart the plans of the sorcerer Malbordus, the so-called ‘Storm
Child’. The evil sorcerer’s power is reaching its zenith, and all he needs to lead
his army of conquest across Allansia are five Dragon artefacts which lie hidden
within the lost city of Vatos.
Vatos was named after a small beach resort in Corfu where Livingstone had holidayed more than once, hence it being used as the name of a lost city swallowed by sand. As well as its desert setting, the book is particularly memorable for its introduction of the lethal Messenger of Death.
“I was dealing with Ian,” Achilleos recalled in 2014, “and he
called me and said, ‘I’m going to leave it to you to design me the creature for
this new book I’m writing. I’m going to tell you the scene and you come up with
the creature, because you probably don’t need guidance on this from someone like
me.’ And I said, ‘That sounds great, yeah. Then you can describe it from my painting.’
“It was a guardian of this gate, and it was a desert scene –
a city half buried under sand – so I designed this creature that lies in wait, buried
under the sand... It was something I’d seen in a wildlife programme, these desert
snakes that hide in the sand and just have their eyes out and then they pounce on
you. So I imagined the same creature sort of lying in wait for someone to try and
pass the gate. I drew that and he was delighted with it. In fact, he bought the
original from me.”
You can find out more about Chris Achilleos' contributions to the Fighting Fantasy series in Magic Realms: The Art of Fighting Fantasy, by Sir Ian Livingstone and FF author and historian Jonathan Green.
You'll just have to wait and see...
.jpg)
Scott Mackay has made a name for himself with his hand-drawn and painted solution maps of classic Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.
The Warlock's goblins recently dragged Scott into the tunnels beneath Firetop Mountain to be interrogated about his work.
The Warlock: What was your first experience of Fighting Fantasy?
Scott Mackay: I first discovered Fighting Fantasy in 1984 in my local Woolworths (of all places)! I saw the cover for Island of the Lizard King and picked it up and was intrigued by the numbered passages. Loved it from the first attempt at saving Mungo (RIP!). I then bought all the previous books eventually and the new books as they were released.
TW: Did any of the FF artists inspire you as an artist?
TW: Are there any adventures in particular for which you would like to produce a solution map?
SM: I've recently started to work on maps for the Sorcery! series. I've been looking forward to getting to Sorcery! for a while now, and the four books should prove a worthy challenge. I'm also looking forward to getting to Trial of Champions and Return to Firetop Mountain, to see how they compare to their 'parent' books. Finally, I'm also hoping to produce a map for Creature of Havoc, as I never finished this book back in the day.
You will be pleased to hear that Scott has now been released from Firetop Mountain so that he can continue to work on his Sorcery! maps.
You will find all the FF solution maps he has produced so far here.
