Fighting Fantasy Books: Dice, Pencil & A Paperback Book
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Fighting Fantasy is a series of books created mover 30 years ago by the founders of Games Workshop Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The books were a series of single-player role-play game-books, first published by Puffin in 1982. The seed that spawned the Fighting Fantasy range was planted when a representative of the publisher Penguin visited a gaming event back in 1980. "They were fascinated by a hall jam-packed with 5,000 people playing Dungeons & Dragons," according to Ian Livingstone, "They asked us to write a book about the hobby of role-playing." Wanting to create something more both Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone convinced Penguin of the concept that would become the phenomena Fighting Fantasy. The first book in the series was The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, which was published in 1982 by Penguin's children's side called Puffin. The uniqueness of the series was that they were fantasy novels that included a role-playing element, in which players made choices as to the direction the story would take. Giving them an element of control over the story, the caption on many of the covers claimed each title was an adventure "in which YOU are the hero!" The majority of the titles followed a fantasy theme, although science fiction, post-apocalyptic, super-hero, and modern horror also featured in subsequent publications. Most of the early books being written by Ian Livingstone.
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The books contained story segments (around 300-400 per book), that were presented in a non-linear way. Players would start by throwing six-sided dice to create the statistics of their character (Skill, Stamina and Luck). These would be used in the combat system of the books, when the player came across other characters during the narrative or to test the players luck in certain situations. A typical Fighting Fantasy game involved players completing a quest, making choices at the end of segments, which lead them to other segments of in the book. If successful the player usually completed the quest by reaching the final numbered segment of the book. Many of the books only had one solution path, and in some of the books the quest could only be completed if the player had obtained various items along the way.
The nature of the books lead to many young players cheating, by turning back to the previous segment if the outcome of their choice wasn't favourable. Of fudging dice rolls, in order to beat an enemy or faking luck rolls. Even though this was cheating, it didn't detract from the players immersing themselves in the adventures of the books. Kids everywhere in the 80s could be found with their heads buried in a Fighting Fantasy book, and a finger stuck in the pages, marking a past decision branch they may want to return to. |
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There were 59 books in the original series, beginning with The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain (Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone, 1982) and concluding with Curse of the Mummy (Jonathan Green, 1995). During the early to mid-80s, the Fighting Fantasy series was massively popular. Especially the first half-a-dozen of so of the earliest titles from 1982 to 1984. However as video gaming became more and more popular, their was a decline in their popularity by the 1990s. The series was scheduled to conclude with the 50th book Return To Firetop Mountain (Livingstone, 1992). However the series showed a resurgence in popularity, and so it was decided to carry on for another ten books. Nine of the additional ten were published, the original series ending finally with the Curse of the Mummy (1995). The 10th title in the additional books and the 60th "lost" book of the original Puffin series Bloodbones, was eventually published by Wizard Books in 2006. Wizard Books gained the publishing rights to series in 2002, and have continued to republish the original Fighting Fantasy titles, as well as some new stories. However many purists only want to own the books from the original Puffin 59. And even geekier purists like myself, only collect Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone titles, especially the earliest what I refer to as the first "magical 7".
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In addition to the Fighting Fantasy books a range of other interactive games were developed from the them. Magazines, role-playing games, board games, computer games and the infamous F.I.S.T (Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone). Most recently some of the books have been released as iOS apps.
Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone (F.I.S.T.) were a series of UK telephone-based games launched by Steve Jackson in 1988 through the company Computerdial. F.I.S.T was a dramatised version of the book concept, where the player would make choices by pressing the keys on their touch-dial phone. Players would buy a starter pack, by sending a stamped-self-addressed envelope to the game makers. They could then register, and create a character over the phone, which they were able to save. Fighting Fantasy Computer Games were released between 1984 and 1987, primarily of the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum, although later titles were also released on the Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. The first three releases in 1984 being computer game versions of the first three books, The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, The Citadel Of Chaos and The Forest Of Doom. These three were the only released from Puffin themselves, the games that followed after were licensed to Adventuresoft. The first release The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, was an "arcade" style top-down maze game. Most notably the maze scrolled in all four directions and randomly generated each time. The subsequent games were "adventure" style games. Again for geek purists like myself only the first three games belong in any collection. |
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