The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the inaugural Fighting Fantasy gamebook, was published on 27 August 1982; it was the product of previous discussions with the authors (the owners of Games Workshop) about writing a guide to Dungeons & Dragons, only for them to decide they'd rather make their own fantasy adventure that could be played solo, and it quickly proved a huge success.
The publishers, Penguin Books, wanted more. Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, the co-authors of the volume, decided to go solo for books #2 and #3. This splitting of labour would allow them to produce two books in the same time as the first one, and would also avoid the infamous problem that arose in Warlock: Livingstone wrote the first half and Jackson the second half, and there's an obvious disconnect in the writing styles that jars when you reach Jackson's part (the crossover occurs at the moment you cross the river).
In March 1983, Jackson's The Citadel of Chaos and Livingstone's The Forest of Doom were printed, and quickly joined their predecessor at the top of the children's literature charts. For the fourth and fifth books, the powers that be opted not to tamper with a formula that was obviously working, and Jackson wrote one and Livingstone the other for publication in September '83. Jackson's entry, Starship Traveller, was the first book in the series to go beyond 'swords and sorcery', giving the reader a science fiction themed adventure, whilst Livingstone stayed in the same universe as the other three books for City of Thieves. Meanwhile, Penguin were already looking to expand the brand, and came up with a multi-book epic aimed at older readers (and published under their adult imprint): this was Steve Jackson's Sorcery!, which began in October 1983 with The Shamutanti Hills and would continue with its other three entries in August 1984 and June 1985. The series was set apart by being written for a higher reading level, each volume being significantly larger than the FF books, having very dark artwork inspired by Goya, and a complex spellcasting system (expanded from the one Jackson had used for Citadel).
Livingstone established himself as the more prolific of the series' two creators by writing both of the next two entries in the main range - Deathtrap Dungeon and Island of the Lizard King, which hit the shelves in March 1984. But Penguin had a problem. The series was too popular. It now had its own tie-in magazine, Warlock, the first release in the Advanced Fighting Fantasy range (for Dungeons and Dragons-style multiplayer adventures) had been penned by Jackson, and the first book had now been adapted for a ZX Spectrum game (a board game adaptation would also follow in 1986). The books themselves were selling like hot cakes, and they were inspiring other publishers to come up with their own copycat series. Penguin needed new titles quicker than Jackson and Livingstone could possibly write them. A deal was struck: other authors would be brought in, and their work published under the banner 'Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone present...'
The first of these titles was Scorpion Swamp, published in September 1984 and accompanied by a redesign of the series' covers (introducing the well-known green spines and sword logo). In another piece of infamous trivia, this book was written by an American author by the name of Steve Jackson (also known for GURPS and Munchkin). This resulted in 'Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone present Scorpion Swamp by Steve Jackson', with no indication that the two Jacksons were actually different people. Coming from an outside author, the sojourn into the titular swamp was a deviation from the format of the first seven books: you could choose from one of three different quests to try and complete, and rather than being linear the book allowed you to backtrack and visit the same locations multiple times.
Livingstone was back at the helm for the next title, Caverns of the Snow Witch, which drastically reduced the waiting time between releases: it was on the shelves just one month later, in October '84. The monthly release schedule continued with the UK-Jackson-penned House of Hell, which was another major landmark for the series: it was the only one of the original run to have a contemporary setting, and was also far more puzzle-orientated than any of the previous books, requiring a specific sequence of moves to be performed in a very exact order.
Guest writers were sourced again for December's Talisman of Death, which was the work of Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson, and February 1985's Space Assassin, which marked the range's second foray into science-fiction and was penned by Andrew Chapman. Livingstone was back on writing duties for Freeway Fighter in March 1985, which was his first attempt at something outside the realm of fantasy, being set in a post-apocalyptic, Mad Max-style world. He also wrote the following month's Temple of Terror, which saw him back in more familiar territory.
The rest of 1985 saw the series settle down into an every-other-month release schedule, with a sci-fi title (The Rings of Kether, again by Andrew Chapman, and Robin Waterfield's Rebel Planet), a story which cast you as a murderous pirate rather than a straightforward hero (Seas of Blood, yet another Chapman entry) and the series' only superhero-themed title (Jackson's Appointment with F.E.A.R.) The expanded universe was beginning to, well, expand, with this year also seeing companion releases such as Out of the Pit (a bestiary of the FF universe's monsters, for use in helping you to write your own adventures).
1986 dawned with the American Steve Jackson's aquatic adventure Demons of the Deep, and would continue with Smith and Thomson's oriental-themed Sword of the Samurai, and Ian Livingstone's return to the wildly popular setting of Deathtrap Dungeon, Trial of Champions. American Jackson then made his final contribution with the series' fourth sci-fi story, Robot Commando, and Robin Waterfield wrote Masks of Mayhem. Meanwhile, Titan: The Fighting Fantasy World sought to chronicle the history of the ever-growing universe the books were set in, The Riddling Reaver offered more D&D-style fare, and the special two-book release Clash of the Princes was the first and only two-player Fighting Fantasy adventure (unfortunately let down by the unpopularity of boxed sets with retailers at the time). The best was saved for last, though: Steve Jackson's hugely ambitious Creature of Havoc, casting the player as the mindless beast they would usually fight and boasting a hugely detailed backstory and greatly increased reference count, reminiscent of Jackson's Sorcery! series. However, whilst he undoubtedly ended it on a high, CoH would prove to be Jackson's final Fighting Fantasy book to date.
1987 dawned with a redesign that would last until the series' end, introducing the 'dragon border' and more prominence given to Jackson and Livingstone's names on the cover (with the actual author still only credited on the inside). Ian Livingstone cropped up once, with the notoriously difficult Crypt of the Sorcerer, but the rest of the year belonged to outside writers, with names such as Peter Darvill-Evans and Luke Sharp making their debuts on the range. Livingstone was back in '88 with a follow-up to his two Deathtrap Dungeon books, Armies of Death, and other important names appeared for the first time that year: Paul Mason & Steve Williams with their debut Slaves of the Abyss, and Keith Martin penned Stealer of Souls. 1988 was also notable for marking the end of the science fiction titles, with the... somewhat eccentric Sky Lord being rumoured to be solely responsible for their demise.
It was around this time that the range started seeing a progression towards more complex, mature storytelling than had been seen in the earlier titles; the 'golden' ending for Slaves of the Abyss originally saw the reader's character sacrifice themselves and staying in the titular Abyss so the titular Slaves could escape. However, this ending was vetoed by the publishers and a slightly more 'traditional' happy ending was substituted. Nevertheless, Slaves' writing style was one of the earliest indications of a more 'adult' direction for the series. Gameplay was advancing too, with writers introducing their own mechanics - perhaps the most common was a way of keeping track of time, as seen in the Timesheet from Slaves - you ticked off the timeboxes as the book instructed you to, and if you reached one of the numbered boxes you had to turn to that section. Run out of time before you completed the adventure, and your home was destroyed and you fled the country in shame. Oops. Other common devices included codewords to keep track of certain events, and secret references allowing the player to take an option not directly given by the text.
1989 saw a dramatic cut in the number of titles published per year, with an erratic schedule: new books were released in February, March, July and November. There was plenty else for fans to enjoy, though: the first ever Fighting Fantasy Novel, The Trolltooth Wars, was published, seeking to expand the backstory of Titan and some of the previous gamebooks, and the Advanced Fighting Fantasy range was revived with Dungeoneer.
The nineties dawned, and the series started to get quieter, with only three new titles seeing publication in 1990. They were of a high quality, however, with the writers continuing to offer more sophisticated stories and gameplay; the high point was probably Black Vein Prophecy, notable for being the only story which threw you straight in without any introduction (not even rolling up your statistics first!) as the player character started out unaware of their own identity. Another Advanced Fighting Fantasy title, Blacksand!, and the Fighting Fantasy Poster Book, quelled fans a little; it was a similar state of affairs in 1991, with three new titles added to the main range and the second novel, Demonstealer, joining them.
1992 would be different, though; it was the series' 10th anniversary, and no fewer than five new gamebooks appeared in the main series (with entries such as The Crimson Tide continuing to set the standard for mature storytelling and complex gameplay), alongside another novel, Shadowmaster, and the 10th Anniversary Yearbook. The cherry on the cake was the fiftieth title in the series, Return to Firetop Mountain, a direct sequel to the very first book and the first Fighting Fantasy book written by Ian Livingstone in four years. This was originally intended to end the series, but interest perked up thanks to Penguin's special attention in the anniversary year and more books were commissioned.
That reprieve couldn't last forever, though. Nine more books were published in the main range between 1993 and 1995, and all but two of them were by the same two people. One of those two was Jonathan Green, an important name in the series' history making its debut as the original run came to an end; the other was stalwart Keith Martin. Notably, the third book in the Firetop Mountain saga, Legend of Zagor, was written by Martin but credited to Ian Livingstone; Livingstone had planned to write it himself but ran out of time, and Martin ended up serving as his ghostwriter. (LoZ would also receive the series' second boardgame adaptation.) How little the book resembled any of Livingstone's usual work was quickly noted by fans, who created a running joke that Livingstone had taken the credit for the book from Martin and then buried him in his back garden. The truth did not finally emerge until 2014 (in You Are the Hero, a history of the series much better than this one). A final Advanced Fighting Fantasy book was also released in 1994, and four more novels - a series known as The Zagor Chronicles, again written by Martin but credited to Livingstone - were published, and Ian Livingstone wrote a series aimed at younger readers, The Adventures of Goldhawk. But as 1995 came to an end, Penguin decided something had to be done. They felt the recent entries in the series had become too complex and obscure, that younger readers might have been alienated by some of the directions the series had gone in, and they wanted simpler adventures cut down from 400 references to just 300. The idea of including electronic dice with the books was mooted. A relaunch was certainly planned - indeed, the first book for this new era of Fighting Fantasy, Jonathan Green's Bloodbones, was fully written and completed... but then the plug was pulled. October 1995, and the release of #59 Curse of the Mummy, was the end. Bloodbones was left in limbo, as were several other titles that were in development such as Marc Gascoigne's Night of the Creature and Paul Mason's The Wailing World.
Seven years passed. (The series remained in print in France throughout its UK hiatus, for some reason, and Deathtrap Dungeon was loosely adapted as a video game in 1998, but otherwise it looked like the series was over for good.) And then, in 2002, an independent publisher by the name of Icon Books was on the lookout for some new titles for its children's imprint, Wizard. Enter Fighting Fantasy, with shiny new covers for the old books. Wizard proceeded to reprint each and every one of the books originally written by Jackson and/or Livingstone (perhaps controversially, including Legend of Zagor, still credited to Livingstone), also reprinting the Sorcery! series as part of the main range. After three years, during which they'd reissued pretty much all of the books they could, it finally occurred to someone that a totally new book might be a good idea, and Ian Livingstone produced his first new gamebook in over a decade, 2005's Eye of the Dragon. Then they started reaching out to authors from the original series other than its creators, and one of those was Jonathan Green, and that led to Bloodbones finally seeing the light of day in 2006, now rewritten at the 400 references its author had always intended. Green also proceeded to write another totally new adventure, the much-acclaimed Howl of the Werewolf, which was released in 2007 for the series' 25th anniversary alongside a special hardback edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, featuring bonus content such as Livingstone's original drafts of the very first sections.
However, sales were proving problematic, and Wizard opted to rest things for two years before launching a relaunch of their relaunch, with more new covers (in a new, larger format) and other changes designed to make the books more accessible (such as putting the instructions at the back of the book so readers could get straight to the adventure, and providing several pregenerated player characters with backstories and statistics already prepared). Jonathan Green continued to pen innovative new adventures alongside the reprints, giving us the hugely popular Stormslayer and Night of the Necromancer; these adventures, like Howl before them, did wonders for the format by giving the player a large number of optional sidequests and multiple ways of fighting the book's endgame. These took us up to 2012, and the 30th anniversary, which saw the first new book by Ian Livingstone in seven years, Blood of the Zombies. Aside from being the first contemporary adventure since House of Hell, it also went for a special standalone cover (distinct from the reprints), using the green spine and original logo. By this point the series had started to dip its toe into the world of computer games much further (and better) than it had before, with electronic versions of some of the books, as well as Inkle's significantly more ambitious adaptation of the Sorcery! series, and before long the place to go for new stories where you were the hero wasn't your local bookshop, but your Steam app. Jonathan Green published his outstanding reference work on the series, You are the Hero, in 2014, but it seemed like the series' time in physical format was finally up.
But in 2017, the series was to resurface on paper with Scholastic, just in time for the 35th anniversary. There were more reprints, which - in a controversial move - replaced the original interior art with new illustrations designed to appeal to the new generation. There was, of course, a brand new adventure by Livingstone in the first wave of releases, the nostalgia-heavy The Port of Peril (also available in a deluxe hardback format, limited to just 500 individually numbered copies). The second wave, due out shortly after this article's publication date, is set to feature the first new gamebook written by someone other than Livingstone or Green since 1995, and has scored a bit of a coup by having that person be Charlie Higson, who's collaborating with Green on The Gates of Death. And further down the line, we may even have a new book from Steve Jackson. The British one. The computer games continue, with the 35th anniversary seeing the release of Fighting Fantasy Legends, a game set across all of Allansia and incorporating multiple elements of the series' mythology. Graphic novels based on The Trolltooth Wars and Freeway Fighter have also been released, as has a second volume of You Are the Hero, with a book on the history of Games Workshop also in the works. The first ever Fighting Fantasy convention was successfully held. The series has even dipped its toes into the world of audio drama, with an adaptation of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain starring Toby Longworth as Zagor. After years of inactivity and uncertainty over its future, the franchise now has perhaps its highest profile in decades.
Fighting Fantasy has now persisted over 35 years, multiple generations, three publishers and nearly 100 different books. May its STAMINA never fail.
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