Fight! Fight! Fight!

In March 1983, the very third Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Forest of Doom, was published in the UK.

I'm aware it's a story I've told several times now, but the range's co-creators, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, had jointly written the first book in the series, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, which was an instant bestseller. To produce two new books in the same time it had taken to write Warlock, they divided their efforts, and Livingstone's first solo gamebook, Forest, was published the exact same day as Jackson's offering, The Citadel of Chaos. Four more books would be written in this way before Puffin Books realised that if they were going to keep up with public demand, and the copycat series by other publishers that were beginning to crop up, they were going to have to open things up to outside writers.

As you might expect, Livingstone doesn't have everything down pat at this point, and Forest is a bit different to his later books. It's generally a bit easier, especially when it comes to combats. The basic plot is still on the simple side, and an excuse for a classic dungeon crawler (albeit one that takes place outdoors). One of the most notable curiosities is that if you reach the end of the book having failed to find both parts of the fabled Dwarven warhammer you're trying to retrieve from Darkwood Forest, you can loop straight back round to section 1 and continue playing (provided you can pass a Test Your Luck roll to escape some Wild Hill Men); presumably Livingstone took it as read that the player would follow paths not taken on the second time round, but there's still going to be some overlap with areas where the forest apparently magically resets itself between visits.

Forest was adapted for the ZX Spectrum in 1984, and the result is effectively an electronic version of the original book; this version swaps the two parts of the warhammer for four different talismans which are all hidden in different places than the hammer was. It's remarkably similar to how the different keys are moved around between the various print versions of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. The Spectrum incarnation also allows you to loop back round if you exit the forest without all the various plot tokens, but even if you succeed in the Luck test you lose all your possessions (including the talismans, which are returned to their original locations) and all but five gold pieces. Which can be taken as punishment for your failure the first time round, but is still a rather curious take on the situation.

Another piece of early-installment weirdness is that Livingstone is quite insistent about providing an opportunity to attack almost anyone or anything you meet with your sword, irrespective of the circumstances. You can immediately declare hostilities upon a centaur who shows no sign of aggression towards you whatsoever, a race of mindless clones used as slaves who may not even be able to perceive you are there, a gnome meditating on top of a mushroom, a trapper and his hunting dogs, a dwarf sitting on a log deep in thought, an old woman living in a hut, and an Arch-Mage threatening to turn you into stone if you don't give him your gold. Sometimes a policy of sociopathy backfires on you, sometimes it turns out you were right to stab first and ask questions later. But the biggest backfire of all is in the very first section, where you go to the tower of the wizard Yaztromo to buy some magical equipment to use when you enter the forest, and are given the first choice of the book: to follow Yaztromo into his tower, or attack him with your sword. Should you choose the latter, the wizard will give you a chance to reconsider, and if you insist on trying to murder him the consequences are grave indeed:

You charge at Yaztromo but only reach the first stair when he lifts his right arm and nonchalantly mumbles a few words. Time seems to stand still among bright flashes, and your body feels like a bubbling liquid inside. When the turmoil subsides, you know something terrible has happened. The stone stair feels cold on your body and you realise the problems of life as a frog! Yaztromo bends down and picks you up, saying with a booming voice: 'Well, foolish adventurer, enjoy your new life!' With that, he lets out a deafening laugh and nearly drops you. Then he shuffles to the oak door and, opening it, throws you into the tall grasses outside. Your adventure ends here.

One does wonder why, having established that just attacking everyone in sight might not be a great idea in literally the first decision you can make in the first section, Livingstone felt there should be so many other opportunities to do so in the rest of the book. Although not to this extent, there are other penalties for attacking people who do not pose a threat to you: there is a LUCK reduction of two points for persisting in trying to attack the gnome (as well as having to pay him to get your sword back after he's turned it into a butterfly), or if you kill the trapper you lose the opportunity to get a potentially life-saving item from him (although you can get through the encounter where you might need it in other ways). As against that, there is an entirely avoidable penalty for attacking the centaur (you can dodge the arrow he shoots at you), and you can kill the dwarf without even finding out that he is actually from a rival faction seeking to steal the hammer for his own purposes if you attack him before he can tell you this.

There are one or two odd examples of this in Livingstone's second book, City of Thieves, but there he consistently punishes unprovoked aggression against people who meant you no harm; there is a hefty 4-point penalty to your LUCK for killing the blacksmith, whilst killing the silversmith -- which can only be accomplished with a great deal of hassle -- renders the game unwinnable, as you need the silversmith to make you a silver arrow which is vital to your mission. So it does seem like Livingstone might have realised the game didn't need the option to pick a fight with everyone you meet quite quickly.

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The Forest of Doom has one other curious legacy to its name. In 1985, Dolphin and Colony Holidays offered an immersive role-playing experience-slash-summer camp based on the book located in the forests of Edinburgh or Oxford, which the news section in issue #5 of the official Fighting Fantasy magazine Warlock surmised as follows:

FOREST OF DOOM HOLIDAY

Some of you may have noticed in your schools and the Sunday supplements that Dolphin and Colony Holidays are offering a week of Fighting Fantasy real-life adventures in either Edinburgh or Oxford. Players are formed into teams and must immerse themselves totally in the world of monsters and magic. A full range of modern stage and drama equipment will be made available, along with video, lighting, sound, make-up and costume. If this sounds better than a week in Aberystwyth, you can find out more by phoning 0444 458177.

Further information about these holidays is limited, but the bonus content in the 25th anniversary edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain gives a little more detail: "Players wore costumes and formed into teams to fight monsters and find treasure in the forests around Edinburgh and Oxford." If you immediately jumped to conclusions about what actually happened, then I'm afraid you're probably right, for in issue #10 of Warlock the following statement signed by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone appeared (squeezed in amongst the adverts on the inside back pages, indicating it may have been a late addition):

HOLIDAY OF DOOM?

Last summer, advertisements appeared for a ‘Forest of Doom’ holiday run by Colony Holidays. These holidays were offered without our approval. Although advertising material promised personal visits from both of us, Colony had not made any such arrangements. When we finally did visit one of the centres, we were very disappointed in the lack of props and makeshift costumes (shields made out of cardboard boxes, tunics made out of rubbish sacks, etc) Only one of the staff seemed to know much about roleplaying games and Fighting Fantasy. We were not proud to be associated with this holiday, and we have since spoken to several visitors who were very disappointed.

This year a similar holiday ‘Phantom Forest’, is being offered by Dolphin Holidays, who appear to operate from the same building as Colony Holidays. Advertising literature claims that Phantom Forest is “Developed from last year’s successful Forest of Doom holiday.” The Forest of Doom holiday may well have been successful in sales terms, but we would advise all interested readers to obtain full details in writing before booking.

Phantom Forest has nothing to do with either of us, Fighting Fantasy, Penguin Books or Games Workshop Ltd.

That'll teach you to badmouth Aberystwyth.