40 years of Rebel Planet

2025 marks 40 years since the publication of the fifth Fighting Fantasy sci-fi title, Rebel Planet (FF18), by Robin Waterfield.

“I was working in the Penguin/Puffin copy-editorial department when the series began," Waterfield explains. "My desk was free to edit one of the books, and after that I became the default copy-editor for them all, having got the hang of them. Later, after leaving Penguin, I became the series editor from 1986-1988, when I handed over to Marc Gascoigne.

“By the time I wrote my first one, I had edited quite a few, and was already involved in reading (and rejecting) the countless submissions from hopeful kids. I knew how the games worked, and I’ve been a lifelong games-player (though I was not involved at all in the RPG world). So I didn’t find them too difficult to write. The first one I wrote was non-Titan (Rebel Planet), but that was because Philippa specifically asked me to do an SF one.”

In Rebel Planet, the leaders of SAROS (a secret Earth organization) are fighting to overthrow the alien Arcadian Empire. Having gathered together their last few resources, they send the hero on one last daring, and foolhardy, mission to strike at the heart of the Arcadian homeworld.

Rebel Planet was adapted to become one of a select group of FF computer games, available for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. The cover was provided by artist and colourist Alan Craddock with Gary Mayes producing the internal black and white illustrations, just as he would for the next two SF FF titles.

Robot, by Gary Mayes.

(© Gary Mayes, 1985 and 2025)

“If I remember correctly, the opportunity arose through the Games Workshop magazine, White Dwarf, and I think my name was put forward to the publishers Puffin, as a likely candidate,” says Mayes, recalling how he came to contribute to the Fighting Fantasy series. “In many ways it was a breath of fresh air to illustrate a whole book and particularly to work in black and white, something I had wanted to do for quite a while. My work at that time was varied and came from a number of different sources and this [Rebel Planet] gave me an opportunity to work within the fantasy/science fiction genre, which I had wanted to do since I had started drawing as a child.

“My early influences were illustrators like Frank Bellamy, Frank Kelly Freas, and numerous others that I had pored over as a teenager and inspired me to think about work of that nature. The FF books were a significant step along the way and provided an opportunity to develop my skill and method of working with a subject I loved.”

Alan Craddock’s cover rough for Rebel Planet, which at the time went by the title Emperor of Arcadion.(© Alan Craddock, 1985 and 2025)

But what of Craddock? Did he have a background in RPGs? “I had played Waddington’s Risk board game for many hours with my friends,” says Craddock. “During the Sixth Form school holidays we would play games which would last days at a time. So I knew the pleasure a good board game could provide. And when I had finished reading Tolkien I wanted more, and obviously a role-playing game could be a way of achieving that. But painting was my particular outlet. Once I became a professional artist in 1979 and got married soon after, those long balmy summer days of playing Risk for days on end were gone. I wanted to be the best artist I could be; no time for playing games. I also had to decorate and wash dishes!” 

Gamebook author Mark Lain is currently working with Gary Mayes on Rebel Planet: The Graphic Novel. To read an interview withM Mark about the graphic novel, follow this link.

To read more about the history of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, follow this link.

Fighting Fantasy Quest - The Warlock of Firetop Mountain - is coming to Gamefound

For over 40 years the Warlock has been waiting... for YOU!

Do you still have what it takes to brave Firetop Mountain? Prepare to face the perils of the Warlock together with 1-4 players in this richly illustrated true board game experience, coming to Gamefound soon.

Brave adventurers will delve into the twisting tunnels, death-trap chambers, and monster-haunted halls of Firetop Mountain, seeking the Warlock’s hoarded treasure - and the truth behind the legend. But danger waits at every turn: ferocious creatures, devious puzzles, and the Warlock’s dark magic threaten death.

Will you work together to survive or fall to the dangers of the mountain?

Old-school dungeon crawling, reborn. Simple but never easy.

Developed by Paul Toderas and Jan Wagner of Ulisses Spiele, Fighting Fantasy Quest combines the experience of old-school dungeon crawling, hair-raising twists and turns, and myriad challenges, with a new and elegant rules system, that allows for much more variety and deeper tactics. There is no handholding here, but rich rewards for those who master the mountain's dangers - though not everyone will live to tell their tale.

Paul Toderas demoed Fighting Fantasy Quest - The Warlock of Firetop Mountain at the Fighting Fantasy stand at the UK Games Expo earlier this year, and so did Paul Grogan of Gaming Rules! on YouTube.

Sir Ian Livingstone to attend Lucca Comics & Games 2025

Sir Ian Livingstone will be attending the Lucca Comics & Games festival in Italy, which is on from Wednesday 29th October - Sunday 2nd November 2025.

This year, attendees will also be able to enjoy FORGING THE MYTH: Art & Artifacts from the Workshop, an exhibition that tells the story of the company founded by Steve Jackson and Sir Ian, and that changed pop culture forever.

The exhibition will be held from 18th October 18th - 2nd November 2025, at the Palazzo Guinigi. There you will be able to see original paintings by John Blanche, Geoff Taylor, Jim Burns, Stephen Tappin, John Sibbick, Paul Bonner, Gary Chalk, Karl Kopinski, and Iain McCaig, who will also be attending the games fair. There will even be some personal items of Sir Ian's on display.

40 years of Appointment with F.E.A.R.

Another Fighting Fantasy gamebook celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2025 is Steve Jackson's superhero smackdown Appointment with F.E.A.R.

Back in 1985, Steve Jackson had not written a Titan-set FF adventure since The Citadel of Chaos and his fifth title in the series continued this trend. Appointment with F.E.A.R. (FF17) took as its inspiration the comic books Jackson had so loved as a child and involved more problem-solving as opposed to the item collection ‘shopping list’ approach of some gamebooks.

The action takes place in the suspiciously familiar sounding Titan City with the hero assuming the role of Jean Lafayette and his alter ego, the crime-fighting Silver Crusader.

The Silver Crusader does battle with such colourful characters as the Scarlet Prankster, the Serpent, and the Alchemists, as he struggles to discover the time and location of the next meeting of F.E.A.R. – the Federation of Euro-American Rebels – an evil organisation led by Vladimir Utoshski, a.k.a. the Titanium Cyborg.

It is the Titanium Cyborg who is the subject of the book’s cover art by legendary comic book cover artist Brian Bolland, while internal illustrations were provided by Declan Considine, who made his artwork look like panels from the pages of a comic book.

The Macro Brain, a super-villain from Appointment with F.E.A.R.,
by Declan Considine.

The adventure begins with the reader choosing one of four superpowers for the Silver Crusader from Super Strength, Psi-Powers, Enhanced Technological Skill (or ETS), and Energy Blast.

Appointment with F.E.A.R. also made use of a new HERO POINTS attribute. These points are awarded for every villain the Silver Crusader captures and every potential disaster he manages to avert. (Although it doesn’t necessarily affect the outcome of the game, it does allow players to compare performances from one read-through to the next.) Rather like Batman, the Silver Crusader is not permitted to kill his enemies, and any such deaths that may occur result in the loss of precious HERO POINTS. In one-on-one combat, when an enemy’s STAMINA score drops to 2 STAMINA points, the enemy simply surrenders.

It could be argued that Appointment with F.E.A.R. is only a science fiction adventure in as much as Spider-Man or Superman comics are science fiction stories. It is, in truth, a comic book superhero gamebook; nothing more, nothing less.

To date, Appointment with F.E.A.R. is the only non-fantasy adventure published by Scholastic, and the gamebook also exists now as a video game from Tin Man Games.

Will we ever see an Appointmentwith F.E.A.R. comic one day? We can but hope.

If you enjoy watching playthroughs of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, GoneHollowMedia have recorded their own attempt at tackling the adventure.

And if you want to learn more about the history of your favourite gamebooks, pick up Jonathan Green's YOU ARE THE HERO: An Interactive History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks today.