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Post by hengest on Mar 22, 2022 21:27:56 GMT -5
At the blog of The Semi-Retired Gamer, there's a post here on "Choose Your Own Adventure." I remember these books from grade school. They would sometimes be available at our "book fairs" (you get to sniff through various books and then can choose one for free). My parents gave me a hard time for picking one of these one year (I think), so the next time, I did my best to read the whole thing without actually taking it home with me. I really dug them. Of course I would hold my place and peek ahead to see if my choice resulted in death, then move on or go back and choose again. They were engaging in a different way. It was just a paperback book. But it sucked you in in a way TV, movies, and even regular fiction didn't. I wrote to the inventor of these books not too long ago to thank him. There was a comic book, one issue, that came out in 1988. XYR. It's gimmick was that you could treat it as a choose your own adventure or just read it straight through. As I recall, it didn't work that well. I was a kid, but this reviewer seems to agree with me. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Mar 23, 2022 10:15:45 GMT -5
Oh yeah! I went with Choose Your Own Adventure because I needed something for the "C" entry. If I would have thought up something else, then I would have used Zork instead as the Z entries. As much as I enjoyed the CYOA books, I enjoyed the Zork books more because they typically had much more of the fantasy elements I was looking for in my reading. Don't get me wrong, CYOA are great as well. The SORCERY! series even had a separate spell book and a d6 based combat system, so some publishers innovated even more on the basic idea of the books.
I'm guilty of holding my place as well and scouting ahead to see if I made a good choice or not...lol. I think a lot of kids did that. I agree about them being engaging in a different sort of way. My friends and I had several books each - some duplicates, some not - and we would trade them around and talk about our adventures after reading them.
That's cool! I need to dig up his information and thank him as well.
A comic book?! That sounds awesome! I will check out that review.
Book fairs were one of my favorite things at school. I remember buying CYOA, Zork, a Flash Gordon novel, The Book of Three, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, and White Dragon at the book fair. I really feel like jobs would be better if they had a book fair a few times a year...lol. That's something really missing from my adult life.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Mar 26, 2022 20:19:28 GMT -5
I never saw any of these, until years later.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Apr 30, 2022 18:06:05 GMT -5
I never saw any of these, until years later. In my opinion, the Choose Your Own Adventure books are good but there's not much substance. There are other series that have you control a character with actual stats, weapons, spells, etc. You can roll dice, or they have 2D6 results randomized at the bottom of each page. You flip the pages to get the die roll. The Sorcery series I know for sure has a compleetely separate spellbook and, I believe, other series like Fighting Fantasy also has more engaging options such as this. |
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Post by simrion on May 18, 2023 4:43:50 GMT -5
Been awhile but here's a little Thread Necro...I remember the TSR Choose You Own Adventure books. They were fun considering what they were. I really liked things like the Fighting Fantasy series as you were more involved, almost like playing a solo adventure. I have the RPG based on Fighting Fantasy, very rules light. Can't say as I've ever run or played it but it looks fun and has great background. Anyone here ever run the Fighting Fantasy RPG?
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on May 20, 2023 10:59:21 GMT -5
Been awhile but here's a little Thread Necro...I remember the TSR Choose You Own Adventure books. They were fun considering what they were. I really liked things like the Fighting Fantasy series as you were more involved, almost like playing a solo adventure. I have the RPG based on Fighting Fantasy, very rules light. Can't say as I've ever run or played it but it looks fun and has great background. Anyone here ever run the Fighting Fantasy RPG? I've always intended to pick up a copy of the Fighting Fantasy rpg but I never got around to it. I know that Dragon Warriors isn't the same but I would like to get that just because I'm intrigued by the idea that it was originally released in paperback book size. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on May 20, 2023 11:41:39 GMT -5
Necro is a good thing, simrion!  Just out of curiosity, I looked up how many of these books were printed. I'm not posting the whole list here because it's almost 200 books in the main series alone. If you look at all of the spinoff series such as Choose Your Own Super Adventure, Choose Your Own Nightmare, and others it comes up to around 300. For anyone interested, the lists are at the Wikipedia page below. List of Choose Your Own Adventure books |
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Post by simrion on May 20, 2023 14:50:37 GMT -5
Necro is a good thing, simrion ! Just out of curiosity, I looked up how many of these books were printed. I'm not posting the whole list here because it's almost 200 books in the main series alone. If you look at all of the spinoff series such as Choose Your Own Super Adventure, Choose Your Own Nightmare, and others it comes up to around 300. For anyone interested, the lists are at the Wikipedia page below. List of Choose Your Own Adventure booksNot surprised...digital entertainment was primitive and we, as a species, were hungry for a new form of low-to-medium involvement entertainment. A niche now nicely filled by the proliferation of electronic devices. We flipped pages, the most recent generations swipe in some direction |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on May 20, 2023 15:45:23 GMT -5
Necro is a good thing, simrion ! Just out of curiosity, I looked up how many of these books were printed. I'm not posting the whole list here because it's almost 200 books in the main series alone. If you look at all of the spinoff series such as Choose Your Own Super Adventure, Choose Your Own Nightmare, and others it comes up to around 300. For anyone interested, the lists are at the Wikipedia page below. List of Choose Your Own Adventure booksNot surprised...digital entertainment was primitive and we, as a species, were hungry for a new form of low-to-medium involvement entertainment. A niche now nicely filled by the proliferation of electronic devices. We flipped pages, the most recent generations swipe in some direction Good point! I tried a nook - someone wanted to give me one - I just can't get by the absence of touching paper with my fingers. I'll always prefer books in physical form. I wish they did book fairs for adults...lol. |
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Post by simrion on May 21, 2023 6:46:25 GMT -5
Not surprised...digital entertainment was primitive and we, as a species, were hungry for a new form of low-to-medium involvement entertainment. A niche now nicely filled by the proliferation of electronic devices. We flipped pages, the most recent generations swipe in some direction Good point! I tried a nook - someone wanted to give me one - I just can't get by the absence of touching paper with my fingers. I'll always prefer books in physical form. I wish they did book fairs for adults...lol. As do I, to the point I have many, many books. Many that I have yet been able to read due to lack of time and my uncontrollable need to reread some of them. I'm reluctantly reducing the overall volume (slowly) so as not to burden my family when it is my time to go, but it's hard. They have strong emotional value to me, go figure. Regarding technology I'm a "Luddite." I use a pay-as-you-go phone because it's dirt cheap. I use an old iPad for some browsing and simple electronic games, many of which are no longer supported by my iPad's OS. Tried to upgrade that but newer iOS are apparently not compatible with my aging device and I'm just not that obsessed with immediate electronic satisfaction to spend the $ on a new one. The one I have was provided by a former employer so I'm using until I cannot use it anymore.
I know electronics are a ubiquitous necessity of our "new age" life but I cannot help but mock friends and family that absolutely have to have their "smart phone" handy 24/7 or when they complain about their $70+ monthly plan bills. My TracFone costs me an average of $100 a year. I use it for texts and calls and occasional games of Solitaire or Mahjong. Otherwise I read one of my countless books  |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on May 21, 2023 7:09:00 GMT -5
Good point! I tried a nook - someone wanted to give me one - I just can't get by the absence of touching paper with my fingers. I'll always prefer books in physical form. I wish they did book fairs for adults...lol. As do I, to the point I have many, many books. Many that I have yet been able to read due to lack of time and my uncontrollable need to reread some of them. I'm reluctantly reducing the overall volume (slowly) so as not to burden my family when it is my time to go, but it's hard. They have strong emotional value to me, go figure. Regarding technology I'm a "Luddite." I use a pay-as-you-go phone because it's dirt cheap. I use an old iPad for some browsing and simple electronic games, many of which are no longer supported by my iPad's OS. Tried to upgrade that but newer iOS are apparently not compatible with my aging device and I'm just not that obsessed with immediate electronic satisfaction to spend the $ on a new one. The one I have was provided by a former employer so I'm using until I cannot use it anymore.
I know electronics are a ubiquitous necessity of our "new age" life but I cannot help but mock friends and family that absolutely have to have their "smart phone" handy 24/7 or when they complain about their $70+ monthly plan bills. My TracFone costs me an average of $100 a year. I use it for texts and calls and occasional games of Solitaire or Mahjong. Otherwise I read one of my countless books I can definitely relate to that. I have a to be read pile as well as a to be read AGAIN. |
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Just out of curiosity, I looked up how many of these books were printed. I'm not posting the whole list here because it's almost 200 books in the main series alone. If you look at all of the spinoff series such as Choose Your Own Super Adventure, Choose Your Own Nightmare, and others it comes up to around 300. For anyone interested, the lists are at the Wikipedia page below.