Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks Coming to America via Steve Jackson Games

Fighting Fantasy and Steve Jackson Games announced a deal to release the series of solo choose-your-own-adventure style gamebooks in the United States for the first time in over 20 years.

The Fighting Fantasy series, written by Sir Ian Livingston and Steve Jackson (not the same Steve Jackson of SJ Games), were originally published starting in 1982. While still available in other markets, they have been out of print in the United States after the publisher, Laurel Leaf Editions, was purchased along with parent company Dell Publishing Group in 1999.

From the announcement:

Fighting Fantasy debuted with The Warlock of Firetop Mountain in 1982. Since then, over 20 million copies of the exciting series have been sold worldwide. In Fighting Fantasy, players embark on a solo adventure where their decisions – and dice rolls – determine the outcome of the story. This combination of nonlinear narrative and classic tabletop action sets the series apart from other gamebook franchises. Fighting Fantasy co-creators Sir Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (UK) stated how thrilled they were to sign a US publishing agreement for Fighting Fantasy with Steve Jackson Games.

Sir Ian says: “To have a new publisher in the USA is a special moment in the history of Fighting Fantasy. We have known Steve Jackson (US) for more than 40 years, having distributed Steve Jackson Games in the 1980s when we owned Games Workshop. Steve also wrote three fantastic Fighting Fantasy books which caused a lot of confusion at the time when people didn’t realize there were two Steve Jacksons! We look forward to exciting times ahead in the USA for new and existing Fighting Fantasy fans.”

The first five books of the 50-title series will be made available in early 2025 with the next five in the series coming later that year.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

THE SINGULARITY IS UPON US!

Which books have been the "first five" has varied over the years, but the usual suspects (Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Citadel of Chaos, City of Thieves, Deathtrap Dungeon and Forest of Doom) are all worth picking up. This is awesome.

Hopefully this will be in book channels, not just in hobby shops. I'd love for my kid to be able to pick this up at a Scholastic book sale.

 

[darjr]

Hahaha and ya'll thought they were two different people!

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Would be great if art was by a third Steve Jackson, and editing was by Stephanie Jackson, the French translation was by Stephane Jackson, the Manga was by スティーブ・ジャクソン, etc etc

 

[Dante Ravenkin]

Wow, that's such weird timing! I just found my old original Puffin Publishing copy of House of Hell this afternoon! It's still to this day one of my favorite horror books ever.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

At my home we still own a traslated edition of "the forest of doom".

But in the internet age the youngest generations would rather to play Fortnite or other free-to-play online videogames.

 

[TerraDave]

But they are doing because of the name. It’s a very SJG thing to do.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

But they are doing because of the name. It’s a very SJG thing to do.

SJG has been selling Cthulhu game books for the last few years. I suspect at some point, one of the Steves Jackson said "hey, I know another game book line ..."

 

[Jahydin]

I just picked up new prints not too long ago though?

Maybe they mean, not all of them have been in print...

 

[dbm]

These books set me on the path to RPGs when they first came out…