Episode 51: Choose Your Own Adventure Books

Take two! We first recorded this episode ages ago, but Tom managed to not record it properly, whoops. So here we finally are!

With some tequila and more beer than usual, this may be the drunkest we’ve ever been, which will make for some adventurous storytelling…

Tom takes Morgan through a history of gamebooks, COYA, Find Your Fate and more, and we also test out three books based on past episodes: ReBoot, Thundercats and James Bond.

Expect plenty of pageturning, regretful alcohol consumption and awful Snarf impressions…

Patreon thank-yous go out to: Sam McCathie, Rob Horrocks and Oli Jeffery.

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In case you weren’t aware, gamebooks are printed fiction that sees the reader getting involved in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, usually through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages.

Gamebooks are sometimes called ‘choose your own adventure books’ or ‘CYOA’ after the influential Choose Your Own Adventure series originally published by US company Bantam Books.

Gamebooks could be said to have inspired modern day storytelling techniques, such as interactive films (like Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch) or choice-based video games (like Cyberpunk 2077 or Heavy Rain).