The Year of the Snake

On your Earthly plane, today marks the beginning of the Year of Snake*. As a result, we thought we would revisit some classic ophidian encounters from your favourite Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.

Hydra

(illustration by Russ Nicholson)

The Citadel of Chaos, by Steve Jackson

The Serpent Queen

(illustration by Iain McCaig)

City of Thieves, by Ian Livingstone

Medusa

(illustration by Nik Williams)

Armies of Death, by Ian Livingstone

Myurr the Snake Demon

(illustration by Martin McKenna)

Dead of Night, by Jim Bambra and Stephen Hand

Ophidian

(illustration by Tony Hough)

Spectral Stalkers, by Peter Darvill-Evans

Caarth Sorcerer

(illustration by Martin McKenna)

Curse of the Mummy, by Jonathan Green

Giant Serpent

(illustration by Martin McKenna)

Curse of the Mummy, by Jonathan Green

Serpensa the Snakewoman

(illustration by Martin McKenna)

Howl of the Werewolf, by Jonathan Green

The Seven Serpents

(illustration by Tony Hough)

The Seven Serpents, by Steve Jackson

And an honourable mention goes to Snake Island, where Sir Ian Livingstone's Assassins of Allansia kicks off.

What is your favourite snake-related encounter in a Fighting Fantasy gamebook? Let us know in the comments below.

* Of course, the Year of the Snake is the third in the twenty year cycle of Titan.

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!

Qatlas Fighting Fantasy Maps

As well as being known for its marauding monsters and epic adventures, fans of the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks have long held a great love for the maps that featured in some of the books from time to time.

But now Qatlas has starting producing a range of licensed maps based on the individual adventures which at the same time work as a walkthrough of your favourite FF titles.

Bearing this in mind, you should be aware that there will be spoilers ahead!

So far, there are 15 maps in the series that includes some classic titles - such as Caverns of the Snow Witch and Seas of Blood - as well as some of the newer adventures, such as Shadow of the Giants and Secrets of Salamonis.

Caverns of the Snow Witch

Seas of Blood

Shadow of the Giants

Secrets of Salamonis

Some of the maps are even available as a bundle of five, in the Fighting Fantasy Map Collection #1.

The Fighting Fantasy Map Collection #1

2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Deathtrap Dungeon and the Qatlas collection contains the three linked adventures in the Deathtrap Dungeon 'trilogy'.

Deathtrap Dungeon

Trial of Champions

Armies of Death

There are many more maps to see on Qatlas's store, which you can access here. And rest assured, more maps are on their way.

Armies of Death is coming to Fighting Fantasy Classics!

Tin Man Games recently announced that the next much-loved Fighting Fantasy gamebook to be added to the Fighting Fantasy Classics library will be Sir Ian Livingstone's Armies of Death.

And today, the Warlock can exclusively reveal the cover art for the game, which features a new logo as well as Chris Achilleos's original cover painting.

New artwork has been produced for the game by Joshua Wright. How many of these encounters do you recognise from the Armies of Death gamebook?

Armies of Death will be released on Steam in a few months' time and it will be the first of three gamebooks to be added to the Fighting Fantasy Classics  roster in 2024.

Keeping checking the official Fighting Fantasy blog to be kept up to date regarding these exciting new developments for Tin Man Games' Fighting Fantasy Classics.

Sir Ian Livingstone's Grand Tour

Sir Ian Livingstone is attending two European events this week.

The first is Lucca Comics and Games 2023 in Italy. He will be giving a talk on the origins of Games Workshop from 11:45am-12.45pm on Wednesday 1 November, and his Life is a Game Masterclass on Thursday 2 November from 10:00am-12:00pm.

On Friday, Sir Ian will be travelling to Denmark for the second event, the Bogforum book fair in Copenhagen. The new Danish editions of the Fighting Fantasy series are being launched at the event and Sir Ian will be undertaking a signing on Friday 3 November, from 5:00-6:00pm.

He will be signing again on Saturday 4 November, from 11:00am-12:00pm. and from 1:30-2:30pm. Then on Sunday 5 November, from 12:00-12:45pm, Sir Ian will take part in panel entitled Sword & Sorcery and Nostalgia, before finishing with one more signing session from 1:00-2:00pm.

So if you happen to be at either the Lucca Comics and Games fair, or Bogforum, now you know what to look out for.

Are YOU ready to raise an army?

Ian Livingstone's Armies of Death is coming to Tin Man Games' Fighting Fantasy Classics library!

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.

One of three incoming additions to the Fighting Fantasy Classics library, Armies of Death is a direct sequel to Sir Ian Livingstone's second Deathtrap Dungeon-set adventure, Trial of the Champions.

Having survived the deadly dungeon and claimed the prize of 20,000 Gold Pieces, YOU must raise an army using your newly won fortune to save Allansia from the Shadow Demon's invading army.

Agglax the Shadow Demon, by Nik Williams.

Armies of Death uses a new combat system that allows your troops to fight against multiple opponents, as you take the battle to Agglax. The digital adaptation will feature new interior illustrations but you will doubtless be pleased to hear that Tin Man Games have secured the rights to use the original cover artwork by Chris Achilléos, who sadly passed away last year. 

Keep your eyes peeled for more announcements before the end of the year!

Chris Achilleos (1947-2021)

We were very sorry to hear the terrible news that renowned fantasy artist Chris Achilleos passed away after a short illness on Monday afternoon.

Ian Livingstone posted this tweet in response to the announcement:

For many young fans in the 1980s, the cover of Temple of Terror was their first introduction to the work of the legendary artist, although he had already painted the cover for Space Assassin, and would go on to produce others for the series, including Armies of Death and the seminal background lore books, Out of the Pit and Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World. His painting appears in The Fighting Fantasy Poster Book an unprecedented four times!

Chris (full name 'Christos') was interviewed about his work for YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, and even provided the cover for the second volume. This was what he had to said about the creation of the cover painting for Temple of Terror:

“I was dealing with Ian 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.”

This trust that the writer had in the artist, also resulted in Chris producing one of the most recognisable cover paintings in British fantasy gaming, that of Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World:

“With that Ian said, ‘Just draw a dragon picture, Chris,’ and then left it to me. So I had to consider first of all that’s it a double spread… and then come up with something. When you don’t get a manuscript or a story that already describes what you need to do, when you’re left to yourself, you tend to go round in circles with many ideas and not focusing on one, not knowing quite what to do. Time flies and you’re still wondering which way to go.

“In this case, this was what was going on. I felt like, I’ve got to stop here; it’s not working. So I made up a story in my head about a shape-shifting wizard, who is attacking this city, in the form of this giant dragon, being held back. He’s destroyed the army that you can see… The drawbridge is down, he’s holding onto one of the chains – the other one’s already been broken – and the rest of the bridge is broken and down… The best of the knights have been killed. In desperation the baron comes out with his magicians, or druids or priests, to do magic with the dragon – not to hold him, not to destroy him, but to turn him back into human form and conquer him.

“The clue I put in there that the dragon is not just an animal – it’s a shape-shifting being, a super-being if you like, a magician – is that I put earrings and bracelets on him. That’s what that’s saying. That’s also why it’s called ‘Dragon Spell’. They’re putting a spell on him and trying and revert him back to a human being so they can defeat him. The question in that picture is, will he turn back to human or will he just snap out of it and literally bite the heads off them? That’s what the picture’s saying. People either see that consciously or unconsciously.”

Chris also had the honour of providing the cover art for the first Fighting Fantasy novel, Steve Jackson's The Trolltooth Wars:

“I was given the outline of the story and it was left up to me. I quite liked the concept of an orc fighting off a disgusting skeleton.”

Fans will be deeply saddened by the passing of a great artist and a fine man, but Chris leaves behind an immense body of work that has adorned everything from Doctor Who novels to Whitesnake album covers, as well as FF gamebooks. But certainly, the worlds of Fighting Fantasy would be diminished without Chris's contributions, and our thoughts remain with his friends and family at this difficult time.

In memory of

Chris Achilleos

1947-2021