Episode 27 of Fantastic Fights finds us back in science fiction territory with Star Strider. As a rogue tracer our hero is tasked with roguishly tracing a kidnapped politician on a future Earth that has become considerably weirder than our present day. Will the rogue tracer be able to dodge deadly androids and some brutally random dice based challenges and escape to save the galaxy from the wily Gromulans? Listen along to find out.

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HJDoom plays through the 1987 adventure gamebook Crypt of the Sorcerer and offers his thoughts. Two apologies, one for the lateness of the episode and the other for the sound quality which is very uneven throughout. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this tour through some familiar areas in Allansia and a classic Ian Livingstone list of items and other clues to find.

It’s time for another bonus episode brought to you by the generosity of my patrons over at patreon.com/hjdoom. This time we’re playing Sagas of the Demonspawn Book One: Fire*Wolf written by the tireless JH Brennan. We’ve tangled with this creator before, he’s the author of the well regarded Grailquest series and a very, very odd riff on the story of Frankenstein. Where does this land in terms of his incredibly variable quality? Listen along with an increasingly confused HJDoom to find out.

Episode 25 of the podcast means two years of regular episodes and what better way to celebrate than with Beneath Nightmare Castle, the 1987 Fighting Fantasy book written by Peter Darvill-Evans with interior art by Dave Carson. This is an interesting book because it feels like a return to classic Fighting Fantasy tropes while still pushing the design in new and interesting directions. Will our hapless hero manage that elusive first time win? 

If you’re enjoying this podcast and want to support my nonsense then you can do so by going to patreon.com/hjdoom.

It’s bonus time again and this epiosde is a bit different because the book in question, The Cruel Game, was actually specially written for me by my husband as a birthday present last year. It’s a gamebook about playing in the finals of the World Snooker Championship, a grueling best of 35 frames that is played over two days. As well as the on table action (including a shot at a 147 break) the gamebook also features plenty of intrigue off the table as well. It was written by Dr Marcus E Law and he has graciously allowed me to cover it on the podcast and also send a copy out to all my patrons. If you’d like your own copy (along with all the stuff that I’ve written as patron bonus material) all you have to do is go to www.patreon.com/hjdoom and pledge as little as single pound or local equivalent. It’s entirely thanks to the support of my patrons that I’m able to release bonus content like this free to everyone.

HJDoom is back with the second part of Creature of Havoc. Our bumbling and monstrous hero has successfully traversed the dungeons of Zharradan Marr and made its way out into the big wide world. What happens next? Listen in to find out. There’s also a mildly exciting announcement of a new patreon reward, and the even more mildly exciting announcement that I have a new EP out. It’s 4 tracks of dungeon synth recorded on a digital version of a cheap 1980s Casio synth. It’s free to download and you can find it at https://malesperi.bandcamp.com/album/where-graves-are-empty

Creature of Havoc looms large in the canon of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. It’s often considered as the single best book in the whole run. Join HJDoom as he plays through the opening half and tries to keep a clear head in the face of a book throwing all manner of different things into the mix. The more observant among you will also have noticed that this is labelled part 1. That’s because this is a book so expansive that only a second episode can possibly contain the awesome totality of this tome. I’ll be aiming to record the second episode sooner rather than later but I’m also in the middle of deadline hell there may be some delay. Regardless Steve Jackson has delivered something truly special with this one and Alan Langford’s clean art makes a fantastic contrast to the obtuseness of the text.

If you’d like to support my nonsense you can do so by going to patreon.com/hjdoom and pledging as little as a thin English pound (or local equivalent).

It’s bonus episode time again! This time we’re playing through Dave Morris’s seminal Heart of Ice, often touted as the very finest adventure gamebook of all time. It’s the 24th century and Earth has gone very strange indeed as a quixotic computer messes with the climate and the human race clings to an increasingly precarious existence. These bonus episodes, which are free to everyone, are only made possible by the generosity of my patrons. If you’d like to contribute to the running of this podcast, as well as getting a few freebies, then you can do so at patreon.com/hjdoom.

This episode was recorded in a haze of painkillers and sciatic pain but edited in a much clearer frame of mind thanks to having spinal surgery last week. Hopefully this means that something approaching normal service may now be resumed for the rest of the year. We’re playing through Masks of Mayhem this episode, which was written by Robin Waterfield, the author of Rebel Planet and illustrated by the great Russ Nicholson. It marks a welcome return to the classic style of Fighting Fantasy books that the series popularity was built on. There’s a quest to be done and a journey to be taken and many deadly encounters along the way. There’s also an update on patron rewards which were completed shortly before I recorded this episode. I hope you enjoy it.