Fighting Fantasy/Choose Your Own Adventure

[Stephen]

Did anyone else read the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone? The books were written in non-linear sections and reader got to choose the adventure (for example 'To turn left, go to page 115, to turn right go to page 36'). I started to get them out of the library, but I never took them that seriously. For instance, I never bothered with dice - I just assumed I won every battle I fought! I didn't really care for all the 'Sword and Sorcery' fantasy stuff that the proper fans raved about which seemed a bit samey to me. But there were a few titles I bought over the years that I quite liked.

House of Hell - Set in a Gothic mansion in present day America full of devil worshippers.

Space Assassin - Set on a giant spaceship with some very inventive scenarios, probably my favourite.

Starship Traveller - Clearly based on 'Star Trek', the ship you're the captain of is trapped in a parallel universe and you have to find the way home.

Freeway Fighter - Post-apocalyptic Mad Max sort of thing set in the desert with cars and guns.

They were quite violent, and I seem to remember a item on the news some years later talking about this. For instance, you might simply open a door and get killed! And the section would end with the ominous words "Your adventure ends here."

There was also 'Choose Your Own Adventure' which was a similar idea, although I think they were more straightforward without dice or roleplaying. I'm not so well up on them, but the one I do remember was 'You Are Microscopic' which involved travelling in a machine that could shrink you to various degrees of smallness. And there were some incredibly gruesome endings!

[Courtenay]

Oh gosh-a-roonie, yes, I remember those. My sister had a couple of Choose Your Own Adventure books, but I don't recall what they were about. But I did have several Fighting Fantasy books when I was 12 or so, mainly the "sword and sorcery" sort that you mention, Stephen, which I thought were the most exciting. I did try to play through them with dice and proper score-keeping and all that, but I must admit the temptation to cheat tended to get a bit too much...

That reminds me, too — back in the late '80s there was a similar "Choose Your Own Adventure"-style series based on the first six Famous Five books, called The Famous Five and You. We had one of them, The Famous Five and You Run Away!, which was based on Five Run Away Together. I remember trying to get through it but never did reach the "proper" ending — at that stage I hadn't yet read the original story, so I had no idea what was "supposed" to happen at each stage. I don't know if being familiar with the originals would have made it easier to make the correct choices to get through the "And You" books, or if the writer changed the plots a bit so that even FF fans would have a challenge... is there anyone here who might know more?

[Stephen]

The reason I was thinking of Fighting Fantasy last night was because of the Adventure Series thread where it was suggested that there should have been a map of the Valley of Adventure. It was recommended at the start of Fighting Fantasy that we drew a map of the area. I had attempted to map the desert in Freeway Fighter, and spaceship interior in Space Assassin, and actually managed to find my original pencil sketches on glorious 1980s computer paper. Not all that clear I'm afraid, but the intent was there!

https://i.imgur.com/A7n7RbM.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://i.imgur.com/hGHbzWd.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Daisy]

I have tried to read one - where you choose which page to turn to... and found it completely frustrating and confusing. I gave up very soon!

[Rob Houghton]

I have tried to read one - where you choose which page to turn to... and found it completely frustrating and confusing. I gave up very soon!

I've read a few of the Famous Five and You books, based on the proper Famous Five stories, but with short passages and a choice of one or two pages to turn to depending on your choices, very much like the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books. I quite liked them, and also the more involved Famous Five books which have maps, compasses, lunch box cards and dice.

When I was younger, probably mid 1980's, I did have a couple of 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books. I couldn't remember exactly what the titles were, but looking through Google images, I remember having this one -

[KEVP]

Back in the 80's the Choose Your Own Adventure books really caught the attention of a lot of kids (at least in USA) who otherwise weren't very interested in reading.

Fighting Fantasy took the same idea, and added dice to make it more like a role playing game.

[Wolfgang]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Spoiler alert !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





I once started the German "Five on a trasure island and you", and I deliberatley decided to go the beach the first evening at Kirrin cottage although Aunt Fanny was discouraging this decision. It turned out to be a disappointment - for the book writer. But why was it a disappointment? It usually depends what you're expecting, and if you don't expect anything at all (you don't want to go swimming, you were quite sure not to meet George for the first time) I couldn't follow the writer's logic. At that point I stopped reading them.