Jonas reviewed Du entscheidest! Der Ruf des Kerkers by Hari Conner
A Dungeon Adventure with Room for Kindness
5 stars
Hari Conner's choose-your-own-path gamebook "Into the Dungeon" is short and sweet. It has less than 90 sections = pages (most of them illustrated), but packs a lot of engaging encounters and decisions into it. You can choose between four pre-generated characters with ungendered descriptions and different stats. Stats decide outcomes (there are no dice rolls), so for a dedicated player/reader it would be rewarding to figure out the best path through the dungeon for each character.
I've played two of the four characters, and "cheated" at lot to explore most of the pages, probably spending two hours or more with the book, which I thoroughly enjoyed. There are stills parts of the dungeon/caverns I haven't explored yet.
While the book provides a variety of threats, it is not combat focused. I like how Conner balances the satisfaction of a fight well-fought with that of resolving conflict without violence. There are …
Hari Conner's choose-your-own-path gamebook "Into the Dungeon" is short and sweet. It has less than 90 sections = pages (most of them illustrated), but packs a lot of engaging encounters and decisions into it. You can choose between four pre-generated characters with ungendered descriptions and different stats. Stats decide outcomes (there are no dice rolls), so for a dedicated player/reader it would be rewarding to figure out the best path through the dungeon for each character.
I've played two of the four characters, and "cheated" at lot to explore most of the pages, probably spending two hours or more with the book, which I thoroughly enjoyed. There are stills parts of the dungeon/caverns I haven't explored yet.
While the book provides a variety of threats, it is not combat focused. I like how Conner balances the satisfaction of a fight well-fought with that of resolving conflict without violence. There are many opportunities for wounds and death, but also interesting, moving social encounters waiting in the dungeon. It felt very rewarding to literally get the most out of a situation through kindness.
That, and the many black and white illustrations really make this gamebook shine.