1-on-1 Adventure Gamebooks


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Released in 1985, the 1-on-1 Gamebooks came in sets of two boxed books. Two people were supposed to read the books at once, occasionally running into each other and fighting. The books had a rule system similar to the Super Endless Quest books. Ten or eleven boxes were released before the series died, though I'm unsure exactly when that happened.

I'll add details and reviews for these if I ever get a chance.


    1. Castle Arcania
Book One: You Are Eric Sunsword, Legendary Knight of the Northern Marches
Book Two: You Are Neves, An Ancient and Powerful Wizard
Author: James M. Ward
Illustrator: Larry Day
First Published: April, 1985
ISBN: 0-394-54565-6
Length: 160 pages per book
Plot Summary: A good knight and a devious wizard enter the ancient Castle Arcania and battle to the death over the woman they both love, Princess Mara.
My Thoughts: This isn't a bad start to the series, though it's not particularly spectacular in any way. The most interesting aspect of the adventure is probably the fact that there's a lot of tactical strategy to the game. Players can independently move the various characters that they control in different directions through Castle Arcania, setting traps for each other and generally being sneaky and clever; in fact, it almost feels like a board game at times. However, this freedom of movement means that the story itself is pretty weak, and most of the events in it are fairly unengaging encounters with monsters. I was particularly disappointed that, upon defeating my enemy, there was no victory text; the game simply ended without any sense of closure. The rules provided here are fairly clear, being less confusing than some later volumes, but ambiguities do creep in occasionally. I'd also have to say from experience that this isn't the best set in the series to play by e-mail; turns are short and numerous, and it drags out far longer than it would in a face-to-face setting. You can see the results of my e-mail game by following the link below...
Game Log: Andy Sekela vs. Demian Katz

   2. Battle for the Ancient Robot
Book One: You Are E-Ben, Attack Robot from the Planet Cybos
Book Two: You Are Mikael, Earth's Greatest Star Pilot
Author: James M. Ward
Illustrators: Mark Nelson and Sam Grainger
First Published: June, 1985
ISBN: 0-394-54837-X
Length: 160 pages per book
Plot Summary: Champions of two star-faring races scour the galaxy for pieces of the Ancient Robot, a powerful and dangerous artifact of a lost civilization.
My Thoughts: Of the first four sets in this series, this is my favorite by far. As in much of James M. Ward's work, the writing is pretty minimalistic, and the encounters are cheesy. However, since this has a sort of Flash Gordon feel to it, the simplicity and cheesiness actually work well to support the flavor of the adventure. The plot isn't too important anyway; it's the gameplay that really shines. The players must race to find robot parts as quickly as possible, and each robot part acquired adds new capabilities to a player's team. This keeps things tense throughout the game and adds a welcome element of strategy to the proceedings. Sadly, though, things aren't absolutely perfect. As with most of the series, rules ambiguities pop up here and there, breaking the flow of what is otherwise a really entertaining head-to-head challenge. This seems to be one of the most common entries in the series, as it pops up frequently on eBay and in other places. If you can find a partner willing to negotiate around vague rules, you should definitely pick up a copy and give it a try.
Game Log: Andy Sekela vs. Demian Katz

   3. Revenge of the Red Dragon
Book One: You Are Flametongue, An Ancient Red Dragon
Book Two: You Are Raven Quickblade, The Black Knight
Author: James M. Ward
Illustrator: Valerie Valusek
First Published: September, 1985
ISBN: 0-394-54950-3
Length: 158 pages per book
Plot Summary: One player, as the Black Knight, flees towards his castle after reclaiming a stolen family treasure while the other, as the Red Dragon, attempts to reclaim a friend the Knight kidnapped on the way out.
Translation: French
My Thoughts: I've only played through this once, and I died rather quickly, so my evaluation may be flawed. From what I saw, however, I'd have to say that this is a fun, if flawed, set. On the positive side, the game has some good player interaction through mini-games and frequent battles, and its turn-taking structure makes it ideal for e-mail or telephone-based games. On the down side, many of the rules are rather ambiguous (though it's not too hard to deal with these problems if the players can agree on what to do), and the story is rather weak, being mainly a seemingly random sequence of encounters eventually leading to a confrontation between the two player characters. This definitely isn't the best entry in the series, but it's not bad.
Game Log: Andy Sekela vs. Demian Katz

   4. Challenge of Druid's Grove
Book One: You Are Renwood, A Powerful Druid
Book Two: You Are Ar-Kane, A Great Wizard
Author: James M. Ward
Illustrator: Mark Nelson
First Published: November, 1985
ISBN: 0-394-54951-1
Length: 158 pages per book
Plot Summary: A wizard and a druid race to stop the evil forces growing in the Forest of Lath, each also hoping to capture the other in order to gain ransom money for his own faction.
Translation: French
My Thoughts: This third fantasy adventure is really just more of the same -- lots of random encounters and item collection culminating in a big fight. It does manage to distinguish itself a little bit by creating a larger overall goal than "kill the other player" and by giving each PC a powerful collection of spells to play with, but, while fun, it's not particularly noteworthy. The writing isn't quite as bland as some of the author's earlier work, but it still doesn't convey much in the way of plot. Also, as I've grown to expect from these books, the gameplay is functional but full of errors and ambiguity. If you've enjoyed other adventures in the series, you'll probably like this one too; if not, don't waste your time.
Errata: The most spectacular error on display here is the fact that the books have the wrong covers -- Ar-Kane is on the cover of the Renwood book and vice versa. Other problems include the fact that Ar-Kane's character sheet fails to list the amount of damage done by his dagger, the fact that both books say that the character they contain goes first (which is right?) and the fact that the Renwood book directs the Ar-Kane player to turn to page 118 for the final battle (it should be page 134).
Game Log: Andy Sekela vs. Demian Katz

   5. Dragonsword of Lankhmar
Book One: You Are Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Book Two: You Are Thieves' Guild Assassins
Author: James M. Ward
Illustrators: Keith Parkinson (covers), Mark Nelson (interior)
First Published: February, 1986
ISBN: 0-394-55240-7
Length: 158 pages per book
Plot Summary: Fritz Leiber's famous thieves are after a fabled treasure, but their quest is hindered by the efforts of a series of greedy assassins.
Translation: French
My Thoughts: This is an interesting change of pace. For one thing, the writing has a lot more flavor than I expected from its usually very minimalist author. More importantly, the gameplay feels different. While earlier books have set two relatively evenly-matched teams with similar goals against one another, this one instead gives one player control of heroes on a quest while forcing the other player to try to guess the location of the heroes in order to block their path with villainous foes. Whenever one set of bad guys is defeated, another one takes their place, and whenever the villains fail to locate the heroes, bad things tend to happen to them. This is actually entertainingly cartoony in feel. Had I played this in person rather than by e-mail, I would certainly have yelled "curses, foiled again!" on several locations. Yes, I admit that I am a ham. Anyway, while I didn't find the gameplay quite as engaging as that of Battle for the Ancient Robot, I did enjoy this set quite a bit.
Game Log: Andy Sekela vs. Demian Katz

   6. The Amber Sword of World's End
Book One: You Are Uthrac, Barbarian Warrior
Book Two: You Are Garth, Master of the North Wind
Author: Michael P. Price
Illustrator: Darlene
First Published: May, 1986
ISBN: 0-394-55410-8
Length: 158 pages per book
Plot Summary: Two heroes wander through the icy lands of World's End in search of a valuable magical weapon.
Translation: French
My Thoughts: Although this is the first book in the series to be written by someone other than James M. Ward, it doesn't stand out at all. After the slightly unusual feel of the last set, it's back to evenly matched characters on the same quest, and it's really fairly boring. There are a few nice touches like enjoyable trips to weird exterior dimensions, but for the most part it's just two players trudging randomly around in search of each other or the objective. Disappointingly, the one game I played ended abruptly before either of us could win. I think it's a bad design decision to put instant game-ending sections in a set of two-player gamebooks; the result is inevitably anti-climactic.
Game Log: Andy Sekela vs. Demian Katz

7. Warlords

8. The Doomsday Device

9. The King Takes a Dare

10. Dragonwand of Krynn

11. Prisoner of Pharaoh's Tomb


French Translations

At least four sets of these books were translated into French as the "1 contre 1" series, published by Solar. Several French AD&D Adventure Gamebooks included a contest in the back, the prize of which was a copy of a One-on-One gamebook set. Since the advertisement for this contest was presented in gamebook form, I thought it was interesting enough to translate. I've provided a French version and an English version.

   1. La Revanche du Dragon Rouge
Translation Of: Revenge of the Red Dragon
Book One: Vous êtes Flamlongue le Dragon Rouge
Book Two: Vous êtes Geoffrey le Chevalier Noir
Literal Translation of French Title: The Revenge of the Red Dragon
Translator: Olivier Meyer
Cover Illustrator: Jean-Louis Festjens
First Published: 1986
ISBN: 2-263-01123-4
Length: 159 pages

 2. Le Duel de la Forêt des Druids
Translation Of: Challenge of Druid's Grove
Book One: Vous êtes Renwood le Druide
Book Two: Vous êtes Ar-Kane le Magicien
Literal Translation of French Title: The Duel of the Forest of Druids
Translator: Philippe Rouard
First Published: 1986
ISBN: 2-263-01123-4
Length: 159 pages
My Thoughts: Unlike the American editions, these books have the proper artwork on the proper covers.
Only the Renwood book is part of my collection; I still need Ar-Kane and the box.

  3. Le Sabre de Glace
Translation Of: The Amber Sword of World's End
Book One: Vous êtes Uthrac, Guerrier barbare
Book Two: Vous êtes Garth, Maître du Vent du Nord
Literal Translation of French Title: The Sabre of Ice
Translator: Pierre Arnaut
First Published: 1987
ISBN: 2-263-01156-0
Length: 160 pages per book

4. Voleurs et Assassins
Translation Of:
Dragonsword of Lankhmar
ISBN: 2-263-01155-2
This set is not part of my collection.


Demian's Gamebook Web Page (c) 1998-2003 Demian Katz