Started With Fighting Fantasy Books

[Jhaelen]

Yeah, it was The Warlock of Firetop Mountain that got me hooked on fantasy and RPGs one summer in England, must have been 25 years ago now. I would have been 10 years old.

Yup, that was my first contact with something rpg-like, as well
That was back in 1983/84, shortly before 'Das Schwarze Auge' introduced rpgs to the German mainstream.

Not long after that I got to play my first AD&D game and suddenly had an incentive to improve my English just to read those fascinating books. Good times!

 

[PieAndDragon]

Fighting Fantasy, at the age of 11 with Caverns of the Snow Witch, was my first experience of gaming. It lead to a lifelong hobby...
FF --> Heroquest --> Advanced Heroquest --> Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

 

[amethal]

Yeah, it was The Warlock of Firetop Mountain that got me hooked on fantasy and RPGs one summer in England, must have been 25 years ago now. I would have been 10 years old.

Change England to Wales, and that's me as well.

 

[vagabundo]

The Lone Wolf Series for me.

Got me totally hooked and looking for more.

 

[xortam]

Warlock of Firetop mountain was definately the best IMO - maybe the others never quite gave that "brand new" experience that the others did. Citadel of Chaos was pretty good too.

Sometimes our D&D group used to just use the FF Skill Stamina stats and have a really simple off the cuff game...

Lone Wolf was good too - had a very different feel to the FF books and felt a bit more 'grown up' even though I was only a nipper.

 

[hamishspence]

Night Dragon

That was the first one I found to be really interesting. Would not import FF style direct to D&D (railroad) but if I wanted to use an FF adventure I would customize it so it feels more D&D-ish while still keeping the plotline and monsters.

 

[Henry]

My first was really the "Choose your Own Adventure" series back in the late 70's, and I found Basic D&D independently of that -- but Lone Wolf was my first real exposure to the "gamebook" genre -- I found Fighting Fantasy AFTER lone wolf.

Does anyone know if they still make new ones recently? I know they were making them in Europe clear through the mid-90's, but I may have to look some up if they are sold here in the U.S.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Does anyone know if they still make new ones recently? I know they were making them in Europe clear through the mid-90's, but I may have to look some up if they are sold here in the U.S.

They are making new ones, at least as recently as last year, albeit with different authors. They've even changed the rules to make them more playable, allegedly (presumably to avoid the old "Oh look I rolled max skill and stamina, how surprising! deal amongst other things).

 

[S'mon]

They are making new ones, at least as recently as last year, albeit with different authors. They've even changed the rules to make them more playable, allegedly (presumably to avoid the old "Oh look I rolled max skill and stamina, how surprising! deal amongst other things).

Sounds interesting - I never liked the huge variance in power from the 1d6 Skill roll, equivalent to roughly 10 levels' worth of D&D. I didn't do 12-24; but I wasn't keen on playing with skill below 10; in later books especially there was a lot of power creep.

 

[Technomancer]

My first was really the "Choose your Own Adventure" series back in the late 70's, and I found Basic D&D independently of that -- but Lone Wolf was my first real exposure to the "gamebook" genre -- I found Fighting Fantasy AFTER lone wolf.

That's me too. Actually I started with the "World of Lone Wolf" gamebooks featuring Grey Star, they were much darker and creepier than the regular LW books IMO.

I can't wait for Mongoose to put out their new Lone Wolf tabletop RPG, supposedly later this year I think. Unlike the OGL version, this one will be based on the rules from the gamebooks (and will actually be compatible with them, AFAIK).

My favorite FF book was Demons of the Deep, the first one I ever read.

From LW and FF, I tried to get my hands on every gamebook series I could: Endless Quest, Middle Earth Quest, Grail Quest, Freeway Warrior, Car Wars...so many, so much fun.