Choose Your Own D&D Adventure!

So, something interesting dropped through my door the other day. It's a D&D-branded "Choose Your Own Adventure" style book called Endless Quest: Into the Jungle, and is apparently one of a series of four by Matt Forbeck.

So, something interesting dropped through my door the other day. It's a D&D-branded "Choose Your Own Adventure" style book called Endless Quest: Into the Jungle, and is apparently one of a series of four by Matt Forbeck.

I never had a Choose Your Own Adventure Book, though I was a big Fighting Fantasy fan back in the day. This book is pretty much the former format -- you read a page or two of narrative, then make a choice which page to turn to, and carry on reading. I'm sure you know the drill.

As you may have noticed, I don't really do reviews; but I am always happy to share cool things I see (to be honest, that's basically been my career for 20 years now).

These books are Dungeons & Dragons branded. There are four; I have Into the Jungle, but the others include Big Trouble, Escape into the Underdark, and To Catch A Thief. This one has a big badge on the front which says "YOU ARE THE CLERIC!", and a quick Google tells me that each book has a different class:


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The series is called Endless Quest, and they're all set in the Forgotten Realms. The interior is glossy, and full of lavish colour illustrations; a step-up from those old CYOA books.

On my first attempt, I met a zombie T-Rex and then got catapulted by goblins in a giant net and died. Sucks to be me, I guess.



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This is where I died.


These are aimed at kids aged 8-12, and there will be hardcover editions also, according to the letter accompanying the book. They look like a good gateway product into tabletop roleplaying.

Check back on EN World on Friday for our day-release review of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and our in-depth follow-up a week later.
 

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GMMichael

Guide of Modos
I'm all for RPG gateway drugs, but do 8-year-olds really need to be reading about their own deaths? I seem to remember one series of CYOA books being distinctly gore-free, while another one (my favorite, cough cough) wasn't so shy about delivering bad news.

"Endless Quest" suddenly doesn't seem like the best name...
 

Oofta

Legend
I played a couple of these when I was a kid and they were awesome! Glad to see they're coming out with them again. And yes, trying all the different paths where you die horribly was part of the fun.
 

Sacrosanct

Legend
Endless quest was the name for the D&D books in the 80s, so makes sense they’d keep the branding. I am a big fan. Those cyoa books (the official brand, the D&D line, and the wizards, warriors, and you line) are what really got me into reading. In fact, I wrote three of them when my son was little to inspire him into reading as well. So needless to say, I’m a fan.
 

I’ll be buying at least one for my 10yo and 8yo to try out. They’ve loved the kids RPGs I’ve played with them, so I think they will enjoy these too.
 

Zardnaar

Legend
I'm all for RPG gateway drugs, but do 8-year-olds really need to be reading about their own deaths? I seem to remember one series of CYOA books being distinctly gore-free, while another one (my favorite, cough cough) wasn't so shy about delivering bad news.

"Endless Quest" suddenly doesn't seem like the best name...

Its how I got into D&D and I was around that age when I started reading these types of books.

Pick a Path/Choose your Own adventure and the old TSR Endless Quest Books (age 10 or so for them, 6 or 7 for Pick a Path) lead to the Fighting Fantasy and the Lone Wolf gamebooks which lead to D&D.

When I was 10 or so I read a book in the school library (Intermediate age 10-12 or so) on the bombing of Hiroshima complete with colour photos.

I still have the 12 Lone WOlf novels and the 1st 23 game books, the genre kind of died out in the 90's.
 
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Mad_Jack

Legend
I was eight when I learned to play D&D and ten when I started playing seriously, and I read at least the first thirteen or fourteen of the Endless Quest books when they came out.

Rereading them to find out all of the eight or nine horrible deaths was just as much fun as trying to make it all the way through to the good ending...
 




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