Ian Livingstone is the cofounder of Games Workshop, the legendary UK sport firm behind Warhammer 40,000. In his new e book Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop, Livingstone recounts the corporate’s humble beginnings.
“It’s really in many ways a personal memoir rather than a business book,” Livingstone says in Episode 547 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “It’s all about the trials and tribulations of that early journey, and how we might have failed several times.”
One of Livingstone’s greatest successes was the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, which mix branching storylines with dice-based fight. The collection, which started in 1982 with The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (cowritten with Steve Jackson), is understood for its fiendish issue. “The fun for me in writing them is luring people to their death, promising great riches only for them to fall on poisonous spikes in deep pits,” Livingstone says. “So I try to put as many red herring choices in as possible.”
In the ’80s, the collection was typically attacked for its darkish imagery, however right this moment the books are acknowledged as an vital precursor to the grimdark motion. “Hidetaka Miyazaki, the designer of Dark Souls, credits Fighting Fantasy with inspiring him as a kid to want to become a game designer,” Livingstone says. “And there are other examples of people who’ve become really successful in TV production or writing or art who all credit Fighting Fantasy, because it had such an impact on people’s imagination at a younger age.”
After years of sporadic releases, Fighting Fantasy is seeing a serious resurgence. Several new books and apps have been launched lately, and upcoming initiatives embody an artwork e book, a board sport, and a cooperative card sport. “There’s still a huge amount of interest in the brand,” Livingstone says. “It’s just great that they’re still relevant and loved 40 years on.”
Listen to the whole interview with Ian Livingstone in Episode 547 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And try some highlights from the dialogue beneath:
Ian Livingstone on journey:
We had been going to satisfy Gary Gygax at Gen Con in 1976, to lastly meet him and in addition enroll any fledgling corporations that occurred to be at Gen Con. But we thought, having by no means been to the States earlier than, we would as properly make a vacation reasonably than a enterprise journey out of the journey … We had some wonderful occasions, going to the Grand Canyon, breaking down within the Mojave Desert, going to Vegas and seeing playing in a manner we’d by no means seen it earlier than, and finally, as I stated, our street journey led to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Ian Livingstone on the Bloodbeast:
The Bloodbeast is that this monster that sits in a pool of acidic gunge, and it has a protracted barbed toxic tail and a really lengthy tongue, and can ensnare you and sting you and drag you into its pool, the place you successfully rot away within the acid of the pool so it will possibly eat you in liquid type. But it does have a weak spot in that out of all of the quite a few eyes it has on its face, one among them, if discovered with a knife, will successfully kill it immediately, so that you simply have to seek out which is the right eye to pierce. People love the Bloodbeast for a lot of causes, and it’s one among my favourite monsters.
Ian Livingstone on writing Fighting Fantasy gamebooks:
I’ve 400 numbers able to allocate as I design on the fly, so I’ve a primary story arc in thoughts and a few protagonists and monsters in thoughts, after which set off with no 1, after which it splits out to “If you want to go one way, go to 22. If you want to go the other way, go to 104.” And cross these off the grasp checklist, and preserve a document of the branching on a flowchart, and make notations of all of the encounter factors and what you may discover the place, and ensure there aren’t any cul-de-sacs and that the financial system is balanced, and it’s not too tough. Also going again and [forth] alongside the a number of paths, so in the event you want a key to open a locked door, it’s important to return and put the important thing in a room the place you may discover it.
Ian Livingstone on schooling:
People typically criticize video video games and all kinds of interactive leisure as being trivial at greatest and possibly dangerous, with out understanding the ability of play. Giving that company of management is absolutely compelling. You’re required to problem-solve in a online game or gamebook. You be taught intuitively, enhance your important considering. It will increase literacy. I’d say they’re a contextual hub for studying, and that usually shouldn’t be acknowledged in mainstream media, the great that comes from enjoying video games and studying books like Fighting Fantasy.
