Legend of Zagor

Legend of Zagor

Jim Burns cover (1993)
Author Carl Sargent
Illustrator Martin McKenna
Cover artist Jim Burns and
Martin McKenna
Series

Fighting Fantasy

  • Puffin number: 54
  • Wizard number: 20
Genre Fantasy
Location: Amarillia
Publication date
  • Puffin: 1993
  • Wizard: 2004
ISBN 0-14-036566-4 (Puffin)
ISBN 1-84046-551-4 (Wizard)
Martin McKenna cover (2004)

Legend of Zagor is a single-player roleplaying gamebook written by Carl Sargent, although it is credited to Ian Livingstone, illustrated by Martin McKenna and originally published in 1993 by Puffin Books. It was later republished by Wizard Books in 2004. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It is the 54th in the series in the original Puffin series (ISBN 0-14-036566-4) and 20th in the modern Wizard series (ISBN 1-84046-551-4).

The book is a follow-up of previous Fighting Fantasy book Return to Firetop Mountain, which in turn was a sequel to The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.

Story

This Fighting Fantasy gamebook is the only one to be set in Amarillia. The player plays one of four characters who must destroy Zagor, who is recovering in Castle Argent after being banished from the regular Fighting Fantasy world of Titan. The player must find Tower Chests and collect Golden Talismans and Silver Daggers to help in the final confrontation.

Characters

In Legend of Zagor, the reader must play one of four different heroes: Anvar the Barbarian, Braxus the Warrior, Stubble the Dwarf or Sallazar the Wizard. Each has different strengths and weaknesses. For example, Sallazar can subtract 2 from Test your Spot Skill rolls, understand some magical writing and cast magic spells at will that other characters need scrolls to use, but cannot wear any chain mail or plate mail armour and cannot use a two-handed weapon. Each character's scores must also be rolled in a different way. This aspect of the book has been criticised as the book is significantly more difficult playing with certain characters; in particular, players using Stubble or Sallazar have found it very difficult to complete the book. Sallazar is the most likely to have low ability scores, and the book's magic system requires that combatants win an attack round for their spells to affect the enemy, which means that unless he has a sufficiently high SKILL score, the advantage of magic is all but worthless.

The heroes that the player can choose from are all characters from the Zagor Chronicles novels, who worked together as a group to destroy Zagor. One major difference, however, is the recasting of the wizard character-in the novels: the wizard was a woman named Jallarial, whose brother Sallazar was killed before the story began. Jallarial does not appear in the gamebook; the wizard's role is instead taken up by Sallazar, who is alive and well.

Author

While Ian Livingstone is credited with writing Legend of Zagor, it is rumoured that Zagor Chronicles co-author Carl Sargent (who wrote gamebooks under the name Keith Martin) was involved with writing the book since some elements of the book mirror his style. Livingstone's style is considered distinct by many Fighting Fantasy fans, where the player is led through a specific plot and must collect a number of special items for specific purposes. Legend of Zagor is markedly different in that the player has much more freedom to explore the castle and choose whether or not to enter certain places, and the various items found are mostly combat aids (potions, special weapons, etc.) that are only used at the player's discretion.

Gamebook Artwork

There’s a portrait of Ian Livingstone hidden in the interior art of this game book. It's the face of the man sitting behind a desk, wearing a leather skullcap, in the picture for reference number 194. Artist Martin McKenna added the author’s face to his artwork for all the game books he illustrated that were written by Livingstone.

Other references

In 1993, a 'Legend of Zagor' boardgame was designed by Ian Livingstone and produced by Parker brothers. It featured the same choice of heroes as the gamebook, moulded plastic board and miniatures, and an electronic voiceover the character of Zagor.

A series of novels featuring the arrival of Zagor to the land of Amarillia and the battle to defeat him, The Zagor Chronicles, were written by Ian Livingstone and Carl Sargent. They are related to Legend of Zagor, with many characters appearing in both the gamebook and the novels.

See also

References

Official sites:

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