Gamebook Glossary of Terms

A quick glossary of terms around gamebooks.

Glossary of Terms for Gamebooks

A first go at a list of terms common to gamebooks.

• Adventure Sheet - A character sheet or other record of your character(s) in the gamebook. Many gamebooks include one to help play them.
• 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.
• Good /Bad Ending. The last passage on your adventure. A good ending is one your character would be happy with (defeat the villain, retire to look after the bees) and a bad ending is not (died, imprisoned, failed to open the first door)
• Instadeath. An arbitrary death of your character from choosing an option in the gamebook. Sometimes these are telegraphed but sometimes they come from nowhere (you opened the door on the right, you talk to the person sat on the throne).
• 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.
• Path - The series of choices that take you to a particular ending or place in the gamebook.
• 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

Terms to Add

• Branching Narrative

Finishing Up

Ok that's the first quick first draft.

I'll get some feedback and add more!