Way back in the mid-90s my roommate and I bought a couple of these novels. If I remember correctly, at the beginning of the of the book you could equip yourself with, say, 5 items. You also needed to have paper, pencil, and maybe, a couple of die with you. As you went through the story, you rolled whichever die was called for and the results plus your equipment determined which page you went to next. Or something like that…
There was more than one series like that I think. You are likely thinking of the Lone Wolf series though.
Or else Fighting Fantasy.
There was a series of books about the world of “Lone Wolf” or something like that. Some were apparently regular fantasy novels, while some were the “choose your adventure” type. I had one of those, I believe it was called “Grey Star the Wizard”, where you were apparently a young wizard sent to liberate your ancestral homeland, and at the beginning of the book, you have to select spell areas that you supposedly had concentrated in during your studies. Random number selection didn’t directly thrust you to different pages, but you had to “roll” (though there was a virtual number selector inside that involved you touching a random area of the page with your eyes closed) for certain outcomes. There was D&D style combat, with equipment bonuses and a final roll.
the girl always betrays you
My school, Iowa State University, uses the slogan “Choose Your Adventure” in their recruiting campaign.
As a sci/tech/eng oriented school, ISU is geek-intensive, so they might easily have gotten the idea from a novel or game.
I don’t remember Lone Wolf requiring dice, and I do remember the random number table in the back. Was that an optional rule?
The plot was something like that you were a member of a group of warrior monks who were all slaughtered except for you. I remember the picking from 5 or so objects that would help you, and associating them with weapons skills.
By “Random number selection didn’t directly thrust you to different pages”, I mean that you didn’t, say, see a note that said “Roll two dice. Add the number you get to 55, and go to that page.”, but it could say something like "Combat with: <enemy>. <enemy’s stats>. If you win, go to page 53. If you lose, go to page 124.
You were allowed free choices in some cases, such as deciding what direction to turn or whether or not to speak to someone.
Yeah, the Lone Wolf series had no dice.
But there are plenty of other series of that type out there… If only I could remember what they were called…
Yes, Lone Wolf is what I was thinking of. I forgot about the page with the random numbers.
Thanks ya’ll!
Except for the specificity of the 5 items, that would describe most CYOA books. Any idea of the plot?
The genre as a whole are called gamebooks, which includes Choose Your Own Adventure, Lone Wolf, Fighting Fantasy, and several other series. (Including a D&D series.)
Most of the Lone Wolf books have been released for publication on the internet at http://www.projectaon.org/ . Some fans have also produced computer aids for playing them.
gasp
Eeeeeeeeeeeeee! happy dance Eeeeeeeeeeee!
As an awkward and unpopular pre-teen/teenager without the luxury of fellow geeks to play D&D with, these books were my whole life. You don’t even know.
The only brand of these that I remember involving dice were the Rolemaster-tie-ins that a friend of mine played, and those I think actually had a chart in the back where you were supposed to randomly poke your pencil to get the result, but being an actual gamer, my friend just used his d10s.
Fighting Fantasy was my first thought. Awesome books. I think I had the first 12, #10 being my favorite (House of Hell).
There’s another series like this called Grailquest.
Nothing to add except that I used to love those books.
I don’t seem to see them in the shops anymore.
delurk Oh, hey, it’s bright out here…
It’s a bit tough to find the user pages on Aon. Here’s a direct link to one of the playing software pages:
http://www.projectaon.org/staff/david/
There’s others too, but I think Seventh Sense is the most advanced right now.
If you’re interested in physical Lone Wolf books, the author of the series, Joe Dever, regularly sells signed copies of the special edition hardcovers on eBay. He sells directly as well, but I’d rather not post an email address that’s not mine out here. I’m sure you could contact him through eBay. I was added to his mailing list after picking up a few of the auctions. (Or send me a private message… I lurk daily.)
http://shop.ebay.com/joe8235/m.html?_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1
Hopefully that link is okay to post here. Just sharing a source for a favorite piece of childhood nostalgia. 
I remember Fighting Fantasy (trivia: Steve Jackson of Fighting Fantasy fame is NOT the same Steve Jackson as the US Steve Jackson Games (of Munchkin and GURPS fame(1)), but the US Steve Jackson DID write a gamebook for Fighting Fantasy line. I think it was the one with the mecha fighting dinosaurs(2)) and Grailquest, and also another gamebook series involving some ninja dude and a martial arts theme, which I never found the last book of, which still kinda annoys me because the next-to-last book ends on a total cliffhanger.
(1) for very small values of fame
(2) yes indeed. It was the greatest thing in history.
The ninja one was apparently The Way of the Tiger, and apparently DID end on a total cliffhanger, and no sequel has been published.