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.

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.

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!

The Return of Advanced Fighting Fantasy

The new version of Advanced Fighting Fantasy is now available for purchase:

http://shop.cubicle7store.com/Advanced-Fighting-Fantasy-RPG

along with reprints of Out of the Pit and Titan:

http://shop.cubicle7store.com/Out-of-the-Pit
http://shop.cubicle7store.com/Titan

Author Graham Bottley was interviewed in issue #5 and issue #6 features a competition to win copies of the above three titles.

Some recent posts about the return of AFF:

http://virtualfantasies.blogspot.com/2011/05/did-graham-bottley-grant-my-wishes.html
http://www.minient.net/2011/05/advanced-fighting-fantasy-returns/
http://pfcomics.com/2011/05/14/new-game-stuff-3142011/
http://grandexperiment.livejournal.com/153381.html
http://tranquilosonminions.blogspot.com/2011/05/romanos-muertos-y-fantasia-avanzada.html

Reviews of all three books will appear in issue #7 of the magazine later in the year.

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!

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

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.

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

2. Tin Man Games

3. nattherat.

4. Fantasy Game Book

5. Unnatural History

6. Fighting Dantasy

7. Turn to 400

That'll do.

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

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!

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.