40 years of Seas of Blood

2025 marks 40 years since the publication of Seas of Blood (FF16). In a series of books in which YOU  are the Hero, in 1985 you got to play a bad guy for the first time.

The city of Tak is the greatest den of thieves, pirates and cut-throats that the civilized world has ever seen!

In this city of scum, there are two pirates infamous for their ruthless greed, their daring raids and their countless skirmishes with death. One of these villains is Abdul the Butcher. The other is YOU. Only one of you can be King of the Pirates. A wager is laid, a race is on. But which of you will win?

Two dice, a pencil and an eraser are all you need for this rip-roaring adventure. YOU decide which course to sail, which dangers to risk and which monsters to fight.

The adventure was written by Andrew Chapman, who had already had two science fiction Fighting Fantasy adventures published - Space Assassin and The Rings of Kether.

Seas of Blood saw the hero take on the role of captain of the pirate ship Banshee, who undertakes a contest with rival buccaneer Abdul the Butcher. Whichever one reaches the island of Nippur within fifty days, and with the most gold, will be declared King of Pirates

The adventure is unusual because it allowed for combat between vessels, and between the Banshee and seas monsters, utilising both CREW STRIKE and CREW STRENGTH scores.

Seas of Blood was illustrated by Bob Harvey, his second of four contributions in the gamebook series...

... and bore a cover by the legendary album cover artist Rodney Matthews.

Matthews’ art medium of choice is pigmented acrylic ink: “I do it with those inks because they’re transparent, or at least translucent, and you can build up the colour gradually,” says the artist. “That’s why I use them, so you don’t overstate something, you can build it up and keep in control of things.”

But while the cover implies a Classical theme, the adventure itself (as older FF fans will know already) has a more strongly Arabian feel to it. And the reason for this mix-up? According to Matthews, it was down to a junior editor at Puffin misleading the artist when he was given the cover brief.

Despite this mix-up, Matthews is still proud of his involvement with Fighting Fantasy, however fleeting it might have been: “I enjoyed doing the cover. I think it probably enhanced the book, but a bit inaccurately.”

As with a number of locations from the other early Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, when FF editor Marc Gascoigne set about compiling Titan – The Fighting Fantasy World, the lands surrounding the Inland Sea, where Seas of Blood is set, were slotted into the newly-created continent of Khul.

However, the book’s author, Andrew Chapman, had already developed a more extensive geography and history for the lands of the Inland Sea which he would later go on to use in two more books – one of which, Ashkar the Magnificent, features the same map as appeared in Seas of Blood – as well as the unpublished FF adventure Deathlord.

Blast from the Past! Clash of the Princes

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.

Blast from the Past! Seas of Blood

Having already had two science fiction Fighting Fantasy adventures published (Space Assassin and The Rings of Kether) Andrew Chapman’s third contribution to the FF series, was Seas of Blood (FF16).

Seas of Blood saw the hero take on the role of captain of the pirate ship Banshee, who undertakes a contest with rival buccaneer Abdul the Butcher. Whichever one reaches the island of Nippur within fifty days, and with the most gold, will be declared King of Pirates

The adventure is unusual because it allowed for combat between vessels, and between the Banshee and seas monsters, utilising both CREW STRIKE and CREW STRENGTH scores.

Seas of Blood was illustrated by Bob Harvey, his second of four contributions in the gamebook series...

... and bore a cover by the legendary album cover artist Rodney Matthews.

Matthews’ art medium of choice is pigmented acrylic ink. “I do it with those inks because they’re transparent, or at least translucent, and you can build up the colour gradually,” says the artist. “That’s why I use them, so you don’t overstate something, you can build it up and keep in control of things.”

But while the cover implies a Classical theme, the adventure itself (as older FF fans will know already) has a more strongly Arabian feel to it. And the reason for this mix-up? According to Matthews, it was down to a junior editor at Puffin misleading the artist when he was given the cover brief.

Despite this mix-up, Matthews is still proud of his involvement with Fighting Fantasy, however fleeting it might have been: “I enjoyed doing the cover. I think it probably enhanced the book, but a bit inaccurately.”

As with a number of locations from the other early Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, when FF editor Marc Gascoigne set about compiling Titan – The Fighting Fantasy World, the lands surrounding the Inland Sea, where Seas of Blood is set, were slotted into the newly-created continent of Khul.

However, the book’s author, Andrew Chapman, had already developed a more extensive geography and history for the lands of the Inland Sea which he would later go on to use in two more books – one of which, Ashkar the Magnificent, features the same map as appeared in Seas of Blood – as well as the unpublished FF adventure Deathlord.

The Second Swordsman – ‘All at Sea!’

It's been a couple of weeks since Malcolm Garcia's last Second Swordsman post, but then it's been a busy couple of weeks for Fighting Fantasy, what with the announcement that the series is coming back with Scholastic UK, the announcement the Nomad Games are making Fighting Fantasy Legends, and the funding of the YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 Kickstarter. But now he's back, and this time Malcolm is...

The Second Swordsman – ‘All at Sea!’

By Malcolm Garcia

After my previous, and universally unsuccessful, adventures across the cities, forests, and dungeons of Titan I decided to see if choosing every second option would lead me to glory on the open ocean. In Seas of Blood (written by Andrew Chapman) YOU face off against your nemesis in a pirate-captain-showdown to see who can get the most treasure in fifty days while terrorising the Inland Sea of Khul. While in Demons of the Deep (written by the American Steve Jackson) YOU are the intended victim of a different pirate captain who casts you overboard, not knowing you would discover the underwater city of Atlantis and plot your revenge.

By dutifully following the Second Swordsman process, I made a poor start in both Seas and Demons. In the race-against-the-clock that is Seas, I eschewed the traditional pirate business model of plundering all manner of vessels and, after leaving the city of Tak (whose reputation makes it somehow sound worse than Port Blacksand), I instead went and hid in the desert for three days. After I gave up waiting for a caravan that never came, I headed to sea, only to then decide that the best way to make some serious loot and win this competition was to go… gambling. These two decisions resulted in a big waste of time for very little treasure gained.

And in Demons, while I didn’t stupidly try to immediately return to the pirates who had pushed me overboard, I did start my adventure in Atlantis by declining to help the spirit of a sea captain, swimming away from a Grouper (which bit me anyway and cost me two STAMINA), ignoring a crown and a trapdoor in a mausoleum, and then not helping a dolphin while it was being attacked by a shark (which lost me one STAMINA and one LUCK). If there was ever a time that an adventurer did not deserve the epithet ‘You Are The Hero’, this was it. I also didn’t explore a sunken ship or seek out a Sea Dragon for help against the pirates. Indeed, throughout my whole adventure in Demons I never actually found out what I should be doing; a few people mentioned that black pearls were important, but I wouldn’t have known what to do with them even if I had any.

In Seas there was only the one occasion that the Second Swordsman process earned me some serious booty. Because you have a ship’s crew, you can take on entire towns and other enemies that would usually be too much for one adventurer to fight. This meant we were able to sack a small town and steal its treasure. But I only did this once (I’m not quite sure why fighting the gambling pirates in Calah didn’t become a crew fight) and never had the opportunity for a good old-fashioned ship-to-ship fight. For most of Seas I ignored opportunities to get some gold and win the contest with the rival pirates. I left the desert after only a few days, I didn’t push onwards to the Dead City, I decided not to hunt for ships, I didn’t explore the island of Roc after killing the Roc, and I turned down the opportunity to attack the fishing town of Kirkuk (isn’t that in Iraq?).

In Demons, choosing the second option got me into some perilous fights. A Sea Ogre took half my STAMINA to beat it and fighting the Lion Fish cost me eight STAMINA. I also fought the aforementioned Grouper, but that wasn’t very exciting. However both the Grouper and the Lion Fish attacked me while I tried to initially flee from them and I lost STAMINA as a penalty, without even testing my LUCK. The only time fleeing worked without being penalised was against the much slower, and probably tastier, Giant Crabs. While exploring Atlantis I also had to take on the Kraken and, with a SKILL of 10 and STAMINA of 30, this was the beast that killed me. Other than a dragon or demon, this must be one of the highest STAMINA scores in all of Titan and I think I’d have needed a SKILL of 12 (or an enchanted weapon) to stand even the slightest chance against it.

Other than the fight against the gambling four pirates, in Seas, the only other creature I fought was the Sith Orb. While I know that Titan is a place full of mystery and monsters, I genuinely did not expect to encounter such a monster in, what appeared to be, a quiet farming town. Whatever happened to the locals using some wild dogs, or even a bear to guard their treasure? And how did those townspeople even get their hands on a Sith Orb in the first place?

In Seas, choosing the second option every time meant I had to test my LUCK six times, and it was the final (and inevitable) unlucky roll of the dice that doomed my crew faster than you can say ‘iceberg ahead’. Conversely, in Demons, I never once had to test my luck. I probably could have done it in my epic battle against the Kraken, but I doubt it would have changed the outcome.

So, once again, the Second Swordsman has met with failure, my body left to drift at the bottom of the ocean, probably being picked to pieces by those Giant Crabs. Maybe next time I’ll stick to adventuring on dry land.

Thank you once again, to Malcolm, for his blog post, and don't forget to get in touch if you have any suggestions for items for the Official Fighting Fantasy blog via mail@fightingfantasy.com.