Ardenstone Adventures Character Generator

If you have not tried out the online Character Generator at Ardenstone Adventures I highly recommend that you do so. This tool makes short work of the already quick job of creating T&T characters.

One of the great features of the Ardenstone Generator is that you can select to use either the 5th and 7.5 edition rules. Switching between the editions will bring up or remove the unique features of the two editions including character types, talents, spells, and equipment lists.

As with most character generators, Ardenstone rolls your attributes and starting gold. The attribute list includes Speed and Wizardry for 7.5e players or those wishing to use them with older editions. You can choose between three methods of generating your attributes: rolling straight 3D6, taking the best 3 of 4D6, or the TARO (triples add and roll over) system of 7.5e. This is a really nice feature of the generator. When using TARO, the generator will indicate when triples were rolled with a blue asterisk next to the attribute score. The generator will even generate a height and weight if you want to use them. If you so choose, all of these randomly determined numbers in the character sheet can be manually adjusted.
In addition to generating your attributes, your melee and missile adds will be calculated for you along with your total weight possible (this will be important later), and a randomly generated list of languages known based on your INT score.

Next you can select your preferred kindred from a pull down menu and the generator makes all the necessary adjustments to your attributes and adds. Given your finalized set of attributes you then select your type from another pull down menu. This list is modified based on your characters attributes so that the only types that are listed are the ones your character is qualified for; no need to flip through the rules. This is especially useful when using 7.5e as the three different Specialist types (Specialist Mage, Ranger, Leader) only appear when those special qualifications are met. The same is true for the Warrior-Wizard (5e) or Paragon (7.5e). If your character does not have the ability to cast 1st level spells, then the Wizard option is removed.

If you selected a spell casting type, the generator will provide you with a list of spells known. For Wizards this is a list of the first level spells. If you were lucky enough to generate a Specialist Mage you can select your magic specialty of choice (Combat, Conjuring, Cosmic, Metabolic) and you are given those spells which belong to that school. If you are a 7.5e Rogue, you can choose a single spell from a pull down menu.

Next, if you are using 7.5e, you can choose a starting talent. The generator provides the 1D6 modifier and you type in your talent of choice and choose the most appropriate attribute from a pull down menu. If you are a Rogue, then the Roguery talent is already selected.

The last major step is outfitting your character with weapons, armor, and equipment. This can be a difficult task sometimes given the extensive lists in T&T, but the Ardenstone generator comes through to make this much simpler. In it's default setting, the generator will only list the items that your character can afford and the weapons and armor that your character has the appropriate ST, DEX, and type to use. Purchasing items is accomplished with another pull down menu where you select the number of each item that you want. Simple and efficient. As you spend money, the list is constantly modified to reflect what you can afford. In addition, the generator keeps track of your weight carried and further modified the list of available items. Finally, when you purchase weapons and armor the generator makes a list of your attack values (dice + adds) including your personal adds and the total hits absorbed by armor. You can select to wield one weapon, weapon and shield, or two weapons (if you have the appropriate attributes) and these values will be adjusted accordingly.

You can finish your character by providing him/her with a gender and a name. There is a link provided to the Tavernmaster Games random name generator that makes this process easier as well.

As I said at the start, this is a fantastic T&T character generator that exceeds any others I've used. That said, it is a work in progress. There are just a few minor issues that I noticed:

7.5e Rogue: The generator gives a starting spell choice list even if you don't have the INT and DEX to cast 1st level spells.

7.5e: There are no extra Talent slots if you start at 2nd or higher level based on your attributes.

7.5e: Specialist Mages are not given spells above 1st level even if they have the necessary attributes and level to cast them.

7.5e: The "Misc" equipment list is incomplete, but then it is rather long.

Most of these you would not notice except under a certain set of circumstances. The Ardenstone Character Generator has been improving since it's first release and I'm sure it will continue to do so. But even with these minor problems it is an exceptional T&T utility.

Ulthor the Conjurer: Specialist Mage

I decided to see if I could roll up a Specialist Mage for my character stable using the T&T 7.5 edition rules. I've never used the various Specialist types, but the Specialist Mage type just seems like it would be fun to play. I used the Character Creator at Ardenstone Adventures to make the process faster; it still took a long time to not only meet the requirement of rolling triples on WIZ and getting a 15 or higher, but also to have a decent enough INT and DEX so that he could actually cast some spells. The exercise really drove home how rare Specialists are in the T&T world. I gave up counting the number of times I rolled attributes at around 60. In the course of my rolling I did come up with a Ranger, a potential Specialist Mage with an INT of 9 and a DEX of 4, and another potential Specialist Mage with an INT of 5 before I came up with Ulthor the Conjurer.

Name: Ulthor the Conjurer

Type: Specialist Mage - Conjuring
Gender: Male
Kindred: Human
Level: 2

STR 12
DEX 12
CON 10
SPD 13
LUK 13
INT 14
CHR 8
WIZ 28

Adds: +2

Talent: History 18 (INT+4), Arcane Symbology 19 (INT+5)

Gold: 6

Weight Carried/Possible: 352/1200

Spells: Call Flame, Call Water, Dem Bones Gonna Rise, Hold That Pose, Oh-Go-Away, Sparkle, Will-o-Wisp, Spirit Mastery

Weapons: 2 Banks (2D+3), Common Sling (2D)

Armor: Soft Leather (5 hits)

Equipment: Cotton trousers and shirt, leather belt, hooded cloak, ankle-high hard boots, sling stones, backpack, belt pouch, lantern, 4 flasks of oil, flint and steel, small mirror, parchment (10), quill pen, ink bottle, chalk (10), small sack, water skin, first aid kit

Description: Ulthor was trained as a scholar in the Great Library. He spent his days studying ancient texts learning the secrets of those civilizations that came and went though the countless generations. Then one day Ulthor began to feel a new power developing in his mind. It began by lighting candles, torches, and even fireplaces jut by thinking of fire. Then he did the same with water. The day Ulthor summoned a skeleton from the ground of an ancient battlefield was the day he began to change his direction of study. Ulthor began to find and read as many texts on magic as he could find. He gradually learned to decipher the strange symbols and languages in which these texts were written. Over time, Ulthor began to understand the power which had somehow began to develop in his mind. But soon the Master Scholars became annoyed with Ulthor's pursuits and he was released from the service of the Great Library. Ulthor was not troubled by this event. He was armed with the knowledge of the ancients, particularly the locations of their places of knowledge and wealth. With this knowledge and his developing abilities to control the world around him, Ulthor set out to seek his fortune along a more interesting, but dangerous, path.

Specialist Mage's are indeed interesting characters. I like the idea that the magic they know just unfolds in their mind. In this way perhaps the magic used by Specialist Mage's is different from that used by normal Wizards who have to be taught their spells by someone else or learn them from scrolls and books. The effect may be the same, but perhaps a Call Flame spell cast by a Specialist Mage does not quite operate the same way as a Wizard's spell.

Specialist Mages must choose a specialty or school of magic at the start. These include Combat, Conjuring, Cosmic, and Metabolic. There are, of course, various advantages and disadvantages of the different schools and their associated spell lists. This becomes a tougher choice if you intend to take your Specialist Mage on the road solo. Many spells are for support of other, either while engaged in combat or immediately after. A 1st level Combat Mage might be hard-pressed with just TTYF and Vorpal Blade (of course one could argue that TTYF is the perfect spell for a solo Mage), whereas a 1st level Conjurer (7 spells) or Cosmic Mage (10 spells) has a better mix of different types of spells. The 1st level Metabolic Mage had better be good with daggers since he only gets one spell, Suppress Kremm. Given that a Specialist Mage needs to TARO (triples add and roll over) to qualify for the type, the odds of starting at 2nd level are pretty good. This has the advantage of giving your starting Specialist Mage a good set of spells to work with even though you won't be getting the full complement of 20 1st level spells as Wizards do. If you decide to play an elf or fairy (WIZ x2), then you'll do even better on this front. The allocation of spells changes through the levels, with some schools getting more and some less; rarely does a particular school have none for a level (but it does happen).

Looking through the various spells, I could see advantages to all of the schools. I thought the Combat Mage was a little too obvious of a choice, however, and liked the spells of the Conjuring School. At 1st level for combat power you have Hold That Pose as well as Oh-Go-Away and Dem Bones (Who doesn't want to summon a skeleton to do their bidding?). Call Flame and Call Water are also good general purpose spells that can be used in combat in a pinch (but serve other purposes much better) as well as Will-O-Wisp just in case you find yourself in the dark. Sparkle? Could be useful. Since Ulthor started at 2nd level he also knew Spirit Mastery, allowing him to bend others to his will (up to MR 50!); this could provide Ulthor with a nice bodyguard. Managing such spells in a solo adventure might be tricky, but it could be done with a bit of creativity. I'm looking forward to Ulthor being someday able to cast 12th level spells such as Invisible Fiend and Summoning. But alas, he will likely be eaten long before then.

Personal Vision of Delvers

How we visualize our characters is an important consideration in fantasy role playing games. In some ways this image may be influenced by the particular set of rules we are using or the adventure we are involved in whether as a group or solo (see this post on Mesmerized by Sirens for a take on this) but our own personal vision of the fantasy always contributes. There are obviously many takes on this, from high fantasy to the very low. Most of the artwork produced for the big-name games these day tend to favor the high fantasy end of the spectrum.

For myself, I tend to view my delvers as rather rough and ragged individuals; a sort of dirty fantasy if you will as opposed to high fantasy. My delvers do not wear eternally shiny armor, wield enormous weapons that defy gravity, or even look clean. My personal fantasy world is deeply entrenched in the reality of the medieval world, and the medieval world was a dirty place; for most people at least. I'm often amused by illustrations of adventurers in dungeon or wilderness settings where they are completely clean, their clothes spotless, armor pristine, and weapons gleaming as though freshly polished. This is far from what I have in mind when envisioning my characters. They are typically coated in dirt, grime and blood (that of their foes and their own), their clothes are patched, ragged, and equally dirty, their armor is also patched, dented, and (if metal) has patches of rust, and their weapons are at least a little tarnished, kicked, and (often) bloodied. Delving is a dirty business. How clean can you stay crawling around a cave complex, a ruined castle, or ancient crypt? What is the state of you and your equipment after five or six battles with goblins, ogres, zombies, giant spiders, and a gibbering horror?

Of course when delvers return to civilization they can get themselves cleaned up and bandaged, buy fresh clothes, and repair and oil their weapons and armor. But this still does not fit fully into my vision of delvers. Considering their chosen occupation as well as the world in which they live, my delvers would never get too clean. After all, getting too comfortable would make it difficult to head back out and face a gruesome death. It's best to stay on the periphery of civilization. But even the civilized world is not that clean (at least in my settings), unless you're of noble birth or of the wealthy class. Such people seldom take on the life of a delver. Delvers may some day acquire enough treasure to afford fine clothes, a nice house, and clean living, but they'd likely retire from the dangerous profession of delving at that point and enjoy the quiet life of the wealthy.

So how do you visualize your characters?

Buy Directly From the Trollgod

Looking for a new solo adventure to challenge your best T&T characters? Need a new GM adventure for your gaming group? Searching for something obscure? Do you prefer good old paper book instead of PDFs? Well, you can buy a number of new and old T&T items directly from the Trollgod himself, Ken St. Andre, through his Trollhalla Press outlet. He'll even autograph them for you making your new purchase that much more exciting (and collectable). Ken is selling hard copies of most of his recent T&T works such as the solos Four Jars of Mead, Battle School, The Dewdrop Inn, and Tavern by the Sea, GM adventures like Dwarf World and Seven Challenges of Kartejan, some older items like Toughest Dungeon in the World, and even some 7.5 edition Tunnels & Trolls boxed sets.

For more details see Ken's post at Trollhalla Press

Translating French Tunnels & Trolls

One of the big new releases for T&T last year was a French 8th edition of the T&T rules headed by Patrice Geille. Since the release of this new rulebook, Patrice has released two GM adventures, Drunk Dwarf (aka Riverboat Adventure) and Chasing the Silver Serpent (aka Trollstone Caverns) both by Ken St. Andre and three solo adventures including a revised Buffalo Castle by Rick Loomis, Goblin Lake by Ken St. Andre, The Last Count (aka Naked Doom) by Ken St. Andre, and Caves Lan-Faer (a combination of Toughest Dungeon in the World and Strange Destinies) by Ken St. Andre. All of these books have been of exceptional quality and have featured new art by T&T greats such as Liz Danforth, Steve Crompton, and Simon Lee Tranter.

Patrice also has an excellent T&T blog which has featured a great deal of gaming content in recent months. The only issue, for me at least, has been that it is in French (a language that I am sadly unfamiliar with). But I recently tried the translate feature in Google (but I'm sure any search engine will do, perhaps some will do better) and found the result most rewarding. The translation was not perfect and sometimes took a few tries to complete but it was certainly intelligible and, most importantly, I could see all of the great material Patrice had to offer.

So what is there? In the March archive there are two detailed NPC descriptions, a one room (or cave) GM adventure, and a new spell description. In the February archive there is a nice article on bringing your deceased characters back as zombies or ghosts and a 12 room mini GM adventure. Keep delving back through the months to find interesting house rule articles (including a nice description of priests in T&T), discussions of T&T rules, additions and expansions to previously published adventures, links to freebies, and even an interview with Ken St. Andre. There is a lot to find and there should be more to come.

So go to your favorite search engine, type in "Tunnels et Trolls", and try out their translation service. You can try the one I used or your own. If you are able to read French, I'd highly recommend having a look at Patrice's storefronts at Lulu and RPGNow.

Updates to The Lone Delver

I took a bit of a break from blogging during the busy lead up to the release of TrollsZine! #7 and for a bit after just to take a break. I do have quite a bit planned for the next few months and a number of posts in the draft stage. What I have been doing in the meantime is updating the various links found to the right.

First off I've updated the Free Online T&T Solos list and the Free Print T&T Solos list. A number of new solos have been released and a couple are no longer available. In all there are 35 solo adventures available in those two lists. More than enough to keep you busy for at least a little while. These solos are made available either directly by the author or with the authors permission. Be aware that some do link to the issue of TrollsZine! in which they were published. Please remember that the contents of these sites are the copyright of the authors. Publishing the contents in any form without consent of the author is forbidden.

Second, I've added a Free T&T GM Adventure list for those of you lucky enough to have a group to play with. There are 18 adventures currently listed as well as a link to the Random Dungeon Generator which can produce an almost infinite number of adventures. As with the solos, some do link to the appropriate issue of TrollsZine!.

Third, I've updated by blog list adding a few and removing a few. I've added the Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls blog for updates on the dT&T project as well as the new T&T blog The Rat's Digs and the updated blog The Deep Six Delver.

Finally, I've updated and expanded my lists of T&T Websites and T&T Shops to better reflect the diversity of sites currently out there. If you have not checked them all out, do so, you won't regret it.

TrollsZine! #7 Has Been Unleashed!

TrollsZine! #7 has been unleashed!

The seventh issue of the fan-created magazine for Tunnels and Trolls™, edited by Dan Hembree, contains 74 pages of quality content brought to you by the fans of the game for absolutely free. This issue features a solo adventure, “The Wizard’s Hut” by J. C. Lambert, a GM adventure, “The Ruins of the Castle Pynnesse” by Tori Berquist, and a short story, “Sometimes the Saving Rolls Are With You” by Ira Lee Gossett. TrollsZine! #7 also includes articles on new types of undead and a new type of golem, a town just waiting for your delvers hard-earned money, ways of personalizing T&T character types, special attacks for monsters, gunpowder weapons, advice on solos for starting characters, and more.

Contributors to TrollsZine! #7 include Tori Berquist, E. P. Donahue, Patrice Geille, Ira Lee Gossett, Dan Hembree, Val Kelson, J. C. Lambert, David Moskowitz, Dan Prentice, Douglas Toth, David A. Ullery, and Justin T. Williams. TrollsZine! #7 is amazingly illustrated by Darrenn E. Canton, Alexander Cook, E. P. Donahue, James Fallows, Jeff Freels, J. C. Lambert, Simon Lee Tranter, David A. Ullery, and Joshua E. Ullery. The cover art is by Jeff Freels with the cover layout, design, and TrollsZine! logo by M. E. Volmar and Simon Lee Tranter.

TrollsZine! is a Trollbridge production brought to you with the kind support of Flying Buffalo Inc., Ken St. Andre, and Rick Loomis.

Get you digital copy of TrollsZine! #7 for FREE at the Flying Buffalo storefront at RPGNow.

I would like to thank all of the writers, artists, and copy editors that have helped to make TrollsZine! possible. All of the material is freely donated by these talented and creative individuals. I hope that I have done their work justice.

Now go get your copy!