The Citadel of Chaos

Infobox Fighting Fantasy book 3covers






caption1=The original and revised covers of "The Citadel of Chaos" illustrated by Emmanuel and Ian Miller respectively.
caption2=The Wizard cover of "The Citadel of Chaos" illustrated by Kevin Jenkins.
location=Allansia, Titan
references=400
authors=Steve Jackson
illustrator=Russ Nicholson
coverillustrator=Emmanuel,
Ian Miller
year=1983
number=2
ISBN=ISBN 0-14-031603-5
wcoverillustrator=Kevin Jenkins
wyear=2002
wnumber=2
wISBN=ISBN 1-84046-389-9|

"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.

tory

Quotation|"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 defeated 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.

Trivia

This gamebook has been deemed by many fans to be one of the few Fighting Fantasy gamebooks 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.

Cover

The book had two different cover illustrations when it was originally published by Puffin, the earlier one being more simplistic.

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.

ee also

*Fighting Fantasy
*List of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks

References

* cite web
title=Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks on gamebooks.org
url=http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series.php?id=11
* cite web
title=The Citadel of Chaos on gamebooks.org
url=http://www.gamebooks.org/show_item.php?id=38
* cite web
title=The Citadel of Chaos on the Internet Archive record of the old fightingfantasy.com site
url=http://web.archive.org/web/20051127132124/www.fightingfantasy.com/ffb2.htmOfficial sites:
* cite web
title=The Citadel of Chaos on the official Fighting Fantasy website
url=http://www.fightingfantasygamebooks.com/ff2.htm
* cite web
title=The Citadel of Chaos on the Wizard Books website
url=http://www.iconbooks.co.uk/wizard/wbook.cfm?isbn=1-84046-389-9Magazines:
* cite journal
year = 1983
month = June
title = Open Box
journal = White Dwarf
issue = 42
pages = 16–17