'Choose Your Own Adventure' Returns As a Board Game

A classic childhood series of books is making an unexpected return as a board game.ICv2 reports [...]

A classic childhood series of books is making an unexpected return as a board game.

ICv2 reports that Z-Man Games has licensed the Choose Your Own Adventure book series and is releasing a board game based on the classic House of Danger story. The new game is a "collaborative storytelling puzzle game" designed by Prospero Hall, the maker of the Hogwarts Battle game and a Bob Ross board game.

Choose Your Own Adventure was a popular series of books originally created by Edward Packard. Each book was a cross between a novel and a game, in which readers "participated" in fantasy or sci-fi adventures by making one of two choices. Some choices led to disastrous consequences, but others led to more ambiguous, or even occasionally happy endings.

Choose Your Own Adventure books helped millions of kids become interested in reading and remain a popular staple in libraries. The books also helped lead to the rise of tabletop RPGS, in which players also become part of the game, and are seen to a forerunner to popular video game franchises like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, or the various Telltale games in which choices made by the player impact the storyline of the game and which ending players will experience.

While the early Choose Your Own Adventure books were published by Bantam Books, the rights to the series eventually made their way back to R. A. Montgomery, who published Packard's predecessor to Choose Your Own Adventure and wrote several early books in the series. Montgomery re-started the series in 2006, publishing both classic stories and new entries in the series.

House of Danger was one of Choose Your Own Adventures' bestselling series, a book written by Montgomery in which readers assume the role of a detective investigating a foreboding plea for help from a mysterious house. Depending on the choices readers make, readers will find holographic monkey guards, time travel, a ring of counterfeiters, and even killer aliens. Like all of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, it's quite intense at times and could make for a fantastic game.

Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger will cost $24.99 and will come out this summer.

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