In The Labyrinth

Steve Jackson's First RPG
I have been playing quite a bit of Steve Jackson's new version of The Fantasy Trip since its release earlier this year. The Fantasy Trip is a tactical RPG experience like no other of which I am aware. Based on the microgames Melee and Wizard of the late 1970's and using markers and hex-map terrain display, The Fantasy Trip rewards cooperation between players and tactical planning. It is a game that brings the role-playing experience to its audience through mechanics that are quick to learn and would be easily recognized by the tabletop wargamer, a demographic that made up a considerable portion of the tabletop gaming community in the late 1970's. With its re-introduction this year, The Fantasy Trip is once again readily available through Steve Jackson Games, and they are providing the system good support following the very successful Kickstarter.
In The Labyrinth uses a 3d6 roll under mechanic for combat and talent (think skill system) resolution. Armor reduces damage which is deducted from Strength. Dexterity is rolled against in order to strike an opponent and wearing heavy armor deducts from one's effective Dexterity thereby lowering one's chances to score an effective blow. IQ, or intelligence, is the third of the main three attributes and is used for Talents and Magic. Casting spells requires a Dexterity roll and burns Strength points as fatigue. A combination of damage and fatigue that lowers the figure's Strength to zero, that figure (as characters in TFT are called) drops unconscious. Should damage reduce the figure to minus one or lower Strength, the figure is considered "dead".
The arena tactical games Melee and Wizard introduce the basic rules for character creation, combat and magic and are stand-alone games in their own right. In The Labyrinth combines the rules from Melee and Wizard with additional material to form a complete role-playing system called The Fantasy Trip. In The Labyrinth can be purchased separately (as can most of the individually named products) or boxed together with Melee, Wizard and the Death Test solo and Tolenkar's Lair refereed adventures, markers, maps, dice and everything needed for play, all in the Legacy Edition Box.

In The Labyrinth hearkens back to the days when the role-playing hobby was new and as yet undefined. The Fantasy Trip gave us wargamers something familiar in that we played TFT using counters on a hex-map, counting hexes and moving our markers and rolling six-sided dice. Combat with the new element of magic thrown in was about all we wanted. As the hobby matured and we matured as role-players, The Fantasy Trip has taken on an additional dimension, that of social encounter and investigative play. And yes, The Fantasy Trip/ In The Labyrinth is a useful tool for enjoying those aspects of role-playing along with combat and exploration.
In The Labyrinth offers a complete RPG experience and a fun, quick playing, easy to understand game. The simple, yet elegant system developed by Steve Jackson during his early days as a designer, and recently improved upon in its new edition, does not disappoint.