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The history of gamebooks in 31 days [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2025-07-24

At the Gamebooks subreddit, duncan_chaos is reviewing the long and storied history of gamebooks in 31 days. Anyone familiar with the genre will surely know of Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy, but Lone Wolf and Way of the Tiger were serials with a consistent setting, tone and protagonist. Steve Jackson's Sorcery! surely stands the test of time, and since the 1980s' heyday there are highlights you might never have heard of, such as Fabled Lands and Sword of the Bastard Elf.

Some gamebooks suitable for younger readers (anything up to young adult) include…

The Usborne Adventure Gamebooks by Simon Tudhope is a series of well-written books with some picture puzzles and simple dice mechanics. They are Shadow Chaser, Curse Breaker, League of Thieves and The Goblin's Revenge.

Storymaster Tales by Oliver McNeil are map-based gamebooks that can be played solo or with someone narrating to a group. They are set in fantasy realms such as dungeons, woods, towns and islands. There are free samples at the storymaster tales site.

The Clockwork City is a modern gamebook, tackling the dangers facing the city across several location maps, using custom cards for combat . Covered in Day 6.

One I have fond memories of from childhood: Time Machine 2: Search for Dinosaurs. You hop from time to time and place to place to record up-close observations of various dinos, with the ultimate aim of demonstrating that Archaeopteryx was feathered. That we are now certain many dinos were feathered only adds to the retro flavor!

Previously:

• Combat Heroes: the 1980s RPG gamebook craze got so wild they were implementing multiplayer grid-based dungeon crawlers in print

• Ink Console is a portable e-ink gamebook console

• Gorgeous maps of classic Fighting Fantasy gamebooks

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