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As french all readed in the same collection :)

Finally! 🫡

Thanks

Hey look! It's Pirlouit! What a blast from the past!

I’m a Southern Yank, age 50. I NEVER saw FF books as a kid. I knew of CYOA and the early D&D Endless Quest books and I was frustrated by them. I came across the Super Endless Quest books from the late 80s, oddly, in the early 90s. So I could finally kinda create a character and have a combat system. I was older in the mid 90s when I began to find Lone Wolf and FF books in used book stores. Though I liked the world, etc from LW, I still didn’t like that I was basically forced into creating nothing more than an iteration of LW. No. I want my OWN PC 100%. But there were SO FEW American versions of FF. I finally only learned to love it, after decades, a few years ago! Of course…..now I have to pay 50 bucks for one single volume in decent condition because there are now zero used book stores, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah….

I still own six collection books (3 books each) of the German translation. I got my own first Fighting Fantasy book (also in German, as I am German) at the age of around ten - The City of Thieves, which is still one of my favourites. I owned quite a few and I have treasured my collection books for decades now. All of the German edition had die in the outer lower corner to use as random dice roll, which was really useful, of course - they didn't need page numbers, after all.

Love the channel… and great touch with the Parsifal music background

Brother! Your vids are absolute gold! Please keep on! It sucks you’ve not made a vid in five months or more and I’ve just discovered you and your channel! More, dude, more! Super Endless Quest and AD$D iterations of such (both with the cool ‘bookmark character sheets’) To say nothing of Lone Wolf…the Magnamund Companion. Tolkien/Middle-Earth Quest…the short-lived rpg from it/them: Lord of the Rings Adventure Game (ICE, 1991).

I was 11 in 1985. I discovered Talisman in 1987 at age 13 when another friend bought it (we’d been playing D&D for a year or so), and we all fell instantly in love with it. That friend sold it to another friend and he sold it to me (only missing a few chits). I followed by buying the expansion and then the Dungeon. (Sadly, I never bought City or Adventure….wish I had). Over the many decades, I’ve never met anyone who didn’t enjoy playing it! Not kidding at all. Every friend, every girlfriend…and my own daughter…. Everyone loves Talisman 2nd edition! (I have 3rd and a recent copy…..but you cannot top Chalk’s amazing art plus the slight expansions I have. Love the Shrine and Hobgoblin art the most for some reason!) Best fantasy board game ever!!! It’s a real shame the recent Talisman RPG is such a convoluted mess and not the easy, fast, rules-lite game it ought to and deserves to be! (But I have the FF clone Spellzard!, RISUS, WhiteBox:Famtastic Medieval Game, D&D B/X, OD&D itself, Tunnels & Trolls, Pits & Perils, much more for such!) May Talisman 2ed live forever!

Also, allow me to say that this was a seriously solid video of the subject. Congratulations, sir, and thank you so very much for! More, please! Heheh!

An outstanding undertaking! I’m jealous I never had nor heard of this in the States at the time. Now, it’s extremely super expensive to enjoy this amazing series in the U.S. Thankfully, we can enjoy the new iteration of AFF, but I prefer the slightly expanded clone of the original FF rpg: Spellzard! If ya like rules-lite and FF, I can guarantee you’ll find joy in: Spellzard! (Not involved at all…just wanna spread the word/love). Cheers, everyone! 🙂

I got some CYOA books when they first came out. It was interesting reading to an ending, then starting later to "try again." I must have done the "what if" by going back and choosing the alternate decision after a page with an ending I didn't like. I don't think I "mapped" the decision tree as a kid but I must have had some way to account for all the endings so I didn't miss any. Some of the decisions were so random (left or right) with no information as to not really be a decision. And a couple of the early adventures made me feel like, what's the point? What am I doing to solve the mission? In _Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?_ the murderer is practically ready to confess to anyone, so the best ending is probably when someone gives you $1000 as a reward. In _Your Codename is Jonah_ the information you're supposed to be seeking is in the mail, so shows up regardless of what you do; I guess your secondary mission is to break up a spy ring, but he never tells you that! In _The Third Planet from Altair_ people on Earth decode the message that sent you there while you're exploring the alien planet, so your discoveries don't matter much; you may as well have stayed home! About a dozen years ago I was looking for alternate 2nd-person decision books. I got a couple under the D&D label, but I don't think they were game books. I also found some really terrible ones, by people who obviously didn't know how to make them or what the point was. I mean, when there's only 4 endings and most decisions just branch and link back up to get to the author's intended ending, he/she doesn't really want you to choose! So I found out about the Fighting Fantasy series and picked up a box on Ebay maybe 10 years or so ago (they were originally sold outside the U.S., since they had CAN, UK, AUS, and NZ prices on them, but not dollars). One thing they did differently is had numbered sections or paragraphs rather than devoting a whole page to the result of a decision. I thought it interesting and novel that they used stats and dice and inventory. I did map out the first one, _Warlock of Firetop Mountain._ I discovered you have to beat a strong monster early to get something in order to win, so stats and dice do matter. Another book involved you choosing spells, but when it came down to it, you could pull the curtain to let in the sun and kill the vampire, so what was the point of stats, spells and dice? I think I tried a couple more before giving up. I found at least one where in order to progress you just had to roll high stats at the start followed by good dice throughout, and if you failed a die/dice roll you were done and had to start over. Maybe I should have cheated? Someone said that if they got bad starting stats they quit and started over until they got high ones. If I ever get in the mood again, I'll try another one.

This is the game that got me into role playing... We played at this at school. And AD&D on the weekends. Great 80s memories...

Talisman is better when you change endgame / crown of command into other objective that finishes the game. Simply crown of command isn't this great as endgame imo. But if you create some really cool endgame rule for you and your friends , you can have amazing time playing the game.

Sorcery! Is so good

Great video!

hey thats the LoneWolf book series! i love those!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Nicely produced video.

I live in France and here Gallimard has never stopped publishing them, the better they are coming back into fashion and there are a lot of new authors who are excellent and continue to keep game books alive. Many fighting fantasy have been reissued in large formats and in hardback collectors series

Great video and even greater memories. Almost making me want to embark on a quest up into my parents attic to go look for any books that might have gotten boxed up lol. I 100% percent agree the story telling and world creation was incredible and hope to see Lone Wolf come to life one day. With all of the unwanted remakes churning out of Hollywood lately it seems like they might be starved of ideas and could use something fresh.

Magic of old games. But I still prefer hexes in war games than a ruler. It is make the distance so much more clear and make planning easier without making the game more streamlined.

This is a classic and I still own my old copy.

Fantastic channel and content! I always prefer to hear the creators voice regardless of accent, it adds a level of uniqueness and character to the content, keep up the great work!

I got everything but only played it once and didn't like it. The big downside of this game is that it is a skirmish game in which a combat between two equally skilled opponents slightly favors the defender.

what a flash back these were cool roll the dice on your life

@6:00 my uncle had a full bookcase of CYOA books in the late 1980s... made me a fan. Looking at those was amazing, but I couldn't open them until I had my own. Being too sensitive, the books could not be handled by a kid in my uncle's will to keep them pristine. He started gifting me Lone Wolf books for birthday and chritmas. Got them to this day. 1-20, 21,22,26. Just bought 29 yesterday. Have 30-32 on the way, and once the reprints of those in the 20s i'm missing are out my libraire will let me know!

"If you are under 35" would be more accurate. Being 41, it literally was my introduction to fantasy RPG, LONE WOLF!!!

In Bulgaria gamebooks were popularized in the 90s (right after the communist regime) by the translator of Tolkien's LOTR. There was a whole pleiad (hehe!) of Bulgarian authors who wrote unique local new gamebooks alongside the translated ones. The Bulgarian gamebooks became so popular that for a time they occupied the top positions for overall bestselling books of any category in the country. They had amazing print run numbers. In total the "first wave" of gamebooks in the 90s were over 200 different volumes. Around the economic crisis towards the end of the decade the market of gamebooks crashed and never fully recovered to its former glory. Since the 00s computer games (especially Diablo and then WoW) overtook the leadership of kid's attention. Nowadays there's a "new wave" of gamebooks and amazing new authors developing even more original mechanics, systems and settings, but it's more of a niche thing for nostalgic older people who grew up with the first wave, and not nearly as popular with the kids anymore - who are now mostly playing video games on phones, tablets, consoles and PC. Alongside the amazing Bulgarian authors of gamebooks, we also had brilliant illustrators and our local gamebooks had absolutely stunning illustrations - both color covers and ink inside page ones. I certainly believe the quality of the Bulgarian gamebooks is so high (both literary and mechanics -wise) that they deserve quality translations in any language for fans of the genre worldwide.

Just how TF did I miss this game in the 80s??! I only recently discovered it through its digital version on steam.

I'm only 18 but I've picked a few up recently as a sort of solo ttrpg fix in between d&d games. Must say I'm surprised these aren't more popular today I've been having a great time!

Great work, beautiful collection! I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on Legendary Kingdoms, Rider of the Black Sun and other "modern" gamebooks as well.

If you like this video hit a like button If you own sommerswerd subscribe to the channel

I got curious recently when Ian Livingstone was set to visit the biggest game store in town, but flipping through the new editions of Fighting Fantasy made me think the new publisher thought I was too old to give them another read. The new illustrations are a real shame, and I don't think I'm the only one who's had that kind of reaction to them. A recent RUclips rabbithole reminded me of the charm of the original illustrations, though, so I finally decided to find a set of the first eight Wizard reprints, which I'm really looking forward to try for the first time since the early 2000s. If that goes well, I'd be very curious to try the Sorcery saga, Lone Wolf and the newer Legendary Kingdoms books. Videos like these really help to bring this cool genre to new audiences, cheers to that!

Great review and introduction to the game. I've only played the 4th edition, so it's great hearing about your reaction to the game when it came out in the 80s and seeing the early edition game designs! Very well done.

@3:20 - you mention the Vanator enemy while showing the drawing of Banedon about to be attacked by a Glok, @3:27 this is quite confusing honestly... as a fan of the series since 1990 or so, I was surprised to have to watch and listen twice to understand the lil mistake @3:38 THERE is Vonotar!

i’ve never seen the original books, but the digital adaptations from inkle are phenomenal. very, very cool games!

Thank you for this great video. These games are very immersive, because of the great graphic of the counters and boards and the scale of one counter one fighter or assest. It is a pity, that these games are out of print. When I was a young man, I bought one of them (Siege) but unfortunately not the other.

I loved this book series, especially the eye of the dragon

still got my originals, and still play AF&F, at the mo i'm thinking running as a ShadowDark campaign

Combat resolution in that series is absurd. A knight attacking a peasant is more likely to be wounded than his enemy.

Really loved it in the early 1980ths!

My brother just texted me last week and asked if I remembered these books. I said "Yeah only every time I hear Bon Jovi or Billy Idol." I used to listen to them a lot while reading these.

I found Siege at a thrift store but got so disappointed when i found out it doesn't have all the pieces😭

Im just 20 and collecting lone wolf and fighting fantasy books both as a collection and to experience them. Theyre great fun and im sure there more people in my gen to share these thoughts

Citadel was hard.

Actually I think tunnels and trolls beat them to it. I remember my brother introducing me to the game and also the solo modules they sold for it.

👌👌👌

This takes me back. Now I need to get some and even better get some on my iPad.

I played the game from steam, but I want the books!

Love this video!!!