Fighting Fantasy Collector Checklist & Guide

I've been wanting to fill the gaps in my Fighting Fantasy collection for quite some time, and having 'caught-up' a little on the changes to the FF world in the last 20 years - they're no longer published by Puffin, several have been reprinted with new covers, and there are now well over 60 original titles, I was faced with a bit of a challenge - how to identify the original versions of the later books and which.

Fortunately Jamie Fry (over at http://www.fightingfantasycollector.co.uk) has jumped to the rescue and produced a comprehensive guide to collecting Fighting Fantasy. It certainly is comprehensive, covering all the publishers, from Puffin to Wizard, giving a clear guide to what books were originally published by whom. The format of the PDF is a series of tables with check-list and price indicators - which from my limited eBay watching experience do seem reasonable.

Perhaps the holy grail of FF collecting is the Allansia source-book for Advanced Fighting Fantasy which regularly goes for £25+ on eBay, and it's estimate is about right. The list covers all of this, along with the FF jigsaw puzzles, citadel miniatures and much more. It doesn't go to the detail of tracking down every advert ever published but does include both the Castles of Lost Souls (illustrated by Gary Ward who did Caverns of the Snow Witch) and Dark Usurper adventures published in White Dwarf magazine.

One nice touch is the inclusion of some photos of Jamies FF collection, including rows upon rows of green-spines (drool!) and some fine looking examples of the early coloured spines. It's a shame that not every item is illustrated but the guide is very useful nonetheless.

For myself I'd like to see a little more granularity, whilst the average "Warlock of Firetop Mountain - wrap-around cover" might be worth a quid - what about a genuine first edition / first impression, or was there only one impression of the wrap-around? A little more in the fine detail would have been nice.

These minor quibbles aside, this is an indispensable guide to one of the most (inconsistently) creative and popular series to have arisen from the British gaming phenomenon of the 80s.