A Fighting Fantasy Journey
Recommendations: 1171
About the Project
The Fighting fantasy series had to be my first step into gaming as a child. Growing up in a computer free 80s household the books gave me an escape from the norm before little men came along. After years of neglect I went back to my original collection and went on a mission to complete it. In this project I will be looking at each book and seeing if they were as good as I remember. I have also picked up some of the official Fighting Fantasy minis from Atlantis Miniatures and painting them up to go with my book collection.
Related Game: Fighting Fantasy
Related Genre: Fantasy
This Project is Active
Book thirty one: Battleblade warrior
This is one of my favourite books in the series. It clips along at a good pace and opens with our hero breaking out of a siege. The city if Vymorna has been besieged for 6 years by lizard men. As the son of the Queen only you (of course) can go in search of a magic sword that can save your people. I like the work of the author Marc Gascoigne such as the work he did in advanced fighting fantasy. The interior art by Alan Langford is a nice nod to island of the lizard King so he stamped his mark on lizard men who have a different look to the stuff we get now for fantasy lizard folk
We get a nice map of the landscape as we leave the city in search of the ruins where the sword is hidden and details the southern areas of Allansia 
At the start of the adventure we get to choose how to escape the besieged city. Fight our way out which is a waste of lives but fun. Sneak through the lines or take a boat. This gives us options to replay this book to see how these options play out
Ding dong
A bushtucker trial
Book thirty: chasms of malice
Written by Luke Sharp this book seems to have a lot going for it. Cover by Les Edwards and interior art by Russ Nicholson two of the greats. Unfortunately I found the book rather dull and a little confusing and when I hit a maze section I rapidly lost interest. I hate mazes. We head off underground to stop the bady Orghuz from rising up with his hordes. Of course your the only one who can stop him as the only living descendant of a legendary hero. At the start of the book you work in the kitchen as third assistant rabbit skinner. Obviously you have the combat skills to fight through a chasm and win the day
Always good to have a map but you spend all your time underground 
Some additions to the adventure sheet. We have a cat that lives in our hood that helps us out. We also have sidekicks to the villain that can be found and killed 
I love the detail of Nicholsons art and his warty orcs ang goblins are my favourite dort of gobo. I couldn't complete this adventure and I have to admit to giving as it didn't grab me despite the art.
Book twenty nine: Midnight Rogue
I have fond memories of Midnight Rogue from childhood. I was drawn to the idea of playing a Rogue character who is a thief going through an initiation to join the thieves guild. It was also great to revisit port blacksand one of the best locations in Allansia. Written by Graeme Davis who worked on warhammer fantasy role play and I get that feel playing this game. We have to choose sone thief skills and limited by how much we can stash in our swag bag.Artist John sibbick does the cover and interior art and captures the atmosphere very well. We slso get to see our hero on the cover
We are sent on a mission to find the eye of the Basilisk a rare gem owned by a merchant named brass who pops up in the book Blacksand. I guess this book hasn't been reprinted in recent years because we don't want kids aspiring to be burglars like I wanted to be
We get to explore the city and we get a map to search for clues to discover the gems location 
Jib jib a living alarm. There is a mini available of this which I need
Not the old snake in the lick trick. I love seeing your own hands on lots of images trying to steal things. Sneaking around people's houses is a great change from hacking your way round a dungeon 
We still get a bit of a dungeon crawl to reach the gem. 
No cheating in this game....not that I was...honestBook twenty eight: Phantoms of Fear
In my opinion the best of Robin Waterfields books helped by the brilliant art of Ian Miller. We play an elf Prince who sets off into the woods defeat Ishra the demon Prince. I remember the cover freaking me out as a child and it put me off playing the book. The game has some interesting features such as entering your own dreams and at the end of the adventure you can flip from the real to the dream world. Millers art perfectly captures that dream state although it makes it hard to distinguish the real world from the dream when it's all so weird 
Israel has the appearance of a medieval demon which is interesting and he's poisoning the forest. Despite this we set off on our quest without provisions thinkingvwe can live off the land. Silly elf ends up starving. We get a choice of how to tackle the main villain, either in the real world or the dream world giving us interesting options 
I good tradition we get a potential companion Eric Rune-Axe who went mad trying to get out of the maze of Zagor. I know the feeling. As always this companion dies.
My favourite moment was meeting the cook. You can disguise yourself as a Dark Elf and sit in the guard room eating dinner. You find human remains in the pot and end up throwing up. I found the adventure to be more fun than I was expecting. There were some odd bits, but it felt like a classic quest to me. Helped by some classic artBook twenty seven: Star Strider
Back to a sci-fi with Lyke Sharps star strider although I don't understand the title. You play a rogue tracer who is a bounty hunter. It feels like someone didn't like that as a title. The cover by Alan Craddock also feels disjointed. Its from a very minor encounter and it feels as if the cover was done first and it was shoe horned in. At first glance the plot sounds fun with nods to escape from new York. Gromulans have kidnapped the Galactic President and you have to find him. You have so many hours to succeed with a ticking clock mechanic like an episode of 24. We also see the return of the fear stat as the Gromulans use illusions to scare folk. For some reason this book didn't work for me. Despite the race against time there's no sense of urgency 
Set on a future earth we spend a lot of time catching buses. We spend time in Madrid and Rome meeting tribes of hooligans are decended from football supporters. Being in Spain we get robot bulls so some funny moments.
Would you buy a used zip car from this man
Maths, I hate maths. This book seemed to have a lot if it.
The Sci fi art by Gary Mayes is good. I like that some artists fit certain genres. Unfortunately for me the Sci fi books just don't hit the mark. Maybeif they had all beenset in the same universe like most of the fantasy books to give them some continuity.
Book twenty six - crypt of the Sorcerer
Ian livingstone returns with a book that felt to me to be more of a novel in its linear approach. The necromancer Razaak has risen again bringing blight to Allansia. All you have to do is collect a magic sword and the horn of a monster. Because Allansia is well establish now we get our first map on the inside cover and a cast of familiar faces. Yaztromo of dark wood forest returns to send you on a mission and the dwarfs of stonebridge give a helping hand. Great classic cover from les Edwards. I love Razaaks long right arm. There is a mini available for Razaak but he's out of stock at the moment. It's very easy to fail on. This adventure if you don't find certain items and relies on a lot on obtaining paragraph numbers which you can't progress without. Finding a helpful imp creature who you can call on later he gives you his number like he has a mobile on him which made me laugh. The use of numbers for paragraphs takes me out if the adventure when they are required in the world. 
I did like that the quest wasn't dungeon bound. We get to explore the map given us in the book and there are lots of references to previous books such as port blacksand. 
Once again we find companions like symm here and the dwarf Borri. Amazingly they both survive 
I am always suspicious of elf girls hanging from trees but surprisingly it's not a trap 
Nice way to get about. 
There are certain finds in this book that you will need later such as the blood from these chaps. Without it you can't win which makes this book difficult 
Not what you want to see if your in a balloon 
The sword you need to kill Razaak is cursed so if you fail to lift the curse your flesh might drop off like the previous owner
I found it more fun playing now than when I was a kid because I probably found it to hard. I liked having companions and found it funny that I needed to know the dietary requirements of a troll to gain access to the villain. John Sibbicks art is great and I was a fan of his work in the series 
Because the book was second hand it's funny to see what school library it came from. Book twenty five - Beneath Nightmare Castle
This adventure written by Peter Darvill-Evans takes us to the town of Neuburg in Khul. In this dark story we visit our friend Baron Tholdur to find the town under the control of some sinister invading forces trying to reawaken a demonic entity under the castle. We start the adventure being captured and locked up beneath the castle but quickly escape. We then spend some time in the town trying to figure out what's going on before going back into the castle to save the baron and defeat the mysterious villains. The game drops you right in to the adventure with no clue as to what's going on. The game introduces willpower as a star which you have to test to not loose your mind. The feel is very warhammer fantasy with the German sounding names. The cover by Terry Oakes shows a very scary lady with metal nails. In the adventure she's a tragic figure whose been experimented on. 
This book has some dark themes illustrated by Dave Carson 
Yodas grandad pops up
And Vaders twin
One of the dark moments in this story is when you get robbed by urchins and you have to hack them up. Murdering kids in a kids book. 
The tragic reality. The one thing I like about this adventure is the mystery of trying to uncover what's happened in the town and exploring the castle feels like the Escape the Dark Castle game of recent years Book twenty four-Creature of Havoc
Steve Jackson is back with another maze filled puzzle ridden head ache. Creature of Havoc had a classic bit of art by Ian Miller whose work reminds me of classic Realm of chaos. I love his illustration of the necromancer Zharradon Marr. The book itself has a very interesting premise. We play a creature of unknown origin who can't speak and has to discover their true identity as the story progresses. So we play a monster who eats his way through hobbits and any other adventurers who try to kill you 
The original book had a map which the second version lacked and I found it useful during my replay. The intro to this book is 20 pages of background rivaling any rpg. Jackson really fleshes out this section of Allansia and was the perfect backdrop for his later novel the Trolltooh wars. This background gives you clues to your true identity which you later discover in this mammoth book which has 460 instead of the usual 400 paragraphs. 
Your first victim. A tasty dwarf. You spend the first half of the book stuck in a dungeon in able to understand a word that's being said and no way to reason with anyone. Guess you'll just have to kill them all. 
There are some very tricky sections to this book and you get hints to add a number when it's needed to turn to the right paragraph but with little prompting so it's easy to get confused. Dome whole sections such as the village of Dree just lead to certain death no matter what you choose. 
In fighting fantasy tradition you can get an ally. The half orc Grog and in good tradition he dies horribly. The book is interesting but frustrating but stands out as very unique and adds a lot to the lore. 
The mini of Zharradon Marr I for some reason had trouble painting. Perhaps I'm used to the character hiding in a mirror rather than being three dimensional. 
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