"Advanced" and "Deluxe", how could I pass on this with all that in the title! OK, it's a really cool book and a weighty tome at 430+ pages, but for those familiar with the Graham Bottley Advanced Fighting Fantasy reboot, the material contained here-in is a repackaging rather than a new rewrite. Having said that, I want to talk about what a wonderful "lite" rules system Advanced Fighting Fantasy is and what an amazing introductory FRP game this is.
Fighting Fantasy is the brain child of British designers Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston, who by-the-way, also founded Games Workshop. The Fighting Fantasy product line began as a series of pick-your-path solo game books which were marketed in book stores alongside the paperback fantasy novels, aimed at a younger audience and served as introduction to gaming for countless numbers back in the 1980s and '90s. In 1984 Fighting Fantasy world was ported over to Fighting Fantasy - The Introductory Role-playing Game, which was later revised and expanded with help from Marc Gascoigne and Pete Tamlyn into the Advanced Fighting Fantasy Role-playing Game. The series at this point included Dungeoneer (introductory underground adventure), Blacksand (taking the adventure into the city) and Allansia (wilderness adventure), Out of the Pit (monster book) and Titan (world guide).
Starting in 2011 Arion Games and Graham Bottley re-worked the Advanced Fighting Fantasy system fixing some alleged problems and began releasing their own version of the game. The old material saw new life and Arion Games has added new titles as well, Beyond The Pit (new monster book) and The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (recasting the first FF solo book as a tabletop group adventure). Advanced Fighting Fantasy Deluxe combines the text of Advanced Fighting Fantasy with Out of the Pit and Titan in a hardcover format.
Fighting Fantasy, even in its Advanced form, is a simple role-playing game. Characters have just three or four stats, the fourth being Magic if they are able to use Magic, the other three are Skill, Stamina and Luck. Skill is a combination of strength, dexterity, intelligence, ability to interact socially. In play, one rolls dice, adds the Skill score and compares the total to a target number. In the case of combat, the target number is what your opponent's dice roll plus Skill score. The higher roll inflicts wounds based on a roll on a weapons table (heavier weapons can do more damage), armour (its a British game) reduces damage which comes off Stamina. Each character has Special Skill points which can be assigned to Special Skills such as Dark Seeing, Sword, Pole Arms, Pick Lock, Magic and many more. Special Skills add to the Skill ability making the character better at those tasks.
The Luck ability is used when no Skill seems appropriate or when just being "lucky" is required. Luck is expendable. Each time the player tests his/her character's Luck the score goes down 1 point regardless of outcome. The more one relies on Luck, the quicker one burns through their Luck. Casting a spell requires a Magic skill roll to succeed and burns some Stamina points. And that is about all there is to the basic rules.
The monsters include the usual suspects found in most fantasy role-playing games as well as a few unique to the Fighting Fantasy world. The default setting is a world called Titan which is described in detail in this Deluxe volume. Titan has all the traditional fantasy settings one usually encounters, knights and western European feudalism, a pirate area, desert and Arabian Nights, even Samurai and Ninja of the "Far East". There are Elven Forests and Dwarven Mountain Kingdoms to visit, wilderlands to conquer and the "underground" to explore. There is really nothing unique about Titan, but I think it is a well done typical fantasy milieu.
Fighting Fantasy has always been about accessibility and the Advanced Fighting Fantasy Deluxe book brings the three key components of the game, rules, bestiary and world book together under one hardcover. The system is so easy and intuitive that it quickly disappears into the background allowing players to concentrate on imagining themselves in the situation of their characters. Honestly, I can't really imagine FF being my only game, but as an introductory game, or for the occasional lite play, it is quick to learn and fun to play and those with more experience will be reminded why they love this hobby as they rediscover the freedom to relax and have fun just "role-playing".
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