Not an Enless Quest book, but something similar

[Nebulous]

TSR also made these HUGE fully illustrated books where you had to pore over the pictures (like a full page spread) and then follow options based on what you saw. I still have a Dragonlance one and a Top Secret. I forgot what that series was called though, or the other books in it. I don't particularly remember loving them, but the idea was unique. Sort of like Where's Waldo spliced with Endless Quest.

 

[S'mon]

Things I would recommend playing:

The first 2 Lone Wolf books, Flight from the Dark and especially Fire on the Water. Fire on the Water is bloody brilliant. Scary, exhilirating, fantastic. Unfortunately after that the rest of the LW series is a bit of an anticlimax.

The Sorcery! series - Shamutanti Hills, Khare, Seven Serpents and Crown of Kings. Intriguing and atmospheric, though without the dynamism of the first 2 LW books. Very evocative art, and a witchy, Baba Yaga-ish sort of feel.

Of the Fighting Fantasy series, Warlock of Firetop mountain has great art (a common feature of these old books - John Blanche, Ian McCaig, the masters) but is a bit crude compared to later offerings. Citadel of Chaos, Forest of Doom and City of Thieves are all stronger works I'd say.

 

[S'mon]

SJG had nothing to do with the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. They were published by Penguin in the UK, writers were Ian Livingstone and the British Steve Jackson. The American Steve Jackson did write one, Scorpion Swamp. I remember playing it and being very confused that it was bad luck a black cat crossed my path. In the UK it's good luck!

 

[Mighty Halfling]

I've always been surprised that no one has ever tried a hyperlink version of the Endless Quest style story. You could have ads at every clickable choice (which monetizes it). For kids, it might prove to be an entertaining way to learn to read (which gives it a reason to exist). For adults, they could guide the story (which helps generate interest in it).

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NOW YOU DECIDE ...
If you think hyperlinked stories would be fun to try, click here.

If you'd like to tell Mighty Halfling off, click here.

If you no further interest in this topic, click here.

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[Nikosandros]

I've always been surprised that no one has ever tried a hyperlink version of the Endless Quest style story. You could have ads at every clickable choice (which monetizes it). For kids, it might prove to be an entertaining way to learn to read (which gives it a reason to exist). For adults, they could guide the story (which helps generate interest in it).

An Italian author of Interactive Fiction created a JavaScript system called Idra which can be used to create hypelink interactive adventures.

 

[Ydars]

All the Lone Wolf books are available hyperlinked and you can download them or play them online from here (note that this site has Joe Dever's approval and is not like the Underdogs gamebooks site, which is illegal);

Project Aon: Main / Home (browse)

 

[kibbitz]

Used to like them, still have a small collection. The notables series I can think of are as follows:

1) Blood Sword (5 books)

From the guys who brought you Dragon Warriors, this series is interesting in many ways. It has four characters, the Warrior, the Trickster, the Sage and the Enchanter, which is close to Fighter, Thief, uh... Sage and Wizard Also interesting because it supports up to 4 players cooperating to "win", with each player playing one of the four characters. Very nice flavour and setting, though I really didn't like how the series ended

2) Way of the Tiger (6 books)

Fun series about a Ninja. Your adventures lead to you becoming the ruler of city. One book deals with decision-making and politicking, next book deals with seeking alliances and leading your people to war against an invading army. Sadly, like Blood Sword, I detested the ending

3) Eternal Champions (2 books)

Avoid this. IIRC, it's also by The Way of the Tiger guys, so a similar combat system is present. However, the adventure itself is quite bland...

4) Fighting Fantasy

I bought quite a few of these and so did my cousins. Most are self-contained stories, but a few are linked, like I believe Trial of Champions leads to Armies of Death. Seems like they've rereleased and renumbered them, so I think quite a large chunk of it will need to be sourced via Ebay. I do hate quite a few of them for requiring specific solutions to win. Thus, you either die, or get a bad ending if you failed to get one specific item or task done in the book. Deathtrap Dungeon and Portal of Evil annoyed me for this, though I suppose it leads to "replayability" as you blunder around trying the other routes to figure out the right path

Other people have already covered Sorcery, so I won't repeat that.

5) Duelmasters

Each Duelmaster set consists of two books which form a nice picture when put together side by side IIRC, it's written by the Way of the Tiger guys as well and shares the same gameworld. You need another player (not sure if it's possible to play solitaire mode) to duel against. A story will be set that pits you against the other player and you take turns to explore the world and defeat the other player. When moving around in the game, you announce a code given on the paragraph to the other player to confirm if they are in the same area. Unfortunately, against experienced readers, this does reveal your exact location, so I got creamed by my cousins who owned the books a bit too often for my liking

I remember 4 series, first was a duel between Magi, second a monstrous thing known as the Archveult hunting down an escapee for sport, third a battle between two generals (after gathering allies) and fourth was a dungeon/arena thingie.

I've been pondering buying them over Ebay, but I've yet to do some. Often it's because they're missing a book. I liked this lots, though since the focus is defeating the other player, there isn't much of a plot/quest.

6) Grailquest

Adventures in a twisted Arthurian legend, you are summoned by Merlin to protect the Realm. With your annoying sword, Excalibur Junior, you will do just that or die repeatedly trying at the dreaded paragraph 14 Some good books, some not so good.



Buy? Possibly. Try one first, before plunging in, and try not to compare too much My recommendations are in the order:
1) Blood Sword
2) Lone Wolf (less points because it's longer )
3) Way of the Tiger
4) Sorcery
5) Grailquest

I do like Fighting Fantasy, but I feel the other 5 series mentioned have an edge due to developed story and world. My favourite picks for the old Fighting Fantasy books are as follows:

11. Talisman of Death
- takes place in the Way of the Tiger universe, with some characters from there as well!

17. Appointment with F.E.A.R.
- play a superhero, pick from one of 4 powers, Super Strength, I believe Psionics, Gadgettering and... uh, I can't remember the last one )

20. Sword of the Samurai
- A samurai on a quest to regain his liege's daikatana. The Honour bit may be pushing it a little, but I enjoyed the content a lot.

28. Phantoms of Fear
- With the power to enter the Dream realm by slipping into a trance, your wood elf character must stop an evil demon lord from... well, I don't remember Definitely nothing nice and happy

36. Armies of Death
- Don't remember too much about this besides some cruddy army battle rules. I believe I did like the scenario though. I lost my copy long ago

37. Portal of Evil
- Mining problems turn out to be much, much more. I would love this more if not for the number of necessary items you need to actually beat this one

38. Vault of the Vampire
- Save a maiden from a vampire lord! Lots of colourful characters and options make this very fun to read.

54. Legend of Zagor
- After "Warlock of Firetop Mountain" and "Return to Firetop Mountain", Zagor is once again a threat. Pick one of four characters with different abilities (iirc, Barbarian, Dwarf, Adventurer, Wizard) and defeat Zagor once and for all. Some printing errors in terms of pages to go to, but fairly epic.

 

[skinnydwarf]

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.

Thank you for pointing out "Way of the Tiger." I played one of those books ages ago and had a blast. Like an idiot I sold it to a used bookstore, and until just now I couldn't remember what it was called. I think I'm going to take a trip to ebay...

 

[Shemeska]

If the authors of Way of the Tiger ever wrote up Orb as a fully detailed D&D setting (it started out as the world of their homebrew D&D campaign) I would buy it without hesitation. It was amazingly cool.

 

[Shemeska]

Not as hard as you might think.... Mongoose is republishing and updating them, PLUS you can get them on-line:

Project Aon

...just follow the Books link. Not quite all of them are there yet, but they're coming.

It's easy to get most of them, but good luck finding the New Order adventures in the high 20s. Low print run and they were never released in the US.

I've been toying with putting them up on Ebay at some point (I have the full run and in just abour pristine condition).