Into the Dungeon: A Choose-Your-Own-Path Book

I will openly admit that I am a narrative adventure nerd. Tabletop RPGS, MMORPGs, JRPGs... you name it and I'm diving in. I love going on adventures. Growing up, however, I had no idea choose your own adventure novels existed. By the time I learned I could raid my older brother's bookshelves, he was past the “targeted age” for those books. So, I missed out.

Until recently. I found “Into the Dungeon” when I was looking for more not-specifically-made-for-kids choose your own adventures. As usual, Jeff Bezos's well-oiled machine found me, smacked me in the face with it, and gave me a nice little discount to give him my paycheck. Which I, of course, did.

This book absolutely did not disappoint. Unlike the Wizards of the Coast D&D based adventures, this one you get character sheets. You lose HP. You pick up weird little trinkets that come in handy in the oddest ways. You discover secrets that you die attempting to solve. You could get invited to a dinner party or you could get out and float on a river.

It is so well written. Conner did such a great job of writing things so that the adventure feels authentic no matter what path you have taken to get there. There aren't weird holes or stutters like “you brandish your sword” when... you never had a sword or you gave your sword away three steps ago.

If you are looking for a COYA, pick it up. It is fantastic.

I did actually read mine on my Kindle Paperwhite. Being able to click and go directly to where I wanted to go was amazing. Some of the pathways didn't work so well to get set-up (like going to look at character sheets and then trying to get back to where you were to continue the set-up process) but you can't fault that.