A Choose Your Own Adventure styled book on World War I seems disrespectful. CYOA are written for fun. It would be like doing a Mad Libs for 9/11.
OnceA Choose Your Own Adventure styled book on World War I seems disrespectful. CYOA are written for fun. It would be like doing a Mad Libs for 9/11.
Once I got past that feeling and got down to reading this thing --and read it I did, for I can not help myself when it comes to a CYOA-- I actually enjoyed this a good deal. It treats the war and its participants with the honor they deserve.
Unlike all other CYOAs I've read, in this You Choose book you choose from three different characters to play: a Belgian nurse, a British Tommy, and an American ambulance driver. Because it's broken up this way, while maintaining the usual short CYOA number of pages, the storylines within World War I: An Interactive History Adventure are necessarily short. Usually you get about a dozen pages per story before surviving or dying.
And there is a lot of dying in this one. More than any other CYOA I've ever read. Author Gwenyth Swain didn't pussyfoot around the bloodiness of this particularly gruesome war, at least not considering this was probably written for someone around 10-12 years of age.
Yes, it is short, so much of the war is criminally curtailed, but still, I learned a tidbit or two. Seems there's always something new to learn about this seemingly insane war no matter how much I read about it....more
YOU are a kid who likes to climb mountains, so let's hit the Himalayas!
*BRAKE SCREECH* Reread that title. This ain't just gonna be a hiking book, my fYOU are a kid who likes to climb mountains, so let's hit the Himalayas!
*BRAKE SCREECH* Reread that title. This ain't just gonna be a hiking book, my friend. We're going after the yeti!
The Abominable Snowman is the first Choose Your Own Adventure [CYOA] I've seen that comes with a map. It's not a highly detailed map, but hey, it's a map! Whereas others were published as pure fun, this CYOA seems set on being a teaching tool. Along with the map, there's also an illustration of the Himalaya range with each peak's name and height listed.
The book kicks off with my buddy Carlos going ahead and getting stranded. Is he okay or should I go after him? Let's dive in!
Adventure #1: I decide to cancel my meeting with the director of expeditions and mountain research to go find my budski, Carlos! The director says he'll go with me. I think this is great, but...When we find Carlos' deserted camp, instead of suggesting we need to find Carlos, the director suggests we go in search of the yeti. Now, I think author R.A. Montgomery meant for us readers to take the leap together and jump to the conclusion that yeti have kidnapped Carlos, and so therefore we need to go find them in order to find him. But honestly, this scene just comes off as goofy. Oh shit, wait a sec...I'm sorry, I forgot I'm reading a children's book! ONWARD! I do my best to play it safe as much as possible, but Montgomery keeps pulling back in! Eventually, and quite out of the blue, I end up with some aliens traveling with Carlos to the Planet of the Seas to gain wisdom. Odd a.f.
Adventure #2: The director and I find Carlos. The damn fool hiked off after yeti tracks by himself! We head back to camp and I find a weird hippie sherpa burning incense at the Kathmandu general store. We head off for the Annapurna peak and see what appears to be a signal light flashing. Thinking someone is in distress, we make for the signal and discover it comes from a yeti celebration bonfire. So, yeti do exist. Huh.
Adventure #3: This time I leave Carlos for dead, and the director and I head off. We meet a monk and I agree to go on a Buddhist's journey of enlightenment. I have a transcendent moment, am given a benevolent yeti guide and we literally fly to Shangri-La. The alien abduction actually made more sense than this...
Adventure #4: This time I say screw Carlos and the director, and go it alone!...and immediately hit a monsoon. Game over, dude.
Adventure #5: Clearly I'm not meant to go without the director, so I apologize (yes, that's an option) and do ask if he'll join me on my expedition. He says he'll accept my apology and go...if he can be expedition leader. What a douche! Sneaking a peek ahead at my options, I see that I have no choice but to let him be our leader. It sucks, but what are ya gonna do? It turns out good for me, because we obtain better gear and provisions than what I could have got on my own. It also works out well for Carlos, because he gets rescued. But it doesn't work out so great for me, the reader, because somehow I end up back on the Buddhist's journey of enlightenment track from adventure #3, and there's no branch off storylines here, so it's the same old song and dance.
I could continue reading. There's 28 possible endings to this book. That seems like quite a few until you notice that there are numerous choices where it was basically do you want to continue? or do you want to end your journey?. A bunch of abrupt endings like that attached to one story path significantly reduces the overall adventure possibilities herein, and that's a bummer. However, there are more adventures to be had. They seem interesting from what I could tell from some of the illustrations by stalwart CYOA illustrator Paul Granger. Perhaps I will continue reading, but I'm not going to add to my review and spoil the whole dang book for you!...more
Reading this when we did really worked out great! Even though it's not the best Choose Your Own Adventure I'v* * * Read & Reviewed With My Niece * * *
Reading this when we did really worked out great! Even though it's not the best Choose Your Own Adventure I've ever read, it did help fill in details to a plan I had which would with any luck make my niece's childhood that much more memorable.
"You were mean to me," Emma said to me in a soft and sad voice, while fighting back tears. We were five or ten minutes removed from the event in which I was apparently mean to her, and in this topsy turvy world of fast-paced babysitting, I had to cast my mind back over all we'd recently done before realizing she was actually more upset that I'd just beaten her twice in Uno, and so she'd trumped up some minor silliness in order to have something to be sad about. Forget it, kid! Take your pity party elsewhere!
When she's trying to force out tears, I do my best to move things along. It's pretty obvious she's making a mountain out of a mole hill, so in this instance I grabbed this book and just started reading aloud. She tried to ignore me, but a few t-rex roars had her curling up next to me to see the illustrations and offer her choices on the direction this CYOA should go.
A Day with the Dinosaurs feels and looks a bit Hardy Boy-esque. A bunch of kids help an archeologist dig for dino bones. Bones are found! What will your participation be in the find? The Cave of Time, that old CYOA time-traveling standby makes an appearance, because why? Because dinosaurs, that's why! You didn't think they'd make a book just about digging up dusty bones, did you?
After run-ins with a number of different dinos that Emma knew about, she became her old, animated self again. Although in the end we weren't enamored of this one, it did help bridge the emotional gap.
It also inadvertently helped set-up my plans that day, plans that had been in the making almost since the day she was born. For the last six to seven years I've been collecting items to include in a treasure chest which Emma would one day "happen" to find. I've bought Murano glass for her from Murano itself, had my brother send me delicate scarves from China, added my own pocket watch with visible gears to the collection, built necklaces out of stuff from Michael's that didn't look too plasticy cheesy, and bargained for dusty old baubles at flea markets. I found a chest online that was new, yet looked old enough to have been owned by pirates hundreds of years ago. I waited until Emma was old enough to understand and appreciate what was going on, but not too old that she wouldn't believe it could really be happening (that's a small window of opportunity, folks!) When the day arrived, I covered the chest in a canvas sack and placed it in a larger box I'd buried in my backyard. The next day I had Emma help me move some dirt in the backyard.
"First we do some work and then we can go swimming." "Okay!"
As planned, her shovel was the one that struck the wooden box.
"I found something," she cried. "What is it?" "I don't know!" "Well, dig it up!"
We shoveled away the dirt and carefully wiped off the top and edges of the box.
"Like the archeologists," said my wife referring to A Day with the Dinosaurs. It felt very much like that or even Indiana Jones as Emma slid back the lid and we removed the shrouded chest. The intrigue and excitement were palpable. This little moment would provide lasting memories. This book? Not so much. However, it did serve a minor role in all this, which I appreciate....more
YOU are a kid who likes to climb mountains, so let's hit the Himalayas!
*BREAK SCREECH* Reread that title. This ain't just gonna be a hiking book, my fYOU are a kid who likes to climb mountains, so let's hit the Himalayas!
*BREAK SCREECH* Reread that title. This ain't just gonna be a hiking book, my friend. We're going after the yeti!
The Abominable Snowman is the first Choose Your Own Adventure [CYOA] I've seen that comes with a map. It's not a highly detailed map, but hey, it's a map! Whereas others were published as pure fun, this CYOA seems set on being a teaching tool. Along with the map, there's also an illustration of the Himalaya range with each peak's name and height listed.
The book kicks off with my buddy Carlos going ahead and getting stranded. Is he okay or should I go after him? Let's dive in!
Adventure #1: I decide to cancel my meeting with the director of expeditions and mountain research to go find my budski, Carlos! The director says he'll go with me. I think this is great, but...When we find Carlos' deserted camp, instead of suggesting we need to find Carlos, the director suggests we go in search of the yeti. Now, I think author R.A. Montgomery meant for us readers to take the leap together and jump to the conclusion that yeti have kidnapped Carlos, and so therefore we need to go find them in order to find him. But honestly, this scene just comes off as goofy. Oh shit, wait a sec...I'm sorry, I forgot I'm reading a children's book! ONWARD! I do my best to play it safe as much as possible, but Montgomery keeps pulling back in! Eventually, and quite out of the blue, I end up with some aliens traveling with Carlos to the Planet of the Seas to gain wisdom. Odd a.f.
Adventure #2: The director and I find Carlos. The damn fool hiked off after yeti tracks by himself! We head back to camp and I find a weird hippie sherpa burning incense at the Kathmandu general store. We head off for the Annapurna peak and see what appears to be a signal light flashing. Thinking someone is in distress, we make for the signal and discover it comes from a yeti celebration bonfire. So, yeti do exist. Huh.
Adventure #3: This time I leave Carlos for dead, and the director and I head off. We meet a monk and I agree to go on a Buddhist's journey of enlightenment. I have a transcendent moment, am given a benevolent yeti guide and we literally fly to Shangri-La. The alien abduction actually made more sense than this...
Adventure #4: This time I say screw Carlos and the director, and go it alone!...and immediately hit a monsoon. Game over, dude.
Adventure #5: Clearly I'm not meant to go without the director, so I apologize (yes, that's an option) and do ask if he'll join me on my expedition. He says he'll accept my apology and go...if he can be expedition leader. What a douche! Sneaking a peek ahead at my options, I see that I have no choice but to let him be our leader. It sucks, but what are ya gonna do? It turns out good for me, because we obtain better gear and provisions than what I could have got on my own. It also works out well for Carlos, because he gets rescued. But it doesn't work out so great for me, the reader, because somehow I end up back on the Buddhist's journey of enlightenment track from adventure #3, and there's no branch off storylines here, so it's the same old song and dance.
I could continue reading. There's 28 possible endings to this book. That seems like quite a few until you notice that there are numerous choices where it was basically do you want to continue? or do you want to end your journey?. A bunch of abrupt endings like that attached to one story path significantly reduces the overall adventure possibilities herein, and that's a bummer. However, there are more adventures to be had. They seem interesting from what I could tell from some of the illustrations by stalwart CYOA illustrator Paul Granger. Perhaps I will continue reading, but I'm not going to add to my review and spoil the whole dang book for you!...more
This is another one of those D&D based choose your own adventure books, which I adored as a kid. I've been snatching up copies of the ones I never gotThis is another one of those D&D based choose your own adventure books, which I adored as a kid. I've been snatching up copies of the ones I never got around to reading back in ye olden days of my youth. It's been a pleasant jaunt into the past.
The main character (aka you) in Spell of the Winter Wizard is a young girl. Often these books featured somewhat androgynous pre-teens as the MC named something like Jamie. I guess this was so that neither gender would feel excluded, but in this edition of the series Omina is decided female. She is thrust into a search and recovery mission to retrieve her stepfather, the wizard Alcazar, who's been captured by the evil winter wizard Warzen. There are a wide variety of friends (her pet cat/reindeer, a foppish elf, halflings, a talking moth) and foes (orcs, quagbeasts and boar), as well as a number of neutral types who could help or hinder you. Author Linda Lowery does a bang up job of creating colorful characters throughout.
Overall, the book is fine. It's decently written with some nice imagery now and then. One of the major drawbacks are the simplicity of the choices. Most were either obviously law-abiding and goodhearted, which would lead you to a positive outcome. Or the other choice would seen by most as greedy, selfish or headstrong, which inevitably sets you on a highway to hell. Another "issue" would be the very twee tone. It's not as bad as say My Little Pony, but there is a definite leaning toward a more unicorns, fairies and rainbows sense of fantasy here, which a younger me would have hated. And for all its fanciful setting, I never felt all that drawn into the world. Mind you, these are very short books which have to hurry the story along. However, even so, in some of the other Endless Quest books, I have felt the world building, for what it is, to be a little more immersive than this one. I don't know, maybe if I were a nine-year-old girl I might feel differently about Spell of the Winter Wizard.
Thrills and chills! ZOOMIDDY ZOOOOM!!! Space chases! BLAMMO!!! Laser blasts! All this excitement and more is promised on the back of this book:
"You arThrills and chills! ZOOMIDDY ZOOOOM!!! Space chases! BLAMMO!!! Laser blasts! All this excitement and more is promised on the back of this book:
"You are an ace starfighter pilot in the Galactic Space Force. Shot down over a mysterious planet, you have been taken captive by a race of giant, super intelligent ants."
But soon enough you discover Love Is Not Constantly Wondering if You Are Making the Biggest Mistake of Your Life "...is actually about your relationship with a young woman named Anne, and your struggles to cope with her alcoholism." Wow. That's not your usual Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) book, where via second person narration you most often play the hero of some great adventure or mystery.
The text has nothing to do with sci-fi. It's about the relationship. The illustrations and your choices are written as if you were reading the sci-fi aspect of the story, but it's only a metaphor for the struggles of the main character author. It stays like that until the end when fiction and reality intermingle in a surreal nightmare.
Those of you who've been following my reviews (and I thank you for that) know that I'm a fan of the CYOA books. Have been since I was a kid and I still love going back to revisit the old books now and again. But I'm just as excited when I find a new CYOA [Who Killed John F. Kennedy? (Lose Your Own Adventure #1)], even if it's a parody or not exactly in keeping with the old school style.
This one uses the CYOA style, and seems to have a level of reverence for it, while not adhering to it entirely. Let me explain. With this one there are no page numbers, just dates upon which incidents happened...
You are bored so you decide to give Anne a call. She answers. You ask her what she is doing. She replies, "My roommate."
"Hey, wake up!" "Mmph...wha...?" And that was the moment Anne dropped the snake on your face.
It is three in the morning when the phone rings, and you answer to the sound of Anne sobbing hysterically. You can hear the sounds of a car. She says they are coming. She was at a party, and they are coming, and she is sorry. The line goes dead.
Unlike other CYOAs, reading this straight through from beginning to end is perfectly a-okay. Actually, it's probably the smart move if you want to understand the story in a linear fashion. Besides, half the time you're not given an action choice, but rather told to turn to such-and-such a date. When there is a choice given, quite often it is done to underline a point or express a darkly-humored truism as relates to the cyclical nature of the abusive relationship. Yes, believe it or not, humor does play a hand in this, perhaps as laughter is used in therapy.
There is more give-and-take to the relationship than the examples I gave above, creating a very telling memoir that does not show the author in the best of lights at all times. The writing is accomplished, providing a smooth read on an engrossing subject that draws the reader in, making you pull for these fucked up kids. Will they survive the dangerous rollercoaster ride or will it all go off the rails?
Right up until this very minute, I've been unsure whether to give this 4 or 5 stars. While it's not perfect, it did evoke a lot of emotion in me. Sure, that emotion came in the form of sadness, pity and disgust, but it was all very visceral. And it kept me on the edge of my seat, because disaster was around every corner. Yes, I was glorying in horrible accidents and intentional horribleness. Is that so wrong?...more
Assassination, sorcerer style, is the name of the game in The Citadel of Chaos!
Steve Jackson has been pumping out these gamebooks for decades. I belieAssassination, sorcerer style, is the name of the game in The Citadel of Chaos!
Steve Jackson has been pumping out these gamebooks for decades. I believe there's something like 60 of them. In them you play an adventurer on a quest that involves a dungeon crawl, a term gamers use to describe an adventure in which your character is going room-to-room through some kind of controlled area, like a dungeon, crypt, catacombs, caves, etc. For the purpose of books like this, which are very much modeled upon the Choose Your Own Adventure style of reading, it's necessary to keep "on track," if you will. More on this will be explained below.
But now for some book-representative illustrations!
[image] [image] [image]
Not all fantasy art is created equal, but Russ Nicholson's got the goods!
With the advent of ebook readers, you can now read/play these without having to keep track of ability scores, health level or inventory. You don't even have to make a map of your progress. That's a good thing, because I just don't have the time or desire to do all that. I just want a bit of fun and, after purchasing it for my kindle, that's what a book like this provides.
In The Citadel of Chaos you play a wizard and the coolest part about that of course is that you get to cast spells. That was an exciting first for me! The spell choices are limited and the ones on offer (Strength, Stamina, ESP, Levitation, Fire, and a few others) are designed to be useful at some point in the dungeon. Some more so than others, and if you take a certain path through the dungeon you may not find a use for some of these spells at all.
These books aren't "open world," meaning you can't investigate the whole place, at least not in a single adventure. You see, the story is linear and although this is a game you can manipulate, it too is fairly linear. Per each adventure, you pick a path. Usually you're given a couple choices. But you must keep moving forward, no backtracking. It's a drawback and failing of these kinds of books.
Occasionally the writer is able to include choices that allow readers to experience variant parts of the adventure that would normally only be found by following a different path than the one you're on. That's difficult and if not handled correctly could lead to an infinite loop, which would be embarrassing for the publisher. I think I've only come across one of those, so the editors/testers have done their due diligence.
Anyhow, the linear nature of these books is honestly a minor quibble and just one of the rules of the game you must abide by. No big whoop.
A fun aspect to these particular books is the creatures you meet. Sure, you encounter your standard goblins, leprechauns and witches as well as the slightly more rare golems and lizardmen, which are still fairly well known in the fantasy world, but you also get some often delightfully original - or at least oddball - creatures and characters. For instance, that Whirlwind was a breath of fresh air! *rimshot*
Overall, this was fun. I've enjoyed the two of these books by Jackson that I've read so far and I will no doubt read more. ...more
While continuing my Choose Your Own Adventure review saga I found myself in the mood for sci-fi, so it was a perfect time to turn to an old favorite oWhile continuing my Choose Your Own Adventure review saga I found myself in the mood for sci-fi, so it was a perfect time to turn to an old favorite of mine, Villains of Volturnus!
Unlike many of the Endless Quest series of CYOA styled books, V of V did not rely on the Dungeons & Dragons game system as a basis world for the book's characters to inhabit. No, instead they went with Star Frontiers. Basically it's the same as D&D, but science fictiony.
In V of V you are a (somewhat androgynous, as per usual) youth traveling with your praying mantis-like tutor Jac and Ting, your personal computer with a personality. The story begins with the ship you are in crashing through Volturnus' atmosphere. You are told to exit the ship immediately and must decide to go with or without your tutor. We'd better go before it's too late!!! --->>>
1) In my first adventure I jumped into a rescue/escape pod immediately without my tutor Jac. Ha! I found an Ouroboros (the snake that eats its own tail) loop right off in which, if you choose to, you could stay with your pod infinitely night after night waiting to be saved. I did not wish to reread the same pages ad infinitum, so instead, I wandered off and ended up finding a time machine. I didn't get to use it much before an annoyed blob told me I was not and should not be in existence on Volturnus' surface, so it sent me home.
2) The next go round I accompanied my tutor. We landed on the planet, investigated the area, found weird little creatures, and came across the time machine again. This time we foiled some pirates and saved the day, huzzah!
3) I was getting bored of futzing around, so this time Jac and I jumped on a hovercycle and took off to check out the planet. In a fun twist, my tutor turned out to be an impostor! I made an escape and ran into a long-eyelashed novepus (nine-legged octopus type creature) herding some flightless birds. She connects our minds with one of her tentacles and I (I mean me, not the character) feel repulsed yet oddly aroused…It's sort of like watching weird Japanese porn. Huh. Anywhooo, she takes me back to her people's village where there is a welcoming ceremony and the elders decide what to do with me. It's all very Native American.
4) Curious to see where this apparent kidnapping scenario would lead, I went along with the stranger on my next adventure. I was taken to and held captive at a rock palace of sorts in some hills. I sat around waiting/hoping my dad would rescue me. This is a long, slow section, which gave me time to reflect on how these Endless Quest books are more involved (Mature? Yeah, I guess so) than actual CYOAs. Maybe there's fewer endings in the EQs, but the passages are longer, which gives the story a chance to breathe. That's kinda nice. Back to the story! So, I turned into a hologram of the kidnappers' boss, trick the guards, radio for help and get rescued by daddy.
This is pretty fun, but rereading it (about 30 years after the last time!) brought back a feeling I had as a kid. I didn't like the kidnapping plot which runs throughout many of the story lines. Kids don't read fantasy so they can escape into a world in which they are at the mercy of adults. Too many of the endings ended with me being chastised for not obeying adults. Even today, as a boring middle-aged man, I raise my fist in solidarity with repressed youth everywhere and shout some ineffectual and absolutely un-profound slogan like, "We're not gonna take it!" or "Another brick in the wall, you fascists!" There, that'll show 'em!
"If you decide to fire the torpedo and sink the ship, turn to page 46 or 47."
WHAT?! Two choices for one path? That's crazytown! Never seen such lunacy"If you decide to fire the torpedo and sink the ship, turn to page 46 or 47."
WHAT?! Two choices for one path? That's crazytown! Never seen such lunacy! What's going on here? Is this real life?!?!
In By Balloon to the Sahara the plan is that you, your friends Peter and Sarah, and your dog Harry are going to take a balloon ride to France, but uh-oh, here comes a storm!
Let's see what zany adventures I got into while reviewing this book:
#1 - In my first adventure, that brewin' storm was fierce enough to force us into making the drastic decision of cutting into the balloon to get it to land asap. We crash-landed in the sea and got picked up by a submarine on the hunt for whalers. We joined and sunk many ships. It was during this first adventure that the above mentioned "crazytown" episode occurred and it blew my mind. Blew it, I say!
#2 - I decided we'd ride out the storm. We came upon some aliens wearing spacesuits that looked like futuristic beer barrels. We decided we didn't want to hang out with them, so we took them up on their offer to leave in peace…OOPS! They meant we'd "leave in pieces" WAH Wah waaahhh…..Laser blatted!(sic and sick)
#3 - On the next adventure we landed on the North African coast, got chased in a cave by a stereotypical Arab horse-riding and scimitar-wielding nomadic tribe (probably meant to be Berbers, but there's no time for polite ethnic distinction here!), we found a scientist in a secret underground lair, who forced us to drink a potion that turned us invisible. We used our invisibility to escape, get home, sneak into movie theaters and sporting events for free and to become super sleuth police detectives!
I went through this cave scenario a few times, because there were three mysterious doors down there to choose from. Each led to many varied and whack-a-doodle adventures. In fact, this whole book is quite silly. D.Terman's writing is a bit cheeky:
"But if the lure of the Sahara is too strong to stop your flight, put on some suntan lotion and drift south toward page 8."
I once ran into a dude named Professor Hardly Wright. And also, I noticed a number of the path choices are recycled, meaning two variant adventures used the same path at some point. A little of that is okay, but too much of it weakens the 4th wall, making your choices seem more arbitrary, less important and certainly nothing special.
The work of stalwart CYOA illustrator Paul Granger on this one isn't as memorable as other books. Too many pics are dull and Hardy Boy-esque.
My confusion about everything that is By Balloon to the Sahara is maybe best summed up by the encounter in which I was attacked by a dude who looked like a medieval pirate/Germanic barbarian. He and his people were entranced by my friend's flashlight, like it was magic, and they worshipped us as gods. Isn't this story meant to take place in relatively modern times? What the frick is going on here? None of this everything-and-the-kitchen-sink weird randomness is explained. It just happens, making this an occasionally fun, but wholly inconsequential read. ...more
As a Jay Leno-esque, Chinny McStrongchin looking character, you are off to explore the depths of the ocean with hopes of finding Atlantis. Let's go!
1)As a Jay Leno-esque, Chinny McStrongchin looking character, you are off to explore the depths of the ocean with hopes of finding Atlantis. Let's go!
1) On my first adventure I fought a ginormous squid, discovered an ancient Greek ship upon which was a map showing a tunnel to the center of the earth. I entered the tunnel and soon the water turned to gas and I had to dodge massive atoms. The world became a shade more psychedelic. Undefined presences surrounded me as I entered a thought world. I'd found Atlanteans! I stayed with them, studying for 1000 thought years and emerged to find the surface of the world quite different from when I left it.
2) On the next adventure I was quickly eaten by sharks.
3) I had another go, got saved by a dolphin (at this point I've noticed that there are a number of ways in which this book allows you to just give up), found and entered a grotto, which turned out to be Atlantis! I got a species-change operation and never returned to the surface again.
4) In my final adventure I took my little underwater craft down into a canyon, where I found another grotto and a submarine. Inside the sub I received instructions on how to get to Atlantis. I met some folks, tried to help them overthrow a tyrannical king, and in order to do so I suggested we put on a play, naturally. In a roundabout way it worked!
This book is just filled will fun adventures. And there are a bunch more endings, all of which look WAY more exciting than my adventures, if the illustrations by Paul Granger are anything to go by. There's some kind of wacky castle pool type thing, cyclones, whales, dudes wearing Kaiser helmets shooting lasers, a ghoulish scientist and more. If I'd come across any of that, this book would easily be four stars, maybe five!...more
I love me some good ole fashioned vampire, I do! Put him in a three piece suit, a cape and now we're talking!
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Though the title sounds like a plI love me some good ole fashioned vampire, I do! Put him in a three piece suit, a cape and now we're talking!
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Though the title sounds like a place at the mall where you could pick up blood sausage or Filipino "chocolate sauce," the cover of Vampire Express delivers the goods, along with a medieval castle, a midnight train, a wolf, a bat (I hate bats. Fuck bats,) a vampy vampire companion in heels, and a couple intrepid kids with feathered hair because it was the '80s and everyone wanted to be Farrah Fawcett.
I'm not sure my anticipation could be much higher for this one, so let's dive in!
As per usual in Choose Your Own Adventure books, you are a kid. This time around you're on a train in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania (Fun Fact: Sesame Street's "The Count" spent his youth there!) You and your Uncle Andrew are out to scientifically prove that vampires exist. You are joined by two other companions: Nina, a girl "about your age," whatever that may be, and her aunt. The aunt goes missing straight away and a mysterious box is discovered in the baggage car. Thus begins our adventure!
Here are my attempts made while reviewing this book:
1) Nina and I consult the gypsies on the train about the mysterious box and missing aunt. After a bit of mysticism, she and I go to the vampire's castle, kill the vampires, obtain proof of their existence and save auntie. Wow…I knocked that one out of the park on the first try!
Note: The choices led to positive conclusions waaay too obviously. Let's try another…
2) We question the other passengers about the missing aunt. We enter the car of the mysterious Count Zoltan and Countess Carmilla, who offer us supposedly tasty delights. But they are NOT tasty! Naturally, we spit them out and make a run for it, because how dare they foist shitty candy on us?! Low and behold, the count is a vampire and so is the countess! He blocks the door (she apparently does nothing). We escape by climbing on top of the train and jumping into a snowbank. A lucky escape!
Note: Although I intentionally took a wrong step or two this time, still the correct choices were telegraphed. Hmmm…
3) This time we ask two men to help us find auntie. One's a flamboyant magician, the other a curmudgeonly professor. When we're left alone with the magician he tries to hypnotize us, but I know a predator when I see one and I'll have none of this touchy-uncle nonsense! The magician does however have an interesting vampire-catching device, so we stick around. Suddenly auntie is running away from vampires, who catch her and demand "The Bloodstone" from us. The magician performs an entrancing illusion that attracts the vampires, who do a little dance (but do not make a little love or get down tonight). The trap fails and we are all turned into vampires.
4) Nina and I open the mysterious box. It contains a painting. A gypsy and my Uncle Andrew (who has been very nonexistent up until this point) help us with the painting, trying to figure out its power. We make for the vampire's castle. Nina gets left behind to fend off a pack of wolves. I find an ugly little dwarf gnawing bones near the castle wall. The dwarf scurries away. Oookaaay. We slip into the castle and use the painting to destroy the vampires. Miracle of miracles, auntie and Nina are both okay!
Note: Uncle Andrew doesn't seem interested in getting lasting proof that vampires exist, but is very anxious to kill them. That doesn't sound like science to me.
End Note: There are too many obvious choice-to-consequence resolutions for this one to be rated 5 stars. However, there are lots of choices that lead to many differing story-lines. That and all the wonderfully odd characters make Vampire Express a winner! ...more
I'm puttin' on my "FALSE ADVERTISING!" angry face!
The Dragon's Ransom has "dragon" in the title and there's a dragon on the cover, so why is this bookI'm puttin' on my "FALSE ADVERTISING!" angry face!
The Dragon's Ransom has "dragon" in the title and there's a dragon on the cover, so why is this book so nearly dragon-free?
And the cover...There's a hero depicted as a brawny, bronze-skinned, golden-haired warrior….
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Yet, inside the hero appears as a spotty git who can't afford a decent haircut…
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In this D&D oriented "Choose Your Own Adventure"-styled book, as the reader you play the role of a young cleric, a catch-all synonym for holy man. Go ahead and grab a D&D player. Once he's done shaking and wetting himself from the perceived attack, he'll tell you that the cleric class was the most boring character to play in the game bar none. It's like making the football team, but being made to play punter.
So let's get this into perspective: In this adventure you are a lowly priest who's tasked to get a bag-worth of gold from hobgoblins (one step up in fierceness from goblin...and that ain't very fierce) and the gold is to be used as tribute to a mostly benevolent dragon. Wow, not a terribly promising start. But from what I remember reading this as a kid, it wasn't so bad, so let's give it another go!
Well, the first thing I notice is that there are many lost opportunities for reader choices. It's like Laura French had a linear story in mind and she didn't want to veer away from it. Flipping through the book, I see now that there are only 18 possible endings. That's not a good sign, since many of those original CYOAs had 36.
Here are the adventures I recently went on in preparation for this review...
1) I take three companions with me: a fighter, thief and wizard...yep, the good classes. We head out of the village and kill a trope, er rather, I mean a bridge-guarding troll. Then we avoid a nixie (a water faerie) trap. (Note: Every adventure you go on in this book forces you to read through both of the previous encounters, and that equals large amounts of lame.) We then find and investigate an orc village where we locate a bunch of treasure in a dungeon. Snuck out w/it safely, but then got greedy for more and got killed by a war party.
2) Me and the gang made it to the underground hobgoblin lair. Found a treasure horde. Got greedy for more...and got it! BOO-YAH!!!
3) Me and my pals kill the troll, burn down the orc village, and then wake up in the middle of the night to a werewolf tearing into my throat. CONSEQUENCED!
4) I go it alone this time and try to use magic on the bridge-guarding troll, but it doesn't work. The End. Wait a second...So that means there's no way of succeeding unless you go with the group? Wow. That blows super bad. I'm starting to recall the annoyance I once felt about this book back when I first read it....
End Note: There are multiple occasions in which whatever choice you make will lead you to the same conclusion. Literally, you are eventually sent to the same page as a consequence of either choice, and this happens more than once. What's the point? It's just bad form for these kinds of books. ...more
It's been a heavy few days, so I needed to regain a little of that innocence lost, which led me to this delightful volume in the Choose Your Own AdvenIt's been a heavy few days, so I needed to regain a little of that innocence lost, which led me to this delightful volume in the Choose Your Own Adventure series.
In The Enchanted Kingdom I'm not sure if you're supposed to be playing an undeveloped girl or a pretty Pakistani boy, so it must suffice to say you are a nameless and sexless kid, who is visiting your Aunt Grace in the magical land of "England." In a place called The Downs you find standing stones and rumors of fairies (that's the spelling this book uses.) It's time to investigate!
1) In my first adventure I ask Aunt Grace what this nonsense is with her putting out milk for "the Little People." The old wingnut isn't very forthcoming with the answers. That night I spy fairies drinking the milk and I get severely pinched for it.
2) Take two. At the village library I discover there may be treasure within the mysterious mounds nearby. While digging in said mounds I get pinched again...pinched by a bobby, that is, for digging what's not to be dug.
3) I go ask an old, blue-haired dumpling at the sweets shop about these fairy rumors. I doubt the aged pork roll's rantings and regardless of warnings to stay clear as well as the many illustrations done with flair by Judith Mitchell depicting fairies through out the book, I march off to prove fairies don't exist. Low and behold, they do. So I get down and boogie with them. Then I black out and wake up w/a squirrel trying to get me to eat its nuts. I agree, but don't swallow, and then end up shot in the chest by a fairy arrow. Let that be a lesson to me!
4) This time the King Fairy gets me drunk and takes me into the woods...but I swear nothing happened! I fight off some ghouls w/a plastic knife, saving a fairy and thus making friends with the fairy folk. Huzzah!
5) Went on a Wild Hunt w/the king. We chase the ghosts of bad dead people. I find enough hidden gold to make me and Auntie rich. Note: Fairy steeds look like My Little Ponies.
6) I go to a castle with the Fairy Queen. A bit of insincere flattery gets me sent to the silver mines. In the caves I meet a sort of resistance group led by a woman named Nyala (who I instantly trust because Nyala is the name of my favorite Ethiopian restaurant in Los Angeles and it is delicious!. SUPER SAD EDITOR'S NOTE: Nyala has closed for business.) We find some magical caves and I live an unending life as leader of the free slaves of Elfland.
7) I join the Fairy Queen on a Halloween parade, but discover that I am to be made a sacrifice. Luckily this butch Pippy-Lockstockings of a girl from Minnesota saves my ass by hugging-it-out. Relationship Status: It's complicated.
Cue the scary music! For this is......The Mystery of Chimney Rock BWAHAHAHAAAAH!!! *cat sound!*
The fifth volume in the Choose Your Own Adventure serieCue the scary music! For this is......The Mystery of Chimney Rock BWAHAHAHAAAAH!!! *cat sound!*
The fifth volume in the Choose Your Own Adventure series gets an extra star from me for some genuinely spooky moments. Yeah sure, it's just a haunted house story about kids snooping where they shouldn't, but if you allow yourself to be drawn into the moment, you'll find that Edward Packard wrote some scenes with a little Hitchcockian aura about them. Nicely atmosphered, indeed!
The drawbacks of The Mystery of Chimney Rock are that the stories often end too quickly and also that it suffers on one or two occasions from assumptive inclusions. What I mean is that people and things are named as if you have prior knowledge of them, and perhaps the character does, but you the reader do not, so that's a little confusing.
WARNING!!! If you plan on reading this book, stop now! Do not continue on, for there be spoilers ahead…
Here are the storylines I just read in prep for the review:
1) Refused to go into the haunted house again and again like a big old coward until finally the story came to an end. It was late when I started reading and I got scared...
2) Followed my braver cousin Jane into the Chimney Rock house. Ran into the old lady who apparently haunts it. She creeps about acting all creepy like a creep. I went looking for Jane in the attic and mysteriously ended up shrinking down to nothing.
3) Grabbed hold of my balls finally and went into the house before my female cousin. Found the old lady's cat and brought it home with me. Because of a claws clause in the old lady's will, since the cat accepted me as its new master I become the owner of the Chimney Rock mansion! (Notice how it went from a rotten old haunted house to a mansion? It's all in the eye of the beholder!)
4) Made it down into a wine cellar type place and then me and my cousin got buried alive. My 2nd least favorite way to die in real life. (First is having my face eaten off by a bat.)
5) Snuck upstairs and apparently gave the old lady a heart attack that killed her. The policeman on the scene essentially said, "Oh you kids" and lets us go free.
6) The disgusting caretaker let me into the house. I chased after the cat, found the maid and old lady, and end up giving her another deadly heart attack. Old people suck at life. ...more
Struck with a touch of insomnia (I'm finally building my deck tomorrow and oddly it feels like Christmas!) I thought, what better time to read the claStruck with a touch of insomnia (I'm finally building my deck tomorrow and oddly it feels like Christmas!) I thought, what better time to read the classic first volume of the Choose Your Own Adventure series?
In The Cave of Time you are a kid, apparently with no name, on a hike. You come upon a cave you've never seen before. You venture inside and when you emerge shortly after it is a completely different time, and thus begins the adventure.
The pictures, by stalwart CYOA illustrator Paul Granger, made this one out as if it were going to be exciting. There's a medieval knight, the Great Wall of China, castles, a swamp monster, and in my travels I never came across one of these. I spent most of my time choosing either the left or the right tunnel, and somehow intuitively knowing all the while which one of those lead to the past and which to the future. Go figure. Anyway, here are the outcomes of the adventures I went on last night...
1) Went back to an Ice Age, met some cave people, migrated south and lived out my life with them.
2) Fell down a crevasse, met an old man who complained about being a do-nothing philosopher. Boo-hoo.
3) Left the cave and found the sun burning up the Earth, went back to the cave and ended up at a tropical island populated by friendly, grass-skirted natives, hung with them a while and then tried to get back to the cave, but got strangled to death by a boa constrictor.
4) Jumped a train, found it was carrying Abe Lincoln, chilled with him while he wrote the Gettysburg address....more
Lose Your Own Adventure? That's right! There's no winning this perfect parody and honest homage to the Choose Your Own Adventure franchise, and yeLose Your Own Adventure? That's right! There's no winning this perfect parody and honest homage to the Choose Your Own Adventure franchise, and yet, losing has never been so much fun!
Though Who Killed John F. Kennedy? has all the cynicism of a Despair.com product and the humor (pop culture references pop up like little joy nuggets) has a modern sensibility in which the absurdity of life abounds, the narrative style is a screeching home-run shot into the centerfield bleachers of those classic CYOAs penned by their creator Edward Packard and his posse of fellow writers.
A superb effort (and apparently a good deal of money) was poured into a book full of great illustrations drawn just like the old CYOAs. I particularly love that the illustrator took on the pseudonym "Paul Stranger" (so many of the original CYOAs were illustrated by Paul Granger) so as not to end up on CIA, Mafia, Freemason or NASA hit lists.
Yes, it's clear they did their research, but not only of Packard's baby, but also of the JFK assassination. Because I came to this as a reader with more of an interest in the book's nostalgic value rather than its potential enlightening qualities on a historic tragedy (come on, is anyone expecting to unearth new JFK assassination facts here?) I was quite surprised at how carefully interwoven were the true-life details. Perhaps the book would've been just as successful without all the minute details, but with them it lifts Who Killed John F. Kennedy? to a whole other level of excellence.
The following are four of the adventures I went on in the role of a teen boy detective. If you believe you may one day read this, and I highly suggest you do, perhaps you may not want to continue reading this review, for here be Spoilers...
1) I followed after Dr. Nera Vivalzi (a nod to one of Packard's recurring characters), because ...well... va-va-va-voOOM! In my efforts to steal evidence I got Vivalzi killed by a cop with mob ties.
2) Went in to interrogate Oswald. Investigated and attempted to unveil former contact FBI had with Oswald, but Hoover smeared me as a nancy-boy, so I got beat up at school, which put me in traction for a year.
3) Sat in on the line-up farce where witness-to-an-officer's-shooting-death, Mrs. Markham, is coerced into picking Oswald. Had doubts about staying on the case. Wet my bed. Took the bullet shot by Jack Ruby meant for Oswald and died. Frankly, this might be the best possible ending this book has to offer, so yay me!
4) Followed after Dr. Nera Vivalzi, because ...well... ah-oOO-GAH!!! I jumped into her car and she asked that I wear a blindfold, but I refused (what was I thinking?!). Instead, I team up with that smart-aleck kid detective nemesis of mine, Jenni Mudd. We check out the book depository. Then in an unexpected twist I make it to first base with Jenni, only to discover she's doing it to protect the FBI. I'm kidnapped and given a lobotomy.
"NERD!!!"...There. Now that we've got that out of the way, allow me to continue...
I bought this Dungeons & Dragons style game book years ago in a shop"NERD!!!"...There. Now that we've got that out of the way, allow me to continue...
I bought this Dungeons & Dragons style game book years ago in a shop on (or maybe just off) the high street in St. Albans while on honeymoon in England. And to answer the obvious question that follows...yes, my wife is an unusually understanding woman.
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is apparently a classic of the fantasy adventure gamebook sort. *shrugs* What did I know? When I picked it up I thought it was one of those old-school Choose Your Own Adventure kind of books. Alas no. This lays out a "dungeon crawl" (ancient gaming style in which adventurers enter a maze-like setting often underground in a tomb or highly fictionalized castle dungeon) in which the adventurer (created by you) journeys through in an attempt to pick up treasure and not get killed by monsters and traps.
With the physical book, you're suppose to write shit down, like maps, and keep track of "hit points" or items found in the dungeon, which I honestly wasn't interested in doing, so I only flipped through the book, read a few passages and never played it.
Fast-forward seven years to a technologically wondrous time known as the 2010s and low-and-behold what should I find but The Warlock of Firetop Mountain as a free ebook, an ebook which kept track of all the extraneous crap for you! "Wow," I think I might have shouted in my head as I moved on to more enriching reading material. Ah but it stuck in my craw, so I ended up getting it a few days later for my Kindle and finally played/read the damn thing.
The adventure is contrived to the extreme! Sure it's fun enough to tramp through the dungeon hoping you make the right choices as you come up against goblins and ghouls, but if you step back and think about it a moment, the whole premise is ridiculous, even for fantasy standards! Why would a super powerful and highly intelligent warlock create an incredibly convoluted, deadly maze and sit in it all day, everyday just waiting for some fool to stumble into it and die? Anyone in solitary confinement all that time would welcome visitors!
There's a number of other nonsensical encounters seemingly thrown into the game in order to add color to the story, like an old man calmly sitting in a rocking chair in a room set up like a cluttered cottage which is surrounded by deviously trapped rooms, orcs up the wazoo, a minotaur's labyrinth, deadly sandworms that pop out of the banks of a highly impassable Styx-like river, etc etc etc. How is the poor old man suppose to get his shopping done stuck in the middle of all this dangerous danger?!
As implausible as it all is, it's what fantasy is all about: fantasy. Suspend belief and enjoy the adventure!
PIX APPENDIX!
Not all fantasy artwork is created equal. Some of it sucks ass. The illustrations in this one are actually pretty good. Check it out...
My first ever Choose Your Own Adventure book. I was so excited to get Space and Beyond and to learn about the existence of these strange tales that yoMy first ever Choose Your Own Adventure book. I was so excited to get Space and Beyond and to learn about the existence of these strange tales that you could control as the reader...so excited in fact that my review/rating is completely biased and should be taken with a HUGEMONGOUS grain of salt.
No offense to Montgomery, but this ain't Shakespeare. It is however good, light-hearted fun. And honestly, for kids, Space and Beyond delves into some relatively heady stuff, such as contemplation of the beginning and end of the universe.
In this book you play a lantern-jawed hero (who could moonlight as an Elvis impersonator) born on a spaceship traveling so fast that it only takes three days and two hours to age 18 Earth years. So with a little over three days worth of accumulated wisdom and training time you set off to establish your citizenship on either your mother or your father's home planet. It's YOUR choice! <--That last part is pretty exciting when you're a wee lad like I was when I first read this!
When I was a kid I remember feeling pretty darn smart for getting the main character out of more than a few tight fixes! Rereading it as prep for review, this time around the results were more of a mixed bag...
1) I got picked up enroute by the Lodzots, negotiated a peace and ended a 3000 year old war.
2) I got caught up in some swirling gas, picked up by amoeba-like people...er, persons...thing?...helped them/it to find a new planet, went on a life-form collecting mission, was caught by a politician and made to live out the rest of my life on Earth as a curiosity.
3) Stuck around to study hippie philosophy, then went way back in time, turned into a Protosaurus for some unexplained reason, got chased by a T-Rex and then hung out at the dawn of man.
4) Attended research school, went back 62 million years into Mars' past to explore alternatives to a revolt happening there at the time.
5) Flew directly into a black hole and was never heard from again. ...more
Not what I normally go in for, but I did dig out some enjoyment from Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons, a sequel Dragons and wizards and rainbows! [image]
Not what I normally go in for, but I did dig out some enjoyment from Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons, a sequel of sorts in the Endless Quest series.
A few characters from Pillars of Pentegarn are onboard for another adventure. This time young Jaimie and his animal pals find themselves lost in a castle and must escape in time to save their good wizard friend from three underhanded wizard baddies.
I reread Revenge... in prep for this review and this is what happened in my Choose Your Own Adventure style reading fun!
Adventure #1 Given three choices of where to hang out in the castle while the wizards are battling, I chose "Limbo", not because it sounded appealing, but rather it was the first choice. Limbo in this book is depicted as a cloud landscape with some distant caves and a castle. I saved an ingrate child from the castle and, realizing this whole "hang out while we battle" thing is just a ruse to get us out of the way so the baddies could dispatch my friend, we head back towards the wizard battle. However, in one of the craftier choice conundrums posed in an Endless Quest book, I made a blunder that got us all killed.
Adventure #2 Tried Limbo again, wanting to check out those caves. Here be dragons! With little to no effort, the day is won with FABULOUS rainbow magic!
Adventure #3 Chose the tower this time and ended up battling spiders, 3-headed dogs and animated suits of armor. At one point there was an opportunity to die in an obvious and idiotic way, after which the author suggests you go back and pick a different path...Not start from the beginning again, mind you! Many of these books suggest at "The End" that you start all over, but not this one. The above mentioned scenario is the only time in this book that you get a do-over. It's like Estes feels bad for the shortbus kid: "Go on, Sport, give it another go. You can do it!"
Adventure #4 I wanted to try the tower again. This one ended with one of the most ridiculously obvious choices. Remember, you're trying to escape in order to get back and rescue your wizard friend from the wizard baddies. So, towards the end of this reading adventure, I found a library with a book containing three spells: Grow huge, become super wise, or "Rescue a Friend". Wow.
Adventure #5 In a desire to give every major pathway in this book a shot, I tried "The Game Room" next. Turns out it's a dungeon. I met an old man and played with his stones*. I obtained the key to the kingdom and I AM CHAMPION!!!
Adventure #6 That last ending was pretty kickass, but I thought I'd try the game room once more. I recalled an interesting choice I passed up the first time. This led me to some fungi, who weren't exactly fun guys.
Well, that was an enjoyable trot down memory lane! When I was but a young lad, I read and reread Revenge... and recalled being annoyed by it. Part of the problem is your animal friends, Owl and Fox, who provide too much goddamn comic relief. Too many goofy scenes that go for the cheap laugh. The other major issues is that the dragons hardly ever appear! They're in the title, they're on the cover, but they're barely in the book at all! There's essentially one dragon scenario. That's disappointing.
Otherwise, this isn't a bad little book in the Endless Quest series. The old characters, familiar from my childhood as well as from this being a sequel, gave me warm fuzzies. I'm actually surprised more sequels weren't written for this series. Most are just one-offs. Endless Quest, being a series by nature, really dropped the ball on not serializing their characters. And they might as well have, because usually you play the same kind of character, either an elf or a young androgynous human.
Overall, Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons provides good times, just not great times.
HACK! SLASH! Put on those stained sweats! Forget about showering! Grab this book and head to your mom's basement, because it's time for some D&D!
TSR HHACK! SLASH! Put on those stained sweats! Forget about showering! Grab this book and head to your mom's basement, because it's time for some D&D!
TSR Hobbies decided to create their own line of "Choose Your Own Adventure"-styled books in support of their shiny, new and very popular role playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Thus was born the Endless Quest books, one of my favorite series to read as a kid.
Fantasy writer Rose Estes got the nod to kick it all off.
Rose Estes [image] (I don't know what Rose Estes looks like, but a Google image search brings this up as one of the first pics, so I have to assume it's her.)
She began by modeling this first book, Dungeon of Dread to be as much like D&D as was practical. It certainly does feel like the start to a new D&D campaign. You begin with a novice, ill-equipped adventurer and dive right into a dungeon/cave/catacomb/etc.
In this book you play the role of an average joe human warrior. Before your first choice pops up, you are paired off with a halfling thief. A typical D&D party of adventurers would also include a wizard and priest. But hey, you can't always get what you want.
Now, I've read enough of these CYOA books to be aware of their quality. Meaning, I didn't expect this to be award-winning literature. However, this is poor-to-average writing at best:
"Well, halfling, can you give me one reason why I shouldn't feed you to the crows?" "Oh please don't do that," whines the halfling, "I'm just a poor hungry halfling named Laurus."
Shakespeare it ain't. And honestly, thank god, because I did not come here for the prose. I came for adventure! So let's get this party started! Hollah!!! (This is when "Turn Down For What" would kick in and I would get totally skanky on the dance floor....ugh, I've been to too many weddings.)
Adventure #1 I fought kobolds, a bugbear and ants (hey, they were pretty big ants). These are prototypical, entry level D&D campaign sword fodder. Not terribly exciting, but it's cool that they stayed so true to the game, considering how many other Endless Quest books would go right off the rails in this regard. So anyway, this one ended with me being abandoned by the halfling and violently beat to death by an enraged minotaur. This sucks. I saved that good for nothing halfling from some pretty terrifying ants and this is how he repays me? Okay buddy, I see how it is. NEXT!
Adventure #2 I followed the same path, but this time I didn't foolishly attack the minotaur. I then ran into a manic depressive, alcoholic baboon who commits suicide by throwing himself upon my sword. Heavy stuff, man. I encountered that watery snake thing seen on the book's cover in a fairly cool action scene. (I should also mention, nice illustrations through out the book by Larry Elmore and Jim Holloway!) I crushed a hill giant, which was rad. Then I fought the main baddie, an evil wizard, and I won his treasure!
This is probably the best possible finish in this book, but I'll continue on to see what other adventures Dungeon of Dread has to offer.
Adventure #3 I fell down a hole and had encounters with orcs and goblins. I got stabbed once. Game Over. Wow, this book really is sticking to the basics of what it's like to play D&D from the ground level!...sometimes it sucked.
Adventure #4 I bested a dumb ogre and stole his treasure!
Adventure #5 Took a completely different path to the evil wizard, but with the same result...VICTORY!!!
To sum up, this was a good start to the series. If you never played D&D and want to get a taste of what it was like, read this book...for an entire weekend without bathing, very little sleep, with nothing more nutritious to eat than Doritos and Mountain Dew, while surrounded by a bunch of smelly, spotty, awkward teen boys....more
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