The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Tunnels & Trolls is one of the fisrt RPGs and it still one of the best, certainly the most unique. T&T was written by auther Ken St.Andre in direct response to the original set Dungeons & Dragons which he found unplayable. This is evident when you look through the rulebook, stats like Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, as well as the fantasy mileu.

However, the resemblence is barely skin-deep. T&T differs from its predessor in many ways such as only six-sided dice are used, There are no hit-points per se the Constitution stat is used instead, no alignments, no Clerics and so on.

How T&T works, is character are rolled-up using the standard 3d6 method, a class is chosen from the list: Warrior, Wizard, Rogue, or Warrior-Wizard.

The classes are actually a measure of ability in two areas, combat or magic. Warriors are combat proficient but magic deficient. Wizards are just the opposite. Rogues (which is actually short for Rogue Wizard) have received special training at the Wizards' Guild so hav a mix of each. Warrior-Wizards, who must have all of their stats above 12, are "super Rogues" in a sense.

After choosing a class, any other abilities are rounded out & the characters go down into dark underground labyrinths to battle fierce monsters & acquire vast treasure. This "dungeon crawl" style of gaming is a little dated to some, but is appropriate to T&T. For starters, check out the title. There should be a couple tunnels and trolls to deal with. Second, the current (5th) edition was published in 1979. People were still delving into dark caverns for fun and profit at that time. Finally, dungeon crawls are a good place to start for a begining GM with its easy-to-use flowchart-like structure. Besides, the rules has a section title "Do This When You Get Out" which gives pointer on how to run non-dungeon style games.

Combat is handled via dice and adds. Characters have "personal adds" for every point combat-appropriate stats are above 12 (or negative below 9). Weapons supply a number of d6's as well as their own adds. Each round, both sides roll their dice, add their adds and then compare their totals. The highest total wins and the difference is taken off the loser's Constitution as damage. This is a very abstract, yet very, very speedy system.

Monsters, while they can have a full set of stats, are usually represented as a Monster Rating or MR. A monster's MR provides hit points as well as dice and adds (1/10 MR = dice ; 1/2 MR = adds). Since MRs go down as the monster takes damage, this gives the players an edge since their combat abities are not reduced as they receive injury. MR is obviously for cannon-fodder type monsters. The skeletons and zombies would have MR, but their icky Vampire Necromancer Lord would have a full set of stats.

Group combat is also rather unique. The players arrive at their individual combat totals, and then the whole thing is added up into one big total. The monster do the same, except they usually just add up their MRs and use the dice & adds from the total MR. The damage is then divided evenly among all the characters on the losing side. This means a party of 8 which takes 40 point of damage would sustain 5 points each. This is even more abstract than the individual combat, but speedy, darn speedy!

T&T's biggest strong point is the style it's written in. It's fairly informal and peepered with jokes, the product of Mr. St.Andre's strange sense of humor.

"CONTENTS (and Malcontent)"

"In order to play the game, it is necessary to do the following first: 1) Someone must create (dig) and stock a dungeon with monsters, magic and treasure."

Such silliness, especially the spell list, tell the reader "relax, this is a game, let's have fun with it." Never have I read a set of game rules and had been so gung ho about running it just from reading the rules.

However, if you're looking for weaknesses in the rules, you'll find plenty. MRs and combat in general is rather colorless and way too abstract. Characters' stats increase at an exponetial rate (a function of the new level, such as add new level to stat), raising them to ludiciously high levels (triple digits).

My personal pet peeve is the too-heavy weapons rule. This rule states that if you'r character weilds a weapon that is too heavy for his ST, you lose points of ST until it drops below zero and you character dies of a heart attack. I think this is silly unless my character had a pre-existing heart condition or a history of cardiac conditions in his family.

The game as-written is not rarely, if ever, is played by the letter of the rules. This includes the author, who has his own house rules for his own game.

The rulebook is openly encouraging of tweaking the rules and "doing your own thing" but a novice GM is likely to balk at the loose nature of the T&T systems.

At this writing, there is talk of a 6th edition, which may or may not materialize. One of the problems with it is a lot of the free-wheeling charm will be codified out of it and those involve with the design seem to disagree as-to which house rules to implement.

Tunnels & Trolls is a fun, fast system for those unafraid of doing a little improvising and tweaking. And that's part of the fun.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Tunnels & Trolls
Author: Ken St. Andre; ed. Liz Danforth Category: game Company/Publisher: Flying Buffalo Inc. Line: Tunnels & Trolls Cost: @ $10-15 Page count: 96 ISBN: 0-940244-00-4 SKU: #9101 Capsule Review by Jack on 10/25/99. Genre tags: Fantasy	Tunnels & Trolls is one of the fisrt RPGs and it still one of the best, certainly the most unique. T&T was written by auther Ken St.Andre in direct response to the original set Dungeons & Dragons which he found unplayable. This is evident when you look through the rulebook, stats like Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, as well as the fantasy mileu. However, the resemblence is barely skin-deep. T&T differs from its predessor in many ways such as only six-sided dice are used, There are no hit-points per se the Constitution stat is used instead, no alignments, no Clerics and so on. How T&T works, is character are rolled-up using the standard 3d6 method, a class is chosen from the list: Warrior, Wizard, Rogue, or Warrior-Wizard. The classes are actually a measure of ability in two areas, combat or magic. Warriors are combat proficient but magic deficient. Wizards are just the opposite. Rogues (which is actually short for Rogue Wizard) have received special training at the Wizards' Guild so hav a mix of each. Warrior-Wizards, who must have all of their stats above 12, are "super Rogues" in a sense. After choosing a class, any other abilities are rounded out & the characters go down into dark underground labyrinths to battle fierce monsters & acquire vast treasure. This "dungeon crawl" style of gaming is a little dated to some, but is appropriate to T&T. For starters, check out the title. There should be a couple tunnels and trolls to deal with. Second, the current (5th) edition was published in 1979. People were still delving into dark caverns for fun and profit at that time. Finally, dungeon crawls are a good place to start for a begining GM with its easy-to-use flowchart-like structure. Besides, the rules has a section title "Do This When You Get Out" which gives pointer on how to run non-dungeon style games. Combat is handled via dice and adds. Characters have "personal adds" for every point combat-appropriate stats are above 12 (or negative below 9). Weapons supply a number of d6's as well as their own adds. Each round, both sides roll their dice, add their adds and then compare their totals. The highest total wins and the difference is taken off the loser's Constitution as damage. This is a very abstract, yet very, very speedy system. Monsters, while they can have a full set of stats, are usually represented as a Monster Rating or MR. A monster's MR provides hit points as well as dice and adds (1/10 MR = dice ; 1/2 MR = adds). Since MRs go down as the monster takes damage, this gives the players an edge since their combat abities are not reduced as they receive injury. MR is obviously for cannon-fodder type monsters. The skeletons and zombies would have MR, but their icky Vampire Necromancer Lord would have a full set of stats. Group combat is also rather unique. The players arrive at their individual combat totals, and then the whole thing is added up into one big total. The monster do the same, except they usually just add up their MRs and use the dice & adds from the total MR. The damage is then divided evenly among all the characters on the losing side. This means a party of 8 which takes 40 point of damage would sustain 5 points each. This is even more abstract than the individual combat, but speedy, darn speedy! T&T's biggest strong point is the style it's written in. It's fairly informal and peepered with jokes, the product of Mr. St.Andre's strange sense of humor. "CONTENTS (and Malcontent)" "In order to play the game, it is necessary to do the following first: 1) Someone must create (dig) and stock a dungeon with monsters, magic and treasure." Such silliness, especially the spell list, tell the reader "relax, this is a game, let's have fun with it." Never have I read a set of game rules and had been so gung ho about running it just from reading the rules. However, if you're looking for weaknesses in the rules, you'll find plenty. MRs and combat in general is rather colorless and way too abstract. Characters' stats increase at an exponetial rate (a function of the new level, such as add new level to stat), raising them to ludiciously high levels (triple digits). My personal pet peeve is the too-heavy weapons rule. This rule states that if you'r character weilds a weapon that is too heavy for his ST, you lose points of ST until it drops below zero and you character dies of a heart attack. I think this is silly unless my character had a pre-existing heart condition or a history of cardiac conditions in his family. The game as-written is not rarely, if ever, is played by the letter of the rules. This includes the author, who has his own house rules for his own game. The rulebook is openly encouraging of tweaking the rules and "doing your own thing" but a novice GM is likely to balk at the loose nature of the T&T systems. At this writing, there is talk of a 6th edition, which may or may not materialize. One of the problems with it is a lot of the free-wheeling charm will be codified out of it and those involve with the design seem to disagree as-to which house rules to implement. Tunnels & Trolls is a fun, fast system for those unafraid of doing a little improvising and tweaking. And that's part of the fun. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)