Nice interview with Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston regarding the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks here. Not sure if this needs to go somewhere else, but I think it is relevant to RPGs - these books got me into RPGs and I still love even now; they were huge in the UK!

Quote"I think the answer is 100 per cent of people cheated!"

So true Great interview, seems like two good guys. Like you Fighting Fantasy was my gateway into roleplaying as well. City of Thieves, aged 10 or so. Still holds a special place in my heart and game collection.

Quote from: DKChannelBoredom;681995So true

Well, I didn't.
Not until the fifth or sixth try (after I found the solution the legal way), to read some of the branches that I missed.

I also remember that there were one or two gamebooks that weren't solvable at all because they seemed to contain bugs. (FF 2, and another, non-FF one?)

This thread definitely belongs here: the FF Gamebooks were a huge part of RPG history and brought a ton of people into the hobby (perhaps second only to D&D itself).

RPGPundit

Forest of Doom was the first one I bought - I didn't like the cover of Warlock (of Firetop Mountain) or Citadel of Chaos. Of those three initial books I liked Citadel the best - I never got through the Warlock book but managed Forest and Citadel ok.

Think I managed to scrape through Starship Traveller, *might* have done City of Thieves and got through Appointment with F.E.A.R.

Got nowhere near through Deathtrap Dungeon though. That was hard, if I recall.

Didn't cheat with any of the books - if there was one I couldn't get through, I tried again... then gave up

When the Lone Wolf Books came along Fighting Fantasy was finished for me - never bought another FF book until recently (Freeway Fighter I think) and that just for a read/inspiration.

The FF books gave a lot (I think anyway) to the RPG hobby, at least in the UK. Anyone who played RPGs in the early to mid eighties in the UK will have heard of them/played at least a few of them I reckon.

What about the rest of the world? USA?

Yeah, as a kid growing up in Britain in the 80s I can vouch that they were everywhere. I owned about 20 of them but my local library had the full set, so I think I've tried just about all of them. Some are, to be honest, rubbish. But most of them are great, and Sorcery! is one of my all-time favourite gaming products.

A special shout-out needs to go to the artists who worked on the FF books. I don't think I'd love fantasy literature as much as I do if I hadn't been exposed to John Blanche and Russ Nicholson's work at an early age.

On the subject of FF, did anybody read any of the Fighting Fantasy novels? I read The Trolltooth Wars and loved it, although this is about 20 years ago now, perhaps longer, and I was 11 or 12. There was also a line of Lone Wolf novels written by John Grant, which were excellent 'young adult' fare before YA was a thing.

Lone Wolf and Grey Star the Wizard books were my favourites, by Joe Dever.

Quote from: APN;682279The FF books gave a lot (I think anyway) to the RPG hobby, at least in the UK. Anyone who played RPGs in the early to mid eighties in the UK will have heard of them/played at least a few of them I reckon.

What about the rest of the world? USA?

In Germany as well. They were published by a very respectable publisher for Children's books, with covers that were in line with their other books and novels.

QuoteI didn't like the cover of Warlock (of Firetop Mountain) or Citadel of Chaos.

I didn't like the childish German covers but I absolutely love Peter Andrew Jones's iconic Warlock cover.

QuoteWhen the Lone Wolf Books came along Fighting Fantasy was finished for me -

You should return to FF, at least for the four part spin-off, Sorcery!

"Warlock of Firetop Mountain" was my very first RPG experience.
After that is was DnD, then Sormbringer.

Quote from: APN;682279What about the rest of the world? USA?

The books were huge in Canada as well, which was part of the Puffin/Penguin distribution system (in general I find it much easier to get the British version of books in Canada than in the U.S.).  

I played around a dozen of them (still have most of them) in my early teens, when I couldn't meet up with my regular group (e.g., family trips, late nights, etc.).

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;682318I didn't like the childish German covers ]

Heh, those covers are funny, in a terrible way and really off.

FF were huge in Denmark in the 80s and 90s - interestingly under the name Sværd og Trolddom (meaning Sword & Sorcery). They published 24 books from the series, mainly the fantasy ones. And the first 10 or so got a low key relaunch in 2003, some with new covers. So they can still be found in most public libraries.

The first of the novels, The Trolltooth Wars,  were also translated and Ienjoyed immensly when I was a young teen. If I remember correctly it was pretty grim and gritty compared to for example Dragonlance.

Quote from: DKChannelBoredom;682391Heh, those covers are funny, in a terrible way and really off.

FF were huge in Denmark in the 80s and 90s - interestingly under the name Sværd og Trolddom (meaning Sword & Sorcery). They published 24 books from the series, mainly the fantasy ones. And the first 10 or so got a low key relaunch in 2003, some with new covers. So they can still be found in most public libraries.

The first of the novels, The Trolltooth Wars,  were also translated and Ienjoyed immensly when I was a young teen. If I remember correctly it was pretty grim and gritty compared to for example Dragonlance.

I'd love to get a hold of The Trolltooth Wars. I remember at the time thinking it was thrillingly dark, but then again I was about 11.

The Sorcery series was a marked change (obviously) for FF with the inclusion of magic and showed what could be done with an easy to play system. Because Khare was the thicker book (than Shamutanti Hills) I bought that instead but ended up getting them all eventually. Rock hard (or at least I found them so) I never got round to finishing them all, though I may have scraped through book 2 after repeated attempts and note making.

My attempts at maps generally left me hopelessly lost until I started writing down paragraph numbers as well, then it felt like cheating, so I stopped.

As I (and others) mentioned, the Lone Wolf series probably advanced the genre more than any other gamebook, though others (Fire*Wolf and probably some I didn't play) took what FF did and tried to do interesting things with it, with varying results.

Wasn't Ken St Andre (Tunnels and Trolls) the creator of the 'turn to paragraph...' style solo adventure book? I think I have most of those but never actually played any...

Quote from: RPGPundit;682278This thread definitely belongs here: the FF Gamebooks were a huge part of RPG history and brought a ton of people into the hobby (perhaps second only to D&D itself).

Yep.

And FF also had a pretty awesome RPG derive from it. Its latest iteration, Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2e, is actually one of the best light fantasy RPGs around.

What was the gamebook series which aspired to almost-sandbox play with each book covering one part of a map and you could jump between books?