The Inside Scoop on Gaming

BACKGROUND

I'm not an ancient, crusty T&T fan trying to spread the word or anything. I may be ancient and crusty but I'm new to Tunnels & Trolls. I must have bought the game 8-10 years ago, read it once and threw it in a box. The Fates, however, conspired against me to give this game another look. While my regular game group was on hiatus because of a couple of weddings etc., I happened to be looking for something game related to pass the time, and discovered a box of old stuff at my father's house. I brought the box home and rediscovered my copy of T&T. I was quickly overcome with the -I-have-a-new-game mania I sometimes get, read the book thouroughly, and tracked down a slew of websites on the game. I was ready to try it out.

THE GAME

The game itself was apparently created in the mid-70's with the following premise: (Original) D&D is too complicated and the heaps of rules get in the way of bashing monsters now. It is still a class and level based system, but there are only 4 classes. Warriors can fight and get 1 bonus fighting ability (the rules state they get double armor protection, but web sources suggest changing this). Wizards can cast all spells, but are limited to small weapons. Rogues (short for Rogue Wizard, not a thief class) can use all weapons and low level spells. Warrior-Wizards can use all spells and all armor-weapons, but their ability score requirements are so high that no one ever plays one.

Characters are a breeze to roll up. Roll 3d6 for eacha bility score, STRENGTH, IQ, LUCK etc., roll for money, height and weight, buy stuff and go. There are modifiers for non-human characters and choosing the right weapon may take a second or two, but that's about it.

Combat is quick. Each character and monster rolls a heap of dice and the side with the higher total inflicts the difference between the two rolls as damage on the losing side. Spells and missile weapons inflict damage even if the the casting side loses. Armor subtracts from damage taken by the character.

Monsters have 1 rating each. The MR or Monster rating, tells you how many hit points and how many attack dice the monster has. Very simple and makes dungeon desgin fast and easy. There is a list of monsters but you are encouraged just to make up monsters and their MR's. Some monsters can be given special abilities, like immunity to normal weapons, or armor protection.

The rule book is clean and clear, but I have one big beef with it. There are no page numbers. The book is presented in outline form with decimal section headings, which are laid out on the contents page, but page numbers would have helped a great deal.

The game was rather in expensive. The rule book was $9.95 and the boxed set with some character cards and a sample adventure was a total of $15. It seems to still be in print and available from Flying Buffalo for the same price I bought it for 10 years ago.

THE PLAY TEST

I was gripped by new-game fever and so decided to call one of my friends from my game group, who lived just a couple of miles form my house. I asked Chuck if he wanted to come over for 2-3 hours and try the game out, he said yes, so I whipped up some character sheets and waited.

I decided to institute several house rules that I had read about on the web. First I added a new attribute called Power, at the suggestion of the game's creator, from which magicians drew their spell points, instead of from Strength. Second I replaced the warrior's ablity to double their armor protection with the ability to get +1 combat add per experience level. Various people on the web had suggested replacing or modifying this ability with one method or another. Finally I used the "Spite Damage" rule, which inflicts 1 point of damage for every "6" that appears on a die in combat, even by the loser and irrespective of armor. Spite Damage came highly recommended by players and DM's on the web.

Chuck arrived and within 15 minutes or so had rolled up a group of 4 adventurers: Ralph the Rogue, Will the Wizard, Grob the Warrior and Sticky the Warrior, and we were ready to go. Once through the character generation process a single time, generation is even faster. The only major choice to be made is "what class" and "what armor and weapons". Once you just decide to make all characters 6' 180lbs, then the ht./wt. roll can be eliminated too (it has little game effect).

I decided to use the adventure included in the text of the main rulebook, called Trollstone Caverns, and it was clearly written and ready to go. Once inside the cavern the players fought 4 orcs, and were victorious at great cost. All the orcs were killed, but so were Grob and Sticky. We learned several things from this fight. First, spells--notably the main attack spell "Take That You Fiend" are very handy to have around, since they do damage even if you side loses the combat roll. Second, armor is very good. Ralph stayed alive because he was well armored, and the warriors died bcause they weren't. Third, monsters degrade in combat ability as they are wounded and players do not. When I read the rules I thought this effect of the rules wasn't fair, but it is pretty much absolutely necessary in practice.

Chuck returned Will and Ralph to town and they recruited two more warriors, HobGrob and Arbal. Chuck had learned a thing or two from his first trip and did better the second try. They fought their way in, battled some wandering monsters and finally encountered the great Ice Serpent that guarded a hoard of silver. When Arbal fell down frozen by icy blasts, Chuck lost his nerve and decided to flee. Ralph escaped by shear flight, but Will and Grob tried to rescue Arbal. This attempt was a failure and cost Grob his life too. Once more Chuck returns his battered party to town.

Once more in a matter of seconds two more warriors are generated. These two: BuckBuck #7 and BuckBuck #8 (names being too much trouble at this point as we collapse in hysterics) are equipped with missile weapons, since it seems best to try a missile attack on the Ice Serpent first round to degrade it's MR. Well, failure again, this time they loose Will the wizard. The trouble was that BuckBuck #8 was a terrible shot with missile weapons and should have begun hand to hand, it might have done enough hits to save Will.

Now, all the lessons have been learned, and a new wizard, BuckBuck #9 is recruited, and the Ice Serpent goes down after a bitter fight. The party drags off the 2000 silver nuggets and Chuck has to go home to make wedding plans. I eliminated the encounter where 10 orcs block exit and demand treasure, since it would just have been cruel at this point. We decide that since Ralph is the only character to make it through the entire session from start to finish, he must be the "real PC", and the surviving BuckBucks must be the henchmen.

I think at this point the strengths and weaknesses of the game are obvious. I mean, in how many games can one player generate and play 9 characters and go on 4 dungeon trips in three hours. And, truth be told, we really had fun. On the other hand, if throwing BuckBuck#8 forward into battle sounds beneath your dignity, then perhaps this isn't your game.

THE EVALUATION

I have played various RPG's for various reasons. Tunnels and Trolls is a game, that I believe that I will play again and enjoy under certain circumstances. I recommend this game for anyone who wants to play a solo RPG. There are a number of solo-dungeons available and a random dungeon generator chart on the web too. T&T's combat system doesn't have a lot of move-counter move and so can be played fairly in a solo format. I may also recommend the game for PBM and PBEM games since it will reduce book-keeping, player imput for combat moves, and die rolling to a great degree. Finally, I is a game I would highly recommend for a DM with only a small number of players (1-2) because handling multiple PC's is easy. This is especially true if you have s short time-window and your players do enjoy bashing monsters. Since role-play content is more a DM question than a rules question, you cna put in as much role-play as your players like.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Tunnels & Trolls 5th ed.
Author: Ken St. Andre Category: game Company/Publisher: Flying Buffalo Line: T&T Cost: $9.95 Page count: n/a ISBN: 0-940244-00-4 SKU: n/a Playtest Review by David L. Nelson on 10/24/99. Genre tags: Fantasy	BACKGROUND I'm not an ancient, crusty T&T fan trying to spread the word or anything. I may be ancient and crusty but I'm new to Tunnels & Trolls. I must have bought the game 8-10 years ago, read it once and threw it in a box. The Fates, however, conspired against me to give this game another look. While my regular game group was on hiatus because of a couple of weddings etc., I happened to be looking for something game related to pass the time, and discovered a box of old stuff at my father's house. I brought the box home and rediscovered my copy of T&T. I was quickly overcome with the -I-have-a-new-game mania I sometimes get, read the book thouroughly, and tracked down a slew of websites on the game. I was ready to try it out. THE GAME The game itself was apparently created in the mid-70's with the following premise: (Original) D&D is too complicated and the heaps of rules get in the way of bashing monsters now. It is still a class and level based system, but there are only 4 classes. Warriors can fight and get 1 bonus fighting ability (the rules state they get double armor protection, but web sources suggest changing this). Wizards can cast all spells, but are limited to small weapons. Rogues (short for Rogue Wizard, not a thief class) can use all weapons and low level spells. Warrior-Wizards can use all spells and all armor-weapons, but their ability score requirements are so high that no one ever plays one. Characters are a breeze to roll up. Roll 3d6 for eacha bility score, STRENGTH, IQ, LUCK etc., roll for money, height and weight, buy stuff and go. There are modifiers for non-human characters and choosing the right weapon may take a second or two, but that's about it. Combat is quick. Each character and monster rolls a heap of dice and the side with the higher total inflicts the difference between the two rolls as damage on the losing side. Spells and missile weapons inflict damage even if the the casting side loses. Armor subtracts from damage taken by the character. Monsters have 1 rating each. The MR or Monster rating, tells you how many hit points and how many attack dice the monster has. Very simple and makes dungeon desgin fast and easy. There is a list of monsters but you are encouraged just to make up monsters and their MR's. Some monsters can be given special abilities, like immunity to normal weapons, or armor protection. The rule book is clean and clear, but I have one big beef with it. There are no page numbers. The book is presented in outline form with decimal section headings, which are laid out on the contents page, but page numbers would have helped a great deal. The game was rather in expensive. The rule book was $9.95 and the boxed set with some character cards and a sample adventure was a total of $15. It seems to still be in print and available from Flying Buffalo for the same price I bought it for 10 years ago. THE PLAY TEST I was gripped by new-game fever and so decided to call one of my friends from my game group, who lived just a couple of miles form my house. I asked Chuck if he wanted to come over for 2-3 hours and try the game out, he said yes, so I whipped up some character sheets and waited. I decided to institute several house rules that I had read about on the web. First I added a new attribute called Power, at the suggestion of the game's creator, from which magicians drew their spell points, instead of from Strength. Second I replaced the warrior's ablity to double their armor protection with the ability to get +1 combat add per experience level. Various people on the web had suggested replacing or modifying this ability with one method or another. Finally I used the "Spite Damage" rule, which inflicts 1 point of damage for every "6" that appears on a die in combat, even by the loser and irrespective of armor. Spite Damage came highly recommended by players and DM's on the web. Chuck arrived and within 15 minutes or so had rolled up a group of 4 adventurers: Ralph the Rogue, Will the Wizard, Grob the Warrior and Sticky the Warrior, and we were ready to go. Once through the character generation process a single time, generation is even faster. The only major choice to be made is "what class" and "what armor and weapons". Once you just decide to make all characters 6' 180lbs, then the ht./wt. roll can be eliminated too (it has little game effect). I decided to use the adventure included in the text of the main rulebook, called Trollstone Caverns, and it was clearly written and ready to go. Once inside the cavern the players fought 4 orcs, and were victorious at great cost. All the orcs were killed, but so were Grob and Sticky. We learned several things from this fight. First, spells--notably the main attack spell "Take That You Fiend" are very handy to have around, since they do damage even if you side loses the combat roll. Second, armor is very good. Ralph stayed alive because he was well armored, and the warriors died bcause they weren't. Third, monsters degrade in combat ability as they are wounded and players do not. When I read the rules I thought this effect of the rules wasn't fair, but it is pretty much absolutely necessary in practice. Chuck returned Will and Ralph to town and they recruited two more warriors, HobGrob and Arbal. Chuck had learned a thing or two from his first trip and did better the second try. They fought their way in, battled some wandering monsters and finally encountered the great Ice Serpent that guarded a hoard of silver. When Arbal fell down frozen by icy blasts, Chuck lost his nerve and decided to flee. Ralph escaped by shear flight, but Will and Grob tried to rescue Arbal. This attempt was a failure and cost Grob his life too. Once more Chuck returns his battered party to town. Once more in a matter of seconds two more warriors are generated. These two: BuckBuck #7 and BuckBuck #8 (names being too much trouble at this point as we collapse in hysterics) are equipped with missile weapons, since it seems best to try a missile attack on the Ice Serpent first round to degrade it's MR. Well, failure again, this time they loose Will the wizard. The trouble was that BuckBuck #8 was a terrible shot with missile weapons and should have begun hand to hand, it might have done enough hits to save Will. Now, all the lessons have been learned, and a new wizard, BuckBuck #9 is recruited, and the Ice Serpent goes down after a bitter fight. The party drags off the 2000 silver nuggets and Chuck has to go home to make wedding plans. I eliminated the encounter where 10 orcs block exit and demand treasure, since it would just have been cruel at this point. We decide that since Ralph is the only character to make it through the entire session from start to finish, he must be the "real PC", and the surviving BuckBucks must be the henchmen. I think at this point the strengths and weaknesses of the game are obvious. I mean, in how many games can one player generate and play 9 characters and go on 4 dungeon trips in three hours. And, truth be told, we really had fun. On the other hand, if throwing BuckBuck#8 forward into battle sounds beneath your dignity, then perhaps this isn't your game. THE EVALUATION I have played various RPG's for various reasons. Tunnels and Trolls is a game, that I believe that I will play again and enjoy under certain circumstances. I recommend this game for anyone who wants to play a solo RPG. There are a number of solo-dungeons available and a random dungeon generator chart on the web too. T&T's combat system doesn't have a lot of move-counter move and so can be played fairly in a solo format. I may also recommend the game for PBM and PBEM games since it will reduce book-keeping, player imput for combat moves, and die rolling to a great degree. Finally, I is a game I would highly recommend for a DM with only a small number of players (1-2) because handling multiple PC's is easy. This is especially true if you have s short time-window and your players do enjoy bashing monsters. Since role-play content is more a DM question than a rules question, you cna put in as much role-play as your players like. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)

Tunnels & Trolls 5th ed.