Gamebook
Printed fiction where reader choices shape the narrative.
A gamebook is a printed work of fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices, with the narrative branching along various paths through numbered paragraphs or pages. This format, sometimes called choose your own adventure or pick-a-path, influenced hypertext fiction. Production of new gamebooks in the West decreased during the 1990s as choice-based stories moved to digital platforms, though the format may be experiencing a resurgence on mobile and ebook platforms.
Quick Facts
- Originator of format
- Choose Your Own Adventure series
- Original publisher
- Bantam Books
Facts from the source article.
Description
Gamebooks vary widely in complexity. At one end are branching-plot novels, sometimes called American style, which require choices but otherwise read like regular novels; this style is exemplified by Choose Your Own Adventure. At the other end are solitaire RPG adventures or adventure gamebooks that emulate tabletop RPGs with rules for combat and obstacles, where outcomes may depend on dice rolls, random paragraph numbers, equipment, or statistics like health points. The story is presented as numbered sections of text, often a paragraph or two in adventure gamebooks but several pages in branching-plot novels. These sections are not read in order; at the end of each, the reader chooses a branch and follows a reference to the next section. The narrative continues until a section ends that branch. Many solitaire gamebooks have a single successful ending, making the book a puzzle, while branching-plot novels often have multiple equally successful endings focused on narrative resolution. Gamebooks are typically written in second person, with the reader assuming a character's role. Many form series with a common theme or ruleset, though each book is usually a stand-alone narrative; some series, like Steve Jackson's Sorcery!, continue a narrative across books.
History
Early works with branching narratives include the 1930 novel Consider the Consequences! by Doris Webster and Mary Alden Hopkins, which offered a dozen or more endings. The 1936 play Night of January 16th by Ayn Rand allowed audience members to serve as jury and influence the ending. Jorge Luis Borges explored branching stories in his 1941 short stories 'An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain' and 'The Garden of Forking Paths', the latter describing a book with a maze-like narrative. The children's book Treasure Hunt (1945) by Alan George is another early example. Programmed learning materials from the TutorText series of interactive textbooks (late 1950s to early 1970s) presented problems with multiple-choice answers, giving feedback for incorrect answers; this educational technique later influenced narrative gamebook series.
Types
Gamebooks were predominantly seen as children's entertainment, but some served didactic purposes, such as historical series like Time Machine or religious series like Making Choices. A few branching-path books targeted adults, including business simulations and erotica. One early example is the five-volume Barcelona, Maxima Discrecion series from the 1980s, adapting noir fiction in Catalan and Spanish. Heather McElhatton published the bestselling adult gamebook Pretty Little Mistakes in 2007, followed by Million Little Mistakes in 2010. Contemporary literary novels using the format include Kim Newman's Life's Lottery (1999) and Nicholas Bourbaki's If (2014). In 2011, McGraw-Hill Education released adapted Choose Your Own Adventure titles as graded readers for ESL learners, finding the choice format popular for motivating students and targeting critical thinking. Erotic gamebooks have been published by major houses, including Derrière la porte by Alina Reyes (1994) and Kathryn in the City by Mary Anne Mohanraj (2003).
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