Steve Jackson
British game designer and writerWikipedia
26
MENTIONS
7
EPISODES
7
PODCASTS
Search complete. 26 mentions across 7 episodes found for "Steve Jackson".
Oct 24, 2026
Hieronymus J. DoomHOST
The other obvious highlight is Freeway Fighter, which isn't the best design book, but does have an incredibly clear sense of world building.
Hieronymus J. DoomHOST
It's perhaps no coincidence that there's a bunch of tabletop games riffing on the same Mad Max schtick, as well as the six-volume gamebook series based on Steve Jackson's Car Wars game, which we will be getting to at some point.
Hieronymus J. DoomHOST
There's hints of possible greatness sprinkled through the science fiction books, but ultimately the low quality became so well known that many kids, myself included, began skipping the science fiction books and only buying the fantasy ones, and that doubtless hastened their doom.
Hieronymus J. DoomHOST
If the science fiction books represent a clear misstep within the series, it wasn't something that was inevitable.
Hieronymus J. DoomHOST
It's notable that Scholastic chose not to reprint Starship Traveller, despite that being an incredibly early book and by one of the series' original creators, but the reason I assume is more to do with quality than anything else.
Hieronymus J. DoomHOST
House of Hell and Appointment with Fear are both certified bangers, while Starship Traveller's place in the canon rests almost entirely on nostalgia.
Hieronymus J. DoomHOST
It's a poorly designed and poorly written book, a strange anomaly for Steve Jackson in both regards.
Hieronymus J. DoomHOST
One thing that a perusal of the Scholastic and Wizard reprints does point to is that Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's work still dominates when people think about fighting fantasy.
CianHOST
Alright, there you go.
CianHOST
So, I've always been fascinated by the idea of... of a an ultimate haunted house shall we say and during my reading career I've had a few of these which I've kept in my head as kind of you know examples of this so when I was a kid and I was into fighting fantasy books I was particularly taken with the house of hell book from the 1980s which was the only one set in the modern day times most of those fighting fantasy novels are kind of set in a medieval world and of course they are like choose your own way adventures with kind of rudimentary rpg elements and the house of hell book which was written by steve jackson my copy actually is signed by steve jackson and i got it signed at a a visit to fighting fantasy fest several several years ago now i think just before covid actually And that was in London, that was brilliant.
CianHOST
And so that to me has been always a, has remained in the back of my head as an example of a kind of an Ur haunted house just because the way that book is written, it's like full of tricks and traps.
CianHOST
The geography of the house is twisty and turny and it just gives you that oppressive feeling of being trapped in a place that you're never ever going to get out of.
Paul BimlerGUEST
that adventure that you could direct yourself sort of thing.
Paul BimlerGUEST
And even before that, like, I mean, fighting fantasy game books, that was actually my first RPG experience was Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston.
Paul BimlerGUEST
And then probably D&D straight after that.
Paul BimlerGUEST
But, you know, the Warlock of Firetop Mountain, I think that was probably the first RPG for a lot of kids, a lot of Gen X kids in that era, you know, who were like, playing D&D or finding fantasy games, Gamebox with like Billy Idol and Depeche Mode playing in the background, New Order, you know what I mean? So, yeah, got into that.
JamieHOST
I do.
JamieHOST
Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston sold the company.
JamieHOST
And then since then, it's been like right now we only do Warhammer.
JamieHOST
And within Warhammer, we only do like Fantasy Battle and 40K.
JamieHOST
Do you know what I mean? And White Dwarf itself would have...
JamieHOST
like would offer supplements for like every role-playing game imaginable and like you know what i mean and now it's like some
Gareth WatkinsGUEST
some of the like current stuff you can get in dungeon dragons like some major races and major monsters and stuff that actually was steve jackson livingstone yeah it was in came out white dwarf the if you've played that bald escape free game that
JamieHOST
everyone's raving about
Tim LongoHOST
But I'll dive right in, and I'm going to only start back at 1975.
Tim LongoHOST
Uh, that's as far as I'm gonna go back, [chuckles] where Ian and his two flatmates, um, [lips smack] John Peel and Steve Jackson, founded, uh, Games Workshop.
Tim LongoHOST
That's right.
Tim LongoHOST
You heard that correctly.
Tim LongoHOST
And in fact, as an example of him not retiring, I think he just released another Final Fantasy book somehow in 2026 called "The Tomb of the Golden Skull," which is perhaps maybe the 23rd of the s- books in the series since 1982, but he can confirm that.
Tim LongoHOST
And I'm almost done.
Tim LongoHOST
I believe he also plays board games on a weekly basis, which with Peter Molyneux and Steve Jackson, uh, and has published a newsletter around that, uh, s- uh, for many, many, uh, decades.
Tim LongoHOST
Uh, and I think I'm right on this, Ian, you're also the first winner ever for the poker tournament at the DICE game development conch- conference, uh, which I think he is very proud of that.
AdeHOST
It reminds me of...
AdeHOST
I used to read the Fighting Fantasy books by Steve Jackson, Ian Livingstone.
AdeHOST
They have...
AdeHOST
There's two Steve Jacksons in the RPG world and they're not the same person.
AdeHOST
There's the Steve Jackson of GURPS.
AdeHOST
No, not GURPS.
AdeHOST
Munchkin.
AdeHOST
Did he do GURPS as well? He did Munchkin and a load of Rules Light before Rules Light was a thing.
Jervis JohnsonGUEST
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.
Jervis JohnsonGUEST
I got to know Ian and Steve Jackson, uh, Ian Livingston and Steve Jackson.
Jervis JohnsonGUEST
Um, uh, but, and also a chap called, uh, Peter Darville-Evans, uh, who was, uh, you know, there.
Jervis JohnsonGUEST
Um, and obviously Ian and Steve set up Games Workshop.