A Review of Tunnels and Trolls 7.5

by Andreas Davour

Product: Tunnels and Trolls 7.5
Product Type: Fantasy Role Playing Game System
Author: Ken St. Andre
MSRP: US$35.00
Publisher: Fiery Dragon Productions, Inc. under license from Flying Buffalo, Inc.
Publication Year: 2008
Other Outlets: Outlaw Press
Review Date: September 29, 2008

INTRODUCTION

The seventies was a fruitful era. It was the era when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the species were manifold upon the earth. Species of roleplaying games, that is. Interestingly enough, some of those dinosaurs have seen a resurgence lately with new editions of Runequest, Traveller, Dungeons & Dragons, and now Tunnels & Trolls.

The first edition was published in 1975 and then things changed a bit up until the fifth in 1979. From then until 2005, when the seventh edition was published, things were stable. This is a great strength, since you can use all kinds of stuff from different editions together and it usually just works. This 7.5 edition changes a few things but is fairly similar to the 7th ed of 2005. I'm going to say up front that I think this product is great! Go buy it. Now I'll talk a bit about why I think so.

WHAT YOU GET

The first thing you notice when you open the box is that it's full of stuff! You get a rulebook, three books with monsters, magic items and spells, two adventures, cardboard counters, character sheets, and a colour map of Trollworld. It feels like you get what you paid for.

The rulebook is small, more like a paperback novel than a classical RPG, and spiral bound. It weighs in at 174 pages and contains what you'd expect. It has character creation, equipment, treasure generator, combat, and magic sections. It's not one of those books where you have a long section on how to build campaigns or how to run an adventure. There's also no introduction to roleplaying or setting material to write home about. It's rules and tools to build upon. I guess it gives the impression it's for gaming old hands, and in a way it is. But since the game system is so easy, it would suit a beginner. It just doesn't look modern. It does look good though, with a colour cover and black and white interior illustrations in a consistent style.

The overall impression of the game is fairly positive and it's looking clean and there's no obvious things missing. But when you read closely you begin to realize that the organization of the game isn't the best. If you read the game from cover to cover you'll probably get a good grasp of things, but if you try to look things up it's more problematic. A good example is how spell casting works. The professions are mentioned early in the book, and there you can read that Wizards can cast spells for fewer spell points when they go up in level. It's good to have that information in the summary of the Wizard, but it becomes more confusing later. When you reach the later part of the book and actually read about magic, you get a step by step description of how you cast spells and how you pay spell points and how to power up spells by paying more and so on. What it does not tell you is the reduction in cost mentioned in the description of the Wizard from earlier in the book! It is hinted at, but not spelled out.

This is sad, since you must read and re-read the whole book to find all this small nagging snippets of information. Nothing is missing or broken in a serious way, but it's harder to use the book than it had to be. A much stronger editorial presence and a good book could have been excellent. But the voice and presence of the author is there and it makes it fun to read. I guess you can't get everything. That being said, let's walk through the meaty parts.

CHARACTER CREATION

Let's begin with character creation. Fairly quickly it becomes clear that in T&T you rely on your stats. They are the basis of your hit points, your level, your magical power and your skill at general accomplishments. You roll 3d6 eight times or you use a point-buy system.

You can play just about any creature you can imagine and there are five common kindred races and thirty-three rare ones!! Races are basically just multipliers to your stats and sometimes a few special abilities. You want to play a skeleton, a harpy, or a centaur? Go ahead. The common races are human, elf, dwarf, hobb[it], fairy, and leprechaun. The last two races are few-inches-tall creatures with gossamer wings and gnomes who can teleport at will. Both are old T&T classics.

When you have rolled your stats and chosen a race, you choose a type (T&T speak for class). The different types of characters are basically Warriors, Wizards, Rogue Wizards, or variations thereof. They are pretty broadly sketched, but cover all bases. Compared to 5th there are more now, and there's even an "NPC class."

The game system has three legs, and I'm going to talk a little about each of them. First there's magic, then combat, and then talents and saving rolls.

MAGIC

Magic is based on spell points from your Wizardry stat. This is new as of the 7th edition, since Strength used to be the pool used for magic. Your new magician knows all the 1st level spells, and after that he has to pay the Wizards Guild to teach him more. It makes sense to base spell points on a stat other than Strength. It reminds me of how I and a few friends once realized how important Stamina was for spell casting in Ars Magica, and suddenly all the magicians we designed looked like Olympic class athletes with maxed out Stamina! No more of that phenomena in 7th ed T&T.

In order to cast a spell you must match the stat prerequisites, roll dice, and pay the cost in magic points. There are also extras, such as magic resistance and foci—utility items that help or hinder your casting. A newly created wizard is decently competent and since there are spells up to level 13 in the rules (and more spells in the extra books included in the box) there's a lot to do as a magician.

COMBAT

Combat is done by rolling the dice you get for your weapons and adding bonuses for having stats beyond the human norm of 9–12. Everyone rolls and adds their totals, and the enemies do the same. The bigger sum is the winner and inflicts the difference as damage. This is the core system and, while there are details, this is what happens in most fights. That way you always fight like a group, and the individual swings, parries, and moving around jockeying for position are abstracted away. Considering how combat works, I don't see any need for the counters included in this boxed set.

While this abstract combat removes the possibility for that perfect move, it also makes any maneuver possible even if you don't have this or that feat or ability. If you compare this to the way D&D has developed in the latest editions, this is going in the opposite direction. T&T suits me fine, but it's probably a stumbling block if you're a big fan of moving miniatures around, making tactical decisions, and positioning yourself on the battlefield. Nothing stops you from splitting up a T&T combat in one-on-one duels, and in fact it's even written up as an option in the combat examples in the rulebook! There's also special kinds of damage and monster special abilities that can make it quite exciting.

If you have played other games you might think it sounds a bit bland. But since combat is this abstract, there are actually more opportunities to do stunts and narrate what happens in a way that a more detailed system prohibits.

SAVING ROLLS AND TALENTS

The last leg of the game system is the Saving Roll. The name is kind of a left-over from an earlier age and doesn't fully express the versatility of the mechanic. Basically anything you'd ever want to do is resolved by a roll of 2d6 plus a stat, and since you add any doubles you could theoretically roll any high number and succeed with any wild maneuver, however hard it may be. To make it tempting to do this you actually get experience even if you fail. That is a hidden gem in the T&T design.

If there's anything you want to do that's not covered by the combat or magic rules, you roll a saving roll. Nothing stops you from doing this at any time (e.g., in the middle of combat if you want to do some swashbuckling). This is where T&T shines, and the only limit to what the game system allows is the creativity of the players.

Built upon the system for Saving Rolls is another innovation in 7th ed, namely the general skill system. In short you choose a Talent at each level, based upon one of your stats, and it gives you a special bonus for all feats within your area of expertise. Considering that, you might want to make your Talents fairly broad, but in the rulebook are given examples of both more broad and limited Talents. It's a neat way to give your character a boost and also further differentiate yourself from all other characters of your Type. In that sense it's a little like the Feats of D&D, but a lot more general in application.

EXPERIENCE

When you have tried casting magic, done combat, and rolled a few saving rolls, you might have earned some Adventure Points. Those points are used for buying better stats, which in turn determines your level. That last bit is new for 7th edition, and makes it easier to actually use level as a measurement of ability. It simplifies matters for the prospective author of adventures. In addition to that, the rulebook suggests you give AP for daring, subterfuge, and good roleplaying. What kind of play does this emphasize? Well, since a Saving Roll is a potentially unlimited roll, you could probably get most AP from doing creative stuff that the GM decides is not covered by the combat or spell rules.

That being said, T&T doesn't come across as concerned about nuances except doing combat and weaving dweomer. In that way it is still an old school game. Thus it is also adaptable for house ruling and in the foreword the designer Ken St Andre even says, "If you haven't messed with the printed rules and made at least a couple of changes, you aren't really playing Tunnels & Trolls." It is easier to add stuff to a basic framework than the other way around.

THE REST OF THE BOX

The two books with monsters and spells are, like the rule book, spiral bound. The Monstrum Codex is 45 pages and has a good table of contents with all the monsters contained within. Every monster is illustrated and described briefly but often humorously. It's a nice example of how the rules for making monsters can be used and lets you get started playing. It was a nice idea of Fiery Dragon to include this book, since the short list in the rules was not showing off what could be done.

Codex Incantatem is 50 pages of spells, up to level five. Another volume with higher levels is being published at a later date, apparently. It's not as bad as it sounds, since the main rule book contain quite a few to chose from. This book is really nice, with some side bars with a story behind a spell or an example of usage.

Together the cover illustrations show a mage blasting a monster with an arcane bolt, which is a nice way of setting the mood and makes you want to go spell slinging.

Including an adventure is nice, since it helps you get going, and can give a new GM ideas about how to write some of his own. If you have encountered T&T before the 7th ed you have probably come across some of the solo adventures that have been published. I used to believe that T&T only was intended as a solo play system for many years, until I read the rules! With that heritage it's not surprising that you get two adventures. One is a solo and the other a GM run adventure.

The solo is about a quest for the mythical fungus forest, deep beneath the ground. I like adventures where you get to explore strange worlds and the object of the game is to go see strange creatures and places. I rolled up a minotaur, just because that would have been so problematic in so many other systems, with 30 in STR and 35 in CON. I sure did feel mighty with those stats. I entered the underground and walked about a bit; I found the forest almost at once and was quickly killed by 12 giant wasps from the random monster table. Tough dungeon! It's worth noting for those who haven't played much T&T before that most solos are quite deadly. It was fun while it lasted. But when I was told in the adventure to turn to the wandering monster table, the dreaded "page XX" reared its ugly head, and that was less fun.

Since the solo ended so quickly I picked up the GM adventure and skimmed it. It looks good and the setup is nicely explained. The scenes are all fairly good and you get enough information to stage them. It is a bit linear, but since it's a "go rescue a hostage" type of plot it might not be that surprising. Neat monsters, and I like that the author included some notes on different ways to accomplish the goal and how to handle them. This adventure would be well suited for a less experienced GM since it delineates the scenes well while still giving options.

SUMMARY

Even though I do like this new edition, there are irritating warts still. Errors are inevitable and acceptable, but the fact that you only have to read a few pages before finding a glaring error from the former edition is not nice at all. Even worse, it's on the example character sheet and the examples are supposed to add light to the rules, not cast shadows of doubt. It should have been fixed.

Considering it was actually mentioned on the now vanished forum on the Fiery Dragon website, and also published in publications from Outlaw Press, you would imagine it should have been hard forgetting it.

Also, there are parts which are fairly dense. It's clear how basic combat works, and the examples do a lot to help. Magic on the other hand is still a bit nebulous.

The fact that there's no world information to write home about, and no setting included (apart from the included map), it might not exactly be that easy to get the gamers of today to pick it up. For those who make up their own settings it will be an excellent set of rules, but considering how many books with setting material are published, I guess that's what people want. I hope that doesn't discourage anyone from trying out T&T, for it is a charming blast from the past.

All in all it's a neat package. You get a general task mechanic, an open-ended way to generate any kind of character, a spell point based magic system, and monsters, magic, and adventures to try it out, straight out of the box. It's good value for your gaming dollar.

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About The Reviewer: Andreas got his start at gaming at the tender age of 12 when a friend brought home Avalon Hill's Panzerblitz from a convention. Then he discovered roleplaying and a period of frenzied playing of games started. He has continued until this day and now both plays and collects them. He lives in Canada and takes care of computers for a living.

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Legalese: The above review is the opinion of the individual reviewer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Eposic Diversions LLC. This review is Copyright ©2008 by Andreas Davour. Online rights have been licensed by Eposic Diversions LLC. Please respect these rights and do not further distribute this review or any significant portion of it without permission from the rights holder. If you quote from this review, please give credit to the author. If your quote is on the web, a link back to the full review is appreciated.

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