What will you be reading this Halloween?

Some of the most popular Fighting Fantasy gamebooks are those that lean towards the horrific. Take for example Vault of the Vampire...

Can YOU put an end to Count Heydrich's evil reign of terror?

YOU are a hardy adventurer and have journeyed to the icy mountains of Mauristatia in search of great wealth and fortune... but what you find there makes your blood run cold. You discover by chance the terrible secret of the local villagers.

Can YOU free them from the evil tyranny of the bloodthirsty Count, or will you too succumb to a horrifying fate?

Or Beneath Nightmare Castle...

Creatures from your worst nightmares lie beneath Neuberg Keep!

In this book, you find yourself in Neuburg, once a pleasant town in Khul, but now home to the vile monsters begotten of warped sorcery. An age-old horror has been re-awoken deep beneath the Keep, and it is up to you to face it and free the town and your friend, Baron Tholdur, from evil enchantment. But beware! Deep underground lie hideous traps and terrors, waiting to ensnare YOU!

Will you succeed? Only if you are the resourceful hero YOU claim to be...

Then there's Howl of the Werewolf...

Lupravia is a cursed land; a chill place of snow-capped mountains, brooding forests and mist-shrouded moors, haunted by the spirits of the restless dead. Peasants struggle daily with survival, living in constant fear of attacks from ravenous wild beasts. Only the foolhardy or insane would willingly pass beyond its borders and enter that benighted realm of predators.

But enter you must, after a vicious wolf attack sets you on the path to murder and madness. Steadily succumbing to the call of the wild and the beast within, YOU must seek out a cure to your condition before the next full moon. But how long can you survive in a land where the powers of darkness hold sway and all live in fear of the Howl of the Werewolf?

Or Night of the Necromancer...

Returning to your castle home, Valsinore, after three years away crusading against the forces of darkness, it seems as though evil has been laid to rest. But then, out of nowhere, you are cut down in the final stages of your journey. Caught between the living world and the Lands of the Dead, your ghostly form must battle to uncover the most malignant evil of all that has taken root in the heart of Valsinore.

Before the night is out YOU must have your revenge or face a fate even worse than death itself.

And don't forget Sir Ian Livingstone's Blood of the Zombies...

Terrible things are happening in Goraya castle... Insane megalomaniac Gingrich Yurr is preparing to unleash an army of monstrous zombies upon the world. He must be stopped and his undead horde defeated. In this life-or-death adventure the decisions YOU make will decide the fate of the world.

Can YOU survive or will YOU become a zombie too?

But probably the most popular horror title is, and has always been, Steve Jackson's House of Hell...

Taking refuge in the infamous House of Hell may be the worst mistake of your life. The dangers of the storm outside are nothing compared to the blood-curdling horrors inside. Ghosts, zombies, skeletons and terrifying monsters – plus a den of demon worshippers. Are you doomed to become one of their sacrifices?

Are YOU brave enough to uncover the nightmarish secrets of the House of Drumer?

So, what will you be reading this Halloween? Let us know in the comments below.

Fighting Fantasy at Fantasy Festival

This weekend, the town of Esbjerg in Denmark will be taken over by Fantasy Festival 2026, and Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks will be there!

Danish games publisher Faraos Cigarer has been releasing translations of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks under the Sværd og Trolddom banner for several years now. There are currently 22 titles in print, including Steve Jackson's Sorcery! quartet...

and many of Sir Ian Livingstone's newest titles, such as The Port of Peril, Assassins of Allansia, Shadow of the Giants, and The Dungeon on Blood Island.

Faraos Cigarer will be launching the newest entry in the Sværd og Trolddom range - Night of the Necromancer - at Fantasy Festival, and the book's author, Jonathan Green, will be one of the Guests of Honour in attendance.

GENFÆRDETS HÆVN! - Night of the Necromancer

Fantasy Festival opens at 10:00am Saturday 19th September, and from 2:45pm-3:30pm on that day, Jonathan will be talking to Morten Gottschalck in the Theater Hall, at the Music Hall Esbjerg, which will be followed by a signing at the gamebook stall in the foyer.

On Sunday 20th September, Jonathan will join Morten Gottschalck for the Fantasy Quiz, in the Meeting Hall at the Music Hall Esbjerg. This will again be followed by a signing at the gamebook stall in the foyer.

So, if you are attending Fantasy Festival this weekend, you know what to do.

Night of the Necromancer is coming to Denmark

Genfærdets hævn, the Danish translation of Jonathan Green's Night of the Necromancer, is currently live on Kickstarter.

If the crowdfunding campaign is a success, the translation - by Morten Gottschalck - will be published by Faraos Cigarer.

If you are a Danish speaker, or a dedicated Fighting Fantasy collector, you can pledge your support to the crowdfunding campaign here.

You can view the FF adventures already in print in Denmark here.

To Fighting Fantasy, or not to Fighting Fantasy?

In the region of your Earthly Plane known, slightly curiously, as the United Kingdom, today is Saint George's Day. 23rd April also just happens to be William Shakespeare's Death Day*.

Did you know that Fighting Fantasy author Jonathan Green is also an English scholar, with a fondness for the works of the Bard of Stratford? As a result, a fair few Shakespearean references appear in the Fighting Fantasy adventures he wrote between 1993 and 2010.

His first two books - Spellbreaker and Knights of Doom - were both influenced by 'That Scottish Play', Macbeth. For example, take the Bedlam Hags from the former, and the ghost of Sir Connor from the latter.

Shakespeare didn't make it into Curse of the Mummy**, but he was back in pirate zombie adventure Bloodbones, which features a sorcerer's cell on a desert island and a monster called Balinac.

Balinac, as realised by artist Tony Hough.

Howl of the Werewolf and Stormslayer are also free of the Elizabethan playwright's involve, but Night of the Necromancer probably has more Shakespearean references than any other gamebook by Jonathan Green, including numerous nods to Hamlet.

There is the name of the castle Valsinore (which is reminiscent of Elsinore castle in Denmark where Hamlet is set), the fact that the Hero can meet the ghost of their father, Lady Oriana is not unlike Hamlet's love interest Ophelia, and there's even a gravedigger called Yorrick!

Are there any other Shakespearean references that you've noticed in your favourite gamebook series?

* It may be his birthday too, but the only confirmed date at the beginning of his life is 26th April 1554, when he was baptised.

** Although Greek tragedy did.