GUEST BLOG Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014

With his You Are The Hero history book and the first official convention, Jonathan Green celebrates Fighting Fantasy game books!

This is a guest blog by author Jonathan Green...

I have been passionate about Fighting Fantasy game books ever since I picked up the The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain in a bookshop at the age of 10. It was that passion that led me to write my own Fighting Fantasy adventures, and ultimately to become a published author. So when the 30th anniversary of the publication of Warlock came around, I felt that I was in as good a position as anybody to chronicle the last three decades of solo role-playing game history.

The problem was that once I began to scratch the surface, and interview those involved in putting The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain together, I soon realised just how little I knew, and how much more there was to discover. So I set about planning a book on the subject – funding it via Kickstarter, the crowd-funding website – so that I might create my own homage to the life-changing, not to say world-changing, phenomenon that is Fighting Fantasy.

Once again, the story grew in the telling, with the book tripling in size to become a 100,000 word beast containing more than 400 images, including never-before-published photographs and original artwork from the series by such fantasy art legends as John Blanche, Chris Achilleos, Rodney Matthews, Russ Nicholson and Iain McCaig, all wrapped up in a brand new, digitally-painted cover by my sometime FF collaborator Martin McKenna.

With over 400 people having backed the Kickstarter project in the first place, and close to 100 authors, artists, editors and celebrity fans interviewed for the book, I felt that a fitting climax to the You Are The Hero story would be to give the book an appropriately fantastic launch, bringing together all those people who had helped make it happen. Just as with the original book, the idea grew in the planning until rather than a book launch, I was planning the first dedicated Fighting Fantasy convention.

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 is a way of saying thank you to all the people who have contributed so much to the Fighting Fantasy adventure over the last 32 years (as it is now) – a true celebration of all things FF. Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, the co-creators of Fighting Fantasy, are Guests of Honour, and a number of those artists who illustrated the books over the years will be in attendance, including Chris Achilleos, Russ Nicholson, Tony Hough, and Malcolm Barter. Philippa Dickinson, who edited The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain , is going to be there, as are a host of people who continue to develop the FF brand, including app designers and role-playing game creators.

There is going to be an exhibition of rare and never-before-seen-in-public items and artwork, an auction of pieces from Jackson and Livingstone’s personal collections, panels and talks, demonstration games, signings, trade stands, and, of course, the official launch of You Are The Hero . To top it all, attendees will also receive a unique, event-exclusive Adventurer’s Backpack, containing all manner of goodies that are sure to become collector’s items in their own right.

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 is taking place on Sunday 7 September 2014, at the DoubleTree Hilton, Ealing, West London, and runs from 10.30am to 5.00pm. To find out more, and purchase your ticket for this unique event, simply log on to www.FightingFantasy.com . And may your STAMINA never fail!

Jonathan Green

Will you be attending Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 in September? Book your tickets now ! Find out more at its official Kickstarter page , its Facebook page , and of course the Fighting Fantasy page itself. And look out for the book You Are The Hero ! Follow Jonathan Green, who regularly contributes to SFX 's Book Club , on Twitter .

SFX Magazine is the world's number one sci-fi, fantasy, and horror magazine published by Future PLC. Established in 1995, SFX Magazine prides itself on writing for its fans, welcoming geeks, collectors, and aficionados into its readership for over 25 years. Covering films, TV shows, books, comics, games, merch, and more, SFX Magazine is published every month. If you love it, chances are we do too and you'll find it in SFX.

Latest in Entertainment
Daredevil: Born Again
New Daredevil: Born Again season 2 behind-the-scenes photo sees Karen Page actor Deborah Ann Woll wearing an absolutely baffling wig
Monarch
New look at Monarch season 2 drops as production on the Godzilla show wraps
The Simpsons
Disney Plus is adding a channel that plays The Simpsons 24/7 - and this is exactly what the world needs right now
Adam Scott as Mark and Britt Lower as Helly in Severance season 2
The first teaser for the Severance season 2 finale episode hints at one of the biggest mysteries of the show
Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore 2
29 years later, Happy Gilmore 2 trailer sees Adam Sandler return to the course with familiar faces – and confirms release date
Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen
Marvel fans are talking about the biggest mistakes the MCU has made - and everyone seems to agree on one particularly tragic moment
Latest in News
Palworld
Palworld community manager admits the survival game is "ripe for toxicity" and has a simple solution: "You just call 'em losers and you kick 'em"
GoldenEye 007
After 28 years, competitive GoldenEye players have documented what happens when you tie in the N64 FPS: "We experienced something that was only theorised"
a dude holding a gun cowers against a wall as the shadowsof raptors can be seen coming for him
'No-one wants to play a Match-3 game': Prolific indie dev made his Match-3 Metroidvania to "definitively prove" his publishers wrong
Hades 2 screenshot showing poseidon
Hades 2's 1.0 release date is still a mystery, even to its devs: "Whenever that will be"
Daredevil: Born Again
New Daredevil: Born Again season 2 behind-the-scenes photo sees Karen Page actor Deborah Ann Woll wearing an absolutely baffling wig
Doom
Pac-Man and Tetris are "the two most important games of all time," says Bethesda lead Todd Howard, with Doom and Super Mario Bros. standing as the most "influential"