Ian Livingstone

Wow, that is a lot to take in.

Tomb of the Golden Skull was, of course, written by Ian Livingstone, and there's interior and cover art by Karl Kopinski.

It was released in 2026 by Scholastic Books.

Before we get into the meat of the episode, I need to thank a new patron.

I'm currently working on a new gamebook, The City by the Sea, where doomed gods still dwell, and will be documenting my progress over on Patreon as the book takes shape.

For once, I am familiar with both halves of the creative team on this one.

Ian Livingstone obviously needs no introduction.

He's probably the single biggest reason this podcast exists.

Um, but I'll only be scratching the surface.

Of course, Sir Ian Livingstone is our guest today, and we are truly honored to have him here.

And if I get anything wrong, he can correct me, um, afterwards of course, as we usually do.

But I'll dive right in, and I'm going to only start back at 1975.

This guy walked over to me and said, um, "If I came back in five minutes with a copy of City of Thieves,"

[laughs]

"... would you sign it for me?" And I look up and went, "Hello?" He didn't even say, "Are you Ian Livingstone?" He just assumed that I am that person.

So I said, "Sure."

It reminds me of...

I used to read the Fighting Fantasy books by Steve Jackson, Ian Livingstone.

They have...

There's two Steve Jacksons in the RPG world and they're not the same person.

In many ways, it's surprising that there aren't more zombie apocalypse game books out there, given their general saturation of pop culture over the years.

We did, of course, cover Ian Livingstone's Blood of the Zombies not so long ago on this podcast, and while that had its moments, it never quite captured the feeling of being in a zombie movie.

I don't think we've covered any others.

I think probably the hardest thing for game books to capture mechanically is the dichotomy whereby a single zombie represents very little actual threat, but a horde of zombies represents a threat that is effectively insurmountable.

Uh, and, uh, they gave me an interview and said, "Well, wait till after you've done your A levels, and then you can work here." So I worked in Game Center.

I got to know Ian and Steve Jackson, uh, Ian Livingston and Steve Jackson.

Um, uh, but, and also a chap called, uh, Peter Darville-Evans, uh, who was, uh, you know, there.

Um, and obviously Ian and Steve set up Games Workshop.

I also knew Albie, who was the first editor on White Wolf magazine, uh, from my time at Game Center.

Um, and I was at a Games Day, uh, uh, you know, like in 1982, and, uh, Pete was there, and he said, "I'm looking for a, a, um, an assistant.

Warhammer hadn't come out, uh, when I joined Games Workshop.

So Games, uh, Games Workshop w- was set up as an importer and distributor of D&D, actually.

So that was just the beginning for me.

And then came the Sword and Sorcery by Ian Livingstone.

Fighting Fantasy, I think it's called in English.

Those were translated as well.