Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Planet Of The Dragons Alternate Endings Part 1


What happens if we go to Earth and ignore the Alcor water planet in CHOICE #5?  Millie's dad gives some encouragement, saying "these gauges aren't too accurate", but that will make readers wonder if the "position in space" measurements are equally faulty. 


LOSS OF POWER


So says the alarm when our fuel is exhausted.  I order the computer to "Deploy parachutes!", but I hear a CRASH! and am knocked out.  Surprisingly, it's still a Good Ending, though it lacks an illustration and is only a few lines long.


"How sweet it is, when you come to, to see the friendly faces of Earthlings, helping you out of your battered spaceship.  Good old Earth, you think.  It's still the best planet in the galaxy.  THE END"


Earth at least doesn't have a dragon problem, or a "0% dry land" problem.



Results So Far


2 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Planet Of The Dragons Alternate Endings Part 2


As you'd expect, a nylon tent is no match for a "death storm" in CHOICE #4.  This is why you should take Millie's advice rather than the protagonist's.


"You and Millie quickly unpack the tent and set it up.  You try to anchor it to the ground as firmly as you can.  You're able to crawl inside only seconds before the storm arrives.  The storm is a very bad one, as 'death storms' always are.  The tent, with you and Millie inside, is swept up by the gale and blown for almost a mile before being deposited in the deep gully that becomes your grave.  THE END"


We're on a Planet Of The Dragons!  What do you mean we can't go to Oz too?


Results So Far


2 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Planet Of The Dragons Alternate Endings Part 3


Once more my character gives dreadful advice.  Opting to return to the life pod in CHOICE #3 to send a distress call leads to the more optimistic type of Inconclusive Ending, rather than the victories gained from Millie's decisions.


"You make it safely back to your life pod and insert the cadmium battery in the emergency beacon.  Instantly, the monitor shows that your signal is being sent into space at the speed of light.  Space is so vast, you know that no patrol ship from Earth will receive the message for years.  Your only hope is that friendly aliens patroling [sic] nearby will pick it up and come to your rescue.


You set out to return to Millie and her father.  With your help perhaps they can hold out against the dragons.  Maybe, like certain plagues that have visited Earth, the dragons will die out in time.  At least now you have the hope of rescue.  THE END"


Not only are the rescue chances low, as I suspected, but this isn't even an ansible.  What's more likely is that we run out of fuel and the robo-dragons grill us, or a "death storm" rips the house apart.  Or that the Taurons come instead and enslave everyone.  Remember, in this timeline we didn't find that nearby cave with enough deuterium to get off Tambor.  The only disease that will stop these dragons is a computer virus.


Results So Far


2 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Planet Of The Dragons Alternate Endings Part 4


Turns out the Millie plot was only a minor detour compared to the rest of Planet Of The Dragons.  When I go to check out the rising spheres in CHOICE #2, I'm surrounded by bird people wielding spears.  They look like vultures in the illustration.  One birdman picks me up with his talons and takes me to his tent village in the sky, which is supported by the floating spheres.  The bird language is "grunts", but a birdwoman picks up English quickly in spite of it being "very difficult".  The bird people are called "hyskos", and seem to speak by telepathy most of the time.


CHOICE #6 is to become a hysko on Page 93, or go back to land on Page 108.  The narration suggests that the girl I'm playing as prefers to remain earthbound:  "Does that mean I'll have to fly?  You'd like to go back to the ground, but it might be safer to play along with them for the moment".


Well, without Millie's laser pistol I have no chance against dragons on the ground!  The hysko wings are indeed artificial.  The birdwoman, now named Sarda, gets a child-size wing and harness set for me.  It's likely that most hyskos are bigger than humans, since Sarda says "Even though you are no longer a child, it will fit you better."


Sarda believes "sink or swim" is the best flight school.  "Can't I take a course or something first?  I haven't the slightest idea what to do?"  One factor in my favor is the low gravity of Tambor.  (That could explain the thin atmosphere!  Wait a minute.  How am I breathing again?)


The title is technically false.  Tambor is not a true Planet Of The Dragons, and Sarda explains that the dragons are alien invaders.  We don't call Earth "Mars" because it was invaded by Martians in War of the Worlds.  The problem for the hyskos is that the dragons have forced the local game to hide underground.  Sarda thinks that because I "come from space", I could come up with original ideas that the hyskos had not thought of.


One dragon 100 feet in the air "doesn't seem to be concerned about what's happening above it."  All the hyskos have are spears that don't penetrate the dragon's metal hide.  "If the dragon isn't real, it should have two weak spots:  its mouth, where it takes in air, and its sensors, most likely located in the bulge between its eyes."


CHOICE #7 is which place to attack:  air intake on Page 86, or sensors on Page 57.  The air intake seems best because that might be the equivalent of a vital organ.  Although that may carry the risk of fire breath.


"You drop down in front of the dragon's mouth.  If it breathes fire at this moment, you'll be cooked in midair.  But you drive the spear into the dragon's throat anyway.  Its engine sputters-you've jammed the intake valve!  A few seconds later, the mechanical monster plummets silently to the ground.  The hyskos now know how to defeat the dragons.  It's only a matter of time before all the artificial dragons are destroyed.  That evening, back at the city in the air, the hyskos award you every honor they have.  It's a wonderful celebration.  Tomorrow will be soon enough to think about getting back to Earth.  THE END"


No picture for this total victory over the dragons?  I'm wondering where the name "hyskos" for the bird people came from.  Is it a genus or species?  Or did Richard Brightfield read a history of Egypt, and then thought "Hyksos" would be a good name for aliens, only to transpose letters in the process?


Millie and her dad probably survive in this ending if the hyskos kill the dragons in time.   


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Planet Of The Dragons Alternate Endings Part 5


Attacking the dragon's sensors in the CHOICE #7 midair combat is as ineffective as suspected.


"You land on the dragon's head, just above the hump between its eyes.  Hoping to knock out its sensors, you raise your spear and plunge it down.  You were right in thinking you had found the dragon's sensors.  The only trouble is that it used them to sense you!  With a jerk of its head the beast sends out a long tongue of orange-blue flame-and a moment later, there's nothing left of you but falling cinders!  THE END"


It's surprising that it took until ending #6 to find a dragon-related Death.  They can't kill you at all in the Millie branch.  I wonder if Planet of the Dragons is going to have a structure like Hijacked!, where the "hide under the bus" route was much more dangerous than the "go to the terrorists' island" route.


The illustration shows an obviously robotic dragon head.  Its eyes look like they're made out of glass, and the nose and jaws look metallic.  Contrast that with the cover's illustration of a standard European type dragon.  The flames on the cover look like typical fire, while this ending gives the dragons "orange-blue" flames.  This leads me to believe that the cover illustrator was divorced from the rest of the process of creating Planet Of The Dragons. 


(This seems to be a common problem in publishing:  Stephen Jay Gould complained about translations of his books including the "ape to man march of progress" drawing in spite of his efforts to refute such simplistic ideas of evolution.)


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

2 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Planet Of The Dragons Alternate Endings Part 6


No matter what, it is safer to "play along" with the hyskos in CHOICE #6.  Even if you attack the dragon's sensor, you still last for one more CHOICE before you croak!


"I'd rather go back to the ground,' you say.  'Then back to the ground it is,' the birdwoman says in a hard voice.  She goes back into the tent.  A few seconds later, two of the male hyskos come out.  They take you by one arm and carry you to the edge of the floating platform, where they toss you off and out into space.  As you're falling, you wonder whether they think you can fly.  'Not that it matters much,' you say to a passing hawk.  THE END"


Sarda's offer of becoming a hysko is one you can't refuse.  Maybe the protagonist should take Douglas Adams's advice for flying:  throw yourself at the ground and miss.


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

3 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Planet Of The Dragons Alternate Endings Part 7


As I head toward the smoking area in the distance of CHOICE #1, the book reveals the "twist" that you could figure out from looking at the cover.  "They're dragons!  With their huge, batlike wings, their hideous, scaled bodies, and orange-blue flames shooting from their mouths, there's no doubt about it.  And you'd always thought dragons were mythical!"


I jump into a natural foxhole, and my hair is "scorched".  A creature "about half your size" appears who has a nose "more than half his face".  He asks where I'm from, and I'm surprised he can understand me at all.  He says he's not reading my mind, "but the language in your head."  Planet Tambor had so many languages that its residents had to gain psychic abilities to understand each other.  Did they not figure out how to learn multiple languages, as Africans frequently do, or at least develop a trade pidgin like Sabir?


My conversation partner is Keesa of the Dern tribe.  He says there used to be cities on Tambor until the "space dragons" attacked.  Now I learn that Tambor really is a Planet Of The Dragons, as Keesa says "dragons of flesh and blood" are a native species.  The space dragons are robotic. 


What wasn't mentioned in the bird people plot was that the hyskos' "prey" driven into hiding by the space dragons was actually "unwary Derns".  That Good Ending may have been a Death for the Dern species.  The smoking buildings in the distance are the ruins of a city called Shanar.  Keesa was searching for clues in the library there, and a scientist called Dr. Nekai wants to invent a method of "sound power" to beat the space dragons.


(In another page-flipping incident, the book goes from 4 to 17 to 5.  Why not 4-5, then 17?)


CHOICE #8 is whether to go with Keesa to Shanar's ruins on Page 24, or go underground to the Dern tribe on Page 70.


I have to crawl to get through the tunnels designed for a species half of a kid's size, but the "phosphorescent walls" prevent me from getting lost.  CHOICE #9 is a Left or Right decision with a pun.  Keesa tells the player character "make sure you take the right hole", and she's uncertain as to mean the hole on the right or "right" as in "correct".  This trick question wouldn't work in Spanish, since they don't use "right" for "correct", although the word for political rights is indeed "derecho".  How do other translations handle this part?


The Left hole on Page 110 is so big I "don't even have to stoop", while the Right hole on Page 67 is tiny and appears "dusty and unused".  Let's take Keesa literally and see what happens.


The Right hole eventually leads to an underground lake, and on the shore is a convenient rowboat with two oars.  CHOICE #10 is to walk along the shore on Page 65, or take the rowboat across the lake on Page 114.  If there's a rowboat in the first place, that must mean there are people who use them.  It abruptly leads to an ending, even though it feels like the story should have continued.


"The boat was built for Derns, and because of its small size, it's awkward to row.  Gradually you're able to move the craft.  Slowly the opposite shore becomes clearer.  You can make out little houses shaped like beehives.  You see scores of Derns.  They wave and gesture for you to come ashore.  They look friendly enough, and you run toward them.  They are friendly, particularly after you tell them that Keesa sent you.  They give you food and drink and soft bedding on which to sleep.


You stay with the Derns for many months, but Keesa never returns, and later you hear that he was killed by the dragons.  The Derns tell you that someday the dragons will be defeated or die out.  Then you'll be able to live once more on the surface, and perhaps even return to Earth.  In the meantime, you hope desperately that they know what they're talking about!  THE END"


Not even a Death by drowning where my human size breaks the tiny boat?  I'll call this a Bad Non-Death Ending since Keesa is confirmed to be dead, and the player is under siege by the dragons indefinitely.  The Dern noses in the picture look like beaks, and their houses are more like giant Easter eggs than beehives.


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

3 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Planet Of The Dragons Alternate Endings Part 8


Living in hiding in the Dern village forever is at least better than the other CHOICE #10 path of staying on the shore.


"You leave the boat behind and head along the shore.  As you follow the lake around the curving shoreline, you're alarmed to find the beach littered with bones.  Mostly they look like fish bones, but some look like the bones of Derns!  Suddenly, you hear a crunching sound behind you.  You turn to see a huge snake slithering up the beach.  You try to run, but another great snake blocks the way.  You see others swimming toward you, and when you turn the beach is full of them!  Your bones are soon added to those on the beach.  THE END"


Cedric the Owl wants to know if the snake is POIsonous, but Richard Brightfield doesn't say.  The picture shows my character anxiously looking behind her as the snakes slither on the shore and lake.  The sky overhead is black to indicate the cave ceiling.  Humanoid skulls with the Dern nose cavity litter the beach.  It's a fair Death, since the rowboat should have been enough of a hint to look for the Derns on the far shore.


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

4 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Planet Of The Dragons Alternate Endings Part 9


The Left hole in CHOICE #9 is suspiciously large.  Could it even be dragon sized?


"You take the hole on the left.  Again you keep going through a series of chambers.  Many of them lead to more than one other chamber.  You have to choose again and again which way to go.  By the time you realize you made the wrong choice, it's too late.  You're hopelessly lost.  There's no way of finding your way back.  You're trapped in an endless maze.  THE END"


What I'm wondering is how long my character can hold out before this Death.  Does she find pools, streams, or at least moisture on the walls to lick?  Does she find a Tambor equivalent to the "cave crickets" that Mark Trail would eat in a dire situation?


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

5 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Planet Of The Dragons Alternate Endings Part 10


It looks like the first 47.62% of Planet Of The Dragons is only a detour from the real plot, which involves exploring Shanar with Keesa in CHOICE #8.  Everything before that is just smugglers in Dinosaur Canyon.


The space dragons haven't completely destroyed Shanar.  Some buildings remain that have "shimmering, crystalline shapes".  It isn't properly cheap science fiction without crystal architecture.  Keesa warns me to hide as a sound of "many feet crunching along" passes by.  These are tympors, the former mounts of the Derns.  Tympors have a similar body plan to a horse, although their legs and heads are thinner, and their four eyes are on stalks.


Keesa thinks the tympors are looking for food, since the space dragons incinerated Shanar's granaries.  The tympors hear the space dragons approaching before we do, and CHOICE #11 is whether to go to the countryside on Page 84, or the Shanar underground on Page 20.  I feel like going spelunking again.


The landing is rough.  "Ow!  My knee!"  It's only skinned, and doesn't have an arrow sticking out of it.  Keesa tells me we have to wait until our eyes adjust to the darkness, and it's implied even he doesn't know what's down here.  This is an unstable cavern, as implied by the rubble from previous cave-ins.  After a long walk, we stumble directly into Dr. Nekai's laboratory.  Dr. Nekai has a beard long enough to shame Gandalf.


Dr. Nekai's latest technology is "glass and ceramic jars" with "crystalline sphere" caps.  These emit music that attracts space dragons.  Unfortunately, he's not bright enough to avoid a demonstration where the dragons can reach him!  The dragons attack the laboratory ceiling until Dr. Nekai plays repulsion music from the jar.  He calls it an "acoustic bottle".


Dr. Nekai claims that the acoustic bottle confirms the dragons are robots, although biological life forms are certainly attracted or repulsed by sounds on Earth!  Supposedly he has "other experiments" which are otherwise unmentioned to back up this idea.  Keesa says that Tambor's true dragons became endangered after the space dragon invasion, and that they now stay in caves. 


Dr. Nekai believes the space dragons are an alien weapon that was meant to strike a similar planet to Tambor, but wound up on the Planet Of The Dragons by mistake.  He knows that his acoustic bottles won't work on the entire planet, but perhaps they could sabotage the base where the space dragons are repair.  Eventually the space dragons would succumb to neglect.


The scientist has a "bad leg", so he can't be a companion for the rest of the journey.  He tells us to go to the Rhegi Plateau, which is across the Darblon Mountains according to Keesa.  CHOICE #12 is whether to set out immediately on Page 9, or return to the life pod to gather equipment on Page 79.  The latter is probably the right decision, as the life pod has an "all-weather parka" and "ropes", which sound essential to mountain climbing.


Are the supplies a red herring?  I get conked on the head as Keesa "lets out a scream and starts running back toward the plain."  My acoustic bottle lands on the ground, and a flying creature grabs Keesa and me.  It's a hysko, not a space dragon.  They need us to help them kill the dragons so the Dern prey population can be replenished.  "I can't say I have much sympathy for them, since I'm a Dern myself."


The hyskos say their spears are useless, but they've never tried to thrust them into the dragons' air intake in this timeline.  The floating spheres are made of the yerya plant, which grows in Tambor's only swamp.  Another fact you'd think they'd mention in the hysko route!  CHOICE #11 is to ask the hyskos to either send you to the life pod on Page 91, or Shanar on Page 102.


Let's try to find Dr. Nekai again.  His laboratory is burning, and the acoustic bottles are shattered.  I see a message in the Dern script with a diagram which could point me to him.  CHOICE #14 is whether to look for Dr. Nekai on Page 109 with the diagram, or admit defeat and "face the hyskos" on Page 87.


CHOICE #15 is another Left or Right decision.  Left is on Page 116, and is suggested to be "a room that could be Dr. Nekai's new laboratory."  Right is Page 82, and could be either a dead end or a staircase.  Left is correct.  His former lab was destroyed because he used the attraction song too much.  He's made a superior version of the acoustic bottle that could affect all of Tambor if he can use it from midair.  My character immediately thinks of the hyskos.  Dr. Nekai "frowns" at the idea of enlisting the predatory bird people, but admits that the space dragons are a higher priority.  The bottle is heavy in spite of Tambor's low gravity.  How much would it weigh on Earth?


I make a deal with the hyskos:  if they give up eating Derns, I'll use the acoustic bottle.  The hyksos have learned to eat other meat in the meantime anyway, and Derns are a "very rare delicacy" now.  You can imagine a Prothean having a similar conversation with a Salarian in the Mass Effect games.


"Again and again you tap the bottle.  Loud as it is, your ears can stand it, so beautiful are the tones and overtones making up the harmonic pulse of sound.  You can only compare it to a chord played on a great organ.  The hyskos fly out in all directions to survey the effects of Dr. Nekai's bottle.  In a few hours the reports come back:  Everywhere, the dragons are dropping from the sky.  Peace has come again to Tambor.  THE END"


Until the hyskos decide to eat Derns again.  Now that the dragons are dead, and they know the secret of classical music weaponry, they don't need to honor their promise.


After this long post, we're over halfway through Planet Of The Dragons.


Results So Far


4 Good Endings

5 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings