>>5888332oops, I made a mistake, Joe Dever of Lone Wolf is actually a British author (I got confused because I remember watching some youtube interview with him, I think he actually spent some of his music career?? in America and he based his gamebook systems from his experiences playing in American dungeons and dragons and wargaming tournaments). I mentioned it before, but I have tremendous respect for Joe Dever because when he died, he donated nearly all his game books with beautiful art illustrations for free to the internet, you can play them all online here
https://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/BooksThe Lone Wolf series set in the world of Magnamund is iconic, I have that starting gamebook weapon choice illustration burned upon my mind lol. You may recognise the style of many of those black and white illustrations as similar to that era of warhammer and also Brian Jacques Redwall (I forget the artist name, but he did many old warhammer illustrations and some of the interior Redwall decorative art too I think). However I believe the quartet of gamebooks called Grey Star The Wizard (set in Magnamund the Joe Dever fantasy world, but where you play a wizard instead of a warrior monk / knight) which was written by one of his friends is actually superior and also shorter, the writing is far more vivid (also, you get a girlfriend in that Grey Star wizard series. If I remember correctly Lone Wolf rescues a maiden and also gets to look at one leopard cat lady or something, but no romance).
https://projectaon.proboards.com/thread/3033/lone-wolf-unique-cover-differences