Showing posts with label Games Workshop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Games Workshop. Show all posts

Saturday, 7 December 2013

Dragonmeet 2013

Today I dropped by Kensington Town Hall for Dragonmeet 2013 with two of the next generation of gamers* in tow.

We had barely entered the building when we bumped into Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone CBE, who were giving the first seminar of the day on the early days of Games Workshop. It was a surreal experience to later find ourselves sitting in said seminar with FF and GW artist Tony Hough, the Tin Man himself Neil Rennsion and Mr Joe Dever, the creator and writer of the classic Lone Wolf series of gamebooks.

Mr Joe Dever and Yours Truly

We weren't there for long but did manage to catch up with Graham Bottley of Arion Games (and take delivery of my copy of Maelstrom: Domesday, that I'd backed via Kickstarter), say a quick hello to Jay Wallis of Greywood Publishing, FF fans Stuart Lloyd, James Aukett and John Berry, Dominic McDowall and Andrew Kendrick of Cubicle 7, one time artistic collaborator of mine Ralph Horsley, and Paco Jaen of G*M*S Magazine. Oh, and buy a lot of dice of course**.

Tony Hough, Neil Rennison and Stuart Lloyd

FF fans James Aukett and John Berry

Graham Bottley of Arion Games

Messrs Jackson and Livingstone did reveal one interesting snippet about the future of Fighting Fantasy, involving a possible game involving miniatures of FF monsters, and possibly being crowdfunded. So, backers of YOU ARE THE HERO, watch this space...


* And maybe even games designers, judging by the way they were changing the rules of 'Loopin' Louie'.

** But then why wouldn't you?

Sunday, 13 October 2013

The Final Chapter

Two weeks ago today I met up with Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone at Games Day UK. Steve and Ian were running late - over an hour late in fact.

When they eventually made it to Games Day I discovered that the reason for the delay was because they had witnessed a serious car crash, right in front of them. A car travelling at 120mph swerved across the motorway in front of them, hit another car before veering back across the road and bouncing off the central reservation. From what I understand, it's a miracle that their car wasn't involved too and that they were able to come away from the experience wholly unscathed.

As I remarked later, that was one chapter I really didn't want to have to write for YOU ARE THE HERO...

Monday, 17 December 2012

Brewin' on YOU ARE THE HERO

In this blog post, Brewin' gives his reasons why you should back YOU ARE THE HERO on Kickstarter...


If you know anything about gamebooks, you'll know what Fighting Fantasy is. Fighting Fantasy catalysed the gamebook genre more than any other, and filled many a childhood throughout the eighties including mine. Without Fighting Fantasy you may not have had most other gamebooks, you wouldn't have had Games Workshop (therefore the Warhammer games including Blood Bowl that I still play), and even role-playing games themselves (such as Dungeons and Dragons) wouldn't have been successful: in the UK, Europe and Australia at least where gamebooks were often "the gateway drug" to role-playing games.

So basically this Kickstarter is for a "coffee table" thirty year anniversary book of Fighting Fantasy, written by the Legendary Jonathan Green who's not only written a number of Fighting Fantasy titles but a Gamebook Adventures title and at least another 30 books as well (and many of these award-winning). It too needs your support if it's to happen!

There's been some other great Kickstarter projects lately, some of which have been successful, such as the epic gamebook Maelorum, and others such as Turn to 400 - The Fighting Fantasy Documentary which haven't. Sadly dreams can only be realised with time, money and publicity...


So, tell all your friends and back YOU ARE THE HERO on Kickstarter today!

Monday, 3 December 2012

Coming Soon...

A limited edition book about the history of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, from the early days of Games Workshop right through to the present. Featuring interviews with Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, and a host of other authors, artists, editors and fans of the world's premier series of adventure gamebooks.