While I count Steve Jackson’s Sorcery series as probably the best adventure gamebook series I’ve played and Dave Morris’ Eye of the Dragon my favorite (those Russ Nicholson illustrations!), the series I spent the most time with as a kid was GrailQuest. This is the first one, The Castle of Darkness (1984 for the UK, 1986 for the US edition).

The setup is that upon opening the book, Merlin cast a spell that brings your consciousness into the body of Pip, a lad living during the Arthurian era. With his trusty talking sword, Excalibur Jr., you, Pip and Merlin’s narration go off to save the kingdom. In the first book, that means rescuing Queen Guinevere from the evil wizard Ansalom.

Couple key things. First, these books are chill. The rules get explained along the way and, uh, they kind of encourage cheating. Or at least they go easy on you. For instance, if you die, you start over and everything you already killed is still dead. Second, they’re intentionally funny. There are a number of running gags throughout the series. My favorite is probably the fairly helpful vampire who is a terrible poet. Third, they are less focused on fighting and more on cleverness — there are lots of hidden doors and the games encourage keyed mapping to allow for backtracking (useful, since like Lone Wolf, you can bring items into the next book).

Arthurian Legend Apocrypha

Having some fun with the less "canon" Arthurian Legends.  Heck if I know what to give "power levels" for these characters.  Would appreciate much help.

The following are considered "honorary" Knights of the Round Table; most like Alternate Universe versions, like Proto Arthur.

Prince Valiant (Princess Valiance)

Saber Class

Origin: Newspaper Comics - Hal Foster

Exiled as a girl from her native land of Thule, Prince Valiant grew up in the vast fens of fifth century Britain before discovering her calling and destiny as a knight of King Arthur’s storied Round Table.  Wields the Singing Sword, sister to Excalibur.

Nasu-ification:  Genderswap:  Princess Valiance comes from a timeline where court of King Arthur did not fall; which makes things awkward to the more guilt-ridden of the knights.  May have inherited the throne of Camelot after her timeline Mordred was defeated.

Relations with other Servants:  Gets along best with Sir Tristam and Sir Gawain.   Val is well known as a "neutral" party; she doesn't take sides with any disputes in the Round Table itself.  Mordred is very jealous because she perceives Valiance as a "rival" to Altria's affections and as a rival to being the heir of the throne.  Archer Gilgamesh will occasinally make snide comments about copies.

Noble Phantasm: The Singing Sword - Sonic Attack with the chance of charming, regardless of male or female.

Jason Blood (Etrigan) Berserker Class Origin: DC Comics

Description:  A knight of the Round Table; he feels he failed Camelot (Which makes him fit in just fine.).  Merlin bound him to the Demon Etrigan as a means of controlling the demon; and as a means of penance for Jason.

Nasu-ification:  Jason Blood was Merlin's first attempt to counter Solomon.  Creating his own Demon Pillar, he bound a mass of spirits to the knight.

Skills:

Mad Exhancement -  Rhyming Demon.   Etrigan will bellow everything he says in rhymes.  Similar to Spartacus's use of metaphors; sometimes nonsensical.  It can be very difficult to understand what he is saying.

Noble Phantasm -   "Gone Form Of Man".  Jason can fight as a lesser Saber; but by chanting Merlin's rhyme; becomes Etrigan.  

Relations with other Servants: He sympathizes with Berserker Lancelot.  He and Mordred find each other frustrating; Mordred annoyed at his cynicism; Jason dislikes Mordred's lack of remorse.  Mephistopheles is constantly sucking up to his fellow "Demon" and tries to "tempt" Jason to becoming Etrigan more often.  Both Jason and Etrigan find this wearying.

Pip Master of None Class (no pluses, no minuses, to anything.) Origin: Grailquest by JH Brennan

Pip is a "farmboy / farmgirl" who operated as a backup knight by Merlin, powered by the "Net Spell", combining the minds of all readers of the "Grailquest" books into a single gestalt. They are armed with "Excalibur Jr." an attempt by Merlin to copy the sword.  It didn't quite work, but it's a decent magic sword; with the ability to talk.  (Which it does, too much.)

Nasu-ification:  Pip is a homunculus created by Merlin in order to perform "wetwork" against enemies of Arthur's court that it would be too costly to engage directly.  Because typically, homunculi tend to go crazy (or expect pesky things like equal rights); Merlin came up with a solution of using a network of minds from the ether, to be sent home when their task is finished.   Becoming a Servant was just treated by Pip as just more of the same.

Skills:

Luck Stone -  A+ Luck due to a blessing from The Lady of the Lake herself.

The Dreaded 14 -   Battle Continuation, 3 times

Relations with other Servants:  

The other knights don't quite know how to deal with Pip; sometimes placing them in the same category as Mysterious Heroine X and X Alter.  Pip themselves get along with everyone; having encountered nearly every genre known to man; and has in fact met many of the Greek Heroes personally.

Pip is of indeterminate gender; they are male and female and neither.  This is not "sexy" or "overwhelmingly cute" like Astolfo or D'eon; but this doesn't stop some from trying to "pretty them up."   These efforts are doomed to being "funny."  Excalibur Jr will get into arguments with Gilgamesh.

Noble Phantasm: Master of None: Can randomly become a different Class in one fight; for good or bad.  

Hazel Archer Class Origin: Sword in the Stone by Disney, 4chan.

Hazel was a squirrel that met Saber Lily when Merlin was teaching her valuable life lessons through transformations.  Through a fluke magical accident, became human when Merlin was changing himself and Altria back.   He's VERY loyal to Altria, and as a result; a VERY DIFFERENT timeline occured; where Altria and Guienevere never married.  Details on this timeline are difficult to get; as Hazel is disinterested in anything that isn't Saber Lily.  Is incredibly innocent; has a loose concept of clothing or personal space. (But it's never creepy)

Nasu-ification: Genderswap. Hazel looks exactly like a young Emiya Shirou; due to Quantum Memetics; similar to how Nero looks exactly like Altria.  (Nero argues it is the other way around.)

Skills: Rescued from Fate - a buff that Hazel can give to Saber Lily's Caliburn; the sword having never rejected Altria in Hazel's timeline; making it temporarily greater than Excalibur.  Both Hazel and Lily Saber must be present for this buff.

Nut Avalanche -  AOE.

Voyage of Terror (1985 UK, 1987 US) has a great conceit. Like the others, it has Merlin summoning your consciousness to guide Pip in an adventure to once again save Camelot, this time by retrieving Arthur’s lost Excalibur. Except, THAT adventure is the next book. In this book, the spell goes wrong, stranding you on a boat full of Argonauts in ancient Greece. Despite my love of Arthurian legend, and warm feeling for the series as a whole, this un-Arthurian side quest is probably my favorite part.

Kingdom of Horror is the adventure you meant to go on in the previous book before Merlin’s spell got messed up. You were supposed to find Excalibur and help defeat an invading Saxon army. While you were in Greece, Arthur took care of the Saxons, but he’s still missing his sword. Without it, his kingdom is in chaos.

As much as I love the clever set-up, this is not the best book in the series by far. It’s too hard, too arbitrary. Pretty much everything you do has a pretty good chance of killing you. The humor in this one feels forced and doesn’t do nearly enough to offset the grimness of the proceedings. Can’t win them all, I guess.

After the valley that was the last book, The Gateway of Doom (1984 UK, 1987 US) is a nice mountain to climb. Same team — J.H. Brennan writing, John Higgins illustrating, Les Edwards on the cover.

This book is sort of a culmination of an ongoing joke. In the previous books, you encounter the dreaded Black Knight, only to find that it is the doofy King Pellinore in dark colored armor. This time, though, no such luck. The real Black Knight has opened a Gate that is threatening the kingdom and you have to stop him and close it. I love both designs for the villain, honestly. Big Warduke energy.

This one is a bit more challenging, I think. The combat (not the series’ strong suit) is a touch harder, there are a few less healing items around and the puzzles are a stitch more…well, puzzling. I definitely did not get the optimal path on my re-read and there are a lot of items and secrets I missed, which is pretty good considering I am old, aware of how little time I have left and have no qualms about cheating because of it. It’s still a good deal easier than, say, Steve Jackson’s Sorcery, but it is nice to have the series get a little tooth, you know?

Where to start with Steve Jackson’s Sorcery series? At their most basic, they are close cousins to the Fighting Fantasy books: they share the same fantasy setting as the majority of those books and use a modified version of their rules.

That probably begs the question: what are Fighting Fantasy books? Your basic choose-your-own-adventure gives you control over the narrative through choices, usually binary ones; your success or failure is directly tied to which option you pick. Fighting Fantasy introduced dice-based combat and statistics, a-la D&D, to the mix, meaning you could fail because of bad decisions and bad luck in combat/poor equipment management. First appearing in 1982 Fighting Fantasy paved the way for similar series (reaching a height of popularity between ’84 and ’86) like Lone Wolf, Golden Dragon and the Grailquest books.

There isn’t much practical difference between these sorts of books and the solo-quest modules available for D&D, RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu. Those didn’t catch on in conventional RPGs and, while I love all of the series that I mentioned, I am not sure the addition of RPG mechanics adds anything to the experience other than a measure of frustration. Your mileage may vary.

The first volume of Sorcery is The Shamuntani Hills. Someone stole a magic crown and you’re aiming to get it back, first by trekking through a dangerous wilderness. John Blanche (who did a lot of work for both Fighting Fantasy and Games Workshop) does some of his best illustration work here. I’ve always thought his style was similar to Ian Miller, which is either a blessing or a curse. In this instance, blessing, for my money anyway. Bonus points for putting a badass manticore on the cover. Points deducted for giving the manticore wings.

All right, so if you don’t remember this guy Kazim from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, he’s the head of this secret group — the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword. Their whole job is to protect the Holy Grail — like, forever — and they take it way too seriously. This dude’s lighting matches in an underground tomb full of petroleum, chasing Indy through Venice with a machine gun, losing half his guys in an explosion between two freighters — total chaos — and somehow still manages to part amicably with Dr. Jones — all gentleman-like, like he’s shaking hands after a tennis match instead of a death duel. “Good chase, Doctor, well played! Shame about my crispy brethren. Maybe the others swam to safety after you punched them off the boat? I must say, amid all the excitement with the giant propeller, I kind of lost track.”

So imagine, later that evening, the surviving Brotherhood’s all managed to gather together for a post–boat chase debrief. Everyone’s sitting around, bandaged up, smelling like diesel and shame. Kazim struts in, all “Brothers! The Grail’s safe! 🏆”

One guy pipes up, “Wait, where’s the American? 🤠” Kazim, all casual, goes, “Oh, him? I let him go. 😎”

The room *freezes*. “You WHAT?! 😲”

Kazim straightens up, proud of himself: “Yeah — I told him, ‘God be with you on your quest.’”

You can just hear the collective groan. Another brother mutters, “Oh, that’s fantastic. You blessed him on his way to undo a thousand years of work.”

Kazim’s still nodding, oblivious. “And technically… he let me go.”

Another guy deadpans from the corner, “did you trot out the ‘my soul is prepared’ thing?”

Kazim’s sputtering — “I did! He wasn’t impressed!”

Chaos erupts—guys shouting, “You got captured?! 😡” “You *negotiated* with him? 🤦‍♂️” “You lost to an archaeologist in a *boat fight*? 🚤”

“Well regardless of who let who go,” he says, “Turns out he wasn’t after the Grail — he’s just looking for his father.” 

And the murmuring starts. One guy leans forward, real slow: “And… where’s his father?”

Kazim, still confident: “Oh, he’s being held in the Castle of Brunwald.”

Silence. Just dead air. Then one brother goes, “Wait, you told him that?”

Kazim’s smiling awkwardly now, “Well, yeah — I figured, you know, if he’s not after the Grail…”

Another guy interrupts: “Kazim, his father is the only person alive who can find the Grail!”

The room goes dead quiet, everyone staring at him — and then another brother jumps in, voice climbing, “Yeah, not just anyone — the world’s leading expert on the one thing we’ve been trying to hide for a thousand years!”

Now they’re piling on — “The guy wrote the book on the Grail!” “It’s literally his life’s work!”

Kazim’s blinking, looking around the room like, “Well… when you say it like that…”

And someone snaps, “How else do you want us to say it?! You just handed a rescue mission to the Grail Whisperer!”

Another voice from the back: “We spent a millennium building traps, codes, and secret maps — and you just gave the answer key to his kid!”

Kazim’s shoulders sink. “Okay… that does sound bad when you all pile it up like that, but he’s locked up, so… 🛑”

“Locked up?! 😤 Now his son, the puzzle-solving, trap-dodging archaeologist who’s robbed every grave from Honduras to Madagascar, knows *exactly* where to go! 🦸‍♂️”

Kazim’s face *drops*. “I see how that looks bad… 😣”

Someone else pipes up, furious: “You didn’t protect the Grail, you connected the two people most capable of finding it! You’ve basically introduced the thieves to the bank manager!”

Kazim’s flailing: “Brothers, maybe the castle’s hard to reach! 🏞️” Another guy scoffs, “Oh sure, he’ll trip on a rock. 🙄 What’s he gonna do, raid it singlehandedly? 😏”

And another brother goes, “He’s Indiana Jones! That’s literally his thing!”

A grizzled brother slams his fist: “I was once with the Brotherhood of the Lost Ark! 🕍 But now they’re *gone*! Shut down! Jones planned the whole thing on a chalkboard and before our Brotherhood could come up with a new secret map, the Ark was taken 😤”

The room’s a riot now. 🗣️ Kazim’s waving his hands. One pessimist mutters, “Doesn’t matter—the Grail’s in a self-destructing temple anyway. 💥”

That stops everyone cold. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah, yeah — if you cross the seal, the whole floor opens up! Swallows you! Gone! Straight to the center of the earth!”

Now they’re all talking at once. “Oh, that’s fantastic!” one guy yells. “So the Grail’s basically got lava insurance!”

Another brother adds, “It’s got, like, divine motion sensors! Step one toe over the line — BOOM — you’re gone! Cup stays put, thief goes to hell!”

Kazim’s face sinks as the noise builds — guys shouting, hands waving, somebody drawing a diagram in the air:

“Imagine it, brothers — thief crosses the seal, ground splits open, Grail’s like, ‘Nah, I got this.’”

That sets them off worse: “Great! So we’ve been dying for a booby-trapped cup?! 😖

And then another guy jumps in: “Yeah, and what about the Ark, huh? That thing zapped Nazis by itself! These relics don’t need us — they’ve got built-in smite mode!”

Now everyone’s shouting — “So what are we even doing here?!” “A thousand years guarding self-protecting artifacts! We’re basically the Brotherhood of Unnecessary Labor!” “These secret maps that we’ve been building for millennia, how about we just— I don’t know— don’t make a map at all?!”

The room erupts again. Someone shouts, “Oh, right! Let’s hide it by hiding it! What a concept!”