City of Thieves and Tomb of the Golden Skull Hardbacks Out Now!

If you have been excitedly awaiting the release of the new collector's hardbacks of Sir Ian Livingstone's City of Thieves and Tomb of the Golden Skull, they are both available now, from online retailers such as Amazon and Blackwell's.

A deluxe foiled hardback with the original iconic cover
by acclaimed artist Ian McCaig.

Are YOU brave enough to walk the dangerous, dark alleyways of Port Blacksand?

You must travel to the dark tower of demonic sorcerer Zanbar Bone, to put an end to his reign of terror. But you'll have to make it past the bloodthirsty thieves and creeping creatures of the night who lurk in Port Blacksand first... Step up, hero, it's time to fight!

A deluxe collector's edition for the iconic Fighting Fantasy series
illustrated by Karl Kopinski.

Allansia is under threat from Valmorka the Spider Demon and her army of Plague Spiders. In a race against time, YOU must journey across Arantis and face grave danger to find the legendary Dragonblade and a lost artefact to defeat her.

Are you brave enough to face the terrifying Spider Demon?

MAY YOUR STAMINA NEVER FAIL!

"A new way of telling stories and in many ways the birth of modern gaming, these books captured the imaginations of a generation of kids - it's great to think that a new generation are going to be similarly captivated."

~ bestselling author Charlie Higson

Fighting Fantasy Book News

New Fighting Fantasy hardback titles are like London buses - none come for ages then two come at once! In exciting news, Sir Ian Livingstone has announced the upcoming release of two titles:

TOMB OF THE GOLDEN SKULL - Hardback Collector's Edition – signed and numbered 1-400 limited edition with a new map of Allansia by Leo Hartas printed on the reverse of the dust jacket will be released on 5^th September at Fighting Fantasy Fest 6 being held at the University of West London.

CITY OF THIEVES - Hardback Edition – will be released on 10^th September. Signed un-numbered copies can be pre-ordered from Blackwell’s. A limited number of advance copies will be available at Fighting Fantasy Fest 6.

TOMB OF THE GOLDEN SKULL - Paperback Edition – will be released on 27^th August and can be pre-ordered from all good bookshops. Copies will be available at Fighting Fantasy Fest 6.

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.

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain collector's hardback edition out now!

Today marks the publication of the hardback collector's edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.

The collector's hardback features brand new cover art by Karl Kopinski, the classic, iconic interior illustrations by Russ Nicholson, an updated History of Fighting Fantasy, the Qatlas map of Firetop Mountain, and the 1989 map of Allansia by Leo Hartas on the back cover.

The book is limited to 2,000 copies only, and is available online and in selected book shops.

Earlier this week, Steve Jackson and Sir Ian Livingstone visited Blackwell's Bookshop in Oxford to sign 500 copies of the collector's hardback of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.

Steve Jackson and Sir Ian Livingstone - may their STAMINA never fail!

New collector's hardback edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain coming soon!

Today marks 43 years since The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, was first published by Puffin Books.

Over the years since, there have been many different editions released in numerous languages, but one of the most special was the 25th anniversary hardback put out by Wizard Books in 2007.

But today the Warlock is able to share the exciting news that a new hardback edition of the book will be published by Scholastic Books, featuring brand new cover art by the incredibly talented Karl Kopinski.

Click to enlarge.

The new collector's hardback will be published on 25th September 2025. Not only will it featutre Karl Kopinski's amazing new artwork, but it will include the iconic interior illustrations by Russ Nicholson, and the 1989 map of Allansia by Leo Hartas will appear on the back cover.

The book will also feature an updated History of Fighting Fantasy and the Qatlas map of Firetop Mountain. It will be limited to 2,000 copies only, and it will be available online and selected book shops.

Zagor is back!

40 Years of The Crown of Kings

2025 marks 40 years since the publication of The Crown of Kings, the final volume of Steve Jackson's seminal gamebook miniseries, Sorcery!

The conclusion of the Sorcery! series starts with the Analander climbing through the Xamen Peaks to reach the Mampang Fortress, and then battle their way through the Archmage’s lair. The Crown of Kings came in at a whopping 800 references (a record yet to be broken by any other Fighting Fantasy gamebook) and was as epic an adventure as any Sorcery! fan could have hoped for. It also featured one of the most memorable (and clever) denouements of any adventure ever published, not to mention encounters with a god-headed Hydra and entire societies of birdmen and she-satyrs.

The God-headed Hydra, by John Blanche.

When pressed on the subject of which of the gamebooks he has written are his favourites, Jackson cites two: “Warlock because it was the first. And Sorcery! because it was the most complex. Creating a four-part adventure in which your actions in Book 2 might affect your choices in Book 4 was a real challenge.”

All four volumes are in print again in the UK, courtesy of Scholastic Books. And all four volumes are also now available in Portuguese, from Brazilian publisher Jambô Editora, including The Crown of Kings, which had previously been available in Brazil.

Rather like the recent Danish editions of the Sorcery! series, the Brazilian ones also come with a unique slipcase.

The Brazilian Sorcery! quartet.

The Danish Sorcery! quartet, plus Spell Book.

 

Une Entreprise Épique

Belgian Fighting Fantasy fan Gil Jugnot has mapped the Fighting Fantasy (or Défis Fantastiques) gamebooks, including the Sorcery! quartet and The Tasks of Tantalon, onto the maps of the three continents of Titan published by Scriptarium. And here they are.

Allansia

The Old World

Khul

Deathtrap Dungeon's 40th anniversary

2024 marks 40 years since Sir Ian Livingstone's seminal Deathtrap Dungeon was first published.

Inspired by a holiday Livingstone had taken to Thailand, the plot of the adventure sees the hero taking up the challenge of the Trial of Champions, devised by the devilish mind of Baron Sukumvit, entering the eponymous dungeon, braving the labyrinth’s fiendish traps and monstrous denizens, all in the pursuit of fame and fortune.

Ian Livingstone’s rough map of Deathtrap Dungeon. (© Ian Livingstone, 2024)

“I went trekking in Northern Thailand in 1981,” explains Livingstone. “I passed through Fang and crossed the River Kok on my way to the jungle near the Burmese border. I took lots of photos of villagers and scenery on the trek. It was an incredible adventure, and one not without drama. Our guide was constantly fretting about armed bandits coming over the border to rob us! The trek made a big impression on me, enough for me to want to reference the people and places in Deathtrap Dungeon which I began writing in late 1983. But the dungeon plot itself was a product of the dungeons I’d designed during the years I’d been playing D&D. When Penguin Books told us they wanted a sequel to The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, I thought I’d write a classic dungeon-bash next, but I put it on hold and wrote The Forest of Doom and City of Thieves before Deathtrap Dungeon.”

As well as the River Kok and Fang, the names of several other places Livingstone visited on that fortuitous trip made it into the book, including Chiang Mai. Baron Sukumvit himself was named after Sukumvit Road in Bangkok. The marriage of both eastern and western influences in the adventure created something entirely new, helping to give the world of Fighting Fantasy a truly unique flavour.

One of Iain McCaig’s illustration roughs for Deathtrap Dungeon alongside Ian Livingstone’s handwritten first draft. (© Iain McCaig and Ian Livingstone, 2024)

Deathtrap Dungeon was a huge success, selling over 350,000 copies in its first year alone. It was the best-selling children’s book in April 1984 and was ranked eighth out of all books sold that month. (Three of the top one hundred books sold that year were Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.)

Deathtrap Dungeon was so successful that Livingstone’s eighth gamebook was a sequel, Trial of Champions (FF21, published in 1986).

Like City of Thieves before it, Deathtrap Dungeon was illustrated inside and out by Ian Livingstone's favourite FF artist, Iain McCaig.

“My favourite black and white illustration is the image of the inscrutable Trialmaster on his dragon-hide throne,” says McCaig. “It was the height of my love affair with croquill pens.”

Deathtrap Dungeon has been reimagined again and again, as numerous video games, an audio drama and even a live action show. On top of that, the infamous Bloodbeast from the adventure has been turned into a 3D model, produced by Blue Giant Studios.

To find out more about the history of Deathtrap Dungeon and Fighting Fantasy gamebooks you should peruse YOU ARE THE HERO by Jonathan Green.

The Shamutanti Hills - published 40 years ago!

Regular visitors to this blog will have noticed that this year that images from four classic Fighting Fantasy gamebooks appear in the banner at the top of the page. These are all books that were first published 40 years ago this year, but they are not the only one.

The first book in the Sorcery! series, aimed squarely at adult gamers, was released in late 1983. The Shamutanti Hills by Steve Jackson, saw the commencement of an epic quest to recover the Crown of Kings from the evil Archmage of Kakhabad. In the adventure, the hero has to make his way through the hills of the title; “alive with evil creatures, lawless wanderers and bloodthirsty monsters, the land is riddled with tricks and traps waiting for the unwary traveller.”

Despite being for adults, the game still used the usual Fighting Fantasy gaming mechanics, the cover proudly stating the mantra familiar to Fighting Fantasy fans that, “Two dice, a pencil and an eraser are all you need for this adventure – YOU decide which paths to take, which dangers to risk and which monsters to fight.” The big difference came from what gave the series its name. As well as being a mighty warrior, the hero of the Sorcery! series could also be played as a powerful magic-user.

The ‘simple’ version of the adventure involved the use of no magic whatsoever, as with most FF adventures up until this point (with the notable exception of Jackson’s The Citadel of Chaos). However, there was also the option whereby the reader could opt for the ‘advanced’ version of the game, which relied heavily on magic, with the hero being able to cast a wide range of spells. Each spell cost between 1 and 4 STAMINA points to cast, and each was denoted by a three letter word (following the pattern consonant-vowel-consonant), and often required very specific ingredients to be cast successfully at all.

There was also the option to call on Libra, the Goddess of Justice, once during the course of the adventure, either to enable the hero to escape a tricky battle, to be cleansed of curses or diseases, or to have his starting attributes restored to their Initial level.

The Sorcery Spell Book was, to begin with, just that – a separate book, detailing the spells used in the Sorcery! series, that came packaged with The Shamutanti Hills in a special slipcase edition. It featured a number of illustrations, which were cut when the Spell Book was later incorporated into the Sorcery! gamebooks themselves, when they were republished under the Adventure Gamebooks banner.

Original slipcase editions of The Shamutanti Hills and The Sorcery Spell Book are now veritable collector’s items!

The Shamutanti Hills is now available again from Scholastic Books.

Starship Traveller - published on this day 40 years ago!

Starship Traveller by Steve Jackson was published 40 years ago today on 1 September 1983.

Having only written one fantasy gamebook by himself, why was it that Jackson abandoned an alternative Tolkien-esque past for a gleaming, rocket-fuelled future?

“I liked to try new things out,” says Jackson. “Sorcery! had a new magic system, Starship Traveller was the first SF adventure.”

Set in the distant future, Starship Traveller (FF4) had the hero become the commander of the eponymous starship and its crew. After his interstellar vessel is sucked through a black hole into an unknown quadrant of space, the hero has to search the local star systems for the coordinates to another black hole and the way home.

As well as keeping a track of his own attributes, the reader had to keep a note of the attributes of his officers. Starship Traveller also added the stats WEAPONS STRENGTH and SHIELDS so that the reader could re-enact battles between spacecraft.

Jackson: “I was a big Star Trek fan. Always preferred it to Doctor Who. Mr Spock was my hero. I liked the episodes where Kirk & Co landed on a planet where they encountered alien races and philosophies. Never liked the deep space battle episodes. Starship Traveller was unashamedly based on Star Trek. And the long dedication was a listing of the entire Games Workshop staff as it was at the time. Some of the GW department heads appeared in the adventure too. ‘Bran-Sell’ was a reference to Bryan Ansell, who ran the Citadel division and later became GW Managing Director. There was a race called the Dar-Villians; a reference to GW’s Sales Manager Peter Darvill-Evans. Fioral was Albie Fiore, who ran the Production Dept. And lots more.”

Both the cover artwork and the internal illustrations were by Peter Andrew Jones, a first and last for the Fighting Fantasy series.

Many years later, Tin Man Games turned Starship Traveller into an app, commissioning new full-colour artwork for the adventure in the process.

While the gamebook was reissued by Wizard Books, Scholastic UK have yet to publish the adventure. So, watch this space...

Return to Allansia this Half Term

As no doubt any parent will be able to tell you, in the UK schools are about to close for a week for Half Term. If you're wondering what to do to help keep your children occupied, while limiting their screen time and not letting them completely forget the discipline of school, why not take a trip with them to Allansia?

Fighting Fantasy gamebooks have been proven to help improve literacy levels in children, but they also help with simple maths, including calculating probabilities, problem solving, and decision making.

Below is a selection of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks that you might want to share with an apprentice adventurer this Half Term holiday.

Of course, when there is some permitted screen time, you could do a lot worse than check out inkle studios adaptation of Steve Jackson's Sorcery! epic, or Tin Man Games' Fighting Fantasy Classics* library.

* Tin Man Games have been producing Fighting Fantasy apps for ten years.