Deathtrap Dungeon had been a runaway success, loved by fans and critics alike. The book line in full swing, what better option than to revisit it? After having had some experiments, both thematically and in gameplay terms, Trial of Champions is very much a back-to-the-basics book. Basic character stats, lots of T-junctions and “You come across a door. Do you want to open it or continue along the corridor?” Well, why wouldn't you?
The plot here states that after having been beaten, the Deathtrap Dungeon has been redone in even deadlier fashion, its owner offering double the original price money to anyone who dares give it a go. Before entering, the Baron's brother and rival holds gladiatorial games to determine which of his slaves shall represent him in this challenge. This preface is fully playable and serves as a very organic way to filter out all those characters with stats which would not have any chance of making it through the dungeon anyway.
It can indeed be seen as an act of mercy. The new dungeon marks a new high point in difficulty in this series. Not only is it swarming with enemies ranging from skill 10-12, the player needs to find all nine hidden gold rings on the way and three instructions how to sort them at the end. Just a single wrong step away from the narrow path to victory and it's over. Countless instant death traps are waiting anyway.
At this point, author Ian Livingstone seems to have lost all reason. The only possible rational explanation could be that he considered the book shall remain challenging after finding the correct path. Indeed, even knowing exactly which steps to take, knowing every secret the dungeon will throw at you, the chances of winning will still be minuscule. Even for the perfect 12/24/12 character, there are various places to fail, apart from stamina attrition. Such as a skill check versus three dice. Or those pure chance roles which occur regardless of stat values.
Even if this was meant as an experiment to imbue the book with longevity, the question remains if the means fulfil such an objective. They miss this mark by a large margin. The challenges, the risks, the immense danger is based on pure chance aspects. There are no meaningful decisions to be taken to do better or worse once the essential path has been figured out. There is no strategy which could influence the outcome towards higher chances of success. At its core, this is like rolling twelve dice and hoping that more than the expected two sixes will appear.
Livingstone's writing, highly effective in the predecessor, unfortunately does not help too much, either. Due to its very linear nature, the adventure is quite long. This is particularly apparent in comparison with many of the preceding books which rather offered alternative paths which shortened each run-through significantly in turn. The dungeon follows no rhyme or reason, however. There are no distinct areas, no patterns emerge. The string of bland encounters and scenes feels random, offering few memorable highlights.
Particularly, the presence of other contestants, working so well previously, does not amount to much. When encounters happen, they come out of nowhere. Outside those sections explicitly meeting them, there are no signs of others traversing the same corridors. And then, when they suddenly materialise out of thin air, it's almost always just yet another tough enemy to overcome in a fight. With just a single exception, the elf, which in turn is lifted pretty much verbatim from the previous book.
With a willingness to cheat in order to overcome the far overshot skill, luck and stamina requirements, Trial of Champions is a serviceable book, but certainly no more than that. As a sequel to one of the most memorable books of the line, it is poor. Then, of course, that was a book which did not lend itself very well to a sequel anyway, was it? Maybe the whole thing was simply a bad idea.
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