Scott Mackay's Fighting Fantasy Maps

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.

Scott Mackay with two of his Fighting Fantasy solution maps.

TW: Which is your favourite FF gamebook?

SM: Ohh tough one... can I pick a short list of four? I'll go for my first book Island of the Lizard King - I loved the open world feel to it and the amazing Alan Langford illustrations. I'll then go for two city-based ones - City of Thieves and Kharé - Cityport of Traps. I always liked the city adventures and these two are my favourites. The closed-in feel to the streets, all the shops, the encounters - so much life to them! Finally, I'll go for Creature of Havoc - hard as nails and no idea what to do/who/what you are at the start... and I never completed it!

TW: Did any of the FF artists inspire you as an artist?

SM: I've got to say that the quality of the illustrations throughout all the Fighting Fantasy books I read was always amazing and added so much to the books. My favourite illustrators from the books were Alan Langford, Iain McCaig, Russ Nicholson and the illustrators for Caverns of the Snow Witch, Gary Ward and Edward Crosby. It's very likely that some of the illustrations from these artists got me into art initially as I so admired them during my formative years. I took art at school but eventually decided to go down a different path for further education/work. I finally came back to art a number of years ago and now you'll find me with a pencil or a paintbrush most evenings.

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.

A sneak peek at Scott's new Sorcery! map.

TW: If you were transported to the worlds of FF and dropped into an adventure with one of your maps, which one would you like it to be?

SM: I'll have to go for my first book and the last map I recently completed - Island of the Lizard King. I'd like to think that my map is the map you're handed by the islander in the game. As I said previously, the open world feeling to it, the great illustrations from Alan Langford and the fact it was my first Fighting Fantasy book make it the one I would most like to be 'dropped' into. Also, I would make sure to save Mungo!

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.

Return to the Caverns of the Snow Witch in the company of Tin Man Games

Here beneath Firetop Mountain, it is as cold as the Icefinger Mountains, as Farigiss - Old Man Winter himself - tightens his grip on northern Allansia.

So now would seem the perfect time to take advantage of Tin Man Games' current sale, which sees the company's adaptation of Sir Ian Livingstone's Caverns of the Snow Witch knocked down in price by 25%*.

And Caverns of the Snow Witch isn't the only game currently available at a knockdown price. You can buy the Fighting Fantasy Classics Collection at 13% off, and the Fighting Fantasy MEGA Bundle at a whopping 43% off!

So, don't let the god of ice and cold dampen your fiery passion for Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and grab yourself a bargain while you still can.

* Offer ends 13 January 2025.

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.

More Sværd & Trolddom

Coming soon from Faraos Cigarer are another two titles in the Danish translations of Fighting Fantasy, or Sværd & Trolddom, as the series is called in Denmark.

Can you guess which classic Ian Livingstone titles these two are?

Talking of translated editions of the Fighting Fantasy series, these stone cold classics are now available again in Japan this year, courtesy of Group SNE.

Modern Yet Nostalgic - Classic Fighting Fantasy Covers Redesigned

Guilherme Gontijo is a Brazilian, designer, writer, and RPG enthusiast. He is the author of Into the Bronze, an old school role-playing game set in the Bronze Age of a magical Mesopotamia.

His day job as a graphic designer, and his love of RPGs, inspired him to give the covers of some classic Fighting Fantasy gamebooks a drastic makeover, and he posted the finished pieces on Twitter.

The Warlock used his scrying sphere to track Guilherme down and drag him back to Firetop Mountain to interrogate him about his reimagined book covers.

The Warlock: When did you first get into Fighting Fantasy? Which was the first book you read? Do you have a favourite adventure?

Guilherme Gontijo: My first contact with Fighting Fantasy books was back in the '90s. I had a friend who was very much into gamebooks and he lent me The Warlock of the Firetop Mountain for a weekend. It was totally different for me because I was not used to a solo RPG experience. Until this day it remains my favorite one, mostly because of all the memories of my childhood it brings.

TW: What inspired you to redesign the covers of some of the classic Fighting Fantasy gamebooks?

GG: I lost a friend to COVID-19 some time ago and this process of redesigning something so precious to me helped me to deal with my grief in hard times. Beside, redesigning covers you love is always a very fun exercise!

TW: Do you have a background in graphic design?

GG: Yes, I have been a graphic designer for a few years, and work mostly in art direction and layout design. Back in design school days we used to redesign a lot and that sharpened our skills and imagination.

TW: Can you tell me a bit about the thinking behind your redesigns?

GG: The whole idea behind the redesigns was to make it modern and yet nostalgic. The modernism aesthetic has this strange power to look highly retro-futuristic and because of that it was a logical choice for the redesigns. The colour palettes were all based on the original covers and most of the illustrations paid homage to them in some way or another. It was quite a challenge because when you redesign a much-loved series like Fighting Fantasy, you deal with the expectations of diehard fans. From what I saw on social medias, the fans liked them a lot, thank God!

TW: Are there anymore FF covers you would like to reimagine?

GG: I would love to design another run with the sci-fi adventures this time! Especially Space Assassin, Starship Traveller, Freeway Fighter, and Appointment with F.E.A.R.

Marvellous Maps

The maps that used to appear in the Fighting Fantasy books have always been celebrated, quite rightly, as wonderful works of art.  

Well French Fighting Fantasy fan Alnaro has produced his own maps of some of the most iconic FF adventures, and they too are works of art.

But be warned - spoilers lie ahead!

Alnaro's maps are characterised by the inclusion of creatures, characters and settings that appear in the gamebooks, or on their covers. His map solution for Steve Jackson's The Citadel of Chaos is a perfect example of this.

One of the things that makes Alnaro's map of Ian Livingstone's seminal Deathtrap Dungeon stand out is his portrait of Baron Sukumvit. Another is the fact that it has been presented horizontally, rather than vertically.

The different regions of Fire Island can be clearly seen on this map of Ian Livingstone's Island of the Lizard King, which includes two mini-maps of the gold mine and the prison colony.

Alnaro's map of Scorpion Swamp is less illustrative, but nonetheless striking and effective.

His map of Ian Livingstone's Caverns of the Snow Witch makes it clear what a wide-ranging adventure it is, with the hero travelling from the Icefinger Mountains, across the Pagan Plains to Stonebridge and the Moonstone Hills, and from there to the peak of Firetop Mountain!

Alnaro's map for Vault of the Vampire includes the overland route to Castle Heydrich, as well as detailed plans of the vampire's lair itself.

The beast-haunted land of Lupravia is rendered in exquisite detail in Alarno's solution to Howl of the Werewolf, as is the kingdom of Femphrey that is the location for Stormslayer.

And finally we have the Invisible City, from Charlie Higson's FF adventure The Gates of Death. The Temple of Throff is a nightmare to navigate, but with this map to aid you, you actually have a chance of doing so successfully!

If you have your own maps of your favourite Fighting Fantasy adventures, we want to see them. Find out more here.

La Créature Venue du Chaos

The latest Fighting Fantasy gamebook to be reissued by Gallimard Jeunesse in French is Steve Jackson's Creature of Havoc, or La Créature Venue du Chaos.

Is this the first time the 'hero' has appeared on the cover of a Fighting Fantasy gamebook?

The cover art is by Paul Mafayon, a French artist who also provided the wraparound covers for the newest French editions of Ian Livingstone's Deathtrap Dungeon and Caverns of the Snow Witch.

This new large format edition of La Créature Venue du Chaos includes Alan Langford's original illustrations, as well as the addition of a bonus Archives of Allansia section - focusing on places, characters and monsters connected to the adventure - and a set of pre-generated characters.

If you would like to add the Gallimard Jeunesse editions to your Fighting Fantasy collection, you can purchase them here.

Appreciate a Dragon Day

Dragons have long been a staple of fantasy games and fiction, and that is as true of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks as it is of any other popular fantasy setting.

Today is #AppreciateADragonDay and there are certainly plenty of dragons to appreciate in Fighting Fantasy, from  Russ Nicholson's Dragon in the first ever FF gamebook, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and Chris Achilleos's 'Dragonspell' cover for Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World...

... through to Robert Ball's reimagined White Dragon from the Scholastic edition of Ian Livingstone's seminal Caverns of the Snow Witch, and Stephen Lavis's Brimstone Dragon from Steve Jackson's The Tasks of Tantalon...

... not to mention Tony Hough's 'Night Dragon' and Martin McKenna's 'Eye of the Dragon'.

So which Fighting Fantasy Dragon will you be appreciating this #AppreciateADragonDay?

Fighting Fantasy Signing at Forbidden Planet

Four weeks from today, on Saturday 2nd November 2019, from 2:00-3:00pm, Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson with be at the Forbidden Planet Megastore in London, signing the latest Fighting Fantasy releases from Scholastic Books.

Assassins of Allansia, by Ian Livingstone

Are you tough enough to survive attacks by Allansia's most dangerous and deadly assassins? After accepting a challenge to survive on Snake Island, a nightmare unfolds when a bounty is placed on your head. From being the hunter, you become the hunted. Now you must find the Assassins before they find you. But who are they? Where are they? Everybody you meet could be an assassin. Trust no-one…

Sorcery! 2: Kharé - Cityport of Traps, by Steve Jackson

Far away in the land of Kakhabad, chaos is brewing... The evil Archimage has stolen the precious Crown of Kings, intending to use its power to further his tyrannous ends. In this second book of Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series, YOU must brave the city of Kharé, where every doorway or alley conceals sudden danger. You will need all your wits about you to avoid the traps and survive the unimaginable horrors ahead... Be careful, for nothing in Kahkabad is quite as it seems...

Caverns of the Snow Witch, by Ian Livingstone

Deep within the Crystal Caves of the Icefinger Mountains, the dreaded Snow Witch is plotting to bring on a new ice age and take over the world. Will YOU be able to stop her?


So put the date in your diary, and maybe we'll see you there...