Tunnels & Trolls

Tunnels & Trolls

2015 cover for the current version of T&T. Painting is by Liz Danforth
Designer(s) Ken St. Andre
Publisher(s) Flying Buffalo
Publication date
  • 1975 (1st ed.)
  • 1977 (4th ed.)
  • 1979 (5th ed.)
  • 2005 (5.5th ed.),
  • 2005 (30th Anniv. Ed. (aka 7th ed.) by Fiery Dragon)
  • 2008 (7.5th ed., by Fiery Dragon)
  • 2012 (8th ed., by Grimtooth; French only)
  • 2015 (Deluxe ed.)
Genre(s) Fantasy
System(s) Customizable rpg

Tunnels & Trolls (abbreviated T&T) is a fantasy role-playing game designed by Ken St. Andre and first published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo. The second modern role-playing game published, it was written by Ken St. Andre to be a more accessible alternative to Dungeons and Dragons[1][2] and is suitable for solitaire, group, and play-by-mail gameplay.

History

David M. Ewalt, in his book Of Dice and Men, commented that Tunnels & Trolls stuck closer to the swords-and-sorcery setting of Dungeons & Dragons than other early role-playing games like En Garde! and Bunnies & Burrows: "Ken St. Andre, a public librarian in Phoenix, Arizona, fell in love with the idea of fantasy role-playing after reading a friend's D&D rule books but found the actual rules confusing, so he wrote his own. Tunnels & Trolls, self-published in early 1975, simplified D&D in a way that emphasized entertainment over simulation: it dropped a lot of war-game derived rules for combat and movement; only required six-sided dice instead of hard-to-find polyhedrals; assigned wizards spell points, not spell books; and implemented dozens of other small changes that made the game looser. In June 1975, Illinois publisher Flying Buffalo Inc. released a second edition of the game, and Tunnels & Trolls quickly became D&D's biggest competitor."[3]

The first edition of Tunnels & Trolls was published in April 1975,[4] and underwent several modifications between then and 1979 when the 5th edition of the rules was published. This edition was also translated and published abroad in the United Kingdom, Germany,[5] France, Italy, Finland, Japan, and it entered these markets before Dungeons & Dragons did in most cases. Tunnels & Trolls had similar statistics, classes, and adventures to Dungeons & Dragons, but did introduce a points-based magic system and used six-sided dice exclusively.[6] According to Michael Tresca, Tunnels & Trolls presented a better overall explanation of its rules, and "brought a sense of impish fun to the genre".[6]

In 1999 Pyramid magazine named Tunnels & Trolls as one of The Millennium's Most Underrated Games. Editor Scott Haring said of the game "everybody knows this was the second ever fantasy roleplaying game ... But to dismiss it as just an opportunistic ripoff would be grossly unfair. Flying Buffalo's T&T had its own zany feel -- it was much less serious than D&D -- and a less-complicated game system."[7]

In 2005, Flying Buffalo updated the 5th edition rules with a 5.5 publication that added about 40 pages of extra material. That same year, Fiery Dragon Productions produced a 30th Anniversary Edition under license in a tin box complete with CD, map, and monster counters, two new versions of the rules. Ken St. Andre used the opportunity to extensively update the style of play and introduce new role-playing concepts, such as character level determined by character attribute statistics instead of arbitrary numbers of experience points. The 30th Anniversary rules are generally known as the 7th edition. One of the most significant innovations of 7th edition is the introduction of a skills system. The 7.5 edition was released in 2008 by Fiery Dragon, being an update and clarification on the 30th Anniversary Edition.

In 2012, Tunnels & Trolls was re-introduced in French-speaking markets by Grimtooth under license by Flying Buffalo. The French rulebook, which is officially the 8th edition, is based on the 7th edition, but includes elements taken from the 5.5 edition as well as clarifications by Ken St. Andre. The interior artwork includes the illustrations of the 5th edition, plus new inks by Liz Danforth. Several other products (solos and GM adventures) have already been released via Lulu.com and others have been announced.

The production work for the 8th edition prompted Flying Buffalo to start working on a Deluxe (9th) Edition of the rulebook.[8] As Rick Loomis, head of Flying Buffalo Inc., put it, "The French edition came out so beautiful that now that I have run out of 5.5, I am not satisfied to just reprint 5.5. I wanted to have a deluxe edition even better than the French one. (Competition is what drives us to be better!)". Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls, a 386-page book by Ken St. Andre, with additional design input and editing from Liz Danforth and Bear Peters was published in August 2015 edition has 166 pages of core rules and 60 pages of Elaborations (optional rules). The book also includes a 50-page Trollworld atlas with maps and descriptions of the world including 4 major cities. There is also a 12-page solitaire adventure and a 27-page, 3 part GM adventure, along with a 12-page weapons glossary. The illustrations are mostly by Liz Danforth and Rob Carver; Layout and maps were done by Steve Crompton.[9]

Setting

The 5th editionTunnels & Trolls core ruleset does not detail a specific setting, saying only that gameplay occurs in "a world somewhat but not exactly similar to Tolkien's Middle Earth." In an interview in 1986, Ken St Andre stated that "my conception of the T&T world was based on The Lord of The Rings as it would have been done by Marvel Comics in 1974 with Conan, Elric, the Gray Mouser and a host of badguys thrown in."[10]

The current Deluxe Edition includes Ken St. Andre's house campaign setting, Trollworld. Along with additional material by early players Jim "Bear" Peters and Liz Danforth.

Gameplay

Prime attributes

Eight prime attributes define characters in Tunnels & Trolls:

Later editions add the following prime attributes:

A new character begins with a randomly generated score for each attribute, determined by rolling three six-side dice.

Character races

The rules recommend that novice players create human characters, but also offer the options of elves, dwarves, and hobbits. Other races, like leprechauns and fairies, serve as additional character options. A character's race affects his or her attributes. A player may also choose to play as a "monster race" such as a zombie or vampire.

Character classes

Players also choose a character class for their character. The two base classes are Warriors and Wizards. Wizards can cast spells but have combat limitations. While Warriors cannot cast magic, they are allowed the full use of weapons and armor is twice as effective in blocking damage. Rogues and Warrior-Wizards are also available as character classes. These two classes both combine the abilities of the Warrior and the Wizard. Rogues in Tunnels & Trolls are not thieves, unlike the Rogue classes in Dungeons & Dragons, but could be more accurately described as 'Rogue Wizards'. Rogues are limited in their spell-casting abilities, can utilize the full range of combat weapons and armor as a warrior but do not receive the Warrior's armor bonus or the Wizard's spell-creating ability. Warrior-Wizards are not so limited, but the player must be lucky with the dice when creating the character: high minimum attribute scores are required. Later editions include new classes such as Specialist Mage, Paragon (a renaming of the Warrior-Wizard), Leader, and Ranger.

Starting equipment and money

New characters begin with a number of gold pieces determined by rolling three six-sided dice and multiplying the total by ten. These gold pieces can be used to buy weapons, armor, and other equipment.

Combat

Combat is handled by comparing dice rolls between a character and his opponent. Both sides roll a number of dice determined by which weapon is in use, then modify the appropriate result by "personal adds". Totals are compared, with the higher roll damaging the opposing combatant by the difference in totals. Armor absorbs this damage taken, and any amount remaining is subtracted from the Constitution attribute.

Tunnels & Trolls is unusual among roleplaying games in conducting mass combat resolution with one set of rolls, as the above system applies to combats between any number of opponents.

Personal adds are determined by Strength, Luck, and Dexterity. For every point above 12 possessed in each of these attributes, the character receives a one-point bonus to his personal adds. Similarly, for every point below 9 possessed in each of these attributes, the character receives a one-point penalty.

In the 7th Edition, the formula was changed to include Speed in the personal adds. This also applies to the Deluxe Edition.

The 5.5, 7th and Deluxe edition include 'spite damage' whereby each "6" rolled on the combat dice causes a minimum of one damage to be inflicted on the opposing side, regardless of armor or the respective combat totals. This helped resolve the interminable stalemate that could occur between evenly matched, heavily armored opponents.

Saving rolls

The Saving Roll (SR) is used during combat to break a stalemate or overcome the characters being outmatched as well as for use of ranged weapons. The SR is also used in all other tests of skill or luck the characters may be presented with by the GM or solo adventure. Checks are made using a character's attribute plus 2d6 (doubles add and roll over) against a difficulty level based on the task at hand. For every level of saving roll the formula is 10+5x, with x being the level of difficulty. This was one of the earliest uses of this mechanic in RPGs.

List of Tunnels & Trolls publications

Tunnels & Trolls was also the first system to publish a series of fantasy-themed gamebooks - adventures which are designed to be played by one person, without the need for a referee. At least twenty such adventures were published by Flying Buffalo. The Fighting Fantasy series achieved great popularity using this format. Both T&T's simplicity and its reliance on use of six-sided dice (as compared to the various polyhedral dice used by Dungeons and Dragons) contributed to its success in this format.

Solo adventures

GM adventures

Pocket solo adventures

Sorcerer's Apprentice Magazine

Sorcerer's Apprentice was the Tunnels & Trolls magazine published by Flying Buffalo. In Ken St. Andre's editorial in the first issue (Winter 1978) the magazine was described as a "'zine based around T&T specifically and fantasy role-playing in general".

Reference publications

A number of books were published that support GMs by giving them ideas for "traps" and other tools for creating adventures when designing a dungeon or adventure. One example is the Grimtooth's Traps series, authored by Paul O'Connor, that is a listing of traps that GMs can insert into their adventures.

Spin-offs

Monsters! Monsters! is a subset of the T&T rules tailored to playing monsters. It is fully compatible with 5th edition. Copyright dates listed are 1976 and 1979, published by Metagaming and then Flying Buffalo. It is occasionally reprinted as photocopies by the author, Ken St. Andre. It is currently available from Flying Buffalo.

Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes is a variant system, credited to Michael A. Stackpole. Publication was by Flying Buffalo, who released it in 1983, and Sleuth Publications Ltd. in 1986. While the basics are the same, it adds a skill system, changes the time scale of combat rounds, and includes rules for modern weapons.

Video games

In the 1980s, a ColecoVision adaptation was announced but never released.

In 1990 a computer version (Crusaders of Khazan) was published by New World Computing, which embedded portions of many of the favorite old solo modules. Crusaders of Khazan is included in the 30th Anniversary Edition tin, but not the PDF version.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "A Chat with Ken St Andre Part 1". LordStrange YouTube.com.
  2. ↑ "A Chat with Ken St Andre Part 2". LordStrange YouTube.com.
  3. ↑ Ewalt, David M. (2013). Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It. Scribner. pp. 107–108. ISBN 978-1-4516-4052-6.
  4. ↑ "The Ken St Andre/Demon Issue Interview". 1986.
  5. ↑ In Germany Tunnels & Trolls was released as Schwerter & Dämonen in September 1983, two months earlier than Dungeons & Dragons , it was the very first roleplaying game available in German.
    Evers, Momo (January 2005). Magische Zeiten (in German) (1st ed.). Fantasy Productions. ISBN 3-89064-516-X.
    Ken St. Andre, Rick Loomis (September 1983). Schwerter & Dämonen (in German) (1st ed.). Fantasy Productions. ISBN 3-89064-000-1.
  6. 1 2 Tresca, Michael J. (2010), The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, McFarland, p. 63, ISBN 078645895X
  7. ↑ Haring, Scott D. (1999-11-25). "Second Sight: The Millennium's Most Influential Company and The Millennium's Most Underrated Game". Pyramid (online). Retrieved 2008-02-17.
  8. ↑ Ken St.Andre Announcing Tunnels and Trolls Deluxe Explanations on the context of the Deluxe edition project by Liz Danforth and Steve Crompton
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ "T&T Interviews". Garenewing.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-08-24.
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