Written by: Stephen Hand
Submitted By: Robert Douglas
The Fighting Fantasy series was founded back in the early 1980's by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. Being games enthusiasts (understatement!) they also established the famous Games Workshop, which demanded much of their time to manage, so they commissioned fellow sci-fi and fantasy authors to pen most of the series. Stephen Hand is one such author. 'Legend of the Shadow Warriors' is a solo roleplaying adventure set in the fictional world of Titan. It takes place a few years after the War of the Four Kingdoms, with the player cast as a veteran of that conflict, now a mercenary for hire.. He soon learns that the village of Karnstein is being plagued by supernatural entities known as Shadow Warriors. Unable to resist the lure of adventure, he sets off across a land beset and populated by strange, evil forces...This is an adventure more gothic in style than most other titles in the series, and there are some truly delightful if somewhat bizarre encounters. It has a wonderfully written approach from a brilliant imagination. Being Stephen Hand's second book for FF (following the excellent 'Dead of Night' co-written with Jim Bambra) it left a lasting impression upon millions of fans worldwide. Illustrations were also an integral part to FF gamebooks, in this case Matin McKenna captured the very essence of this dark and fascinating world; I would say he's one of my favourite interior illustrators - and recently he's done more excellent work for the revived FF series under Wizard Publishers. Speaking of which, sadly, 'Legend of the Shadow Warriors' hasn't been reprinted within the new series and as yet there are no plans for this to happen. Many commissioned author gamebooks went out of print when FF ended in 1995. Nevertheless, with its eventual demise, the series boasted a total of over seventy titles read by millions of fans worldwide. Although gamebooks are ideally for younger readers aged about 10-15, many adult gamers still enjoy a good adventure and a
challenge, fondly remember the series, and now have children of their own - for whom they buy books from the Wizard series.
As with all FF gamebooks, the player must explore, collect valuable items, find powerful weapons, make important decisions, solve puzzles and riddles, and use dice to determine battles and test his Luck.
