Agamebook is a work of printedfiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, typically through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages. Each narrative typically does not follow paragraphs in a linear or ordered fashion. Gamebooks are sometimes calledchoose your own adventure books orCYOA (after the influentialChoose Your Own Adventure series originally published by US companyBantam Books) orpick-a-paths. Gamebooks influencedhypertext fiction.[1]
Production of new gamebooks in the West decreased dramatically during the 1990s as choice-based stories have moved away from print-based media, although the format may be experiencing a resurgence on mobile and ebook platforms. Such digital gamebooks are consideredinteractive fiction orvisual novels.
Gamebooks range widely in terms of the complexity of thegame aspect. At one end are the branching-plot novels, which require the reader to make choices but are otherwise like regular novels (this style is exemplified by the originator of the gamebook format,Choose Your Own Adventure, and is sometimes referred to as "American style").
At the other end of the spectrum are what amounts to "solitaireRPG adventures" or "adventure gamebooks",[2] which emulate atabletop RPG in novel form and feature sophisticated rules for battling monsters and overcoming obstacles. The story can be decided by factors other than the reader's choices, such as dice rolls (or other randomization mechanics, such as leafing through the book to arrive at a random paragraph number), the lack (or presence) of equipment or other items, or by various statistics, such as running out of health points.
The latter style is most commonly associated with the BritishFighting Fantasy (FF) franchise (started in 1982),[citation needed] which originated, codified, and popularised much of the more advanced format that many later gamebooks would follow (the geographic dichotomy led to this type of gamebook sometimes being analogously referred to as "British style").CYOA andFF are the two most popular, successful, and enduring gamebook franchises of all time, rendering them the archetypes of their respective, clashing styles and positions on the complexity spectrum.[citation needed] Later series likeLone Wolf andFabled Lands, typically from Britain, would take the FF formula and push the limits of what could be achieved with printed text narratives (leading to, for example, twenty-book arcs in which the same created character could be taken sequentially from one to the next, or four or more books that contain interlocking references to each other in order to create one huge world map).
In all gamebooks, the story is presented as a series of sections of printed text. These are often but not always numbered. Branching-plot novel sections often run to several pages in length, whereas solitaire and adventure gamebook sections are usually no longer than a paragraph or two. These are not intended to be read in order. Instead, at the end of a text section, the reader is typically given a choice of narrative branches that they may follow. Each branch contains a reference to the number of the paragraph or page that should be read next if that branch is chosen (e.g. to go north turn to section 98). The narrative thus does not progress linearly through the book or follow the paragraphs in numerical order. The story continues this way until a paragraph or page which ends that branch of the story. Many solitaire or adventure gamebooks feature a single "successful" ending, and the remainder are "failures".[3] Thus, a gamebook becomes a "puzzle" since only a few or even one branching paths lead to victory. Branching plot novels, on the other hand, tend to be more concerned with narrative resolution rather than winning or losing, thus often have several endings which may be deemed equally "successful".
Gamebooks are typically written in thesecond person with the reader assuming the role of a character to experience the world from that character's point of view (e.g. "you walk into the cold and dark forest").
Many gamebooks form series with a common theme, trade dress, and/or ruleset. While each book is typically a stand-alone narrative, there are gamebook series such asSteve Jackson's Sorcery! that continue the narrative from the previous books in the series.
There are several examples of early works of art with branching narratives. The romantic novelConsider the Consequences! by Doris Webster andMary Alden Hopkins was published in the United States in 1930, and boasts "a dozen or more" different endings depending on the "taste of the individual reader".[4] The 1936 playNight of January 16th byAyn Rand, about a trial, is unusual in that members of the audience are chosen to play the jury and deliver a verdict, which then influences the play's ending: guilty or not guilty.[5][6]
Also quite early on, the possibility of having stories branching out into several different paths was suggested byJorge Luis Borges in his short story "An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain" (1941). This story features an author whose novel is a three-part story containing two branch points, and with nine possible endings.[7][8] Another story by Borges, titled "The Garden of Forking Paths" (1941), also describes a book with a maze-like narrative, which may have inspired the gamebook form.[8][9] The children's bookTreasure Hunt, published in 1945 in Britain under the name of "Alan George" (probably a pseudonym), is another early example of a story with multiple paths for the reader to follow.[10]
Programmed learning materials have been recognized as an early influence on the development of branching path books.[11] This learning method was first applied in theTutorText series of interactive textbooks, published from the late 1950s up until the early 1970s. These books present the reader with a series of problems related to a particular area of study, allowing him or her to choose among several possible answers. If the answer to a problem is correct, the reader moves on to the next problem. If the answer is incorrect, the reader is given feedback and is asked to pick a different answer. This educational technique would form a basis for many later narrative gamebook series.[12]
During the 1960s, authors from several different countries started experimenting with fiction that contained multiple paths and/or endings. Some literary works in this vein include the French-language novelL'ironie du sort (1961) byPaul Guimard, the Spanish-language novelsHopscotch (1963) byJulio Cortázar andJuego de cartas (Card Game, 1964) byMax Aub, and the works of the French literary group known as theOulipo (1967).[13][14][15][16] Other early experiments include the short stories "Alien Territory" and "The Lost Nose: a Programmed Adventure" (both 1969) byJohn Sladek, the novelThe French Lieutenant's Woman (1969) byJohn Fowles, and the collection of short stories titledTante storie per giocare (Many Tales to Play With, 1971) by Italian authorGianni Rodari.[17][18][19]
Although the latter experimented with the format of engaging the reader through a second-person perspective or branching narratives, the 1960s and '70s also saw the publication of several books from across Europe that met the criteria for gamebooks as understood today, and prior to the Choose Your Own Adventure series. The earliest of these wasLucky Les (1967) by British authorE.W. Hildick,[20] which has been called "likely the first fully-fledged gamebook" as it comports entirely with the standards later expected by readers, and self-identified in its blurb as a game in book form. Other early innovators includedState of Emergency by Dennis Guerrier and Joan Richards (1969), the Swedish-language bookDen mystiska påsen (The Mysterious Bag, 1970) by Betty Orr-Nilsson, and the French-language bookHistoires comme tu voudras (Stories as You Want Them, 1978) by Marie-Christine Helgerson, among others.[21][22][23][24][25][26] Despite their relative lack of involvement, compared to British and American authors, in gamebooks as a cultural phenomenon, French authors and their experimental novels (as above) were nonetheless prominent in the format's precursors and embryonic stages.
In the US,The Adventures of You series appeared in 1976–77, with two titles that would later become part of the groundbreakingChoose Your Own Adventure series:Sugarcane Island byEdward Packard andJourney Under the Sea byR. A. Montgomery.
Tabletop role-playing games such asDungeons & Dragons were another early influence that would contribute in major ways to the development of the gamebook form. The first module which combined a branching-path narrative with a set of role-playing game rules wasBuffalo Castle for theTunnels & Trolls system (1975). Buffalo Castle was innovative for its time, as it allowed the reader to experience a role-playing session without need for a referee. It has been followed by many other solitaire adventures for the T&T system, as well as solos for other tabletop role-playing games.
The first commercially successful series of gamebooks was theChoose Your Own Adventure series establishing the "American" gamebook tradition. The "British" tradition, as exemplified by theFighting Fantasy series, was, by contrast, slightly younger. British gamebooks differ from the American tradition by having rules more strongly influenced by the game mechanics of roleplaying games.[27]
The Adventures of You, a two-book series, authored byEdward Packard andR.A. Montgomery and initially published by Vermont Crossroads Press, laid much of the groundwork for the later surge in popularity of the gamebook format[28][29][30][better source needed].Sugarcane Island by Edward Packard was written in 1969 but did not see publication until 1976. This became a series whenJourney Under the Sea by R. A. Montgomery was published in 1977. Two standalone gamebooks authored by Packard would follow, both published by Lippincott:Deadwood City (1978) andThe Third Planet from Altair (1979). While these early efforts apparently achieved some popularity with readers, they (and the gamebook format in general) still did not have a publisher with the marketing strength required to make them available to mass audiences.
Packard and Montgomery took the idea of publishing interactive books toBantam, and thus theChoose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) series was born in 1979, beginning withThe Cave of Time. The series became immensely popular worldwide and several titles were translated into more than 25 languages.[31] The series reached the peak of its popularity with children in the 1980s. It was during this period that Bantam released several other interactive series to capitalize on the popularity of the medium (a few examples are:Choose your Own Adventure for Younger Readers,Time Machine andBe An Interplanetary Spy). Many other American publishers released their own series to compete with CYOA.
One of the most popular competitors seems to have beenTSR, who released several branching-path novels based on their own role-playing games. The most famous TSR series wasEndless Quest (1982–). Another strong competitor wasBallantine with theirFind Your Fate series, which featured adventures in theIndiana Jones,James Bond andDoctor Who universes. Famous authorR. L. Stine wrote several books for this line, includingThe Badlands of Hark, as well as for other series such as Wizards, Warriors and You. SeveralChoose your Own Adventure spin-offs and many competing series were translated into other languages.
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One of the most influential and popular gamebook series was theFighting Fantasy series, which started in 1980 when aPuffin Books representative saw a hall full of 5,000 people playingDungeons & Dragons and asked Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson to make a book about role-playing games. They instead offered the idea of a book which simulated the experience of roleplaying games. Within a year they presented a book under the name ofThe Magic Quest to Puffin which Puffin agreed to publish. Having spent six more months developing the concept it was published under the name ofThe Warlock of Firetop Mountain in 1982.[32][33]
Another notable UK gamebook series isLone Wolf, developed by Joe Dever in 1984. LikeFighting Fantasy, the writer was an experiencedDungeons & Dragons player who developed the setting of Lone Wolf for his campaigns.[34] However the books were also inspired by medieval texts such asGawain and the Green Knight andLe Morte d'Arthur.[35]
Grailquest is a series of gamebooks written by J.H. Brennan (also beginning in 1984) that were also inspired by the Arthurian legends. Set mainly on Avalon they make use of a dice based system.[36][37][38][39][better source needed]
The Way of the Tiger, a Japan-themed gamebook series by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson (starting in 1985), is also a notable UK publication.[40][41][better source needed]
Branching-path books also started to appear during the 1980s in several other countries, including Spain, France, Italy, Mexico, Chile, Denmark and Japan.
Despite the domination of works that have been translated from English in most non-English-speaking countries, a sizable number of original gamebooks—both individual books and series—have been published in various countries; this is especially the case inFrance (e.g. theLa Saga du Prêtre Jean series) and in Japan (e.g.Tokyo Sogensha'sSuper Adventure Game series andFutabasha'sBouken Gamebook series).
In some other countries, publication both of translated series and of original books began in later years. For example, the first original books in Brazil and Italy seem to have appeared in the 1990s.
Translated editions ofChoose your Own Adventure,Fighting Fantasy and other English-language series only appeared in Eastern European countries afterthe fall of Communism.[42]
Since the mid-1980s, about 90 gamebooks have been published inPoland, not only as printed books, but also as comics, e-books or mobile applications. The author of the largest number of titles (20) is Beniamin Muszyński. Polish gamebooks are regularly written by their fans and published online by "Masz Wybór" (publishing house which has been operating since 2010).[43]
In the 1990s, the gamebook genre became highly popular inBulgaria for approximately ten years.[44] Whilst internationally well-known series such asChoose Your Own Adventure andFighting Fantasy were translated for the Bulgarian market, the works of numerous Bulgarian gamebook authors were most popular with readers.
During the popularity peak of gamebooks in Bulgaria, Bulgarian publishing houses believed that only Western authors would sell and, as a consequence, virtually all Bulgarian gamebook authors adopted English pseudonyms.[44][45] This tradition persisted after their nationality was publicly disclosed. A smaller number ofHungarian authors also adopted Western pseudonyms, in addition to "official titles" that were also in English.[46]In [Romania] Lucian Zup wrote The Run from the clock[47] where the reader have to chose between multiple choices regarding the time and also Double Cat[48] where a classical narrative is interrupted by the various games for the reader to go on to the next levels.
Several adventure gamebooks have been released in theCzech Republic andRussia. InAzerbaijan, Narmin Kamal's novel,Open It's Me, offers the reader a choice to either read the book as a random collection of thirty-nine short stories about the same character, or as a single novel. A photo of the book's hero is published on the final page and the author asks the reader questions about the character.
The branching-path book commercial boom dwindled in the early 1990s, and the number of new series diminished. However, new branching-path books continue to be published to this day in several countries and languages.Choose Your Own Adventure went on to become the longest running gamebook series with 184 titles. The first run of the series ended in 1998.[49][50][51][52][53]
R. A. Montgomery started rereleasing someChoose Your Own Adventure titles in 2005. His company has also released some new titles. New books and series continue to be published in other countries to this day. Examples are the1000 Gefahren series in Germany and theTú decides la aventura series in Spain. The sixtieth and "lost" entry in theFighting Fantasy series,Bloodbones, was finally published by Wizard in 2006.
In recent years, the format may be getting a new lease on life on mobile and ebook platforms.[54]
This type of book was seen predominantly as a form of entertainment for children. Nonetheless, there were books with more didactic purposes (ranging from historical series such as the aforementionedTime Machine to books with religious themes such as the Making Choices series). Also, a few branching-path books were aimed at adults, ranging from business simulations to works of erotica.
Barring the aforementioned works of Dennis Guerrier in the 1960s, one of the earliest examples of the form is the five-volumeBarcelona, Maxima Discrecion series, which adapted thenoir fiction genre to an interactive form.[55] Published in the 1980s, this series was only available in Catalan and Spanish.
Heather McElhatton published a bestselling[56] gamebook for adults in 2007, calledPretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel. It was followed by a sequel titledMillion Little Mistakes published in 2010.[57]
Some contemporary literary novels have used the gamebook format, includingKim Newman'sLife's Lottery (1999) and Nicholas Bourbaki'sIf (2014).[58]
In 2011, McGraw-Hill Education began releasing adaptations of the originalChoose Your Own Adventure titles asgraded readers. The stories were retold in simplified language and re-organized plotlines, in order to make them easier forEnglish as a second or foreign language readers to play. The choice format of gamebooks has proved to be popular with ESL teachers as a way to motivate reluctant students, target critical thinking skills, and organize classroom activities.[59]
Variouserotic gamebooks have been published by major publishers. In 1994Derrière la porte by Alina Reyes was published byPocket Books France andÉditions Robert Laffont, and later translated into English forGrove Press andWeidenfeld & Nicolson (asBehind Closed Doors) and into Italian for Ugo Guanda Editore (asDietro le porte).Melcher Media in 2003 packaged two "Choose-Your-Own-Erotic-Adventure" books forPenguin Books' Gotham Books imprint, includingKathryn in the City byMary Anne Mohanraj, a well-known writer of erotica.
Solitaire adventures were a parallel development. This type of book is intended to allow a single person to use the rules of a role-playing game to experience an adventure without need of a referee. The first role-playing game solitaire adventures to be published were those using theTunnels & Trolls system, beginning with the book Buffalo Castle in 1976, makingTunnels & Trolls the first role-playing game to support solitaire play. Flying Buffalo released 24 solo adventure books (plus several pocket size adventures) in the period 1976–1993. A number of the adventures are still in print today.[60][61] They were very successful among players of role-playing games and inspired many imitators.
Another early role-playing game with solitaire modules made for it wasThe Fantasy Trip. The first such module wasDeath Test, published in 1978. Eight adventures were released in total. One thing that set them apart was the need for miniatures and a hexmap, in order to take advantage of the combat and movement systems. These adventures were also very popular and influential.
Meanwhile, several third-party publishers started to publish solitaire adventures meant for use with popular roleplaying systems. Some of the earliest adventures in this vein wereThe Solo Dungeon (1978) by British author Richard Bartle, andSurvival of the Fittest (1979), published byJudges' Guild in the United States. Both of these adventures were meant to be used withDungeons & Dragons rules.
Solitaire role-playing adventures also experienced a boom in the 1980s. Many role-playing rulesets included solo adventures which were intended to teach the rules systems to the players. Some companies released lines of solitaire adventures for their own games. Examples of games with prolific solitaire lines wereDungeons & Dragons,GURPS,Das Schwarze Auge,DC Heroes, andCall of Cthulhu. Some third-party publishers continued to release solo adventures for established RPG systems (including Judges' Guild, who released solos forAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons). Solitaire adventures were also featured quite frequently in professional RPG magazines and fanzines. Several solo adventures (such as those forTunnels & Trolls,Dungeons & Dragons, andDas Schwarze Auge) were translated into other languages.
As was the case with other types of gamebooks, the production of solitaire RPG adventures decreased dramatically during the 1990s. However, new solos continue to be published to this day. Some companies continue to produce solo adventures forTunnels & Trolls. There are also new solo adventures for a variety of systems, and even some influenced by theFantasy Trip solos (such as the ones by Dark City Games). The Internet has provided a channel to distribute solitaire adventures, with both free and commercial adventures made available as electronic documents.
Adventure gamebooks incorporate elements fromChoose Your Own Adventure books and role-playing solitaire adventures. The books involve a branching path format in order to move between sections of text, but the reader creates a character as in a role-playing game, and resolves actions using a game-system. Unlike role-playing solitaire adventures, adventure gamebooks include all the rules needed for play in each book. Adventure gamebooks are usually not divided into numbered pages, but rather into numbered sections of text, so that several sections may fit in a single page, or a single section can span several pages.
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was published in 1982, the first of what became theFighting Fantasy series of gamebooks, one of the first adventure gamebook series. With over 60 titles, including a variety of spin-offs, the series popularised the gamebook format in the UK and many other countries, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, the United States, Portugal, Tanzania, Brazil, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Israel, Japan, and after the fall of communism, Eastern Europe.[62][63]
Several authors in different countries continue to publish adventure gamebooks in the late 2010s. Notable examples are German fantasy authorsWolfgang Hohlbein,Markus Heitz, and Lemonbits.[64]
Given the similar structure to html links between the pages of a website, numerous efforts have been made to create a digital equivalent to the gamebook format, with varying degrees of success. These includevisual novels, story websites, and various experiments with audio CDs (such asTSR, Inc's short-lived "Terror TRAX" line).
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