La Guerre de la Dent-du-Troll

Available now from Scriptarium is the French translation of The Trolltooth Wars graphic novel - La Guerre de la Dent-du-Troll.

La Guerre de la Dent-du-Troll first went on sale at the French RPG and Games convention OctoGônes in Lyon last month. As you can imagine, it went down a storm!

Translated from the graphic novel by Gavin Mitchell and PJ Montgomery by Fabienne Berganz, as with other Scriptarium-related FF products, the French edition includes some bonus material.

There is an illustrated Archives de l'Allansia section written by Florent Haro, an interview with Steve Jackson, and another with PJ Montgormery, who wrote the script for the graphic novel, while Gavin Mitchell, drew, inked, coloured, and lettered it.

A spread from La Guerre de la Dent-du-Troll.

Archives de l'Allansia.

If you would like to buy a copy of La Guerre de la Dent-du-Troll, you can do so via Scriptarium's online store, where you will also find the French edition of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy book Blacksand, Le Port du Sable Noir, which has been adapted and expanded with information from other official sources.

God Save the King!

It probably hasn't escaped your notice that tomorrow is the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Royalty has long been a staple of fantasy stories, and that includes adventure gamebooks. So, today we thought we would count down some of Fighting Fantasy's baddest and best monarchs. But be warned, spoilers abound!

#5 - King Salamon LVII - The Gates of Death

The highly respected current ruler of Salamonis first appeared in Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy novel, The Trolltooth Wars, and then in Dungeoner, the first book in the Advanced Fighting Fantasy series.

However, when he was next encountered in Charlie Higson's The Gates of Death, he had become infected by a terrible demon plague and... wasn't quite himself.

#4 - King Gillibran - The Forest of Doom

King Gillibran Ironhelm III is the ruler of the Dwarves of Stonebridge. It is he who you are trying to aid by recovering his fabled warhammer in Sir Ian Livingstone's The Forest of Doom, so that he can continue to defend the town against the predations of the Hill Trolls that live to the east in the Moonstone Hills.

#3 - The Serpent Queen - City of Thieves

The Serpent Queen is under the protection of Lord Azzur and can be encountered in Sir Ian Livingstone's City of Thieves.

She is a woman with the head of a giant serpent, the result of terrible experiments performed by Caarth sorcerer-priests in the Desert of Skulls, and her bite is most definitely worse than her bark!

#2 - King Salamon LVII - Secrets of Salamonis

Having not appeared in a Fighting Fantasy gamebook until 2018, only four years later King Salamon returned in 2022, in Steve Jackson's Secrets of Salamonis. The reason for his second appearance on the list is because the previous listing was for his evil demonic self, while in Secrets of Salamonis he is as noble, wise and generous as you might have previously been led to believe.

#1 - The Lizard King - Island of the Lizard King

There is only one monarch whose name appears in the title of a Fighting Fantasy gamebook and that is the Lizard King of Fire Island. Armed with a lethal sword and protected by his pet Black Lion, he is a truly formidable foe. And you have to battle your way past his entire army before you can even face him in single combat!

Bubbling under: the Liche Queens of Trial of Champions and Night of the Necromancer, the Pharaoh Akharis the Accursed from Curse of the Mummy, and Queen Zyteea of the Usai tribe who appears in Bloodbones.

So, who is your favourite Fighting Fantasy monarch? Let us know in the comments below?

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

Blast from the Past! The Citadel of Chaos

First published this month, 38 years ago, The Citadel of Chaos was the second book in the Fighting Fantasy series and the first to be written just by Steve Jackson.

Jackson did not stray that far from the familiar format of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Although it was set within a castle, The Citadel of Chaos was effectively another dungeon bash, but with the addition of rules for using magic.

“I wanted to name my second book in such a way as it served to promote GW’s brand, i.e. Citadel Miniatures,” explains Jackson. “So the adventure had to be set in a Citadel. And some of the illustrations of the Citadel were reminiscent of the Citadel Miniatures logo. It was, if you like, a promotional in-joke.”

Russ NIcholson's illustration of the Black Tower - a.k.a. Balthus Dire's dread Citadel of Chaos - from The Trolltooth Wars, alongside the original Citadel Miniatures logo.

Atop his sinister Black Tower, the dread sorcerer Balthus Dire is making plans of conquest. The hero of the adventure is a student of the Grand Wizard of Yore, charged by King Salamon with penetrating the stronghold of the fell magic-user, and stopping the fiend before he can unleash his army upon the peaceful Vale of Willow.

Before beginning the adventure, the hero has to determine his MAGIC score and then choose a corresponding number of spells from a pool of twelve that includes such enchantments as Creature Copy, Fool’s Gold and Levitation. But where did the inspiration for Balthus Dire and the lethal Ganjees come from?

Ganjee, by Russ Nicholson.

Jackson: “Creating names for new characters monsters and places was always a brainstorming exercise. I’d write lots of contenders on a sheet of paper and eventually pick one which to my mind sounded evocative... ‘Balthus’ was the name of a French painter. At the time I was constantly on the lookout for inspiration for names for characters, places and creatures. I came across Balthus the artist – his name, not his art, which I have never seen! I thought: ‘Yes. That’s a cool name. Sounds kind of demonic, or like a dark religious pontiff.’ I used to use a thesaurus a lot for inspiration. ‘Dire’ sounded particularly bad. And thus Balthus Dire became the boss of the adventure.”

Internal art was by Russ Nicholson again, while the cover was produced by the enigmatically-named Emmanuel.

Emmanuel's original cover for Steve's Jackson's The Citadel of Chaos alongside Ian Miller's revised cover.

“The only art I really didn’t like was the cover of the original Citadel of Chaos,” reveals Jackson. “As this was the second book in the series, it could have been interpreted as a significant statement of art intent. But it was followed by Iain McCaig’s cover of The Forest of Doom which set a new standard. I asked Penguin many times to have The Citadel of Chaos cover recommissioned. Eventually they gave in and Ian Miller did a fine job.”

Did you know...?

Jackson once named his favourite character from the Fighting Fantasy books as being Balthus Dire, the villain from The Citadel of Chaos, while his favourite monster is the Jib-Jib, which first appeared in the final instalment of his Sorcery! series, The Crown of Kings.

Balthus Dire, the wizard-warlord, by Russ Nicholson.

When Wizard Books republished The Citadel of Chaos in 2002, Kevin Jenkins was tasked with providing a new cover for the book.

Kevin Jenkins' artwork for the Wizard editions of The Citadel of Chaos.

And of course, The Citadel of Chaos is back in print again, thanks to Scholastic Books, featuring cover art by Robert Ball.

Robert Ball's artwork for the Wizard editions of The Citadel of Chaos.

Since it was first published, back in 1983, The Citadel of Chaos has inspired computer games, and even an audio drama, The Terror of the Ganjees, that is now available from Audible.

Steve Beales' Galleykeep

The worlds of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy gamebooks have inspired readers, writers and artists ever since The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was first published in 1982.

One of those so inspired is amateur model-maker and miniature painter Steve Beales. You can see many examples of his Fighting Fantasy-themed models on his blog Somewhere the Tea's Getting Cold. For his most recent conversion he took inspiration from Steve Jackson's FF novel The Trolltooth Wars, not to mention his seminal gamebook, Creature of Havoc.

Zharradan Marr's aerial fortress, the Galleykeep.

The Galleykeep was Zharradan Marr's ultimate fighting machine: a majestic sky-galleon with billowing black sails which caught the wind and drew the vessel smoothly through the air. As a spectacle, its magnificence was unsurpassed. Those on the ground who saw the Galleykeep pass above believed they were watching the gods themselves sail past. As a transport vessel it could carry a thousand troops or as much cargo as passed through the Trolltooth Pass overland in ten weeks.

From The Trolltooth Wars, by Steve Jackson.

You can find out how Steve went about converting his model here, on his blog. And you can still buy PJ Montgomery and Gavin Mitchell's graphic novel adaptation of Steve Jackson's The Trolltooth Wars here.

Steve Jackson's The Trolltooth Wars graphic novel is here!

It's the news that many fans having been waiting to hear, ever since the original Kickstarter for the project funded back in 2015...

Steve Jackson's The Trolltooth Wars graphic novel, written by PJ Montgomery with art by Gavin Mitchell, is in print and available for pre-order now! To secure your copy, simply follow this link.

"Goblins! Goblins!... We are attacked! Take guard... Ambush!"

When Balthus Dire's hill goblins raid a caravan transporting a mystical herb to Zharradan Marr, they set into motion a chain of events that plunge Allansia into a vicious war between the two evil sorcerers.

With their powers and forces being well-matched, the war escalates, and the kingdom of Salamonis comes under threat. A champion is needed to turn the war to Salamonis' advantage and prevent the bloodshed.

The warrior Chadda Darkmane is selected for the mission, and must travel across Allansia seeking unlikely allies, as unseen forces plot against him. Can Darkmane bring an end to the war, or will chaos rule over Allansia?

Steve Jackson's The Trolltooth Wars is a fantastic read, with some amazing art, and no Fighting Fantasy fan's collection would be complete without a copy.

On top of that, if you retweet this tweet by Gavin Mitchell before 3:00pm on Sunday 11th June, you could be in with the chance of winning a Fighting Fantasy enamel badge.

Look out, look out, there are Ganjees about!

Fans eagerly awaiting the arrival of Steve Jackson's The Trolltooth Wars graphic novel, adapted by PJ Montgomery with art by Gavin Mitchell, will be excited to know that all of the artwork is now finished and publication of the book itself cannot be far away.

Here is a sample splash page from the book, featuring everyone's favourite esoteric spirits, the Ganjees!

To read the latest update on The Trolltooth Wars Kickstarter, follow this link.

PJ and Gavin are hoping to be able to attend Fighting Fantasy Fest 2, on Saturday 2nd September, where they will be showing off their graphic novel, along with pages of art from the book.

Dragonmeet 2016

Steve Jackson, creator of the Sorcery! series, author of the Fighting Fantasy novel The Trolltooth Wars, co-creator of the Fighting Fantasy series of gamebooks and co-founder of Game Workshop, will be attending Dragonmeet 2016 on Saturday 3rd December, at the Hammersmith Novotel. (Ian Livingstone will not be in attendance, as he will be attending Comic Con in São Paulo that weekend.)

You can find out more about the event, and the venue, here.