I had these!

I only got to do 2-player one time, but it was pretty cool.

So it basically looks like a book version of those old VCR wargames where you'd move around and you'd fast forward to the next applicable section to find out if you hit or miss.

Reminds me of the "1 on 1" adventure book series. Played out like Lone Wolf books, except you each played competing parties. You'd take turns having mini Lone Wolf adventures, but you'd also keep track of where you're moving in the world. If both parties ended up at the same spot, you'd stop and fight. The adventuring would get you cool loot and allies, but ultimately it would be a fight to the death with the other player.

https://gamebooks.org/Series/291/Show

They had a fantasy setting, a sci-fi setting, The Fantastic 4, a feudal Japan setting, and a bunch of others. Played the shit out of them. I remember they had a lot of vague rules. Me and my dad hand wrote a letter to the author. A month later, we got a reply back and the guy had actually marked up our letter by circling all the correct interpretations and writing notes in the margins. Was pretty damn cool.