The War-Torn Kingdom

Can't say I enjoyed reading it. Playing it, yes, but reading it? This gamebook is more game than book, as it doesn't have an ending. I guess some people might like its open-ended nature, but I didn't. I found it repetitive and I found myself “cheating” some rolls, just so my character is not reset to an empty inventory and having to start over. Or just repeating something until I got the results that sent me off to a particular paragraph. I found myself playing this book as if I was playing an old school computer game - saving, loading, and trying again. And then I realise I'd rather play an actual game instead of “turning the paragraph” to book 2.

I can remember reading/playing this gamebook back when I was in middle school. I was poking around at OSR blogs on Blogspot and found Fabled Lands and it came right back to me. The rolling of the dice, the decisions, the weird places and people. This was almost exactly as I remembered it being and it was great.

I do think the book was a little short, but I could certainly play it several times through and lean in one direction or another. Also, I'm planning on picking up the other books in the series so I can continue my character's adventures elsewhere.