Dice, Miniatures, and The Warlock Returns...

Three exciting pieces of news for Fighting Fantasy fans this week...

Dice

If you pre-order Rhianna Pratchett's new gamebook Crystal of Storms, and/or Ian Livingstone's reissued Return to Firetop Mountain, from The Alligator's Mouth, you will receive a pair of exclusive Fighting Fantasy dice with your book(s).

You can also sign up for an online event, via Chromecast, taking place on Wednesday 30th September, when Scholastic's Hannah Love, will be in conversation with Rhianna and Ian, discussing the history of the globally popular Fighting Fantasy series, and how a guest author goes about constructing a gamebook.

Miniatures

If you missed out on last year's Fighting Fantasy Legends: 28mm Resin Miniatures Kickstarter campaign, you can now pre-order the miniatures here, and at a knockdown price too!

The Warlock Returns

Available now from Arion Games, via DriveThruRPG, is issue #1 of The Warlock Returns, a brand new Advanced Fighting Fantasy fanzine. Inside this launch issue you will find:

*Denizens of the Pit - New monsters from Titan

*Jungle preparation for the wilder parts of Titan.

*Sizing Up Monsters - Adversary Power Levels

*Welcome to Arion - An adventure for AFF

*Director Advice Articles - Suggesting reading material and plot hooks

*Chinese-Inspired Weapons - For use in AFF

*The Legend of Gareus - Comic Strip

*Torra - A Stellar Adventures setting

*Letters from Arion

*AFF & Fantasy Grounds Unity

Plus a new character sheet from Dyson Logos and a one-page dungeon

Rhianna Pratchett in the Bookseller

Scholastic UK is gearing up for the release of Rhianna Pratchett's brand new Fighting Fantasy gamebook Crystal of Storms, at the end of September, and as a result this article appeared on the online version of The Bookseller on Thursday, International Gamebook Day.

Here are some of the highlights, that will be on interest to Fighting Fantasy fans:

Being tabbed as the newest “special guest” to author a Fighting Fantasy book is something of a childhood dream come true for Rhianna Pratchett. The video game writer and screenwriter was a superfan of the iconic Choose Your Own Adventure-esque series when she was young. Maybe a little overly attached to the books, as they led to an early brush with the long arm of the law (OK, it was the hard nuts at Somerset County Council library services).

“I read Fighting Fantasy a lot as a kid,” Pratchett explains. “I used to get in trouble with my local library for not bringing them back. I remember a threatening letter that they were going to take me to court if I didn't return one of the books. I was reading a lot and I managed to lose it under my bed”

The license was bought and resurrected by Scholastic in 2017, which happily coincided with the series’ 35th anniversary, a burst of ‘80s nostalgia (helped by “Stranger Things” and a resurgence in the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons) and the overall “Game of Thrones” booster shot to the fantasy sector. Suddenly, Fighting Fantasy was cool again. Scholastic has rejacketed and rebooted some backlist, released a tranche of new titles, while Young Bond creator Charlie Higson was the first special guest author to hop on board with The Gates of Death...

Pratchett's Fighting Fantasy title is Crystal of Storms in which the reader/player is a member of the Sky Watch charged with keeping the peace in the floating cloud islands of Pangaria. When one of the islands, Nimbus, crashes into the Ocean of Tempests after an explosion, you set out to explore the other islands, facing off against the elements and sea beasts, in order to try to raise Nimbus from the depths.

Pratchett pitched the idea to Scholastic, inspired by both a portion of Higson’s book in which there was a flying bier, “and I wanted to play with that combination of flying tech/magic idea” and, somewhat more leftfield, after reading of a rare cloud formation mirage that appeared over southern China a few years ago which looked like a floating city... "My tale is maybe a little bit lighter than some others and there is a police procedural element which is quite new to the world. But, I did bring back some classic monsters from the books of the '80s and '90s, and I had a bit of fun with that.”

Click here to read the opening of the adventure.

Fighting Fantasy is 38 years young today!

Today is the 38th anniversary of the publication of the original Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.

In honour of this momentous event, today sees the first International Gamebook Day take place, online, all over the world. So far the covers of new Polish translations have been revealed and Branching Narrative have a 48 hour sale happening for Deathtrap Dungeon: The Interactive Video Adventure.

Check out the official International Gamebook Day for all the latest news, and tune in at the following times for interviews with these Fighting Fantasy authors and artists.

12:00pm

Jamie Thomson

1:00pm

Rhianna Pratchett

3:00pm

Russ Nicholson

4:00pm

Charlie Higson

5:00pm

Guest of Honour - Ian Livingstone

Click the image above to read the opening of Crystal of Storms.

Rhianna Pratchett at International Gamebook Day

In an exciting development, Rhianna Pratchett is also going to be interviewed by Olly Mc, as part of International Gamebook Day, on this Thursday, 27th August 2020.

If you have a burning question you would like answered, you can post it here. And don't forget you can also post questions for Jamie Thomson, Russ Nicholson, Charlie Higson, and Guests of Honour Ian Livingstone here.

Rhianna Pratchett

Share the International Gamebook Day Facebook event page with all your Fighting Fanasy friends and join in the with the fun on Thursday.