The History of Gamebooks
The first gamebook was likely Buffalo Castle from 1976, created by Rick Loomis, co-author of one of the oldest role-playing games, Caves & Trolls. It was a primitive story set in ancient ruins where the hero's goal was to slay as many monsters as possible and collect the biggest treasure. The adventure was very short, consisting of approximately 150 entries.
Gamebooks only became truly popular thanks to the Fighting Fantasy series, which began in 1982 with the tagline "Choose your own adventure". This cycle consists of about sixty books. The first, titled The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (in Czech Čaroděj z Ohňové hory), was soon followed by others. The series was authored by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The books do not share a single setting; some offer classic sword and sorcery adventures, while others frequently feature urban fantasy (stories set in imaginary cities) or science fiction.
Another famous series is the collection of gamebooks by Joe Dever, which tells the story of Lone Wolf, the last surviving knight of the Kai Order. Joe Dever utilizes his own fantasy world, Magnamund (each book includes a map section for easier orientation), and works with skilled illustrators to present complex, interconnected adventures that track the protagonist's development. The game even allows for partial character customization through skill selection and offers a simple combat system. The Lone Wolf series has been published since 1984 (in the Czech Republic since 1992, and by Mytago since 2011), translated into thirty languages, and has sold approximately nine million copies worldwide. In 1998, the author allowed all books to be published online, where all stories can now be played in a linked format. Dever's series was the first of its kind to utilize a serialized approach, featuring a single protagonist who evolves over time.
The first Czech gamebook is often considered to be the now practically unavailable pre-revolutionary publication titled Na rozkaz krále. The first officially published Czech gamebook is Ve službách krále Reginalda by Michael Bronec from 1993. The protagonist finds themselves in an old castle, facing the traps set by its inhabitants. The game contains 875 short text entries and features relatively complex rules for evaluating combat and random events, reflecting the author's passion for board games.
Other notable original Czech works include Zlodhův hrad by the author duo Libor Pavel and Libor Kejklíček. It is a less successful concept, offering a poorly branched structure and an unfortunate arrangement of scenes that allow for backtracking into previously visited parts of the story. An interesting curiosity is the parody gamebook by Vladimír Chvátil, O Norikovi.