The Riddling Reaver (1986) is another Fighting Fantasy series oddity. It is the lone support for the Fighting Fantasy RPG and while it advertises itself as four scenarios, it is really more like one scenario in four parts, chasing the titular trickster (he’s a bit like FF’s version of Arcade, or Mr. Myxlplyx) through an increasingly implausible gauntlet. If you ever wondered what the unholy offspring of Fighting Fantasy and Looney Tunes might be like, this book gives some suitably zany insight. It’s not really my cuppa. Lots of puns. Lots of silly stuff like powdered monsters (just add water!) and stuffed “decoy” Reavers. It certainly doesn’t work as a sit-and-read gamebook like the rest of the series. I can see it maybe working in group play, though, the way a funhouse dungeon might, but I also, like a game of Toon, I can’t imagine sustaining a group’s interest for more than 90 or so minutes at a time. That’s partly just down to how rigid the linearity is — it’s still structured like a gamebook, so players have limited options at every junction and they all have clear results. It reminds me a lot of the board game versions of Choose Your Own Adventure books, actually! Those are good fun, too, though we would set it aside for the night at the end of each chapter.

Cover by Peter Andrew Jones. Interior art by Leo Hartas and Brian Williams. I like some of the looks at the more surreal rooms. The maps are good, too.