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Post by Peter on May 15, 2022 7:23:42 GMT
My first impressions:
The Steve Jackson one: a list of quests – I'm sure you don't choose one and that is your adventure. It seems like a series of mini-quests, of which you choose some, with some sort of end-game (possibly involving the Shivering Man) in which previous quest outcomes influence your options.
The Ian Livingstone one could easily be an item/info hunt, to find out where the Yaztromo/Nicodemus character lives and to acquire what is needed to gain his favour.
Illustrators are promising.
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CharlesX
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Post by CharlesX on Jul 1, 2022 13:15:00 GMT
After generically hearing the release dates for Secrets Of Salamonis and Shadow Of The Giants as September, I can confirm via multiple sources such as Amazon both new Fighting Fantasy's are to be released on September 1.
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Jul 1, 2022 13:38:51 GMT
Those are cool titles. I've read they were going to go with the title 'Magic Quest' instead of 'The Warlock of Firetop Mountain' for FF one. Thank goodness they went with the very brave second one instead of the very bland first one. "Home Invasion" would have been a good title too.
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CharlesX
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Post by CharlesX on Jul 1, 2022 13:44:45 GMT
Those are cool titles. I've read they were going to go with the title 'Magic Quest' instead of 'The Warlock of Firetop Mountain' for FF one. Thank goodness they went with the very brave second one instead of the very bland first one. "Home Invasion" would have been a good title too. My brother and I used to joke The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain has you finding out some harmless old guy is rich and deciding to rob him!
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Post by sleepyscholar on Jul 2, 2022 4:41:06 GMT
Those are cool titles. I've read they were going to go with the title 'Magic Quest' instead of 'The Warlock of Firetop Mountain' for FF one. Thank goodness they went with the very brave second one instead of the very bland first one. I think 'Shadow of the Giants' is quite evocative (certainly a lot better than Oasis's 'Shoulder of the Giants'). Steve's looks a bit mechanical, though. And it is a shame to still have that 'Umm of the Aargh' pattern. It's a Doctor Who cliché too. I guess the Fighting Fantasy Fest 4 should actually be called 'The New Steve and Ian FF Book Launch'.
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Jul 2, 2022 15:56:02 GMT
Those are cool titles. I've read they were going to go with the title 'Magic Quest' instead of 'The Warlock of Firetop Mountain' for FF one. Thank goodness they went with the very brave second one instead of the very bland first one. I think 'Shadow of the Giants' is quite evocative (certainly a lot better that Oasis's 'Shoulder of the Giants'). Steve's looks a bit mechanical, though. And it is a shame to still have that 'Umm of the Aargh' pattern. It's a Doctor Who cliché too. I guess the Fighting Fantasy Fest 4 should actually be called 'The New Steve and Ian FF Book Launch'. Based on what I've heard, and perhaps in keeping with the FF naming theme, how about calling it "Book Launch of the Autocrats" ?
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Jul 2, 2022 21:21:04 GMT
Ian Livingstone has posted the cover of Shadow of the Giants on Twitter:
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Post by scouserob on Jul 2, 2022 22:33:48 GMT
Ian Livingstone has posted the cover of Shadow of the Giants on Twitter I think that cover looks pretty great. 👍🏻
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Jul 2, 2022 22:37:43 GMT
Ian Livingstone has posted the cover of Shadow of the Giants on Twitter I think that cover looks pretty great. 👍🏻 Agreed. Hope the contents measure up!
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Post by Wilf on Jul 3, 2022 0:33:19 GMT
Wow! First decent (regular) FF cover since Blood Of The Zombies.
Love it!
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Post by Wilf on Jul 3, 2022 0:34:46 GMT
Also... August, now?
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Post by scouserob on Jul 4, 2022 11:04:13 GMT
And here is the cover for Secrets of Salamonis (No "The"):
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Post by misomiso on Jul 4, 2022 13:31:20 GMT
Overall really like there covers. Really like the decision to have one Red dominated and other Blue as it makes a nice contrast but also means the two books are 'paired'.
The 'Giants' cover is the superiour one imo, as it shows the Iron Giants and tells you something about the plot, where as the Salamonis cover is very non-specific. Perhaps a big view of the City would have been better...?
Looking forward to them though. I have my tickets booked to FF4 and hope you guys do to!
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Post by Wilf on Jul 4, 2022 13:40:44 GMT
Prefer the cover to Ian's book, but if we judged FFs by their covers, Blood Of The Zombies would be an all-time classic. Still, good to see we've got two excellent (and colourful) pieces of full cover art on these two titles. Definitely a step in the right direction!
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Post by adrius on Jul 4, 2022 16:59:01 GMT
And here is the cover for Secrets of Salamonis (No "The"): Can't see any cover or attachment in your post. Do you have a URL link?
Edit: Can see the latter one now (though still not the earlier one). Thanks~
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Post by Wilf on Jul 4, 2022 17:17:18 GMT
And here is the cover for Secrets of Salamonis (No "The"): Can't see any cover or attachment in your post. Do you have a URL link? Are you using Firefox by any chance? I had the same issue until I switched to Edge.
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CharlesX
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Post by CharlesX on Jul 4, 2022 17:28:24 GMT
No problem seeing Secrets Of Salamonis cover using Google\Google Chrome.
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Post by scouserob on Jul 4, 2022 17:58:56 GMT
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Post by johnbrawn1972 on Jul 29, 2022 15:42:50 GMT
Does anyone know if further books will released after the books mentioned above?
Maybe Sword of the Samurai?
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Post by Wilf on Jul 29, 2022 15:44:43 GMT
Does anyone know if further books will released after the books mentioned above? Maybe Sword of the Samurai? I imagine that depends on whether we buy them.
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Post by paperexplorer on Jul 31, 2022 5:15:50 GMT
Opened my letterbox today to find the second hand copies of Eye of the Dragon and Bloodbones that I bought online. I wasn't expecting these until next week, so a real pleasant surprise.
I haven't had a new adventure since the original series closed. I'm a little excited (despite that EotD is apparently no good)
EDIT: Wizard did a good job with these. They immediately look and feel exactly like they should. External and internal art spot on, right down to the little pictures between references. I look at Gates of Death cover and pictures and it doesn't look FF to me. These do.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jul 31, 2022 15:32:07 GMT
Does anyone know if further books will released after the books mentioned above? Maybe Sword of the Samurai?
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CharlesX
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Post by CharlesX on Jul 31, 2022 16:22:17 GMT
Does anyone know if further books will released after the books mentioned above? Maybe Sword of the Samurai? This "will make you tap the sign" but I don't entirely get the hate for reprinting older books in the series on this forum. Obviously we'd prefer it if there were more new titles, but reprints are also an amazing opportunity (primarily) to get new readers, have new artwork, correct errors, and so on. Shame imho then that aside from J & L, chiefly Jon Green seems to have had the honour of recent reprints, presumably over copyright licensing issues - surely young people deserve better than his Spellbreaker?
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jul 31, 2022 17:32:29 GMT
This "will make you tap the sign" but I don't entirely get the hate for reprinting older books in the series on this forum. I'm tapping the sign, Charles X. I am! Obviously we'd prefer it if there were more new titles, Yes we would prefer it. And these boring pointless reprints get in the way. They clog the machine up. And I expect Scholastic moan and believe the series a financial liability when no bugger buys the Warlock of Firetop Mountain, or Citadel of Chaos rots on the shelves of Waterstones or WH Smiths for 2 years before getting slung on the bargain shelves for three quid, then pulped. but reprints are also an amazing opportunity (primarily) to get new readers No more so than new titles surely? A new title would be bought by fans (who have all the old stuff) and want the new book as well as new readers. As we speak, Sword of the Samurai can be found and bought easily by anyone who knows what ebay is, and that includes 'new readers'. Under Scholastic's ownership so far, this in practice has meant (mostly) new shit artwork. Artwork so badly briefed and realised that the book becomes worse. And also for example missing out visual clues in the illustrations [Rhinoman amulet missing in Creature of Havoc, for example]. which never happens, does it? Unless to Jon Green titles, because he alone seems to actually care about these things. Shame imho then that aside from J & L, chiefly Jon Green seems to have had the honour of recent reprints, presumably over copyright licensing issues - surely young people deserve better than his Spellbreaker? Spellbreaker is a great story, just needed a bit of tinkering with. If I was in charge, I'd square things with the original authors in terms of rights and money, ask them if they wanted to make alterations to their work, then do some sort of 'print on demand' service for all the back catalogue. Surely young people deserve better than a reprint of the Warlock of Firetop Mountain every 10 years - they deserve easy access to digital or hard copy versions of the whole back catalogue, plus new books which can get new and old readers alike interested. I don't know how long the gamebook genre has got left in terms of life, in terms of hard copies being available in bookshops on the highstreet. Obviously sales are nowhere near what they were in the golden age of gamebooks, but please can we try to make as much as we can of what life is left? Reprints aren't the way forward, in my opinion.
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Post by daredevil123 on Jul 31, 2022 20:06:30 GMT
Reprinting books isn't inherently a problem IMO - the problem is that the same ten or so books are getting reprinted over and over again. It would be great to have a reprint of, say, Revenge of the Vampire with the errors corrected. This is especially true when it comes to books like Revenge and Magehunter, which are stupidly expensive to obtain second hand.
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Post by terrysalt on Aug 1, 2022 4:56:23 GMT
Reprinting books isn't inherently a problem IMO - the problem is that the same ten or so books are getting reprinted over and over again. It would be great to have a reprint of, say, Revenge of the Vampire with the errors corrected. This is especially true when it comes to books like Revenge and Magehunter, which are stupidly expensive to obtain second hand. I assume it's a rights issue and not a coincidence that the only books being reprinted are from the same three authors.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Aug 1, 2022 7:37:13 GMT
Reprinting books isn't inherently a problem IMO - the problem is that the same ten or so books are getting reprinted over and over again. It would be great to have a reprint of, say, Revenge of the Vampire with the errors corrected. This is especially true when it comes to books like Revenge and Magehunter, which are stupidly expensive to obtain second hand. I assume it's a rights issue and not a coincidence that the only books being reprinted are from the same three authors. Likely they are being asked to sign over their copyright in perpetuity for a lump sum and simply refuse to do so. Note that the new art remains the copyright of Scholastic and not the artist.
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Post by paperexplorer on Aug 1, 2022 7:38:40 GMT
The original authors would need to sign a contract as the copyright belongs to them. So if they did want to reprint, they'd first have to get that permission.
Second, the previous publisher's publication rights will need to have lapsed or expired. I've written a couple of books and in my contracts the publisher has 10 years exclusive publishing rights, and thereafter they are ongoing unless I write to the publisher.
The above will probably also apply to the artists.
If these barriers are non-existent, then there nothing stopping reprints other than what the publisher chooses to do.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Aug 1, 2022 16:57:07 GMT
Reprinting books isn't inherently a problem IMO - the problem is that the same ten or so books are getting reprinted over and over again. It would be great to have a reprint of, say, Revenge of the Vampire with the errors corrected. This is especially true when it comes to books like Revenge and Magehunter, which are stupidly expensive to obtain second hand. Yep, round and round we go with the same books. Yes, their rarity makes them expensive. Print-on-demand or online versions would enable people to access them and all the others. I don't think the gamebook market is anywhere near big enough for all the books in the series to be in constant print or available on the high street. Someone who knows about the book industry might be able to tell you if what I'm saying is feasible or not. I don't know if it is.
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Post by tyrion on Aug 1, 2022 18:49:39 GMT
If you really wanted to, you could find a pdf of any ff book online, type it up so it's legible, add the illustrations from the pdf and have it printed yourself for less than £20. Obviously it's a few hours work, but it's cheaper than buying a second hand copy off ebay. Not that I condone piracy in any shape or form.
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