Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks Coming to America via Steve Jackson Games

Fighting Fantasy and Steve Jackson Games announced a deal to release the series of solo choose-your-own-adventure style gamebooks in the United States for the first time in over 20 years.

The Fighting Fantasy series, written by Sir Ian Livingston and Steve Jackson (not the same Steve Jackson of SJ Games), were originally published starting in 1982. While still available in other markets, they have been out of print in the United States after the publisher, Laurel Leaf Editions, was purchased along with parent company Dell Publishing Group in 1999.

From the announcement:

Fighting Fantasy debuted with The Warlock of Firetop Mountain in 1982. Since then, over 20 million copies of the exciting series have been sold worldwide. In Fighting Fantasy, players embark on a solo adventure where their decisions – and dice rolls – determine the outcome of the story. This combination of nonlinear narrative and classic tabletop action sets the series apart from other gamebook franchises. Fighting Fantasy co-creators Sir Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (UK) stated how thrilled they were to sign a US publishing agreement for Fighting Fantasy with Steve Jackson Games.

Sir Ian says: “To have a new publisher in the USA is a special moment in the history of Fighting Fantasy. We have known Steve Jackson (US) for more than 40 years, having distributed Steve Jackson Games in the 1980s when we owned Games Workshop. Steve also wrote three fantastic Fighting Fantasy books which caused a lot of confusion at the time when people didn’t realize there were two Steve Jacksons! We look forward to exciting times ahead in the USA for new and existing Fighting Fantasy fans.”

The first five books of the 50-title series will be made available in early 2025 with the next five in the series coming later that year.

 

[Morrus]

Seriously you should have had them also sign each others books.

Maybe each saying "I'm not THIS Steve Jackson"

I imagine the joke is not new to them. They've probably heard it every day for the last 40 years.

 

[Joshua Randall]

The book names are their weakest points, which is strange, because the actual settings (like the four interconnected Sorcery books) have some deeply weird and evocative names and descriptions.

Are you telling me that “The Shamutanti Hills” did not immediately make millions of people want to drop everything and read it?

 

[Joshua Randall]

View attachment 383090

Pfft, the guy on the right is clearly Steve Jackson with a fake beard.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Are you telling me that “The Shamutanti Hills” did not immediately make millions of people want to drop everything and read it?

"The Shamutanti Hills" is vastly more evocative and weird (since it pulls from the actual setting of the Sorcery! series) than "Creature of Havoc."

 

[retro]

These books set me on the path to RPGs when they first came out…

Same, those green spines were like crack for me in the early 90s.

 

[amethal]

Steve Jackson wrote at least one of them under the pseudonym of Steve Jackson…

Scorpion Swamp, although I'm guessing we all already knew that.

As a child, I knew that some were written by Steve Jackson, and some were written by Ian Livingstone, and assumed that the ones with both names on the cover were written jointly. Turns out that, apart from Warlock of Firetop Mountain (not sure if they co-wrote any others?), those ones were written by neither of them. It's a funny old world.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Scorpion Swamp, although I'm guessing we all already knew that.

I didn't, but it definitely had a different vibe and slightly different mechanics from other books of that era, so it makes perfect sense that it was a different author.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Kickstarter campaign "launching soon" page is up: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ntasy-solo-adventure-gamebooks-back-in-print/

Zero surprises on the first five titles, but all of them are solid choices:

• Warlock of Firetop Mountain
• Deathtrap Dungeon
• City of Thieves
• Citadel of Chaos
• Forest of Doom

Of those, Forest of Doom is the weakest, but it still feels like a classic BD&D adventure.

Citadel of Chaos has a magic-using player character (using a different system than the later Sorcery! books), which is fun.

The best of these, if you're only going to get one, is City of Thieves, in my opinion. It's an urban adventure with pirates, urban goblins and orcs (prefiguring their appearances in other fantasy settings) and lots of evil spellcasters.

I own all of these, but will be keeping an eye out for compelling stretch goals. Any or all of these would be good books for people curious about classic British fantasy roleplaying games.

 

[gban007]

Zero surprises on the first five titles, but all
Of those, Forest of Doom is the weakest, but it still feels like a classic BD&D adventure.

I feel attacked! for some reason is my favourite one that really sticks in my memory for it's evocative writing and pictures.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I feel attacked! for some reason is my favourite one that really sticks in my memory for it's evocative writing and pictures.

Not an attack at all! I have been tempted to get the Arion Games Advanced Fighting Fantasy module and redo it as a BD&D or Shadowdark adventure. It has massive old school vibes while probably still being fresh to many American RPG fans.