"Allansia" is the last book written for the Steve Jackson & Ian Livingston Dungeoneer/Advanced Fighting Fantasy series.  Its so rare, I've never even seen a copy, much less had the opportunity to acquire one.

I was a big fan of the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, they were my gateway drug into roleplaying. Its a shame there's nothing like that these days for the kids... in any case, by the time Advanced Fighting Fantasy came out (essentially transforming the gamebooks into a full-blown RPG) I had already gotten into roleplaying via the D&D Red Box and the Robotech RPG by Palladium. But I picked up Dungeoneer right away and ran a couple of very good little campaigns with it.  I also managed to get the other gamebooks in that series (Blacksand! and Titan).

But I never even noticed the release of Allansia.  This book is so rare that I only even came to learn it existed years later.

So, do any of you own this book? How many have seen it? Who can tell me precisely what's in it? And most importantly, how can you all help me get it?

RPGPundit

Well for starters it is on ebay for £35. This does mean that with the exchange rate and and shipping from Britain, it could be prohibitively expensive, but it's a start.

Linky

I bought a copy of "The Forest of Doom" this summer and was looking for "Warlock of Firetop Mountain" anytime I was at a flea-market / used book store.

They've actually started making New Fighting Fantasy Books!  That link has tons of info on FF, and there's even a fan club you can join.

If you were to join this fan club I've heard they'll send you a FF membership card, a character sheet, a postcard with some FF artwork on it, an official FF pencil and a little sparkly blue FF DICE.  Fighting Fantasy is kids stuff though... and I'm sure no adults would join the Fan Club just to get access to the members only area on the FF website.

Quote from: RPGPunditSo, do any of you own this book? How many have seen it? Who can tell me precisely what's in it? And most importantly, how can you all help me get it?

RPGPundit

I have recently acquired it (as I bragged about recently), and will gladly give you a thorough overview when I get home tonight.  In brief, aside from the obligatory new special skills and spells, it has a few more PC races, rules for adventuring in the wilderness, and the centerpiece of the book, the mass battle system.  Two mass battle systems, actually, a fast-play version and a more detailed (and time-consuming) version.  It ends with an adventure that takes advantage of the mass battle rules, culminating in a big battle between the forces of some evil cultist and the citizens of Kaad.

For now, maybe this review from the old fightingfantasy.com website will whet your appetite:

QuoteAllansia
Lands of Adventure!

Cover Illustrator: John Sibbick
Map Illustrator: Leo Hartas
Map: Black & White
ISBN: 0140360514

"The world of Titan is an extremely dangerous place. Mankind and its allies huddle in fortified settlements, for beyond the castle walls the wild lands stretch across three continents. Out in the wastelands, Orc tribes war with each other for dominance. Savage monsters roam at will in search of food. Evil sorcerers ready their inhuman armies for battle. No one, surely, would venture out into such inhospitable places - unless the rewards were so great a hero couldn't possibly refuse!

Allansia is the third volume in the Advanced Fighting Fantasy series, and within its pages you will find rules for designing and running adventures in the savage lands of Titan. In Dungeoneer you ventured into the deadly underground realms in search of treasure. In Blacksand! you dared enter the crime-ridden cities and towns. Now it is time for YOU to explore the wilderness, in search of the greatest rewards of all!"
 

Review
The title irked me from the get-go, because it assumes that you're playing in Allansia, and unless you own Titan or many Khul-based gamebooks, you're forced to do so. I also wanted more air-time for the Old World and Khul, but such are the breaks. This time, we focus on wilderness adventuring and everything that goes with it, including a plethora of new skills and spells, always a good thing. Priests also get some much needed new spells, but unless you give them spells that only they know, they are basically weaker versions wizards.

We also get some great rules for adventuring out in the various terrains of Allansia, along with shaded areas on an accompanying map to show where these terrains dominate. You'll be surprised how much of Allansia is mountains. These are very helpful, although again, nothing is offered on Khul or the Old World. Thus, you'll have to decide for yourself what goes where, although the Wastes of Chaos greatly simplify your task in Khul, since the whole center of it is a place that not even the dumbest adventurers would ever go.

We are also introduced to mass battle rules, which are excellent adaptations of FF combat...well, OK, one of them is. The Quick Battle rules are far too balanced in the favor of someone who has Battle
Tactics, and the fights often aren't very short... The Mass Battle system, OTOH, is an excellent piece of work, and its simplicity lets you make units of any FF monster you can name.
     
As for the adventure, it has four things working against it: its linearity, which will almost certainly bug some players, the classic limp enemy syndrome, and a dull monologue given by Yaztromo that the
players must sit though with little choice in the matter. A five-minute monologue is not the best way to start an adventure. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that the party can cross several hundred kilometers in just four or so days, going from the Icefinger Mountains to Kaad... Finally, using the Quick Battle rules when dealing with the mass combat at the end is far too easy. After a few sample tries, the Hero always won, regardless of how high I made the Hero's Battle Tactics skill (within reason, of course). A bright spot is the final combat with Sargon - a battle finally worthy of the very powerful Heroes, and the only combat which should be any real threat in this adventure! Very well planned,
and the clincher allows the GM to wait for the precise moment to spring it, in the name of dramatic tension.

As a sidenote, does anyone else notice all the references to Salamonis in the series? A reference to being drafted into the Salamonis army for a tour of duty to gain Battle Tactics, which is needed for the battle in the adventure in "Allansia", the probable assumption that the hiring for the mission in "Blacksand!" is in Salamonis, a reference that "A large city-state like Salamonis will have people that can train in most skills and spells" in "Dungeoneer", the assumption that you're in a bar in Salamonis resting up when Yaztromo calls you up, the general description of the place and its ruler in "Dungeoneer"... Personally, I'd like to be based in north-east Allansia, or one of the other continents, as opposed to the over-emphasized north-west Allansia...

Hmm.. so no magic items? The one thing I felt that was always missing from AFF was a definitive list of magic items.

The random encounter tables are useful though.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditBut I picked up Dungeoneer right away and ran a couple of very good little campaigns with it.  I also managed to get the other gamebooks in that series (Blacksand! and Titan).

Pundit, you didn't mention "Out of the Pit".  Do you have that book?  It's the AFF bestiary, and can be had on ebay for a lot less than Allansia.

Quote from: RPGPunditHmm.. so no magic items? The one thing I felt that was always missing from AFF was a definitive list of magic items.
RPGPundit

Not that I remember, no. I'll check again later though.

Quote from: TechnomancerPundit, you didn't mention "Out of the Pit".  Do you have that book?  It's the AFF bestiary, and can be had on ebay for a lot less than Allansia.

I don't have "Out of the Pit", but that's due to choice rather than lack.  That was, technically, a book for the basic FF (as was Titan, technically).  But in any case, I never found I needed that "monster manual"; what with the number of monsters in Dungeoneer and Blacksand being more than enough to handle any adventuring needs.

Plus, unlike D&D,  monsters are really really easy to create here.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditI don't have "Out of the Pit", but that's due to choice rather than lack.  That was, technically, a book for the basic FF (as was Titan, technically).  But in any case, I never found I needed that "monster manual"; what with the number of monsters in Dungeoneer and Blacksand being more than enough to handle any adventuring needs.

Plus, unlike D&D,  monsters are really really easy to create here.

RPGPundit

Understood, and I agree with your assessment for the most part.  I just mentioned it for the sake of completeness.

As far as one of your other questions (How can Pundit get one), I got mine with some creative ebaying. If you do a search for "Allansia", make sure you include the text of the entire listing, not just the title.  The title of the auction I won was "Four Fighting Fantasy Books" or something like that. It was $50, but I also got second copies of Titan, Dungeoneer, and Blacksand, which were all in better shape than the copies I had.  I lucked out too-I didn't actually win, but the guy who did win didn't pay so I took the books in a second chance offer.

Also try searching for "Alansia", "Allania", or other close misspellings.

Nothing terribly brilliant there, just how I got mine.

I've got Titan , Allansia , Blacksand , Dungeoneer and Out of the Pit , but I lost my original ' Fighting Fantasy roleplaying ' black and orange book !

Dammit, they really need to make a PDF of those books.

RPGPundit

Also the Riddling Reaver, which was a pretty fun campaign.

I think I have all of those in my mums attic somewhere...

No Allansia though.

Ok Pundit, here's my more thorough overview as promised (though it's about 12 hours late).  Here's what's in it (in approximately this order):

New Skills: Mostly outdoorsy and military, to build upon the wilderness and mass battle rules found later

New Spells: All kinds, bringing the total # of spells to 81 regular, 32 Minor, and 63 Priest (though some of these are duplicates of regular magic spells).

Non-Human PCs: Includes rules for Dwarves, Elves, Centaurs, Goblins, Orcs, and Trolls.  The first two were already briefly covered in Dungeoneer, but this goes into much greater detail (culture, demeanor, etc)

Mass Battle Rules: Two sets, Quick Battle Rules (which are-you guessed it-quicker), and Mass Battle Rules (more complicated).  I haven't read the mass battle rules, but the fast battle rules seem pretty workable, although I don't like the fact that when you lose men you get to choose which ones you lose (so obviously the weakest will be chosen first-which sort of makes sense, I guess, but you still shouldn't have that much control over which soldiers die, war should be more random than that.)

A section on designing outdoor adventures covers how to deal with the passage of time, different ways of travelling, and hazards of the road.  This section includes tables for generating random terrain and random structures and settlements.

Terrain Types: Covers the following terrain types:

-Flatlands
-Mountain
-Ice
-Forest/Jungle
-Swamp
-Desert
-River/Lake
-Sea/Ocean
-Underwater

For each terrain there is a description telling how to use it in your adventure and a map of the continent of Allansia showing all the places that type of terrain is found.

Finally there is the adventure, "A Darkness Over Kaad", which did seem a bit linear, but that was the way of things back then.

Don't know if that's what you're looking for. I'm not much of a reviewer, I never was any good at pointing out all the little flaws and subtleties of a book or game, but I can at least tell you what's in the book, and that I liked it and it seems at least on par with the other two AFF books.