Wednesday 30 November 2011

Tempting Talismans - Sneak Peek

Issue #8 features an interview with Ross Brierley of Laughing Jackal about their adaptions of the gamebooks for the PlayStation:

How familiar were you with Fighting Fantasy before this undertaking?
As a kid I used to play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons and HeroQuest so when my cousin gave me a game that I could play on my own and not have to wait until other like minded people were available, it was amazing. From then on I was hooked, and I remember playing through loads of gamebooks from several series, including a lot of books from the Fighting Fantasy series.

Issue #8 is out in January!

Sunday 9 October 2011

Contributor Spotlight - Jamie Fry


This entry is the first in an irregular series highlighting the people behind the material for the magazine. We kick off with Jamie Fry...

Jamie is a long-established part of online Fighting Fantasy and the man in charge of the website Fighting Fantasy Collector. This made him the natural choice for a column on collecting for the magazine when the team were casting about for ideas for material. As part of his interesting in collecting Fighting Fantasy-related paraphernalia he developed the "Collector's Guide" (a listing of every known Fighting Fantasy collectable). Other items of interest to fans can be found on his eBay site. He can be found on The Unofficial Fighting Fantasy Forum! as "Unclebundle".

He seems to be a natural choice as ambassador thanks to his love of the game book series and his rapport with Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. This has recently led to him becoming the new "Warlock" of the official website and we wish him well with his endeavors to get the site up-to-date and relevant once more.

Jamie will be interviewed in issue #8 (due out January 2012).

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Issue #7 - Published!

Issue #7 is now available for download from the the new site: http://fightingfantazine.co.uk/

104 pages of Fighting Fantasy goodness. Feedback appreciated. (Printing password: fanta).

Saturday 3 September 2011

Queen of Shades - Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek at the art and text of the mini adventure for issue #7:
In their place stands a tall, slender woman, glowing in the darkness like a candle flame. The goddess of justice looks at you sadly.
This is Queen of Shades by Paul Struth and illustrated by myself:
It should have been an adventure like any other; an ancient tomb, a forgotten treasure and a band of brave souls willing to risk their lives in pursuit of fame and fortune. Now, a day after your successful return to Kharé, the notorious cityport of traps, two of your fellow adventurers lie dead – will YOU be the next victim of the curse?

Monday 29 August 2011

The Site!

In a short update (the next post should hopefully be one announcing the arrival of the next issue), I can announce that the website for the magazine has now shifted to a new URL (please update your bookmarks and links):

www.fightingfantazine.co.uk

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Coming Soon - Issue 7 Cover


Here's the cover for issue #7, which I hope to be able to release at the beginning of September (in time for the 2nd birthday of the magazine).

Friday 15 July 2011

Coming Soon - Issue 7

Apart from the current lack of an artist to illustrate the mini adventure (if either you or someone you know might be able to help with this problem by volunteering to do the black and white artwork please contact me), the rest of issue #7 is well on the way to being completed. So what can be found in the next issue?

  • The mini adventure Queen of Shades by Paul Struth
  • AFF competition winner, The Curse of Meraki by Stuart Lloyd
  • An interview with Paul Struth, winner of the 1984 Warlock magazine competition to have an adventure published in the magazine (The Dervish Stone in issue #4)
  • An interview with Graeme Davis, author of Midnight Rogue
  • "The Fact of Fiction": Seas of Blood is examined by Warren McGuire
  • Chapter 3 of "Aelous Raven and the Wrath of the Sea-Witch" by Ian Brocklehurst
  • Part 5 of "Everything I Need to Know I Learnt from Reading Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks" by Ed Jolley
  • More news with "Omens & Auguries" from Guillermo Parades
  • Two monsters in "Out of the Pit" by Andrew Wright
  • Adrian Young's "Chronicle of Heroes" covers A Darkness Over Kaad
  • "The Arcane Archive" reviews Advanced Fighting Fantasy – The Roleplaying Game, Out of the Pit, and Titan
  • Dan Satherley's column looks for a win with Island of the Lizard King
  • Finally, Jamie Fry continues his exploration of the world of FF collecting
How soon this issue surfaces will probably depend on how soon I can find someone to illustrate the mini adventure and how quickly they can deliver the art.

Tuesday 5 July 2011

AFF Competition Winner - Sneak Peek

I can now announce the winner of the AFF competition launched in issue #6. First place, as judged by AFF writer Graham Bottley is The Curse of Meraki by Stuart Lloyd. Here's a sneak peek at what the adventure entails:
It’s been a week since you have left the cesspit of Port Blacksand and pickings are slim. After a month of traipsing across the Pagan Plains to guard a caravan of merchants on their journey to the deadly port, you want some adventure. However, you a bit too much adventure in Blacksand after one of you spilt a flagon of ale all over one of the city’s master assassins. Two minutes later, you were sprinting through the streets with a dozen highly trained killers close behind you. You got to the south gate, only to be stopped by the troll guards demanding a fishday tax. Too desperate to argue, you hand over most your money to avoid the sharp blades of the Assassins’ Guild. You have just arrived to the small fishing village of Meraki, eager for a hot meal and a comfortable bed. However, you can see that something is wrong. The villagers look sad and downtrodden. No one looks you in the eye as you walk through the streets to the market square. You get to an inn and ask the keeper for some food and drink. He serves it without a word. While you are eating your dinner, an old but well kempt and muscular man approaches you. ‘Good evening. My name is Grask. I am the headman of this village and we need your help. I will offer you a free bed for the next few nights and some gold if you can solve our woes. I fear that there is a curse upon our little village and now an innocent woman’s life hangs in the balance...
Graham plans to host other entries on the official AFF website given the quality of the competition entries (as long as the entrants agree to this). So even though they won't appear in the magazine, they will hopefully be available to play in addition to the winner's tale. Congratulations to all who entered, may your STAMINA never fail!

Monday 27 June 2011

Whirling Dervish - Sneak Peek

Issue #7 also features a second interview, this time with fan Paul Struth:
Were you a great reader of fantasy fiction?
Not really. The first book to make a big impression on me was The Lord of the Rings; I loved the dark bits, especially the scenes with the orcs in Moria and the tower of Minas Morgul. If I hadn’t read those, I probably wouldn’t have got interested in Fighting Fantasy. Apart from Tolkien, the only author to really catch my imagination as a child was Ursula Le Guin; A Wizard of Earthsea is still my favourite fantasy book of all time.

Friday 3 June 2011

Roleplaying Rogue - Sneak Peek

Writer Graeme Davis is interviewed in issue #7. Here's a sneak peek...
How did you end up writing for Warlock magazine in 1985?
I had been writing for White Dwarf since 1982, and as my college years drew to a close I decided to chance it and see if I could make a living out of writing for games. I had seen the rise of Fighting Fantasy and its various imitators, and gamebooks in general were wildly popular at the time - almost a Harry Potter level of popularity. I had co-written an analysis of the gamebook phenomenon for TSR UK’s Imagine magazine along with their regular book reviewer Colin Greenland, and did a semi-regular gamebook spot on BBC Radio Newcastle’s book programme; my first writing contract was to create two six-part gamebook series for Oxford University Press. Titled Quest Books (Kern the Strong and Oss the Quick), they were aimed at teenagers with reading difficulties, using the gamebook format and adventure content to encourage reading.

So when Warlock magazine started, it was natural that I’d pitch them some ideas. There were other gamebook magazines around at the time (I remember one called Proteus, and a gamebook-style comic put out under the 2000AD banner), but Warlock is the one that responded to my pitches.

Tuesday 31 May 2011

Competition - The Reminder!

A reminder folks that the deadline for the AFF competition draws closer.

Rules are here: http://fightingfantazine.blogspot.com/2011/05/competition-rules.html

Deadline is June 10th.

Get your entries in!

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Getting Started - The Mini Adventure

As noted in my post on pitching the idea of the magazine, I had floated the idea of including a 200 reference mini adventure in each issue. This was a point that was debated, some unsure that it could be done:
I think it's a great idea! My main concern is size and time constraints. A 200 ref adventure does take a fair amount of time to design, playtest, and write. Also, would the illustrations all be new, or just drawn from previously published FF? [from here]
As the others have said, this might be a bit ambitious, even if it is a worthy aim. I've started loads of FF-style gamebooks, but never finished any of them (yet), even though I think there are some good ideas in there (one of my problems is that they are all so vast in scale they'd need about 800 refs each to do them justice, and that's a hell of a lot of work!). [from here]
I agreed that it was ambitious, but that it could be done. For that reason, I wrote and illustrated the mini adventure that featured in the first issue (Resurrection of the Dead) to demonstrate that it could be done (and not for any ego-boosting reasons!). Whatever the merits of my own adventure, the gamble paid off and we have had an adventure in each issue since.


Here's to more adventures in the future!

Friday 6 May 2011

Competition - The Rules

Reproducing here the rules for the competition featured in issue #6:

With the new version of Advanced Fighting Fantasy almost upon us, we’ve teamed up with Arion Games and Cubicle 7 Entertainment to give you a chance to win copies of the forthcoming AFF books: Advanced Fighting Fantasy, Out of the Pit and Titan.
To be in to win them, YOUR mission is to pen an original, entertaining, and imaginative short multi-player adventure using the original AFF rules as outlined in Dungeoneer, Blacksand! and Allansia.
Author of the new AFF series Graham Bottley will be judging the entries and picking the winner, who will not only be given copies of the new books, but have their adventure published in a future issue of this magazine for all to play and enjoy.
Criteria for entry:
  • Your adventure must feature no more than two locations
  • Your adventure must feature no more than five major NPCs (Non-Player Characters) 
  • Your adventure must be set somewhere on the world of Titan
  • Any maps needed for the adventure are to be supplied by yourself 
  • Please keep the length of the adventure to about 10, 000 words

Deadline for entries: June 10th, 2011
Please email your entries along with your postal contact details (using the subject line “AFF Competition Entry”) to:
fightingfantazine@gmail.com

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Issue #6 - Published!


Issue #6 has now been published and is available for download here: http://www.unboundbook.org/FightingFantazine/FF6.pdf

Printing password: fanta
92 pages of Fighting Fantasy goodness.

Tuesday 26 April 2011

What Shall We Do with a Stylish Blogger?



So Stuart, over at Lloyd of Gamebooks, picked this fledgling blog for the above award. The award comes with the following rules:

1. Thank and link back to the person giving you the award.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award.
4. Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award.

1. Done. Do I need to say anymore? Oh, alright... Stuart is busy blogging about gamebooks and what makes them tick. Head over and let the man know what you make of his thoughts.

2. Seven things? I've not even sure there are seven things to know about me, but we'll give it a go.

1. I'm a huge fan of Doctor Who and have been since I joined the local fan club at the end of 1989.
2. My favourite colour is green.
3. I've not met a single person who hasn't described my taste in music as being rubbish. Pick a band/singer you hate and there is a good chance I'll like a song of theirs (as long as I've actually heard of them).
4. I'm a Liverpool supporter.
5. I've recently taken up karate (orange belt here I come).
6. Worked as a porter/chef in the UK and as an English teacher in Japan.
7. I'm a fan of The Goon Show.

3. 10-15 blogs! I'm sort of new to this...

1. Jetsam


That'll do.

Next post will probably be announcing the release of issue #6...

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Competition - Sneak Peek


Coming in issue #6 is a competition based around the Advanced Fighting Fantasy (AFF) role-playing system (which gets relaunched next month from Arion Games and Cubicle 7 Entertainment). You will be asked to design an AFF mini adventure (exact requirements for the competition are listed in the forthcoming issue) that will be printed in a later issue of the magazine. Plus, there are some further goodies up for grabs for the winner!

So, get your thinking caps on and fire up your imaginations!

Friday 15 April 2011

Everything I Need to Know I Learnt from Reading Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks: Part 4 - Sneak Peek

With less than two weeks now till the release of issue #6, it is time for another peek. This time it comes from Ed Jolley's "Everything I Need to Know I Learnt from Reading Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks" series of articles which covers Puffin gamebooks #31~40.

Stealer of Souls

Go charging into the cottage to rescue the prisoner within, and you get a 16-ton weight in the face (note: actual weight may be less Pythonesque). Show caution when approaching the next prisoner you encounter, and this gives the concealed Dark Priest time to hit you with a very nasty spell. Sometimes, the only thing you learn from making mistakes is how to make different ones.
Moral: What works best in one place might not be so suitable for another.

Tuesday 12 April 2011

You Have to Start Somewhere


My "Editor's hat" is telling me this should really be an entry in the new "The Magic Quest" column, but I figure since I'm only going to cover a small moment in my journey as a Fighting Fantasy fan that I'm okay and won't have to growl at myself for giving it all away on this blog.

City of Thieves was my first encounter with the Fighting Fantasy series, having been allowed to pluck it from the local bookshop (now a shoe store) shelf in January 1987 for my birthday. Presumably I must have been eyeing up the books before then, otherwise I'm unsure as to why I would have picked the book. 1987 would also be the year I started buying the Target Doctor Who novelisations, but that is a whole different story... Those were great days, with this huge display shelf full of books seemingly aimed at me filled to the brim with Doctor Who, Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf etc.

So, book in hand, I entered the world of Titan and like so many others was quickly enamoured of the artwork of Iain McCaig. The nubile body of the Serpent Queen had an interesting (!) effect on my young male mind, as did the fetching Vampiress elsewhere in the book, and I spent forever at school scribbling away on pieces of paper fruitlessly trying to replicate McCaig's mastery of skulls (evidence of my failure to master them myself is easily seen in my art for Resurrection of the Dead in issue #1). I assume it is because art so immediately grabs one's attention that I tried my hand at that first, as I don't recall any attempts to pen my own adventures at this stage.

The adventure itself was played repeatedly, over and over again. If I recall correctly it was the Hag's hair that eluded me for the longest time till I finally found that entrance to the sewer. Of course, then I needed a Potion of Mind Control... Suffice it to say, the book didn't survive the year. Having been so well loved and read, and its poor spine so utterly creased (which happens when you need to lay the book flat to write on the Adventure Sheet), the book fell apart into chunks. I employed sticky tape to prolong the life of the book, but, after limping along on such life support for a few more months, I finally conceded that the book was indeed beyond salvation. Luckily, I was given a new copy of the same book exactly a year after the first, for the following birthday. It was time to slay Zanbar Bone all over again...

Sunday 10 April 2011

Getting Started - That Cover

A very short post today, but...


I did a little digging and here it is, the cover I originally pitched to the Titan Rebuilding team!

Saturday 9 April 2011

The Fact of Fiction: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain - Sneak Peek


Another sneak peek, this time from "The Fact of Fiction" article on The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.
3
At the river the hero negotiates the cost of passage to the other bank.
• Is the Ferryman seen here a nod to the Greek mythological character Charon, whose job it was to ferry the souls of the dead from the lands of the living to the world of the dead? One could attempt to build a case for the two parts of the book perhaps mirroring this division between the lands of the living (before the river) and the dead (after the river). This is because despite meeting none before the river crossing, the player encounters four different forms of the undead after crossing the river in the form of Zombies (see 122), a Vampire (see 17), a Wight (see 41), and a Ghoul (see 64)! Meanwhile, traditionally a coin would be placed in or on the mouth of the body of dead person to allow them to pay Charon for the crossing of the River Styx (see “The Fact of Fiction” in issue #4). That would make the Ferryman’s comment about inflation raising the price to 3 Gold Pieces even more amusing, rather than perhaps simply being perhaps a riff on the inflation the UK had suffered through in the late 1970s where prices rose by 25% per annum.
• The river was also the point at which Livingstone handed the story over to Jackson, who wrote everything north of the river as well as doing a polish of the whole book after it was pointed out by Puffin editor Philippa Dickinson that there was a noticeable change in writing style at that point.

Thursday 7 April 2011

Getting Started - The Pitch

So, how did this monstrosity get started?




After editing and posting (available for a month only and never again) compilations edits of the various Fighting Fantasy mini adventures in April 2009 (the pic above is the cover of the first of the five editions released), it was just a small step from that to the idea of a fan magazine. So, at the end of that same April, I posted this proposal to the Titan Rebuilding Yahoo! group:

"Fighting Fantasy" Fan Magazine Proposal
STATS
* Presented as a downloadable .pdf file (rapidshare?)
* A4 size page layout
* 56 pages?
* Biannual? / Quarterly?
* Editorial team: Overall / News / Pit / Archive / Interview / Art / Mini-FF?
CONTENTS
* Colour Cover Art (Front & Back)
* B&W interior art
* "Omens and Auguries" - FF & other role-playing gamebook news (+ Titannica news?)
* "Out of the Pit" - 4 monsters from the world of FF (mix of monsters from post-OOTP FF gamebooks/mini-ffs & fan ones?)
* "The Arcane Archive" - reviews of FF & other role-playing gamebooks (colour cover scans)
* Mini-Adventure (200 refs with 6 minor b&w illustrations and 15 full page b&w illustrations)
* Interview with FF writer/artist (with colour photo of person interviewed)
* Articles about Titan
* Other regular features? (letters page, multi-player mini-ffs, Titan-based fiction?)
SUGGESTIONS
* Myself as overall editor + possibly interviewer. Also able to contribute some b&w art
* Per Jorner perhaps as Archive reviewer?
* Team from Titannica taking turns with articles about Titan
In a later post I then summarised the feedback I'd received:
Issues per year.
===========
Most think 1~2 sounds right, which is a number I'm happy with and think can be managed (I have another fanzine that comes out about that often so I have some idea of the workload involved, especially since it is 56 pages per issue). If the responsibility for the bulk of the content is spread about then it shouldn't be too difficult to put an issue together. Only 1~2 a year also means that producing a mini-ff is more likely, but also we can cut/delay a mini-ff and simply do an issue without if need be.
Art
===
Here I was thinking of original art. While my mini-ff compilations are a fun exercise, for the fanzine it would be prudent to keep the contents (bar that it is based on the FF system and world) original. I'm happy to supply some of the art and thought that if it (like the text) was split between different people it would make producing it easier.
Contents
======
(with rough page allocations)
*Cover (1 page)
*Guff (1)
*Contents/Editorial (1)
*"Omens and Auguries" (2)
*"Out of the Pit" (2~3)
*"The Arcane Archive" (2~4)
*Interview (8)
*Fiction (2~3)
*Article (3~4)
*Mini-FF (20)
*Back Cover (1)
This gives roughly 53 pages. (Mini-ff estimate based on average space taken in "Warlock"). 
Division of Labour
=============
Art: 4 artists per issue (1 for colour cover art, 1 for general interior b&w art, 1 for mini-ff* and 1 for OOTP)
Text: 7 writers to cover OOTP, O&A, TAA, Interview, Article, Mini-FF*, Fiction
*This would presumably have the biggest workload of an issue.
Flying Pigs
========
All of this is currently just pie in the sky thinking, an idea I thought might be nice to try. Till people actually sit down and work out what they think they abel to do/can commit to time/effort-wise it can't really progress further. As noted, I'm happy to assemble each issue and do the overall editing, but wouldn't be able to produce the entire contents myself. I'm also willing to tackle the interviews, some art and the occasional mini-ff.


I then followed it up another post later on which had a teasing image showcasing a possible design for the cover (the image below is the revised version I posted instead of the original, as in the original the magazine was called 400 and mini adventure titled Night of the Necromancer - a title then pinched with permission by Jonathan Green):


The magazine was on its way!

Monday 4 April 2011

Artist Spotlight - Natalie Gingerboom


Today is the first in an irregular series of posts that will briefly highlight the various talented artists whose works help lift Fighting Fantazine up to be something other than a very dense chunk of text.

To kick off, we turn the spotlight on Natalie Gingerboom.

The magazine was first put in touch with Natalie after her contribution to an art competition on the official website which depicted Zanbar Bone and his Moondogs (from City of Thieves). Andrew Wright, our "Out of the Pit" wrangler spotted her talent and got in touch, directing her to the newly released first issue of the magazine. She sent an email and before the week was out she'd signed over her soul and was hard at work on the cover for issue #2.

Since then she's been hard at work studying illustration at University, and you can visit her blog to take a peek at her non-Fighting Fantasy efforts.

In an effort to keep her from drowning in study we've kept her busy ourselves, with Natalie doing the back cover for issue #3 and most recently the front cover for issue #5 (which she discusses on her blog and a bit of which I've nicked for the logo at the top of this blog).

Fans can look forward to more of her artistic efforts as she contributes to issue #7, currently planned for release in July...

Sunday 3 April 2011

Deadlines

I've had a query about deadlines, which ties in nicely with an email I sent out to previous/current contributors at the end of last week. Basically what I was trying to communicate was, if you have something to submit (or an idea you want to thrash out as a possible submission), then getting it in to me sooner rather than later is better. The reason for this is that I am trying to block out (assign space in other words) future issues and if you want something to appear in one of those issues now is the time to send it on in!


The magazine does have deadlines. Here is a few now:


Issue #7 - June 24th, 2011 for publication in July
Issue #8 - August 26th, 2011 for publication in October
Issue #9 - November 25th, 2011 for publication in January 2012


These don't mean you should have your first draft in to me by then. Ideally those dates represent when final drafts should be reaching my mailbox.

Enough said, I think. If on the other hand you think I've forgotten to address something to do with deadlines and/or submissions to the mag, write a comment below!

Saturday 2 April 2011

Turn to Paragraph 400 - Sneak Peek


Time for another sneak peek, this time from the second half of the survey results. This time around we look at the mini adventures, the role-playing game and Advanced Fighting Fantasy, the novels and other materials, as well as learning your favourite pieces of cover and interior art. The results also cover favourite villain, favourite creature, favourite artist and writer.

There is also "most wanted reprint" (which out of print do you most want back in circulation), "most wanted author" (who you'd like to see pen the next new title), and a list of writers you'd love to see write for the series. We round that part out with where in Titan you'd like to see the next book set, and which genres you like beyond fantasy.

We also asked about the magazine itself (and you had the first 3 issues to vote on). We learnt your favourite feature and the image at the top of the post was voted your favourite piece of fan art. It is from the mini adventure Shrine of the Salamander in issue #2 and the artwork was by Brett Schofield. Congratulations Brett!

Finally, the results round out with what you'd like to see in future issues and who was voted "most important contributor" to the Fighting Fantasy range.

Get a hold of a copy of issue #6 when it is published to find out all the results...

Wednesday 30 March 2011

The Wall of Books


Ah, time for a post to reveal just how much of a fan collector I am (although this is probably nothing on Jamie's collection).

Top row: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (wraparound cover - 1st edition); Puffin #1~7 (coloured star versions); Puffin #1~24 (zig-zag versions) with a second copy of The Citadel of Chaos with the Ian Miller cover and a copy of House of Hell without the excised illustration. There follows Puffin books #5, 6, 8~21 (Golden Dragon versions with number on front cover).

Second row: Golden Dragon with number cover versions continues with books #22~36; then the Puffin versions with no numbers in the Golden Dragon format with books #4, 7, 10, 13, 15, 21, 24, 27, 30, 37~39; then the Golden Dragon versions with the number only on the spine for books #1~3, 7, 9~12, 15, 16, 18~24, 26, 28~30.

Third row: The Puffin Golden Dragon number only spine versions continue with books #31, 33, 35~51 along with a second version of Master of Chaos with the map by Leo Hartas. The comes the final Puffin editions which are the Golden Dragon format without the foil for which I have books #1~4, 10~14, 17, 22, 24, 33, 42, 44, 46~58.

Fourth row: The final Puffin book Curse of the Mummy; followed by the Clash of the Princes box set; the coloured star and Golden Dragon with foil versions of Fighting Fantasy – The Role-playing Game; and the zig-zag version of The Riddling Reaver. The follows Wizard Books versions from "Series 1" beginning with the "Sample Version" of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain; and continuing with the "Standard Editions" of books #1~6, 8~10, 15, 17, 20, 21, 26; then the "Special Editions" of books #3~12, 16, 18, 19, 22~29; and then the 25th Anniversary Edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. The row ends with the foil version of the first three novels from Puffin.

Bottom row: The UK versions of all 4 Adventures of Goldhawk and the US version of book #2 The Demon Spider; then the 10th Anniversary Yearbook; the Sorcery! boxset of The Shamutanti Hills and The Sorcery Spell Book; followed by the "coloured triangle" version of The Shamutanti Hills and the edition of the Spell Book that was sold seperately; with the zig-zag versions of all 4 Sorcery! books next. There follows the B5-sized versions of Out of the Pit and Titan and the three Advanced Fighting Fantasy books (the first two being the foil versions). My only novel from The Zagor Chronicles quartet is next along with the Deathtrap Dungeon Card Game. Then is the Wizard Books "Series 2" editions of which I have books #1~9, 11~16. Winding up this post and the final row is the paperback and hardback versions of The Tasks of Tantalon, the A4-sized editions of Out of the Pit and Titan and Warlock magazine issues #1~13.

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Coming Soon - Issue 6 (Other Items of Interest)

Well, what else do we have lined up for issue #6?

We have "Turn to Paragraph 400" Part 2, the second half of the 2010 survey results. Find out who was voted favourite author and favourite artist. Which book would you most like to see reprinted and who would you want to pen a new Fighting Fantasy adventure? Plus, who did YOU vote as the most important contributor to the series?

We also have Chapter 2 of Ian Brocklehurst's ongoing tale Aelous Raven and the Wrath of the Sea-Witch, Part 4 of Ed Jolley's continued investigation of the books for morals in "Everything I Need to Know I Learnt from Reading Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks", the "Chronicle of Heroes" by Adrian Young covers A Shadow Over Blacksand, and "Fighting Dantasy" gets to grips with Forest of Doom.


Forest of Doom is also reviewed in the new reviews section, "The Arcane Archive", alongside Curse of the Mummy, Armies of Death, and Appointment with F.E.A.R. Ian Brocklehurst appears again to kick off a new irregular column called "The Magic Quest" which deals with memories of how people became fans of the series, Andrew Wright wrangles some more monsters in a new edition of "Out of the Pit", Guillermo Paredes rounds up the latest Fighting Fantasy and gamebook news, Jamie Fry looks at gamebook hunting in his column "Fighting Fantasy Collector", and the new letters page kicks off.

Finally, with more details to come in a later post, the issue features a new competition...

Sunday 27 March 2011

It's a Small World After All



Just a post to highlight some of the wonderfully diverse people that have contributed to/supported Fighting Fantasy since it was launched in 2009.

As mentioned in an earlier post we have Michael Wolmarans from South Africa and Sunil Prasannan (ex-UK, now in the USA). But we also count among our many contributors (not all are listed here, just a few to show geographic diversity) Julien Meneldur (France), Aida Rintarou (Japan), Andrew Wright (ex-Australia, now in Thailand), Brett Schofield (Australia), Jamie Fry (UK), Demian Katz (USA), Ian Brocklehurt (ex-UK, now in Greece), Guillermo Parades (Mexico), Dan Satherley (NZ), and Natalie Gingerboom (UK).

Additional to this list, the survey reveals we also have readers from places like Sweden and Ireland.

Friday 25 March 2011

Escape from the Sorcerer - Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek from the art and text of the mini adventure for issue #6.

You open the door into a very high-ceilinged room. You realise the reason for the spacious accommodations when a huge, twenty-foot long Cobra rears its head, hissing menacingly and trying to bite you!

This is Escape from the Sorcerer by Sunil Prasannan (now a resident of the USA) and illustrated by Michael Wolmarans (of South Africa):

The kingdom of Alkemis has come under repeated attack from neighbouring Agra. Unable to hold back the hordes of Lizard Men and chaotic Asuras led by the evil sorcerer Grudar Kreshnel, YOU and a few dozen fellow survivors were captured. One by one your fellow countrymen have been brutally executed, until only YOU remain. Will YOU be able to escape from the Sorcerer?

Wednesday 23 March 2011

Coming Soon - Issue 6


We're well on the way to getting the next issue done and dusted, so to help wet your appetites we present the cover for the forthcoming issue. The fantastic cover art (and the interior art for the mini adventure) this issue is done by new contributor Michael Wolmarans (you can find out more about him and his art at his website: Tenebrae Studios).

And as you can see from the cover, some of the contents will be:

  • The mini adventure Escape from the Sorcerer by Sunil Prasannan
  • "The Fact of Fiction" focusses on The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
  • Interview #1 is with Leo Hartas
  • Interview #2 is with Steve Luxton
What else can we promise you? Come back in another week and I might have some more details...

Monday 21 March 2011

Letters to the Editor

Yes, Fighting Fantazine has succumbed to a blog. Just another nefarious tool to promote the Fighting Fantasy fan magazine of choice!

Beginning with issue #6, the magazine will feature a letters page entitled "Mampang Mailbox" which is open to letters (via email obviously) and posts on the Facebook page (marked [MM] to indicate that they are allowable for publication in the letters pages). The page is willing to entertain letters about the magazine itself or anything Fighting Fantasy or gamebook related.