The Citadel of Chaos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks | |
|---|---|
  The original and revised covers of The Citadel of Chaos illustrated by Emmanuel and Ian Miller respectively. |
|
 The Wizard cover of The Citadel of Chaos illustrated by Kevin Jenkins. |
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| Outline | |
| Location: | Allansia, Titan |
| References: | 400 |
| Publication details | |
| Author(s): | Steve Jackson |
| Illustrator: | Russ Nicholson |
| Puffin | |
| Cover illustrator: | Emmanuel, Ian Miller |
| First published: | 1983 |
| Number | 2 |
| ISBN: | ISBN 0-14-031603-5 |
| Wizard | |
| Cover illustrator: | Kevin Jenkins |
| First published: | 2002 |
| Number | 2 |
| ISBN: | ISBN 1-84046-389-9 |
| List of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks | |
The Citadel of Chaos is a single-player roleplaying gamebook written by Steve Jackson, illustrated by Russ Nicholson and originally published in 1983 by Puffin Books. It was later republished by Wizard Books in 2002. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It is the second in the series in both the Puffin (ISBN 0-14-031603-5) and Wizard (ISBN 1-84046-389-9) series.
Contents |
[edit] Story
Deep inside the Citadel of Chaos, the dread sorcerer Balthus Dire is plotting the downfall of the goodfolk of the Vale of Willow. His battle plans are laid, his awesome army equipped, and attack is surely imminent.
Summoned by a desperate plea for help, YOU are the Vale of Willow’s only hope. As star pupil of the Grand Wizard of Yore and a master sorcerer yourself, you must strike at the very heart of Balthus Dire’s nightmare world. Though you command many powerful spells, the quest may be deadly, for who knows what creatures lie in wait in the Citadel of Chaos?
The book is, like its predecessor The Warlock of Firetop Mountain set in the fictional world of Titan in the Allansia region. The player must negotiate deep into the Black Tower to defeat of the warlord Balthus Dire, who plans to conquer the Vale of Willow.
In many ways The Citadel of Chaos was similar to the original Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain with a similar goal and setting. However The Citadel of Chaos removed the key-collecting mechanism of the previous book and expanded the rules with the inclusion of a magic system.
The gamebook contains a simplistic system for using magic. This would be greatly expanded by Steve Jackson in the Sorcery! series.
Balthus Dire must be completed by a long and strategic spell battle at the end of the book - this took Steve Jackson many hours to plan out. In fact Steve named Balthus Dire his favourite Fighting Fantasy character.
[edit] Trivia
This gamebook has been deemed by many fans to be one of the few Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, if not the only one, that offers a fair chance of completing the book with the weakest possible character (Skill 7, Stamina 14, Luck 7, Magic 8). This fits well with Steve Jackson's statement in the rules that no matter how weak a player's initial dice rolls are, so long as he or she made the right choices, should be able to made it through the game with a bit of luck.
[edit] Cover
The book had two different cover illustrations when it was originally published by Puffin, the earlier one being more simplistic.
[edit] Later references
The main villain of the book, Balthus Dire, also appeared in the novel The Trolltooth Wars by Steve Jackson.
Video game versions of the book were released in 1984 for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks on gamebooks.org.
- The Citadel of Chaos on gamebooks.org.
- The Citadel of Chaos on the Internet Archive record of the old fightingfantasy.com site.
Official sites:
- The Citadel of Chaos on the official Fighting Fantasy website.
- The Citadel of Chaos on the Wizard Books website.
Magazines:
- "Open Box" (June 1983). White Dwarf (42): 16–17.
