''Trajan's Treacherous Trap'' (or ''Treacherous Trajan's Trap'') is a

play-by-mail game A play-by-mail game (also known as a PBM game, PBEM game, turn-based game, turn based distance game, or an interactive strategy game.) is a game played through postal mail, email, or other digital media. Correspondence chess and Go (game), Go wer ...

that was published by

Flying Buffalo Flying Buffalo Inc. (FBI) is a game company with a line of role playing games, card games, and other gaming materials. The company's founder, Rick Loomis, began game publishing with '' Nuclear Destruction'', a play-by-mail game which started th ...

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. The game was hand-moderated.

Rick Loomis Rick Loomis (August 24, 1946 – August 23, 2019) was an American game designer, most notable as the founder of game publisher Flying Buffalo, which he managed until his death. Career Early years Richard F. Loomis was born and raised in Scott ...

described it as a PBM version of ''

Tunnels & Trolls ''Tunnels & Trolls'' (abbreviated ''T&T'') is a fantasy role-playing game designed by Ken St. Andre and first published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo. The second modern role-playing game published, it was written by Ken St. Andre to be a more access ...

''. It was a "solo dungeon by mail" with basic elements of gameplay. Orders were multiple choice and turn sheets were normally short—about a page long. Loomis 1980. p. 6. Loomis ran the games and adjudicated the turns according to ''Tunnels & Trolls'' rules. Starting players were fighters with a sword. The setting was a "devilish dungeon designed to kill 999 out of 1000 players who enter". The dungeon's exit was on the bottom of its three levels. Loomis warned that solving the dungeon would be costly and challenging, but would earn a sizable reward. By mid-1979, Loomis stated that there were about 90 players. Loomis wrote in the April 1982 issue of ''

The Space Gamer ''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the la ...

'' that, even though "the game has been running for well over a year, no one has yet found the entrance to the second level". As of 1988, "only one person adever survived the dungeon".

Reception

Stefan Jones reviewed ''Trajan's Treacherous Trap'' in ''

'' No. 37. 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." 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.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* {{Play-by-mail games 20th-century role-playing games American games American role-playing games Dungeon crawler board games Dungeon management games Fantasy role-playing games Flying Buffalo games Graphical MUDs Heroic fantasy MUD games Multi-user dungeon Multiplayer games Play-by-mail games Role-playing games introduced in 1979 Role-playing games introduced in the 1970s Strategy games Sword and sorcery Tabletop games

Development and gameplay

Reception

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography