Naked Doom

Naked Doom is number four in FBI's solo dungeon series and is the second written by Ken St. Andre , illustrated by Rob Carver. Naked Doom is one of the more deadly dungeons in the series. Ken felt his first solo dungeon, Deathtrap Equalizer, was way too easy. He decided to go in the complete other direction and created a very deadly adventure. Ken has admitted to trying to kill the characters off. The dungeon is designed for a 1st and 2nd level human, dwarf, elf or hobbit. No magic at all is permitted, only warriors can enter.

In Naked Doom you are arrested in Khazan and sentenced to "The Royal Khazan Gauntlet of Criminal Retribution and Rehabilitation", the official name for Naked Doom. Originally it was created as a test for heroes, but many didn't return so it was taken over by the justice department of Khazan.

Your character is stripped of all your weapons and clothing and sent in naked (hence the name Naked Doom). You are then forced to run down a corridor as two guards shoot arrows at you. A bad roll of the dice and you're finished already. There are some very deadly moments in the dungeon and some very powerful treasures, making this dungeon worth the dangers.

This was Crang Ironskin's third adventure, after Buffalo Castle and Weirdworld. Crang was arrested for fighting the wrong people in a bar room brawl and was sentenced to Naked Doom.
He was almost killed right off the start, taking an arrow by one of the guards, but Crang is a tough character and pulled himself through. In the end Crang made it out of the dungeon and joined the Khazan Killers, an elite section of the Khazan Army.

Labyrinth

Solo dungeon 3 was Lee Russell's Labyrinth, released in 1977. Labyrinth is an old fashion dungeon crawl set in ancient Greece for first and second level human warriors. The adventure is full of references to Greek mythology. Other than the obvious Minotaur, you may also run into Theseus, Prometheus, the Hydra, the River Styx or any of the gods themselves. Of course all of these encounters are taken out of context to the original myths which was common in the early days of gaming.

In Labyrinth, Lee Russell introduces Invocations. Invocations are prayers to the gods for intervention in order to achieve a goal. This is accomplished the same way a savings roll is made and can be done on any of the attributes. Originally Tunnels and Trolls did not have any rules for gods or religion, so this is a good addition to the rules if you are using deities in you campaign.

Personally I have always found Labyrinth a bit weak, maybe it's the game's liberal use of the myths or maybe it is because it is not set on Trollworld. (Though don't let this stop you, there are many "dimensional doorways" on Trollwold that can send you to Greece, or send your Greek character to Trollworld for that matter.) Despite its weakness Labyrinth can be a fun little adventure and if you would like to enter you can here...Labyrinth

Deathtrap Equalizer

In 1977 (the year after Buffalo Castle was released), TnT creator, Ken St. Andre gave us the Deathtrap Equalizer Dungeon. Unlike Buffalo Castle, this dungeon is for all character types under 5th level and less then 70 adds. Deathtrap was unique for its time in a few ways. It is not set in a linear dungeon where the characters walk from room to room, instead the character is teleported to each adventure, which could take place anywhere on Trollworld. Secondly, it is the first to use magic. Ken's use of magic in this solo is very limited; he only gives you the magical choices that he feels fits the situation.

Deathtrap is hosted by Umslopagaas of the Shiny Teeth (one of Ken's old characters) out of his shop in Khosht. On Trollworld people set up dungeons to make money off of those greedy delvers, charging them to get in. There are sixteen different adventures and two ways in which Deathtrap could be played. In the Frog Trip, you roll three dice and go to the corresponding page's adventure. And on the Lion Trip, you start at the first adventure and work your way through each.

Deathtrap is full of Ken's twisted sense of humor. Ken has stated that he feels the rooms are too simple, but I think it can be very prosperous or very deadly to your character. My Elvin wizard Philidar was never the same after surviving a Lion trip. The game is out of print at Flying Buffalo but you can buy a pdf copy at Drive Thru RPG.

Buffalo Castle

Let's just jump right into it. I've been debating on writing an introduction blog and what to say it, but I have decided to just start. I've been playing role playing games on and off for many years, but the one game I keep coming back to is Tunnels and Trolls. Its simplified rule system is easy to remember in those longs breaks between games. The one thing I like the most is that there are so many solitaire dungeons for the game.

TnT was the first game system to have a solo adventure. In 1976, one year after the first edition rules were written, Rick Loomis, the head of Flying Buffalo Inc., gave us Buffalo Castle. The original idea though, came from Steve McAllister. Between 1976 and 1993 FBI would publish 24 solos.

Buffalo Castle is your standard dungeon crawl adventure. The adventure is for first level warriors only; it makes a great introduction to the rules and feel of the game. The rooms are full of that weird tongue-in- cheek sense of humor that gave TnT an edge above some other games. And it's filled with Liz Danforth's wonderful art, which give TnT some of its charm. There is even a trap to catch cheating players. So don't cheat, you're only cheating yourself anyway.

I've run many a first level warrior thought its halls, not all have come out though. And to some, it was the beginning of a great life of adventuring, like the warrior Crang Ironskin (though he wasn't called Ironskin back then) now semi-retired. Crang, who was from just outside the city of Khazan, learned to be a warrior from a veteran of the Khazan-Ranger war. After some years of hard training he left to make his fortune at Buffalo Castle.

Buffalo Castle is a great place to start your Tunnels and Trolls adventuring and a good look at the kind of adventures that where being written in 1976. If you would like to play the game online you can find it here...Buffalo Castle