r/gamebooks

Hello, everyone, I hope you are doing great.

I have just started playing "The Warlock of the Firetop Mountain" and I am having a blast. The game kindly suggested me to create and keep a map. Great tip! I have been keeping 2 “maps”:

1. a mindmap (which is a logic map, anyway) (still on paper, but I will recreate it digitally on xmind, my favourite mindmap software)

2. a “real dungeon map” (sort of like D&D dungeon maps and good old text-based adventure games maps) (still on paper, but I will recreate it digitally on ????????).

Yes, my big question for you is: what is that “????????” ?

I believe you all have already bumped into the classic mapping problem (be it for gamebooks, D&D dungeons, or text-based adventure games maps): the instructions we get are not precise (sometimes it says “several metres”, “a few dozen years”, etc) and our maps end up having overlapping content (corridors, rooms, etc). That has already happened to me today (as I play the “Firetop”). So I look for ways to prevent that (overlapping, mistakes, etc) and/or fix that (when it eventually happens).

Also, please feel free to suggest something/anything, even if it is completely different, additional, etc. Any help helps.

Thanks in advance.

Much love,

RV

Hello! I'm looking to getting into gamebooks and solo rpgs. Any recommendations for someone into soulslikes and Call of Cthulhu 7e? Something to play while only using 1 device, besides the Cthulhu solo rpgs. Would love to hear from you guys!

Grew up on Fighting Fantasy, replayed City of Thieves probably four or five times. Always wondered why that format never made it into daily habit territory. There's Twine, Inkle, Choicescript. All great. But they're still discrete "sit down and play" experiences. Nobody really cracked the gamebook as something you return to every day.

So I built something. PersonalPathways sends you a new chapter by email. You make a choice at the end of each one, and the story adapts based on your whole history, not just the last pick. The narrative voice shifts. Which details get surfaced changes. It builds a picture of what you're drawn to and leans into it.

The design problem I keep returning to is the pass/fail structure. Classic gamebooks mostly operate on that logic. You picked the right path or the wrong one. Meaningful choice, where both branches are interesting and the decision reveals something about you rather than just routing you, is genuinely hard to write. Especially in a serialized format where chapters get produced before you know which branches readers will actually take.

If you want to try it and see whether the branching holds up, I'm looking for readers who'll actually tell me when a choice feels empty. Link in profile. And genuinely curious: does the pass/fail structure bother people here, or is navigating the tree kind of the whole point?

I want to try out this series this summer but am unsure where to start. I know the original series starts with book 1 (Avenger) but there’s also book 0 (Ninja).

So, is it best to start with book 0 and go in that order or give it the Star Wars treatment and read it after dinner if the others?

Hi! New here, but I've always loved the old Choose Your Own Adventure books. When I found out there were actual game mechanics in gamebooks like the Lone Wolf series (seriously what is up with book 2 and RNGeesus taking the wheel?) I was instantly hooked. While trying to write some adventures of my own I immediately became frustrated with the way all the tools out there are "almost but not quite." Being a stubborn soul, I spent the last two months building an app specifically for authoring game books.

Current Features

• Game system creation tools
  • Use logic blocks to create your own game systems.
  • Support for dice and card systems.
  • Database tool to easily manage your encounters and characters.
• Whiteboard style editor
  • Clear visual organization of your story branches.
  • Rich text editor to write out your adventures.
  • Picture support, because writing 1000 words isn't always the best answer.
• HTML export capability
  • Players can download your gamebooks and play through it on their browser.
  • Host your gamebooks for people to play on your own website.
  • Format editor allows you to customize how your gamebook will display.

Planned features

• Print format editor
  • Plan out your gamebook for print in the app.
  • Exporting to .pdf format.

Planning to release on itch.io soon^(TM)

This is not an AI text/story generation tool. It's a writing tool made for human writers to write their interactive adventures.

I've been playing through my first gamebook, Deathtrap Dungeon. I've died in about 4 or 5 hilarious ways so far. I have a couple of questions if they can be answered without story spoilers? 1) Regarding the potion that you start the game with - is the intention that you choose this before you start playing, and both 'doses' are from the same potion? 2) It says near the back of the book that with the correct path it's easy to win even with poor starting stats; is this a hint that I should be trying to avoid combat? 3) It also mentions that you start with 10 meals (provisions) which restore stamina, but these can only be eaten when instructed in the book. I've not come across this yet in several attempts - are these opportunities then just further into the story? 4) I'm generally not the biggest fan of rolling dice for combat in games, but many modern board games have some kind of dice manipulation so that you're not relying entirely on luck. Apart from general stat increases (I've come across a couple of these) are there any weapons or other items that let you positively affect the dice rolls during combat? 5) I'm brand new to gamebooks! Do you have any spoiler-free tips for when I'm spending my time in Deathtrap Dungeon?

It’s a different style of game book than appears common in this sub but I wanted to see if anyone else loves it as much as I do. It’s absolutely hilarious and so fun to play through. I think the author has some some other game books too, he’s a really funny writer!

I'd like to start getting into gamebooks, but don't want to start buying a series just yet. I know the Lone Wolf books are free, and I downloaded them.

But I want a standalone book I can get into, I really want the analog pen-and-paper experience.

Genre isn't super important. Sci-fi, fantasy, post-apocalypse, horror, or even western, if those exist. I just want something to dip my toes in, so to speak.

Update: I bought 3 books from a used books store online The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (Fighting Fantasy), Dragon Quest, and The Cave of Time (Choose your own adventure #1)

Not sure what to expect, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try a few of them blind, they didn't exactly break the bank

I'm a solo board game enthusiast, and have discovered gamebooks while looking for games that I can play on holiday and on the plane. I think I'm going to pick up the Warlock of Firetop mountain as my first gamebook, but I'm also looking for recommendations for another to take as well? I've seen Into the Tower and Heart of Ice mentioned, but all suggestions are very welcome!

Unbelievably, this is my first time visiting the reddit gamebooks thread. To be honest, I haven't visited reddit much at all - ever!

Anyway, my name is Jonathan Green and I have written gamebooks for Fighting Fantasy, Games Workshop, Arkham Horror, Warcradle Studios, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Sonic the Hedgehog.

My latest gamebook project - 100 Aker Wood - has just gone live on Kickstarter, if you would like to check it out. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonathangreen/100-aker-wood-an-ace-gamebook-by-jonathan-green

Hey everyone,
I wrote a game book called KILL DAVE. Its a choose your own adventure book starring you, a down on his luck comedy show promoter who has decided to become the worst version of himself. Basically you are having an existential crisis and its up to you how bad it goes. Every decision just makes it worse most of the time and you go some mind-bending adventures. Its funny and strange and most people who have read it have enjoyed it, or pretended to when they saw me. Message me if you want to get a copy. I can send a book or the pdf.

Hello everyone! I have recently discovered the solo rpg/hex crawler genre and I am looking for some new great books. So far I have played Spider Hunt, Demonslayer, What Lies Beneath, and currently playing Miru which is my favorite so far. What are some other games I should buy right now? Thanks!