One of my favorites, which appeared in Dragon Magazine #51 in July of 1981. The game was meant to be a board version of Dungeons & Dragons. The wonderful original map was done by Darlene Pekul, and the lettering on it was done late one night by Dave Trampier. Later, I revised this for West End, as a companion to Kings and Things. However, the project fell through and it had to wait a few years for its new incarnation. Finally, Kim Mohan agreed to put the new edition of Search for the Emperor's Treasure in a boxed set: Best of Dragon Games. If you can find one on eBay, that is the version to play. It features many more encounters, an improved treasure gathering system, and best of all (if you cut it out) hex tiles so you can play on a different map each time.

Some Errata for the Best of Dragon version

An interested fan pointed out that Rokko the Dwarf was in all ways inferior to Ozmo, so there was no real reason to to ever choose him (unless Ozmo was already taken). I looked in the old prototype box and found the error of my ways. I also used his suggestion for Rokko's constitution. While I was at it, Herman got upgraded too. These character cards are in the Dragon version format but work just fine with the newer, boxed set. Ignore any numbers printed on the character counter, just use the values on the card.