Witch Magazine

From 1984 to 1986, the official Fighting Fantasy magazine Warlock published thirteen issues, each containing a miniature adventure gamebook. One of these was a reproduction of the first title in the FF range, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, split over the first two issues, and issues 2 and 3 also featured shorter, 'demo' versions of two books that were about to be published: the ninth book, Caverns of the Snow Witch by Ian Livingstone, and the tenth, House of Hell.

As you can see from the above links, I've already gotten posts out of the magazine versions of Firetop Mountain and House of Hell, but the preview of Caverns that was published in the magazine is much less interesting, because it is literally just the full-length adventure chopped in half (well, 190 sections); the editorial for that issue states that the book effectively contains a second mini-adventure right after the one that was originally in the magazine. Nevertheless, there are one or two things worth noting, so I may as well complete the set.

The magazine's version has illustrations done by Duncan Smith, who also provided the illustrations for the eighth FF book, Scorpion Swamp, and the confusingly-titled Fighting Fantasy (an introduction to tabletop gaming using a similar gameplay system to the one the solo FF gamebooks used). For the full-length book, released around two months later, these were entirely replaced with illustrations by Gary Ward and Edward Crosby, which have a unique and rather interesting woodcut aesthetic; this would be their only FF commission.

The Yeti, in all its 'woodcut aesthetic' glory.

The original Puffin publications of Caverns and House of Hell had a small note on the copyright page reading "A short version of [this adventure] was first published in WARLOCK magazine, 1984". When both books were reprinted by Wizard Books in 2002 this notice was missing from House, but was still present in Caverns. Who can fathom why.

I know I mentioned it a few paragraphs back, but yes, the magazine's version of Caverns really is just the first half of the full-length version, even though it ends with the titular Snow Witch getting killed by the intrepid adventurer; in the book, instead of leaving the caverns in triumph, you meet up with an elf and a dwarf formerly enslaved by the witch who become your companions for the second half of the adventure and begin actually making your way out of the caverns. Partway through you have to deal with the Snow Witch again, as whilst you destroyed her body her spirit still survives, and then you discover that whilst in the caverns you accidentally read a scroll inscribed with a Death Spell left by the witch as a trap; the last chunk of the book is taken up with finding a cure for the curse before it kills you. The adventure started in the first place with you agreeing to hunt down and kill a Yeti for the merchant Big Jim Sun in exchange for a bounty of 50 Gold Pieces, and it's only in the process of that you discover there's a Snow Witch planning to take over the world and all, so the endgame of trying to escape the Snow Witch's multiple revenges from beyond the grave aren't quite as disjointed or obviously bolted on as you might think.

One of the items you need to cure the Death Spell is a dragon's egg; there is a storeroom in the first half of the adventure where you can find "four large round eggs" in the magazine, which are specified as being dragon eggs in the book. All of the other items required to cure the Death Spell, and indeed to defeat the Snow Witch in your second encounter with her, are only found in the book-only half of the adventure (and even the egg is not strictly necessary, it just makes one encounter slightly easier). The section numbers have been jumbled up so it isn't just the case that 1-190 are the magazine half and 191-400 is the new material, but there's really not many differences here.

One interesting thing is that the short version technically has two successful ways to complete the game, although one is obviously preferable. After killing the Snow Witch you then have to fight a Sentinel which has been left to guard her treasure. The magazine has the exclusive extra option of fleeing after three Attack Rounds:

You glance back and see the Sentinel walk over to the sarcophagus. He picks up the lid and smashes it on the floor. You feel a tremor underfoot and the mountain shudders. Cracks appear in the ceiling and rocks start to fall. The whole cavern complex is beginning to collapse.

You are then directed to Test your Luck. Should you be Unlucky, the network of tunnels collapses both in front and behind you. You are trapped and there is no escape. You have defeated the Snow Witch but she has had her revenge. If you are Lucky you get the technically-victorious ending: You run for your life as the network of tunnels collapses behind you. The Snow Witch is defeated but her treasure will remain with her for ever. Outside, it is snowing again: you descend the mountain feeling thwarted. At least you can go back to Big Jim Sun and collect the 50 Gold Piece reward for killing the Yeti.

In the book, you have to fight the Sentinel to the death whether you like it or not, and you can then pillage the Snow Witch's treasure before starting to find your way out of the cavern; you can take a maximum of 600 Gold Pieces, but for every 50 Gold Pieces you take you will have to leave behind one item of equipment (the correct thing to do is to limit your looting to just 50 Gold Pieces, so you will have enough to buy an item that will help you stave off the Death Spell later on). In the magazine, should you kill the Sentinel the adventure ends thusly with the last bit of mag-exclusive text:

The guardian of the Snow Witch’s treasure is slain and you are free to help yourself to her riches. You take all that you can carry. With the Snow Witch killed, her followers will now be able to remove their obedience collars and return to their homes. You leave the caverns and walk outside. It is snowing again but you do not care as you joyfully descend the mountain. You will not have to work for Big Jim Sun any more, but you decide to collect the 50 Gold Piece reward from him for killing the Yeti anyway. After all, a deal is a deal.

* * *

Although Caverns and Hell were the only full-length books to have preview versions in the magazine, issue 10 featured the 200-reference Rogue Mage by Graeme Davis, which had an interesting gimmick of being playable using both Fighting Fantasy and Dungeons & Dragons rulesets. Six years later, this adventure was adapted for the Fighting Fantasy 10th Anniversary Yearbook, a book which styled itself as "part diary, part gamebook"; one section appeared at the bottom of each page. This iteration of the adventure stripped out the D&D references, and the text was shortened in some places to fit, but is otherwise identical to the one in the magazine.

Many of the other mini-adventures were written by competition winners, and the one in issue 6 has a bizarre moment of copyright infringement by having the Macra from Doctor Who appear as a monster encounter. Several others are of note: Deadline to Destruction from the penultimate issue styled itself as a sequel to Appointment with F.E.A.R., using the same player character and unique rules as that book, and Ruth Pracy became the first female author of an in-any-way-authorised Fighting Fantasy story some 34 years before Rhianna Pratchett wrote a full-length book in the series when she wrote a trilogy of linked mini-adventures for the magazine -- the last of which was actually published in the short-lived gaming magazine Proteus when Warlock was cancelled before it could be finished! The magazine also featured campaign modules for tabletop gaming, often written by "official" Fighting Fantasy authors.

Clearly, however, the best thing ever to appear in Warlock magazine was the series of articles on painting gaming miniatures which were entitled "Paint Your Dragon".