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]

Britons, there's a new hardcover collector's edition (only 2,000 being printed) of Warlock of Firetop Mountain coming out on Sept. 25.

I have preordered!

 

[dbm]

Mine arrived today! And yes, I splurged for the slipcase.

View attachment 416663

View attachment 416664

View attachment 416665


View attachment 416666

Any indication why they changed the book numbers?

Left to right they should be 1, 6, 5, 3, and 2 originally in the UK.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Crazy thing is that I didn't even realize they weren't published in the U.S. until recently.

I had gotten reprintings that they had done over the past few years (which I suppose must have only been in the UK?), and had thought they were available everywhere.

Yeah, I've got a bunch of the recent reprints with the gold spines and was surprised to hear they were imports.