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Post by philsadler on Jul 24, 2018 22:43:43 GMT
There is a book on herbs. It's called 'The Titan Herbal.'
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Post by Wilf on Jul 28, 2018 9:27:21 GMT
There is a book on herbs. It's called 'The Titan Herbal.' Sagehunter.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Aug 13, 2018 1:15:52 GMT
Update on the Scholastic relaunch (according to someone on the Facebook group following the two events in Edinburgh on Sunday with Ian and Steve & with Ian, Steve and Charlie) for anyone who hasn't heard it: "BREAKING NEWS...(at least it was for me). Steve Jackson is currently writing a new FF book. There are also 4 books to be released by Scholastic in 2019 being Caverns of the Snow Witch, Sorcery! 2 and two more yet to be announced!" Link to post
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Aug 13, 2018 4:44:47 GMT
Update on the Scholastic relaunch (according to someone on the Facebook group following the two events in Edinburgh on Sunday with Ian and Steve & with Ian, Steve and Charlie) for anyone who hasn't heard it: "BREAKING NEWS...(at least it was for me). Steve Jackson is currently writing a new FF book. There are also 4 books to be released by Scholastic in 2019 being Caverns of the Snow Witch, Sorcery! 2 and two more yet to be announced!" Link to postSo 12 months or more between the 2nd batch (April 2018) and this 3rd batch? Dropping from 6 titles to 4? Hmm...
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Post by johnbrawn1972 on Aug 13, 2018 16:58:48 GMT
Update on the Scholastic relaunch (according to someone on the Facebook group following the two events in Edinburgh on Sunday with Ian and Steve & with Ian, Steve and Charlie) for anyone who hasn't heard it: "BREAKING NEWS...(at least it was for me). Steve Jackson is currently writing a new FF book. There are also 4 books to be released by Scholastic in 2019 being Caverns of the Snow Witch, Sorcery! 2 and two more yet to be announced!" Link to postI keep hoping they will release some of the 'unknown to most people' books but this seems increasingly unlikely. I fear they will release the main books and then that will be that. It is clutching at straws but I suppose we can replace a book that is falling to bits.
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Post by Wilf on Aug 13, 2018 20:00:31 GMT
Steve Jackson is currently writing a new FF book. Hurrah! Never thought I'd see the day. Looking forward hugely.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Aug 13, 2018 22:17:00 GMT
I keep hoping they will release some of the 'unknown to most people' books but this seems increasingly unlikely. I fear they will release the main books and then that will be that. It is clutching at straws but I suppose we can replace a book that is falling to bits. As I mentioned in post #101, money is likely the factor for this.
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Post by lordomnibok on Aug 13, 2018 22:17:08 GMT
Update on the Scholastic relaunch (according to someone on the Facebook group following the two events in Edinburgh on Sunday with Ian and Steve & with Ian, Steve and Charlie) for anyone who hasn't heard it: "BREAKING NEWS...(at least it was for me). Steve Jackson is currently writing a new FF book. There are also 4 books to be released by Scholastic in 2019 being Caverns of the Snow Witch, Sorcery! 2 and two more yet to be announced!" Link to post I just panicked when I saw this and had to check that it was UK Steve (which is was) haha. Brilliant news, I'm genuinely so excited. Thanks for spreading the word on here as I check this site more than any other ff forums.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,472
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Aug 14, 2018 10:10:05 GMT
Update on the Scholastic relaunch (according to someone on the Facebook group following the two events in Edinburgh on Sunday with Ian and Steve & with Ian, Steve and Charlie) for anyone who hasn't heard it: "BREAKING NEWS...(at least it was for me). Steve Jackson is currently writing a new FF book. There are also 4 books to be released by Scholastic in 2019 being Caverns of the Snow Witch, Sorcery! 2 and two more yet to be announced!" Link to post I just panicked when I saw this and had to check that it was UK Steve (which is was) haha. Brilliant news, I'm genuinely so excited. Thanks for spreading the word on here as I check this site more than any other ff forums. Although would quite like to see another FF book by US Steve too
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Post by hynreck on Aug 14, 2018 13:09:57 GMT
Wow, unexpected news about Steve Jackson, but very welcome. Looking forward to a challenge! Otherwise, I'm not surprised Scholastic is slowing down. They made a mess of things by lowering the overall quality, then changing the design so soon into the new cycle, not even giving it a chance.
They should just reboot it with new writers! (Joking, please don't do that.)
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Post by Khornu Wych on Aug 26, 2018 5:07:17 GMT
I can't believe they're reprinting them without the original illustrations... Ironically this little piece of information is completely missing from either their website or amazon or anywhere else. You guys just saved me some money!
I've been hoping for high quality straight reprints for ages but that's probably never going to happen.
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Post by Zhu Bajie on Sept 18, 2018 20:10:46 GMT
Great to hear Steve Jackson is writing a new FF book. For some reason I was kind of expecting a bit more of a steady stream of new releases after the Higson book. Guess they're not selling so well.
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Post by daredevil123 on Nov 4, 2018 16:38:25 GMT
Sorry for the shameless plug but I have posted my amateur adventure "Wight Christmas" in the "The Pen is Mightier than the Sword" thread if anyone would care to check it out.
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Post by johnbrawn1972 on Dec 8, 2018 15:37:52 GMT
At The Book Depository it has entries for Khare and Caverns of the Snow Witch for 4/4/19. Also there is Fighting Fantasy untitled by Steve Jackson for 1/8/19.
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Dec 17, 2018 14:00:13 GMT
Is there any chance they will ever re-issue Deathmoor, Knights of Doom, Magehunter and Revenge of the Vampire? The reason I ask is that these 4 seem to be the rarest and most expensive ones to obtain for someone like myself who just wants to play a hard copy of the book. This would also allow them to fix any problems from Revenge of the Vampire. This seemed to work well for Curse of the Mummy (can actually be acquired without taking out a loan thanks to the re-print). I dont think being able to get a copy of each book in the series at a reasonable price is too much for fans to ask. As of now it seems the only option is to print out a bootleg pdf copy and try to assemble your own book. How many times do they need to re-release Warlock of Firetop and Forest of Doom anyway? lol
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,472
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Dec 17, 2018 17:51:07 GMT
Is there any chance they will ever re-issue Deathmoor, Knights of Doom, Magehunter and Revenge of the Vampire? The reason I ask is that these 4 seem to be the rarest and most expensive ones to obtain for someone like myself who just wants to play a hard copy of the book. This would also allow them to fix any problems from Revenge of the Vampire. This seemed to work well for Curse of the Mummy (can actually be acquired without taking out a loan thanks to the re-print). I dont think being able to get a copy of each book in the series at a reasonable price is too much for fans to ask. As of now it seems the only option is to print out a bootleg pdf copy and try to assemble your own book. How many times do they need to re-release Warlock of Firetop and Forest of Doom anyway? lol I'm kinda surprised Knights of Doom was never reprinted by Wizard considering they republished 2 of Jonathan Green's Puffin books and published 4 new books of his. I imagine Scholastic could probably get Knights of Doom published if they wanted fairly easily. With the others it would probably involve negotiating with the authors (or in Revenge of the Vampire's case, Keith Martin/Carl Sargent's next of kin as he sadly passed away recently). Feedback from some authors during the Wizard relaunch was Wizard weren't giving the authors a very good deal - not sure if Scholastic is any better but based on the relative cheapness of the Scholastic books compared to the Wizard books, I can't imagine they'd be promising the authors much. Also Magehunter has a lot of references to the Riddling Reaver and Slaves of the Abyss. It's not necessary to read them first or anything but it may make it unlikely to be reprinted before either of them is. And then you can't reprint Riddling Reaver without reprinting the Fighting Fantasy RPG book. And I think Paul Mason was one of those authors who turned down Wizard books (I could be wrong here). It's also one of the less kid-friendly books (as is Revenge of the Vampire) which seems to go against Scholastic's approach to the series. So Magehunter's chances in particular aren't that great in my opinion.
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Post by philsadler on Dec 17, 2018 18:16:48 GMT
Even if they did reprint them, which would be extremely unlikely because they almost never reprint books that were not written by IL or SJ, I bet you pounds to peanuts that they would not fix a single error, or even re-balance a single combat. The few times that the old publishers (Wizards) did, they introduced a few *new* errors.
*sigh*
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Dec 17, 2018 19:29:22 GMT
Is there any chance they will ever re-issue Deathmoor, Knights of Doom, Magehunter and Revenge of the Vampire? The reason I ask is that these 4 seem to be the rarest and most expensive ones to obtain for someone like myself who just wants to play a hard copy of the book. This would also allow them to fix any problems from Revenge of the Vampire. This seemed to work well for Curse of the Mummy (can actually be acquired without taking out a loan thanks to the re-print). I dont think being able to get a copy of each book in the series at a reasonable price is too much for fans to ask. As of now it seems the only option is to print out a bootleg pdf copy and try to assemble your own book. How many times do they need to re-release Warlock of Firetop and Forest of Doom anyway? lol The main issue is money. All of those you mentioned haven't been re-published since the mid-90s. The copyright for the stories/text (not the game mechanics) have reverted back to the individual authors. For Scholastic to re-publish them they would need to negotiate with each writer for a fee to re-licence the work and then a royalty rate. The Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone titles get priority because they likely all get licensed at the same time when the publisher takes up the series (book concept/mechanics and SJ&IL titles are all bundled together, probably with a proviso that the SJ&IL titles get priority in being re-published). Deathmoor - This is an outside possibility as long as Scholastic are willing to meet whatever money Robin Waterfield asks for. Knights of Doom - If the new range start re-publishing Jon Green titles (as Wizard did when they ran out of SJ&IL titles), which would be a sign Scholastic and Green came to an agreement about fees/royalties, then if the range survives for long enough I'm sure Knights of Doom would get re-published along with all of Green's other titles. Magehunter - As stated before, Paul Mason seemed defensive towards the idea of his titles being re-published based on meagre fees/royalties that were offered some time ago (*my interpretation of what he said in the Fantazine interview*), so Magehunter isn't likely. Revenge of the Vampire - Given Carl Sargent has recently died I imagine the fate of his estate is possibly unsettled which would impact on any attempt to re-publish his titles (an even if it *is* settled, those who now hold the rights may ask for too much money to re-licence them). But, like I've said before, it may be a case that it is cheaper for Scholastic to commission new titles than attempt to re-licence old ones from people not SJ&IL.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Dec 21, 2018 10:05:09 GMT
Even if they did reprint them, which would be extremely unlikely because they almost never reprint books that were not written by IL or SJ, I bet you pounds to peanuts that they would not fix a single error, or even re-balance a single combat. The few times that the old publishers (Wizards) did, they introduced a few *new* errors. *sigh* I'm not going to make that bet with you Phil... but for goodness' sake, how hard would it be to simply put, 'You have Razaak's sword, add 3 to your Attack Strength when fighting Razaak' or words to that effect? Tweaks to some of the gamebooks to make them fairer is probably a thread all of its own.
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Post by linflas on Dec 21, 2018 13:51:00 GMT
About that, I've made real printable bookmarks for FF books, containing errata. But they are for french translations... which have been fixed by the publisher quite a lot comparing to original books.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Dec 22, 2018 0:22:51 GMT
Even if they did reprint them, which would be extremely unlikely because they almost never reprint books that were not written by IL or SJ, I bet you pounds to peanuts that they would not fix a single error, or even re-balance a single combat. The few times that the old publishers (Wizards) did, they introduced a few *new* errors. *sigh* I'm not going to make that bet with you Phil... but for goodness' sake, how hard would it be to simply put, 'You have Razaak's sword, add 3 to your Attack Strength when fighting Razaak' or words to that effect? Tweaks to some of the gamebooks to make them fairer is probably a thread all of its own.
Fixing errors wan't likely with the Wizard Book re-published titles as they were basically direct scans of the Puffin editions. Any modifications had to work within the bounds of not altering the layout of the text significantly. The Scholastic titles are completely re-set text, so it would be easier to make corrections. However, Scholastic have to be made aware of those issues. I don't think they are at all aware of the myriad of issues in some books.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Dec 29, 2018 20:13:35 GMT
Ian Livingstone says he's finished writing a new FF gamebook (on his birthday): ( Link to tweet if not appearing)
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Post by lordomnibok on Dec 29, 2018 23:13:47 GMT
Ian Livingstone says he's finished writing a new FF gamebook (on his birthday): ( Link to tweet if not appearing) Oooh. Thanks Mudworm. Have you spotted any info on what it's about, or a potential title at all? I'm guessing not, but let us know if you do. You generally spot these things quicker than me, so I often hear about it first on this forum.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Dec 30, 2018 15:18:37 GMT
Ian Livingstone says he's finished writing a new FF gamebook (on his birthday): ( Link to tweet if not appearing) Oooh. Thanks Mudworm. Have you spotted any info on what it's about, or a potential title at all? I'm guessing not, but let us know if you do. You generally spot these things quicker than me, so I often hear about it first on this forum. No info to speak of really – I didn't know he was pressing on with writing one! Others may know more. All I can see is that he's intending to get it out in the third quarter of this (coming) year, he has a working title but it's not been confirmed and the numbers marked red above are illustrations (not instadeaths as some thought – there are probably more of those!). Also his comment in reply to someone mentioning hag's hair and lotus flower: "You'll need more than that for the new book..." suggests it might be item-collection-intensive. So that's something to complain about already . But nothing on the plot/quest of the thing seems to be public. My guess would be that more details will only be trailed in the run-up to Fighting Fantasy Fest 3 with a full announcement at the event itself, but we shall see.
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Post by Pete Byrdie on Dec 30, 2018 16:36:36 GMT
Thrilled as I am that Fighting Fantasy isn't dead, nobody seems especially eager for another of Ian's adventures. More writers attracted to the genre would be better. Although I always loved Ian's style of writing and his encounters, and never really understood how his gamebooks are more linear than most, excluding those which are notably non-linear.
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Post by lordomnibok on Dec 30, 2018 19:07:54 GMT
Thrilled as I am that Fighting Fantasy isn't dead, nobody seems especially eager for another of Ian's adventures. More writers attracted to the genre would be better. Although I always loved Ian's style of writing and his encounters, and never really understood how his gamebooks are more linear than most, excluding those which are notably non-linear. As for ff, I'm not sure they are trying to attract new authors at all. Puffin had clear instructions for aspiring writers on how to submit their ideas for consideration. It was great. Scholastic will accept no unsolicited ideas/material regarding ff. I have looked into this, but I'd be quite happy to be wrong, so do correct me if I have missed something.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,472
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Dec 31, 2018 9:53:44 GMT
So that's something to complain about already I actually enjoy item hunts when they're well done. As long as it's not stuff like finding a key in a clay pot which opens a cell door in a castle 950 miles away, I kinda like the buzz of finding an essential item I'd missed in previous playthroughs.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,472
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Dec 31, 2018 10:01:00 GMT
As for ff, I'm not sure they are trying to attract new authors at all. Puffin had clear instructions for aspiring writers on how to submit their ideas for consideration. It was great. Scholastic will accept no unsolicited ideas/material regarding ff. Different time I guess. Puffin were a major publisher and it was the height of the gamebook boom. Scholastic (and Wizard before them) are a smaller publisher dealing with a very niche market.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,472
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Dec 31, 2018 10:12:28 GMT
Although I always loved Ian's style of writing and his encounters, and never really understood how his gamebooks are more linear than most, excluding those which are notably non-linear. I would say Ian's books do tend to be more linear than average. He likes long stretches where you can investigate something then continue along that stretch or ignore it and press on anyway. Paths that branch off the stretch tend to return to it quite fast. There are exceptions though - Forest of Doom is very non-linear, and Deathtrap Dungeon and Eye of the Dragon have a fair bit of variety. And I would say Slaves of the Abyss, many of the Lone Wolf books or anything by Jon Sutherland that I've read are more linear than anything Ian's ever done. You could also argue Hub-and-Spoke type books are more linear too as with those you end up exploring pretty much everywhere, the only variety being a limited ability to vary the sequence of events or skip some entirely.
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Post by Pete Byrdie on Jan 1, 2019 1:28:44 GMT
Although I always loved Ian's style of writing and his encounters, and never really understood how his gamebooks are more linear than most, excluding those which are notably non-linear. I would say Ian's books do tend to be more linear than average. He likes long stretches where you can investigate something then continue along that stretch or ignore it and press on anyway. Paths that branch off the stretch tend to return to it quite fast. There are exceptions though - Forest of Doom is very non-linear, and Deathtrap Dungeon and Eye of the Dragon have a fair bit of variety. And I would say Slaves of the Abyss, many of the Lone Wolf books or anything by Jon Sutherland that I've read are more linear than anything Ian's ever done. You could also argue Hub-and-Spoke type books are more linear too as with those you end up exploring pretty much everywhere, the only variety being a limited ability to vary the sequence of events or skip some entirely. It's a fine line I guess. What level of lineality is good for the narrative without damaging replay value? Hub-and-spoke is good but ultimately figuring out in which order to visit different locations isn't much different from determining which path to follow to a destination. Perhaps it's an age thing I if the story and narrative is good I don't think I'm as concerned about gameplay and structure as I once was.
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