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Fighting Fantasy #6
Deathtrap Dungeon
Down in the dark, twisting labyrinth of Fang, unknown horrors await you. Devised by the devilish mind of Baron Sukumvit, the labyrinth is riddled with fiendish traps sand bloodthirsty monsters, which will test your skills almost beyond the limit of endurance.
Countless adventurers before you have taken up the challenge of the Trial of Champions and walked through the carved mouth of the labyrinth, never to be seen again. Should you come out of the labyrinth alive, you will be wealthy beyond your dreams. Do YOU dare enter?
Part story, part game, this is a book with a difference: one in which you become the hero! A pencil and an eraser are all you need to make your journey. YOU decide which route to take, which creatures to fight & which dangers to risk.
Countless adventurers before you have taken up the challenge of the Trial of Champions and walked through the carved mouth of the labyrinth, never to be seen again. Should you come out of the labyrinth alive, you will be wealthy beyond your dreams. Do YOU dare enter?
Part story, part game, this is a book with a difference: one in which you become the hero! A pencil and an eraser are all you need to make your journey. YOU decide which route to take, which creatures to fight & which dangers to risk.
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 29, 1984
20 people are currently reading
568 people want to read
About the author
Ian Livingstone
131 books164 followersSir Ian Livingstone is an English fantasy author and entrepreneur. Along with Steve Jackson, he is the co-founder of the Fighting Fantasy series of role-playing gamebooks, and the author of many books within that series. He co-founded Games Workshop in 1975 and helped create Eidos Interactive as executive chairman of Eidos Plc in 1995.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
November 10, 2022
Far harder than most famous "Warlock of the Firetop Mountain" dungeon-bash Fighting Fantasy game-book and far better than I used to remember.
Some traps are just sadistic ones! Pick the wrong gem-eye from the idol? Die! Drink wrong potion? Die! Missed one item? Die!
Ouch.
Loved the demi-oriental setting, the Dungeons & Dragons vibe and the characters cast: the ninja is a badass son of bitch and Throm's fate was just really sad.
Bloodbeast! Mirror Demon! Manticore! Some opponents are so strong that if you roll low scores be sure you're dead before the end...
And Iain McCaig's artworks are soooo good, nothing like awful artworks in recent FF reprints... Urgh.
July 31, 2024
DEATHTRAP DUNGEON is, put simply, the granddaddy of all FIGHTING FANTASY gamebooks. It comes second only to THE WARLOCK OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN in terms of popularity, I think, but it actually improves on that first outing in terms of the amount of atmosphere and spine-tingling suspense that this one holds. There's a saying that simplicity always wins out over complication and that's certainly the case here: you're an adventurer, thrown into a dungeon and asked to get out the other side alive. Simple...and yet anything but.
I think DEATHTRAP DUNGEON best sums up the Dungeons & Dragons atmosphere out of all of the books. The various foes you fight in the dungeon are creatively inspired, ranging from bog-standard goblins and orcs to hideous ethereal creatures and the nasty on the cover. There are deadly traps all over the place, along with situations like where you find a bottle of acid and have the option of drinking it; nasty! I still remember the horrible bit with the idol after it killed me as a kid - I think everyone who's ever played this has died at that stage at some point.
What I particularly liked about this one is that there are other contestants taking the same test and you occasionally find evidence of their passage within the bowels of the dungeon (or, more usually, their bodies). You even get to team up with one of them at one stage, which adds some moral complexity to the story. In any case, this was a childhood favourite and for good reason; it's a great little book.
NB. On another play through, we didn't make it very far before our adventure ended on the infamous jewel-eyed idol - not, this time, from choosing the wrong eye socket to prise a gemstone from, but from being killed by the stuffed birds, of all things! Even though the adventure there was brief and to the point, it was nonetheless hugely entertaining.
NB. Another day, another play through, and this time the game played out EXACTLY the same as the previous time. My playing partner was insistent on getting hold of the jewelstone eye from the cavern idol, but the two monsters guarding it seem impossibly tough at this early stage in the game, with the only way to beat them based on making one lucky dice roll after another. A pity, because I really want to go further with this one...
I think DEATHTRAP DUNGEON best sums up the Dungeons & Dragons atmosphere out of all of the books. The various foes you fight in the dungeon are creatively inspired, ranging from bog-standard goblins and orcs to hideous ethereal creatures and the nasty on the cover. There are deadly traps all over the place, along with situations like where you find a bottle of acid and have the option of drinking it; nasty! I still remember the horrible bit with the idol after it killed me as a kid - I think everyone who's ever played this has died at that stage at some point.
What I particularly liked about this one is that there are other contestants taking the same test and you occasionally find evidence of their passage within the bowels of the dungeon (or, more usually, their bodies). You even get to team up with one of them at one stage, which adds some moral complexity to the story. In any case, this was a childhood favourite and for good reason; it's a great little book.
NB. On another play through, we didn't make it very far before our adventure ended on the infamous jewel-eyed idol - not, this time, from choosing the wrong eye socket to prise a gemstone from, but from being killed by the stuffed birds, of all things! Even though the adventure there was brief and to the point, it was nonetheless hugely entertaining.
NB. Another day, another play through, and this time the game played out EXACTLY the same as the previous time. My playing partner was insistent on getting hold of the jewelstone eye from the cavern idol, but the two monsters guarding it seem impossibly tough at this early stage in the game, with the only way to beat them based on making one lucky dice roll after another. A pity, because I really want to go further with this one...
May 26, 2019
Faces laugh in beams of light;
Acid drips from stalactites;
Eat the fungus - you'll be swell;
If grubs don't get you, troglodytes will.
The Bloodbeast pulls you into a vat
Of corrosive slime and bubbling fat.
In Sukumvit's maze you must be clever,
And find the right gems, or be trapped forever.
Acid drips from stalactites;
Eat the fungus - you'll be swell;
If grubs don't get you, troglodytes will.
The Bloodbeast pulls you into a vat
Of corrosive slime and bubbling fat.
In Sukumvit's maze you must be clever,
And find the right gems, or be trapped forever.
January 30, 2024
Only the first five Fighting Fantasy books were ever translated to my language. I read them, I loved them (except Starship Traveller), and I thought that was it. It wasn't until as an adult that I made the startling discovery: "There are more?!"
With that out of the way... yeah, my review here could just as well be more or less identical to what I said about in my City of Thieves review: linear keyhunt boo, well-written and great atmosphere and Iain McCaig yay. I might only give it three and a half stars if Goodreads had those, on account of the dungeon not quite holding up to what Port Blacksand offered, but that's a minor nitpick. It's still great.
With that out of the way... yeah, my review here could just as well be more or less identical to what I said about in my City of Thieves review: linear keyhunt boo, well-written and great atmosphere and Iain McCaig yay. I might only give it three and a half stars if Goodreads had those, on account of the dungeon not quite holding up to what Port Blacksand offered, but that's a minor nitpick. It's still great.
July 22, 2014
A deadly competition in a deadly dungeon
18 June 2012
One of the things I like doing with roleplaying games is looking at how morally ambiguous many of them are. In a lot of cases they treat the universe with a very black and white mentality and force people into these categories without actually looking at the bigger picture. I guess this is the product of the 80s where the political spectrum was very black and white, with the communists being bad and the capitalists being good. My position is that simply because you are a communist does not mean you are bad, or that you supported the policies of Joseph Stalin, and just because you are a capitalist does not necessarily mean that you are good.
However, this has nothing to do with this game book, well, it does but in a more indirect way. Deathtrap Dungeon was one of my favourite Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks because the concept was quite different to what I was used to with roleplaying games. Many of the games follow the standard plot of a village being tormented by some bad people and the heroes then set off to find and kill those bad people and save the day. This is not the case in Deathtrap Dungeon.
The game is based around a challenge that is held every year when a group of adventurers sign up to attempt to complete a challenge known as the Trial of Champions. Simply put, either you win or you die (much like the Game of Thrones), and to be honest, before you come along, nobody has won, which means that everybody has died (obviously). To make matters worse, only one person can leave the dungeon as a champion, and obviously you want to be that person.
To put it simply this is blood sport; much like that of the Ancient Romans. The more blood that is spilt the more excited the crowd becomes. Granted, back in Rome, gladiators took on the role that our sporting heroes take on today, the only problem was that you would only retain that support as long as you won, namely because if you didn't win, you would die. However there are suggestions that it did not always end in death, and if you were defeated, but not killed, then there was always the possibility that you would live to fight another day.
The problem with Deathtrap Dungeon being a bloodsport in this sense is that the crowd see you enter, but does not know what is happening inside. Obviously there would be gambling rackets on the side, or more likely in the open, and would probably look like this:
Once again, you would only win if the person you put money on actually comes out from the other side (alive, obviously). Nobody knows what is happening inside the dungeon, which suits the baron because he does not want anybody knowing about the secrets of the dungeon or how to escape.
Livingstone gave a more Asian flavour to this gamebook by giving the name of the region an Asian flavour, however it does not seem that an actual Asian gamebook was released until the Sword of the Samurai. It made creating the world a little more difficult, with an Asian sounding province to the north of the European sounding provinces, but then again this is a game world that was mostly for teenagers and I doubt they really cared.
18 June 2012
One of the things I like doing with roleplaying games is looking at how morally ambiguous many of them are. In a lot of cases they treat the universe with a very black and white mentality and force people into these categories without actually looking at the bigger picture. I guess this is the product of the 80s where the political spectrum was very black and white, with the communists being bad and the capitalists being good. My position is that simply because you are a communist does not mean you are bad, or that you supported the policies of Joseph Stalin, and just because you are a capitalist does not necessarily mean that you are good.
However, this has nothing to do with this game book, well, it does but in a more indirect way. Deathtrap Dungeon was one of my favourite Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks because the concept was quite different to what I was used to with roleplaying games. Many of the games follow the standard plot of a village being tormented by some bad people and the heroes then set off to find and kill those bad people and save the day. This is not the case in Deathtrap Dungeon.
The game is based around a challenge that is held every year when a group of adventurers sign up to attempt to complete a challenge known as the Trial of Champions. Simply put, either you win or you die (much like the Game of Thrones), and to be honest, before you come along, nobody has won, which means that everybody has died (obviously). To make matters worse, only one person can leave the dungeon as a champion, and obviously you want to be that person.
To put it simply this is blood sport; much like that of the Ancient Romans. The more blood that is spilt the more excited the crowd becomes. Granted, back in Rome, gladiators took on the role that our sporting heroes take on today, the only problem was that you would only retain that support as long as you won, namely because if you didn't win, you would die. However there are suggestions that it did not always end in death, and if you were defeated, but not killed, then there was always the possibility that you would live to fight another day.
The problem with Deathtrap Dungeon being a bloodsport in this sense is that the crowd see you enter, but does not know what is happening inside. Obviously there would be gambling rackets on the side, or more likely in the open, and would probably look like this:
Once again, you would only win if the person you put money on actually comes out from the other side (alive, obviously). Nobody knows what is happening inside the dungeon, which suits the baron because he does not want anybody knowing about the secrets of the dungeon or how to escape.
Livingstone gave a more Asian flavour to this gamebook by giving the name of the region an Asian flavour, however it does not seem that an actual Asian gamebook was released until the Sword of the Samurai. It made creating the world a little more difficult, with an Asian sounding province to the north of the European sounding provinces, but then again this is a game world that was mostly for teenagers and I doubt they really cared.
May 25, 2014
Raises a glass to fallen comrades, you are missed Throm.
September 16, 2015
Ian Livingstone y Steve Jackson, dos malditos genios que revolucionaron el género de Elige tu Propia Aventura con unas novelas que podríamos considerar los abuelos de los juegos de mesa modernos y de los videojuegos de rol.
Imagínate poder hacer mucho más que pasar una página, imagina poder luchar contra monstruos de pesadilla tirando dados, sortear trampas mortales, recoger objetos y resolver enigmas al más puro estilo Indiana Jones. Los niños de hoy no saben lo que se pierden.
De toda la colección Fighting Fantasy, publicada en España bajo el nombre de Lucha-Ficción, Laberinto Mortal es uno de los más populares, y no me sorprende, pues cuenta con todos los ingredientes necesarios para seducir al lector y transportarle al increíble -y tristemente infravalorado- universo fantástico de Titan.
No en vano, treinta años después de su publicación su trama sigue estando rabiosamente de moda: La Prueba de los Campeones, un desafío mortal que reúne a los guerreros más poderosos del reino con la promesa de tesoros fabulosos. Muchos héros penetran en las entrañas del laberinto de Fang, ninguno sale con vida. En pocas palabras: Indiana Jones + ESDLA + Los Juegos del Hambre. Sobra decir que Los Juegos del Hambre parecen una película de Disney comparado con las trampas, monstruos y adversarios que te aguardan en la trepidante aventura del maestro Livingstone.
Estos libros poseen una magia especial, pueden cambiar la vida de un niño. Hablo por experiencia.
Imagínate poder hacer mucho más que pasar una página, imagina poder luchar contra monstruos de pesadilla tirando dados, sortear trampas mortales, recoger objetos y resolver enigmas al más puro estilo Indiana Jones. Los niños de hoy no saben lo que se pierden.
De toda la colección Fighting Fantasy, publicada en España bajo el nombre de Lucha-Ficción, Laberinto Mortal es uno de los más populares, y no me sorprende, pues cuenta con todos los ingredientes necesarios para seducir al lector y transportarle al increíble -y tristemente infravalorado- universo fantástico de Titan.
No en vano, treinta años después de su publicación su trama sigue estando rabiosamente de moda: La Prueba de los Campeones, un desafío mortal que reúne a los guerreros más poderosos del reino con la promesa de tesoros fabulosos. Muchos héros penetran en las entrañas del laberinto de Fang, ninguno sale con vida. En pocas palabras: Indiana Jones + ESDLA + Los Juegos del Hambre. Sobra decir que Los Juegos del Hambre parecen una película de Disney comparado con las trampas, monstruos y adversarios que te aguardan en la trepidante aventura del maestro Livingstone.
Estos libros poseen una magia especial, pueden cambiar la vida de un niño. Hablo por experiencia.
September 24, 2014
Deathtrap dungeon was one of the early tools of escapism for anyone who preferred to charge a field yielding a sword rather than go to work. I decided to revisit it after many years and I still found its simplistic, straight to the point style very attractive.
Waves of nostalgia hit me when all my childhood heroes and nightmares jumped out of the book's pages to greet me once again. This is a definite 'must' for all romantics and a mini bible for role playing initiates of all ages. Just beware of landing suddenly back to the real world, it hurts...
Waves of nostalgia hit me when all my childhood heroes and nightmares jumped out of the book's pages to greet me once again. This is a definite 'must' for all romantics and a mini bible for role playing initiates of all ages. Just beware of landing suddenly back to the real world, it hurts...
July 16, 2023
Old but gold. Still love the world of these game books. What a pitty there are no new books and hard to buy the old versions. This one was a good story. Loved it.
December 29, 2025
Classic Livingstone.
Quite good flavour in this one. Decent background story and events that go along with it - ie seeing evidence of the other contestants and encountering some of them later.
Very Livingstone structure - ie main path with side events - eg a room with about 10 sections and then back to the main path. Some branching that then coalesces.
In terms of difficulty, it lives up to its name - the chances of getting through this on your first go are practically non-existent. That's probably the only negative - it really is a throw of the dice in most cases - there's no way you can logically decide whether to do most things - choose one way and sorry, you're dead. But whatever.
Pretty good art too.
A fun light read and classic dungeoneering.
4.5 stars
Quite good flavour in this one. Decent background story and events that go along with it - ie seeing evidence of the other contestants and encountering some of them later.
Very Livingstone structure - ie main path with side events - eg a room with about 10 sections and then back to the main path. Some branching that then coalesces.
In terms of difficulty, it lives up to its name - the chances of getting through this on your first go are practically non-existent. That's probably the only negative - it really is a throw of the dice in most cases - there's no way you can logically decide whether to do most things - choose one way and sorry, you're dead. But whatever.
Pretty good art too.
A fun light read and classic dungeoneering.
4.5 stars
February 13, 2018
I died within 12 minutes. An emerald eye released a noxious gas and I fell to the floor in agony. It was a beautiful thing. I started the game/reading knowing that I would most likely die within the first few choices. I had a really high luck and stamina so any battles I entered into I came out relatively unscathed. I also had a habit of eating and drinking absolutely everything in my path - which surprisingly turned out really well. Something I'd probably already know if I had ever been a D&D player.
February 9, 2021
Third book in my current Fighting Fantasy binge. Given the heavy snow today, I was happy to attempt to solve this one, rather than venturing out into the rather unappealing real world.
This is one I'd never attempted before. I never really had the patience to play these properly when I was a kid, and didn't really bother following the rules. I therefore didn't get much out of them, and gave up after trying a few. This one would have driven me nuts, I think - it's easily the hardest I've attempted, and it took no less than EIGHT tries to get through it with even a modicum of honesty. :)
The plot is a familiar one in the world of fantasy, and interestingly one that has recently resurfaced in a lot of sci fi, fantasy and horror - a powerful Baron has created a labyrinth full of traps and monsters, and holds a Tournament every year for those brave enough to enter and fight their way through to the end. No-one has succeeded before, and only one person can emerge alive. Clearly it's the model for things as diverse as Hunger Games, Battle Royale and even the Tri-Wizard Tournament in Harry Potter (although that's a bit tamer as the deaths aren't supposed to happen). Anyway, as other reviewers have said, it's a simple plot, and it's a good one because it's morally neutral. You're not setting out to defeat evil, you're setting out to survive and enrich yourself - therefore, the only decisions you have to make are ones that involve getting out alive, and finding the things you need to escape.
And boy...it's hard!!! There's a LOT of locations, and exploring them all comes with a considerable degree of risk. Some contain things you need, but others will rip your scores to shreds, which is grim because you need very high scores to get through some key battles at the end. There's monsters with skill levels of 10 to 12 at the end, so you're a bit screwed if your skill ends up significantly lower than this at the end. The game is played in a veritable maze, and you do need to map it and make notes if you're going to stand even the remotest chance of getting through it. There's several ways through, but unless you make the right choice at a couple of critical junctures you'll end up without the items you need to get out, and will be stuck in the dungeon forever...be that alive or dead (I'm not sure which fate is worse).
Anyway, on several attempts I could only find one or two of the required three items to finish, and ultimately only careful mapping and note-taking revealed the couple of decisions I needed to take differently. Like all of these books, there's sometimes not much to go on, and when you have several choices, all but one of which are fatal, it can be frustratingly arbitrary, but when you've ended up repeating bits as often as I did, you eventually get a feel for what you need to do. You need to take risks - sometimes you'll end up crippled brutally by them, but other times, the rewards are great.
Interaction with the other contestants in the tournament is an interesting touch - I met three contestants, one dead, one dying, and one you have to co-operate with, although sadly it ends badly - either for you or him, depending on the roll of a dice.
Really engrossing stuff, and well worth playing, especially in the grim times we're living in - a bit of escapism is just what you need, and if you put in the effort with this, there's hours of entertainment in it. It takes patience and determination, but finishing it is a satisfying business.
This is one I'd never attempted before. I never really had the patience to play these properly when I was a kid, and didn't really bother following the rules. I therefore didn't get much out of them, and gave up after trying a few. This one would have driven me nuts, I think - it's easily the hardest I've attempted, and it took no less than EIGHT tries to get through it with even a modicum of honesty. :)
The plot is a familiar one in the world of fantasy, and interestingly one that has recently resurfaced in a lot of sci fi, fantasy and horror - a powerful Baron has created a labyrinth full of traps and monsters, and holds a Tournament every year for those brave enough to enter and fight their way through to the end. No-one has succeeded before, and only one person can emerge alive. Clearly it's the model for things as diverse as Hunger Games, Battle Royale and even the Tri-Wizard Tournament in Harry Potter (although that's a bit tamer as the deaths aren't supposed to happen). Anyway, as other reviewers have said, it's a simple plot, and it's a good one because it's morally neutral. You're not setting out to defeat evil, you're setting out to survive and enrich yourself - therefore, the only decisions you have to make are ones that involve getting out alive, and finding the things you need to escape.
And boy...it's hard!!! There's a LOT of locations, and exploring them all comes with a considerable degree of risk. Some contain things you need, but others will rip your scores to shreds, which is grim because you need very high scores to get through some key battles at the end. There's monsters with skill levels of 10 to 12 at the end, so you're a bit screwed if your skill ends up significantly lower than this at the end. The game is played in a veritable maze, and you do need to map it and make notes if you're going to stand even the remotest chance of getting through it. There's several ways through, but unless you make the right choice at a couple of critical junctures you'll end up without the items you need to get out, and will be stuck in the dungeon forever...be that alive or dead (I'm not sure which fate is worse).
Anyway, on several attempts I could only find one or two of the required three items to finish, and ultimately only careful mapping and note-taking revealed the couple of decisions I needed to take differently. Like all of these books, there's sometimes not much to go on, and when you have several choices, all but one of which are fatal, it can be frustratingly arbitrary, but when you've ended up repeating bits as often as I did, you eventually get a feel for what you need to do. You need to take risks - sometimes you'll end up crippled brutally by them, but other times, the rewards are great.
Interaction with the other contestants in the tournament is an interesting touch - I met three contestants, one dead, one dying, and one you have to co-operate with, although sadly it ends badly - either for you or him, depending on the roll of a dice.
Really engrossing stuff, and well worth playing, especially in the grim times we're living in - a bit of escapism is just what you need, and if you put in the effort with this, there's hours of entertainment in it. It takes patience and determination, but finishing it is a satisfying business.
May 3, 2015
By most people's reckoning, this was the best of all the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. I'm not absolutely sure I agree with that (I always liked 'Midnight Rogue' best, having a passion for fantasy thievery), but it's a viewpoint I fully understand and respect.
The book is uniformly excellent. It lives up to its name, with a great many traps, some instantly lethal and others debilitating. Note taking and mapping is mandatory to finally win through.
There's no clever plot: it's simply a lethal dungeon that has been constructed by a baron for the sole purpose of attracting tourists and generating cash. Each year, there's a huge festival as volunteers run the gauntlet of traps and monsters. If anyone survives through to the end and re-emerges into daylight, they get a huge prize. This lack of a complex plot works to the book's advantage, giving it a solid reason for the existence of such a twisted maze: it's a test of skill and endurance undertaken as a chance to get rich or die trying.
It's especially interesting as you cross paths with the other contestants during the course of exploring, some alive and some dead.
As usual, there are necessary items to collect in order to succeed: the exit door is unlocked by gemstones placed in a certain sequence. The first time I reached the exit, I only had one of the necessary gems instead of all three.
It's fascinating throughout, edge of the seat reading as you try to second guess what's a trap and what's there to genuinely assist. Be warned that it's very hard and punishing. If you start out by rolling less than 10 each for Skill and Luck, and 20 for Stamina, do yourself a favour and reroll, because you'll be wasting your time otherwise as you'll never get through with scores lower than those.
Spectacularly good!
The book is uniformly excellent. It lives up to its name, with a great many traps, some instantly lethal and others debilitating. Note taking and mapping is mandatory to finally win through.
There's no clever plot: it's simply a lethal dungeon that has been constructed by a baron for the sole purpose of attracting tourists and generating cash. Each year, there's a huge festival as volunteers run the gauntlet of traps and monsters. If anyone survives through to the end and re-emerges into daylight, they get a huge prize. This lack of a complex plot works to the book's advantage, giving it a solid reason for the existence of such a twisted maze: it's a test of skill and endurance undertaken as a chance to get rich or die trying.
It's especially interesting as you cross paths with the other contestants during the course of exploring, some alive and some dead.
As usual, there are necessary items to collect in order to succeed: the exit door is unlocked by gemstones placed in a certain sequence. The first time I reached the exit, I only had one of the necessary gems instead of all three.
It's fascinating throughout, edge of the seat reading as you try to second guess what's a trap and what's there to genuinely assist. Be warned that it's very hard and punishing. If you start out by rolling less than 10 each for Skill and Luck, and 20 for Stamina, do yourself a favour and reroll, because you'll be wasting your time otherwise as you'll never get through with scores lower than those.
Spectacularly good!
May 1, 2015
I was obsessed with these fighting fantasy books as a kid. This would've been the best of the lot, but they were all good from what I remember. They're choose-your-own-adventure books with fighting involved as well.
I won't rate the other books in the series that I read, otherwise I'll be here all day.
I won't rate the other books in the series that I read, otherwise I'll be here all day.
September 26, 2015
This book is almost as old as me and I haven't read it in years. This series was responsible for getting me into reading. I read a lot from this series, however, Deathtrap Dungeon was probably my favourite.
If I remember rightly this book had the best artwork out of the entire series.
If I remember rightly this book had the best artwork out of the entire series.
October 11, 2007
I have read this time and again and never "won." Is it even possible?
P.S. Great art too.
P.S. Great art too.
June 22, 2021
Deathtrap Dungeon is truly a superb book and adventure. It feels like a traditional dungeon crawler with the charm of your regular Fighting Fantasy novel.
It never felt as if Deathtrap Dungeon punished me for exploring. If I went one way instead of another then I'd bump into some bonus creatures or collect an item that I could use later before making my way back to the main path. The moment I finished my adventure, I went back to the start and did it all again whilst taking different routes and journeys and honestly had a fantastic time doing so.
This one felt quite typical when it came down to gameplay since you're equipped with your standard gear and you need to collect a series of items but all these items are easily obtainable provided that you do a little exploration and it felt fair. Heck, you'll need to do some extra exploration if you want to find out what happens to the other challengers.
All in all, this one's really good. Probably my favourite even though I've decided to read them in order because I'm making a YouTube series. This is totally worth a buy.
It never felt as if Deathtrap Dungeon punished me for exploring. If I went one way instead of another then I'd bump into some bonus creatures or collect an item that I could use later before making my way back to the main path. The moment I finished my adventure, I went back to the start and did it all again whilst taking different routes and journeys and honestly had a fantastic time doing so.
This one felt quite typical when it came down to gameplay since you're equipped with your standard gear and you need to collect a series of items but all these items are easily obtainable provided that you do a little exploration and it felt fair. Heck, you'll need to do some extra exploration if you want to find out what happens to the other challengers.
All in all, this one's really good. Probably my favourite even though I've decided to read them in order because I'm making a YouTube series. This is totally worth a buy.
June 6, 2016
Yo soy este libro, sin Laberinto mortal nunca hubiese descubierto el placer por leer o por escribir. Su sencillez es una trampa mental de la que cuando tienes la edad adecuada...nunca puedes escapar.
Adoro a Ian Livingstone y a Steve Jackson, ellos son todo lo que siempre he querido ser, fantasía y refugio.
Ojalá un día alguno de mis libros hagan tan feliz a alguien como estos me hicieron a mí de adolescente.
Adoro a Ian Livingstone y a Steve Jackson, ellos son todo lo que siempre he querido ser, fantasía y refugio.
Ojalá un día alguno de mis libros hagan tan feliz a alguien como estos me hicieron a mí de adolescente.
May 2, 2022
Had a great time rampaging through the dungeon. A good variety of traps and treasures, friends and foes. The dice roll system is surprisingly functional, and adds a bit of a thrill to encounters, forcing you to consider risks and tactics and use your items. It really does draw you deeper into the fantasy and make you more invested.
Don't get me wrong, it's a brutal old-fashioned meat grinder of a dungeon, but that makes victory all the sweeter.
Don't get me wrong, it's a brutal old-fashioned meat grinder of a dungeon, but that makes victory all the sweeter.
November 29, 2017
Liked this fighting fantasy. Combats where good and great artwork! (2002 version)
July 29, 2014
RPGeek cult-collectable. This is #6 of 59 in the series. I picked it up for $1.49 at half.com for my oldest, but last nite I got hooked. Surprisingly addictive retro-lofi-fun.
spoiler alert!!!
Absolutely DON'T try to remove the emerald eye from the Buddha statue and if you get to choose between fighting the Minotaur or the Scorpion, definitely go with minotaur! ;)
spoiler alert!!!
Absolutely DON'T try to remove the emerald eye from the Buddha statue and if you get to choose between fighting the Minotaur or the Scorpion, definitely go with minotaur! ;)
July 15, 2022
Sumkumvit on my balls! This is such a hard book to complete. I think this last and (ahem) successful attempt was about the 6th go in quick succession and, to be honest, the quality of monsters and fellow competitors we fought in the run up to the final challenge would have been very, very tough to beat with the dice.
It's a great adventure though.
It's a great adventure though.
May 13, 2016
Another failure! After some successful exploration and getting a hold of some goodies, I met my end after being a bit greedy...trying to steal a gem stone eye from a statue, which then released poisoned gas and killed me. Oh well!
Another good one, keen for another crack at it :)
Another good one, keen for another crack at it :)
August 25, 2022
One of the greats of the series, and my personal favorite. The whole notion of a tournament-style dungeon crawl to find gems to solve a puzzle at the end, is just so great. This book has some of the best and most evocative illustrations in the series. Mirror Demon, anyone?
December 7, 2018
Tough, very old-school gamebook. I only cheated a little near the end, since I was so close!
June 20, 2019
amei a experiencia
8 tentativas
e na nona eu tava meio > caguei, fiquei das 12h até 18h
pra saber como sair dessa masmorra
menti, roubaram minhas gemas bem no finalzinho pq eu fui curiosa
e disse que eu tinha todas, pq sem elas eu ia morrer.
me desculpa
até pq não deram opção de voltar e derrotar o ladrão
lutei horrores pra conseguir cada gema
fiz mapas,
consegui 3 mapas na net em inglês
peguei anéis de desejo
abrir livros e pergaminhos
senti falta de porções e equipamentos pra elevar meus atributos
:(
tbm morri em uma batalha e refiz ela 3 vezes até vencer
deveria ter uma porção de reviver
apesar disso eu gostei mto, vou comprar ele em versão física pra jogar novamente.
8 tentativas
e na nona eu tava meio > caguei, fiquei das 12h até 18h
pra saber como sair dessa masmorra
menti, roubaram minhas gemas bem no finalzinho pq eu fui curiosa
e disse que eu tinha todas, pq sem elas eu ia morrer.
me desculpa
até pq não deram opção de voltar e derrotar o ladrão
lutei horrores pra conseguir cada gema
fiz mapas,
consegui 3 mapas na net em inglês
peguei anéis de desejo
abrir livros e pergaminhos
senti falta de porções e equipamentos pra elevar meus atributos
:(
tbm morri em uma batalha e refiz ela 3 vezes até vencer
deveria ter uma porção de reviver
apesar disso eu gostei mto, vou comprar ele em versão física pra jogar novamente.
May 26, 2023
I’d say this is one of the tougher books. There are several battles that you have to fight in where the enemies skill is close to or can match your own. Because of this, my character died more times than he normally would have. Had a great time playing through though.
October 9, 2022
I was having fun despite the repetitiveness of the challenges, until I got to the very final challenge and discovered it wasn't a puzzle, but pure luck. That sucks, man.
April 27, 2015
Long lorded as the definitive FF, Deathtrap Dungeon (DD) lives up to its billing.
FF always was, and always will be, best when in the dungeon-type setting. It was what made Warlock a success and by book 6 in the series it was time to go back there.
What makes DD a step above WoFM is the pure excitement that taking "The Walk" on the Trial of the Champions brings about, an excitement I found severely lacking in the first entry in this seminal series.
DD doesn't have any flash new stats and doesn't try anything new; it just does what FF does best and it delivers in spades.
I really enjoyed City of Thieves, and I like any adventures set round Port Blacksand, but DD took me back to how it all began and made me remember how well the dungeon romp could be written.
The final sequence in the book (yes, I got there, something I haven't done all that often in my re-read of FF) was interesting. It was also extremely difficult, having to get past two bosses, a final jewel-based puzzle and a last attempt on your life, but was all worth it to see the Baron cringe as I took his 10,000 gold pieces.
Another positive in this FF is the ability to share some of the journey with an accomplice, in this case Throm, one of the Barbarians who is also on the Walk. It would have been nice to have found out what happened to the other four adventures....
Overall, this is up there as one of the all time great FF's
FF always was, and always will be, best when in the dungeon-type setting. It was what made Warlock a success and by book 6 in the series it was time to go back there.
What makes DD a step above WoFM is the pure excitement that taking "The Walk" on the Trial of the Champions brings about, an excitement I found severely lacking in the first entry in this seminal series.
DD doesn't have any flash new stats and doesn't try anything new; it just does what FF does best and it delivers in spades.
I really enjoyed City of Thieves, and I like any adventures set round Port Blacksand, but DD took me back to how it all began and made me remember how well the dungeon romp could be written.
The final sequence in the book (yes, I got there, something I haven't done all that often in my re-read of FF) was interesting. It was also extremely difficult, having to get past two bosses, a final jewel-based puzzle and a last attempt on your life, but was all worth it to see the Baron cringe as I took his 10,000 gold pieces.
Another positive in this FF is the ability to share some of the journey with an accomplice, in this case Throm, one of the Barbarians who is also on the Walk. It would have been nice to have found out what happened to the other four adventures....
Overall, this is up there as one of the all time great FF's
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 26, 2019
It pulls a few cheap tricks near the end, but otherwise Deathtrap Dungeon is one of the best pure dungeon crawl gamebooks ever written. There's no great story to speak of here. A rich Baron has made a deadly dungeon for his own amusement and has offered a reward for whoever can get through it alive. You enter said dungeon along with a handful of other contestants, and then you (and they) proceed to perish in all manner of deadly and unfair ways. Even if you get to the end of the dungeon, you will still fail if you haven't collected specific items which can only be obtained via one successful path through the book. The failing, dying and trying again is the fun part of this book, so don't let it get you down if it kicks your butt. This book has done the same to the best of us!
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