Reply #67: I saw that previous post,

[truth2power]

but I didn't think that was the title of the book. If anyone can remember, did Mazes and Monsters have a section of photos? If not, then it was some other book.

edit> you were right. I found this on google:

http://www.geocities.com/utherworld/seasons/egbert.html

"On August 14, 1979, J. Dallas left a map of pins that indicated a location in the university's steam tunnels and left his room at Case Hall. He took a blanket, some food, and many sleeping pills and entered the Steam Tunnels, evidently intending to die of a drug overdose.

He awoke the next evening, disoriented but very much alive.

As personal belongings were later found in the university's steam tunnels and because most people were unfamiliar with role-playing games then, the police and the media seized on a bizarre explanation for his disappearance: Egbert had disappeared or died during a role-playing game! Many news agencies picked it up as the man bites dog story of the day. To complicate matters, the local Society for Creative Anachronism had recently taken group photographs in the tunnels, and had painted medieval designs on the walls.

When J. Dallas turned up a month later with a very different explanation for his disappearance, few bothered to report the facts."

That's the one I was thinking of. I didn't remember him ever being found.