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1!!!'''This is the entry for the actual ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' series. For the genre as a whole, see {{Gamebooks}}.'''
2[[quoteright:218:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CYOA1_3088.jpg]]
3[[caption-width-right:218:[-To confront the Viking ghost, go to page 87. To flee the Viking ghost, [[RailRoading go to page 87]]. To find out if the Viking ghost is even in the book, [[CoversAlwaysLie turn to the next page.]]-] ]]
4
5AnAdventurerIsYou!
6
7The ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' series is a famous and highly successful example of the {{Gamebook}} genre with 250 million copies in print. The series, begun in 1979, saw the peak of its fame in TheEighties, and after Bantam Books ceased publication of the books, was revived in 2007 under the independent company Chooseco.
8
9The stories are told in SecondPersonNarration, which is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in a meta sort of way: you're the one reading the book and making the decisions about what to do next, so you should play the role of the protagonist. Plots included TimeTravel, UFO abduction, cross-continent racing, getting lost at sea, solving murder mysteries and coping with supercomputers. There were many {{Crossover}} titles, including ones with Creator/{{Disney}} movies, and ''Franchise/StarWars'', as well as spinoffs like a line for very young readers and a horror line called ''Choose Your Own Nightmare'' when YA horror was all the rage in the mid-90s. There are typically more ways of failing and/or dying than succeeding. Death sometimes comes in [[TheManyDeathsOfYou horribly]] [[HaveANiceDeath inventive]] [[{{Gorn}} ways]], yielding textual LudicrousGibs.
10
11In July 12, 2018 Z-Man Games released a TabletopGames adaptation of ''House of Danger'' that incorporates some RPG elements and [[AdaptationExpansion expands]] on the story.
12----
13!!As you venture further down, you are confronted with the following tropes:
14* AIIsACrapshoot: ''Supercomputer'', ''Your Very Own Robot'', ''The Computer Takeover''. Subverted in [[spoiler: ''The Computer Takeover''. Turns out Acorn is doing exactly what his designer wanted, trying to TakeOverTheWorld.]]
15* AbandonedMine: A recurring location in several of the books. Sometimes, these mines hide a treasure and lead to a "happy ever after" ending ... or set up the main story where the reader and others are being pursued by the bad guys. Other times, it's a place where the reader is trapped -- or in at least one case, is taken (along with several others) by gunpoint by the book's bad guys, where the protagonists are transported (by elevator) to the bottom of a shaft several hundred feet beneath ground level and left for dead.
16* AccidentalMurder: In one of the bad endings for ''The Worst Day of Your Life'', after you get arrested, the cops leave you in the hot car in the middle of the day while they stop to have dinner, and you die of hyperthermia.
17* AdaptationExpansion: The ''House of Danger'' board game literally expands the original book's story into 5 separate chapters.
18* TheAlibi: Everyone seemingly has one for the time of the titular character's murder in ''Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?'': his nephew Chartwell and prospective nephew-in-law Robert were both playing pool, while his wife Jane and niece Angela were both in the music room where the piano was heard to be played the whole time. In addition, the maid Helga had departed early to make a hospital visit, and Angela was at a dentist's appointment an hour's drive away at the time when the arsenic used to poison Harlowe was stolen from the greenhouse via a break-in. [[spoiler:The true culprits, Robert and Angela, managed a two-handed alibi: she had an unshakable one for the time he broke into the greenhouse and stole the arsenic, and he for the time she poisoned Harlowe's brandy. The piano music being played at the time of the murder could only have been played by Jane, an accomplished pianist, and not Angela, a beginner.]]
19* AllJustADream: Arguably one interpretation of an ambiguous situation in ''The Cave of Time'', where you make friends with cavemen and wake up the next day at the entrance to the cave.
20* AmbiguousGender:
21** Except for a few books that need for you to be a certain gender to work (such as one where you are a coming-of-age witch or part of a Women's Olympic swim team) [[note]] ''Eighth Grade Witch'' and ''The Gold Medal Secret'', respectively [[/note]], your gender is presumably your own gender, even if the pictures show you as one or the other. Not helping things is the fact that several of the direct sequels will GenderFlip your protagonist even though they're essentially the same character from the prequel story.
22** Later books further play this trope straight by illustrating the protagonist without explicitly showing any gender-related characteristics or not at all.
23** Averted in ''The Time Travel Inn'' where the protagonist is unambiguously female (in the latter book, your character is even named ''Astrid'') for no plot-relevant reason at all.
24* AndIMustScream: Some endings, that include in ''The Magic of the Unicorn'' to be transformed by a forest witch into a tree without losing your consciousness or in ''The Mystery of Chimney Rock'' either to be transformed in a mouse or forced to pick up the pieces of a broken Chinese cat, never stopping.
25* AnimatedAdaptation: An interactive DVD based on ''The Abominable Snowman'' and starring Creator/FrankieMuniz came out in the early aughts. Other adaptations were mentioned, but never made, seemingly due to a lukewarm reception of the first offering.
26* {{Animorphism}}:
27** ''You Are A Shark''
28** One of the bad endings of ''The Mystery of Chimney Rock'' involves being turned into a mouse, body [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody and mind.]]
29** One of the endings of ''Hyperspace'' has you turning into a bat.
30** One of the bad endings in ''Journey To Stonehenge'' has you turning into a rabbit.
31** One of the endings in ''The Enchanted Forest'' has you turning into a squirrel.
32** One of the endings in ''The Throne of Zeus'' involves being turned into a dolphin and eventually forgetting ever having been human.
33** One of the endings in ''Secret of the Sun God'' has you turning into an eagle.
34** One of the endings in ''The Magic of the Unicorn'' has you becoming one.
35** One of the endings in ''You Are A Monster'' has you becoming a monkey after a botched experiment.
36* AnyoneCanDie: Even (perhaps especially) yourself, if the page you chose has an unfortunate ending.
37* ArtisticLicenseGeography: ''Inside UFO 54-40'' is named for the latitude and longitude in which the UFO is first spotted, the coordinates of your dissapearance from the Concorde jet on which you are a passenger. The problem is that you are said to be over Greenland which is nowhere near latitude 54/longitude 40. These coordinates are somewhere above Russia, however, which is the last place a Concorde would be on the trip from New York to London.
38* ArtisticLicenseMusic: In ''Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?'', one page states that the accomplished pianist Jane "'''loudly''' strikes the first notes of Beethoven’s ''Moonlight Sonata''." The famous opening of the ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB49ARmmsmo Moonlight Sonata]]'' is actually ''pianissimo'' (very soft).
39* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: One of the ''Space Patrol'' endings: "You leave your body behind and join your mind with the Xu'ka."
40* AuthorAppeal:
41** R.A. Montgomery often gives his POV characters troubled backstories, e.g. the protagonist's parents are divorced or in the process of divorcing, one or both of the parents are dead, etc.
42** Jay Leibold is fond of historical settings, e.g. World War II in ''Sabotage'', colonial America in ''Spy for George Washington'', Medieval Japan in ''Secret of the Ninja'' and its sequels etc.
43* AuthorAvatar: The protagonist actually gets to ''meet'' Edward Packard himself in ''Hyperspace''.
44* TheBadGuyWins: Any book with a clear villain, such as ''Space Vampire'' or ''War With The Evil Power Master'', is guaranteed to invoke this multiple times.
45* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: ''Several''. The biggest offender is probably ''Your Very Own Robot'', where one of the good endings has you and your robot fly to Venus for the day and come home later. (And Venus itself looks like a mire with goo all over the surface.) Of course, that title was supposed to be for younger readers.
46* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In ''The First Olympics'', one of the endings has your character having so much fun in ancient Greece you wish you'd stay forever, all while looking at a statue of Zeus. Let's just say Zeus is more than happy to oblige, and promptly turns you into a statue, thus granting your wish... somehow.
47* BittersweetEnding: Some of the "good" endings merely consists in the protagonist surviving or stopping the BigBad temporarily, or implying that ''perhaps'' he/she will have success in the future. e.g., Louise Munro Foley's "Highland Crest" has the ending where the main character [[spoiler:''almost'' gets roped into a complot against [[IronLady Lady]] [[BigGood Sara]] and, though the SmugSnake in charge [[AssholeVictim becomes a victim of the crest's curse]] and Lady Sarah forgives the protagonist, the talk they have is rather bittersweet.]]
48* BluffingTheMurderer: You do this successfully in one ending of ''Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?'', pretending to have had a tape recorder planted at the time of the murder. After this induces the killer to reveal themselves, you reveal that it was just an old Beatles recording.
49* BuildLikeAnEgyptian: ''Secret of the Pyramids''.
50* CatsAreMean: You can be shrunken down and ''eaten'' by one in ''The Mystery of Chimney Rock''.
51* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In ''Prisoner of the Ant People'', your Martian sidekick Flppto is a DeadpanSnarker. In ''War with the Evil Power Master'', he is TheSpock. The Purple Days war must have taken a toll on his sense of humor.
52* ChekhovsSkill: In ''Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?'', Jane being an accomplished pianist is a plot-relevant clue, because it proves that [[spoiler:she was the only one who could have been playing Beethoven's ''Moonlight Sonata'' at the time of the murder, Angela being just a beginner - and therefore it was only Angela, and not Jane, who could have left the music room to poison Harlowe's brandy.]]
53* ChildProdigy: Your character in ''You Are a Genius'' and ''You Are a Superstar''.
54* ComicBookAdaptation: ''Journey Under the Sea'' and '' Eight Grade Witch'' have been adapted into interactive graphic novels.
55* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: In ''UFO 54-40'', one of the punishments meted out by the aliens is to send a person to Somo, to "sleep for a billion years", leading to some FridgeLogic - do you still get to live out your life afterwards? [[note]] Mind, the aliens make their captive specimens immortal. [[/note]]
56* CoversAlwaysLie: To name just the first example in the series, the sinister bearded figure on the cover to ''The Cave of Time'' does not actually appear in the book.
57* CruelTwistEnding: A staple of the series. It's not uncommon to turn to a page that looks like it will have a positive ending, until the word "however" shows up.
58* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Your Code Name is Jonah'' (reissued as Spy Trap) is a very cynical Cold War era entry into the series. You are in the role of a definitely adult government agent. Your antagonists are KGB (in other words, the Russians). The dialogue is very adult, including a memorable, very politically spiked conversation with the wife of a kidnapped scientist. She gives you a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech if you defend the government's policy concerning the military importance of the whalesong tapes. Your character brushes her off as a [[AnimalWrongsGroup pompous liberal windbag]]. Interestingly enough, in one of the endings, you are told by your boss, "If you have to let your conscience be your guide, you'll never make it as a spy!".
59* DeusExMachina: Tends to happen in many of the books of the series, leading the reader to different kinds of good endings that sometimes came out of nowhere.
60* DiabolusExMachina: Tends to happen in many of the books of the series, leading the reader to different kinds of bad endings that sometimes came out of nowhere.
61%%* DownerEnding: Lots of them per book.
62* DroppedABridgeOnHim:
63** In an ending of ''Statue of Liberty Adventure'', after hunting a hidden fortune and duping some gangsters, you [[spoiler:slip at the top of a staircase and die immediately]].
64** An ending in ''Outlaws of Sherwood Forest'' has you falling down a staircase and dying during a failed rescue attempt.
65* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: You died? Flip back to the other page and choose a different option.
66* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''By Balloon to the Sahara''. Only the third book in the series, the author was quite fond of punctuating his conclusions with something other than "The End".
67%%* EarnYourHappyEnding
68* TheEighties: The rock musicians in ''Rock 'n' Roll Mystery'' and ''You Are a Superstar''. Mullets, new wave, and even more mullets.
69* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ''The Race Forever'', [[spoiler: in a literal sense. If you survive one of the two races without getting a bad ending, you are sent off to attempt the other race, with no option included to go to an ending where you've completed both]].
70* {{Expy}}:
71** One can't be blamed if they see Kay Mallett in ''Statue of Liberty Adventure'' as an Expy for Margaret of ''ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS'' fame.
72** Your character in ''Your Code Name is Jonah'' (a spy adventure) has a physical resemblance to Steve [=McQueen=]. His beady eyes, humorless, taciturn nature, and regular stone-faced expression might make you wonder if Paul Granger somehow got a hold of some ''Manga/Golgo13'' manga back in 1979.
73* FaceHeelTurn:
74** In ''Stock Car Champion'', one scenario has your stock car driver friend (now a [[WeUsedToBeFriends frenemy]]) hook up with a menacing new head mechanic. Suddenly, he's not as nice as he appears to be in other potential scenarios.
75** The main premise of ''Sabotage'', as your commanding officer passes you a letter to be opened later on in the book, warning you that your fellow spy Raoul is a double agent working for the Nazis.
76* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: There are a few occasions in some of the books in which the two choices which are presented to the reader both lead to a bad ending. This happens because while usually a bad choice will kill you (or otherwise end the story) immediately, in a few cases the consequences don't become apparent until later, when you will find yourself faced with a situation where the only choices remaining to you are basically "How do you want to die?".
77** Prolific CYOA writer R.A. Montgomery is particularly fond of these "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situations. For example, escaping certain death by shark attack in ''Journey Under the Sea'' results in you making an emergency ascent to the surface, getting the bends, and [[CareerEndingInjury ending your career]] as an undersea explorer.
78** To be fair, there are ''some'' happy endings (out of 40+) on ''Space and Beyond'', but you never get to your dad or your mom's home planet, which is your first set of your choices in the book.
79** In one book, one of the choices you have near the beginning (out of 4) has you [[spoiler:going to Japan. Choose this, however, and you will get a bad end, no matter what you do. There are numerous choices in between, so it doesn't seem obvious.]]
80* TheFairFolk: Some of the books, including ''The Enchanted Kingdom, ''The Mystery of the Highland Crest'' and ''Outlaws of Sherwood Forest'' portray fairies in a more traditional manner, showing how powerful and dangerous they could be.
81* FairPlayWhodunnit: ''Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?'' The truth behind the crime is the same in every read, and the book's more about gathering clues and solving the mystery than exploring different story possibilities.
82* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: For a series aimed at preteens and young adults, there sure are a lot of grisly depictions of your demise.
83* FissionMailed: One of the books tries to fool you; an illustration shows your character and his companions securely locked in a cell with the familiar words "THE END" clearly written. ''However'', reading the text shows that it actually says, "it looks like it might be THE END", and there's more to read. (This page leads to a good ending, although your dog - not you - becomes the hero.)
84* ForcedTransformation: This trope is the whole point of ''You Are a Shark''. As punishment for dishonoring a Buddhist temple, the monk curses you to live the lives of many animals until you learn from your mistakes.
85* GenerationXerox: R.A. Montgomery's children Anson and Ramsey have written many books for the series. Edward Packard's daughter Andrea contributed one story, ''Secret of the Sun God'', and collaborated with her father on another, ''Mayday!''.
86* GainaxEnding: One of the endings in ''Inside UFO 54-40'' has you warping through strange dimensions, until you've ended up "...here at this moment, reading a book!"
87* GenderFlip:
88** In the original release of ''The Treasure of the Onyx Dragon'' the POV character was a girl, while in the 2007 series' rerelease the POV character is changed to a boy.
89** The POV character in ''The Mystery of Ura Senke'' is a boy, but in ''The Case of the Silk King'', which references the protagonist's achievements in the former book, the POV character is a girl.
90** In ''Secret of the Ninja'', the POV chara is a long-haired boy. The sequel switches him to a long-haired girl. Though given that the illustrations in ''Secret of the Ninja'' depicted the protagonist as a girl, this might have been a case where it was intended for the protagonist to be female all along.
91* GenericDoomsdayVillain: The Evil Power Master who's your enemy in at least two of the sci-fi books. Just look at the name. He's an omnipotent being who wants to destroy the universe, but you never find out who he is, why he wants to do that, where he gets his power from, or why he's involved with talking ants of all things.
92* GenreShift: ''Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?'' has you as a detective investigating a murder. It was given a sequel in ''Ghost Hunter'', which has you changing careers to get into ParanormalInvestigation.
93* GoldenEnding: A few books have one specific positive ending that is much better than any of the others. For example, ''The Horror of High Ridge'' has several endings where you survive the [[HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday semicentennial massacre by murderous ghosts]], but only one where you end the curse permanently.
94* {{Gorn}}: The bad endings can sometimes get a bit gratuitous. The most notorious example is the outright horror-genre "The Horror of High Ridge", which was frequently attacked by MoralGuardians for its massive death toll and graphic violence, including a very explicitly-illustrated decapitation.
95* GuileHero: ''Every'' protagonist, hopefully, seeing as these gamebooks have no fighting mechanic. Richard Brightfield wrote a whole slew of books that were "Master of <insert martial arts style>", though, and Jay Liebold wrote a string of them where the character is a ninja master.
96* HauntedHouse: ''The Mystery of Chimney Rock'' (re-released as ''The Curse of the Haunted Mansion'')
97* HaveANiceDeath: Your demise is described in all ''sorts'' of gruesome, gory detail.
98* HeKnowsTooMuch: In ''Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?'', this happens to [[spoiler:''you'' in one ending in which you [[TooDumbToLive are foolish enough to confront and accuse one of the murderers while you're alone.]]]]
99* HistoricalDomainCharacter: ''Spy For George Washington'', ''You Can Make A Difference: The Story Of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'' ''The Antimatter Universe'' has a path where the reader teams up with Creator/AntoineDeSaintExupery.
100* IChooseToStay:
101** One of the endings in ''Mystery Of The Maya'' has you becoming the ruler of the ancient Mayan kingdom until you die of old age. You have the option of going back to your old life, but you choose not to.
102** One of the good endings of ''UFO 54-40'' has you choose to take an alien back to his home planet, even though it will take decades. (You get eternal youth out of the deal.)
103** In ''Hyperspace'', you can enter a parallel universe, with the option to stay or return once you learn what really happened. The scientist who brought you there offers to take you back, but you never do go back.
104* IncredibleShrinkingMan: ''Prisoner Of The Ant People'', ''You Are Microscopic'', ''Help! You're Shrinking''
105* KidHero: The majority of the books in the series. One notable aversion is ''Your Code Name is Jonah'' (reissued as ''Spy Trap'') in which the protagonist is clearly an adult (although the reissue cover implies the protagonist ''is'' a kid). Ditto for ''Journey Under the Sea'' and ''Space and Beyond''.
106* LighterAndSofter: A couple of CYOA series were made for younger readers; in comparison to the original series, the stories were shorter and simpler, the [[DownerEnding Downer Endings]] were generally less severe, and the odds of reaching a HappyEnding were better.
107* MacGuffin: The radiation neutralizer in ''The Brilliant Dr. Wogan''.
108* MagicalComputer: ''Supercomputer'', ''The Reality Machine''
109* TheManyDeathsOfYou: The main character is a teenager in most of the books. They can die. [[AFateWorseThanDeath Or not even that]]. Many different ways. Crushed, eaten, drowning, fading into nonexistence, and many many more. So many that there are [[http://loseyourownadventure.tumblr.com/ entire]] [[http://youchosewrong.tumblr.com/ blogs]] devoted to showcasing the worst ones.
110* MeaningfulName: One of the bad guys in ''The First Olympics'' is a chariot owner named ''Demonicus''. And his chariot racing ace is named Nikos. You know, like [[TheDevil Old Nick]].
111* MillionToOneChance: Sometimes, the "safe" choice will kill you horribly, and the "unbelievably risky" choice will pay off big. Not always, but a lot more often than statistics would lead you to expect.
112* MindControlDevice: Acorn implants one in you in the worst ending of ''The Computer Takeover''. Not only does he starve all humans into submission, but now you are doomed to be his puppet for the rest of your life.
113* MindScrew:
114** ''Inside UFO 54-40'' contains one ending that is inaccessible from any other page, in which you end up at Ultima, the "planet of paradise".
115*** This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in that particular ending ("No one can choose to visit Ultima... nor can you get here by following directions") and other parts of the book, where some people speak of a world called Ultima that is impossible to get to by conventional means.
116*** In fact the book says of Ultima that "no one can get there by making choices or following instructions"--which of course is the whole idea behind Choose Your Own Adventure books. Kids who read ''Inside UFO 54-40'' were helped to find Ultima by a two-page illustration that starts the ending (said illustration being much bigger than any other ending in a CYOA book).
117* MultipleEndings: Obviously. The choices you make over the course of a story could lead you to the standard HappyEnding, a DownerEnding, or several different types of NonStandardGameOver.
118* NiceJobBreakingItHero: There are some endings that don't necessarily end with you dying, but you may still royally screw things up for everyone, and end up getting sent to prison... [[FateWorseThanDeath or worse.]]
119* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: ''Space Vampire'' and its sequel ''Vampire Invaders''.
120* NoHuggingNoKissing: Not even in the few books where your character is supposedly an adult. The closest your character even comes to the StandardHeroReward is probably in "The Forbidden Castle". (He and the princess take shelter from the rain in the Cave of Time, resulting in her coming back to the present time with him; the final page consists of him assuring her the "monsters" - as in cars - won't hurt her and wondering what she'd think about a Big Mac and fries.)
121* NonIndicativeTitle: In ''Prisoner of the Ant People'', you don't spend much time interacting with the titular Ant People, let alone as their prisoner. The book reads more like a prelude to [[spoiler: ''War with the Evil Power Master'']].
122* NonstandardGameOver: Several of the books, especially ''By Balloon to the Sahara'', have at least one resolution that ends with something other than '''The End'''. ''The Mystery of Chimney Rock'' probably plays this trope the straightest:
123** One ending has you leaving the haunted house after encountering a ghostly creature who threatens you with his fate [[DontLookBack if you ever look back at the house]].[[note]]Another equally bad ending implies he was a former inhabitant of the house who died after falling off the roof.[[/note]] If you don't like that ending, you can choose to look back one last time anyway, the resulting page of which simply has a bloodcurdling scream down the page in giant letters followed by a '''THUNK'''.
124** Another ending has your character accidentally breaking the resident witch's china cat and being cursed to pick up the pieces for all eternity, complete with '''There Is No End'''.
125* NotWearingPantsDream: In "Dream Trips" you have one path where you're giving a music recital at school but realize you're still in your pajamas in front of everyone you know.
126* OhCrap: Many of the illustrations, especially if you're about to die. Any of the books illustrated by Judith Mitchell are guaranteed to invoke this multiple times, even when you're ''not'' necessarily at a death ending. The illustration accompanying one such ending in the original publication of ''Journey Under the Sea'' is a [[http://johnnycompton.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/CYOA-Journey-Under-Sea-Shark.jpg nightmare-inducing classic.]]
127%%* TheManyDeathsOfYou: You die. A LOT.
128%%* ThePlague: ''Killer Virus''.
129* PlanetOfSteves: Almost every German character in the CYOA series with a known first name seems to be called Hans or Franz.
130%%* ThePowerOfRock: ''Rock and Roll Mystery''.
131* PragmaticVillainy: In one ending of ''Your Code Name is Jonah'', [[spoiler:the Soviets intended to use the secret whale cave as a military base, but when they realized that they couldn't safely set off a bomb without sealing it forever, they call up the President and agree to preserve it for the whales while sending you home safely.]] The characters attribute it more to luck, however.
132* RandomEventsPlot: Some of the titles such as ''Supercomputer'' and ''Deadwood City''.
133* RecurringCharacter:
134** Dr. Nera Vivaldi has turned up in quite a few of Edward Packard's CYOA volumes.
135** ActionGirl Jenny Mudge, who's your trusty sidekick in ''Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?'' and later on, ''Ghost Hunter'', which serves as a sequel of sorts to the former book.
136* RobotBuddy: The whole plot of ''Your Very Own Robot''. Also, one of the paths in ''Supercomputer'' has your computer getting a robotic body, and the two of you fighting crime.
137* RodentsOfUnusualSize: ''The Third Planet from Altair'', complete with a [[http://www.ethblue.com/cyoa/deathrat.jpg good up-close look at one]] should you decide to [[TooDumbToLive sit down and rest]] after outrunning it.
138* RolePlayingGame: The ''House of Danger'' board game incorporates minor elements, such as keeping track of the character's psychic skills and inventory as well as using a die roll to resolve skill checks.
139* RubberForeheadAliens: The Derns of ''Planet of the Dragons'' look like short humans with enormous noses.
140* SaveScumming: Admit it, you've kept your finger on one page to go back to in case of an ending you didn't like.
141** It's an actual part of the ''House of Danger'' board game.
142* SecondPersonNarration: All the books of the series are written in the second person.
143* SchroedingersGun: Details of facts often vary widely based on your choice. The statement said to you in a foreign language can be totally different depending on your response to it, for example.
144* SheatheYourSword: Played straight more often than not. Even if you're armed, trying to take most threats head-on tends to end pretty badly for you. Justified in that "you" are usually a pre-teen kid, while the things that want to kill you, well, ''aren't''. This leads to a bit of CoversAlwaysLie sometimes, such as ''The Curse of Batterslea Hall'' showing your character wielding a sword on the cover, but the time where you actually have a chance to use a sword to defend yourself, you quickly find you're no match for the two murderous criminals attacking you.
145* ShoutOut: In the original issue of ''Your Code Name is Jonah'' (aka Spy Trap), artist Paul Grainger may have based the protagonist's character design on [[{{Manga/Golgo13}} this guy]].
146** ''Outlaws of Sherwood Forest'' specifically mentions Creator/WaltDisney and ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' at the moment when the main character is trying to think in some magical words to return to the present era.
147** There are numerous examples in the artwork to the first page of ''Daredevil Park'': the character has a poster of [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Bart Simpson]], a model of [[Franchise/StarTrek the starship Enterprise]], and an issue of Magazine/{{MAD}} magazine on their bed.
148** In ''Vampire Express'', one path lets the reader try to clue their friend into stealing a magical jewel from the title undead. They try to do this by whistling the theme music from ''Film/{{The Pink Panther|1963}}'' (that is, the original movie, which is about a thief trying to steal the titluar diamond).
149* SpeculativeFiction: Some stories, such as ''Forecast From Stonehenge'' or ''Mystery of the Maya'', get real imaginative about real-life ancient artifacts.
150* {{Stellification}}: In one ending of ''The First Olympics'' you may be transformed into a new constellation called the Guardian of the Bull, the Bull itself being the constellation of Taurus.
151* StrippingSnag: In ''The Worst Day of Your Life'', circumstances lead you to flee from a house while wearing only a towel. On the way, you leap over a fence, but your towel is caught on it, forcing you to escape into the forest stark naked. It doesn't matter as [[QuicksandSucks you drown in quicksand on the same page]].
152* SummationGathering: You get to enact one in one of the endings of ''Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?", gathering everyone together in the Thrombey household to reveal the guilty party.
153* TakeAThirdOption: Sometimes you'll get three or more choices as to how to proceed.
154* TakeOverTheWorld: The goal of Acorn in ''The Computer Takeover'', and [[spoiler:his creator, Cedric Barkham]].
155* ThisIsAWorkOfFiction: ''Stock Car Champion'' comes with such a disclaimer.
156* ThoseWackyNazis: ''Shadow of the Swastika''. And Herr Kruptsch from ''Sabotage'', who always seems to be one step ahead of your character.
157* TilMurderDoUsPart: The title character of ''Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?'' asks you for help because he suspects that his wife Jane wants him dead. Later that evening, he is murdered... [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope but not by Jane.]]]]
158* TimeTravel: Many titles to choose from... ''The Cave Of Time'', ''Return To The Cave Of Time'', ''Journey To The Year 3000'', etc.
159* TooDumbToLive: The first title, ''The Cave Of Time'', has ''two'' sequels, both because the original protagonist, who survived the first trip, was tempted to enter the eponymous cave again, now knowing he was risking his life. Twice. (On the other hand, most fans of the series think ''Return of the Cave of Time'' is [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel much better than the first one.]])
160* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: The AI you invent in ''You Are a Genius'' can end up turning against humankind.
161* TwoDunIt: [[spoiler:''Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?'' His niece and her fiance did - he retrieved a bottle of arsenic from the greenhouse, and she poured the arsenic into Harlowe's brandy bottle.]]
162* {{Unicorn}}: ''The Magic of the Unicorn'', set up in Renaissance era France, revolves about them in your quest for a way to purify the water of the well of your village, that is under a severe drought. [[spoiler: You may even be transformed into one there]].
163* TheUnreveal: One of the possible endings of ''Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?" has you decide confidently that you have solved the case, but does not reveal what your solution is.
164* VagueAge: Nera Vivaldi appears in a few contemporary settings as well as at least two which noticeably take place in the future. ''Space Vampire'' at least implies that she is in her fifties but that's not much of a change given that that story (as well as ''Third Planet From Altair'') is probably set a little farther than NextSundayAD.
165* WarIsHell: Some of the R.A. Montgomery books are pretty empathetic about this trope.
166* WeaksauceWeakness: The aliens from ''Invaders of the Planet Earth'' had technology so incompatible with human electronics that even the ''light from a flashlight'' can destroy one of their ships. Somehow. Their technological advantage is still so huge that they effortlessly conquered the planet a decade before when the story's set.
167* WingedHumanoid: The Hyksos of ''Planet of the Dragons'', although it turns out that their "wings" are artificial ones, strapped to normal humanoid arms. If you choose to join them, you get your own set of wings.
168* WouldHurtAChild: Given that the targeted demographic of this series is 10- to 14-year olds and – with its use of second-person pronouns to refer to the main protagonist – thus implied to be the reader, there are many graphic, highly disturbing and brutal endings to be read, all committed by people who have no qualms about hurting children. See CruelAndUnusualDeath above for examples of these unconscionable acts.
169* YouHaveFailedMe: A heroic variation from the Merry Men in ''Outlaws of Sherwood Forest''. You can infiltrate the Sheriff of Nottingham's castle as a jester but you do your job too good. The Sheriff keeps you nearby and you can't do anything to save Maid Marian. Then one day, the Merry Men attack the castle, find you and shoot you in the throat as a traitor.
170* YouWillBeBeethoven: Wait! You ''don't want'' to be UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan! (from ''House of Danger'')
171----
172Suddenly, after warping through various strange wormholes and multiple dimensions, you find yourself in front of a lighted screen, reading a TV Tropes web page.
173
174'''The End'''

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