Fighting Fantasy
 The 25th anniversary edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, originally published in 1982 and the first in the Fighting Fantasy series.
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| Designer(s) | Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson |
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| Publisher(s) | Puffin, Wizard Books |
| Publication date | 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| System(s) | Gamebook |
Fighting Fantasy is a series of single-player role-playing gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The first volume in the series was published by Puffin in 1982, with the rights to the series eventually being purchased by Wizard Books in 2002. The series distinguished itself by mixing Choose Your Own Adventure-style storytelling with a dice-based role-playing element, the caption on many of the covers claiming each title was an adventure "in which YOU are the hero!" The majority of the titles followed a fantasy theme, although science fiction, post-apocalyptic, superhero, and modern horror gamebooks were also published. The popularity of the series led to the creation of merchandise such as action figures, board games, role-playing game systems, magazines, novels, and video games.
The Fighting Fantasy gamebooks were created by British writers Steve Jackson (not to be confused with the US-based game designer of the same name) and Ian Livingstone, co-founders of Games Workshop, and provide an original twist on traditional fiction in that the reader takes control of the story's protagonist, being required to make choices that will affect the outcome.
The text of a Fighting Fantasy gamebook never progresses in a linear fashion, but rather is divided into a series of numbered sections (usually 400, though a few are shorter or longer). Beginning at the first section, the reader typically must pick one of a series of options provided by the text, each with a non-sequential numbered section (e.g. turning from Section 1 directly to either Section 83 or Section 180) which in turn provides an outcome for the option chosen. The story continues in this fashion, the player continuing to pick other numbered sections, until their character is stopped by the story or killed in combat, or completes the quest. The books also feature a system whereby the protagonist is randomly assigned scores in three statistics (named Skill, Stamina, and Luck) which, in conjunction with the player rolling a six-sided die, are used to resolve skill challenges and the combat sections. Some titles use additional statistics or conflict resolution mechanics. A typical Fighting Fantasy gamebook tasks players with completing a quest, with players then making choices in an attempt to successfully finish the adventure. A successful play usually ends with the player reaching the final numbered section of the book. In some cases this can only be achieved by obtaining various story items (e.g. gems in Deathtrap Dungeon); many of the titles only feature one path to the solution.
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