The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain | Hardback

First published in 1982, THE WARLOCK OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN started the whole gamebook craze. The first Fighting Fantasy Gamebook, it uses a simple rules system utilising three attributes (Skill, Stamina and Luck) which are determined by dice rolls at the beginning of the book. The adventure is to fight your way through Firetop Mountain at the request of villagers from nearby Anvil, to slay the Warlock tyrant who is holding them in fear.

The game system is quick to use and exciting, and the story (basically a dungeon crawl) is well written. There are plenty of dice rolling combat situations to partake in too, and at a reasonable length of 400 paragraphs (which would become the standard for the Fighting Fantasy Gamebook series) this was a worthy initial gamebook for the series.

Two dice, a pencil and an eraser as all that is needed to play with this excellent book.

Nonsense - I loved this book as a kid the first time round... so to get a SIGNED COPY complete with interesting facts, maps and various info. that make this book the equivalent to a DVD with Director's commentary and 'supplementary stuff on Disc 2'!
Okay... so if you're like me you struggled to find a pencil to use (yep - they DO still exist though) and now the 'Monopoly' board as been robbed of it's dice (I nearly said 'dices' then, but a true gamer will say "It's 'die'".
It's just as gripping as it was the first time around... I never bothered with group stuff such as 'Dungeons & Dragons', preferring 'solo' stuff - and this was the first in the Fighting Fantasy series that enabled me to do that.
For me, it was an interactive version of a genre I loved; I later went on to do 'battle re-enacting' too - but let's quickly bypass that statement...
Anyhow - an excellent book, the illustrations look just as good now as they did then and really help fever the imagination!

Okay - so was this review any good?
"To decide... roll both die. If the score is equal too or higher than your 'expectation count' then the answer is yes, and you should buy it... if not, then CHEAT and roll again".

:D

Neil.

Big fan of them the first time round still got a few of the m kicking around somewhere, a classic fighting fantasy gamebook. looking forward to read this book again bring back memeories Zagor the warlock of firetop mountain.

I bought the first edition of this book from a bookshop in Knaresborough for £1.75 at the age of nine. I loved the books in these series, they introduced me to fantasy, role-playing and gaming. I spent hours making maps of firetop mountain and learning to draw by copying the illustrations within this book. I highly recommend this book.

I think I still have the original book somewhere.

Fantastic stuff, the F&F Books would always fill a boring Sunday.

Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a total classic that should be purchased!

Ah, well I can't say much for this new book, but I'm so happy to see they are still knocking about. My childhood was kinda stolen by these books from when I was about 10 onwards. The Fighting Fantasy series had a whole new way of making books fun, and got me reading when I was reluctant to sit down and read regular books. I still have 20 or so of the books at home, I couldn't part with, and that includes this 'The Warlock of Firetop Mountain'. I even own the boardgame of book (probably not around now), which was very good I might add. Especially if you like the series.

They are a simple kind of roleplaying game, with the use of dice to determine the outcome of events, as you read sections of the book and make certain choices at various points. You are the hero and it fed my imagination and gave me a love of myth and fantasy. They became a social event too, as you can play as 'game master' and read them to friends, who make the choices. I hope these books live on for a long long time and spark life into the mind of bored kids. I'm sure many people who have 'played' the books get their love of fantasy and sci-fi partly due to the time spent in the FF worlds.