Great fun and tough to get through, many thanks to the Author!
Tammy Sat May 3 16:43:23 2014
Arson? And I never DID get that bracelet off.
Shadow Sun Nov 23 02:53:30 2014
Last fight was pretty epic XD
Jonathan Sun Mar 22 23:01:37 2015
I've completed a day's work at the Black Lobster! What a place...
Great game!
dark Mon Apr 6 15:57:18 2015
A short and fun adventure. A little tougher than impudent peasant and I want to explore some of the other alternatives sinse I do think there is probably another way through, indeed I don't think the ending I got there was the one I had originally, although it seems this is a game where most fights are dam dangerous and likely to get you killed.
I got the ending with the bargaining but I'm sure there is another where you get rid of Thord.
e Mon Apr 6 16:15:23 2015
Ah cool, there is the other ending, hurrah! although imho that is imho harder.
SPOILER
To survive that fight with the trolls even with the troll slayer's axe you really! need every advantage possible, and even then it's a gamble. I think the bribery ending seems more in character for a wheeler dealer like Halron than going all Conan the barbarian too, though it's a nice spare way out albeit it's imho the harder ending. I also never discovered what the pirate's monkey is for, if anything.
END SPOILER
lee Fri May 1 19:26:06 2015
one hell of a game with plenty of twists and turns, but also providing a variety of ways to get your character a decent edge needed to survive. don't ask me, look out for the extortionist.
Danny Sun May 15 22:56:27 2016
The adventure is way too short.
Lorian Fri Nov 25 15:54:55 2016
Very good,
SPOILER
Talk To Kuhulion The Crab and wait then get stuck in the fray. you will get a item to beat the boss(es)
END SPOILER
Bumwise the Warlock Sun Dec 4 13:18:02 2016
Is the author still active, or do we read the 'final edition' of the gamebook?
yay Wed Feb 22 01:41:29 2017
this was awesome
amerikranian Thu Feb 23 00:22:57 2017
so short, that it isn't werth playing.
Gol Vareth Sun Mar 19 10:55:43 2017
Hello Andrew Wright. I've been hunting for your Deathtrap Dungeon 3. It was very good last time I remember erading it? How can I read it again? Willing to pay.
Sushi Sun May 7 03:20:12 2017
Ouch
bluejuice915 Sun Jun 18 02:25:06 2017
I played this before and decided to come back to it. This plays really well for a plot without travel or many battles. Having to nail talking to one particular person is annoying, but far less so than other books that needn't be named. Overall, very likable. Grade: 95
Tammy Mon Jun 19 23:50:44 2017
Deathtrap Dungeon 3 was put in the wood chipper a long time ago. All that's left is our memories.
Gavin Tue Jun 20 06:53:41 2017
Huh?
Tammy Thu Jun 22 07:15:07 2017
It's caput. Toast. Dust in the wind. Excremented. Stuffed in a blender and turned on for over one minute. Food for the birds and worms. Done. No more. Gone forever. Put in the paper shredder. Placed on the back burner. Dead in the water. Tits up. D.O.A. Ready for the zombie apocalypse. Waiting for Steve Jackson to write another gamebook that'll be really awesome.
RogueOne Wed Nov 29 19:52:49 2017
Done!
Joel Wed Jan 17 17:20:58 2018
You know I didn't get to use the Gold I earned for literally anything. I hope there is a sequel so I can actually use this gold. I have literally 58 gold. I could buy a lot with that.
Grettir Tue Mar 20 19:36:25 2018
Very droll.
Carlos Fernandes Mon Sep 24 23:35:55 2018
Very original And funny
paul Tue Mar 5 11:11:14 2019
i like!
paul Mon Mar 11 18:17:51 2019
shouldn't have gone to bed :(
Adam Martin Thu Mar 28 23:18:06 2019
Great fun, nice to see a place fleshed out like this. Adds colour to the city of Port blacksand
Jest Mon Jul 22 00:05:22 2019
I love this one!
ShawnFireDragon Tue Dec 3 16:04:50 2019
Great story, I really enjoyed playing. I am a long time fan of Fighting Fantasy. Thanks for your wonderful adventure.
Yaztromo Thu Apr 9 10:10:23 2020
This adventure is evergreen ;)
Ironwolf Wed Oct 21 21:17:09 2020
Amazing! Got both of the 'good' endings, and I'm not sure which is better. I only wish it had a sequel!
morgan painter Fri Mar 12 09:55:08 2021
this was very itense
Mage Mon Oct 18 05:52:36 2021
This one wasn't hard to win, but I thought I'd try for the harder troll-slayer path....just barely made it! :D
bluejuice915 Fri Feb 24 08:43:14 2023
Been making my way back through everything on this site. Got hinted that there was a second (harder) ending I hadn't done on this one & managed to find it. Yay. Still really like how good this story is despite not lacking adventure-ness. Great lead for another adventure, even if it never got used. Props.
YARD Thu Sep 7 15:49:46 2023
After beating In The Footsteps Of A Hero the other day, I decided to power through the other two Blacksand-set stories on here in short order, and here we are!
Not sure how I feel about this one. On one hand, I absolutely LOVED seeing that reference to Demons of the Deep - up until I found this website, it was one of the only two original gamebooks I ever came across. (The other one was Seas of Blood - I guess my initial exposure to Fighting Fantasy was rather atypically marine-themed!) And I still enjoy adventures with low-powered and atypical characters a lot. Chapter titles are also a nice addition - I was at first wondering if it was going to go all the way with ref names, like Soul Tracker, but I guess not.
At the same time, it feels rather arbitrary altogether. Halron's alcoholism (why would a tavern-keeper need any real money in the first place, anyway?) strangely doesn't come into play much, when compared to even the author's own Lair of the Troglodytes. Perhaps it would have been too much of a retread, but then there wouldn't be the addition of recurring characters from Andrew's previous two stories. Unexpectedly, they are not particularly welcome here. as they appear implausibly dumbed down compared to their previous iterations. It's also strange that you have no choice but to talk to them (and lie to them out of spite), yet the follow-up from that inevitable action is completely skippable, in a way which doesn't make much sense.
SPOILER
If you go to sleep upstairs, does this somehow prevent Raitharve from reaching your tavern that night? Does she suddenly decide not to disturb you while you are asleep? Or did SKILL 10 adventurer got scared off by a guy who is most likely well weaker than her, since he lost to a SKILL 9 troll?
END SPOILER
On the other hand, the final encounter is both all-but-unskippable, and doesn't make much sense. If it was that easy for someone like them to exhort taverns, how did you even get by for so long? And surely even they would have been able to understand that since your establishment generates money, they could keep coming back and claiming at regular intervals (since if you couldn' repel them once, why would you succeed the next time?) All the railroading towards that battle simply isn't very satisfying. Out of the two endings, the one which involves the axe is just not very interesting (with even a few works on here featuring variations on this ending) or even hopeful (as the character doesn't come across particularly suited for that life, to say the least). The other ending is a lot better, but the path to it is not very satisfying.
SPOILER
If their late mother was this important, I feel like they would have mentioned her on their own already, not caring what you would think? It's also funny that Thord doesn't care about Raitharve or the extortionist, yet charges into a doomed action against a Troll.
END SPOILER
The key conversation in the lead-up to that ending option really needed to be more involved, with more dialogue options to navigate before pulling this off. Sadly, the supporting characters don't get much of a chance to be remembered, since their encounters are rather one-note due to their brevity. I think that this would have likely worked better with the adventure
Finally, proofreading.
SPOILER
CHAPTER ONE - BREAKFAST AT ALLIERTÉ'S + CHAPTER TWO - THE LUNCH (LIVE, AT THE BLACK LOBSTER) + CHAPTER FOUR + 8 + 19 + 21 + 28 + 37 + 41 + 44 + 56 - extra spaces before question marks
"that you possibly think could be a pirate"
40 – “swing his battle-axe” – not swings? 42 – " green-skinned SERPENTS” – not green-scaled? Drunken Enhance spell is excellent!