Fighting Fantasy: The Port of Peril

Fighting Fantasy is back once again with another rebranding of the classic books and this new effort by the Dungeon master himself Ian Livingstone. The cover and spines are excellent, really stand out as intended much like the originals. (The art isn't as good of course but who can top the likes of Iain McCaig?)I've played Port of Peril a couple of times now and unfortunately died pretty early on, once due to a big bloke hitting me over the head with a table leg because he thought I was a door to door salesman... Anyway, Livingstone's writing is pretty good in this one, Chalice is fleshed out pretty well, and is similar yet different enough to Blacksand to prove an interesting setting. I haven't got much further, but the major flaw of this book is simple, confusing rules. Your character has no money or food at the start yet the rules at the back of the book are the familiar copy pasted Warlock rules stating you start with 10 provisions and a potion. Ok you could dismiss them for now, but then you gain a stamina point on paragraph one...Huh? Again, the rules are the familiar 'You can't go above your initial stamina' so already by the first paragraph new readers (and old) will be left scratching their heads. Why is my character desperate for food when he/she starts with 10 provisions? How can I add a stamina point when the rules state I can't go above my initial score? All by the first paragraph! Internal art by Vlado Krizan is not as bad as expected, but not a patch on Nicholson, Langford, McKenna, etc... Still, despite it's flaws, YOU should buy this book and the rest, get your kids into FF and hopefully they will become so popular again that even Steve Jackson has to finally write another one!

Time for a splendid return to adventure book story gaming by the master himself - Ian Livingston. He and Steve Jackson enthralled fantasy and gaming fans with their trademark options and stat based adventure books 35 years ago.The good news is the writer pen still works for the now over old reviewer. Your adventure starts very much with you down on your luck and close to beggar status and a travelogue follows.The narrative is stronger than some of the perfunctory 'go left go right options' that plague imitations. It clever, with plenty of cross references to other FF books to keep the sub creation and secondary belief that you need for fantasy books well and truly going.Overall, a clever story, it reads well, the optioning keeps the interest strong even when you meet you demise and return to start again.

Released to mark/celebrate the thirty-fifth anniversary of Fighting Fantasy, ‘The Port of Peril’ is written by one of the co-founders of the series, Ian Livingstone, who has written some fantastic adventure gamebooks. However, this isn’t one of them. Not that it is bad either. It is just very average, and disappointingly so. Which is better than can be said for the artwork that is far below the usual standard of Fighting Fantasy.‘Blood of the Zombies’, published for the thirtieth anniversary, was a bit of a departure from the usual style and format. This originality was its greatest strength but also its weakness in that being set in the modern world with somewhat ‘dumbed down’ FF game mechanics it wasn’t particularly reminiscent of the series. ‘The Port of Peril’ suffers in the opposite way. It lacks any originality. It is a fairly typical ‘evil being is due to come back from the dead and take over the world’ type scenario and the adventure becomes a nostalgic romp through locales made famous by early FF gamebooks and features some of the characters from them, some in major roles and some as ‘guest appearances’. Even some of the equipment to be found are included for no purpose other than they were needed in ‘City of Thieves’.Although there is nothing new to be enjoyed this gamebook is, of course, intended to celebrate Fighting Fantasy and the multitude of references and nods to past books are sure to entertain those familiar with the back catalogue. ‘The Port of Peril is what South Park would refer to as ’memberberries’.It’s not clear whether the eponymous port refers to Chalice or Blacksand. The adventure may begin in Chalice but doesn’t stay there long, and primarily serves the purpose of getting the reader equipped and setting them on a quest. Inevitably events lead to the infamous Port Blacksand, but those expecting a big revisit and exploration of the City of Thieves will be sadly disappointed. Although some familiar destinations and characters appear it is a quick in and out. Sadly, there is still no chance to take on Lord AzzurAfter the fiftieth Fighting Fantasy book featured the return of Zagor it seems a good idea for another clash with Zanbar Bone. Only he is a bit of a let down. He seems to have less character than his original appearance and defeating him is far simpler than in ‘City of Thieves’.It certainly isn’t a very challenging adventure and most readers, old or new to the series, will find it takes relatively few attempts to reach the conclusion.Being published alongside five re-releases of classic FF adventures to launch the relaunch the series means that ‘The Port of Peril’ is ultimately going to be overshadowed. New readers to FF are likely to see it as the weakest of the six adventures released. Its target audience is, therefore, likely to be those who have read plenty of FF in the past and are going to enjoy the nostalgic references and content. And in this way at least ‘The Port of Peril’ is successful.

Port of Peril is rich, dynamic, and plunges readers - new and old - into the world of Allansia in glorious style. As part of the canon, it stands up impressively and, as a gateway drug for the rest of the series, it performs admirably. Great stuff!

Just got it today 😊 the interior artwork is lazy and computer generated and not very inspiring but hopefully the future books will be better. The cover is very colourful and old stylee and an oldstyle map of Allansia proudly sits in the first few pages. Haven't had time to read through it yet but am sure it will be awesome

I forgot how much I used to cheat to get through these...