Favorite Flying Buffalo Solo

[ironfang]

I think that there is something good to be said for every solo out there. No, Weirdworld doesn't stack up to Caravan to Tiern as far as plot and production quality, but remember there is nearly decade between them.

Please vote for the adventure you think is "Best of the Best" !!

[dandelion]

Ack. There are that many solo adventures out? I should just forget about trying to get a group together and start playing by myself instead!

(I'm not voting because I haven't played any yet. Sorry.)

[Deleted]

I'll go with Deathtrap Equalizer. I have fond memories of it, and besides, the name is just so "warm and fuzzy".

[mahrundl]

'Sorcerer Solitaire' for me. Although I like several others nearly as well, this is my all-time favourite.

At least, of the ones I've played. There must be at least a dozen listed that I've never seen.

[ironfang]

khaydhaik said:

BTW, Ironfang, I didn't think you could have more than 8 options in a poll. I'm clearly wrong...! Maybe blind, too...?

I'm exalting you for setting up this poll!

I was playing around a bit, and noticed a line that says click to add answers, or some such. Opened up 35 options, which appears to be the absolute maximum.

[Hogscape]

Sewers of Oblivion is my runner-up. It's a great adventure (written by Stackpole from memory) with plenty of humour and action.

But the crown has to go to City of Terrors. I played through this dozens of times, GM'd it as a multiplayer game. Mapped the streets and set my own adventures there too. It's a little bit 'old school' in that death awaits you for no good reason on occasions but I have great memories of my time in Gull. (Hey, I think Stackpole wrote this one too)!

Classic!

[Boozer]

I voted for 'Dark Temple'. I think it is extremely well written, with lots of scope for adventure, original encounters and events and some cool art.

However, I am very fond of the 'old school' T&T solos, and I would like to vote for others as well. Sewers of Oblivion is indeed a wonderful solo. Stackpole at his best IMHO, and Ken's 'Arena of Khazan' is the best thing he's ever written, again IMO. Very well written and worked-out.

I also have a soft spot for 'Blue Frog Tavern', which had a very warm and friendly feel to it.

[zanshin]

Voted for City of Terrors - its sheer scope and the quality of the writing takes it for me.

However very honourable mentions to Sorcerers solitaire, Beyond the Silvered pane, Dargons Dungeon, Sewers of oblivion, Sword for hire and Blue frog Tavern, for that real old skool t&t feel. And Buffalo Castle for being the first

[Fenris]

Some tough choices there!

I finally settled on Blue Frog Tavern/Sword For Hire because it has both story and character, and a minimal amount of messing around with your character for it's own sake. And the Rock Demons are just too cute. Sure, "Six Pack" was a great name... but Quartz for a continously drunk Rock Demon? Inspired. Nothing short of inspired.

Honorable mentions:
Dark Temple (technically impressive but way too long!)
Labyrinth (for being a "Greek" dungeon)
Buffalo Castle (just about perfect!)

I've got one of the signed Elven Lords, but I never seem to get around to playing it... maybe someday....

Least Favorite:
Deathtrap Equalizer Dungeon, hands down, no question.

I noticed that City of Terrors is the big winner here; I should note that my only copy of City of Terrors was the Corgi version, and given the tiny size of the book and the awful artwork inside, it wasn't very much fun to play through. CoT might very well be the best solo ever, but not when using the Corgi edition! It just goes to show, I suppose, that you can't ignore product quality when selling something... inferior quality production can easily bring down an otherwise high quality product.....

[order99]

Blue Frog Tavern for me as well-it was better constructed than Buffalo Castle, and still had a bit of that "anything can happen here" feel to it.

[mahrundl]

Zanshin, you should get yourself a Necromancer avatar, for bringing back a thread that had stopped nearly two years ago.

(In case you are concerned, thread necromancy doesn't bother me in the slightest... )

[order99]

And Thread Necromancy means more choice brains to ea..er, pick.

[castiglione]

I didn't notice until recently that the cover of Sorcerer Solitaire basically portrayed a wizard as a crazy looking hippy taking a toke on a suspicious looking pipe. Maybe that's not too inappropriate considering how odd the dungeon was.

I was flipping through some solitaires I have and some of the later ones seem to have tried to push the "technology" as far as it would go. Amulet of the Salkti had an "object matrix" in addition to a magic matrix where you attempted to use objects collected in the adventure. Captif d'Yvoire let you grab clothes and disguise yourself and try to bluff your way past guards. Later adventures also made attempts to "scale" the challenges to your character (with mixed success).

[unclecranky]

I'm the weirdo who voted for Amulet. Call me crazy (and you'd not be far off, with all the medications I'm on) but I loved running that solo when I first got it, and I think it's still pretty cool today. Of course, the fact that I was able to run it all the way through with a fairy, after killing a dwarf, two humans, an elf and a hobbit had a bit to do with it. I agree with castiglione that the later ones tried to push the envelope, but Cas, you have to remember that the solos themselves were well past 'state of the art' when they first came out. They were the first of their kind, and only Flying Buff had them. Which makes me incredibly sad now, for some reason.

[castiglione]

Actually, The Fantasy Trip and High Fantasy both had solitaire adventures.

The Fantasy Trip had a number of them and the ones written for High Fantasy are supposedly some of the best solitaires ever written (I think they were the first to use "flags" to indicate what had already happened, etc.).