Choose your own adventure ~ Be the hero of someone else's story.

How many of you have read a book and imagined yourself in the role as the main protagonist? I’m guessing everyone, well everyone with an imagination at least. Imagine my delight back in my early years of reading when I first discovered the joys of the “choose your own adventure” books, it was probably similar to how a hormonal teenager feels when first discovering free porn online. They were a revelation, a chance for you to really be a hero, without ever leaving the comfort of your own room.

There were quite a few series’ of choose your own adventure, but me being the fantasy geek naturally gravitated towards the fighting fantasy stories written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone (the founders of Games Workshop). I had a lot of fun with those books back in the day, and they are one of the reasons I took an interest in writing. So if I ever get published you’ll know who to vent your anger at.

The basic premise of choose your own adventure was simple. You start the book as you normally would and read a couple of pages. Then it would get interesting. A scene would end and you’d be presented with a list of choices. Usually it would go something like this:

The evil goblins have decapitated your best friend. Do you...

• Hunt the goblins down? ~ Turn to page 56.
• Try to stitch his head back on? ~ Turn to page 100.
• Shrug and go for a pint? ~ Turn to page 20.

Each choice you made had varying consequences, you could end the story rather quickly and boringly, come to a grisly end by being eaten by something nasty or save the day and become a true hero (in your mind of course). I have to admit, every time I met a grisly end I would skip back a few choices and try again, guess I didn’t like dying, even if it was on paper.

It’s a shame you don’t see these books around anymore, there is still definitely a niche in the market for them. I could quite easily imagine a Twilight choose your own adventure, where you had the opportunity to behead Edward Cullen (fake apologies to all Twilight fans here…).

Anyways there’s my little piece of nostalgia about a once big thing in my life. Look out for these books, then maybe you too can choose your own adventure and have some unforeseen fun.