Fighting Fantasy Series - France

Défis fantastiques ("Fantastic Challenges") was the name given in France to the Fighting Fantasy series. They were published by Folio Junior, (an imprint of Gallimard), as part of the series Un livre dont vous êtes le héros ("A Book of which You are the Hero").

Popularity

France is cited as one of the three best-selling markets for Fighting Fantasy (the other two being the UK and Japan). France is also the only country where the series has never been out of print.

Books Translated

All the original Fighting Fantasy numbered gamebooks were translated into French, although released in a different order from the UK editions. For many years, Curse of the Mummy was the only one that was unavailable in French, but Gallimard finally published it in April 2015.

All the six new books from the Wizard Books series, as the first new book from the Scholastic series, were also translated.

The different editions

Gallimard published continuously the series Défis Fantastiques from 1983 until today. Regularly, the cover design and the isbn of the books changed. In order to distinguish these modifications, the fan communities agreed to refers to these different versions as "première édition", "deuxième édition", and so on. In 2018, five different editions of the books were edited by Gallimard.

First edition (from January 1985 to April 1996)

This edition is remarkable by its sober cover design. A first small band at the upside of the cover indicated the name of the series Un Livre dont VOUS êtes le Héros. A second band give the author(s) name. From April 1985, the name of the sub-series and a logo were added at the bottom of the cover in order to distinguish the different other sub-series published in the series (like Lone Wolf or Cretan Chronicles). The logo for Défis Fantastiques depicts a sword and a shield, and was designed by Jame's Prunier. The first 56 books of the series were published in the first edition.

Second edition (from October 1996 to July 2005)

The second edition is always a part of the Folio Junior imprints, and follow the numbering started by the first edition. This edition shows a bigger mention of the collection name, appearing in relief and metallic letters on the cover. It completes the series with the translation of the two last titles of the Puffin series, with the exception of Curse of the Mummy. From September 2004, the books covers show the Wizard Books Fighting Fantasy logo, and some cover illustrations were replaced by the new illustrations from the Wizard series 1.

Third edition (from May 2006 to June 2012)

The third edition marks the bigger break in the publication of the series in France. The collection is no longer part of the Folio Junior imprint, and a new numbering is used. The dimensions of the books are different, and the cover design uses a big golden frame. As for the last prints of the 2^nd edition, the cover depict the Wizard logo. This edition gets only one new books - the translation of Eye of the Dragon.

Fourth edition (from June 2012 to May 2017)

The fourth edition changes the cover design, with a bigger mention of the series. Both the French and Puffin logo were used, in a simplified version. Original books (including Curse of the Mummy and new books of the Wizard series) were published in a different and bigger format, called “Grand Format”. It use the same numbering started with the third edition. The fourth edition marks the beginning of partnership with Scriptarium (publisher of the French version of Advanced Fighting Fantasy role-playing game), who provides proof-reading, and translation homogenization of specific words.

Fifth edition (from April 2018)

The fifth edition uses the same numbering of the third and fourth editions. It first used the new cover and interior illustrations from the Scholastic series, then used new art for cover and came back to original arts for interior. It includes new books translations. The partnership with Scriptarium is more important, and additional content was added. First, an encyclopedic section, called "Les Archives d'Allansia" ("the Allansia Files"), was added at the end of the books, and includes informations about characters, locations and encounters of the book. Second, original pre-generated characters were added to the republished books.

Pre-generated Player Characters

New No.	Gamebook	Character 1	Character 2	Character 3
1	The Warlock of Firetop Mountain	Crowald the Dwarf	Chaelza the Thief	Raedhell of Silverton
2	The Citadel of Chaos	Barlun Sicklin	Fingwilas	Adhrinaël of Ulinort
3	The Forest of Doom	Caldra Jordhun	Tibur Drinkbarrel	Harlak Erilsson
4	City of Thieves	Nethel'ys dit "The Lighting"	Dolk the Deformed	Mylna of Blacksand
5	Deathtrap Dungeon	Denerio Torsk	Sileste Rimoran	Targo Bedin
7	Caverns of the Snow Witch	Hantalenn the Vivid	Bhiogrond Wallurnat	Clodenvidre Mirolas
8	House of Hell	Gabrielle Durham	Sam Robinson	NA
10	Trial of Champions	Wrango the Eel	Muldiriane de Latour	Brandemir Vrachen

Publication History

Original Series

Fr. Old No.	Fr. New No.	Puffin No.	Title	Literal Translation	Date	Translated by	Notes
1	1	1	Le Sorcier de la Montagne de Feu	The Wizard of the Mountain of Fire	11/1983	Camille Fabien
2	2	2	La Citadelle du Chaos	The Citadel of Chaos	09/1984	Marie Raymond Farré
3	3	3	La Forêt de la Malédiction	The Forest of the Curse	09/1984	Camille Fabien
4		4	La Galaxie tragique	The Tragic Galaxy	09/1984	Camille Fabien
5	4	5	La Cité des Voleurs	City of Thieves	09/1984	Janine Hérisson & Henri Robillot
6	5	6	Le Labyrinthe de la Mort	The Labyrinth of Death	09/1984	Patricia Marais	The fifth edition features new cover art by Paul Mafayon.
7	6	7	L'Île du Roi Lézard	Island of King Lizard	09/1984	Fabienne Vimereu
8		8	Le Marais aux Scorpions	The Scorpion Swamp	02/1985	Camille Fabien
9	7	9	La Sorcière des Neiges	The Snow Witch	02/1985	Michel Zénon	The fifth edition features new cover art by Paul Mafayon.
10	8	10	Le Manoir de l'Enfer	The Manor of Hell	02/1985	Michel Zénon
11	9	11	Le Talisman de la Mort	The Talisman of Death	02/1985	Camille Fabien
12		12	Le Mercenaire de l'Espace	The Space Mercenary	10/1985	Jean Walters
13		13	Le Combattant de l'Autoroute	The Motorway Fighter	10/1985	Pascale Jusforgues & Alain Vaulont
14	10	14	Le Temple de la Terreur	The Temple of Terror	10/1985	Denise May
15		15	Les Trafiquants de Kelter	Traffickers of Kelter	02/1986	Anne Blanchet
16		16	Défis Sanglants sur l'Océan	Bloody Challenges over the Ocean	08/1986	Jean Walters
17	11	17	Rendez-vous avec la M.O.R.T.	Appointment with D.E.A.T.H.	05/1986	Arnaud Dupin de Beyssat
18		18	La Planète Rebelle	The Rebel Planet	04/1986	C. Degolf
19		19	Les Démons des Profondeurs	Demons of the Depths	08/1986	Noël Chassériau
20		20	L'Épée du Samourai	Sword of the Samurai	08/1987	Pascale Jusforgues
21	12	21	L'Épreuve des Champions	Trial of the Champions	02/1987	Pascale Jusforgues & Alain Vaulont
22		22	La Grande menace des Robots	The Great Robot Threat	08/1987	Danielle Plociennik
23		23	Les Sceaux de la Destruction	Seals of Destruction	11/1987	Sylvie Bonnet
24	13	24	La Créature venue du Chaos	The Creature That Came from Chaos	01/1989	Noël Chassériau
25		25	La Forteresse du Cauchemar	The Fortress of Nightmare	08/1987	Mona de Pracontal
26	14	26	La Crypte du Sorcier	The Crypt of the Wizard	11/1987	Noël Chassériau
27		27	Le Chasseur des étoiles	The Star Hunter	11/1987	Arnaud Dupin de Beyssat
28		28	Les Spectres de l'Angoisse	Ghosts of Distress	04/1988	Mona de Pracontal	The original cover art was replaced by a new illustration by Henri Galeron.
29		29	Les Rôdeurs de la Nuit	Prowlers of the Night	10/1988	Nicolas Grenier
30		30	Les Gouffres de la Cruauté	Pits of Cruelty	09/1988	Sylvie Bonnet
31		31	L'Empire des Hommes-Lézards	The Lizard-Men Empire	10/1988	Jean Lacroix
32		32	Les Esclaves de l'Éternité	Slaves of Eternity	03/1989	Sylvie Bonnet
33		33	Le Justicier de l'Univers	The Righter of Wrongs of the Universe	03/1989	Mona de Pracontal]	The original cover art was replaced by a new illustration by Daniel Moignot.
34		34	Le Voleur d'Âmes	The Stealer of Souls	09/1989	Mona de Pracontal
35		38	Le Vampire du Château Noir	Vampire of the Black Castle	03/1990	Mona de Pracontal
36		37	La Nuit des Mutants	Night of the Mutants	05/1990	Anne Collas
37	15	36	Les Sombres Cohortes	The Dark Hordes	03/1990	Noël Chassériau
38		35	L'Élu des Six Clans	The Chosen One of the Six Clans	06/1990	Noël Chassériau
39		39	Le Volcan de Zamarra	The Volcano of Zamarra	05/1990	Olivier Meyer
40		41	Le Sceptre Noir	The Black Sceptre	09/1990	[Camille Fabien
41		40	La Vengeance des Démons	The Revenge on the Demons	09/1990	Mona de Pracontal
42		42	L'Ancienne Prophétie	The Old Prophecy	06/1991	Mona de Pracontal
43		43	Le Repaire des Morts-Vivants	The Undead Den	08/1991	Nicolas Grenier
44		44	La Légende des Guerriers Fantômes	The Legend of the Phantom Warriors	09/1991	Alexis Galmot
45		46	La Tour de la Destruction	The Tower of Destruction	09/1992	Mona de Pracontal
46		48	L'Arpenteur de la Lune	Land-Surveyor of the Moon	11/1992	Pierre de Laubier
47		47	Les Mercenaires du Levant	The Oriental Mercenaries	04/1993	Mona de Pracontal
48		45	Les Mondes de l'Aleph	Worlds of the Aleph	04/1993	Yannick Surcouf	The second edition features new cover art by Daniel Moignot.
49		49	Le Siège de Sardath	The Siege of Sardath	10/1993	Yannick Surcouf
50	16	50	Retour à la Montagne de Feu	Return to the Mountain of Fire	11/1993	Yannick Surcouf
51		51	Les Mages de Solani	Sorcerers of Solani	01/1994	Noël Chassériau
52	17	54	La Légende de Zagor	The Legend of Zagor	07/1994	Pascale Houssin	The second edition features new cover art by Daniel Moignot.
53		53	Le Sépulcre des Ombres	The Shadow Sepulchre	07/1994	Noël Chassériau
54		55	Le Voleur de Vie	The Life Stealer	01/1995	Mona de Pracontal	The second edition features new cover art by Jean-Philippe Chabot.
55		56	Les Chevaliers du Destin	Knights of Destiny	05/1995	Pascale Houssin	The second edition features new cover art by Jean Torton.
56		57	Le Chasseur de Mages	The Hunter of Sorcerers	08/1995	Mona de Pracontal
57		58	La Revanche du Vampire	Revenge of the Vampire	02/1997	Yannick Surcouf
58		52	Le Dragon de la Nuit	Dragon of the Night	05/1997	Nicolas Grenier
	24	59	La Malédiction de la Momie	Curse of the Mummy	04/2015	C. Degolf

New Series

Wizard

New No.	Wizard No.	Title	Literal Translation	Date	Translated by
18	21 (1)	L'Œil d'Émeraude	The Emerald Eye	01/2007	C. Degolf
19	26 (1)	Le Pirate de l'Au-delà	The Pirate from Beyond	06/2012	C. Degolf
20	8 (2)	La Nuit du Nécromancien	Night of the Necromancer	11/2012	C. Degolf
21	29 (1)	La Nuit du Loup-Garou	Night of the Werewolf	03/2013	C. Degolf
22	4 (2)	Le Maître des Tempêtes	Master of Storms	11/2013	C. Degolf
23	—	Le Sang des Zombies	Blood of the Zombies	06/2014	C. Degolf

Scholastic

New No.	Scholastic No.	Title	Literal Translation	Date	Translated by
25	6	L'Anneau des Serpents de Feu	The Ring of Fire Snakes	04/2018	Sophie Brun-Jacquet
26	12	Le Fléau de Titan	The Scourge of Titan	11/2019	Sophie Brun-Jacquet
27	20	Les Mystères de Salamonis	Mysteries of Salamonis	05/2023	Sophie Brun-Jacquet
28	21	Les Géants de Fer	Giants of Iron	05/2024	TBA

Sorcery!

The Sorcery! series was also published under the name Sorcellerie !. The series was published in the first, the second, and the fourth edition.

First edition

The series use a logo depicting a hand with dice inside its palm. This illustration is a reusing of the cover illustration of the Sorcery! Boxset by John Blanche.

Second edition

The series was republished inside the second edition, first using new cover illustrations by Franck Stephan for volume 1 and 3, second using the new cover illustrations of the Wizard series, but without the Wizard logo. Contrary of the Wizard and Scholastic series, Gallimard never included Sorcery! inside the Fighting Fantasy main series.

Fourth edition

The Sorcery! books were republished in "grand format" version in the fourth edition. This version included proof reading from Scriptarium, and use the interior arts of the Sorcery Spell Book.

Publication History

No.	Title	Literal Translation	Date	Translated by
1	Les Collines Maléfiques	The Evil Hills	05/1985	Camille Fabien
2	La Cité des Pièges	The City of Traps	05/1985	Jacques Schakmundès & Camille Fabien
3	Les Sept Serpents	The Seven Serpents	09/1985	Pascale Jusforgues & Alain Vaulont
4	La Couronne des Rois	The Crown of Kings	09/1985	Camille Fabien

Clash of the Princes

The two books of Clash of the Princes series were published inside the Double Jeu subseries of Gallimard. This subseries included both the translations of Double Game series (Magnet Books) and Clash of the Princes series. The books gets original cover by Jame’s Prunier.

Publication History

No.	Title	Literal Translation	Date	Translated by
5	Lothar le Sorcier	Lothar the Warlock	08/1990	Yannick Surcouf
6	Clovis le Chevalier	Clovis the Knight	09/1990	Yannick Surcouf

The Tasks of Tantalon

The Tasks of Tantalon was translated into French first in the second issue of Piranha, a magazine edited by Gallimard. It was later released as a hardback book under the title Les Douze Secrets du Sorcier (Twelve Secrets of the Sorcerer).

Mini-FF

Two of the Mini-FF adventures were also translated in the magazine Piranha:

1. The Temple of Testing, translated with the title Le Temple de l'Épreuve, was published in issue 4.
2. The Dervish Stone, translated with the title La Pierre de Shanhara, was published in issue 7.

Advanced Fighting Fantasy

The first publishing of a multiplayer role playing game in French language was done in 2013 by Scriptarium, with the translation of the second edition of Advanced Fighting Fantasy, under the title Défis Fantastiques – le Jeu de Rôle. The products in French include both translation of English content, and original content created by Scriptarium.

Publication History

Product No.	Title	Literal Translation	Date	Content
SCR01	Défis Fantastiques, le Jeu de Rôle	Fantastic Challenges, the roleplaying game	03/2013	The translation of Advanced Fighting Fantasy – The Roleplaying Game The AFF adventure Le Tambour de Gondrim
SCR02	Allansia	Allansia	03/2013	A colour map of Allansia by Jidus
SCR03	L’écran du meneur de jeu	The gamemaster's screen	08/2013	A gamemaster's screen for Défis Fantastiques, le Jeu de Rôle The first part of the AFF adventure Maudit Trésor!
SCR04	Les accessoires du meneur de jeu	The gamemaster's accessories	08/2013	A set of paper tiles and paper miniatures for The Wishing Well (mod) and Agbar's Retreat
SCR05	Titan	Titan	09/2014	The translation of Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World The AFF adventure À la Recherche de la Jeunesse Perdue Various optional rules Colour maps of Titan, Allansia, Khul and the Old World by Jidus
SCR06	Nécessaire de Magie	Magic Kit	09/2014	A set of cards depicting the different spells
SCR07	Yaztromo	Yaztromo	09/2014	A miniature of Yaztromo
SCR08	Creatures de Titan	Creatures of Titan	12/2016	The translation of Out of the Pit The mini-adventure Odyssée pour un Jib-Jib The mini-adventure La Huitième Plaie Various optional rules
SCR09	L’écran du meneur de jeu - 2eme édition	The gamemaster's screen - 2de edition	12/2017	An updated gamemaster's screen for Défis Fantastiques, le Jeu de Rôle The AFF adventure La Quête des Oiseaux de Sagesse
SCR10	Maudit Trésor!	Damn treasure!	08/2019	A revised first part and the second part of the AFF adventure Maudit Trésor !
SCR11	Périls dans les contrées de Titan	Perils in the Lands of Titan	03/2022	Ten AFF adventures, including six translation and four original ones. Various optional rules

Artwork

For the most part, the French editions feature the same artwork as the original British editions. Some variations do exist. For example, the first title has been released in four editions: 1) Peter Andrew Jones' original painting; 2) Peter Andrew Jones' original painting covered in gold, being a special edition; 3) Peter Andrew Jones' second painting, 4) the Time-Life version with an entirely different piece not seen in English releases but still credited to Jones. Some later titles were also reprinted with variations to their cover layouts, some with completely new artwork by French artists.

The French editions also kept the interior art, but in many cases, some of the illustrations were left aside, presumably to make the books cheaper to print. The worst offender in that category is Revenge of the Vampire, which lost 26 out of its 30 original illustrations. Almost all the maps which were printed on the inside front cover of the original books were also left out of the French editions.

See Also

• Fighting Fantasy Series - Japan
• Fighting Fantasy Series - USA

External Links

• The Défis fantastiques article on French Wikipedia.
• The Défis fantastiques article on Demian's Gamebook Webpage.
• The Sorcellerie ! article on French Wikipedia.