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46-396: Fighting Fantasy is a series of single-player role-playing gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone . The first volume in the series was published in paperback by Puffin in 1982. The series distinguished itself by mixing Choose Your Own Adventure -style storytelling with a dice-based role-playing element included within the books themselves. The caption on many of

92-638: A science fiction setting), City of Thieves , Deathtrap Dungeon , and Island of the Lizard King ; Jackson writing one and Livingstone writing three. In 1984, a decision was made to hire additional writers to expand the series more quickly: Steve Jackson (the U.S.-based founder and owner of Steve Jackson Games ) was the first, followed by others such as Andrew Chapman, Carl Sargent (aka Keith Martin), Marc Gascoigne , and Peter Darvill-Evans . Jackson and Livingstone, however, continued to be involved and approved all cover and internal illustrations within

138-509: A basis for role-plays (which in such cases may be deemed "collaborative fan-fiction"), with players either assuming the roles of established canon characters or using those the players themselves create ("Original Characters") to replace—or exist alongside—characters from the book, movie, or game, playing through well-trodden plots as alternative characters, or expanding upon the setting and story outside of its established canon. In psychology, an individual's personality can be conceptualized as

184-558: A commentary on Fighting Fantasy by Livingstone. This series concluded that same year, ending with 29 books. Wizard Books then began again with a new series of reprints in 2009, again featuring a different cover art style, and again starting with The Warlock of Firetop Mountain . These books were physically larger than prior releases, being produced in B-format (like the original Advanced Fighting Fantasy volumes). Three other original titles were added during this run, including Blood of

230-438: A few hours, or several years. Often on forum-based roleplays, rules, and standards are set up, such as a minimum word count, character applications, and "plotting" boards to increase complexity and depth of story. There are different genres of which one can choose while role-playing, including, but not limited to, fantasy , modern, medieval , steam punk , and historical . Books, movies, or games can be, and often are, used as

276-457: A further six months to expanding and improving upon their original concept. The result was The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and, after several rewrites, the book was accepted and published in 1982 under Penguin's children's imprint, Puffin Books. Following the success of this title, Jackson and Livingstone began writing individually to create additional Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. This series

322-465: A linear fashion, but rather is divided into a series of numbered sections (usually 400, though a few are shorter or longer). Beginning at the first section, the reader typically must pick one of a series of options provided by the text, each option being detailed at a separate non-sequential numbered section (e.g. the reader may be presented with a choice to turn from section 1 directly to either section 83 or section 180) which in turn provides an outcome for

368-651: A new adventure entitled Crystal of Storms , the first in the series by a female author, Rhianna Pratchett . In September 2022, two more new titles were published, one by Steve Jackson ( Secrets of Salamonis ) and one by Ian Livingstone ( Shadow of the Giants ), in celebration of the series' 40th anniversary. Fighting Fantasy was published in the United States by Laurel Leaf, an imprint of Dell Publishing , beginning in November of 1983. These U.S. versions featured

414-469: A new cover design, with the first eleven books using a white background for their covers and books 12 through 21 using a black background. Initially these editions had new cover illustrations by Richard Corben (books 1 through 7) and Richard Courtney (books 8 through 13), until 1986 when with Temple of Terror (book 14) the original Puffin Books cover illustration were used till the range ended with book 21, Trial of Champions . During this run, House of Hell

460-533: A new series of handheld games based on Fighting Fantasy for Nintendo DS and Sony's PSP . The first of these, Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain , was released for the DS in the United States on 25 November 2009, and for the Apple iPhone and iPod in early January 2010. On 10 February 2011 an Amazon Kindle edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was launched by UK developer Worldweaver Ltd , for

506-586: A popular board game to boot." Role-playing Many children participate in a form of role-playing known as make believe , wherein they adopt certain roles such as doctor and act out those roles in character. Sometimes make believe adopts an oppositional nature, resulting in games such as cops and robbers . Historical re-enactment has been practiced by adults for millennia. The ancient Romans, Han Chinese, and medieval Europeans all enjoyed occasionally organizing events in which everyone pretended to be from an earlier age, and entertainment appears to have been

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552-468: A quest. A successful play usually ends with the player reaching the final numbered section of the book. In some cases this can only be achieved by obtaining various story items (e.g. gems in Deathtrap Dungeon ); many of the titles only feature one path to the solution. All Fighting Fantasy gamebooks are illustrated, including full-page pieces and smaller, repeated images scattered throughout

598-670: A role. Some examples are occupational training role-plays , educational role-play exercises, medical role-play, and certain military wargames . One of the first uses of computers was to simulate real-world conditions for participants role-playing the flying of aircraft. Flight simulators used computers to solve the equations of flight and train future pilots. The army began full-time role-playing simulations with soldiers using computers both within full scale training exercises and for training in numerous specific tasks under wartime conditions. Examples include weapon firing, vehicle simulators, and control station mock-ups. The teddy bear hospital

644-401: A set of expectations about oneself and others and that these add up to role-playing or role-taking. Here, the role is fiction because it is not real but it has a degree of consistency. Role-playing is also an important part of a child's psychological development. For example, the instance when a child starts to define "I" and separate him or herself from an adult is the initial condition for and

690-465: Is a roleplay strategy where pediatric and nursing medical students act as a "teddy doctor" to children who act as the carer of a teddy, or another soft toy, requiring consultation. It is used both to reduce anxiety and improve patient outcomes of children, and pedagogically for medical students to better understand children. There are programs for teddy bear hospitals in dozens of universities and medical facilities worldwide. Role playing may also refer to

736-1004: The Commodore 64 , Amstrad CPC , BBC , and Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1984) and Deathtrap Dungeon for the PC and PlayStation by Eidos Interactive (1998). On 18 August 2011 an adaption of Talisman of Death was released by UK developer Laughing Jackal for the PlayStation Minis platform (playable on the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 ). Cambridge-based studio Inkle released another interactive version of The Shamutanti Hills for iOS in May 2013, and has since gone on to release all four parts of Sorcery! on iOS, Android, Windows and Mac. The video game The Warlock of Firetop Mountain: Goblin Scourge Edition

782-628: The Fighting Fantasy universe, and each issue featured a short gamebook adventure, new rules, monsters, reviews and comic strips. It was published from 1983 to 1986 and ran for 13 issues in the UK. It was also published in other countries, and continued in Japan until 1997. In 1984, Jackson published a roleplaying game , Fighting Fantasy – The Introductory Role-playing Game . A second game was published in 1989: Advanced Fighting Fantasy (AFF). AFF

828-519: The Fighting Fantasy 10th Anniversary Yearbook (a diary with articles, trivia and a gamebook) was published. In 2003, Jamie Wallis (not to be confused with James Wallis ) adapted eight Fighting Fantasy and Sorcery! gamebooks to the D20 System . These adventures were published by Myriador (now defunct, though PDFs are still available for purchase from Greywood Publishing via third-party online retailers). A comic series based on Freeway Fighter

874-454: The US-based game designer of the same name ) and Ian Livingstone attended a Games Day , and after meeting with a Penguin Books editor Geraldine Cook decided to create a series of single-player gamebooks. Their first submission, The Magic Quest , was a short adventure intended to demonstrate the style of game. The Magic Quest was eventually accepted by Penguin, although the authors devoted

920-557: The 1990s caused a gradual decline. The series was scheduled to conclude with Return to Firetop Mountain (book 50, Livingstone, 1992), but due to strong sales of that volume, ten more books were scheduled. Nine were published, the series ending with Curse of the Mummy (1995). Bloodbones , the tenth scheduled title (meant to have been book 60 in the series) was cancelled, but was eventually published by Wizard Books as part of their later reprinting efforts. In 2002, Wizard Books acquired

966-499: The 50 most popular roleplaying games of all time. The UK magazine's editor Paul Pettengale commented: "To say that it is basic would be a huge understatement – Fighting Fantasy has just a couple of stats from which a character is created, and combat is a simple case of rolling six-sided dice, pitching one creature's stats against another. It's fun, quick and easy, which explains its popularity." The books were published with illustrations from Games Workshop which, though something Puffin

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1012-488: The UK. Jackson wrote a self-contained four-part series titled Steve Jackson's Sorcery! (1983-1985), which combined the use of combat and sorcery, and introduced the continent later known as the Old World. These featured dice images at the bottom of each page, making it possible for the player to randomly flip through the pages for the equivalent of a dice roll (the Fighting Fantasy titles published by Wizard Books used

1058-599: The US market. Warlock and four other gamebooks were released on iOS by Big Blue Bubble, but were removed from the app store in 2012 when they lost the licence. Australian game developers Tin Man Games have since published several iOS and Android versions of Fighting Fantasy books, including Blood of the Zombies , House of Hell , Forest of Doom , Island of the Lizard King and Starship Traveller , and an iOS version of

1104-469: The Werewolf in 2007. This series used a new logo, the rationale being that the old covers did not suit the modern market. 2007 also marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Fighting Fantasy , and to commemorate the event Wizard Books published a special hardcover edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain that used the original 1982 cover image and contained extra material such as the dungeon solution and

1150-477: The Zombies by Ian Livingstone to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary in 2012. This series was 17 books long, although Blood of the Zombies , the last volume released, is unnumbered and packaged differently than the rest. A new Fighting Fantasy book by Livingstone, The Port of Peril , was published in August 2017 by Scholastic in celebration of the 35th anniversary of the series. Scholastic also released five of

1196-594: The book as breaks or space fillers between sections. Regular contributors (excluding Scholastic editions) included Les Edwards , Terry Oakes, Russ Nicholson , Leo Hartas, Ian Miller , John Blanche , Martin McKenna, and Iain McCaig . Each Fighting Fantasy gamebook requires the reader to create their character, randomly assigning scores to three statistics (skill, stamina, and luck). These, in conjunction with rolling six-sided dice, are used to resolve skill challenges and

1242-547: The combat sections. Some titles use additional statistics or conflict resolution mechanics; most also require the reader to keep an inventory of items. Most early Fighting Fantasy titles were set in locations later revealed to be on the same continent called Allansia. Later a whole world named Titan was developed, with subsequent gamebooks set on three main continents—Allansia, Khul and the Old World. Other titles are set in unrelated fantasy, horror, modern day, and sci-fi environments. In 1980, Steve Jackson (not to be confused with

1288-634: The controversy, Jackson replied that they were very grateful for it, as it helped their sales figures. Game historian Stu Horvath commented "The moral panic didn't dent sales. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and the Fighting Fantasy series proved to be a massive on-ramp for bringing new players into the RPG hobby, particularly in the British commonwealth ... Firetop Mountain alone was reprinted five times in 1982, ten times in 1983, and seven more in 1984, eventually selling well over two million copies and inspiring

1334-419: The covers claimed each title was an adventure "in which YOU are the hero!" The majority of the titles followed a fantasy theme, although science fiction , post-apocalyptic , superhero , and modern horror gamebooks were also published. The popularity of the series led to the creation of merchandise such as action figures, board games, role-playing game systems, magazines, novels, and video games. Puffin ended

1380-400: The famous comedy troupe Second City , insisted that her exercises were games, and that they involved role-playing as early as 1946. She accurately judged role-playing in the theatre as rehearsal and actor training, or the playing of the role of actor versus theatre roles , but many now use her games for fun in their own right. A role-playing game is a game in which the participants assume

1426-542: The first part of the Sorcery! series was released by Bright Al Ltd in 2010. Inkle's Sorcery! series is available on iOS, Android, Windows and Mac. In March 1983, the top three entries of the Sunday Times bestseller list were occupied by Fighting Fantasy books. The series sold 20 million copies in the 80s and 90s. Fighting Fantasy was ranked 47th in the 1996 reader poll of Arcane magazine to determine

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1472-463: The option chosen. The book continues in this fashion until their character is killed in combat, is stopped by the story, or completes the story. " Fighting Fantasy gamebooks empower the reader, who felt the anxiety or joy of being fantasy heroes themselves – they lived or died by their decisions. And if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again," said Ian Livingstone of the format. The typical Fighting Fantasy gamebook tasks players with completing

1518-477: The original books. Instead of reusing the original artwork or its style, Scholastic commissioned new artwork. In April 2018, a further six titles were published, including a new adventure by author Charlie Higson , entitled The Gates of Death . Three more titles were published in September 2019, including Livingstone's new adventure Assassins of Allansia . In October 2020, two new titles were published, including

1564-456: The primary purpose of these activities. Within the 20th century, historical re-enactment has often been pursued as a hobby . Improvisational theatre dates back to the Commedia dell'Arte tradition of the 16th century. Modern improvisational theatre began in the classroom with the " theatre games " of Viola Spolin and Keith Johnstone in the 1950s. Viola Spolin, who was one of the founders

1610-439: The result of role play. There are also experiments that found role-playing resulted in behavioral change such as the case of smokers who reported negative attitude towards smoking after being asked to pretend to be a person diagnosed with lung cancer. Role-playing may also refer to role training where people rehearse situations, alone or with others, in preparation for a future performance and to improve their abilities within

1656-556: The rights to the Fighting Fantasy series and reprinted many of the original titles in a revised order (initially only the gamebooks actually written by Jackson and/or Livingstone were published), starting with The Warlock of Firetop Mountain . They also incorporated the Sorcery! miniseries, as books 9, 11, 13, and 15. A new title, Eye of the Dragon (by Ian Livingstone) was released in 2005, followed by Bloodbones in 2006 and Howl of

1702-635: The roles of characters and collaboratively create stories . Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterisation , and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. Within the rules, they may improvise freely; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the games. Role-playing can also be done online in the form of group story creation, involving anywhere from two to several hundred people, utilizing public forums, private message boards, mailing lists, chatrooms, and instant-messaging chat services to build worlds and characters that may last

1748-542: The same device). Andrew Chapman and Martin Allen also wrote a two-book, two-player adventure titled Clash of the Princes (1986). There were also several supplemental books produced that provided more information about the Fighting Fantasy universe, including a comprehensive bestiary of monsters and a sample adventure. Although the Fighting Fantasy titles had successful sales the increasing dominance of video games in

1794-431: The series in 1995, but the rights to the series were eventually purchased by Wizard Books in 2002. Wizard published new editions of the original books and also commissioned six new books over two series, ending in 2012. The rights were then acquired by Scholastic in 2017, which has since published four new titles and reissued thirteen of the original books with new artwork. The main text of each gamebook does not progress in

1840-701: The technique commonly used by researchers studying interpersonal behavior by assigning research participants to particular roles and instructing the participants to act as if a specific set of conditions were true. This technique of assigning and taking roles in psychological research has a long history. It has been used in the early classic social psychological experiments by Kurt Lewin (1939/1997), Stanley Milgram (1963), and Phillip Zimbardo (1971). Herbert Kelman suggested that role-playing might be "the most promising source" of research methods alternative to methods using deception (Kelman 1965). The Cretan Chronicles Too Many Requests If you report this error to

1886-600: Was published by Titan Comics in May 2017. In September 2017, a series of audio dramas based on classic Fighting Fantasy titles was launched by FoxYason Productions at Fighting Fantasy Fest 2, starting with The Warlock of Firetop Mountain: The Hero's Quest . A boxset of four more titles was released in 2018. Several Fighting Fantasy titles have been released as video games, including seven Fighting Fantasy titles ( The Warlock of Firetop Mountain , The Citadel of Chaos , The Forest of Doom , Temple of Terror , Seas of Blood , Appointment with F.E.A.R. and Rebel Planet ) for

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1932-545: Was published under Puffin's newly-created Adventure Gamebooks banner, which eventually would hold not only the Fighting Fantasy series, but The Cretan Chronicles trilogy, the Starlight Adventures series, and the individual role-playing game Maelstrom as well. In 1983, The Citadel of Chaos and The Forest of Doom were published, by Jackson and Livingstone respectively. Four more titles quickly followed: Starship Traveller (the first title with

1978-665: Was re-released as a new and further expanded edition by Arion Games in 2011. In 1985, Jackson wrote a picture gamebook with the title Tasks of Tantalon , in which the player was required to solve a series of puzzles which were presented as large, full-colour pictures containing hidden clues to be located and assembled. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (1986) and Legend of Zagor (1993) were released as board games by Games Workshop and Parker Brothers respectively. Between 1989 and 1994, seven novels were published based on Fighting Fantasy , written by Steve Jackson , Marc Gascoigne , Ian Livingstone , and Carl Sargent . In 1992,

2024-630: Was re-titled House of Hades . In October 2003, iBooks of New York began republishing the books, beginning with the first two ( The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and The Citadel of Chaos ). iBooks filled for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in February 2006. In October 2024, Steve Jackson Games announced that it had secured the U.S. rights to publish Fighting Fantasy , with the first books scheduled to appear in "early 2025" in two waves of five books each. Warlock magazine (first published by Puffin Books and later Games Workshop) provided additional information on

2070-566: Was released by Tin Man Games for the Nintendo Switch on 13 September 2018. Tin Man Games has also released the Fighting Fantasy Classics video game for Windows. Bloodbones is available for free and other titles are available as paid DLC . Nomad Games released Deathtrap Dungeon Trilogy for the Nintendo Switch in 2019. On 5 December 2006, it was announced that Jackson and Livingstone were planning to release

2116-493: Was resistant to accept, Ian Livingstone credits as part of the series' success. However, partially as a result of the covers, the game, along with Dungeons & Dragons , became the subject of a moral panic . The Evangelical Alliance issued a warning that the books would lead to players interacting with the devil, while parents reported that after reading their children developed supernatural powers, including one mother who reported that her child started to fly. When asked about

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