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While checking the BBC news app this morning I was surprised to see an image of a Bloodbeast looking at me...all because there's an article about the Fighting Fantasy series:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28865399

Maybe this won't tell people who read the books much they didn't already know, but it's interesting to see that they still inspire conventions. Also surprising to see some of the better-known names who were into them as well.

Half-thought-out reminiscences follow:

The first one of these I read was Talisman of Death and I've still got a big stash of the books...some of them I remember pretty vividly, and I especially enjoyed the ones that took a bit of a step outside the established setting of Titan. Robot Commando was a favourite of mine, being giant robot battles with the occasional dinosaur encounter...also interesting in that it had a "sandbox" layout, where you had a few different cities you could explore and could visit them in any order, swapping your robot for any new ones you found on the way. Speaking of video-game like elements, another book, Chasms of Malice, had "One Strike Combat" which was effectively gamebook QTEs: you had to fight a single round of combat, usually somewhere like a narrow bridge or high cliff, with instant death for the loser. Appointment with FEAR was another one I liked, because it had a present-day superhero setting, though it was pretty hard. Y ou had to choose your superpower at the start, though in certain situations it might be woefully underpowered or you'd be flat-out told it had comically failed. You would also automatically lose the final boss fight after a few rounds If you didn't take a very specific path to obtain an item that would de-power him. That was a common trick in many of the books, I remember now.

So, you could lose without warning, or easily make them unwinnable, and I'm sure everyone who played them at some point cheated by keeping their finger on the previous page. But being reminded of them by this article makes me want to get them out again...

I remember in the early 2000's, my parents bought me a couple of FF books, and I distinctly remember spending hours fighting monsters, running down corridors, and deciding whether or not to jump that chasm for a treasure chest.

Best memory of one was I think "Deathtrap Dungeon", which contained a false ending. I remember walking into the sunlight, facing a bright and colorful crowd of cheering supporters, only to realize that it was an illusion, and I was trapped.

Fun times

Seriously considering constructing a very basic "noob RPG system" out of the book's mechanics.

I found a bunch of these in a draw the other day, I must play through some of them.

My most vivid memory is of passing through a haunted forest with two of three pieces of a Dwarven relic, going back to get the other bit and, thanks to some appalling rolls, getting my head smashed in by a random Giant. And I didn't employ the 'finger on the last page' trick...

It's been years since I read Deathtrap Dungeon, so I can't remember that, but I do remember the part where if you tried to open a certain wooden door it turned out to be a shape-shifting monster that grew a fist and punched you in the face.

Something similar to the false ending trick was in Midnight Rogue, where you encounter a gargoyle (I think). You get a list of options to use against it, and one of them is to use a magical weapon. If you choose this, you go straight to a section that tells you that it's impossible to get a magic weapon this early, so you must have cheated. It then tells you to start all over again - "without cheating this time." Harsh.

The ones with alternate endings that were proper endings, and not just tricks, were pretty uncommon, but always fun if you could find them. There was one of the sci-fi ones, The Rings of Kether, where you had to defeat a crime syndicate based on an asteroid. When you finally got to the asteroid you could go the "proper" route, moving through the different levels and making your way to the end boss, or you could stumble upon the base's power plant and sabotage the reactor, destroying the whole place and winning the game!

For some reason I'm kinda reminded of Shadowgate with some of the tricks those old books used to do...

"When you remove the book from its pedistal, the floor
collapses, and you fall to your death."

(cue picture of the Grim Reaper)

It's a sad thing that your adventures have ended here!!

And what about the books that opened with a fight? Nothing like generating a weak character (or just getting unlucky rolls in the fight) and losing on page 1.

 Fezman wrote:
And what about the books that opened with a fight? Nothing like generating a weak character (or just getting unlucky rolls in the fight) and losing on page 1.

Story of life

Hands up anyone who played through a book without turning back to previous pages when they died.

 Mr. Burning wrote:
Hands up anyone who played through a book without turning back to previous pages when they died.

I did once.

I read four books, multiple times.

 Fezman wrote:
And what about the books that opened with a fight? Nothing like generating a weak character (or just getting unlucky rolls in the fight) and losing on page 1.

Oh yeah, the perils of poor starting rolls. Once, I lost a fight with a Swarm of Bees a few pages in.

Mr. Burning wrote:Hands up anyone who played through a book without turning back to previous pages when they died.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure I ever completed any of them...

If you played properly things could go wrong in an instant. Sometimes just from an instant death choice, but other times from stumbling into a hard encounter.

I mentioned in the OP how Appointment with FEAR would just straight-up tell you you were too weak to defeat the main villain if you hadn't explored properly earlier. And I remember Legend of Zagor, where near the end you had to defeat 10 progressively stronger enemies in one section - before then defeating their boss in the very next one! On a side note I had the tie-in board game for that book, which I now want to winkle out of the loft so I can paint the miniatures .

Night Dragon is probably one of the most liked books, but the final fight is monstrously difficult if you didn't explore and collect the various items to give yourself a chance. That said, failing to explore every nook usually meant you were setting yourself up to fail much later. A book like Armies of Death was built around mass combat and let you recruit more soldiers for this as you travelled, but if you didn't go into the pet shop when you visited the main city and buy the little invisible kangaroo creature, you weren't going to win (it makes sense when you read it).

After seeing this thread http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/606271.page#7041830 on the art of Ian Miller I went out and bought a few of my favorite ones so I could get the nostalgia kick. I died in all four books before I could make the end. I did have a read through afterwards of each, using the finger trick, and made it all the way through, ha ha.

Dead of Night, Seas of Blood, Keep of the Lich Lord and Phantoms of Fear were the ones I got but I had a load, load more back in the day. I have been tempted to go back and get some of the classic ones like Sword of the Samurai and Robot Commando.

Haha, I still have some of these in with my other books.
I liked the space one myself, where you find yourself in an alternative universe and have to get the calculations to head back through the wormhole.

I read these with a friend who was excellent at drawing.
I read and he drew some awesome maps.

Those were the days.

I've got a couple of the background books for this, Titan (which a bit of Googling suggests is still used by some GMs as a game setting in some systems) and Out of the Pit, which was the guide to monsters. By that point most of them I recognised from the books though among the nes I didn't know was the Slime Sucker, probably because of its sheer bizarreness.

Plenty of shops had the normal gamebooks but I always thought that the fluff and "Advanced" books were harder to find. My local library also had loads of them and this was where I found some really fondly remembered titles such as Sword of the Samurai and the excellent Night Dragon...in fact I liked that one so much I might order a copy.

 master of ordinance wrote:
Haha, I still have some of these in with my other books.
I liked the space one myself, where you find yourself in an alternative universe and have to get the calculations to head back through the wormhole.

Starship Traveler? God I loved that one, haven't thought about it in years.

Great article, thanks for that. I absolutely loved all of those books, I think I still have about ten at home.

.. never did complete Warlock of Firetop mountain

anyway might be of interest to Uk readers/people who'll be here in a week or so..

https://www.facebook.com/events/274966572686051/

The first dedicated Fighting Fantasy convention, featuring special guest appearances by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, and the official book launch of You Are The Hero - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, by Jonathan Green.

FF artists Russ Nicholson, Chris Achilleos, Tony Hough, Malcolm Barter, Leo Hartas and John Blanche will also be in attendance, as will Arion Games, Tin Man Games and inkle.

Purchase your ticket today: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/fighting-fantasy-fest-2014-tickets-11436642305

Mr Green has written a few books for BL -- including a few "choose your own adventure " style books -- and is also a top bloke and very personable as it happens


http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fighting-fantasy-fest-2014-tickets-11436642305

not a lot of tickets left.

If anyone does go please do take a few pictures and/or do a report. Ta.

Relating to the above....

http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/fighting-fantasy-you-are-hero-review.html







more pics and thoughts on that blog.

Book looks lovely indeed