Fantastic Fights

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.

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