Advanced Fighting Fantasy


Advanced Fighting Fantasy is a British roleplaying game based on the Fighting Fantasy and Sorcery! gamebooks, first published in 1989. Just as the gamebooks, AFF is set in the world of Titan. A second edition of AFF was published in 2011.
AFF is chiefly meant to facilitate the games master to write their own adventures inspired by Fighting Fantasy. The few adventures published for the game are brand new adventures specifically written for the system as opposed to converting existing gamebook stories for multiplayer RPG usage.
AFF is unrelated to both the Myriador d20 conversions of several gamebooks by Jamie Wallis, and the electronic conversions of the Sorcery! series by inkle. Both of these feature unique rules not seen elsewhere in the Fighting Fantasy brand.

The game mechanics

The rules of AFF are adapted from the rules of the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and was an expanded but separate follow-up to Fighting Fantasy – The Introductory Role-Playing Game. This system is based on skills, here called "Special Skills". The game features neither classes nor levels.
A player character, called Hero, is defined by:
  • four characteristics: Skill, Stamina, Luck, Magic; they range from 7 to 12 except for Stamina which ranges 14-24;
  • race: Human, Dwarf, Elf;
  • a set of special skills: Combat, Movement, Stealth, Knowledge and Magical special skills; special skill values usually range from 0 to 4;
  • a few Talents, which are special features such as Animalfriend, Natural Mage, Robust, Weaponmaster...
  • a Social Class, from 0 to 10.
The creation of a Hero starts with the choice of a "concept", e.g. a Knight of Salamonis or a Student from the magical school of Yore — this has no influence on the attributes and is more a background guideline. Unlike the gamebooks, the characteristics and special skills are not rolled but are bought with creation points. The rules provide archetypes which allow a fast creation: Adventurer, Archer, Barbarian, Priest of Telak, Rogue, Warrior, Wizard...
There are three types of tests:
  • unopposed test: a roll of two six-sided dice must be less than the sum of a characteristic and a special skill; this is an extension of the Skill tests of the gamebooks;
  • opposed tests: each character roll 2d6 and adds Skill and a special skill, the highest wins; this is an extension of the combat procedure of the gamebooks;
  • Luck test: same as the gamebooks rule.
The rules provide difficulty adjustments for given situations.
The combat rules are the same as the gamebooks', except that the points of damage are determined randomly: the attacker rolls 1d6 and reads the points of damage on a table, the defender does the same to apply the damage reduction from his armour. There are a few combat options: Luck test to increase or reduce the damages, surprise, feint...
A spellcaster must have a least 1 in the Magic characteristic and one point in one special skill: Magic-Minor, Magic-Priestly, Magic-Sorcery or Magic-Wizardry. There are three types of magic:
  • Minor magic: the Cantrips are easy-to-cast spells with limited effects;
  • Religion: each god bestows his priests three general powers and one specific power;
  • Sorcery: this type of magic was created in the Old World, and does not draw its energy from the surrounding environment but from the sorcerer's own Stamina, and from material components; this is the adaptation of the magic system of the Sorcery! gamebooks;
  • Wizardry: the Wizard studied in a school to learn to use the invisible arcane power that permeates the world of Titan.

    The ''Advanced Fighting Fantasy'' system (original publication)

''Advanced Fighting Fantasy'' titles published by Arion Games (2011-present)

The main change brought by this edition is the addition of the Sorcery! magic system. Arion Games also brought in several titles not previously directly related to AFF under the Advanced Fighting Fantasy brand.
For Out of the Pit, Arion added the statistics needed to make that monster book compatible with AFF rules. The spells in the Sorcery! spell book were likewise given additional mechanics to make them AFF spells. Other publications, such as the Titan worldbook, was republished as-is.
No.TitleAuthorsCover ArtInterior ArtPublishedISBN
CB77001Advanced Fighting FantasyGraham BottleyJohn SibbickVarious2011
CB77002Out of the PitSteve Jackson & Ian Livingstone
Christos AchilleosVarious2011
CB77003TitanSteve Jackson & Ian Livingstone
John Christos AchilleosVarious2011
CB77004Crown of KingsGraham Bottley & Steve JacksonJohn BlancheJohn Blanche2012
CB77005Heroes CompanionGraham BottleyJohn SibbickRuss Nicholson2012
CB77006BlacksandGraham BottleyMartin McKennaIain McCaig and Steve Luxton2012
CB77007The Sorcery Spell BookGraham Bottley & Steve JacksonMaggie KneenJohn Blanche2013-
CB77008Beyond the PitAndrew WrightTerry OakesVarious2013
CB77009The Warlock of Firetop MountainBrett SchofieldMartin McKennaRuss Nicholson and Brett Schofield2014-
CB77010Advanced Fighting Fantasy DeluxeGraham Bottley, Marc Gascoigne, Peter TemlynJohn SibbickVarious2016-
CB77011Stellar AdventuresGraham Bottley & Jonathan HicksAlan CraddockGary Mayes & Mark Robinson2017-
CB77012Stellar Adventures Starship CatalogueGraham Bottley, Dan Quinlan, Simon StraffordGraham BottleyGraham Bottley2017-
CB77013The Titan HerbalAndrew WrightMaggie KneenVarious2017-
CB77014The Kaladarian ResponseGraham BottleyGraham Bottley?Gary Mayes & Mark Robinson2018-
CB77015Demons of DoomGraham BottleyTony HoughVarious2019-
CB77016A Rough Guide to the PitAndrew WrightMike TenebraeVarious2019-
CB77017Weapons and Armour CatalogueGraham Bottley, Dan Quinlan, Simon StraffordGraham BottleyGraham Bottley2019-
CB77018Travels in ArionGraham BottleyBob GreyvensteinRuss Nicholson & Maciej Zagorski2019-
CB77019Return to the PitAndrew WrightLes EdwardsVarious2019-
CB77020Creatures of MishnaBenjamin Quinton-BottleyVarious2020-
CB77021Combat CompanionGraham BottleyVarious2021-
CB77022Citadel of ChaosBrett SchofieldHenrik KarppinenRuss Nicholson2022-
CB77023Encyclopedia Arcana Vol I - TreasuresAndrew WrightJohn BlancheVarious2022-
CB77024Heroes of TitanAndrew WrightJohn KapsalisJohn Kapsalis2023-
CB77025The Atlantis CampaignGraham BottleyVariousVarious2023-
CB77026Adventure Creation SystemGraham Bottley, Stuart Lloyd, Daniel QuinlanVariousVarious2024-
CB77027The Forest of DoomBrett SchofieldVariousVarious2024-

Translations

The roleplaying game is translated and published in French by, as Défis fantastiques, le jeu de rôle . They added original material: the core book has a 100 pages additional campaign, Le Tambour de Gondrim ', and original illustrations. They also created a gamemaster's screen with an original adventure, and paper figurines, floorplans and tiles.
  • Gamemaster's screen and an adventure, Pirates à la dérive ', first part of the campaign Maudit Trésor... '.
  • Tiles and paper figurines.
  • A2 vinyl colour map of Allansia, from the original material from Jonathan Green, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.
  • Free downloadable adventure, first part of the campaign Les Larmes de Hmurresh '.
  • Free downloadable adventure in a contemporary world.
Scriptarium started a call for crowdfunding to publish the translation of Titan in March 2014. The success of the subscription allowed the execution of new original illustrations, illustrated cards for the magic spells, a miniature representing Yaztromo, and an A2-format colour map of Titan showing the location of the adventures. It also contains an original 90 p. campaign, À la Recherche de la jeunesse perdue ''''.