h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.h2g2.com/A495876

For many Fighting Fantasy was an engaging pastime that consumed money and time for many formative years. For some the craze for Game Books led on to role-playing, for others the Book eventually found there way to attics and Charity Stores. Somehow, somewhere the fad lives on.

What a truley superb entry (where do you keep getting them, Apprentice?) - now I feel all nostalgic. In fact, Temple of Terror and The Rings of Kether are on the shelf behind me...

Only a couple of notes - firstly, perhaps you would consider changing the title to something like "Fighting Fantasy and early Roleplaying" because the entry covers so much. Having said this, though, it might just be fine as it is - it just isn't very clear to an uninitiated reader what FF actually IS by looking at the title.

Also, you might like to mention that Ian Livingstone has since set up Lionhead Studios and makes videogames, and that Games Workshop has become a soulless over-corporate wargame-only corporation. (okay, so don't add that!)

Lastly, I'm not quite sure of the usage of '-' here: "The rules were simply - little more than a slightly expanded version..." in the 'Riddling Reaver' section.

Great stuff! Keep it up!

I've removed the "-" from the offending sentence and may consider changing the title of the article to "Fighting Fantasy Game Books" or something. Not sure about 'early role-playing' as that isn't really what it was all meant to be about. I think I'll leave out the stuff about what Ian (or Steve) are doing now... really they came up with the idea and just let a lot of other people do the work afterwards. I wll always have this image of early coloured pictures of Ian - a couple of dozen books in the series - with this truly dark sun-tan. They must have been raking it in with this stuff and Games Workshop on top.

I too still have a large quantity of game books - including the role-play and Sorcery! stuff. I had all of the Warlock magazines too, but gave in to greed and sold the lot for more than £150. Terrible really.

Dare I say it - fantastic! (pun most definitely intended )

My personal faves were Warlock (natch), Robot Commando, Daggers of Darkness and Starship Traveller (which is totally bloody impossible, because if you take the wrong option from the first pair presented to the reader, you're screwed). The best of the best has to be City of Thieves, though. The worst? Lots of competition here - probably Sky Lord, which has an interesting 'space combat' prelude, but turns to utter rubbish later on.

A couple of things to mention - perhaps the hallowed SKILL STAMINA LUCK system might deserve a mention, if only because one could describe one's vital statistics as 12-24-12 and only fellow FF readers would know that this is actually quite flattering.

Iain McCaig went on to be the senior conceptual designer or somesuch for Star Wars Episode I, and will presumably be involved with the next two.

Steve Jackson wrote the fantastically difficult Tasks of Tantalon, a 'straight' puzzle book not involving any dice set in the 'Old World' part of Titan. This was a sort of 'Masquerade'-style book that involved serious consideration of beautifully-painted illustrations (the artist's name escapes me - Stephen something-or-other, I think) along with reading tiny inscriptions with a powerful magnifying glass. Highly rewarding when you actually finally figure out the final clue and read the final inscription... I won't tell you where it is, because that would spoil it totally!

Oh, and BMMrT, I thought it was Steve Jackson who went on to co-found Lionhead, and I think it's him who writes the excellent diary on the Lionhead website at (URL removed by moderator)

Once again, excellent, comprehensive and superbly written. A joy.

Added "Gamebooks" to the title, added a section on the basic system (Skills, Stamina, Luck and the basic dice rolling involved) and also noted the novelty addition of 'page dice' in the Sorcery! system that meant you could play without needing to carry dice wherever you went.

It is Jackson! How embarassing. I too have been reading the diaries (though in PC Zone) - Black & White looks amazing!

Updated to include additional information on the most painful aspect of FIST - the cost! Bizarrely found an advert for FIST in an old roleplaying newsletter I used to write for. Maybe I should see whether the number still works...?!

Hello! I'm just letting you know that this entry has been chosen to become part of the edited guide. It will be edited sometime in the near future (I'm not sure how long the queue is at the moment). Well done!

Editorial Note: This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review forum because this entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

If they haven't been along already, the Scout who recommended your entry will post here soon, to let you know what happens next. Meanwhile you can find out what will happen to your entry here: http://www.h2g2.com/SubEditors-Process

Congratulations!

As people who are interested should know, the fad does indeed live on - in fact, it has been revived by the re-release of the series! Only 18 of the books have been republished so far,(with new cover illustrations, excepting Appointment with F.E.A.R., which has retained the original illustration) but more are to come.

Oh, and it wasn't Bloodstones, it was Bloodbones!

Also, the Clarecraft models are being re-released!

The fad lives! on but does anyone have access to spare books in this series as i need about eleven bookes to compleat the series.