Lone Delver Games, $0.00
Fantasy, 2010

The Temple of Issoth is a free sampling of the Tunnels and Trolls Solo Adventure gamebook line from Lone Delver Games, which is so thoughtful of them as gamebooks are always good but free is icing on the cake.

This one has its own system, but it all boils down to saving rolls, so there’s nothing complicated about the whole thing. You can play any character you want, whether it’s human, dwarf, or snowflake, and there are character ideas here as well if you are out of ideas.

The only possible complication here is that you are expected to be familiar with the Tunnels & Trolls system when it comes to inventory and weapon choice—you can take anything you want along with you, but there’s a rule about making sure everything doesn’t go over the weight limit, and some people may find the brief and casual explanation tad too vague for them. However, the pre-generated characters have their own set of weapons and other items, so it’s a simple matter of basing your own inventory of the suggested ones.

There is no other customization of skills, spells, or attributes, but hey, this is a short campaign so no frills are necessary.

Wait, maybe some frills would be nice, because this campaign is so bare bones that you’d have a hard time remembering anything about it.

Basically, an old man asks you to venture into the Temple of Issoth, the usual hive of villainy and creepy magic, to rescue his son from being sacrificed to the great beast-god Issoth. For some reason, you decide to venture inside without any weapons or maps or even detailed knowledge about the place, so you are soon asked to make random choices on which way you’d like to turn, would you like to drink this thing, do you want to look at that thing, and other decisions you’d have to make based on whim.

The one thing about this one is that it is short enough to keep the constant backtracking and random choices from becoming aggravating and too repetitive. You may try sketching a map of the temple, but it’s possible to reach the happy ending anyway by chance, although sketching a map will of course make the campaign feel less random.

In other words, this one is Grailquest minus the wacky humor, which means there is no nonsensical farce to distract you from the more tedious aspects of dungeon delving. It is The Legends of Skyfall minus the brain damage, which means it is far less complicated to play and you won’t get an aneurysm from it.

This also means that there is little to make this campaign stand out, as it’s basically a dungeon crawl built on your character going in blind, without much plot or memorable encounters that will stick to your mind.

Ambivalence, therefore, is the theme of the day. You may want to check out the non-free campaigns in this line, or you may opt to move on with your life. Either way, this one doesn’t try too hard to help you make up your mind.

The post The Temple of Issoth by Dan Hembree first appeared on HOT SAUCE REVIEWS.