Deathtrap Dungeon is a book with a lot of problems. Its premise it utterly nonsensical. Indeed, it takes very little scrutiny to poke holes in the book's back-story and set-up. It's poorly designed on a number of fronts. Only a character with very high stats can complete it. There are several points at which choosing to take the wrong corridor dooms the adventurer. The rules make no mention of the shield that the adventurer is definitely carrying. Like I said, problems.
Even so, this is probably the most iconic book in the Fighting Fantasy series, and it has a decent claim on being the best.
So, for a book with these problems (most of which are minor, I admit; I was just fishing for a punchy opening), how is it so good? After all, it's a pretty big design flaw when your Skill roll has a fifty-fifty chance (conservatively) of dooming your character. I think the secret is in the way that all of these flaws play right into the premise of the book.
Let's look at the setting: it's a classic, Dungeons & Dragons style nonsensical funhouse dungeon. These settings never make sense; monsters that should by all rights have long since killed each other live side-by-side, and the rooms and corridors are often full of traps with no discernible purpose. Deathtrap Dungeon takes that premise and does it in one of the few ways that make sense: as a game show. Everything fits, because it's all been placed there to stop the reader from making it to the end.
It's the same reason that the impossibility of completing this book with a weak character doesn't feel cheap. The whole backstory of Deathtrap Dungeon is predicated on the fact that many, many adventurers have been through the Trial of Champions and failed. It stands to reason that a weak or average character just isn't going to cut it here, and that only the exceptional stand a chance. It should be frustrating, but it's so in-synch with the premise that it just feels right. Ian Livingstone took this design ethos too far in his later work, but here's it works perfectly.
Speaking of Livingstone, there's no doubt in my mind that this is his finest work. That may have been to his detriment, as many of his worst tendencies (spamming the reader with difficult combats, requiring the collection of an absurd number of items) have their beginnings here. In Deathtrap Dungeon those tendencies are kept in reasonable check, and the premise means that they never feel arbitrary. The writing is atmospheric, the encounters are almost always interesting, and there's a strong array of well-defined (if somewhat cliched) characters to interact with. The other contestants are a lot fun to meet, and the Dwarf Trialmaster is one of the most despicable villains the series ever produced.
Iain McCaig should not go without mention either. His work here is just as good as it was in City of Thieves, though the madcap, often humourous style seen there has been replaced by something altogether darker and more sinister. There's a shadowy grit, and a mix of the ornate and the grotesque that gives the book an amazing visual atmosphere. No offense intended to the other Fighting Fantasy artists, but I don't think the series ever topped the illustrations seen here.
Cool Stuff I Missed
I don't think I missed very much; that tends to happen when you have ten runs through a gamebook. I never did encounter the hobgoblins, who have a jug of acid that you can drink if you're feeling exceptionally stupid. There's a path I missed that leads to a medusa, and pair of leprechauns and a winged helmet on the opposite side of a pit. To be honest, the main path hits most of the really interesting stuff.
Best Death
There are 32 instant death passages in this book, and many of them are great candidates. Drinking the hobgoblin's acid was a contender, as was being dragged into another dimension by the Mirror Demon. In the end I chose the following, for sheer strangeness and comedic imagery:
Addendum - S.T.A.M.I.N.A. Rating
Story & Setting: The story is pure D&D-fantasy cheese - it's absurd, but in all the ways I love. The setting is iconic. and there are few better explanations for the ridiculous collections of monsters and traps that comprise most dungeons. Rating: 6 out of 7.
Toughness: This one is hard. Almost too hard. Finding the right gems is a challenge, but what's even more challenging is just surviving to the end. This is a gamebook crying out for a rule that lets your Skill range from 10 to 12. Even so, the scenario demands such toughness. Yes, it's too hard, but it should be. As such, I can't mark it down too harshly. Rating: 3 out of 7.
Aesthetics: Livingstone's gleeful nastiness combined with McCaig's gruesome illustrations are a match made in heaven. This might just be the best-looking gamebook ever made, with possibly the best cover of the whole FF series. Rating: 7 out of 7.
Mechanics: The FF system is a robust one, and this book uses it well enough. Rating: 4 out of 7.
Innovation & Influence: There's not a lot of innovation here, but in influence this book is unmatched. I've got to split the difference here. Rating: 4 out of 7.
NPC & Monsters: This book hits it out of the park at every turn. The Bloodbeast is one of the best original monsters of the series. The other contestants are cool characters, and Throm the barbarian is the first genuine character that the series provides. And the dwarf Trialmaster... What a bastard. Rating: 7 out of 7.
Amusement: A gamebook I enjoy like few others. It's tough, but every turn provides some new, sadistic challenge,. Even dying is often a reward in this book, just for some of the great, inventive death scenes. Not everyone's going to enjoy it as much as I do, but those people aren't rating the book. Rating: 7 out of 7.
Yes it gets the bonus point, it's frickin' Deathtrap Dungeon. The above scores total 39, which doubled gives me a total S.T.A.M.I.N.A. Rating of 78, which feels super-low. Way too low. It makes me doubt the system I've come up with, to be honest. Still, there's no changing it now. Onward!
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