Other Gamebooks besides Lone Wolf

[nathant]

The go to choice seems to be "Fighting Fantasy" but I'm not really a fan.  I don't like the "one true path" syndrome and those books are just way too difficult to play through to be any fun to me.  In fact I recently sold all mine on Ebay.

Grail Quest is definitely my favourite (even possibly ahead of Lone Wolf) although I use my own house rules, and it wouldn't be nearly as much fun using the regular rules.  I love the humour and writing style.

Sagard is OK too.  I only have the first 3 and never picked up the fourth one.  Anyone out there read it?  Any good?  These aren't the best books in the world by any means, but I think the difficulty factor was about right, or if anything, maybe a bit too easy.  They have a decent enough Conan The Barbarian feel to them, and are written I believe by one of the creators of Dungeons and Dragons.

Sorcery.. these seem intriguing but I am worried about "one true path" syndrome here.  I read the first one and really enjoyed it, but wasn't able to track down the second one in used book stores.  I tried the 3rd and 4th ones and remember them being insanely difficult, but I don't know whether that was due to missing important items in the second one.  Any thoughts on this series?  I read them about 15 years ago and remember thinking that they had potential, but the fact that they are written by one of the Fighting Fantasy authors makes me a little hesitant to track down the second one.

[Thomas Wolmer]

Have you ever tried The Way of the Tiger? They are not "one true path", they have some interesting and different game mechanics, you build up your character through the series, and the choices you make in one book sometimes have a big impact on what happens in later books.

[duk3]

Agree with Thomas. The Way of the Tiger is an amazing series where you are a Ninja! Megara Entertainment have a hardback collectors edition for sale which are outstanding in quality terms! (or you can buy the paperback versions on Amazon.)

Another series you should try and probably the best gamebooks ever written "FABLED LANDS". Basically be any character you want and do what you want! Amazing series

Next up "BLOOD SWORD" again available on Amazon and highly recommended!(In Blood sword you can play between 1-4 characters!)

[nathant]

Thanks for the suggestions... not familiar with Fabled Lands and Blood Sword... will have to check them out! One of my best friends when I was a kid had one of the "Way of the Tiger" books when I was a kid... I remember leafing through it but I don't believe I ever read it. You get to play a ninja, and how awesome is that!

[Aarontu]

I really liked Heart of Ice from the "Virtual Reality" series of gamebooks. You pick skills (similar to kai disciplines), there are no random elements in the book, and that there are multiple potential ways to survive the book successfully, and even a few different successful endings.

[kieran]

Aug 12, 2015 20:29:48 GMT nathant said:

Grail Quest is definitely my favourite (even possibly ahead of Lone Wolf) although I use my own house rules, and it wouldn't be nearly as much fun using the regular rules.I love the humour and writing style.

Yeah, I wish JH Brennan's books were more playable. They're good reads, but seem like they were never playtested.

Sagard is OK too. I only have the first 3 and never picked up the fourth one Anyone out there read it?

Yes, I have all four and like the series, nicely developed world (I believe Gygax also used it for D&D settings and novels) and pretty creative. Having said that, I thought the fourth was the weakest, felt a bit poorly designed in places and it was wayy too easy if you'd played the previous books and well too hard if you hadn't. It also clearly was not meant to be the last book and so lacks a climax.

Sorcery.. these seem intriguing but I am worried about "one true path" syndrome here

The first and third allow a lot of freedom (although the path in the third is narrow if you want to get all 7 serpents though this isn't necessary). 2 is pretty narrow, though if you've played book 1 it gives you more room to "mess up". The fourth is very unforgiving, particularly if you didn't get all the serpents in Book 3.

Here are my opinions on a few of the other series:
Fighting Fantasy: Love them. Some are more "one true path" than others. The worst offenders for one true path syndrome are Steve Jackson, Ian livingstone, Jonathan Green, Keith P Philips and Paul Mason. Though personally I like the one true path design and I think it's less of an issue when all books are independent of one another.

Endless Quest: Nice simple gamebooks. No game system, but fun. Can be a bit linear. The 90s books were far too wordy.

Choose Your Own Adventure: Mixed bag, but often fun in a throwaway manner.

Way of the Tiger: Probably the most similar to Lone Wolf as it's an ongoing series in a well-developed world. But clearly the authors never playtested after Book 2 as ridiculously hard fight and bugs start to abound (I reviewed the first 4 on www.gamebooks.org if you're interested).

Virtual Reality: Mostly good series (Book 3 is so buggy it's essentially broken, but the others are all good). More mature than most gamebooks and there's no random element. Just choose your skills and away you go. Heart of Ice (Book 5) is often cited as one of the best gamebooks ever written. Each book is self-contained. Although they are tough, they are not one true path.

Alea Jacta Est: If you like Asterix, you'll love these. Even if you don't you might want to give them ago. Extremely inventive.

Sagas of the Demonspawn: Well-written (if somewhat wordy) Conan-esque gamebooks by JH Brennan. Unfortunately lumbered with the most horribly cumbersome and poorly-designed battle system you will ever come accross. The app version uses a different system so might be better going for that.

Gamebook Adventures: Kinda biased here since I wrote two of them. These are app only and are fairly FF-like but written for a slightly older audience and with a more in-depth battle system.

Cretan Chronicles: Three book ongoing series, a retelling of Greek myths particularly the stories of Theseus and the Odyssey. The writing is a bit pretentious but there's some nice design features such as your standing with the various gods influencing gameplay. And some absolutely horrible ones. The third book is completely one true path and horribly unforgiving. Which is a shame because it's an excellent read.

Fabled Lands: Basically a sandbox game. You can travel wherever you want doing various quests. No story per se but the lands you travel are interesting in their own right.

Prince of Shadows: Nice game system and has Gary Chalk illos. It stars you as a hidden prince living as an actor. The writing isn't quite up to Dever's standards but it's not bad. Unfortuantely, only 2 books were published.

[50crowns]

Good stuff - I'll have to check some of those out based on your reviews.

Anyone remember an AD&D solo competition module called "Cavern Quest" in the October 1981 edition of Dragon Magazine (Issue #54)? Probably not. I had this edition of the magazine when I was growing up playing D&D, ICE's Merp, and other RPGs and I always thought this "how well do you know the game?" solo module was great. It's similar in essence to the more polished gamebooks you each have mentioned, but very simple. Anyway, you can check it out here for kicks:

annarchive.com/files/Drmg054.pdf

[capna]

One series that doesn't get mentioned much are the forbidden gateway/new dimension books. Only two were printed in english, thats where the shadows stalk and terrors out of time. Sort of late 19th early 20th century British lovecraft. I liked them, but the first one is rather brutal. Sadly the later books were only released in French, which is odd goven the authors appeared to be British.

[Nym90]

I loved the Time Machine series, which unfortunately doesn't appear to be available online that I know of.

[greylord]

Well there is the Taradoin series...

But it got REALLY botched in editing...Book one got terribly botched on chapter 7 (I think that was it) to the point of being almost unreadable, and Book 2 got botched in several other areas.

It has the illusion of multiple paths, and you don't have to follow a singular path to get to AN end...but it DOES have a one true path to actually get to the good end and max out stats type of deal.

Other books and my thoughts

Fighting Fantasy - Vary from book to book.  Some are not so great (Warlock of Firetop Mountain while a classic, isn't all that great to tell the truth, same of Deathtrap Dungeon and others).  Some are absolutely top notch (Dead of Night, Moonrunner, Talisman of Death [by the same guys of Way of the Tiger fame and in the same world], Legend of the Shadow Warriors, Vault of the Vampire).  Some are middle of the Road (Demons of the Deep, Sword of the Samurai).  Those that are great, are some of the best gamebooks around

Way of the Tiger - Lacks the growth aspect found in Lone Wolf, otherwise, second favorite series to the Lone Wolf series.

GrailQuest - If you like humor in your gamebook, this is a great gamebook series.

Sorcery - Part of the Fighting Fantasy series.  It has a continuing story, but very similar to the other Fighting Fantasy books otherwise.  I'd put it nearer to the Warlock of Firetop mountain type quality rather than the Dead of Night Quality.

Sagard - Simplistic in it's system, but decent

Cretan Chronicles - Fun series, but beware the end.  It fulfills that entire aspect of what Greeks considered Destiny.

Wizards, Warriors, and You - Barely qualifies as a Gamebook.  Almost a choose your own adventure book.  It's only combat system is basically a flip of a coin (literally).

Endless Quest - Not a gamebook, but some fun choose your own adventure type books.  The good ones really are those by Rose Estes, meaning Endless Quest 1-6, and 13.  These would be Dungeon of Dread, Mountain of Mirrors, Pillars of Pentegarn, Return to Brookmere, Revolt of the Dwarves, Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons, and Dragon of Doom.  The best out of those would be Mountain of Mirrors, Return to Brookmere and Dragon of Doom.

Super Endless Quest/AD&D Gamebooks - Now these were gamebooks proper.  Like the Fighting Fantasy, they varied in quality a GREAT DEAL.

Fatemaster - an interesting gamebook series, but not one at the top of my list

Duelmaster - See my thoughts on Fatemaster above

One on One gamebooks - Similar to what Dever tried in his Black Baron type gamebook line.  I was not as much a fan of that one, so this one didn't really appeal to me that much either.

Car Wars - Once again, a very hit and miss series.

Narnia - I admit, I have these, but I actually haven't ever read the Narnia gamebooks.  I have four of them.

Middle Earth Quest/Tolkien Quest - These were fun, but in some ways could get a little more complex with their stats than other game books.  In addition, if you liked the Rolemaster gamerules for their RPG, this had the option of using THAT ruleset...which perhaps makes this the most complex character utilization of any of the gamebooks out, ever.

Golden Dragon - These were a step up from the Sagard type combat system in those books, but were independent stories in their own right.  The best one out of the bunch was Eye of the Dragon.  It's been re-released in a new format these days.

Falcon - Also by at least one of the same guys as Golden Dragon, it's a great series, if you can get your hands on it.  Sort of like a Doctor who, Lone Wolf, Judge Dred type combination of warrior.  Unfortunately only the first book has been republished.

Bloodsword - Once again, by the same guys as the Golden Dragon and Falcon, perhaps their best work.  It's a continuous story and LOOONG.  Perhaps one of the biggest gamebooks out.  Best thing, it's been republished, at least books 1-4.

Fabled Lands/ Quest - Not my favorite per se.  It's one BIG sandbox.  It's incomplete however, you can get to sections you can't get to either because you don't have the book (not my case these days), or because it was NEVER written.  Books 1-6 have been republished...I'm waiting for book 7 to be, and who knows if anything else will ever come out.

Crossroads - this has a unique type of story written for worlds that were prominent decades ago.

Catacombs - Now these were some pretty long gamebooks written by the makers of AD&D, and utilizing similar fictional elements, but with their own game system.

Combat Command - These were interesting takes on making you a military commander in sci fi worlds from popular science fiction franchises typically.  I only have three of them, so can't comment on the entire series.

If I were trying to find the ones that were BEST for those who loved Lone Wolf I'd probably suggest them in this manner

1. Way of the Tiger (no real progression of skills, but killer storyline...also has a better ending with the newly written book 7).

2. Falcon - This is pretty dang awesome, IF you can get the series

3. Bloodsword - Very cool gamesystem and LOOONG books.

4. the GOOD Fighting Fantasy gamebooks I listed above.  avoid other ones.

Tentative (aka, there are problems that detract)

5. Endless quest - NOT a gamebook.  Focus on Mountain of Mirrors and Dragon of Doom with a possibility of Dungeon of Dread and Return to Brookmere.

6. Grailquest - it's a gimmick, there's not a whole lot of real progression though the series, but it is a continued storyline with humor and running gags.  Death is one of those gags.

7. Golden Dragon - Specifically Eye of the Dragon. Has abilities and skills like the Lone Wolf Book.  Single book in the series, self contained storyline.

8. Taradoin - VERY BAD editing, one true path syndrome.  If you can get past that, has skills growth and combat abilities.  Self contained books though, so not a continuous story throughout.

[Nym90]

FYI, www.gamebooks.org is a fantastic resource for gamebook information and reviews (including about Lone Wolf).

[golgotha]

Another vote for Falcon here, really enjoyed that series as a kid. Grailquest is funny, yes, but the books are unfair and nonsensical (seems to be J.H. Brennan's style). 

If you have a smartphone, I'd recommend the Sorcery! games (4 in the series), the Tinman Gamebook Adventures series (lots), the Cubus Heavy Metal Thunder series (2 so far), and The Eighth Continent (1 so far).

[outspaced]

Sept 26, 2016 14:33:47 GMT golgotha said:

Another vote for Falcon here, really enjoyed that series as a kid. Grailquest is funny, yes, but the books are unfair and nonsensical (seems to be J.H. Brennan's style). 

The Sagas of the Demonspawn also by J H Brennan are a much more serious Conan-esque four-book adventure, though they have their own drawbacks--namely, the combat system is severely broken. Tinman Games' adaptation of the series into one "app" (grr! I hate that term!) has altered the game-system to make it work, and to tone down the number of Brennan's Oh-you-made-this-decision-and-so-you're-dead "choices".

If you have a smartphone, I'd recommend the Sorcery! games (4 in the series), the Tinman Gamebook Adventures series (lots), the Cubus Heavy Metal Thunder series (2 so far), and The Eighth Continent (1 so far).

Both the Inkle Sorcery! adaptations and a number of Tinman's adaptations of the Fighting Fantasy series, and a few of their own Gamebook Adventures series, are available on PC via Steam.

Oh, and

I'd recommend...the Tinman Gamebook Adventures series (lots)

Cheers!

[lacroix]

I agree with a lot of what has been said : JH Brennan was a great writer (both Grailquest for humour and Fire*Wolf for story) but his game mechanics were just awful. We've been collectively playing Fire*Wolf over at rpg.net and we keep having to break things off to have a discussion about 'house rules' to make the book properly playable.

I absolutely loved Way of the Tiger, and spent six months of my life making (almost) daily web-posts about playing through the entire series.

Falcon, by the same authors, was also fantastic, although the sixth book got seriously weird.

Blood Sword was great, and I'd put book 3 (The Demon's Claw) up as arguably the greatest gamebook of all time.

Legends of Skyfall was interesting but hard hard hard, especially book 2.

The Duel Master books were an interesting attempt at 2-player gamebooks, set on Orb, the same world as Way of the Tiger and the FF book Talisman of Death.

[nosferatu]

Hi,
I know these are not gamebooks, more CYOA style but I have so much love for them:
The 4 Zork books - A What Do I Do Know Book.
And R.L. Stine's Invaders of Hark and Badlands of Hark.