City of Terrors (originally 1978, this edition 1983) is the first Tunnels & Trolls solo to take place somewhere that doesn’t involve tunnels. The titular city, Gull, is a horrible little place on a tropical island. There are many adventures to be had here, some in the wilderness, some in the open air of the city (with plenty of wandering characters to encounter) and many within the building of the city. Another solo, Sewers of Oblivion, details the dungeons below Gull.

This one is written by Michael Stackpole (most famous to me for his outspoken criticism of Patricia Pulling during and after the Satanic Panic; probably most famous to most for writing the Rogue Squadron novels) and is just chock full of weirdness and surprising twists, including a conflict with the demi-god of Time, which ranks as the most dangerous encounter in the adventure (and reaps some ridiculous rewards should you prevail).

You get a sense of the gonzo energy from the illustrations by Liz Danforth and Rob Carver (another T&T mainstay). Like a lot of great adventure gamebooks, looking at the illustrations conjures up a feeling of “how on earth do these fit together?” In all honesty, the ties that bind are tenuous – the focus here is firmly on fun. Stackpole tosses tedious requirements of logic and believability into the bin, to his credit, I think.

Which is not to say this adventure is a chaotic jumble. It isn’t! It is one of my favorite T&T solos, largely because the weirdness is balanced by some meticulous structuring. T&T solo choices come pretty much paragraph by paragraph, but despite the brevity of the prose, you really do get a sense of the city, its bustle and its environs. Those details are bizarre! But the underlying structure is something you can hold onto when events go bonkers.