Quick-Start Saturday: Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age

Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

—oOo—

What is it?
Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age – Quickstart Guide is the quick-start for Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age, the latest version of the venerable fantasy roleplaying game first published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo, Inc. It is being published by Rebellion Unplugged, best known as the games arm of Rebellion, the publisher of long running British Science Fiction comic, 2000 AD, but in game terms for republishing the Games Workshop classics, Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One and Block Mania.

It is a thirty-two page, 730 MB full colour PDF.

However, it it does need an edit and the authors need to beg for forgiveness for the use of the word ‘stunting’ as a verb instead of the correct English language phrasing, ‘performing a stunt’.

The use of the word, ‘Knackered’, as a Tag though, is delightfully British, but in no way makes up for the erroneous error of ‘stunting’.

How long will it take to play?
Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age – Quickstart Guide is designed to be played through in a single session, two at the very most. This includes Player Character creation.

What else do you need to play?
The Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age – Quickstart Guide needs a handful of six-sided dice per player plus some tokens to represent Threat.

Who do you play?
The Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age – Quickstart Guide does not come with any pre-generated Player Characters. Instead, rules are provided for the players to create their own.

How is a Player Character defined?

An Adventurer in the Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age – Quickstart Guide has six attributes—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Willpower, Intelligence, and Charisma, as well as three stats—Luck, Mana, and Stamina. These range in value between two and four. He also has a Kindred, of which six are suggested. These are Humankin, Halfkin, Dwarfkin, Elfkin, Orckin, and Goblinkin. The Kindred is a Player Character’s background, whilst his Motto sums up his approach to life and his traits provide a once-per-session ability. A Player Character’s Kindred provides both a trait and a motto, whilst a second trait will come from his choice of Path. Six paths are given. These are Path of Might, Path of Shadow, Path of Endurance, Path of Spirit, Path of Craft, and Path of Wizardry.

The rules also cover the creation of the Player Character party, which explains why they are all together.

How do the mechanics work?

Mechanically, Tunnels & Trolls has always employed a dice pool system, whether that is rolled against the monsters’ dice pool (derived from their combined Monster Rating) or as a Saving Throw against one of a Player Character’s attributes. The Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age – Quickstart Guide also uses dice pools, but they are radically scaled down and both the players and the Game Master will be rolling more often rather than rolling more dice.

To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls a number of six-sided dice equal to an attribute. A roll of four or more is counted as a hit, whilst three or less is a miss. The aim is to roll as many hits as possible. Target Numbers range between one and five, with two being the standard Target Number. A Blessed roll means that hits are rolled on three and over, misses on two or less, whilst a Cursed roll means that hits are rolled on five and over, misses on four or less. Rolls of multiple values result in the dice pool exploding and a player being able to add more dice to the roll. A double adds two more dice to roll, a triple adds three more dice, and so on. An exceptional success occurs if three sixes are rolled, whilst a dramatic setback happens if three ones are rolled.

Luck can be spent to reroll dice on a one-for-one basis.

How does combat work?
Combat in the Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age – Quickstart Guide starts with initiative, with Player Characters who succeed on the roll going before the monsters, and those who fail, after. A Player Character can perform one action per round, either a ‘Strike’, ‘Shoot’, ‘Spell’, or ‘Stunt’ action. A Stunt can be physical or verbal, and could be swinging on a chandelier to get across a room, taunting a villain, or diving into a pool of water to avoid a blast of magical fire. A Stunt can modify another action or an action in its own right. Most monsters will perform the ‘Strike’ action, whilst enemies or monsters with the ‘Elite’ tag are likely to have more options. The round ends when everyone has acted. If the Player Characters decide to keep going, they can each either gain a point of Stamina or a point of Luck. If they decide on the latter, they also gain a point of Threat, up to a maximum of three. If the monsters decide to keep going, they can trigger their escalation abilities, which might be special abilities, call for reinforcements, and so on.

To perform an attack, the player rolls a number of equal to the appropriate attribute, whilst the Game Master will roll the enemies’ Monster Rating. An enemy’s Monster Rating ranges between two and the average mook all the way up to six and thoroughly dangerous. The roll itself is an opposed roll, the aim being to roll more hits than the opponent. Tags, whether from the weapons and gear used, from the situation, or the monsters’ abilities, will affect the number of dice rolled, the amount of damage inflicted, and more.

Both sides will also add extra dice equal to their opponents’ Threat to the dice they roll. In addition, enemies will tend to target opponents who have higher Threat.

If the attacker rolls more hits than the defender, he wins, and the difference in the number of hits rolled is the amount of damage inflicted. If the defender rolls more hits than the attacker, no damage is inflicted. Armour reduces the damage suffered. Damage reduces Stamina. If reduced to zero for a monster, it is defeated, but for a Player Character, it means that he is wounded. His Stamina is then reset, but whilst he is wounded, if it is reduced to zero again, he is dead. For the enemies, Monster Rating does not reduce.

How does magic work?
Magic in the Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age – Quickstart Guide is primarily gained from the Path of Wizardry selected during Player Character creation. A Player Character on the Path of Wizardry begins play with the ‘Wellspring’ Talent that enables him to regain or increase mana by spending Luck. His bonus talent will either be ‘Hexology’ or ‘Weaving’. The latter provides the Mending spell, whilst the latter gives Blasting Hex. Mending is actually a healing spell, restoring Stamina equal to the number of hits rolled. Blasting Hex is a damage spell, requiring an Intelligence roll versus an enemy’s Monster Rating. Damage inflicted ignores armour and the spell requires the caster to yell out something like, “Take That You Fiend!” in a nod to classic Tunnels & Trolls spell of the same name. All spells cost Mana to cast, with each point cast also increasing the number of dice a player rolls. 

What do you play?

The scenario in the Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age – Quickstart Guide is ‘Trouble Brewing’. The world of Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age is one of trolls. In ages past, during the Eclipse, the Trolls smashed the great kingdoms and empires of the time, burying their secrets, technologies, and magic deep in the earth, where they remain today. When the sun returned, the Trolls fled and the world was rebuilt. Both Trolls and the past remain underground where would be heroes might find them. In ‘Trouble Brewing’, the Player Characters have come to Rust Bucket, the very run-down and only tavern in Market Tharnley where they have heard there is a tunnel entrance to be found. It is a detailed, two-act affair, initially focusing upon interaction and investigation along with some roleplay, as the Player Characters attempt to find out more from the Owlfolk barkeep, the adventuring patrons, and the locals. In the second act, the barkeep hires/cajoles/blackmails the Player Characters into investigating the cellar, having a fight with some surprisingly tough rats, and discovering a troll tunnel.

‘Trouble Brewing’ is more of a means to showcase the new Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age rules in play rather than provide a complete story from beginning to end.

Is there anything missing?
No. The Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age – Quickstart Guide has everything the Game Master and her players will need to play. However, the scenario is very much an introduction at only two scenes long and thus provides only a limited play experience.

Is it easy to prepare?
Unfortunately, the Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age – Quickstart Guide is not as easy to prepare as it could have been as it is quite detailed and there is a lot to go through, including character generation, before play can begin. There is a greater number of factors—Luck, Mana, Tags, and so on—for the Game Master and her players to keep track off during play as well. Players of previous versions of Tunnels & Trolls will find a much changed game, although there elements present from those previous editions. The roleplaying game is also not as fast playing as those previous editions, but does offer more options in terms of what the Player Characters can do.

Is it worth it?
Yes—for the most part. The Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age – Quickstart Guide presents a solid introduction to the rules, including combat, character generation, and interaction. It is also supported by examples of both play and combat and there is advice for the Game Master. However, the included adventure, ‘Trouble Brewing’, is short and will only provide a limited play experience. 

The Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age – Quickstart Guide is published by Rebellion Unplugged and is available to download here.

Free RPG Day 2018: T&T Japan

Now in its eleventh year, Saturday, June 16th was Free RPG Day and with it comes an array of new and interesting little releases. Invariably they are tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. In the past, Flying Buffalo Inc.  has released support for Tunnels & Trolls*  on Free RPG Day, but like Tunnels &a Trolls Featuring Goblin Lake Solitaire Adventure, the result has not been of the highest quality or content. For Free RPG Day in 2018, Flying Buffalo Inc. has released something to tie in not with Tunnels & Trolls, but with a supplement for the venerable roleplaying game—T&T Adventures Japan.

* Note that this link is for a review of previous version of Tunnels & Trolls. A review of the latest edition, Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls will appear at some point in the future.

It appears that Tunnels & Trolls is big in Japan, where it appeared before Dungeons & Dragons. Group SNE not only publishes a translated version of Tunnels & Trolls, it also publishes its own content as well as a magazine in the form of TtT Adventures Japan. The supplement, T&T Adventures Japan collects some of the content from the magazine and translates it into English. Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan presents some of the Manga from TtT Adventures Japan, the mini-rules, a quartet of pre-generated characters, and a complete solo mini-adventure.

It opens with an excerpt from the manga, ‘Adventures in Tunnels with Trolls’, in which Laila the Elven Wizard breaks the fourth wall and introduces Tunnels & Trolls. It is all rather charming even if the goblins look weird, more like Deep Ones than goblins. Art from the manga is used throughout the Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan to illustrate various rules and situations and it all adds a bit of whimsy to the booklet. The mini version of the Tunnels & Trolls rules cover character creation, including attributes, kindred (Human, Elf, Fairy, or Dwarf), and Class (Warriors, Wizards, and Rogues). It then explains combat and magic, as well as the core mechanic for doing just about everything else—the Saving Roll. This is a simplified version of what is one the earliest roleplaying games and one of the least complex, more so given that Tunnels & Trolls only ever uses six-sided dice.

To roll up a character, a player rolls three dice for each attribute and assigns the results as he wants. Dwarves, Elves, and Fairies all get to add bonuses to various attributes. Humans are just lucky and get to roll failed Saving Throws a second time. Of the three Classes, Warriors are great in combat, Wizards get to cast throw spells, and Rogues get to do both, just not with as much proficiency. Rogues are not anything like the Thief Class of other roleplaying games. So Rogues and Wizards will also need to choose some spells, but all Classes need to determine their Combat Adds. These are the bonuses to any combat roll derived from a character’s high Strength, Dexterity, Luck, and Speed attributes.

Haruto
Class: Warrior Level: 05
Race: Human
Strength 51 Constitution 13
Dexterity 12 Speed 14
Intelligence 12 Luck 14
Wizardry 08 Charisma 15

Combat Adds: +43

Equipment:
Samurai sword 4d6
Dagger 2d6
Samurai armour 9 Hits

Tunnels & Trolls is not a game that relies heavily on skills and skill checks. What the game has instead is Saving Rolls, usually made against a set attribute, for example, Luck or Dexterity. Simply, two dice are rolled—doubles roll over and add—and added to the attribute in question to beat a set target. For a Level One Saving Roll or ‘L1SR’, this target is twenty, and then goes up by five for each level. So Haruto would really be in trouble if he had to make a L1SR on Wizardry, but then he is not a Wizard or a Rogue. For most of the other attributes, Haruto would be able to pass an L1SR with greater ease.

Combat in Tunnels & Trolls has changed relatively little in thirty five years. Each side involved rolls up their dice and adds the results to get a total. This total is compared with the opponent’s, the highest winning that round. The difference between the two rolls is inflicted on the loser! In fact, this was always so easy that it was very straightforward to write computer programs that would handle the process for you. Then again, rolling the handfuls of dice was always much more fun.

While monsters can have full statistics similar to that of player characters or NPCs, they can also be simplified to a Monster Rating or MR. A creature’s MR is rounded by the nearest ten to get the number of dice rolled each round, while half the MR is the value added to the roll as its ‘Adds’. So Waakeg the Ogre Magi with an MR of 44 rolls 4d6 and adds 22. When a player character suffers damage he takes it from his Constitution, whereas a monster takes it from its Adds, in effect, both reducing the equivalent of its Hit Points and its ability to bring its best to any fight. Think of this as the monster growing fatigued as a fight continues.

So for example, Haruto, comes across Waakeg the Ogre Magi menacing a caravan. With an MR of 34, we already know that the Ogre Magi rolls 4d6+22 in combat, while Haruto rolls 9d (for his sword and an extra die per Level as a Warrior) and adds 43. The Game Master rolls 2, 4, 5, and 6 for Waakeg the Ogre Magi, which with the Adds, gives a total of 51. Things are not looking good for the Ogre Magi as Haruto’s player rolls 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, and 5, when combined with Haruto’s Adds, gives a total of 72. Deducting Waakeg’s total of 51 from Haruto’s 72, gives a result of 21. This is deducted from Waakeg’s Adds, so that on the next Round, the Game Master will roll 3d6+1 for the Ogre Magi. Might be time for Waakeg to run for his life or surrender…

Magic in Tunnels & Trolls is a point spend system, a Wizard or Rogue spending Kreem—the energy which fuels spells in Trollworld—represented by points of their Wizardry attribute to cast their spells. The main difference between Wizards and Rogues is that Rogues know fewer spells, so need to be more careful in what dweomers they learn. Most spells also have a minimum Intelligence and Dexterity requirement before they can be cast. Famously, the name of the spells in Tunnels &Trolls are somewhat tongue in cheek and some of the more well known ones are listed here in Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan, such as It’s Elementary, Take That, You Fiend, and Poor Baby.

Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan also includes four sample player characters—the four from the manga and the examples earlier in the booklet, a little advice for the Game Master, and a treasure generator. Almost half of Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan is made up of ‘Coming Down the Mountain; a Mystic T&T adventure’ written by the roleplaying game’s designer, Ken St. Andre. It is designed for use with Warrior character of Third to Seventh Level, which really sets up the only real issue with Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan. There is no advice on creating a character for it. To be fair, it is a simple matter of creating a Warrior character and then adjusting it up from First Level to Third—or greater—Level, but the advice should have been included. If a player decides not to create a character, then one is provided although the adventure will be a tough challenge as it is only Third Level.

Consisting of some seventy nine entries, in ‘Coming Down the Mountain; a Mystic T&T adventure’, the player character is a samurai who is sent up Mount Kitsune by his daimyo to bring back a holy man who live atop the mountain. It contains a decent mix of martial and mystic challenges as well as matters of honour too. Overall, this is a decent solo adventure which should provide half an hour’s worth of play.

Decently presented, Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan gives a good explanation of the Tunnels & Trolls Mini Rules, an engaging introduction to Tunnels & Trolls Japanese style, and an enjoyable solo adventure full of Chanbara flavour. Of course it is a pity that no group adventure could have been included, but that down to a design decision and space. One other issue is that it never quite really identifies what makes a Japanese Tunnels & Trolls game different from an American one, but the adventure more than makes up for that by showing that it can be done. Overall, a good taster for Tunnels & Trolls and T&T Adventures Japan, but really only for the one player.

Ten by Ten – Free Too

Technically, there are no reviews here at Reviews from R’lyeh this week. This is for good reason. For the last week I have reading and reviewing the releases for this year’s Free RPG Day. I managed to get ten done and they are now all available to read at RPG.net. Hopefully, you will have been able to pick some of these up yesterday, or if not, will able to download them direct from their respective publishers.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten: The Waking Dead

Black Crusade: Black Chains

Castles & Crusades: 2011 Quick Start Rules

Dragon Age Quickstart Guide

Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition - Domain of Dread: Histaven

Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Adventure Starter

Hollow Earth Expedition: Free RPG Day Adventure 2011

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: We Be Goblins!

Savage Worlds Test Drive Rules & The Wild Hunt

Tunnels & Trolls: Rescue Mission

White Box Fever II

We come to the end of September and already we are in a new age of Dungeons & Dragons, one of the Dungeons & Dragons Essentials line that began with the publication of the publication of the Dungeons & Dragons Red Box Set by Wizards of the Coast. To celebrate that fact, Reviews from R'lyeh is running a series of reviews devoted to RPGs that aim to bring new players into the hobby. I began with the original Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Starter Set for Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition before getting up to date with the latest releases – Tower of the Stargazer and New Weird World – for one of the mostly highly anticipated retroclones, Weird Fantasy Roleplaying. This week I go back in time to just after we got Dungeons & Dragons. Not to do a review the original Dungeons & Dragons or an “Edition 0” version thereof – though I will come to at least one of those in the next few weeks – but a review of something that came hot on its heels, Tunnels & Trolls.

Tunnels & Trolls is thirty five years old in 2010. Which means it was published in 1975, a year after Dungeons & Dragons, and in the same year as Boothill, the first non-fantasy RPG to be published; and Empire of the Petal Throne, the third fantasy RPG to be published and the first to come with a setting. I mention the latter because Tunnels & Trolls was written by its author, Ken St. Andre in response to not only the complexity of Dungeons & Dragons, but its expense. This at a time when Empire of the Petal Throne was considered to be quite expensive at $20! The resulting game was lighter, faster, came with a universal mechanic for everything bar combat, used only six-sided dice and as evidenced by spell names such as Cry Baby, Cry Baby! and Take That, You Fiend, a healthy dose of humour. In the first decade of its publication, Tunnels & Trolls was very well supported, primarily in the form of scenarios and well regarded solo adventures. One title of note during this period was Monsters! Monsters!, a variant of Tunnels & Trolls that let the players be the monsters. In the years since, there has been less and less support for the game, but it has never quite gone away. Thus we have Tunnels & Trolls 7.5, published by Fiery Dragon.

With Tunnels & Trolls 7.5, the first thing that you notice about this version is that the box is very full. Inside can be found three spiral bound books, three much smaller staple bound booklets, three character sheets, three sheets of counters, a map, and four six-sided dice. The three spiral bound books are the rulebook, the Codex Incantatem, and the Monstrum Codex, while the staple bound books are the Monsters & Magic Book Special Edition, and two scenarios. For the GM there is Hot Pursuit, while Strange Destinies is a solo dungeon.

Everything you need to know to play is in the rulebook. It covers character creation, combat, and magic, and it is here that some significant changes to the original rules appear. These are not new to Tunnels & Trolls, having previously appeared in the seventh edition that came out for the game’s thirtieth anniversary. The first of these are two new attributes – Speed and Wizardry that join the traditional Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Luck, and Charisma. Speed is a character’s reaction time, while Wizardry is a character’s ability to cast spells or use magic in general. A spellcaster’s Wizardry score also represents the number of points that he has to spend on casting spell.

Likewise, many of the game’s character classes remain, including the Warrior, the Wizard, and the Rogue. It should be noted that the Rogue is not so much the Thief we know and love of Dungeons & Dragons, but more of a “rogue Wizard,” who have limited spellcasting abilities and access to spells, but not the same restrictions in terms of arms and armour as the Wizard. To these are joined the Citizen, the ordinary person of a GM’s Trollworld or campaign world; the Specialist, which comes in three flavours – Specialist Mages (who focus on one type of spells such as combat, healing, or communication), Rangers (superb archers), and Leaders (who are very persuasive); and lastly, the Paragon, which replace the Warrior-Wizards of previous editions.

All characters have an additional new feature: a Talent. This is a skill or ability that adds a bonus to an attribute when it applies. It might be Persuade +4 or Pottery +3, but it will go up as a character goes up in level. It is added when a character is required to make a Saving Roll to which it applies. It should be noted that a character’s level is no longer dependent upon a character having acquired a set number of Adventure Points. Rather these are spent to raise a character’s attributes and when the highest rises to twenty or more, he is second level, and so on.

Character generation is still relatively easy. Roll three six-sided dice for each attribute – it should be noted that rolls of triples add and roll over, choose a class, a Talent, a Kindred (or race), and buy equipment. That said, a full example of character generation would have been useful. So looking at Gomol the Small, our sample Dwarf Warrior, we see that he is incredibly fast for a Dwarf – I rolled three sixes, followed by seventeen, but his Luck always, always, lets him down. Perhaps his Speed can be accounted for by his small size? In all likelihood, Gomol is often mistaken for a Hobb – what Tunnels & Trolls calls Halflings or Hobbits – who is wearing a false beard. Anyway, Gomol is not much of miner – he specialises in breaking rocks very, very quickly, so has probably decided to try his terrible luck out in the whole wide Trollworld.

Gomol the Small, Dwarf, Level 3 Warrior
Strength: 26 Constitution: 18 Dexterity: 8 Speed: 35
Intelligence: 12 Wizardry: 5 Luck: 3 Charisma: 10
Height: 3’ 2” Weight: 160 lbs.
Talent: Appraisal (Intelligence +1) Drinking (Constitution +2), Mining (Constitution +3)
Combat Adds: +30
Equipment: Sledgehammer (4d), Dwarven Mask (1 Armour), Leather Trousers (1 Armour), Hard Boots (Ankle High); 1 silver piece.

Tunnels & Trolls is not a game that relies heavily on skills and skill checks. What the game has instead is Saving Rolls, usually made against a set attribute, for example, Luck or Dexterity. Simply, two dice are rolled – doubles roll over and add – and added to the attribute in question to beat a set target. For a Level One Saving Roll or “L1SR,” this target is twenty, and then goes up by five for each level. So Gomol would really be in trouble if he had to make a L1SR on Luck, but would walk it if it was on his Speed.

Combat in Tunnels & Trolls has changed relatively little in thirty five years. Each side involved rolls up their dice and adds the results to get a total. This total is compared with the opponent’s, the highest winning that round. The difference between the two rolls is inflicted on the loser! In fact, this was always so easy that it was very straightforward to write computer programmes that would handle the process for you. Then again, rolling the dice was always much more fun.

While monsters can have full statistics similar to that of player characters or NPCs, they can also be simplified to a Monster Rating or MR. A creature’s MR is rounded up to the nearest ten to get the number of dice rolled each round, while half the MR is the value added to the roll as its “adds.” So a Smudgebrow Orc with an MR of 64 rolls 7d6 and adds 32.

There are two significant changes to combat. The first is that damage inflicted on a monster is not deducted from its MR, but only from its “adds.” This means that a monster’s MR never changes, thus avoiding the spiral effect of previous editions in which damage reduces a monster’s MR, thus reducing both the number of dice it rolls and its “adds,” and thus its effectiveness in combat. The second change is the “Spite Damage” rule in which any six rolled in combat inflicts a point of damage on an opponent, ignoring armour in the process. This nicely allows a character to inflict damage even if he misses!

So for example, Gomol has been surprised by a Smudgebrow Orc, his terrible Luck letting him down. With an MR of 64, we already know that the Orc rolls 7d6+32 in combat, while Gomol rolls 4d (for his sledgehammer) and adds 30. The Orc rolls 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, and 6, to which its adds 32, for a total of 57, with one point of definite Spite Damage for the 6 rolled. In response, Gomol rolls 5, 5, 6, and 6, to which he adds 30 for a total of 52, and two points of definite Spite Damage for the 6s rolled. So deducting the Orc’s hit from Gomol’s, we see that Gomol takes five damage and another point of Spite Damage. Some of this stopped by his armour, but only the one point, so his Con is reduced by five! The Orc takes two Spite Damage, reduces its “adds” by two, meaning that it rolls 7d6+30 next round... Looks like Gomol has a tough fight on his hands...

What is exceptionally good about the core rulebook is the number of examples of combat. We get to see combat between monsters and monsters, between two characters, and between two groups of characters. All of the examples nicely showcase a combat system that is relatively quick and easy with lots of dice to throw. The rest of the Rulebook is devoted to a discussion of how magic works and a grimoire of spells. Spellcasting uses the Saving Roll system, based on the caster’s Intelligence and limited by his Wizardry attribute which he spends on “Kremm,” the energy that fuels magic.

More spells are added in the Codex Incantatem, while more monsters appear in both the Monstrum Codex and the Monsters & Magic Book Special Edition, the latter having appeared in the game’s Thirtieth Anniversary Edition. All three books are useful and should extend the life of the game, whereas the two scenarios should be there to get both the GM and the players started. “Strange Destinies” is the solo adventure, one that casts either a fairly tough Warrior or a troll or Ogre into the Fungus Forest beneath Troll World. It contains over two hundred entries and is a fairly grim, nasty affair that should be completed in an hour or so. The standard adventure, “Hot Pursuit,” should last about three hours or so, and sees a party of adventurers coming to the aid of a village beset by Scorpion Men raiders.

Both adventures are decent enough, but they do not feel quite suited for use with someone who is either new to Tunnels & Trolls or to roleplaying. They are essentially too deadly for first level characters. Another issue is with the lack of a setting. One is suggested with the map of the World of Kaball. This “Troll World” is also given a chronology which runs from its creation to its destruction mere millennia later. The GM is free to set his game anywhere along this timeline, but as to when and how, he is on his own. The Tunnels & Trolls boxed set comes with neither background nor advice on running the game. Neither is not going to be a problem for the experienced GM, but for a new player, this is a major omission.

Ken St. Andre does not know me from chocolate digestive, but he once suggested that I review Tunnels & Trolls. I never did. Not because I did not want to, but because I never had the time or the reason. There was always something more immediate that needed a review and who wanted a review of a game that was over thirty years old anyway. This does not mean that I did not want to review Tunnels & Trolls, but rather that I was waiting for the time to do it, and this series of reviews is that perfect time and place. The other reason for my reviewing is that I have not touched Tunnels & Trolls since I was fourteen and was at grammar school and twin brothers in the year below me would run me through some of the dungeons available back then. It was fun, there was a lot of rolling rather than roleplaying, but this was at lunchtime.

Coming back to Tunnels & Trolls and it still feels fun. There is a slight gonzo feel to the game that plays fast and easy. It is just a pity that this could not have supported except through mechanical means with more spells and monsters. Advice on playing and running the game should have replaced the extra monster and spell books, along with a dungeon specifically written for rank one characters. The inclusion of the Codex Incantatem and the Monsters & Magic Book Special Edition feel out of place given what was already in the box, almost as if they were put in as afterthought to fill up the box. A little thought could have gone into making this is a much rounder, more fully formed boxed set.

The point of the “White Box Fever” series is to look at games that should serve as solid introductions to the hobby that is roleplaying, that should make the purchaser or receiver go “Wow!” upon cracking open the box or the book. So does Tunnels & Trolls achieve either of those goals? And the answer to that question is, not quite. The sheer amount of contents in the box is impressive, and they include everything necessary to play. Plus if there is a GM who knows how to write his own material, there is enough here to support his game mechanically for some time. Yet, the lack of an example of character creation is a hindrance, and the lack of a setting and GM and player advice works against anyone new to the game and hobby.

Tunnels & Trolls v7.5 certainly hits the nostalgia button and it is fun to play. Yet it still needs an experienced GM if someone new to the hobby is going to play it.