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.

This episode is a very special bonus episode in which HJDoom plays through the opening of Lone Eons, the solo play rules for the Lost Eons RPG by David Blandy. This solarpunk game imagines a future society 8000 years in the future. I recently had the opportunity to help develop a supplement for Lost Eons called Land of Iron, a system agnostic setting created by residents of Northamptonshire in collaboration with David Blandy and NN Contemporary Art. You can download a copy of Land of Iron here: https://nn.librarystack.org/lost-eons-land-of-iron/

Normal service will be resumed next week. I’ll be recording a new episde and releasing it before the end of the month. This is merely a bonus on top of a bonus.

It’s a massive episode to start off 2022 as HJDoom takes on the new and improved Deathtrap Dungeon in 1986’s Trial of Champions. This book also sees the welcome of Ian Livingstone to the franchise, having not penned a gamebook since Temple of Terror. Baron Sukumvit’s eviller sibling Carnuss is determined to find a worthy challenger to beat his brother’s monstrous creation no matter how many people he has to kill along the way. To even get the chance to face the dungeon you must first face the Arena of Death. Will our hero triumph? Just how long is he prepared to talk about the minutiae of gamebook design? Find out by listening along.

Fantastic Fights is only possible thanks to the generous souls who support me on patreon. Everyone who supports me gets a copy of my own adventure gamebook, House of the Unquiet Dead, as well as whatever other gaming nonsense I end up writing in 2022. Pledge as little as one UK pound here: www.patreon.com/hjdoom