Closing the series with the verdict. Daniel (@dungeondive) reviews the package D100 Dungeon core book + World Builder expansion (+ optional mapping game) as a single experience and lands on easy top 20, possibly top 10. The recommended entry point is the two books — around £80 with the mapping box, considerably less in PDF — and the case for the bundle rests on five upsides: an almost-endless sense of adventure built from your own hand-drawn world; a fast learn-and-relearn curve; connect-the-dots emergent narrative (better, Daniel argues, than scripted board-game stories); low table-setup overhead; and a current of exciting because slow decision-making, particularly around press-your-luck searches and event-table chains.
The four downsides are equally specific. Weapon variety is thin — sword-and-board or two-hander, then optimise damage — and he floats a house rule grouping weapons by class with situational bonuses. Quest text is bare bones, requiring the player to do the colour work. Unlucky rolls can wedge a quest, so Daniel uses a self-applied improving-probability fix on long item hunts. Rules are scattered across multiple expansion books — same issue as Four Against Darkness. And the bookkeeping is heavy, though Daniel reframes the ledger as an adventure diary worth keeping. He exits the series wanting to keep the table set up indefinitely.
Daniel reframes heavy bookkeeping as memorialising the time spent with the game. Which solo systems have left you with a stack of paper you actually wanted to keep?