Since there is always a possibility that you have just appeared on this web-site coincidentally and you don’t know, why you are here and what is it all about, I’ll try to explain what gamebooks are and how you should use them. After that, it’s up to you, if you will decide to read or download one of the freeware gamebooks and try it by yourself.

Gamebook is not an ordinary book. Gamebooks are sometimes known as choose-your-own adventures. You start reading them as you would an ordinary book, but at the end of each section you are given options and choices. You must jump from section to section depending on the choices you make. Your decisions will influence the course of the adventure and determine the destiny of the hero you are going to play for.

Prior to commencing the adventure, you should carefully read the rules that govern the gamebook. Although the rules are similar, more or less based on the principles used in the role-playing games like Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, almost every gamebook has it’s own slightly different unique rules you should be aware of. The rules describe how to fight your enemies, perform searches or use some special ability your hero may posses. Most of the time you also need a six-sided o ten-sided dice that introduces an element of luck and random nature of the world.

You have to keep track of all items and stats of your character, draw maps on a piece of paper, solve clues and fight malicious enemies and monsters you encounter during your quest. Several on-line gamebooks are accessible at the internet, but most of them are true paper-based books. However, it is one thing to write choices into a book, but quite another to do so in a well-written, truly imaginative manner. A well-written gamebooks is a true piece of art. Perhaps one of the best and the most famous gamebook series are the adventures of Lone Wolf in the world of Magnamund, written by Joe Dever.

When I was young and bought my first gamebook, I was really lucky. Merely, the consequence of lucky happenings ironed my destiny to the word gamebook and eventually led to the development of this web-site.

Not long after the revolution against communism in Czechoslovakia, the fantasy and sci-fi literature swarmed the walls of the newly opened markets. And behold, I've bought my first book and it was the Lord of the Rings! Soon, many other fine novels, such as Conan from Robert E. Howard or The Riftwar Saga from Raymond E. Feist followed. Short after, playing the Dragon's Lair, an RPG (Role-Playing Game) similar to the famous and widespread game Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D), has swallowed me up. And a year or two after a lightning stroke me as the first fantasy gamebook was published. And behold again, it was the Flight from the Dark, the first of the worldwide known gamebook series of Lone Wolf's adventures, written by Joe Dever and illustrated by Gary Chalk. So beautiful world and magnificent hero, the perfect logic of the rules and such epic story made me an immediate addict. Soon I found myself buying another and another one and eagerly awaiting every new issue of Lone Wolf's adventures.