| Fan Written Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks | |
|---|---|
| Outline | |
| Location: | Titan |
| References: | 380 pages |
| Publication Details | |
| Author(s): | Designed, edited, and mostly written by: Simon Osborne - Contributing Editors: Warren McGuire, Andrew Wright, and Richard Krommydas |
| Illustrator(s): | various |
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| Cover illustrator: | |
| First published: | 4th October 2010 |
| Previous Adventure: | |
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The Atlas of Titan is an imposing, fan-made, all-inclusive, geographical compendium of all informations about Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World contained in the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, with punctual citations and references. It was designed, edited, and mostly written by: Simon Osborne, with Contributing Editors: Warren McGuire, Andrew Wright, and Richard Krommydas. It was published on line http://outspaced.fightingfantasy.net/PDFs/Atlas_of_Titan.pdf on the 4th October 2010.
This publication is widely considered the biggest fan-produced labour of love dedicated to Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World.
Background[]
“ The definitive guide to the geography of the Fighting Fantasy World ”
“ The very first Fighting Fantasy gamebook I ever read was probably The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, which I borrowed from my primary school library back in 1987. The books were just starting to become popular in my school—proof that the provinces are always slow to catch up. I read it, not really understanding the game aspects, and quite enjoyed it, though I found The Maze of Zagor part to be rather boring. As I slowly began to understand the rolling of SKILL, STAMINA, and LUCK, so my appreciation for the books grew. It wasn’t until some months later that I started borrowing the later books off friends that I really began to love the gamebook idiom. The adventure! The monsters! The fantasy (usually)! As the popularity of the books increased, many of us began to buy the books—or get our parents to buy them for us—and soon a strange one-upmanship developed. To be the first person to bring a new or rare ti-tle to school meant instant kudos. My own collection started off rather tamely and quite slowly, but mo-mentum began to gather. I was the first person in my school to own a copy of Daggers of Darkness, and the arresting cover, together with the quick-fire and exciting gameplay, really caught my attention. To this day, it’s still one of my favourites. I wasn’t content with just reading the books, fudging what items I was carrying, cheating to win. I spent hours poring over all the possible options in the paragraphs, making notes. Being the first person to com-plete Citadel of Chaos, House of Hell, and Appointment with F.E.A.R. made me feel rather proud of myself, though the pinnacle of smugness was reserved for when I completed Creature of Havoc. That darn secret code language! I can still write messages in it now. As my collection of the books grew, so too did my knowledge of the world of Titan. Hardcore fans of Star Trek learn Klingon; I knew off by heart the solutions to most of the Fighting Fantasy series, as well as the geographical locations where they took place. By #42: Black Vein Prophecy, I had ‘caught up’ with the re-leases, and I continued to keep up with new titles for some years afterwards. What I really wanted, though, was a dedicated Atlas, showing all the maps of the world of Titan. The book Titan: The Fighting Fantasy World was and still is a superb resource, but much detail found on the colour maps from the series was missing from it. I lived in hope that there simply must be a market for an Atlas of Titan, that the writers and publishers must be aware of the need for such a book, that one must be in production. Sadly, the fabled Atlas remained a myth. By 1995, with the publication of Curse of the Mummy, I was a sev-enteen-year-old college student, and gamebooks were mostly a part of my childhood. I had more important things to think about—booze being chief among them! For a time I devoted myself to computer games, but they just weren’t as fulfilling. Thanks to the Internet, I discovered a group of fellow nutters enthusiasts who helped me get back in touch with the sheer joy I’d felt reading gamebooks as a youth. But one thing was missing. My interest rekindled, there was one thing I really, really wanted to see: an Atlas of Titan. After some time, I realized that such a resource wasn’t going to fall into my lap: if I wanted to see an Atlas, I would probably have to compile it myself. The work began slowly, scanning in the colour maps from the books. Then the black-and-white maps. Then even some landscape illustrations that could be used as maps. Warren McGuire had written a one-page article about the map from Tower of Destruction, and I really liked the layout, so with his permission, I used the same layout in my own document. New maps came to light, and I went tracking down the maps from the Warlock magazines, and then the d20 modules. Some of the maps in here will be unfamiliar to all but the most ardent of fans. Writing the brief essays that accompany the illustrations was really difficult. The Atlas has been a work-in-progress since 2004, but it wasn’t completed until the end of 2009. Quite meticulous research has been car-ried out, with copious direct quotes taken from, and allusions made to, the source materials, all meticu-lously footnoted. Long-forgotten pathways in the books have been explored with a view to understanding how the world of Titan fits together. References to climate and terrain have been noted, as have intriguing locations and landmarks. Likely encounters and local characters are other important aspects that a traveller should know, as are any strange customs practised in the wide world beyond the settled lands. Knowing where the inns and taverns are is further vital knowledge that this tome hopes to impart to any would-be adventurer. I may have made a few mistakes here and there. I beg your forgiveness and ask that you re-member this has been a twenty-year labour of love. So, if you have ever fancied a trip to Port Blacksand to see the sights, or wondered about the locations of Bathoria or Gundobad, or wanted to know what the Ziggurat World looks like, this book is designed to help you. Read on, safe in the knowledge that there are people just as devoted to the world of Fighting Fan-tasy as you are! Simon Osborne
”
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