Lindenbaum AI policy

 Hello gamebookers!

The times, they are a changin'. I mean, they are changing too fast for anyone to keep up with these days.

Now that Lindenbaum '26 is around the corner, the judges and I had a little think about AI. The catalyst for this was last year's winner, Pádraic Henrysson-MacOireachtaigh, who wrote An Island who wrote in his acknoweldgements that he used ChatGPT and Gemini to playtest his book.

Here is his quote about that in the acknowledgements section of the book:

"I used AI tools (ChatGPT and Gemini) as early ‘playtesters’ and occasionally to refine ideas – but the mechanics, story, and words are as much my own as a creative work ever is."

So the wave of AI has hit the Lindenbaum competition and we needed to think about how to deal with it.

My main aim is to make sure that AI generated books don't take part in the competition. Pádraic wrote the book himself and used AI to improve it.

First, I tried to see how good an AI gamebook could be.

I tried to ask Chat GPT to make a gamebook using the Lindenbaum rules as a prompt. Here is its output Lindenbaum 2026 Guide.

If you don't want to read the thread, the gamebook produced was very minimalistic. I tried to ask it for at least 80 sections and it couldn't manage more than 40. Its sections were also very terse.

Basically, if that book was entered, I think it would get no votes from both judges and readers.

So no danger of a pure AI gamebook winning. I still don't want people wading through AI slop entries though.

The trouble is that there is no 100% way of spotting an AI generating book and I don't want a false positive. However, if a gamebook does not function as a gamebook, then I feel that I can disqualify it from entry. What does it need to do to function as a gamebook? It needs section choices that you can turn to and those sections need to be intact. 

There are things that just make a good gamebook in general:

Systems where the probability of success and failure are both significant. If it's impossible, it's frustrating because it can't be played fairly. If it's impossible to fail, then it's frustrating because it's a waste of time.

Section links that work.

EDIT: Enough meaningful decisions - Gamebooks need meaningful decisions. This means that most sections should end in 2 or more options that both lead to a meaningful consequence. Of course, some sections will be death sections, some might just be descriptive prose to move between scenes and some might have only 1 option that doesn't lead to sudden death. These are all valid choices.

However, if a gamebook has too many sections that just lead to 1 other section, that does not give enough meaningful choices. Also, there are some gamebooks that were clearly written as novels first and then some options were added in later. However, since the "main storyline" has already been worked out, options that deviate from that main storyline either lead to sudden death or find some way to just loop back to the main storyline, which means that it is not a meaningful decision.

Proofreading errors that make the prose hard to understand.

So, if we're not going to stop this wave, I'm just going to have to surf it. For that reason, I'm not banning AI. I'm banning nonfunctioning gamebooks.

So, what can AI be used for, if not for writing?

Here are some suggestions that AI can be used for:

Looking for broken section transitions

To make sure that all of the rules are being used an used as intended

Making sure that the difficulty of the book matches the difficulty that you would like to communicate

Playtesting

Help with translating to English

The aim is that everyone can make their gamebooks the best they can be. The biggest tragedy is an entry that has lots of great ideas, but is let down by poor statistics or proofing or broken links. AI is able to clear up all of those problems and augment peoples' ideas and writing.

I look forward to all the entries in 2026!

Lindenbaum 2026 judges

Hello gamebookers!!!!!

We have 5 judges for this year's Lindenbaum competition. 

They are the same 5 judges as last year.

Here is who they are:

Hieronymous J. Doom - presenter of the awesome Fantastic Fights podcast and writer of many gamebooks that you can get if you become his patreon.

Ashton MacSaylor - 3 time merit award winner of Windhammer, writer of The Good, The Bad and the Undead and other gamebooks (see his blog).

Keith P. Phillips - author of Siege of Sardath and currently writing A Moral Paradox with several young people. Keith is currently doing an Arts Council funded project to make a gamebook video game: Literature Alive - Digital Writes

Peter Agapov - writer of great gamebook analysis blog posts on his blog and mine. He also provides the winning prize money.

Sandor Gebei- RPG and gamebook designer

Lindenbaum 2026 announcement

 Dear gamebookers,

I hope you are all well. You might have noticed that I would have announced Lindenbaum by now and that I haven't. 

I apologise for this. Adulting is getting in the way of gamebooks at the moment.

However, the Lindenbaum Prize is going to happen - just not at the same time of year as before. The main reason is that myself and most of the judges have jobs in education and so the voting period will be during the summer holiday.

The Lindenbaum Prize is sponsored by Peter Agapov, contributor to Lloyd of Gamebooks and owner of  Augmented Reality Adventure Games who is very generously providing the first prize.

The Lindenbaum Prize is also sponsored by Crumbly Head Games who is providing free licenses to The Gamebook Authoring Tool as prizes and also has a free version of the Gamebook Authoring Tool that goes up to 100 sections.

Many thanks to Tammy Badowski for donating her time to the Lindenbaum Prize

Hi all! I am excited to announce the 3rd annual Lindenbaum competition!

The award is inspired by the Windhammer competition which ran from 2008-2015. I loved entering my books, seeing other books, voting and getting feedback. To be fair, I loved every aspect of it.

So, when it was discontinued, it left a hole. Between 2016 and now, I was very busy. However, I have a bit more time now and I was also shocked when I was on an online gamebook meetup to learn that almost no one there had heard of the Windhammer competition.

If you look at the list of Windhammer entrants, you will see a few familiar names. This is basically what kickstarted a lot of careers for the new gamebook writing crew.

I would love for that to continue with the new fans we have picked up along the way so that they can have a gateway into the gamebook community. I found the chance to meet new people and get lots of expert feedback invaluable.

So, without further ado, here are the details for the Lindenbaum competition:

Entry requirements for the 2026 Lindenbaum competition

All entries must be in English.

All entries must be original works incorporating unique characters and world settings. This can include real world settings, people and events as long as they aren't the property of someone.

All entries must be previously unpublished works.

All entrants must state clearly on the first page of their entries that they are the authors of the work submitted.

All entries must be in any format that I can edit and turn into a pdf and sent as an attachment and link to lindenbaumprize@gmail.com.

Formats I know I can do this with are: RTF, doc, docx, Google docs, pdf, - leave a comment if there is a format that you want to know about. I don't have access to Apple devices.

All character or status sheets provided with entries must be presented in a simple layout that does not include complex table formats.

All entries must be spell-checked and thoroughly tested prior to submission.

The total length of the entry does not exceed 100 sections and a word count of 25,000 words.

Illustrations will not be accepted as a part of an entry except in two specific circumstances. 

Exception 1: Maps that are integral to navigation within the gamebook.

Exception 2: Graphics necessary as a part of puzzles or clues integral to the entry's narrative.

Graphics provided for these purposes must be in a format that is compatible with pdfs.

Graphics purely of an illustrative nature will not be accepted.

The entry may either be a complete stand-alone story or a self-contained excerpt from a larger gamebook adventure of your own creation.

The entry can be of any genre except erotica.

There is no entry fee.

All rights remain with the author and the author can withdraw their entry at any time during the course of the competition.

An entrant can submit one entry only.

All participants must have some way of receiving the prize money. I can send Paypal or BACS or a cheque in the post. Any other method will need to be agreed. Account information is not required by the organisers of this competition unless you are one of the winning entrants. Only at the time of winning a prize will you be asked for your details.

Hyperlinking

I will not be doing any hyperlinking of any entries. It is up to the entrant to hyperlink their entries or not.

Competition deadlines for 2026

20th December 2025: Competition guidelines released

16th February 2026: Entry submissions begin

15th May 2026, 5pm GMT: Entry submissions close.

25th May 2025: Voting begins.*

31st July 2026, 5pm GMT: Voting closes.*

14th August 2026: Winners announced.*

* If there are more than 10 entries, these dates will be extended. The length of the extension will depend on how many entries there are.

Winning entries

This year, the winning entries will be decided from a combination of judges' decisions and reader votes. The judges' votes and the readers' votes will have equal weighting when determining the winning entry.

Judges

The judges are still being determined - more on that later.

Things the judges are looking for:

Literary ability

Good writing: i.e. vivid descriptions, believable dialogue, compelling characters and scenarios, etc.

How well the narrative flows

How good the spelling and grammar is

How engaging is the use of language is

The game system

How good the game system is at complementing the theme and setting

How intuitive the game system is

How much the game system encourages strategic thinking and offers hidden tactics that enrich the gameplay.

No blind choices (where you have no information whatsoever about which way to go)

Reasonable odds (no 1 in a 100 chance of survival rolls)

The story

Meaningful consequences of your actions (i.e. the results seem to actually follow from your choices)

How well does the story flow?

How much sense does the story make?

Technical ability

All the section links work

Every scenario, including draws or unexpected events, is adequately addressed.

Miscellaneous

How innovative is the gamebook?

How entertaining is the gamebook?

How experimental is the gamebook?

How well are these ideas executed?

Voting

A valid vote must be forwarded by email to lindenbaumprize@gmail.com. A valid vote must nominate the three gamebooks most favoured by the voter from the competition entrants. A vote with less than three nominations cannot be accepted. A vote forwarded with more than three nominations will only have the first three accounted for in the voting tabulation.

Only one voter email is allowed per reader. All votes will be checked for duplication of email addresses.

Feedback to the authors may be forwarded to the competition sponsors at lindenbaumprize@gmail.com. All feedback given will be provided to authors at the end of competition as a part of the email notification of results.

Prizes

Winning entrant

A cash prize of £100 GBP (Great British Pounds) to be paid within 48 hours.

A desktop licence to the Gamebook Authoring Tool which lasts for 1 year.

A First Prize certificate memorialising their success in the competition.

Merit awards

Two entries are chosen for Merit awards. These entrants receive:

A cash prize of £30 GBP (Great British Pounds) to be paid within 48 hours.

A Merit Award certificate memorialising their success in the competition,

Commendation awards

If there are 10 or more entries, there will be 3 commendation awards. The entrants receive:

A Commendation Certificate memorialising their success in the competition.

Gamebook writing help

If you haven't written a gamebook before, you might think that arranging and randomising the sections might be a problem. However, there are now good gamebook writing programs out there. One is The Gamebook Authoring Tool, which has a free version specifically designed to write a 100 section gamebook and export it to Rich Text Format. You can try it here: About The GameBook Authoring Tool – Crumbly Head Games

Also, for tips on writing gamebooks, take a look at the reading list I have compiled - Lloyd of Gamebooks: Want to write a gamebook? Then here's a reading list (2024 edition)

Also, also, I made a list of lessons to be learnt from last year's award - Lloyd of Gamebooks: Lessons from Lindenbaum 2023/2024

Ashton Saylor would like you to read this post in particular: Ashton MacSaylor: What makes a good gamebook - Part Two: The Game of Narrative Choices

Roll on Adventure - Immortal Reckoning review

 

Hello gamebookers. I don't normally do reviews here, but my lovely tutor group bought me this book, so I thought I would review it. 

The Roll on Adventure series is written by Phillip Harvey who has written four books in the series. I got book 1, Immortal Reckoning.

I had a great time with this gamebook. It is definitely more game than book as you are an adventurer who decides to explore a dungeon. You go through different locations, facing increasingly powerful opponents and obtaining increasingly powerful items. There were lots of numbers to crunch and lots of options available, which is something I love.

The book has pretty standard stats. Prowess is your combat skill, health is your hit points. Combat is determined by rolling 1d6 for you and adding to your prowess and 1d6 for your opponent and adding to their prowess. The highest score wins and the winner reduces their opponent's health by their damage score.

So far, so familiar.

However, Phillip has decided to add lots of ways of manipulating the rolls. You also start with 20 Prowess points. Before the combat round begins, you can spend any number of Prowess Points to increase your roll and damage by that amount for that round.

You also have lots of die rolls that determine most things, such as which room you go to, which treasure you find and how much damage you receive from hazards. These can be changed by spending Merit points. Merit points go up and down a lot. You get Merit points for almost all locations. You can then spend them to determine which location you go to next. Merit points are designed to be spent a lot as you get a lot of them.

Each location has an illustration and a description. The aim is to make your way through the dungeon to the boss monster. Once I had worked out that spending Merit is really important, I almost got to the end.

I would recommend the book to anyone who loves crunchy resource management type games and I had a great time with it.

Happy gamebooking!

The Ice Wastes of Madness - my Savage Realms gamebook is on Kickstarter!

 

Title cover for my book by Tony Hough

Hello gamebookers! Just a quick one to say that I have the privilege of becoming part of Troy Anthony Schermer's Savage Realms series!

The gamebook I have written - The Ice Wastes of Madness - is on Kickstarter now - and it is already fully funded!

I have already written all the text - the funding is for illustrations from the Legendary Fighting Fantasy illustrator, Tony Hough.

Tony Hough (as in this is an illustration he made. He doesn't look like this).

This means that you will definitely get the book if you back it and the more people who back, the more wonderful illustrations there are.

You might have worked out from the title illustration and the title that this book is a Cthulhu mythos book - more specifically, it is inspired by At the Mountains of Madness. 

Set in 2027, YOU are a geologist who is sent on an expedition to find out why contact has been lost with all the Antarctic bases. What you find there is more disturbing than you can possibly imagine...

So if you want to back it, you can go here: The Ice Wastes of Madness A CTHULHU MYTHOS GAMEBOOK by Savage Realms Gamebooks — Kickstarter

Also, also, there is another Savage realms book on the go Dread Hollow A FOLKLORIAN HORROR GAMEBOOK by Jonathon Kelly. So back that one as well! Dread Hollow A FOLKLORIAN HORROR GAMEBOOK by Jonathon Kelly by EndGame Gaming — Kickstarter

Happy gamebooking!

Results of the 2024/2025 Lindenbaum competition

Logo by Pat ONeill

I am pleased to announce that the winner of the 2024/2025 Lindenbaum Prize for short gamebook fiction is An Island by Pádraic Henrysson-MacOireachtaigh.

Merit awards go to Jason Romein for Working Ogre-Time and Lewis Amerson for Mochilla.

Commendation awards go to Jonathan Ritter for Nineteen Ninety Nine, Steffen Hagen for The Fall of the Infinite King, Sean Loftiss for Noesis and R.L. Gill for A Golden Opportunity.

I would like to thank everybody who participated, the authors and those dedicated readers who took the time to evaluate all the entries, and also a further thanks to those readers who provided feedback and comment to the authors.

If you intend to write feedback in a public place, please email me the address and I will link to it.

You can find the entries here: Lloyd of Gamebooks: Voting is now open for the 2024/2025 Lindenbaum competition!

It is no small thing to as entrants to write original gamebooks. To write a gamebook (even one that must be limited to 100 sections) requires considerable time and creative effort. It is the type of writing project that can take months to accomplish and I appreciate greatly the work done by all the authors who entered this year's competition.

Many thanks for helping make this year's competition such an excellent competition with a wide variety of gamebook genres and styles. This was the second year I ran the competition and you continued to help me make it as brilliant as it was.

I would also like to extend thanks to Peter Agapov who sponsored the competition, Tammy Badowski who donated her time and talent to the competition and Crumbly Head Games who has donated free subscriptions to GBAT for the top 3 entrants.

I would also like to thank the judges - Peter Agapov, Sandor Gobei, Keith P. Phillips, Ashton Saylor and Hieronymous J. Doom for all of the time and effort they have put in to read the entries and write feedback for them.

I feel very lucky to have so many people make this competition wonderful.

Looking forward to next year!

Voting has closed for the 2024/2025 Lindenbaum competition

 

Logo by Pat ONeill

Hello all!

Voting has now closed for the 2024/2025 Lindenbaum competition.

If you would like to leave feedback to any of the entrants, you may do so by emailing lindenbaumprize@gmail.com.

The winners will be announced on the 10th June.