Fantastic interview... I loved Fighting Fantasy growing up. I still pick up FF books on the rare occasions I spot buried away in a charity shop that I never got back in the day as a young whippersnapper. I actually wrote a short tongue-in-cheek game inspired by these books. It's a short piece of daftness (around 1300 words, and a little potty mouthed in places)... I'll post it below for anyone wanting to play and have a giggle! ........................................................... Escape the Zombie Room by: Jonathan Antony Strickland It all started off with you going to your bed to sleep, to catch up with some much needed rest, a thing you have done every night throughout what I'd consider a miserable and pathetic existence! But this night, when your eyes screamed for darkness and your thoughts went dizzy as your tiny brain cooled itself... Was when I appeared and made my plans for you known! ...... You're Stuck! Trapped in an empty room fifty by fifty foot square, with twenty foot high walls and ceiling. The walls, floor and ceiling are made of solid thick concrete and there is no escape! Also you notice that written on the floor in blood are two sets of words. These read: "Keep the sequence!" and "Know your alphabet!" As you're wondering what the words mean and how you are going to get out, a voice suddenly sounds out of nowhere and explains your situation. This is what it says: "To escape my room you must survive four zombie attacks. The zombies will magically materialise at the opposite side of the room to you now. If you manage to survive the brain eating monstrosities, then I'll set you free, back to your normal life. The four attacks will happen five minutes after the other, and to help you survive I will tell you the type of enemy you are facing, and give you a choice of six weapons to deal with them. Anyway, enough blathering on, my zombies are getting hungry!!!" Your weapon choices are explained to you below, and you are told that you are only allowed to pick one weapon for each attack, and only for the third attack are you allowed to select two of the weapon choices. Also, once you have chosen a weapon, you cannot choose it again and it will vanish once it has been used for one wave of the zombie attacks. ....... Weapon Choices 1_A Baseball Bat, inscribed with the number 8. 2_A fully loaded eight chambered gun, complete with eight bullets, gifted to you personally by my kind self, and inscribed with the number 25. 3_A grenade with a ten second timer, that is guaranteed to kill ten people (or in this case zombies) within a fifty by fifty foot square area, and inscribed with the number 5. 4_An eight foot long spear, inscribed with the number 14. 5_An old fashioned super thick large iron dustbin, inscribed with the number 1. 6_A magic killing dice... When rolled, and the numbers one to five come up, everything apart from yourself will be killed in the room. However, if a six is rolled, then you will die! ....... Then the zombies are explained below, read them and then make your choice of weapon to face each wave of attack. Zombies First Attack Wave made by_ A stereotypical brain eating zombie. Second Attack Wave made by_ A huge muscle-bound zombie (far bigger and tougher than your measly pathetic self). Third Attack Wave made by_ A group of seven zombies (also remember you can choose two weapons that you haven't picked before to deal with these brain munches). Fourth Attack Wave made by_ A group of seventeen zombies. .......................... And that's that! I could of course give you more time, but that would mean me being nice!!! Guess what though, I aint nice. I'll trip you up every chance I can get. So friggin hurry up! You've got a few minutes to decide what you're going to do! Think it through and then make your choices, for the first zombie will be materializing very very soon!!!! ................ ............. ......... ..... ... . . Times up. A lumbering moaning smelly and slimy gray zombie materialises out of thin air and starts shuffling his bitey way towards you... Hope you chose well! To find out if you've made the right choices (if indeed there are any right choices to be made) then now read on below. ................................... ........................ ........... ... . Conclusion (below is explained the "best" way to survive the zombies!) Here are the "what's" and "how's" you should have probably chosen to defeat the four sets of zombie attacks. 1_ To kill the single zombie you should have chosen the "Baseball Bat". One undead dude aint much cop, so a few bats around the head with the Baseball Bat should easily see him drop! 2_ To kill the huge muscle-bound zombie, you should have chosen the spear. The simple reason being that if the huge smelly git got a hold of you, he'd literally rip you a new one!!! So by using the long spear you can kill him quite easily at a distance, jabbing him repeatedly without too much risk, until he drops! 3_ Next came the group of seven zombies. In this case you were allowed to pick two weapons. What you should have selected was the grenade and the iron dustbin! The grenade of course can be chucked and would go off killing all the zombies, though unfortunately it would also kill you! However if you also picked the iron dustbin, then you could chuck the grenade, and in the precious few seconds before it went off, put the iron dustbin over yourself to provide the necessary protection from the deadly shrapnel! 4_ And lastly came the group of seventeen zombies. So how the bloody hell do you deal with this bunch of brain eating filth? Well unfortunately you're going to have to use the dice. It's a risk of course, with you having a one in six chance of dying yourself... but hey, sometimes in life you just gotta take that risk to push on to the next part of it! ................... And so there you go. That's apparently the best way to do it and to survive. Oh, by the way. You didn't choose the gun did you? Surely not! No no no... You're far too clever to fall for that one. I mean, a gun gifted to you by me.... ME of all people!!! Personally gifted by me... Ha ha ha. Only a fool would pick that gun. After all, I gave you it... me! And as you should know (or at least realised at some point), I am a massive twat (I stuck you in this room after all) and should never be trusted. In fact, I proclaim myself King of the Twats... All hail my glorious twattery! Not that there was anything wrong with the gun of course. Perfectly fine piece of equipment... It's just that the eight blank bullets aren't much use now are they!!!! ............. So there you go. You've won!....................... Or have you? You see, with me being an utter rotter, I'm going to now release fifty extremely hungry zombies into the room. That is unless you can give me the one five letter word I want to hear. You give me the word, and off you go... Toodly pip me old mucka! "What word be this?" I hear you ask. Guess what! Yes you guessed it (though not the word). I'm not going to tell you what word I want to hear you say. But I will give you a clue. There is a simple puzzle hidden here. And seeing as I'm such a nice guy, here's a second clue. Was there anything in the text that didn't make sense. Tell you what, I'll give you a few minutes to try and work it out. Go on, mull it over, after all your very life does depend on it! One correct word, that is all I ask and off you go! And of course, if you have no idea of the word I speak, then I'm afraid... Well, how can I put this nicely?????? Nope! Can't think of a polite way to put how you will have your brain chewed over by fifty dead walking horrors! So I've just gotta say don't worry, and I'm sure you'll make a fine addition to my friendly little mushy horde!
I still have my copy of City of Thieves, a Christmas present when I was a nipper and I spent the afternoon adventuring in Port Blacksand. Good Christmas that.
Still have city of thieves, caverns of the snow witch and recently got myself a goldhawk book - was very nostalgic about these. Really appreciated the ff books writing, worlbuiding and illustrations 👍
I used to love the Steve Jackson / Ian Livingstone game books, and had quite a few. Beneath Knightmare Castle and House of Hell were particular favourites :)
Nice job getting these legends chatting! Cheers!
Fantastic interview... I loved Fighting Fantasy growing up.
I still pick up FF books on the rare occasions I spot buried away in a charity shop that I never got back in the day as a young whippersnapper. I actually wrote a short tongue-in-cheek game inspired by these books. It's a short piece of daftness (around 1300 words, and a little potty mouthed in places)... I'll post it below for anyone wanting to play and have a giggle!
...........................................................
Escape the Zombie Room
by: Jonathan Antony Strickland
It all started off with you going to your bed to sleep, to catch up with some much needed rest, a thing you have done every night throughout what I'd consider a miserable and pathetic existence! But this night, when your eyes screamed for darkness and your thoughts went dizzy as your tiny brain cooled itself... Was when I appeared and made my plans for you known!
......
You're Stuck! Trapped in an empty room fifty by fifty foot square, with twenty foot high walls and ceiling. The walls, floor and ceiling are made of solid thick concrete and there is no escape! Also you notice that written on the floor in blood are two sets of words. These read: "Keep the sequence!" and "Know your alphabet!"
As you're wondering what the words mean and how you are going to get out, a voice suddenly sounds out of nowhere and explains your situation. This is what it says:
"To escape my room you must survive four zombie attacks. The zombies will magically materialise at the opposite side of the room to you now. If you manage to survive the brain eating monstrosities, then I'll set you free, back to your normal life.
The four attacks will happen five minutes after the other, and to help you survive I will tell you the type of enemy you are facing, and give you a choice of six weapons to deal with them. Anyway, enough blathering on, my zombies are getting hungry!!!"
Your weapon choices are explained to you below, and you are told that you are only allowed to pick one weapon for each attack, and only for the third attack are you allowed to select two of the weapon choices. Also, once you have chosen a weapon, you cannot choose it again and it will vanish once it has been used for one wave of the zombie attacks.
.......
Weapon Choices
1_A Baseball Bat, inscribed with the number 8.
2_A fully loaded eight chambered gun, complete with eight bullets, gifted to you personally by my kind self, and inscribed with the number 25.
3_A grenade with a ten second timer, that is guaranteed to kill ten people (or in this case zombies) within a fifty by fifty foot square area, and inscribed with the number 5.
4_An eight foot long spear, inscribed with the number 14.
5_An old fashioned super thick large iron dustbin, inscribed with the number 1.
6_A magic killing dice... When rolled, and the numbers one to five come up, everything apart from yourself will be killed in the room. However, if a six is rolled, then you will die!
.......
Then the zombies are explained below, read them and then make your choice of weapon to face each wave of attack.
Zombies
First Attack Wave made by_ A stereotypical brain eating zombie.
Second Attack Wave made by_ A huge muscle-bound zombie (far bigger and tougher than your measly pathetic self).
Third Attack Wave made by_ A group of seven zombies (also remember you can choose two weapons that you haven't picked before to deal with these brain munches).
Fourth Attack Wave made by_ A group of seventeen zombies.
..........................
And that's that! I could of course give you more time, but that would mean me being nice!!! Guess what though, I aint nice. I'll trip you up every chance I can get. So friggin hurry up! You've got a few minutes to decide what you're going to do! Think it through and then make your choices, for the first zombie will be materializing very very soon!!!!
................
.............
.........
.....
...
.
.
Times up. A lumbering moaning smelly and slimy gray zombie materialises out of thin air and starts shuffling his bitey way towards you... Hope you chose well!
To find out if you've made the right choices (if indeed there are any right choices to be made) then now read on below.
...................................
........................
...........
...
.
Conclusion (below is explained the "best" way to survive the zombies!)
Here are the "what's" and "how's" you should have probably chosen to defeat the four sets of zombie attacks.
1_ To kill the single zombie you should have chosen the "Baseball Bat". One undead dude aint much cop, so a few bats around the head with the Baseball Bat should easily see him drop!
2_ To kill the huge muscle-bound zombie, you should have chosen the spear. The simple reason being that if the huge smelly git got a hold of you, he'd literally rip you a new one!!! So by using the long spear you can kill him quite easily at a distance, jabbing him repeatedly without too much risk, until he drops!
3_ Next came the group of seven zombies. In this case you were allowed to pick two weapons. What you should have selected was the grenade and the iron dustbin! The grenade of course can be chucked and would go off killing all the zombies, though unfortunately it would also kill you! However if you also picked the iron dustbin, then you could chuck the grenade, and in the precious few seconds before it went off, put the iron dustbin over yourself to provide the necessary protection from the deadly shrapnel!
4_ And lastly came the group of seventeen zombies. So how the bloody hell do you deal with this bunch of brain eating filth? Well unfortunately you're going to have to use the dice. It's a risk of course, with you having a one in six chance of dying yourself... but hey, sometimes in life you just gotta take that risk to push on to the next part of it!
...................
And so there you go. That's apparently the best way to do it and to survive.
Oh, by the way. You didn't choose the gun did you? Surely not! No no no... You're far too clever to fall for that one. I mean, a gun gifted to you by me.... ME of all people!!! Personally gifted by me... Ha ha ha. Only a fool would pick that gun. After all, I gave you it... me! And as you should know (or at least realised at some point), I am a massive twat (I stuck you in this room after all) and should never be trusted. In fact, I proclaim myself King of the Twats... All hail my glorious twattery!
Not that there was anything wrong with the gun of course. Perfectly fine piece of equipment... It's just that the eight blank bullets aren't much use now are they!!!!
.............
So there you go. You've won!....................... Or have you? You see, with me being an utter rotter, I'm going to now release fifty extremely hungry zombies into the room. That is unless you can give me the one five letter word I want to hear. You give me the word, and off you go... Toodly pip me old mucka!
"What word be this?" I hear you ask.
Guess what!
Yes you guessed it (though not the word). I'm not going to tell you what word I want to hear you say. But I will give you a clue. There is a simple puzzle hidden here. And seeing as I'm such a nice guy, here's a second clue. Was there anything in the text that didn't make sense. Tell you what, I'll give you a few minutes to try and work it out. Go on, mull it over, after all your very life does depend on it! One correct word, that is all I ask and off you go!
And of course, if you have no idea of the word I speak, then I'm afraid... Well, how can I put this nicely?????? Nope! Can't think of a polite way to put how you will have your brain chewed over by fifty dead walking horrors! So I've just gotta say don't worry, and I'm sure you'll make a fine addition to my friendly little mushy horde!
Loving Lara from Tomb Raider 1 to 3! Always good to listen to Ian. Olly, thanks for the free tickets at Games Expo 2023 from my son and I
I still have my copy of City of Thieves, a Christmas present when I was a nipper and I spent the afternoon adventuring in Port Blacksand. Good Christmas that.
Fighting Fantasy books were my entire childhood! ❤
Mine too.
A living legend.
Still have city of thieves, caverns of the snow witch and recently got myself a goldhawk book - was very nostalgic about these. Really appreciated the ff books writing, worlbuiding and illustrations 👍
I used to love the Steve Jackson / Ian Livingstone game books, and had quite a few. Beneath Knightmare Castle and House of Hell were particular favourites :)
Fighting Fantasy: a very mishandled brand.