Horribly obscure question

[Somebloke]

Okay,

Everyone remember the old Fighting Fantasy Books? The choose-your-own adventure books with dice rolls that everyone inevitably cheated on? Good.

Now does anyone else remember a little-known series that followed the same format but put you in the role of Thesius, the greek hero, sent to kill the minotaur? It was a three part series, with part one dealing with reaching Minos, part two involved with getting to kill the minotaur, and part three escaping Minos and returning to Greece?

Okay, by this stage there are decidedly less of you who actually know what I am talking about. But just to be more precise-

When I was a small child, I followed the books. I managed to obtain the first two and waited eagerly for the third one. Then, one shining day, I finally got it. Filled with pages and pages of Greek mayhem.

I statted my character and opened up the first page, reading 'page' 1. It didn't give me any other choices but rather asked me to turn to a second number.

Where I died.

No chance to make a decision, no dice to roll, I was killed by the three Fates for killing the king of Minos and then marrying his daughter. There was an option to invoke Zeus in the rules that I thought might have applied; it didn't. I just....died. The rest of the adventure seemed to be some sort filler, part of a horrible tease to make small children cry.

My question- to anyone out there who may have ever read the series....

What the ****? Did anyone ever figure out what was going on? Was there something I missed? Can anyone finally put this to rest for me? Anyone?

I appreciate it's a bit of a long shot, but still...

[SmartAlec]

The Cretan Chronicles was a right git of a series for presenting these oh-no-you're-dead situations.

In this series, there was an interesting mechanic called 'taking a hint'. Some paragraph numbers were written in italics. If you spotted that, then you could add 20 to the page number and turn to a new paragraph, which would sometimes give you a new insight on the situation, could allow you to avoid potentially lethal misfortunes, and would sometimes give you bonus honor or extra shame.

In this case, the third book (Return of the Wanderer) actually began with a paragraph in italics, and it's not easy to spot, because it's hard to tell if the number 1 is italicised or not if it's on its' own. If you took a hint from paragraph 1, then you would immediately give orders to your crew to leave, and you'd abandon Ariadne on Naxos. That spares you from being condemned to death as a kin-slayer, but the breaking of your marriage-promise sets up the rest of the doomed, Odyssey-esque voyage home.

As an aside, the end to that series was one of the most depressing reads I've ever come across, as the hero of the series gradually moves from being an Epic Hero to a Tragic Hero. If you want to know the end, it's below.

After returning home to find his father dead, taking ship across the Aegean and being shipwrecked several times, ending up on islands and North Africa, visiting Hades and coming back, and travelling through a Greece that is much darker and more hostile than in the first book, the hero returns to his home village to find it's been burned to the ground, and there are no survivors except for a wounded, dying man, who tells you the Trojans did it. And although Ariadne died in childbirth offscreen earlier in the book, the text hints that one day the hero will be murdered by their vengeful daughter.

That's the final paragraph, and a bleak end it is too.

[Somebloke]

The Cretan Chronicles was a right git of a series for presenting these oh-no-you're-dead situations.

In this series, there was an interesting mechanic called 'taking a hint'. Some paragraph numbers were written in italics. If you spotted that, then you could add 20 to the page number and turn to a new paragraph, which would sometimes give you a new insight on the situation, could allow you to avoid potentially lethal misfortunes, and would sometimes give you bonus honor or extra shame.

In this case, the third book (Return of the Wanderer) actually began with a paragraph in italics, and it's not easy to spot, because it's hard to tell if the number 1 is italicised or not if it's on its' own. If you took a hint from paragraph 1, then you would immediately give orders to your crew to leave, and you'd abandon Ariadne on Naxos. That spares you from being condemned to death as a kin-slayer, but the breaking of your marriage-promise sets up the rest of the doomed, Odyssey-esque voyage home.

As an aside, the end to that series was one of the most depressing reads I've ever come across, as the hero of the series gradually moves from being an Epic Hero to a Tragic Hero. If you want to know the end, it's below.

After returning home to find his father dead, taking ship across the Aegean and being shipwrecked several times, ending up on islands and North Africa, visiting Hades and coming back, and travelling through a Greece that is much darker and more hostile than in the first book, the hero returns to his home village to find it's been burned to the ground, and there are no survivors except for a wounded, dying man, who tells you the Trojans did it. And although Ariadne died in childbirth offscreen earlier in the book, the text hints that one day the hero will be murdered by their vengeful daughter.

That's the final paragraph, and a bleak end it is too.Thanks a million.

Although from what you say it may have been better all round that I never got past page 1.

[Manicotti]

The Cretan Chronicles was a right git of a series for presenting these oh-no-you're-dead situations.

In this series, there was an interesting mechanic called 'taking a hint'. Some paragraph numbers were written in italics. If you spotted that, then you could add 20 to the page number and turn to a new paragraph, which would sometimes give you a new insight on the situation, could allow you to avoid potentially lethal misfortunes, and would sometimes give you bonus honor or extra shame.

In this case, the third book (Return of the Wanderer) actually began with a paragraph in italics, and it's not easy to spot, because it's hard to tell if the number 1 is italicised or not if it's on its' own. If you took a hint from paragraph 1, then you would immediately give orders to your crew to leave, and you'd abandon Ariadne on Naxos. That spares you from being condemned to death as a kin-slayer, but the breaking of your marriage-promise sets up the rest of the doomed, Odyssey-esque voyage home.

As an aside, the end to that series was one of the most depressing reads I've ever come across, as the hero of the series gradually moves from being an Epic Hero to a Tragic Hero. If you want to know the end, it's below.

After returning home to find his father dead, taking ship across the Aegean and being shipwrecked several times, ending up on islands and North Africa, visiting Hades and coming back, and travelling through a Greece that is much darker and more hostile than in the first book, the hero returns to his home village to find it's been burned to the ground, and there are no survivors except for a wounded, dying man, who tells you the Trojans did it. And although Ariadne died in childbirth offscreen earlier in the book, the text hints that one day the hero will be murdered by their vengeful daughter.

That's the final paragraph, and a bleak end it is too.

You're right. The ending is some terrible mashup of the Odyssey and Oedipus Rex with none of the closure of either. I almost want to read this now, just to see how disappointing it is.