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THE WARLOCK OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN
Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone
Reviewed by Mark Lain
It is
difficult to retrospectively review this book objectively as, for those like me
who got it when it first came out, this was where the FF phenomenon and a key
part of being a male growing up in the 80s began. Opening this book now and
seeing the evocative illustrations always makes me feel attached to it. Russ
Nicholson’s art in this book, whilst far from his best for FF, seems perfectly
suited to introducing the bizarre and other-worldly atmosphere of FF. We must
remember that, on first writing, the initial FF books were written in a vacuum.
There was no Allansia, there was no FF world – each book was just a concept that
would eventually be tied together as a whole body of work. WOFM was where it
all began – it set out the standard set of rules for stat generation (Skill,
Stamina, Luck would be the starting point that later books would add other
attributes to), use of potions and provisions, equipment, etc. The combat rules
were quite elaborate, but also very appropriate as it made your stats mean
something. Also, WOFM was the only collaboration between FF’s creators. At the
time the book seemed to flow quite fluidly but, having become familiar with the
different approaches and styles of Steve and Ian, it seems a bit disjointed and
who wrote what is explicitly obvious to the point where it feels almost like
you are playing two different books. This approach kept reading later books
interesting as you anticipated their styles and enjoyed that in them, but WOFM
now seems awkward due to this. Personally I prefer the first (Livingstone) half
as I prefer his dungeon-trawl approach, rather than Steve’s more gimmicky
novelty approach to FF (although it would be Steve who would really push the
boundaries and experiment with FF in later books.)
The back
story is quite intriguing and does draw you into wanting to know what’s inside
the mountain. However, this is the first example of one of WOFM biggest
problems – the plot is totally illogical. Basically, you, the brave and
honourable adventurer, are about to rob a little old man of his
treasure after murdering him first. The standard FF fall-back motive that he’s going to destroy the world
had not come into play at this early stage in the series. The motive is sheer
mercenary greed. Similarly illogical is that the keys to the warlock’s treasure
chest are randomly strewn all over the inside of the mountain so you have to
assume he never opens it to take a look! There is also the question of why he
seems to have such a large captive workforce, how a shop could ever turn in a
profit hidden so deep in a mountain, and why there’s a gambling room in there.
I think you have to suspend disbelief and remember that this was the first of
an untested series and that Puffin was taking a big risk so SJ and IL threw as
much as possible at this story to make it varied enough to attract an audience.
..And varied
it indeed is. The scene is set for so many of what would become FF standards
that it plays now like a compilation of FF’s greatest hits. We have the
fundamental FF creature premises set out for us: goblins (offensive), orcs
(evil), dwarfs (nice but blustery), human NPCs (generally pleasant if you don’t
try to kill them, or alternatively, manipulative and calculating), ghouls (come
with the added problem of paralysis in combat), wights (only hurt by magic
weapons and best avoided which is probably why they were used so sparingly in
later FFs), vampires (a total nightmare to fight due to hypnosis and set out
from the outset as one of FF’s toughest foes), skeletons (sword-fodder), giant
and were- versions of just about anything, etc. We see two of Ian’s favourite
nuisances – traps (later done to deadly perfection in Deathtrap Dungeon) and linearity in terms of only being allowed to
ever head toward wherever the end of the line is (annoying). We also have
numerical reference tricks (keys, in this case) which Jackson would later
exploit well in House Of Hell and
pretty much perfectly in Creature Of
Havoc. There is the 50-50 good or bad choice options (helmets in this
case). We also can’t forget the inevitable shopping list of stuff you might
need later on (although in WOFM it’s quite fun collecting items and most of it comes
in handy so it seems effectively controlled here.)
A criticism
of many FFs is that they are either too easy or depressingly hard. WOFM is
neither of these. It is certainly not simple and it takes many attempts to
complete. The Maze of Zagor is tough, the river part is tricky, fighting Zagor
himself takes ingenuity on the part of the player, and then you can still lose
if you have the wrong keys (although that’s a bit disheartening when you’ve got
so far and then fall at the last hurdle, but most FF books will do that to
you.) Instant deaths are very rare here which removes the frustration of simply making a seemingly reasonable choice and ending up dead which would plague later books in the series. However, WOFM is challenging and varied enough to make people want to
play again in the knowledge that they will eventually beat the book. The
impossible FFs are exposed as impossible from an early stage which is just
annoying.
WOFM also has
other aspects that make it appealing: certain plot elements are lifted from
classical mythology (maze, minotaur, gargoyles that attack you if you try to
steal their jewelled parts); there is evidence that your mission does not exist
in isolation (you meet a previously-unsuccessful adventurer – sadly he does
what so many seemingly decent human NPCs in FF do (that don’t die) and runs off
pretty much immediately); and there is humour in it (tools that make you feel
good when you watch them work and a chair that heals you in return for sitting
on it.)
Most
importantly WOFM makes you want to play more FF books which is the key to its
success. If the first FF that came out was exceptionally difficult, or ridiculously easy you would be less
inclined to open another one. WOFM is far from perfect but it does exactly what
it was designed to do. Gimmicks and concept manipulation would come later in
the series, but this book is an excellent foundation that is still fun to play
even after 30 years.
