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A Fighting Fantasy Journey
Book Two: The Citadel of Chaos
My two versions of Steve Jacksons Citadel of Chaos. An interesting second book that expands on the rules by adding spells. Something that Jackson used in his Sorcery series and is a good adition to the rules. I prefer the original cover by Ian Miller that reminds me of his work on old school warhammer and just screams chaos. In this adventure we play an apprentice wizard from the Vale of Yore, one of those nice parts of Allansia we never get to visit. We never go anywhere nice. This time we have to enter the Citadel to assainate Balthus Dire a sorcerer who according to background fluff trained with Zagor the Warlock. He also killed his own father and took the citadel and began raising an army. So at least Dire has bad intentions and needs to be stopped.
Balthus Dire is a bit of a mix of warrior and sorcerer and as we can see he plans his world conquest with model soldiers on a table. So he cant be all bad. He has a bit more of a life than the usual evil sorcerer being a married man who spends most of his time smoking strange weed and communing with odd creatures in the spirit world.
There are some interesting maps of the citadel out there with good rpg level detail. This one is nice and simple. The Citadel is inhabited by all sorts of chaotic creatures and Jackson has a hint of horror with his creatures. Like the Ganjees who are floating heads from the spirit world and the odd wheelies who are discs with faces and hands. A set of minis exist for them but I havent got them yet. One character you meet is a woman doing the laundry as even monsters need their clothes cleaning. Turns out she is a ghost as Balthus Dire killed her for not doing a good job and now cleans forever.
The Atlantis Miniatures version of Dire who is a bit stiff in the shoulders for me.
The older Otherworld Miniature captures Russ Nicholsons art style in my opinion.
Great project! These were the books that got me reading as a boy. I stumbled across The Forest of Doom in the school library and was captivated. Led me into gaming, so Livingstone and Jackson have a lot to answer for.
As it happens, my parents were clearing out their loft a couple of weeks back and pulled out most of my old FF books, so I might do the same as you and re-read them all!
I agree. I think they did a good job getting boys to read. There is a few in my collection I never read as I got them as an adult so looking forward to seeing how they go
If you have the whole collection… you are a very lucky person! I’ve got a load of original 1st Editions from my youth and many more since… but some titles that I’d like to read are only offered frustratingly at such exorbitant prices on eBay. I now just look in charity shops as I’d much prefer to give them my money at a fair price… ??
Yeah I’m missing a couple and your right about the stupid prices and it’s strangely for the worse books because they had a very short print run
I like the way you’ve tied this project into miniatures painting as well… perhaps you can look at proxy miniatures to represent some key characters as you progress? Looking forward to seeing how this progresses… ?
You’ve made me now go and pull out all my old FF books to re-read over the Festive Period… inspirational or what! ??? My list in no particular order: Fighting Fantasy Game Books The Warlock of Firetop Mountain – EIGHTH FAVOURITE The Citadel of Chaos – NINE FAVOURITE The Forest of Doom – FIFTH FAVOURITE City of Thieves x2 Deathtrap Dungeon – FAVOURITE OF ALL TIME Island of the Lizard King – TENTH FAVOURITE Scorpion Swamp – THIRD FAVOURITE Caverns of the Snow Witch House of Hell Sword of the Samurai Crypt of the Sorcerer Legend of the Shadow Warriors… Read more »
That blacksand was a steal. And such a good book to.
Yeah, I felt very guilty about paying only 40p but the charity shop volunteer said that’s the price and I offered to pay more because I realised it’s value, but instead I ended up buying other things I didn’t really need just to make sure the charity didn’t really lose out!