The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is the book that began the indomitable Fighting Fantasy series of books. These multiple path adventure books have been around since the 80s, but it all began with a humble adventurer defeating the evil Warlock Zagor. Return to Firetop Mountain sees Zagor back on his mountain, brought back to life thanks to some evil magics. Yet again you’ll have to flip some pages and roll some dice to defeat him.

This new edition of Return to Firetop Mountain is a reprint, with some slight format designs to make it look like part of the Scholastic series of books. The art has been cleaned up, some of the descriptions are more clear and so on, but it’s basically the classic book. The core rules for the game are in the back for some reason, but apart from that it’s the same book with a nicer cover and a shinier spine.

Once the adventure gets going (there’s a fair amount of pre-amble) it’s quite the challenge. We get plenty of shout outs to the first book; some traps and monsters are referenced. For example, the sleeping orc guard from book one is now a skeletion. The Mountain has changed, of course. Since coming back to life Zagor has redecorated his lair.

It is one of the Ian Livingstone’s more fiendish game books, with a quite a few tough foes to deal with and a selection of instant death traps, vital yet hard to find items and various encounters that are impossible to predict the lethality of until you’re right in among it. Livingstone is notoriously harsh, but this one is quite tough. Which is why it’s so much fun.

A nostalgia fest for the older gamers and a lovely new book for younger types, totally worth a look but do play Warlock first.