| 1982 | 1983 | ||
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| 1984 | 1987 | 1989 | |
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| 1989 | 1993 | ||
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Puffin Books[]
Authors other than the series' co-creators are not credited on the cover, which instead features the phrase Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone Present. These authors are credited on the inside title page.
Wraparound Covers[]
- Main article: Wraparound Cover Format
Initially, as the first book in the series, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain had been viewed by Puffin Books as a something of a one off (hence the small print run) and thus became the only book of the range to feature a warp-around cover (by Peter Andrew Jones). Subsequent books would have a front cover illustration only.
Coloured Number Covers[]
- Main article: Coloured Number Format
When the series properly launched itself, with the publication of The Citadel of Chaos and The Forest of Doom in 1983, the first cover "format" was introduced. This consisted of each book having the number of the book printed in a coloured "star" on the cover. The spine and rear cover were the same colour as the background of the star, with the colour varying with each book (blue for example with Starship Traveller, green with City of Thieves. The first book, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was reprinted using this format and the design lasted through to 1984, covering the first seven books in the series.[1]
Adventure Gamebooks Banner[]
- Main article: Adventure Gamebooks banner
The second design, introduced in 1984 with book eight Scorpion Swamp, featured a green "zig-zag" stripe across the top of the cover, containing the words Adventure Gamebooks and the number of the book. The Fighting Fantasy logo was also printed on the cover. The spine and rear cover of each book were uniformly coloured a light green. This design was used up to the 24th book in the series (Creature of Havoc). As with the first system, the older books (numbers one through seven) were reprinted using the new cover format. It was at this point that The Citadel of Chaos was given a new cover by Ian Miller to replace the older one by Emmanuel.[2]
Dragon Covers[]
- Main article: Dragon Cover Format
The final Puffin Books design, launched in 1987 with book twenty-five Beneath Nightmare Castle, featured a large box with a gold dragon design at the top of the cover containing the cover credit. The spine of each book remained uniformly coloured a light green. The colour of the rear cover varied with each book. This design was used up to the last book in the Puffin series. Again, older titles (#1 to #24) were reprinted featuring the new cover design. It was with this "refresh" of the range that The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was given a new cover by Peter Andrew Jones to replace his original one.[3]
Books with this final Puffin cover design featured some slight changes during this period (1987 to 1995). At first the number of the book was printed on the front and spine of each book, till in 1989 the range was reprinted where all numbers were removed from the books (including the list on an inner page) alongside new books Portal of Evil, Vault of the Vampire, and Fangs of Fury. After this short-lived change, the number of the book returned to the spine of each book and the inner page list, but not the cover from Dead of Night (1989) onwards. The cover credit was printed in bronze-foil until the publication of the 52nd book (Night Dragon) in 1993, from which point it was not printed in foil (and the back catalogue of titles re-issued again to match).
Boxsets[]
- Main article: Fighting Fantasy Boxset
Notably, there were a number of boxsets with many varied covers. Also termed Boxed-sets and Gameboxes. Even the 25th Anniversary Edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain does not give an exhaustive list of the boxsets. However, it distinguishes between those that were for titles "launched" as boxed-sets and those that were for the gift-market:
Launched Boxed Sets[]
Sorcery![]
- Steve Jackson's Sorcery! Original
- This was published by Penguin Books and contained The Sorcery Spell Book and The Shamutanti Hills. This was, in fact, how Sorcery! was originally marketed.
Two-Player Gamebook[]
- Clash of the Princes - This was how the only Two Player book was published.
Gift Market[]
Given that 25th Anniversary Edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain does not name these, it is presumed that any that exist and were not named in the Launched Boxed Sets are Gift Market Boxed Sets
Gamebooks[]
- Fighting Fantasy Gamebox
- Perhaps the most common gamebox containing books 1 to 3.
- Fighting Fantasy Gamebox 1
- This had the Puffin Logo and the Fighting Fantasy logo and contained books one to four in the Main Series.
- Fighting Fantasy Gamebox 2
- This had the Puffin Logo and the Fighting Fantasy logo and contained books five to seven in the Main Series as well as Fighting Fantasy - The Introductory Role-Playing Game.
- Fighting Fantasy Adventure Gamebox - Bronze
- This had the Puffin Logo and contained books eighteen to twenty-one in the Main Series in the Adventure Gamebooks banner cover format.
- Fighting Fantasy Adventure Gamebox - Green
- This had the Puffin Logo and the cover was in the Dragon Cover Format. It contained books twenty-four to twenty-seven in the Main Series in the Dragon Cover Format cover format (the original "Golden Dragon Sub-Format").
- Fighting Fantasy Adventure Gamebox - Thrilling
- This set contained books thriteen to sixteen of the Main Series, and an iron-on.
- A Fistful of Fighting Fantasy
- This had the Puffin Logo and the cover was in the Dragon Cover Format. It contained books thirty-two to thirty-four in the Main Series in the Dragon Cover Format cover format (the original "Golden Dragon Sub-Format").
- Fighting Fantasy - The Anniversary Collection
- Published to mark the tenth anniversary (1982 to 1992) and contained The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and Return to Firetop Mountain.
- The Best of Fighting Fantasy
- Contents TBC
Sorcery![]
- Steve Jackson's Sorcery! Series Boxed Set
- This contained all four books, in the Zig-Zag Stripe format, and the slipcase was notable for being a wraparound colour map of Kakhabad by John Blanche. It was the same map published as a poster advert as well as published on the back of Warlock Issue 5.
- It also advertised that it included a Transfer.
See Also[]
| Puffin Book Cover Formats 1982 — 1995 |
DD Video 1998 |
Wizard Book Cover Formats 2002 — present | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Wrap around |
Colour No. |
Adventure Gamebooks |
Dragon Cover Format | 2002 Relaunch | Retro | 2009 Relaunch | Old School Cover Format | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold | No No. | Spine No. | No Foil | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||