What: AD&D 1on1 - Dragonsword of Lankhmar Books
From: 1986
Made by: TSR / James M. Ward
TSR published a bunch of these 1-on-1, two-player, choose-your-own-adventure-type books, but I only ever played #5, which was, apparently, called Dragonsword of Lankhmar. I remembered it mostly as the Fafferd-or-whatever-the-fuck-his-name-was and the Gray Mouser books. I was also fucking 10, so what do I know.
ANYWAYS, these books were fucking great. I seem to remember them having some of that classic pencil-and-paper RPG stuff — stats, inventory, that sort of thing — mixed with choose-your-own-adventure gameplay. And, if my twisted brain is remembering correctly, the whole thing played out turn by turn between the two players.
One player took the role of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, two sword-and-sorcery rogues originally made famous by Fritz Leiber. (I know that now because I looked it up. Ten-year-old me absolutely did not know who the fuck Fritz Leiber was.) The other player controlled the Lankhmar Thieves' Guild.
The heroes' job? Find a magical sword.
The Guild's job? Figure out where the other assholes were going and kill them before they could get it.
I have some amazing memories of playing this over at my friend Eric's house. Yeah, he's probably going to be mentioned a few times on this website, so get fucking used to it. I can still picture us sitting on his front porch steps on some hot summer day with these books in our hands, trying to outsmart each other.
This is some seriously deep-seated memory shit, so I hope you appreciate the depths I'm willing to dredge here. (lol)
Anyways, awesome books — or, at the very least, book #5 was fucking awesome — and one of those memories that somehow stuck around all these years.
These books are definitely long out of print, BUT if you manage to snag a complete set somewhere — eBay, an old game shop, somebody's forgotten box of shit in the attic — I genuinely think you're in for an afternoon well spent.
Even in today's world of instant gratification, there's still something pretty fucking great about two people sitting across from each other with a couple of books and trying to ruin each other's day.