Nostalgia Strikes Again

[drmanhattan]

As I approach 50, I've been looking up a lot of stuff I have enjoyed in the past of which FF was a big part of my teens growing up in the 80s. I had all the books once upon a time, and am staggered to see how much some of them sell for now, long after most of mine were sold on or given away.

Just wanted to drop in and say hi, I am sure I will make several more posts but had a few questions, a few ideas and then a few thoughts as a way of introduction

questions
I don't feel like I will invest the time or money trying to collect stuff again, what I have right now is
Sorcery Series, WarlockOFM, CitadeloC, ForestoD, Starship, CityoT, DDunge, IslandoLK, CavSnow, HouseHell, CreatureHavoc, TrialofChamps, AppFear
(so basically all of the proper Steve Jackson ones, who I think did a better job of trying new ideas out) and most of the early Livingstone Classics

I was thinking of just getting the other Ian Livingstone ones, but how rare/expensive are these?

PUFFIN: Freeway Fighter, Temple of Terror, Crypt of the Sorceror, Armies of Death, Return to Firetop Mountain, Legend of Zagor (is this IL?)



Wizard: Eye of the Dragon (series 1), Blood of the zombies (series 2)


Scholastic: Port of Peril, Assassins of Allansia

also, is it just silly, from what I've read there are many other books in the series much better than Livingstones, any highly recommended that are not crazy expensive?


I made the mistake of buying some Scholastic versions of the old ones, disgusting. Horrible illustrations and blank covers. Who thought that was a good idea?


Ideas
I've found my old notes sketching out a FF adventure, returning to one of the earlier books, I will try to make the time and effort to finish this as a project, a lot of work to be done, but I remember seeing DD3 and that was very nice and official looking, so I will try to do something as good as that, I don't care about being published, this would just be a kind of tribute to many happy memories.

I also intend to play and complete the Sorcery series, yes, I never did it. I dont think I ever got out of Khare!
Any tips for "carryovers", arent there any items or clues you NEED from earlier books or can each book be completed "in isolation?" Otherwise I was wondering about trying to complete in order and post my adventure sheet and just getting a non spoiler "Go back and try again" or "Fine, go ahead" if I've missed something critical.

It's going to be amazing (and hard!) to properly do the series though, I cant believe I never got round to it, I think girls and other things becam more interesting so I wasnt as obsessed by the books in the mid teens even, I thinkI bought up to 29 or so out of habit, and later in life bought up to 59 then eventually sold it off. 


Intro
Like loads of you, I got WoFM in 82 or 83 I guess, my lovely english teacher at the school lunchtime book club made the point of grabbing me and saying you will like this. And she was not wrong. Thank you Mrs Warne you wonderful woman. I have so many fond memories of mapping out those early books and trying to solve them, eventually going into D&D like many of you I suppose.

great to see that the community lives on, I remember doing some stuff with one of the yahoo groups was it, and then an official site but there was a guy there (Dave?) who was a bit.... overbearing lets say ... so I think I left it be, though I do remember this fantazine starting up and maybe did I even write something in one of them, I will have to check. Was there a guy called Alex involved.

I've bought YATH just now from Jonathan direct and ordered the 2nd one. I do have some ahem PDFs of most of the books somewhere including the AFF ones, but I just paid for the ones on DriveThruRPG now I found them:

well thats enough from me, cool to be here. Very nice to see that the Boardgame Bollocks guy reviewed FF and Sorcery, I spend a lot of time on BGG and have been quite a well known poster under several different accounts over the years.

Any good FF sites other than this? I found Alison Cybes, Turnto400, Youradventureendshere, Jonathan Greens site and another one who posted some old funny playthroughs. Am very much looking forward to sketching some maps and drawing some of the illustrations by hand again. I played a book in the ipAD app but to be honest, FF is meant to be a book, I don't think I enjoyed it at all as an app.

[tyrion]

First of all, hello and welcome!

All of the Ian Livingstone books are reasonably priced on eBay, except blood of the zombies (which uses slightly different rules and has a modern day setting and is frankly a bit rubbish). There are reprints by wizard books of all the IL (as well as Steve Jackson, Jamie Thomson and most Jonathan Green) books which have different covers but retain the original art.

In terms of other authors/books I'd recommend anything by Jonathan Green (although howl of the werewolf can be expensive, it is excellent), anything by the American Steve Jackson, Stephen Hand (although these are expensive, they are amongst the best), Paul Mason and Keith Martin. For individual books I'd look at beneath nightmare castle, slaves of the abyss, phantoms of fear and siege of sardath (again, expensive, but similar to Steve Jackson in terms of gamebook construction).

If you are thinking of writing your own gamebook, just go for it. There are plenty of members here who have written their own who would be able to help you with this, if you need it.

[kieran]

May 14, 2021 14:27:48 GMT drmanhattan said:

Legend of Zagor (is this IL?)

No, Keith Martin ghost wrote it.

Any good FF sites other than this?

The groups on Facebook are fairly active.

Also since you seem to like playthrough blogs, check out these if you haven't already:
myadventuresendhere.blogspot.com/?m=1
gamebookreviews.blogspot.com/?m=1

gamebooks.org/ remains the best site for general gamebook knowledge and reviews.

Finally, if you're interested in amateur gamebooks, check out:
www.ffproject.com/
and
fightingfantasy.net/

[thealmightymudworm]

May 14, 2021 14:27:48 GMT drmanhattan said:

As I approach 50, I've been looking up a lot of stuff I have enjoyed in the past of which FF was a big part of my teens growing up in the 80s. I had all the books once upon a time, and am staggered to see how much some of them sell for now, long after most of mine were sold on or given away.

Just wanted to drop in and say hi, I am sure I will make several more posts but had a few questions, a few ideas and then a few thoughts as a way of introduction

Welcome.

also, is it just silly, from what I've read there are many other books in the series much better than Livingstones, any highly recommended that are not crazy expensive?

The answer to this probably depends very much on what you're looking for... e.g. is it important that you can play by the rules and have a better than lottery chance at winning? Are you looking for good writing, or books that are conceptually clever, or breezier fun books?

It would seem to be only fair to mention that we had an overall poll of the books on here last year in which we rated all the ones we knew out of ten and the average was taken. Here's a link to the thread, starting from the post beginning the top 20.

I've found my old notes sketching out a FF adventure, returning to one of the earlier books, I will try to make the time and effort to finish this as a project, a lot of work to be done, but I remember seeing DD3 and that was very nice and official looking, so I will try to do something as good as that, I don't care about being published, this would just be a kind of tribute to many happy memories.

Go for it! We have a bunch of amateur adventures in the Pen section.

I do remember this fantazine starting up and maybe did I even write something in one of them, I will have to check. Was there a guy called Alex involved?

Yes, Alex B was/is the editor of the Fantazine and is chief mod on here, though he doesn't drop in everyday.