The History of FF

In 1982 two guys called Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone teamed together and planned a book which was, at that time, called The Magic Quest. Apart from having a cringeworthy working title, this book was different. The reader actually decided what happened next. The basic premise was along the lines of "If you want to do this turn to page X. If not, turn to page Y." The reader/player had to go through to a profitable ending. This was not a new idea, but using the introduction of dice, stats in the form of SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK, and a RPG-style combat system, it was a success.

The Magic Quest was not the title that the book was actually published with. On the day it was sent to the printers, it became known as The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. This was soon followed by The Citadel of Chaos and The Forest of Doom. Eventually the series grew and grew, with worldwide sales expanding into the 10 millions. When the series finished with book 59 in 1996, the back of the covers proudly boasted "Over 14 million copies sold worldwide!"

The books are now out of print, and are selling like hot cakes among collectors. It also spawned a role-playing system, two board games, a computer game and a magazine called Warlock. In addition, between 1992 and 1995, the books would have a shelf devoted entirely to themself in most branches of WHSmiths. They have been published all over the world and in some countries the series was taken up by local publishers and translated into different languages.

I myself got into the idea fairly late, around 1993-4. I remember having a buying frenzy in which I acquired around 20 of them. The other twenty-five or so I have were gleaned from car boot sales, second-hand bookshops and one was even acquired at a book stall at a chess tournament for £1. I also have the entire Advanced Fighting Fantasy role-playing system, and also the board game based on #54, Legend of Zagor.

But the FF story doesn't finish there. In 2001, selected FF Gamebooks have been reprinted (specifically those by Steve and Ian themselves rather than the sub-authors.) As of April 2005, this is still happening (although finding the new-edition books with their nicer covers is quite a bit harder) and there are also tales of an all-new gamebook to be called Eye of the Dragon. Hopefully I will be able to review this in due course; it's by Ian Livingstone and, in the "new" series, it's number 21.

My FF Collection