Who here remembers Choose Your Own Adventure, Fighting Fantasy, and similar things?

[Mr. Confederate Man]

The Choose Your Own Nightmare books were my favorite of the genre. I still have some on my shelf that I picked up from my elementary school library’s discard pile

 

[Wood Logger]

I weirdly remember something from my elementary school library having a couple of these but the only ones they had were not the ones with dice rolls, it was of the "turn to page A to choose X" or "Turn to page B to choose Y" variety. Also most of the ones they had weren't D&D esc. but like "Wilderness", "Arctic survival", "Zombie Apocalypse", that kind of slop, fun, but still slop.

 

[Weeb Slinger]

I played the first 24 Fighting Fantasy books as they came out. Creature of Havoc, which you are cast in the role of a monster who initially can't understand what anyone is saying (though they mostly seem terrified) is much less fun and far more tedious than it sounds. Some masochists regard it as a classic, but it put me off the series for good. The first seven books (The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Citadel of Chaos, The Forest of Doom, Starship Traveller, City of Thieves, Deathtrap Dungeon, and Island of the Lizard King) were penned either by Steve Jackson and/or Ian Livingstone. There is a magic about those early books that was lost after they opened the series up to other writers. Thereafter the quality varies and the settings feel less evocative. I still occasionally ponder on the fate of my poor fishing companion, Mungo, who, depending on which path you take in Island of the Lizard King (which is nothing to do with Jim Morrison) is slain either by a pirate captain or a giant crab.

Fighting Fantasy 8 - Scorpion Swamp - was confusingly penned by a completely different Steve Jackson (of Steve Jackson Games - the birthplace of much-loved board games such as the Mad Max-inspired Car Wars, Ogre - where loads of tiny futuristic military units face off against a giant cybernetic tank - and GURPS (Generic Universal Roleplaying System) which could be adapted for any setting. He experimented with a looser, less linear format, where you could select one of three quests. It was a good idea that didn't quite pay off.

To their credit the publisher (Penguin) were open to different settings and genres, as well as experiments with the format: Sorcery! was an epic, spanning four mostly-great connected volumes, although the final installment - The Crown of Kings - was a bit of a let down, especially given that there is an element of time travel involved and you have to go through the book twice in order to complete the quest. Clash of the Princes - another installment that tinkered with the format - was a two-player quest, consisting of a pair of books that you and a friend would read together. Occasionally you would be required to interact with each other.

Of the conventional books, House of Hell - a foray into the horror genre was difficult to complete and genuinely unsettling. The thing that I really liked about Talisman of Death is that it opens with the literary equivalent of an interactive cut-scene where you are thrust into the action without much of a clue as to what is going on. The book was penned by Jamie Thompson and Mark Smith who were responsible for The Way of the Tiger series, mentioned early in the thread. I really enjoyed the developing storyline of those books, the richness of the world and the massive cast of characters. The combat system enabled you to use different martial arts moves to bring down an enemy.. The scene that sticks in my mind was the fight with Everyman, the flesh golem, who pursues you tirelessly and who will not die.

I enjoyed the first two Tolkien Quest books, before legal action forced them to rebrand as Middle-Earth Quest. The writers took a broader sandbox-style approach that saw your character navigate around a map overlaid by a numbered hexagonal grid, indicating the passage in the book that you needed to refer to. You could use the basic combat system or, if you preferred, you could adopt the far more complex Middle Earth RPG system (which was a port of the RoleMaster system - perhaps the only RPG which has a critical hit table for small animals and where it is possible to be killed by a rabbit).

Forbidden Gateway was set during the early 20th century and was very Lovecraftian. The series never caught on and only ran for two books, which is a shame. I enjoyed them both.

My favourite gamebooks were the Grailquest series, penned by J H Brennan (who died a few weeks ago, on the 1st January, 2024). They were set in a tongue in cheek reimagining of the Arthurian mythos and written in a style that leaned heavily on Monty Pythonesque humour. Where, for example, you might enter a room to find a man about to nobly sacrifice his own life by eating a vampire carrot, while the carrot begs for mercy, insisting that it is not a vampire but a princess who has been transformed into a carrot. This is the kind of shit they had to deal with in the time of King Arthur.

 

[Stalphos Johnson]

Here's a cool website with links to a bunch of classic CYOA novels and shows all of the branching paths and endings. Kind of a neat breakdown. I remember there being a couple reprints I used to read a lot when I was in elementary school. I always thought it was a really neat concept.

 

[std::string]

Growing up my school libraries always had craploads of these books and I loved them. I would never play them properly with dice rolls etc, I'd just give myself instawins on every battle and rewinds anytime I made a fatal choice. There were so many books and I wanted to read them all so I didn't have the patience to get caught up with actually dying and restarting like a good boy

I assumed everyone did this. I remember I had one sci-fi one that required nearly perfect starting stat rolls to get to the ending.

My favorite part about CYOA books was the authors sliding easter eggs in if you read them cover to cover though.

 

[Duiker]

Early CYOA was a wild ride. There was like a 6 book series called Heartquest released by TSR trying to cater to the younger female audience.

 

[skykiii]

Early CYOA was a wild ride. There was like a 6 book series called Heartquest released by TSR trying to cater to the younger female audience.
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My sister had a few of these and I think these legit may have been my earliest exposure to CYOA (I read them out of curiosity when I was young).

 

[Grimoire Canthari]

My first was this one. Found this in the mini library my teacher would have.

The goal of this one was to get closer to the evil fortress to kill the bad guy, but also kill/disable his Seven Serpents before they can rat you out to him. The Time Serpent was a bitch to kill as a kid.

I believe they made a game combining all 4 of the Sorcery! books together on Steam so you could also enjoy it that way too. Haven't touched it yet but I wonder how they're gonna handle the Time Serpent killing/solution since you had to use the power of math to figure out what page would have the dead snake. Otherwise it killed you without a fight.

 

[Iron Jaguar]

I had this:

 

[Dog-O-Tron 5000v5.0]

Sorcery was the best of them all, and the vidya version is pretty cool.

With the amount of world building Jackson did on that one it's a damn shame he or other people didn't do more. I've always been surprised nobody has picked up that world and done more stories in it, particularly with those gameplay mechanics.

 

[Overly Serious]

My first was this one. Found this in the mini library my teacher would have.
View attachment 5643514
The goal of this one was to get closer to the evil fortress to kill the bad guy, but also kill/disable his Seven Serpents before they can rat you out to him. The Time Serpent was a bitch to kill as a kid.

I believe they made a game combining all 4 of the Sorcery! books together on Steam so you could also enjoy it that way too. Haven't touched it yet but I wonder how they're gonna handle the Time Serpent killing/solution since you had to use the power of math to figure out what page would have the dead snake. Otherwise it killed you without a fight.

This quadriology was the pinacle of CYOA books at the time. Each book brought you closer to the grand finale and yes - the Time Serpent was a huge challenge when you're six or seven years old.

The others I knew I had were a long series about someone called... Kai? He was the last of some group of magic warriors and fought against... dark lords? Something like that. I remember that you had to choose what powers you would have and there was some sword called the Sommersword or something like that? And there was a sequel series where you had greater powers. That's about all I remember other than a general impression of the colour green. Lone Wolf maybe? That rings a bell.

 

[Duiker]

Sorcery was the best of them all, and the vidya version is pretty cool.

With the amount of world building Jackson did on that one it's a damn shame he or other people didn't do more. I've always been surprised nobody has picked up that world and done more stories in it, particularly with those gameplay mechanics.

I think there was more world building done too. An artbook for the setting (the world is called Titan, I believe) and a full on ttrpg system based of the books called Advanced Fighting Fantasy.

 

[ShortPoppy]

Ahhh, memories. The first CYOA-style books I renember reading were targeted at young girls. I don't remember the series name or titles ... There was one about uncovering a horse race fixing plot or something, and if you get to the correct ending you finish as "the youngest ever jockey to win the Kentucky Derby". Then there was one set in Ye Olde Medieval Fantasy World, where you're a peasant girl whose village well has been poisoned, and you're sent on a quest to find a unicorn horn to make the water drinkable again. (Best ending: the unicorn stays alive, comes back with you to your village and dips its horn in the water, everyone lives happily ever after.)

But my favorite was a Dr. Who book about a comet. I got it at the Salvation Army back in the late 80s/early 90s and it was old at that point.

I think I remember that ... wait, no, the one I read was about stopping a Martian invasion? It has the 6th doctor (Colin Baker), Peri and Turlough, and your character's name is Chris. It was full of terrible jokes and wordplay that were very witty/hilarious to 9-year-old me, even had a gag ending where you end up as hairdresser to a Medusa-like Queen of Mars.

I discovered Fighting Fantasy gamebooks in my early teens. I think they were past their initial heyday by then, but that didn't stop me from hunting down as many as I could from local libraries and op shops.

Creature of Havoc, which you are cast in the role of a monster who initially can't understand what anyone is saying (though they mostly seem terrified) is much less fun and far more tedious than it sounds. Some masochists regard it as a classic, but it put me off the series for good.

Ha, I enjoyed that. Once I'd learned how to decode the 'mystery language' I went back to the start of the story to find out what people had been saying ...

House of Hell - a foray into the horror genre was difficult to complete and genuinely unsettling.

I LOVED that one. It's definitely one of the toughest, and the difficulty adds so much to the atmosphere of dread/anguish. As I remember, you can progress quite far before some innocuous choice leads you literally to a dead end. The thing is, you don't realise it's a dead end because the book's still presenting you with options, as if your future decisions aren't utterly futile. E.g. if you find yourself in the torture chamber, you're done for, but you get 2 choices: either one sends you to an ending paragraph with a graphic description of your slow, agonising death. The sense of horror and despair is perfect.

 

[Tablet County]

I remember reading a goosebumps one way back when. If you're ever in egypt with some guy who says he's CIA, don't drink the blue lemonade.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

The others I knew I had were a long series about someone called... Kai? He was the last of some group of magic warriors and fought against... dark lords? Something like that. I remember that you had to choose what powers you would have and there was some sword called the Sommersword or something like that? And there was a sequel series where you had greater powers. That's about all I remember other than a general impression of the colour green. Lone Wolf maybe? That rings a bell.

https://www.magnamund.com/

They've been releasing Definitive Editions of the Lone Wolf series over the last year. I've got them all, but I've only read through the first five.

Its really interesting because you can carry your shit over from book to book. You also come across recurring characters and locations, so your progress through the books feels more meaningful than in a standalone adventure.

The only downside is that its more of a RPG book than a CYOA, so things like failstates or instant death choices are rare. Bad outcomes tend to gimp your character, rather than straight up kill him.

 

[DOUBLE_WHEEL]

I remember going through these two a lot as a kid. Ninja cyborgs and Vampire aliens were very cool to me in elementary(they still are).

 

[TheRedChair]

Growing up my school libraries always had craploads of these books and I loved them. I would never play them properly with dice rolls etc, I'd just give myself instawins on every battle and rewinds anytime I made a fatal choice. There were so many books and I wanted to read them all so I didn't have the patience to get caught up with actually dying and restarting like a good boy

IMHO this types of media came directly from Ken St. Andre. Creator of Tunnels and Trolls.
The game modules that I believe are the foundation of these books (because I believe they were the first solo game modules that you had to make choices) of in question are.

1. Buffalo Castle
2. Deathtrap Equalizer.
3. Naked Doom.

Naked Doom was effing brutal but very memorable.

Here is an interview of Ken St. Andre

 

[Overly Serious]

https://www.magnamund.com/

They've been releasing Definitive Editions of the Lone Wolf series over the last year. I've got them all, but I've only read through the first five.

Its really interesting because you can carry your shit over from book to book. You also come across recurring characters and locations, so your progress through the books feels more meaningful than in a standalone adventure.

The only downside is that its more of a RPG book than a CYOA, so things like failstates or instant death choices are rare. Bad outcomes tend to gimp your character, rather than straight up kill him.

That was it! Yes, it was a bit different to others. I think I remember having to write values down with a pencil and mark which powers I had chosen. Great stuff.

 

[Weeb Slinger]

https://www.magnamund.com/

They've been releasing Definitive Editions of the Lone Wolf series over the last year. I've got them all, but I've only read through the first five.

Its really interesting because you can carry your shit over from book to book. You also come across recurring characters and locations, so your progress through the books feels more meaningful than in a standalone adventure.

The only downside is that its more of a RPG book than a CYOA, so things like failstates or instant death choices are rare. Bad outcomes tend to gimp your character, rather than straight up kill him.

My chief recollection of the Lone Wolf series was the smell of the glue that was used to bind The Magnamund Companion being so potent that it made me feel physically ill to the point where I couldn't read the book. I preferred the spin-off series, Grey Star.

News of Joe Dever's death passed me by. Nor was I aware that Lone Wolf had carved itself such a niche and autisticly continues to this day. I don't recall the series as being particularly well-liked at the time, but it obviously had an audience.

 

[Flaming Carrot]

My son was really into them a couple of years ago. Choose Your Own Adventure is still around, although it appears the company that's reprinted all the old books did not get the rights to the artwork, because the text is the same but the new illustrations are absolutely atrocious.