Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

Knave of Cups @knaveofcups.com · 12d

Arriving FRIDAY - gamebooks!
🦋Choose Your Own Adventure: Mothman - discover an age-old rivalry between extraterrestrials and cryptids
🏰The Citadel of Whispers - a student mage fights to save their magical home
🐉Usborne Aventures - solo stories w intricate illustrated puzzles and a d6 combat system

The cover of Choose Your Own Adventure: Mothman, Cryptid Chronicles by Christin Bishara. A pulp horror style illustration with the title in all caps across the top. The illustration shows a kid walking through a dark forest, their path illuminated only by their flashlight. Behind them, a giant moth-shaped shadow with red eyes is looming

The cover of Choose Your Own Adventure: The Citadel of Whispers by Kazim Ali. A pull quote along the bottom reads "Several challenging and compelling stories to explore and YA readers will love them all" - Wil Wheaton, Stand by Me, Big Bang Theory (but not Star Trek for some reason, which he is arguably the MOST famous for). The illustration is a watercolor-style landscape of a white castle atop a lush hill overlooking a soft pink river. The sky is cotton candy sunset colors and there are misty mountains in the background

A flaired stack of Usborne Adventure books. The cover of the book on top says Usborne Adventure Gamebooks: Storm Quest, by Andy Prentice, Illustrated by Tom Knight. The image is a nighttime scene of a heroic character steering their ship through choppy, stormy seas. Behind the character, a sea monster looms

1 2

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

Martelo Schwarz @marteloschwarz.bsky.social · 19h

Working on my first Kaung Pi book, a solo adventure gamebook probably titled "Ahu's First Patrol". Based on simplified #dnd rules, but inspired by the Lone Wolf series, we of course need a character sheet - here page 1. Took me a few days to figure this out, WDYT?

1 3 7

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 17h

Choose your own (research) adventure.
My cartoon for this week’s @newscientist.com

A choose-your-own-adventure, cartoon composed of nine, numbered panels.

Panel 1 reads:
What do you want to research?
Free will, go to 8.
Telepathic Twins, Go to 2.
New flavours of ice cream, go to 3.
Playing chess with robots, go to 5.
Commuter jetpacks, go to 4.

However, whatever you chose you will eventually be forced to choose 'Free Will' and end up at panel 9, which reads:

Your paper is rapturously received and you are rewarded with a huge grant! Go to 1.

7 120 430

Fighting Fantazine (Editor) @fightingfantazine.bsky.social · 16h

Steve (Car Wars) Jackson from the USA wrote 3 gamebooks for the Fighting Fantasy series co-created by Steve (Games Workshop) Jackson from the UK.

2

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

Barns. The E isn't required @elevatedpachyderm.bsky.social · 5d

Coming soon from Red Ruin Publishing. A prologue to the epic Blood Sword quintet from @davemorris.bsky.social , Oliver Johnson, and Jamie Thomson.

Cover art and interiors by @deanspencerart.bsky.social

Two hundred entries of adventure from Martin Dangov.

#solo #gamebook #bloodsword

1 6 16

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

doan2300.bsky.social @doan2300.bsky.social · 4d

The gamebook that traumatised me most as a kid was Beneath Nightmare Castle, as it put the idea into my head that comfy armchairs were mimics and you fell asleep in them because they were draining your life.

1 2 7

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

Asa Donald | Backwards Tabletop @backwardsttrpg.bsky.social · 3d

My second exploratory essay in the SPINE design series is about how we talk about ttrpg books: how do the terms that we use matter? When might we call something a rulebook versus a gamebook? When and why do we call our games “books,” instead of games?

How do we talk about TTRPG Books?

An essay on how we talk about ttrpg books, plus how book design invites bookplay.

www.backwardstabletop.com

1

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

McGurrGM @mcgurrgm.bsky.social · 3d

The first Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Gamebook focused on Spider-Man, natch. This is City in Darkness.

From 1986, it is published by TSR in conjunction with their RPG. It uses a number of abilities as you play as Spidey.

Cover features Spider-Man on a wall shooting a web.

The included bookmark has a number of abilities for Spider-Man and a place to track Karma and Health points.

The back cover has standard marketing copy.

1 1

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

Dave Morris @davemorris.bsky.social · 2d

A toolkit for #openworld #gamebook design.
But don't thank me, thank Ruth.

fabledlands.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-to...

A toolkit for open-world gamebook design

The earliest true gamebook (with rules, that is, and disregarding mere multiple-choice texts ) was probably Steve Jackson 's Death Test in ...

fabledlands.blogspot.com

1 1

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

Jordan Sorcery @jordansorcery.bsky.social · 2d

The first interview I released on YouTube was with game designer Martin Wallace and one of the things we talked about was his new game based on Fighting Fantasy.

I backed the game that day and am very excited to see it arrive in beautiful form this week. Very much looking forward to playing it!

3 1 14

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

Sam King @samuelking.bsky.social · 1d

Awesome it reminds me a lot of my favorite Fighting Fantasy Book as a kid, House of Hell. It had a similar Fear mechanic.

1 1 2

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

Fighting Fantasy @fightingfantasy.bsky.social · 2d

Fighting Fantasy Quest - The Warlock of Firetop Mountain - is coming to Gamefound soon. officialfightingfantasy.blogspot.com/2025/10/figh... #Gamefound #UlissesSpiele #fightingfantasy #gamebooks #boardgames

Fighting Fantasy Quest - The Warlock of Firetop Mountain - is coming to Gamefound

For over 40 years the Warlock has been waiting... for YOU! Do you still have what it takes to brave Firetop Mountain? Prepare to face the pe...

officialfightingfantasy.blogspot.com

2 5

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

Arion Games @ariongames.bsky.social · 2d

The Dwarven Halls campaign for AFF is now available in pdf with PoD to follow. An epic campaign through the caves, caverns and dungeons of northern Khul, this book will take many sessions to complete!

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...

2 2

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

Mike Busniak @mikebusniak.bsky.social · 3d

When I was 9 I think I was reading books in the Fighting Fantasy series - basically interactive game books - and I'm confident they were as maligned as comic books at some point, in terms of getting people interested in reading. But I totally agree about the "hook" - it's absolutely necessary.

1 1 1

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

Shon Richards @shonrichards.bsky.social · 3d

My 64th read of 2025 is Magic Realms: The art of Fighting Fantasy. The fighting fantasy books were a huge inspiration to me and it’s nice to have a book collecting all of the wonderful art.

2 1 1

Reposted by Fighting Fantazine (Editor)

Mollie Russell @spookysyntax.bsky.social · 4d

Wrote a deeply personal piece about my first tabletop RPG. GrailQuest was the less famous rival to Fighting Fantasy, and its art gave primary school me literal fucking nightmares. So, for Halloween, I decided to ask the artist all about those traumatic drawings. www.wargamer.com/grailquest-t...