Fighting Fantasy/YMMV


 * Alternate Character Interpretation: Zagor, Evil Warlock seeking to rule all of Allansia and plunder it's treasures to add to his collection on Firetop Mountain? Or a Designated Villain that only wants to be left alone? Were the heroes that killed him each time he was revived doing so for the greater good of the world, or solely seeking treasure for themselves?
 * Broken Base: Any gamebook made by the author Jonathan Green falls under this trope. This is due to his books containing a forced linear path, multiple instant death scenarios and unforgiving Nintendo Hard battle encounters.
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: Having to impersonate an Orc at an orcish funeral in Battleblade Warrior.
 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: The ending of Legend of the Shadow Warriors  Yes, an emotionally mature and morally sound ending to a Fighting Fantasy gamebook, supposedly targeted at violent adolescents.
 * Ending Fatigue - Caverns of the Snow Witch has you fight the Snow Witch halfway through. Then you spend the rest of the book gallivanting around the world to cure yourself of her curse.
 * This is because Caverns of the Snow Witch was originally a half-size adventure written for a magazine. When it was released in book form, the "Part Two" portion of the book was added in order to bring it up to full size. Interestingly, this has the odd effect of giving you both styles of Fighting Fantasy: Dungeon Crawler, as seen in Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Temple of Death, and Deathtrap Dungeon; and Open World, as enjoyed in Star Strider, Creature of Havoc, and Sword of the Samurai - the first half of Caverns is the leadup to, and traversing of, a dungeon, while the second half is the slightly more linear/roleplay-focused open-world segment.
 * Esoteric Happy Ending: The good ending of House of Hell is just oozing Catharsis.
 * Evil Is Sexy: Just about every female villain in the whole series.
 * Nightmare Fuel -- A lot of the illustrations swung this way. Of particular note is Beneath Nightmare Castle, which also had some genuinely disturbing monsters, and a scene in which the player has to slaughter a gang of children armed with knives. Many of the deaths the player can suffer also come under this trope.
 * Beneath Nightmare Castle was notable in that they couldn't print one of the illustrations drawn for the book — namely, that of a woman with tentacles emerging from her mouth — because it was deemed too disturbing for children.
 * The Problem with Licensed Games: There were a few text adventures based on books from the series and a PS 1 version of Deathtrap Dungeon, all of which were pretty execrable.
 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Night of the Necromancer, where
 * Tear Jerker -- In Deathtrap Dungeon, when you are forced to
 * Also, you can't save the elf warrior, as she's already mortally wounded before you intervene, but she's grateful to you for trying.
 * In Night of the Necromancer,
 * That One Boss: Razzak, the Big Bad and final enemy of Crypt of the Sorcerer, if he hits you twice in a row, he wins as you are enslaved by his power. And given his SKILL score(12) and STAMINA score(20) it's nigh-impossible to win normally.