A Fighting Fantasy Journey

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Project Blog by denzien

Recommendations: 1171

About the Project

The Fighting fantasy series had to be my first step into gaming as a child. Growing up in a computer free 80s household the books gave me an escape from the norm before little men came along. After years of neglect I went back to my original collection and went on a mission to complete it. In this project I will be looking at each book and seeing if they were as good as I remember. I have also picked up some of the official Fighting Fantasy minis from Atlantis Miniatures and painting them up to go with my book collection.

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Book Two: The Citadel of Chaos

Dec 8 2021

Tutoring 15

Skill 17

Idea 16

8 Comments

My two versions of Steve Jacksons Citadel of Chaos. An interesting second book that expands on the rules by adding spells. Something that Jackson used in his Sorcery series and is a good adition to the rules. I prefer the original cover by Ian Miller that reminds me of his work on old school warhammer and just screams chaos. In this adventure we play an apprentice wizard from the Vale of Yore, one of those nice parts of Allansia we never get to visit. We never go anywhere nice. This time we have to enter the Citadel to assainate Balthus Dire a sorcerer who according to background fluff trained with Zagor the Warlock. He also killed his own father and took the citadel and began raising an army. So at least Dire has bad intentions and needs to be stopped.

Balthus Dire is a bit of a mix of warrior and sorcerer and as we can see he plans his world conquest with model soldiers on a table. So he cant be all bad. He has a bit more of a life than the usual evil sorcerer being a married man who spends most of his time smoking strange weed and communing with odd creatures in the spirit world.

There are some interesting maps of the citadel out there with good rpg level detail. This one is nice and simple. The Citadel is inhabited by all sorts of chaotic creatures and Jackson has a hint of horror with his creatures. Like the Ganjees who are floating heads from the spirit world and the odd wheelies who are discs with faces and hands. A set of minis exist for them but I havent got them yet. One character you meet is a woman doing the laundry as even monsters need their clothes cleaning. Turns out she is a ghost as Balthus Dire killed her for not doing a good job and now cleans forever.

The Atlantis Miniatures version of Dire who is a bit stiff in the shoulders for me.

The older Otherworld Miniature captures Russ Nicholsons art style in my opinion.

Book One: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

Dec 3 2021

Tutoring 16

Skill 18

Idea 17

6 Comments

The classic that started it all. I have three versions of the first book written by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. We embark on a mission into Firetop Mountain the lair of an evil Warlock and his minions in attempt to steal his treasure. I never felt Zagor the Warlock was a real villain as we are the one breaking into his home to take his treasure. He seems happy living in isolation in his mountain so why are we trying to kill him. In Titan the guide book to the world we discover he stole the treasure from the dwarfs, but who hasnt done that. Zagor popped up in the novel The Trolltooth wars where the hero has to ask for his help proving Zagor could be reasoned with so why are we trying to kill him? Because we want his treasure thats why.

The 25th anniversary edition is a great find if you can get it. It has a complete list of the book series and a history of the collection and map of the mountain.

The route through the mountain will lead us to the Warlock but on the way we need to collect the three keys to unlock his chest. We arent told this, we have to figure this out on the way. It's always a pain to get right to the end of one of these books just to find out you missed oone object that you needed to win. The worse section of the map is when you hit the maze which Steve Jackson put in and I remember tossing the book away in frustration as I came across the same gambling dwarfs about four times.

The warlock illustrated by Russ Nicholson who for me is Mr Fighting Fantasy. I love his line work which is always full of detail. The miniature is based on this picture. It's nice that the Warlock gives you time to look through your backpack to find something to help you in your fight.

For painting my mini I used the art from the board game cover for inspiration. This was the first Games Workshop game I played because as a ten year old I knew the rules from the book. It also followed the layout of the book including the annoying maze.