Gamebooks

[Funt Solo]

One of my favorite things about the early Lone Wolf books, and the first Talisman board game, was the art of Gary Chalk. The high quality spend on the early Lone Wolf books had even the smaller illustrations unique, and not just the full page ones - something that gave way later to repetitive iconography.

Talisman's "speak softy but carry a big mace" monk, that featured on the ad for the game, and did a great job of selling the game to me:




From Lone Wolf #2, Fire on the Water:

[Richard]

Between this and Citadel there's been some superb artwork that's not the sort of thing you'd normally see in a child's book - not gory, but so imaginative and grotesque and just downright odd - fantastic stuff.

Jackson and Livingstone fought to make sure they got to pick the artwork - resulting in it being in line with the Games Workshop / White Dwarf / Citadel style.  Compare and contrast with any other children's books of the era, or even TSR / Dungeons and Dragons / Dragon magazine of the time.

The art in the original editions of these books is usually fantastic. Disappointingly, Scholastic Books have substituted childish cartoony illustrations by some other artist, which I think is a real shame.

[Barrington Boots]

I've flicked through a couple of the Scholastic books and the art really is horrible and such a shame - it feels very sanitised and 'made for children' whereas the originals really made me feel like I was getting a peak at a different world where normal rules for childrens books didn't apply. The Wizard editions retain the original art thankfully.

Gary Chalk rules. I could do a Lone Wolf run-through after this (and Avenger. And we should do the Freeway Warrior series too)

[JayzusB.Christ]

The brother used to get Proteus magazine, which was pretty much Fighting Fantasy by a different name.  Unlike FF, though, each adventure had a mix of .artists, who ranged from amazing to very bad.

The link...
https://annarchive.com/proteus.html

[Funt Solo]

Proteus! Feck me, Jayzus - I'd entirely forgotten that existed! Man, no wonder I failed most of my Highers ... too busy nerding.

[Pyroxian]

I also remember:
Grail Quest (Aimed at a younger age group than FF, but quite humorous and fun)
Skyfall (Very cool fantasy world that turned out to be a space colony gone wrong - it used coin flips instead of dice)
Forbidden Gateway (Cthulhu-esque gamebooks, sadly only two in the series)

Oh, and Sorcery, which was FF adjacent and set over four books.

[Richard]

Sorcery! was fantastic. Probably the best of FF.

[Dark Jimbo]

Right! With a big nod to Dark Jimbo, it's time for me to venture into the FOREST OF DOOM!

Great stuff! And I think I'm right in saying that this is the board's first successful playthrough? [Edit - No, not quite, but we've had fewer than you'd think.]

Unable to stop myself I loot the cave and thank goodness I brought those nose filters.

Bah! I'm not bitter. Not at all...

[Barrington Boots]

In fairness I played Forest of Doom a lot in my youth and I remembered a bunch of it (like nose filters), plus it's very forgiving. When we rock up against something like House of Hell it's going to be multiple deaths in this house.
I'll see if I can tackle Starship Traveller this week, unless anyone is still doing Forest?

Grail Quest (Aimed at a younger age group than FF, but quite humorous and fun)

I still have a couple of these. Really loved them when I was younger - I found them very immersive. I've been hesitant about rereading them just in case the magic has gone.
That reminds me of 'Wizards, Warriors & You' books - I had a couple of these, I know one of them had a Josh Kirby cover. A step up from the old choose your own adventure books with some rudimentary coin flip mechanics I think. Probably not worth revisiting.

[Barrington Boots]

That reminds me of 'Wizards, Warriors & You' books - I had a couple of these, I know one of them had a Josh Kirby cover. A step up from the old choose your own adventure books with some rudimentary coin flip mechanics I think. Probably not worth revisiting.

Quoting myself but... here's a link I found for the WW&Y books, some great old school covers on these.
I especially like the last few. The Warrior Women of Weymouth kick ass, as do the white fire breathing tigers from the Carnival of Demons although the Conquest of Barbarians appears to be a conquest over some foxes.

https://gamebooks.org/Series/185/Show

[Colin YNWA]

I hope you'll excuse a bit of a tangent, but this thread has go me trying to hunt down the 'Lost Worlds' Fantasy combat books - if folks remember those.

Basically - and I suspect this explanation will go a bit wobbly. Each player had a book representing a character type. So Giant Goblin with Mace and Shield vs Female Warrior with Scale, sword and shield. You would give your opponent your book - which was full of pictures (and instructions) of your character in combat. So they - your opponent - would 'see' you character as they attacked you. There was a card and some elaboarate way of then having a fight.

I don't know if that makes any sense and I wish I could remember more about how the system worked. ANYWAY, I've decided to track some of those down (with any luck) to play with the kids as they were immense, quick fun as i recall.

[sheridan]

The Warrior Women of Weymouth kick ass, as do the white fire breathing tigers from the Carnival of Demons although the Conquest of Barbarians appears to be a conquest over some foxes.

Weymouth?  Always makes me laugh when US authors use real-world British locations in their fiction - Daventry is another one, appearing in the Kings Quest series of games.  I don't know if the creators were thinking they sounded romantic or old-worldy, but to us who live here they're either boring, tacky, dumps or otherwise don't have quite the connotations that ancient fantasy towns should have!

[Barrington Boots]

I look forward The Brutal Barbarians of Bromley and the Sadistic Savages of Sidmouth coming soon....

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

Hello all, having just recently discovered this thread (on my Monday night shift to be exact), I’ve decided to finally stop lurking and make my presence known to you all with my Favourite Fighting Fantasy Titles and to tell you all the exciting news that you can now pre-order the Lone Wolf Definite Editions from Magnamund.com.

Fighting Fantasy Titles
Starship Traveller
Island of the Lizard King
House of Hell
The Rings of Kether
Appointment with F.E.A.R.
Rebel Planet
Creature of Havoc
Moonrunner
Sorcery!

I also like the Lone Wolf and Give Yourself Goosebumps series as well.

Also, are there any fan blogs / sites, YouTube channels, FaceBook groups or Reddit communities dedicated to series’ such as Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, CYOA, etc or just game-books in general…?

[Lorenzo]

If you can't get enough of this stuff, I notice the latest Essential Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death contains the short and simple, "House of Death" game, from Diceman 1 magazine. Not many decisions to be made, but it is nicely drawn by Bryan Talbot.