Fighting Fantasy: Difference between revisions

A'''''Fighting Fantasy''''' is a series of [[Choose Your Own Adventure]] game books, targeted at children and teenagers. The majority of the 50+ books were set in a generic fantasy land called Titan, which later got its own tabletop RPG spin-off. Originally published by Puffin throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the series went out of print in 1995, having amassed 59 gamebooks, several spin-off series (including a range of novels) and many other related books, boardgames and videogames.

The game mechanics are like a simplified single-player version of ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]''. There are adventures set in sci-fi universes, a ''[[Mad Max]]'' rip-off, a ''[[Star Trek]]'' pastiche, a haunted house horror, and... ''Sky Lord'', a book which was almost certainly written under the influence of [[This Is Your Premise on Drugs|psychedelic drugs]] and dadaist thinking.

The books were were written or presented by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson <ref>a different Steve than the Steve who runs Steve Jackson Games though the latter has written a few books, see below</ref>. The series has had several [[Spin-Off]] series, most notable being ''[[Sorcery!]]'', and a game on the [[Nintendo DS]].

* ''[[Appointment Withwith FEARF.E.A.R.]]''

* ''[[Sorcery!]]''

* [[And I Must Scream]]: Suffering four hits from a Ghoul will paralyze you, which allows the monster to eat you alive. Not fun.

* [[Batman Gambit]]: At the end of ''Trial of Champions'', when Lord Carnuss has managed to humiliate Baron Sukumvit by kidnapping you and forcing you to successfully penetrate Deathtrap Dungeon, he tries to claim the prize of 20,000 gold pieces. Knowing that you were kidnapped by Carnuss and sent into the dungeon against your will, Sukumvit turns the tables and offers you an additional prize, that of having one special request fulfilled. As he anticipated, you ask to challenge Lord Carnuss and get revenge for all the people he kidnapped and killed.

* [[Cassandra Truth]]: Your character combines this with [[Genre Savvy]] in ''Siege of Sardath''. When the town of Grimmund is plagued by a series of increasingly bizarre incidents, your character, a member of the governing town council, suggests that some unknown enemy is deliberately plotting to conquer the land. In an almost chilling display of [[Genre Blindness]], the rest of the council laughs at your suggestion. Naturally enough, events soon prove that you're right.

* [[Cast Fromfrom Hit Points]]: Standard in most books, especially the "Advanced Fighting Fantasy" spin-off. Including the basic healing spell, which costs one Stamina to cast and then restores six Stamina.

** Given the [[AFGNCAAPFeatureless Protagonist]] nature of the hero of many of the books and the assumption that perhaps, just maybe, some of the readers were straight girls, this is unsurprising.

** Used almost to the point of absurdity in many books, when those seemingly innocuous things you gather just happen to be incredibly useful later on.

* [[Demon Slaying]]: The entire plot of ''Dead of Night''. More generally, various books have you fight everything from Fire Demons to Hell Demons to Ice Demons to Mirror Demons.

* [[Elves vs. Dwarves]]: Subverted with Redswift and Stubb, an elf and a dwarf who had become good friends when held as slaves in ''Caverns of the Snow Witch''. It's also mentioned in the semi-canonical ''Zagor Chronicles'' that the dwarves and elves around Darkwood are actually pretty chummy with one another. That said, the same book also mentions that dwarves and elves have spilled plenty of each others' blood in foolish wars over the years, which accounts for why creatures like orcs and dark elves are as powerful as they are.

* [[Empathic Weapon]]: Quite a few. ''Beneath Nightmare Castle'' stands out in that it has more than one. The Runic Axe will turn anyone who wields it into [[The Berserker]], while a magical mace is now the [[Sealed Evil in a Can|refuge for the spirit of the murderous warlord who used to wield it]], and which will possess the mind of whoever tries to use it. The Trident of Skarlos actively revels in killing demonic creatures, and will [[Let Me At Him|actively signal its desire to attack any demons that might be nearby]].

* [[Enemy Mine]]: The Slykk, a race of frog-like humanoids, are not known for their friendly treatment of humans who pass through their swamps. However, the Slykk in ''Siege of Sardath'' will help you if you prove to them that you're trying to stop the mysterious enemy that's threatening all the peoples of the region.

* [[Everything's Even Worse with Sharks]]: You have to fight one in ''[[Appointment Withwith FEARF.E.A.R.]]''.

* [[Fishmen]]: A few are encountered as monsters, but one benevolent example is Cyrano the Swordfish, a master swordsman who dwells in a magical painting and will provide the main character with a swordfighting lesson in ''Demons of the Deep.''

* [[Flying Brick]]: Your superhero character, The Silver Crusader, has the option of being this in ''[[Appointment Withwith FEARF.E.A.R.]]''.

* [[Guest Star Party Member]]: Sometimes other characters will accompany you for part of the adventure, although you don't usually roll dice for them in combat.

** Played straight in ''Legend of Zagor'' if you arrive at the Heartfires with Zagor's body, but only have 3 or fewer Stamina points remaining. You'll throw Zagor into the flames, but you'll be too weak to keep your balance and will end up falling in after him. The text says that you've saved the world, and your legend will live forever...but you won't be there to see it.

* [[Human Mom, Nonhuman Dad]]: The semi-canonical ''Zagor Chronicles'' [[Retcon|Ret Cons]] this as Zagor's parentage, albeit [[Gender Flip|Gender Flipped]] in that his father was a human wizard who impregnated a female demon.

* [[Intercontinuity Crossover]]: The Chaos Warriors of the ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' universe appear here as well, possibly due to Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson being involved both with Fighting Fantasy and Games Workshop.

* [[Karmic Jackpot]]: While you're frequently penalized for various dick moves (see [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment]], below), just as often you'll be rewarded for doing good and helping people out. You can regain LUCK points, gain cool new weapons or items, be cured of diseases, have curses removed, etc.

* [[Kill It with Fire]]: This is the only way to kill creatures like Mandrakes, Gonchongs and Mummies.

* [[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me]]: A recurring trope in the books, although how exactly any given shield will protect you varies [[Depending on the Writer]]. Some shields will give you a SKILL bonus, others reduce the amount of damage you take in combat, and still others guard against specific hazards ranging from arrows to magical lightning bolts to a Manticore's tail spikes.

* [[The Many Deaths of You]]: You can die in combat, but you can also suffer a number of "instant death" fates, ranging from being permanently imprisoned to crushed beneath a falling ceiling to passing out from the poisonous fumes in a monster's lair and then being devoured by said monster to being paralyzed and devoured by the undead.

* [[Missing Episode]]: ''Bloodbones'', intended to be book number 60 in the original 1980s-1990s range, was never published before the series ended, leaving the series ending somewhat unevenly at number 59. It enjoyed a practically mythical status amongst fandom for over a decade before it was finally published by Wizard in 2006. New gamebooks have been published after ''Bloodbones'' as well, so it's no longer even the final episode.

* [[Nintendo Hard]]: Most of the books were designed to entertain and amuse adolescent and young adult readers. ''Creature of Havoc'', however, is designed to make you kill yourself in frustration.<br />Some of Ian Livingstone's books were also unpleasant in this regard, forcing you into constant combats, many of which are against enemies with extremely high Skill scores and that much harder to beat. What's exceptionally galling about Livingstone is that sometimes he doesn't even give you any Provisions (the general equivalent to [[Healing Potion|Healing Potions]]) to start out with, and you have precious few opportunities to heal at all.

* [[One-Winged Angel]]: Quite a few, but especially Xakhaz from ''Beneath Nightmare Castle'' and the Archmage from the ''[[Sorcery!]]'' series.

* [[Out-Gambitted]]: Carnuss's attempt to humiliate his brother Sukumvit (see [[Win Your Freedom]], below) backfires when Sukumvit immediately offers you another prize, namely that of having any wish you want granted. As Sukumvit cleverly foresaw, you want nothing more than to kill Carnuss and avenge all the other slaves who died in his arena, and you demand to fight a duel with him. If you win, Sukumvit still has to pay the 20,000 gold pieces, but chances are he views that as a worthwhile price to pay to be rid of his hated brother.

* [[Print Long Runners]]: The series has been running since 1982, including a seven-year gap between 1995 and 2002. There are currently 64 different gamebooks across the Puffin and Wizard print runs, plus the four-volume ''[[Sorcery!]]'' spinoff, two books that adapt the rules for a [[Tabletop RPG]], two supplementary titles (''Out of the Pit'' lists various monsters, ''Titan'' is a guide to the world of Fighting Fantasy) four books in the ''Advanced Fighting Fantasy'' system, seven novels, a magazine that ran for three years, the two ''Clash of the Princes'' books which form a two-player adventure, the 10th Anniversary Yearbook, and the 25th Anniversary edition of ''Warlock of Firetop Mountain''.

* [[Prongs of Poseidon]]: Completely and totally inverted with the Trident of Skarlos. It breaks both of the rules mentioned on that trope's page in that it has nothing at all to do with the sea and is actually an [[Empathic Weapon]] that takes pleasure in ''destroying'' demonic creatures.

* [[The Rest Shall Pass]]: When you're making your way through the villain's lair in ''Portal Of Evil'', you can rescue two of his prisoners. If you do, they'll help you fight the villain's bodyguards. Rescue both of them and they'll each take on one of the guards and free you up to take on the villain.

* [[Sea Monster]]: A few pop up, but the most notable example would be the Kraken from ''Demons of the Deep.'' Either that, or the Abyssal Horror from ''Stormslayer''.

* [[Shout-Out]]: Ian Livingstone and his teammates appear as minor NPCs with real-world names (albeit sometimes spelled phonetically-"Fyll" instead of Phil, "Ndroo" instead of Drew, etc.), and can offer help to the player. Another example is in the more recent ''Eye of The Dragon'', where shopkeeper Thomas Peppercorn is a dead ringer for Livingstone, although he's not a sailor.

* [[Something Completely Different]]: The four ''[[Sorcery!]]'' books differ in several respects from most of the others, covering a multi-book adventure with a unique magic system. Even the setting and opponents are noticably different with a focus on non-standard monsters like [[Winged Humanoid|Birdmen]] and Kakhabad in general having less of a 'European' feel ([[Word of God]] has it Steve Jackson got the idea for the series after a trip to Nepal).

* [[Un CancelledUncancelled]]: Book number 50, ''Return to Firetop Mountain'', was intended to end the series at a round number and bring it full circle, but it sold well enough for the series to continue for another 9 (technically 10) books.

* [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment]]: As noted above, you'll get burned by this if you commit certain dick acts. Sometimes you'll lose SKILL, STAMINA or LUCK, sometimes you'll be cursed with some sort of negative effect, or you may simply suffer an instant death.

** A notable subversion occurs in ''Crypt of the Sorcerer'', where you have to kill the Bonekeeper to get an item that lets you get another item that you need to avoid an extremely hard fight later on in the book. Unfortunately, you're still hit with a major LUCK penalty for doing so.

** Another subversion occurs in ''Vault Of The Vampire'' with the [[Cloudcuckoolander]] Wilhelm Heydrich. If you attack and kill him, you'll suffer a LUCK penalty...but if you catch him in an [[Ax Crazy]] mood and he attacks you first, you will ''not'' be punished for killing him.

* [[Villain Protagonist]]: The chance to play an out and out bad guy comes up surprisingly frequently in the series. You get to play a pirate in ''Seas of Blood'', a thief in ''Midnight Rogue'' and a few books offer options to go an evil route (such as ''Scorpion Swamp'').

* [[Adam Smith Hates Your Guts]]: Largely averted. The lists of prices contained in ''Titan'' and ''Dungeoneer'' vary depending on whether you're in a large city with many merchants (least expensive), a smaller village with some regular commerce (more expensive), or a very isolated area where only a few very daring and greedy merchants will go (most expensive). ''Titan'' also goes into further detail about how a barter system can work-a master armorer will not accept two dozen chickens for a top quality breastplate, and it's a fairly dumb idea to buy a couple of apples with a bag of gems or a golden holy symbol.

* [[Apocalypse How]]: Titan suffered two Type 1 versions. The first came when the kingdom of Atlantis had essentially become [[Ax Crazy]] and was determined to [[Take Over the World]], which led the gods of good to intervene and split the One Continent of Irritaria into three separate continents. The War of the Wizards was the second apocalyptic event, although it was averted in the Old World, where a powerful magical ritual was used to destroy the forces of evil before they could invade the human kingdoms.

* [[Biological Mashup]]: A number of different monsters in Titan were created by insane wizards cross-breeding different natural species, including humans. The results include Garks (a cross between goblins and giants), Fish Men ([[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]), Manticores (a cross between humans, lions, bats and scorpions), Shapechangers (monsters that use illusion magic to appear as innocuous travelers to sneak up on unsuspecting victims before attacking them), Rat Men (again, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]), and so on. As you might expect, they're all pretty unpleasant sorts.

* [[Cain and Abel]]: Sukumvit became ruler of the city of Fang upon the death of his father, and his younger brother Carnuss was more than a little bitter over this. Carnuss became so warped by jealousy that he tried to have Sukumvit murdered, but the assassins he contracted were Sukumvit's spies, who revealed the plot to their master. Sukumvit had Carnuss banished from Fang, and Carnuss wanted revenge, and when Sukumvit began the Trial of Champions Carnuss began searching for a champion to enter the Trial for him as a means of humiliating his brother. Sukumvit has the last laugh when Carnuss's enslaved champion, your character, finally emerges from the dungeon. Sukumvit offers your character one special wish in addition to the 20,000 gold piece prize, and as he anticipated you demand to fight Carnuss to avenge the slaves who died in Carnuss's arena.

* [[The Dung Ages]]: Particularly in the case of Port Blacksand, where some streets have so much filth and muck that it can be ''waist deep'' for a Dwarf.

* [[Dungeon Crawling]] -- There are plenty of traditional dungeons, as you might expect. One enterprising ruler named Baron Sukumvit, on the other hand, created his own dungeon, ready-made with a host of deadly monsters and traps, and offered 10,000 gold coins to any daring hero who could enter it and come back out alive. Deathtrap Dungeon, as Sukumvit came to call it, serves as the setting for two Ian Livingstone-written gamebooks.

* [[Enslaved Elves]]: They may not actually be enslaved, but the N'yadach have fallen a very long way from the time when they enslaved the Skorn and fought with the Dwarves for control of the underground realms. At their height they had both fearsome magical powers and fighting skills, but in their final war against the Dwarves their Skorn slaves rebelled and joined their enemies, and the Dwarf-Skorn alliance crushed them. Now, the N'yadach are pitiful wretches reduced to hunting vermin and struggling to survive.

* [[Evilutionary Biologist]] -- More like Evilutionary Wizards, several of whom crossbreed various creatures to create monsters to serve as [[Mooks]]. Notable examples include Balthus Dire, Karam Gruul, Axion, and the guys who created the Manticores and the Fish Men.

* [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] -- Hachiman is [[Medieval Japan]], complete with [[Samurai]]. The Isles of the Dawn are, more or less, [[Dynasties From Shang to Qing|medieval China]]. Mauristatia in the Old World is a cross between [[Holy Roman Empire|mediaeval Germany]] and [[UberwaldÜberwald|Hammer Horror-style Eastern Europe]]. The city-states on the southeast tip of Allansia are the Middle East. The Inland Sea region is the [[Arabian Nights]] Persian Gulf with bits of classical/mythological greek and phoenician Mediterranean. Vynheim is [[Horny Vikings|medieval Scandinavia]]. Lendleland is medieval Mongolia. Ancient Carsepolis was [[The Roman Empire]].

* [[God of Evil]]: Death, Disease and Decay.

* [[Heroic Neutral]]: Nicodemus spent most of his life fighting the forces of evil. He eventually became so burned out from the struggle that he retired to Port Blacksand, where almost no one would bother him. While he doesn't typically do much these days (and can become very irritated if he's bothered by adventurers who try to run to him to solve all their problems for them), he will help if the problem is sufficiently big enough.

* [[Keystone Army]]: A few of the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]], like Balthus Dire, Agglax and Arachnos, are the only things that keep their disparate armies cooperating. One of the major objectives in many gamebooks is taking out the [[Big Bad]] so his or her armies will destroy themselves with infighting.

* [[Only in It For the Money]] -- A few of the gamebooks don't actually involve your character saving the city/kingdom/continent/world from a deadly magical threat. In some cases, your character is just out to line his pockets with as much loot as possible.

* [[Our Goblins Are DifferentWickeder]] -- Actually, not so much. While they are usually [[Mook|Mooks]], some of them can prove to be challenging threats (such as in ''Return to Firetop Mountain'' where the hero can be captured by a goblin). The marsh goblins are considerably nastier.

* [[Our Orcs Are Different]] -- They're among the wimpiest enemies you can face (being, on average, slightly weaker than humans), but still have a reputation for savagery. One aspect where they ''do'' stand out are their ability to eat just about anything (including wood, rocks, dirt and metal) and their bizarre funeral rites, where each mourner takes a bite out of the dearly departed's corpse.

* [[Our Gnomes Are Weirder]]: Very much so. Some of them, like the one in ''Forest Of Doom'', are cranky magic-using eccentrics who just want to be left alone, but the gnome you can meet in the ''[[Sorcery!|Crown of Kings]]'' series will sell you out to the guards of Mampang if he recognizes you.

* [[Our Monsters Are Weird]] -- Alongside the usual Trolls, Orcs, Dragons and so on you have some more oddball monsters like the [http://blog.henriqueplacido.com/up/h/he/blog.henriqueplacido.com/img/.resized_Wheelies.jpg Wheelies]{{Dead link}} from ''Citadel of Chaos''.

* [[Points of Light]]: Allansia and Khul have been like this for centuries, with human civilizations tending to be city-states rather than full-fledged countries. Exceptions include Arantis, Vynheim and Shabak in Allansia, and Hachiman in Khul.

* [[Shoplift and Die]]: Generally justified that the shopkeeper who forged the items he's selling is a powerful wizard, or the vendor just throws an item of merchandise at you and scoots away. Yaztromo is polite enough to warn you twice before unleashing [[Baleful Polymorph]] on you. You later run into to a talking crow who was a theifthief who had this happen to him...

* [[Super Not-Drowning Skills]]: When Hydana, god of the ocean, became lonely, he began kidnapping oceangoing humans to keep him company. After the first few groups of humans drowned, Hydana realized they couldn't breathe underwater and used his powers to turn their lungs into gills. This led them to become the Mermen, even as Hydana repeated the feat with the elves, trolls and giants he added to their ranks.

* [[Take Our Word for It]] -- The Shamutanti Hills are supposedly as wild and full of evil as the rest of Kakhabad. There ''are'' monsters and plenty of dangerous humans in the wilderness but the villages you pass through are harmless, or even friendly. Birritanti, the largest is downright pleasant seeming.

* [[UberwaldÜberwald]] -- parts of ''Legend Of the Shadow Warriors'', and ''Moonrunner'' contains a simply ridiculous number of Expies and Shout Outs to every well-known horror movie imaginable, of every era and sub-genre, including the Uberwald classics. Also ''Vault of the Vampire'' and its sequels.

** When their father died, Sukumvit became the fabulously wealthy ruler of the city-state of Fang, while his brother Carnuss became a nobleman with an essentially meaningless title. Sukumvit banished the jealous Carnuss when the latter tried to have him killed, and Carnuss attempted to get revenge on Sukumvit by recruiting a hapless adventurer to serve as his champion in humiliating Sukumvit by overcoming his famed Deathtrap Dungeon.

* [[Thieves' Guild]] -- Accepted as a fact of life in Port Blacksand. In one book you actually play a member of the guild out to make his bones.

* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: The book ''Titan'' details the story of the Halfhand brothers and their followers, a tribe of humans who invaded and slaughtered a tribe of orcs who lived in a fertile territory and took over their land. The book [[Lampshadeslampshade]]s what a dick move this was on the humans' part, since they were the ones who started the fight, but also notes that the humans are the ones celebrated as the heroes.

* [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]]: The Minimites, a race of pixie-like creatures who had tremendous magical abilities, joined with a number of human wizards in a powerful magical ritual to destroy the forces of evil threatening the Old World during the War of the Wizards. They succeeded, and the Old World was spared the destruction suffered by Allansia and Khul, but many of the Minimites were so overwhelmed by the power they wielded that they thought they could become the benevolent leaders of the world.<br /><br />Other Minimites realized that this was simple tyranny, so they deliberately nerfed themselves so that most magic wouldn't even work in their presence and they could not stay in close contact with one another.

[[Category:Fantasy Tabletop Games{{PAGENAME}}]]

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[[Category:Fighting Fantasy Tabletop Games]]