A quick glossary of terms around gamebooks.
Glossary of Terms for Gamebooks
A first go at a list of terms common to gamebooks.
- CYOA - short for Choose Your Own Adventure, a series of interactive fiction books without any mechanics.
- Diceless - A type of gamebook that doesn't use dice or any other randomiser. Examples include Heart of Ice by Dave Morris and Nightshift by Victoria Hancox.
- Fighting Fantasy. The series that started in 1982 with Warlock of Firetop Mountain (by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson - UK) and brought gamebooks to the fore.
- Open-World Gamebooks. Also known as open-worlders. Series of gamebooks where you can go from one book to another and back again. Often use Tickboxes, Keywords and other mechanics to keep track of game and world state. Existing series include Fabled Lands, Legendary Kingdoms, Steam Highwayman and VulcanVerse.
- Steve Jackson (UK) Co-founder of Fighting Fantasy (and Games Workshop), author of several Fighting Fantasy books including the Sorcery series, House of Hell, Citadel of Chaos and Creature of Havoc
- Steve Jackson (US) - Founder of Steve Jackson games, author of Fighting Fantasy books Scorpion Swamp, Demons of the Deep and Robot Commando.
- Tickbox / Checkbox - A box associated with a passage as a way to record if an event has occured, an action taken or a resource used up
Finishing Up
Ok that's the first quick first draft.
I'll get some feedback and add more!
