Deathtrap Dungeon

Mr Lizard, your butt is not going to break the Internet.

YOU become meat for the grinder…. Baron Sukumvit is a sick weirdo, who lavished a fortune on building a maze, filling it with traps and exotic monsters, then sending his retinue of guards into it. Encouraged by the total extermination of his squad, he hung out the sign: Open for business. 10,000 GP if you survive!

What sort of dummy would walk into a deathtrap dungeon? You!

Review and Opinion

This is possibly the most successful FF book of the whole series. Baron Sukumvit is mentioned in dialog in other books, and your conquest over the Deathtrap Dungeon is the setting for Trial of Champions and Armies of Death. They made a video game of Deathtrap Dungeon way back in the 90s, and later in Fighting Fantasy Legends Portal.

But I’m not sure why it gets the high praise. It wasn’t a bad book, but was a real no-frills dungeon crawling adventure. It’s not an epic magically-assisted epic quest spanning a continent; it’s a dungeon crawl with one winning path and a scavenger hunt. If you’re lucky you’ll find your way to a gauntlet of five monsters in a row and just have to slaughter your way through them in sequence.

I imagine that much of the hype is nostalgia (being one of the first) and merchandising hype (video game & advertising). I don’t mean to knock it – it’s what would become a typical dungeon crawl adventure, but it’s nothing more. Not awesome, not awful, but a fun way to spend a few afternoons.

Maps

Publication

Written by Ian Livingstone

Illustrated by Iain McCaig

1984

Book 6 in the series

Tags to Other Adventures

1984 Allansia Fang Fighting Fantasy Iain McCaig Ian Livingstone Ninja Sukumvit Titan

The Comments Section

3 comments

Summer says:

April 28, 2022 at 12:22 am

Hi, I stumbled across your site after playing through Deathtrap Dungeon. Thanks for the map! I also own The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and I’ve been reading your reviews to figure out which book to try next. I enjoy dungeon crawls, and I liked making friends with Throm (RIP). Any suggestions?

Reply
- mazemaster says:
  
  April 30, 2022 at 5:24 pm
  
  From my childhood, Citadel of Chaos was one of my favorites. I had a vague memory for 30 years of some of the things in that book… It brings in a magic system, which I really dig, and has multiple ways to win the boss fight.
  
  Then again, Forest of Doom also brings in a new mechanic of buying magical items to get out of certain scrapes AND a possibility to get to the end, go back to the start with your gold, resupply and start over again!
  
  But if you like making friends & allies like Throm, go for Island of the Lizard King. It has one of FF’s memorable friend scenes.
  
  Reply
  - Summer says:
    
    May 3, 2022 at 1:12 am
    
    Thanks! Just beat Citadel of Chaos. It was a well thought out and dynamic setting – social encounters and transactions, guards, kitchens, sewers, daycare, even laundry. The boss fight was fantastic, too! Sadly, no enormous gems to steal, but there were still plenty of mysterious liquids to drink.
    
    I will check out The Island of the Lizard King next. A lot of these books are available to borrow on archive.org these days, which is way better than buying books on eBay sight unseen and hoping for the best, which is what I tried in high school, with middling success.
    
    I appreciate the recommendations! I’ve been reading fan blogs since I picked these books back up, and I’ve been having a good time drawing cartoons of my own encounters.
    
    Reply