Took a shot at this for the first time and quite enjoyed it. The set up is absurd in the extreme, no-one would ever do that. Why is the dungeon there, why is the dragon there? The political economy of the dungeon makes no sense. This is a gamebook that was out of date at the time Warlock of Firetop Mountain was published, by 2004 players were expecting something more than just a funhouse dungeon. Perhaps Livingstone was trying to enculcate a taste for old school style rpgs. And given that the tweens who would have read this are now approaching middle age and the OSR is full swing, perhaps he was right.

I know this book has a bad reputation, but I am not clear why. Yes its nonsense, but I enjoyed it. The usual blend of tricks and traps and killing monsters. I didn't find the eye of the dragon so I died in pain at the very end. Maybe something is broken or utterly impossible or implausibly stupid along a path I didn;t take. ( )