Ken St. Andre

I've been a great fan of Tunnels & Trolls since the mid '80s when I picked up the Corgi 5th edition rulebook by mistake thinking at the time that it was another Fighting Fantasy type book. Since then I've kept an eye out for T&T solos and GM adventures and other editions of the rulebooks, and really just collected whateber I could find, most of the time out of pure habit than for any other reason. Anyway, I heard about the kickstarter and was straight in there to back it, receiving my 'Early Bird' fridge magnet(for anyone that supported it within the first week(I think)) shortly after the close of the kickstarter.

The first thing to say is that this isn't the finished book. The book is quite late at this point but the team producing this Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls edition(as it's to be known) has released a beta version of the book for backers to playtest and peruse. It's not the full rulebook and omits quite a lot, but at the same time consists of 105 pages(in PDF) whereas the final product is supposed to be about 200 pages if I remember correctly. I've gone for the Softcover version in the kickstarter and will receive a PDF of the fully completed version too I believe, eventually.

So, to the beta version itself. The table of contents is huge, and just goes to show what a titanic task it must be to write(or rewrite a rulebook like this). Just take a look at this,


TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Basic or Core Game
What you need to play

1. Introduction
2. Playing the game
3. Creating characters
3.1 Prime attributes
3.2 Personal adds
3.3 Character Types
3.31 Warriors
3.32 Wizards
3.33 Rogues
3.34 Specialists
3.4 The Playable Character Kindreds
3.41 Humans
3.42 Dwarves
3.43 Elves
3.44 Fairies
3.45 Hobbs
3.46 Leprechauns
3.5 More about your character
3.51 Height and weight
3.52 Weight possible and weight carried
3.53 Possessions
3.54 The rest of the story
3.6 Character Progression
3.61 It's a learning experience
3.62 Character level
4. Equipping Your Character
4.1 Weapons
4.2 Armor and Shields
4.3 Bigger, Better, Broken-in, or Broken Down
4.4 Poisons (not included)
4.5 Provisions and other equipment
5. Saving Rolls
6. Simple Talents (not included)
7. The Hostile Opposition
7.1 Monsters, enemies, and foes
7.2 Monster ratings
7.3 Opponents with Attributes
7.4 Monster Levels
8. Combat
8.1 Basics and Definitions
8.2 Missile combat
8.21 Gunnes
8.3 Unarmed combat
8.4 Berserk Combat
8.5 Other special combat situations
8.51 Stunning your opponents
8.52 Using multiple weapons
8.6 Evaluating Basic Combat
8.7 AP Rewards for Combat
8.8 Examples of Combat (not included)
9. Magic not included
9.1 Theory and practice of magic
9.2 Spellcasters' tools and magical foci
9.3 The Common Spellbook
10. How to put it all together (not included)
10.1 How to be a good GM
10.2 How to be a better player
11. Appendix to the core rules (not included)
11.1 Time and other considerations
11.2 Useful charts, templates, and other miscellany
11.21 Character creation templates

Elaborations

(NOTE: nothing below here has been included )
Optional topics that give the game more variety, depth, and/or flexibility

12. More about character types
12.1 Specializing your specialist
12.2 Citizens
12.3 Paragons
13. Other playable kindreds
13.1 The Illkin (Monster Kindreds)
14. Languages
15. Alternative or expanded rules
15.1 Other ways to create characters
15.2 Extended talents
15.3 Additional combat rules
15.4 More about magic
16. Accessories
16.1 Miniatures
16.2 Virtual tabletops and other digital tools
17. Essays, charts, and other augmentations
17.1 Treasure generation charts
17.2 Money, property, jobs, and day-to-day life
17.3 The kitchen sink
18. Glossary

Trollworld

1. A Nexus of Realities
2. Trollworld's History and Timeline
3. Major Continents and Regions
3.1 Rrr'lff, the Dragon Continent
3.2 Zorr, the Eagle Continent
3.3 The Mane Land Continent
3.4 The Land of Sona Ie
3.5 The Eastern Isles
3.6 The Farlands, the Newlands, and the Backlands
4. Prominent Locations of Rrr'lff
4.1 Khazan
4.2 Khosht
4.3 Knor
4.4 Phoron and Gull
5. Other locations of note
6. A Partial Bestiary of Trollworld

Adventures

Solitaire adventure: Abyss
GM adventure: Adventures in Zorr: The Quest for Z'tpozz

I mean, by any standards that's an awful lot of information to get through, and what I've seen of it so far is very impressive. The artwork is a mixture of new and old and there's very nearly art of one kind or another on every page(not quite every page, but almost). One of the stretch goals in the kickstarter was to include a number of full colour plates in the centre of the book(or wherever) which of course isn't part of this beta copy but is something I'm looking forward to seeing. I'm not usually a fan of colour artwork/plates in rulebooks, preferring my rules to be just that, a set of rules. I don't mind the little black and white vignettes I've already mentioned, they serve a purpose in that they help to break up the text and save us from having to face a great wall of text on page after page. In this case though, I'm happy to make an exception with the colour plates. It was a stretch goal after all and being a deluxe version of the rules it kind of feels a little more in-keeping.

As to the rules themselves, well I'm a 5th edition fan on the whole and never did like the idea of 'talents' which have a good number of pages dedicated to them here. I was attracted to Tunnels & Trolls in the first place because it was a very simple ruleset and don't like to see anything added that doesn't feel to me like it wasn't essential. 'Talents' add flavour to a character, yes, but I'll not be using them. I tend to add flavour and flesh out the characters and world through the fiction which develops around the game as it's played rather than heaping on yet more rules. The saving roll for me is a wonderful catch-all rule that did the job of talents(and a lot else besides) long before 'talents' were crowbarred into the rules.

Other additions that I'm not a fan of are the introduction of a rule designed to make humans a more attractive proposition to play, namely they get a second try if they fail their saving roll. This doesn't sit right with me at all and just feels wrong. It feels like another rule that's been forced in there without really thinking whether there was another way. It really does feel forced to me, like a square peg that they're determined will fit into the round whole. I don't like it at all and it's another rule I'll not be using. Another addition that I like in principal(a lot) but once again simply doesn't sit right with me in practise is the new method of using AP(adventure points). Adventure Points are dT&T's version of XP(experience points) and they used to be awarded to the players for things such as fighting monsters or rewards from the GM(game master) or uniquely to T&T, failing saving rolls etc., but this has changed quite significantly now. Now, AP are applied directly to a particular stat. The highest stat is then used to indicate your level, so for example a human with strength 18 is level 1, whereas a dwarf with strength 28 is level 2. This is all well and good until you remember that a dwarf gets to multiply their strength roll by 2 right from the start. Now, combined with T&Ts DARO rules where Doubles Add and Roll Over for as long as that happens, then a dwarf or indeed any character could start out with a 2nd or even 3rd level character or potentially even higher level character without ever having lifted a finger or moved from the spot. This is very strange, and once again simply feels wrong to me. Having said that I do like the idea of AP being linked directly to stats. It feels like a more elegant method of advancing and I'd like to see someone sort out the dodgy 'characters starting at higher levels without actually ever having left their fathers Tavern before' nonsense. Then I'd love it. Until then, once again, it's a rule I'll not be using.

The elaborations section hasn't been included at all in this beta.

The Trollworld section here just has a few pages of introduction and states that there will be another 80 pages. I'll be interested to read about Trollworld but I generally like to build my own world around the adventures the characters find themselves in and probably won't be going on too many forays in Trollworld itself.

There are going to be several other things in the finished rulebook which aren't included in this beta edition of course, including two adventures, a solo adventure and a GM adventure, the magic section and something I'm really, really, reeeaaallllyyyy looking forward to, 'A Partial Bestiary of Trollworld.' I've no idea why they're calling it a Partial Bestiary, maybe because you can never really know every monster in existence due to new ones being invented(discovered!) all the time, I don't know. Anyway, I can't wait for this.

All in all, this beta has been quite a hefty book in itself and still clearly has a lot to be added. It's impressive so far in the way it's been written and put together. The style really does remind me of the 5th edition which isn't too much of a surprise since Liz Danforth edited both that edition and this one. It's going to be an edition to beat I think, and even though I don't really like a lot of the new rules they've added or some of the old rules they've altered, T&T, and therefore dT&T is so easy to house rule that it makes no real difference anyway.

Very impressive. Really looking forward to the finished product.
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I had the 5th edition rules way-back-when, which according to the great and good of Troll-dom is the one to have, but still, this was a nice little walk down memory lane and is still in my opinion one of the best systems around. It's simple, fun, doesn't take itself too seriously but still manages to a serious enough system to satisfy the die-hards and even now has a very loyal fan base.

I'd like to re-read the 5th edition rules at some point to note the differences, but anyway, a system to be proud of and an enjoyable and all-to-quick read.

Very good.
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