Am I Mad or Was Fighting Fantasy Fucking Boss

[Russ L]

Double post and it was barely worth posting once

[Russ L]

Out and about in the Scorpion Swamp, with the Master Of Frogs and that fella who offers you some cheese.

[Vodkafone]

That's some definition of out and about you have there boss.

But it's out... side of my house!

[Pranet]

No use to you now, Magnum Valentino, but a few years ago I had a spare copy of Scorpion Swamp, which I donated to one of those telephone box book exchanges. I guess what I am saying is, it isn't impossible.

[holyzombiejesus]

My brother-in-law has loads of these in his loft and has said he'll donate them all to my son when we visit next week. Quite excited to see how much I can get for them on eBay he enjoys them. I got a new copy of Warlock of Firetop Mountain so the boy looks excited and grateful, but, so far, it's really dull. So many bits where it's just directions.

[Vodkafone]

I was ill recently and couldn't muster enough brains for Disco Elysium so played City of Thieves on the Steam instead. It's really something, the way these have been imprinted on my memory. It was all so comfortingly familiar. When I got to the end and you have to choose one pairing of the three ingredients, I could remember the correct one and got it straight way - this is about 40 years later.

[madhair60]

My brother-in-law has loads of these in his loft and has said he'll donate them all to my son when we visit next week. Quite excited to see how much I can get for them on eBay he enjoys them. I got a new copy of Warlock of Firetop Mountain so the boy looks excited and grateful, but, so far, it's really dull. So many bits where it's just directions.

has he got Magehunter and if so can I buy it and I'm not joking. it is the only one i don't have :(

[holyzombiejesus]

has he got Magehunter and if so can I buy it and I'm not joking. it is the only one i don't have :(

I'll find out on Tuesday.

[Magnum Valentino]

Just highlighting my investment as an onlooker here. Really hope this works out well for everyone.

[dry_run]

I got given City of Thieves as a prize at junior school in about 1988. Had a proper book plate in it an everything. Wish I still had it.

Real shame about the illustrations - kids reading the reprints aren't getting the proper books really. But I guess it's a rights nightmare.

I swear I also got City of Thieves as a prize at primary school around that time.

[BritishHobo]

My first ever internet forum was the official Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks forum, when they started doing the new editions in the early noughties. I was called ZagorLegend and (being about 10) genuinely pissed off several adult users by always typin lyk dis n askin helo has any1 red the 4est of doom??? I didn't know any better, sue me. I remember there was a Flash game where you played the Creature of Havoc in a little 2D platformer, and they had a fanclub you could sign up to where the welcome pack included some cool purple dice, which I doubtless lost within about a week of receiving them.

The Sorcery! series was the best. I got so impatient waiting for them to reprint the third and fourth (although Wikipedia tells me they all came out in the space of a year) that I absolutely wore out the first two, learning every single possible route and trick you could take, including a sneaky cheat in the second one that meant you could basically win infinite money by repeatedly playing a certain casino game. I keep seeing the first book in a local board game shop and getting very tempted to pick it up and start that journey again. Obviously I junked my entire (reprinted edition) collection at some point, like an absolute chump.

[holyzombiejesus]

Just highlighting my investment as an onlooker here. Really hope this works out well for everyone.

Been thinking how I'd like to post "Madhair, I have something for you. PM me your address." and then send him a postcard saying 'My brother-in-law didn't have Magehunter, sorry.'

[madhair60]

that would be quite funny. another option is to simply give me £400.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I'm not sure if I ever read/played any of the stories, but I remember having a book explaining all the creatures that I enjoyed reading. My favourite was the one with an octopus for a head and a talent for gourmet cooking.

I found it.


Look at him there.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've dreamed three times since this thread has started that I've found a copy of Scorpion Swamp out and about. Not gonna happen is it.

I'm a bit confused, it's £3.99 for that site, and it's on ebay for under a tenner, I haven't read the full thread but is there a reason for not getting a cheap one second hand?

Also: When in Fordbidden Planet on Thursday I bought Ian Livngstone's Freeway Fighter The Graphic Novel for 99p, which was a bargain I was very happy with... Until I found out it was actually written by Andi Ewington and with art from Simon Coleb, and it's a very slight story with not much dialogue about the origin of the car from Freeway Fighter. The art is great but I read it really quickly and couldn't say I'd recommend it unless you get it for the same price that I did.

[Pranet]

I found it.


Look at him there.

The intelligence stats in that book were all over the shop. Average-Low? Low like a bloody horse? This guy wears clothes and understands how to use a ladle. (I've still got my copy, I at some point got rid of the gamebooks but kept this and Titan).

[Catalogue Trousers]

Just because...the covers of the two Forbidden Gateway books. Did I mention that I loved these two?

[Russ L]

there was a Flash game where you played the Creature of Havoc in a little 2D platformer,

Out of all of the possible ones to pick...

[madhair60]

Just because...the covers of the two Forbidden Gateway books. Did I mention that I loved these two?

ooh, i had that first one; sort of a more lovecraftian business wasn't it.

[Catalogue Trousers]

ooh, i had that first one; sort of a more lovecraftian business wasn't it.

Yeah. As I think that I've already said, very Lovecraft meets Indiana Jones. Recurring characters, evocative writing, and a willingness not to water down the scary stuff for the wee ones. Marvellous.

Spoiler alert

There's a particularly nasty bad ending in, I think, the second book. Not horribly supernatural or gory, just plain stone cold. In short, you get accidentally blasted to death by your mentor friend's trusty 12-bore as he mistakes you in the half-light for an attacker. Ouch.

[close]

[bomb_dog]

Bought a boxed set of the first ten FFs from a car boot sale on Sunday for a tenner. Looking forward to finding some time to get stuck in.

[studpuppet]

My brother is a few years older than me, and tried (unsuccessfully) to get me playing D&D - we played for a morning and I think by lunchtime I hadn't even managed to get through the first door. Anyway he bought me Warlock Of Firetop Mountain as a gateway drug, but I discovered that was the level I wanted to engage at, and so had most of them growing up.
When Sorcery! came out I got the first edition, which came with the spell book separately in a slipcase. Was always a bit annoyed that the rest of the series had the Fighting Fantasy livery splashed all over them, as it spoiled the look.

[Gurke and Hare]

Hang on, there were two different Steve Jacksons? FMH.

[Shaxberd]

Hang on, there were two different Steve Jacksons? FMH.

Yeah, that astonished me when I found that out too.

Brit Steve Jackson - Fighting Fantasy, Sorcery!, cofounder of Games Workshop

Yank Steve Jackson - GURPS, Munchkin, confusingly also wrote a few books for Fighting Fantasy without any indication he wasn't the Steve Jackson usually named on the cover

[BritishHobo]

Not sure I ever actually finished The Crown of Kings. I remember resorting to getting the old edition of The Seven Serpents but not reading/playing much of it because I was too angry it wasn't the same as the really modern cutting-edge editions I was used to. Weighing up whether to buy Sorcery! 1, or to do it properly and (re)start with Firetop Mountain.

[Theoretical Dentist]

Brit Steve Jackson - Fighting Fantasy, Sorcery!, cofounder of Games Workshop

Yank Steve Jackson - GURPS, Munchkin, confusingly also wrote a few books for Fighting Fantasy without any indication he wasn't the Steve Jackson usually named on the cover

They were always pretty shitty about crediting the writers other than British Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, at least in the original editions, not sure about reissues. Their names weren't on the front covers so I imagine a lot of readers didn't realise that most of the books weren't written by those two. Books written by the two Steve Jacksons looked different, but not in a way that would mean much if you didn't know there were two Steve Jacksons. The ones writen solely by the British Steve Jackson just had his name on the cover, and similarly Ian Livingtone's solo books had just his name. The ones by other writers, including the American Steve Jackson, had 'Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone present', or just 'Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone' in some editions, and you had to look inside to see the writer's name. I think The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was the only one that was actually co-written by Jackson and Livingstone, but most of the others looked like they were.

[DoesNotFollow]

I remember having House of Hell and loved the artwork and feeling it gave me looking at it, even though I never properly played it.

I picked up a FF book at the book exchange counter in the shopping centre the other day, partly inspired by this thread and as 'research' for a game idea I've had knocking about in my head.

(If you're interested I see it as sort of visual novel/point 'n' click/dungeon crawler/fighting fantasy mash-up, despite have little experience with any of those genres, beside point 'n' clicks. I've got a fairly solid vision of how I'd want the game to look and certain set-pieces, but the actually plotting and mechanics I'm still stumped by at the moment).

[Magnum Valentino]

Still have my copy of House of Hell that I stole from the Academy library.

Yes I went to a school called "the Academy". It wasn't A "the academy".