Not an Enless Quest book, but something similar

[Bullgrit]

Back in the early 80s, a couple of my friends played through an adventure book of some kind -- it was like an Endless Quest book, but there were actual stats/numbers involved, and they rolled dice to resolve things. If I'm remembering correctly, they were about the size of a standard paperback.

I remember hearing them compare how they got through some sections of the book, but I don't remember any details of the conversations.

I never played the book (books?), so I don't know any more than this. But I'd like to know what it was and how it played. Would it be worth looking up today for a little basic solo play without a computer?

Bullgrit
Total Bullgrit

 

[Nikosandros]

Maybe they were talking about Fighting Fantasy gamebooks?

 

[Shemeska]

It might be a couple of things:

1) Super Endless Quest - like Endless Quest, but with numbers as part of the book.

Non- TSR:
2) Lone Wolf - Random number chart instead of dice, but number crunching and stats and such. Awesome series, and I have wonderful nostalgia for the series. Hard as hell to get a complete set, which I've got.
3) Grail Quest - a bit more obscure, but same sort of general idea

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I remember those "Books of which you are the hero" (sorry, that's a litteral translation from the french "Livre dont vous êtes le héros". Those were my first introduction to fantasy adventuring. You made your character (only 2 stats, usually) and then went on to adventure. Every paragraph would send you to another paragraph, depending on the choices you would make. When you met a monster, you fought it using 2d6, etc. I clearly remember waiting for my allowance so that I could go buy myself another one of those books (I must have been around 8 or 9? Maybe 10?).

Basically, It would go like this:

1.
"You enter a room. There is a closed chest on the floor. A small wooden door exits to the east, and a large, iron-bound door exits to the north. If you want to open the chest, go to 45. If you want to take the wooden door, go to 165. If you want to take the iron door, go to 98."

etc.

You had many chances to die along the way, and if you did, you were supposed to start from the beginning.

I remember some books (don't remember which series), you didn't even need dice, since they had printed results on the bottom of the page, and to get a random result, you simply opened the book at a random page.

AR

 

[Nebulous]

I think Super Endless Quest had a dice mechanic, so did Lone Wolf, and maybe a Steve Jackson games book, i forget the name. I used to love all of those, and have quite a stash in my parent's shed.

 

[Nikosandros]

and maybe a Steve Jackson games book

Steve Jackson, the co-author with Ian Livingstone of the first Fighting Fantasy gamebooks is British and a different person from the guy who founded SJ Games (Ogre, Car Wars, GURPS, etc...)

 

[Ydars]

The fighting fantasy books were just one a whole raft of those "choose your own adventure" type books;

1) Bloodsword; 5-gamebooks based on the Dragon Warriors world and using some DW like mechanics.

2) Lone Wolf by Joe Dever

3) Way of the Tiger; Ninja gamebooks based on the D&D world of Orb.

4) Sagard books, by our own Gary Gygax

5) Fateweaver

6) Middle-earth based books whose name I can't recall.

 

[Nebulous]

Steve Jackson, the co-author with Ian Livingstone of the first Fighting Fantasy gamebooks is British and a different person from the guy who founded SJ Games (Ogre, Car Wars, GURPS, etc...)

Oh, didn't know that. You'd be good at gamebook Trivial Pursuit, Nik!

 

[Nebulous]

6) Middle-earth based books whose name I can't recall.

Was it...I.C.E.?

I had some of those too. Come to think of it, i had tons of those roleplaying books.

Anybody remember The Badlands of Hark? Probably one of the most dangerous gamebooks i've ever seen. Every other choice killed you flat out.

 

[Jadeite]

Steve Jackson, the co-author with Ian Livingstone of the first Fighting Fantasy gamebooks is British and a different person from the guy who founded SJ Games (Ogre, Car Wars, GURPS, etc...)

To increase the confusion, the american Steve Jackson authored some fighting fantasy books ,Scorpion Swamp for example.