"BBC article on Fighting Fantasy books" Topic

This is certainly what got me into RPGs and, in turn, wargaming.

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Oh man, I remember them! They were awesome!
I also remember when Miniature Wargames contained an article that was in the same style based on the battle of Isandlwana and you had to fight your way out as a British infantryman.

Me too, great days!

Does any one els remember the one that was impossible to finnish ?

Great article. I still have my copy of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.
A couple of years ago, one publisher rereleased the classic "Choose Your Own Adventure" series for kids. I know the same was done for the Fighting Fantasy series, but once again they appear to be OOP, except as apps (which, I admit, is an ideal approach). It'd be nice to see them re-rereleased!

Knight of St John@ I had one called creature of Havoc that I could never finish though looking at wiki this might be why?

An unusual element found in the book is a pendant, which the player is supposed to use when the reference starts "You find yourself". Reference 213 starts "You reach" but you still need to add 20 in order to complete the gamebook. Several Fighting Fantasy fans have suggested that this is no error, and was in fact a deliberate attempt by Jackson to force the player to think outside the instructions given on the page, possibly the only gamebook to give such a choice.

I enjoyed the Choose Your Own Adventure series that came out after I was already well into AD&D. The series was a lot of fun, and I recently picked up most of them for 50 cents a book at a store that had them stacked in the back of the young adult section. I read a few of them again, but mostly I got them for the sake of nostalgia.

I fondly remember books like those back in the day. At first I thought they were talking about the books where you had a character and your opponent had a different book with and you chose different moves and compared them. Anyone remember those or even know what I'm talking about??

Kidbanans, I did not play them, and I do not remember the names, but yes I know what you are talking about.

My daughter, an English teacher uses the books to teach under-performing children to read. She tells me that me old collection of Fighting Fantasy books have opened the eyes of many non-readers or poor readers at her school.

Tony

kidbananas I think you're referring to the Lost Worlds series of books, which had illustrations of what things looked like from your opponent's perspective – you chose combat maneuvers and compared them on a matrix to see which page to turn to next. System was originally developed for WWI flying combat (Ace of Aces iirc).

I enjoyed the Fighting Fantasy books but preferred the Lone Wolf books and Steve Jackson's 'Sorcery' series more as they were a little more in depth (both the story and the rules) than the FF books.

While I have fond memories (and full collections) of Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, Grail Quest and Sorcery!, the best series of gamebooks I've come across has to be Fabled Lands. You could adventure across the surface of a continent and surrounding seas, moving from book to book. You could purchase homes, move into a castle, buy a ship and become a merchant, take part in a civil war, there were so many possibilities.

The first 6 books (of an unfinished series of 12) are back in print and available from Amazon. I highly recommend the series.

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At first I thought they were talking about the books where you had a character and your opponent had a different book with and you chose different moves and compared them. Anyone remember those or even know what I'm talking about??

Those might be TSR's "1 on 1 Adventure Gamebooks." I recently acquired two unopened examples— Castle Arcania and Battle for the Ancient Robot.

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Those books are still a lot of fun.

If you look on line at Fighting Fantasy Project, many of these appear to be available to download as .doc files, free of charge.

This coming Sunday there is a Fighting Fantasy Fest being held in London. Bit pricey though.