Choose your own adventure

Choose your own adventure stories, online

Read a scene, make a choice, and the next scene is the one your choice made. Short stories for grown-ups, with a picture for every scene and an ending that is yours.

Play a story

  1. Pick a story

    A mystery on a night train, a villain who is hiring, a stadium full of people. Each takes five to ten minutes.

  2. Choose, or write your own move

    Every scene ends with a few choices. If none of them is what you would do, type your own and the story follows it.

  3. Reach your ending

    Then go back and take the choice you almost took. The map keeps every path and every ending you have found.

Start with one of these

Original worldThe Woman Before Station FiveA late-night train · ~6 minOne phone. Four endings. Your dead brother asked you to give his phone to Sheila, and nobody else. Two stops early, a woman with short red hair says she’s Sheila. Play this story Original worldThe Last Train Stops at TomorrowMysterious · ~8 minThe next station announcement gives tomorrow's date — and the passenger opposite is reading a newspaper with your photograph on the front. Play this story Original worldThe Villain Has a Job OfferWitty fantasy · ~6 minThe kingdom's most feared villain offers you a job. Your first assignment: rescue the prince everyone believes she kidnapped. Play this story Original worldYour First Stadium ShowBackstage drama · ~8 minForty thousand people are chanting your name. The friend who wrote your biggest song with you is blocking the dressing room door. You have one night to mess everything up. Play this story

Like the books, grown up

If you read choose-your-own-adventure books as a child, you remember the finger kept in the page you came from. These are the same idea for adults: the choices are about people, loyalty and what things cost, and the stories remember what you did. Someone you let down in the second scene is still cold to you in the sixth.

Every story here branches into several endings. Some are triumphant, some are bittersweet, and some are the price of a choice that seemed right at the time.

Free, in your browser

You can start any of our stories without an account, on a phone or a computer. Sign up (free) to keep your stories, write your own moves with live AI, and turn a path you like into a book other people can read.

Plus adds more AI-written scenes a day and a manga-style picture for every scene you write. The stories we wrote ourselves are free to play either way.

Questions

Are these choose your own adventure stories free?
Yes. Every story we wrote is free to play, with or without an account. Live AI scenes for your own moves have a free daily allowance; Plus raises it and adds pictures.
How long does one story take?
Most take five to ten minutes to reach an ending. Playing again to find the other endings takes about as long each time.
Are they for children?
Parallel Pens is written for adults: the stories have real stakes and some darker moments, though nothing explicit.
Can I write my own?
Yes. Start from a single line on the Create page, or type your own move under any scene. Any path you play can become a book that others read and continue.