![]() Yet each book had to be a stand-alone adventure.ĪS: Your namesake, Steve Jackson, is a US designer of role-playing games. Information and artefacts you found in Book 1 could be useful in Books 2+. As was how the adventures linked together. The spell system was particularly challenging. But after that Sorcery is by far my favourite as I put more work into that than any of the other books. ![]() In March 1983, Warlock, Citadel of Chaos and Forest of Doom topped the Sunday Times bestseller charts. As for my favourite, well I guess I’d have to say Warlock of Firetop Mountain, as that was the one that started it all off and I’ll never forget how excited Ian and I were whilst Warlock was becoming a best seller. SJ: Yes I was keen to try the gamebook system in different areas of ‘fandom’ (SF, Horror, Superheroes etc) to see what could be done. Which was your favourite? Was there a genre that you wished you had written in? SJ: I did locate a couple of adventures in The Old World, of which The Tasks of Tantalon (a puzzle book illustrated by Steven Lavis) was the most prominent.ĪS: Going back to Fighting Fantasy, you wrote gamebooks in a range of genres such as SF ( Starship Traveller), horror ( House of Hell ) and the world of superheroes ( Appointment with F.E.A.R ). Do you think you would ever write a new storyline set in the same world? I’ve played the whole series of books many times. We were blown away by his original style, and he provided the very first issue of White Dwarf with a colour cover – number 7 I think.ĪS: Sorcery! was a huge, huge achievement, and I loved it. When GW was no more than a couple of guys (Ian Livingstone and myself) working out of a small office behind an estate agent’s in Shepherd’s Bush, John arrived one day with his portfolio. SJ: Yes I am still in touch with John, through Games Workshop, though it’s been a couple of years. Have the two artists been working together on the new edition? Are you still in contact with John? Now artist Eddie Sharam is working on animating some of John’s original images. ![]() Tim Sell had drawn the scene with the sheet revealing – in a tasteful way – a nipple! Puffin would not publish this illustration.ĪS: John Blanche’s artwork on Sorcery! was so distinctive that it made the books look different to everything else out there. A naked woman (though covered by a sheet) was about to be sacrificed. As an example, one of the illustrations in House of Hell portrayed a black magic ritual. SJ: The advantage of writing Sorcery for a more adult audience was that I didn’t have to be constantly checking whether this was suitable for Puffin (younger) readers. Was this a conscious effort to appeal to an older audience? Did the publishers get nervous about this? The map, sliding combat and spells have been the features which have most impressed the reviewers.ĪS: Sorcery! featured some pretty adult material, such as implied drug use as well as plague and disease. I think it has proved to be the right call. ![]() I favoured a new approach and thankfully so did Jon & Joe. SJ: There were some long discussions between Jon and Joe ( Inkle) and myself about how to approach Sorcery! The debate was whether readers would prefer a retro/nostalgic approach, emulating the original – like the dice-based combat – or whether it was time to do something new. It sounds like you haven’t just cut and pasted book to screen, but have added lots of new functionality. Steve, Thanks for speaking to Amazing Stories!ĪS: You’ve been developing the Sorcery! series, your epic four-book adventure for the iPlayer and iPad. Now the series is being revamped with new versions for e-readers and tablet devices, so it was a good chance to catch up with Steve Jackson and ask him about his work. Although many of us like to think that our first contact with orcs and trolls came through the works of Tolkein, for 1980s kids, their quest in search of fabulous realms started out in the world of Fighting Fantasy.
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