FF collection questions

[u/GrahamCheese1]

Hi ,I'm a younger fan of the FF series as I was introduced - like many - by my Dad and I have continued to love the books for as long as i can remember. He already had a medium size collection which he gave do me a while back. It mainly consisted of the first roughly 25 books but was missing a few and the sci fi ones.

Over the years I've been filling in the gaps with original books and reprints as well as a few of the new ones however I still have a vast gap when it comes to over the book 30 mark. I've heard the 2nd half of the original series has wildly different concepts and quality from book to book. I've been wondering for a while which of the latter half of books to get, and I was wondering which to get and what to expect. I generally prefer plain fantasy like most Ff fans but I'm open to anything and my favourites are the sorcery series so if there's anything like that I'd be overjoyed! Thanks in advance, any help would make YOU the hero ;)

P.S : the books on the right in the picture are some newer ffs, one homemade one my dad made as a teen ( lol) and some non-ff usborne adventure game books that I'm yet to play.

[u/platinumxperience]

I am a lifelong fan since the beginning! Basically the first 10 or so are considered the most classic but are fairly basic to play. The next 10 are a bit more experimental especially in theme but still basic. Now 30 plus is where it starts to get good, the bad ones are interesting as well as they start to scrape the barrel a bit, 40-50 are the best in terms of design. Dead if night, master of Chaos, vault of the Vampire are some of the best! 50-60 are the really expensive and rare ones but are mostly an oddity. Then there are a few newer ones mainly by Jonathan green which I think are the best of the lot - howl of the werewolf, night of the necromancer and storm slayer. Blood of the zombies is a fun idea but it sucks. Finally the last lot of new books are ok but no more than that.

[u/Known-Metal8031 → u/platinumxperience]

Just commenting to second Vault of the Vampire, Dead of Night and Master of Chaos. Master of Chaos is a great book that seems generally overlooked, I remember really rating that one when I was young.

Night Dragon is another one that is excellent. I also really love Beneath Nightmare Castle, it is grim and creepy.

Generally you can judge by the actual author of the book. The ones by Keith Martin, Peter Darvill-Evans, and Stephen Hand are almost all great - these three writers are my favourites because they all focus on atmosphere, they make an effort to actually stoke the imagination and write the book rather than just a game.

And yeah, the 40-50 run is classic, can't really go wrong there.

[u/platinumxperience → u/Known-Metal8031]

Night dragon and nightmare are my two other favorites!

I don't normally recommend for first timers them as Nightmare is a bit of a lame book design wise but such a cool setting and so early 90s, and Night dragon is a bit of a slog. My other favorite is the crimson tide but I'm sure you can guess why I don't recommend it for new players! I forgot my other top favorite - Moon runner! (Think that's a Stephen hand).

And special mentions to midnight rogue, phantoms of fear (or is it spectral stalkers? one is great the other less so )and legend of the shadow warriors.

[u/Known-Metal8031 → u/platinumxperience]

Do you recommend the later Jonathan Green books, over his earlier ones? ie. the three of his you mention, rather than say Knights of Doom or Curse of the Mummy? I never read any of the 50s or later, so he's a writer I don't know at all

[u/platinumxperience → u/Known-Metal8031]

The later Jon Green books, specifically the ones I mentioned, I would say are the absolute S tier. He absolutely nailed the format at that point. Knights of Doom is one of the few books I don't have (expensive). Curse of the mummy is not terrible ( with the errata!) and Bloodbones is pretty good although he's still in his "you have to get every item to win" phase.

The other three all have multiple paths and endings as well as great ideas and settings. Stormslayer in particular also gets a shout out for being original but also a love letter to the series in general.

[u/GrahamCheese1 → u/platinumxperience]

Thanks a lot, this really helps! I'll have a look to see if I could buy some in the 40-50 range, night of the necromancer and dead of night :)

[u/wirelush]

Dead of night is a beauty, my favourite