Why Dice Book?

So some people have asked me why I chose the name:Dice Book Publishing, as the name for my company. There are probably a few ways to answer this question. I'm gonna go for the longer one. How many of you remember reading Choose Your Own Adventure (COYA) books growing up? I read a few. If you don't know what a COYA book is, it's a book in which you as the reader are the protagonist. You make choices, and depending on those choices the story will change. This generally meant the story would either end, or continue. My favorite CYOA books growing up were those that initiated me (as well as anyone else that read them) into the popular morphing alien fighting force, the Animorphs. Author Christina Applegate, did wonders in sparking my imagination as I whizzed through the books as a house fly, tore through hordes of aliens as a hyena, and interacted with beloved characters like Marco and Rachel from her hit series. They were cool. The only problem I had was, if you chose wrong...you died.Sadly, that's how most of the COYA books are written. Upon death, you are invited to go back to the previous page, and choose another path...hopefully one that allows the story to continue until your next death, or you complete whatever objective the author has laid out in order to complete the book. While the books are still fun, I always felt like there should be more than just Live or Die options. Even when given three or more options the outcomes never changed. Only one of those options had an outcome in which you as the protagonist managed to continue the story.Fast forward a few years. In the summers between college I worked as a stock boy. One summer, I became friends with one of my co-workers, Drew. Over the course of the summer I'd see him writing on pieces of cardboard and bits of paper he'd find lying around the store's backroom. I'd ask him what he was writing. At first he was hesitant to share, perhaps fearing judgment or ridicule. Perhaps he was a closet poet and he feared public criticism? Perhaps a budding novelist? When I finally pried the answer from him the answer wasn't far off from the latter. He was a Dungeon Master (DM). He was writing a campaign for a role playing game he and some other friends from work were playing. Barring video games, I'd never experienced a role playing game (RPG). Traditional RPG's involved several people gather at an agreed upon location. One of those people then proceeded to tell a story. The other people in the group then acted as characters within the story, using various tools (usually dice) and systems to measure the success of their actions and determine how the story progressed. If you think it sounds similar to a CYOA, then you can probably guess where this is going.I began joining Drew and his friends in these weekly campaigns. We'd play the parts of wizards, each of us specializing in different schools of magic and trades. I personally specialized in Time and Fate magic, though don't ask me what exactly that meant, I wasn't entirely sure then. These games lasted for weeks until I was forced to go back to school. After leaving I missed them. I missed the mental exercise it brought when trying to determine the best course of action to further the story. I missed affecting the story in wild and unexpected ways, and the idea that the story could unfold in a plethora of ways based on the roll of a dice. Now while having a group to play these RPG games is always fun, alot of times (like in my case) finding people willing to devote their time, their money (if you want group pizza) and make themselves vulnerable by exposing their imagination and creativity to strangers...is difficult. So, what if you could take the best qualities of a traditional RPG and a traditional CYOA, and combine them?Dice Book was born. Dice books are the marriage between RPG's and CYOA's, using a level up dice system influenced by the reader's choices and multiple ways to get to the end of the story. While death is definitely still possible, it is no longer a definite. Dice books enable the readers to embark on solo adventures, still encouraging smart decisions based on context, but allowing flexibility with every choice. Given the choice between sneaking past an army of Orcs, fighting them head on, or perhaps use magical relic to transform them into dandelions? Of those three options which do you think is best?Charging the hoard head on? Are you sure? Ok roll a perfect 20. Now there's a possibility based on your previous choices that you may be able to roll a perfect twenty. If you did, the story would progress to a scene of carnage, in which you advanced, brimming with confidence and blood-lust into a wave of enemies. With every twitch of your wrist another orc fell. With every beat of your heart an orcs heart stopped. By the end both you and the sloshing dirt below you was stained in the blood of your foes as the remaining Orcs fled in efforts to escape with their entrails still intact....That's one possibility. But lets say you rolled less than a 20. Well then the story would again most likely lead to a scene of carnage...however this time it would be your bloody entrails littering the ground instead of your foes. In hindsight you may have wanted to go with the sneaky route, needing only a measly 13 in order to succeed, or perhaps the Arcane flower power stole your fancy, rolling an attainable 10 to make hippies everywhere proud? You can see the story could evolve in a variety of ways, where death is certainly possible but again, not certain. So stay tuned, and I'll keep you posted.