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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Slit518

Adventurer
R.L. Stein used to make Goosebump books similar to this. In some of the books, the characters would meet untimely demises. I am sure the books are fine for kids, because even Super Mario dies in the video games, and he is E for Everyone!
 


MNblockhead

A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
I bought the fighter book, Escape the Underdark, to see if my kids would be interested enough in them to buy the full series. I have already bought complete sets of the classic "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, which have had a mixed reception in my house. I loved CYOA much more than my kids do. This may be due in part to the existence of so many other options these days, especially video games.

I was pleasantly surprised then when both of my sons read through and enjoyed the Escape the Underdark book. One son is 8 going on 9 and the other is 11 going on 12. So I'll be buying the rest of the series.

As for concerns about the content being age appropriate, I read through the entire book, all options, As and all endings. Partly because I wanted to make sure the content was age appropriate, but mostly because I enjoyed reading it. Whether it is considered age appropriate will depend on the family. Some families will not find this appropriate for 8-year olds. Some families will find it inappropriate for any age--mostly for religious reasons I suspect. The book mirrors the plot of the Out of the Abyss storyline. There is slavery, slave abuse, death, demons, cult rituals, etc. It isn't full of detailed and gory descriptions of death and fighting,b ut some may find the scenes and topics to be too scary or otherwise inappropriate.

As for me, I was mostly concerned that the place and character names would be too difficult and turn them off.

"Hey dad, how do you pronounce 'Menzoberranzan'?"
"Go ask your mom, that's where she's from."
"Mom, how d---"
"Wait! Come back here...."

Unless you believe that reading about fictional fiends risks summoning "real" fiends, I think the kids will be all right.
 

Dire Bare

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...

Give kids some credit, they are more resilient than you think. Most 8-year-olds will have no problems reading about being eaten by zombie Tyrannosaurus Rexes (Rexi?). Or any other similarly gruesome fate described in the new Endless Quest books.
 

Emirikol Prime

Explorer
Unfortunately they used the Endless Quest branding but didn't use the old Endless Quest system. It's really just a CYOA.

That said I'll be picking them all up.
 

The Big BZ

Explorer
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...

Most 8 year olds get killed about 500 times a day in Forthnight so I suspect they will be ok with being eaten by a T-Rex.
 

jaycrockett

Explorer
R.L. Stein used to make Goosebump books similar to this. In some of the books, the characters would meet untimely demises. I am sure the books are fine for kids, because even Super Mario dies in the video games, and he is E for Everyone!
Before Goosebumps R.L. Stein wrote a CYOA type book called Badlands of Hark. Every ending save one ended in your gruesome death (including just standing still at one point!). I loved that book.
 

Sacrosanct

Legend
Unfortunately they used the Endless Quest branding but didn't use the old Endless Quest system. It's really just a CYOA.

That said I'll be picking them all up.

How do you mean? I still have the old Endless Quest books. How is the system different from the CYOA system? I do recall back in the day there were a few D&D books that required you to flip a coin for things (Wizards, Warriors, and You had that a couple times too), but IIRC, Endless Quest were not those, but written in the typical CYOA style.
 

Unfortunately they used the Endless Quest branding but didn't use the old Endless Quest system. It's really just a CYOA.

That said I'll be picking them all up.

The original Endless Quest books were also CYOA. The only books with a mechanical system were Fighting Fantasy, Sorcery!, Lone Wolf, etc....but Endless Quest was always just CYOA.
 

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