Trajan's Treacherous Trap
Fantasy dungeon-crawler play-by-mail game
Designers | Rick Loomis |
---|---|
Publishers | Flying Buffalo Inc. , Rick Loomis PBM Games |
Years active | 1979 to circa 1988 |
Genres | Heroic fantasy , play-by-mail |
Languages | English |
Players | not fixed |
Playing time | Fixed |
Materials required | Instructions, order sheets, turn results, paper , pencil |
Media type | Play-by-mail |
Trajan's Treacherous Trap (or Treacherous Trajan's Trap ) is a play-by-mail game that was published by Flying Buffalo in 1979.
Development and gameplay
Trajan's Treacherous Trap was a fantasy role-playing game designed similarly to Flying Buffalo's dungeon adventures for solo players. [1] The game was hand-moderated . [2] Rick Loomis described it as a PBM version of Tunnels & Trolls . [3] [lower-alpha 1] It was a "solo dungeon by mail" with basic elements of gameplay. [3] Orders were multiple choice and turn sheets were normally short—about a page long. [4]
Loomis ran the games and adjudicated the turns according to Tunnels & Trolls rules. [3] Starting players were fighters with a sword. [4] The setting was a "devilish dungeon designed to kill 999 out of 1000 players who enter". [3] The dungeon's exit was on the bottom of its three levels. [4] Loomis warned that solving the dungeon would be costly and challenging, but would earn a sizable reward. [3] [lower-alpha 2] By mid-1979, Loomis stated that there were about 90 players. [5]
Loomis wrote in the April 1982 issue of The Space Gamer that, even though "the game has been running for well over a year, no one has yet found the entrance to the second level". [2] As of 1988, "only one person [had] ever survived the dungeon". [6]
Reception
Stefan Jones reviewed Trajan's Treacherous Trap in The Space Gamer No. 37. [1] Jones commented that "I can't really recommend Trajan's Treacherous Trap , unless you're rich, can't find anyone to game with, and find that no one will sell you any of the numerous solo dungeons available." [1] M.T. Lunsford reviewed the game in February–March 1988 issue of D2 Report magazine. He noted it as a simple, but slow game that the publisher was winding down. [6]
See also
Notes
References
- 1 2 3 Jones, Stefan (March 1981). "Capsule Reviews". The Space Gamer . Steve Jackson Games (37): 28.
- 1 2 Loomis, Rick (April 1982). "Space Battle (Flying Buffalo, Inc.)". The Space Gamer . No. 50. p. 38.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Loomis, Rick (February 1979). "Editorial". Flying Buffalo Quarterly . No. 38. p. 2.
- 1 2 3 4 Loomis 1980 . p. 6.
- ↑ Loomis, Rick (June 1979). "Editorial". Flying Buffalo Quarterly . No. 39. p. 3.
- 1 2 Lunsford, M.T. (February–March 1988). "Taking Inventory". D2 Report: The Play-by-Mail Gamer's Reading Companion . No. 15. p. 15.
Bibliography
- Loomis, Rick (April 1980). "Editorial". Flying Buffalo Quarterly . No. 40. pp. 1–6.
Dueling /Individual combat | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Crime | |||||
Wargames |
|
||||
Political/Intrigue | |||||
Roleplaying ( open-ended ) | |||||
Science fiction /Space opera |
|
||||
Magazines | |||||
Companies | |||||
Other |