2024 marks 40 years since Sir Ian Livingstone's seminal
Deathtrap Dungeon was first published.
Inspired by a holiday Livingstone had taken to Thailand, the plot of the adventure sees the hero taking up the challenge
of the Trial of Champions, devised by the devilish mind of Baron Sukumvit, entering
the eponymous dungeon, braving the labyrinth’s fiendish traps and monstrous denizens, all in the pursuit of fame and fortune.
Ian Livingstone’s rough map of
Deathtrap Dungeon. (© Ian Livingstone, 2024)
“I went trekking in Northern Thailand in 1981,” explains Livingstone.
“I passed through Fang and crossed the River Kok on my way to the jungle near the
Burmese border. I took lots of photos of villagers and scenery on the trek. It was
an incredible adventure, and one not without drama. Our guide was constantly fretting
about armed bandits coming over the border to rob us! The trek made a big impression
on me, enough for me to want to reference the people and places in
Deathtrap Dungeon which I began writing in
late 1983. But the dungeon plot itself was a product of the dungeons I’d designed
during the years I’d been playing
D&D. When Penguin
Books told us they wanted a sequel to
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain,
I thought I’d write a classic dungeon-bash next, but I put it on hold and wrote
The Forest of Doom and
City of Thieves before
Deathtrap Dungeon.”
As well as the River Kok and Fang, the names of several other
places Livingstone visited on that fortuitous trip made it into the book, including
Chiang Mai. Baron Sukumvit himself was named after Sukumvit Road in Bangkok. The
marriage of both eastern and western influences in the adventure created something
entirely new, helping to give the world of Fighting Fantasy a truly unique flavour.
One of Iain McCaig’s illustration
roughs for Deathtrap Dungeon alongside Ian Livingstone’s handwritten first draft.
(© Iain McCaig and Ian Livingstone, 2024)
Deathtrap Dungeon was a huge
success, selling over 350,000 copies in its first year alone. It was the best-selling
children’s book in April 1984 and was ranked eighth out of all books sold that month. (Three of the top one hundred
books sold that year were Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.)
Deathtrap Dungeon was so successful
that Livingstone’s eighth gamebook was a sequel, Trial of Champions (FF21, published
in 1986).
Like
City of Thieves before it,
Deathtrap Dungeon was illustrated inside and out by Ian Livingstone's favourite FF artist, Iain McCaig.
“My favourite black and white illustration is the image of the
inscrutable Trialmaster on his dragon-hide throne,” says McCaig. “It was the height
of my love affair with croquill pens.”
As well as the River Kok and Fang, the names of several other
places Livingstone visited on that fortuitous trip made it into the book, including
Chiang Mai. Baron Sukumvit himself was named after Sukumvit Road in Bangkok. The
marriage of both eastern and western influences in the adventure created something
entirely new, helping to give the world of Fighting Fantasy a truly unique flavour.
Deathtrap Dungeon was a huge
success, selling over 350,000 copies in its first year alone. It was the best-selling
children’s book in April 1984 and was ranked eighth out of all books sold that month. (Three of the top one hundred
books sold that year were Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.)
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