Wizards Warriors & You was a series of children's gamebooks, inspired by Dungeons & Dragons and early text adventure games like Zork and Colossal Cave, published by Avon Books in the 1980s. They were published by Parachute Press Inc.
The books were invariably set in Medieval England, which was ruled by King Henry. They all starred a nameless Wizard and Warrior, and began with the reader choosing which of the two characters (s)he would "play", with the other character providing a supporting role. At the back of the book the reader would find individual inventories for the characters: The Book of Spells for the Wizard, The Book of Weapons for the Warrior. The two characters' paths through the book were independent of one another, diverging after the introduction, and only reconverging at the end.
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The Warrior was a knight of King Henry, and one of his most trusted lieutenants. This character was highly skilled in individual combat, an expert marksman, and highly intelligent. If the reader chose the Warrior, he could choose three weapons listed in The Book of Weapons to take with him on the adventure, along with the Sword of the Golden Lion (an indestructible sword forged by the same smith as Excalibur). Many of these weapons were enchanted in some way, or their origins were shrouded in mystery.
The Wizard was King Henry's wise and powerful sorcerer. His spells and concoctions were known to fell even the mightiest foe. Unfortunately, even though The Wizard could always conjure his spells successfully, some of them were unpredictable in their effectiveness or duration. At times they would have the reverse effect of what was intended. If the reader chose the Wizard, he had access to all of the spells listed in the back of the book.
The Wizard and the Warrior were friends and companions in their duty to King Henry, and would set out on quests to defend either Castle Silvergate, King Henry's home, or the wider country. Each story involved some sort of fantasy element, including magic, dragons, enchanted forests, even alternate universes and time travel.
The U.S. release of the series was illustrated by Earl Norem, including covers in full colour. Curiously, the Warrior's full face was never shown in any of the books. Even when the visor of his helmet was raised, most of his facial features remained in shadow.
The books followed the standard "Choose Your Own Adventure" formula (i.e., "You're standing in front of a castle. If you go though the front door, turn to page X, if you go around to the side, turn to page Y"), but also featured "flagged" choices that were determined by choices earlier in the book (i.e., "If you already have the Bottomless Basket of Ravencurse, turn to page X, otherwise, turn to page Y." or, in the Warrior's story, "if you brought along the Whistling Mace, turn to page X. Otherwise you'll have to use your trusty sword and turn to page Y.") The books attempted to introduce a further "RPG-like" element with the inclusion of randomization to determine events such as the outcome of a battle or success of a spell, which would be influenced by the reader flipping a coin, rolling a die, or by the current day of the week. These RPG-like elements were designed for young readers, and were thus very simple, as opposed to the complex mechanics of the teen-oriented Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf series of gamebooks.
Many of the books in the series were written by R. L. Stine, who later rose to fame for his Goosebumps series of children's horror novels.
The Warrior's choice of weapons, and the Wizard's repertoire of spells, changed every six books.