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 Deathtrap Dungeon Trilogy.

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

Other Players and Lin

• Justin Parallax reads Deathtrap Dungeon
• Deathtrap Dungeon playthrough by Seven Fourteen Seven
• A review by Pestridge on YouTube
• Richard Cowen takes on Deathtrap Dungeon
• Malthus Dire reviews DD
• Champskees gives a best path walkthrough over at FF Proboards
• Alison Cybe plays D.D.