Rest and Recovery in T&T

The idea of using short-term rest to recover from wounds is a common theme in most RPGs. Characters are always getting banged up, but sometimes you can't hole up in town for weeks on end waiting to heal. Those goblins need to be driven out now! In Tunnels and Trolls there are no clearly defined rules for recovering lost Constitution without the use of magic (Poor Baby) or some expensive items (potions, second aid kits, etc.). The Tunnels and Trolls 5th edition rules do contain a combat example where it is stated that an injured warrior will need at least a week to recover 4 points of her CON. This implies that natural healing takes a considerable amount of time but in a vague way. But this is one of the great things about the T&T system; little details are ultimately left to the game masters and players to decide. This allows for a lot of house rules and the generation of many creative ideas.

So what about recovering lost CON during short periods of rest in prolonged games when there is no time for extended periods of convalescence? I've encountered this issue while running a T&T play-by-post game at Role Play Online. The characters were all severely injured in a tough fight and decided to retreat from the dungeon they were exploring and return to the surface. Unfortunately they didn't have weeks to recover all of their lost CON; they needed to get back down there and finish the job they started. So I considered adding a house rule in which overnight rest (~10 hours) in a safe location with a roof over your head, a bed, and ample food and water allows some recovery of lost CON. My original idea was to recover 1D6 points of lost CON during this rest period.

My thought behind this house rule is that lost CON reflects fatigue, minor cuts and bruises and blood loss as well as actual physical injury such as deep cuts, broken bones, and head trauma. The latter types of injuries would take a long time to recover from. But simple exhaustion and some lacerations could be overcome more quickly.

But then one of my players who is running a dwarf with a CON of 26 suggested that the rate of healing vary depending on the CON of the character. So a character with a higher CON should roll more dice at the end of the rest period. The logic behind this is that if using a simple 1D6 system, a character with a low CON (say a fairy) could fully heal much faster than one with a higher CON (like a dwarf).

I do like the idea of scaling the amount of recovery, but not the idea of simply rolling more dice. Sure, a fairy with a CON of 6 that took 4 hits of damage (63% of CON) could fully recover all his/her lost CON with a single nights rest while a dwarf with a CON of 30 that took 19 hits (also 63% of CON) would need at least four days of rest to fully heal. While both characters lost the same percentage of their CON, the dwarf still withstood injury that could have killed the fairy three times over; this should require more rest. But, characters with higher CON scores are supposed to be healthier, so perhaps they should be able to heal faster.

Now enters the always useful Tunnels and Trolls Saving Roll for deciding rest and recovery. My house rule now states:

After a full nights rest (~10 hours) with plenty to eat and drink in a secure location with a roof over your head and a bed to sleep in, make a SR on your base CON. The level of success is the number of D6 rolls you get to make to recover lost CON. So if you manage a Level 3 CON SR, then you recover 3D6 CON. Fumbles are in effect, so if you roll a 3 (3 or 4 in 5th edition) you do not recover any lost CON. No adventure points are awarded for these Saving Rolls.

This Saving Roll based method of regulating short-term CON recovery is not only a very T&T solution, but it gives characters with higher CONs an edge in healing (they are normally healthier and more robust). It should allow these characters to heal minor injuries quickly and to make up some of the huge drops in CON they can sustain without death. But it also allows characters with low CONs to recover quickly every now and then thanks to the "Doubles Add and Roll Over" (DARO) rule for Saving Rolls.

Overall, this house rule allows for quick non-magical healing which can be quite useful in low-magic or even no-magic game settings.

Tavernmaster Games is Open for Business

If you have not heard, the new website for Tavernmaster Games is now active. Tavernmaster Games is a new company producing material for Tunnels and Trolls composed of a number of well-established, talented, and creative writers and artists including Andy Holmes, Jason Mills, Jeff Freels, M.E. Volmar, Sid Orpin, Simon Lee Tranter, and Andy James. The website itself is quite impressive and shows just what this group can do. I'm looking forward to seeing this new company, and it's catalog, grow over time.

Tavernmaster Games will be releasing both solo adventures and game master adventures for use with Tunnels and Trolls in addition to other material. There are also hints of a number of free items that will be made available. Right now you can find a set of pre-generated characters (Hint: Find the key).

In stock right now are three solo adventures: Tavern by the Sea by Ken St. Andre and Andy Holmes, Formication by Sid Orpin, and Devotion to Duty also by Sid Orpin. These are all available in either pdf or print format.

Stop by the Tavern and have a look around. You won't be disappointed. Be sure to check the Notice Board for links to great T&T themed sites, including this one.

Fiery Dragon, Tunnels & Trolls 7.5, and Jeff Freels

Some great news has come out of Fiery Dragon just last week. Fiery Dragon will be re-releasing the 7.5 edition of the rules in print format this year as well as a number of new adventures. In addition, a portion of Fiery Dragon's sales of T&T merchandise will be donated to the Jeff Freels Transplant Fund.

My thanks to Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern for bringing this news to my attention.

Here is the story straight from Fiery Dragon:

The Jeff Freels Transfer Fund

When the Fiery Dragon crew gets together to play a fantasy or sci-fi or post-apocalyptic rpg, we pretend we’re amazing individuals with crazy histories and mystical abilities. We use our imagination and pretend the impossible is possible.

And then you deal with someone like Jeff Freels, the blind artist, and you quickly redefine what amazing abilities are. Jeff is a guy who came to us through the Tunnels & Trolls community, and his art captures the feel and magic of that game perfectly.

Now, whatever challenges our characters may face in our fantasy roleplaying games, Jeff is certainly dealing with issues that are just as difficult and facing them as bravely as any warrior. Jeff needs a kidney transplant.

He’s created a page on his website that gives the details of his situation and his plan: http://www.jeffwerx.com/tf.html. Inspired by Jeff’s courage, we’d like to help him raise money for this worthy cause.

Fiery Dragon will be donating a portion of the proceeds from every digital and direct sale (from our website) of all Tunnels & Trolls products sold in 2012. We’ve just released CASTLE OF THE DEAD, a T&T Solo Adventure that features Jeff’s artwork, and we’ll be re-releasing the latest version of the Tunnels & Trolls Roleplaying Game rules and additional adventures throughout the year.

Together we can enjoy a great game and help a great cause. Thanks for your support.

TrollsZine 4 Has Arrived!!!!!

TrollsZine 4 has arrived! The fourth issue of the fan-created magazine for Tunnels and Trolls™, edited by W. Scott Grant and Dan Hembree, has 60 pages of quality content brought to you for absolutely free. This issue includes a solo adventure “Down Time”, a GM adventure “The Wild Woods”, a short story “Turmierre Returns to the Sky”, a new NPC from the world of Lingusia, rules for horses and riding and mass combat in T&T, as well as the continuing series “Delverton” and “How to Write a Solo Adventure.” Contributors include Tori Bergquist, Michael Eidson, Patrice Geille, W. Scott Grant, Christina Lea, Al McDougall, Simon Rafe, Lee Reynoldson, Zachary and Joshua Ullery, Russ Westbrook, and Justin Williams. TrollsZine 4 is illustrated by Alexander Cook, Jeff Freels, Mike Hill, Andy Kelly, Will Meddis, Steve Robertson, David Ullery, and Zachary Ullery with cover art by Chad Thorsen. TrollsZine is a Trollbridge production brought to you with the kind support of Flying Buffalo Inc., Ken St. Andre, and Rick Loomis.

Get your digital copy now for FREE at RPGnow.

This issue marks my beginning as Editor of the TrollsZine. I'm looking forward to publishing at least two more issues this year. If you have anything you'd like to see published in TrollsZine, articles, adventures, monster descriptions, art, or more art, please contact me through the Trollbridge, Trollhalla, or enter a comment below.

Human Kindred Modifier

HUMAN: MR 50

Humans always seem to get marginalized in fantasy RPGs, and T&T is no different. Dwarves, elves, hobbs, leprechauns, even fairies all get some nice attribute bonuses to give them an edge over their human counterparts. In earlier editions of the game (1st and 4th editions) many of these bonuses were not even balanced by penalties. I've discussed the effects of these various attribute modifiers in previous posts so I won't go into it again here.

But what about humans? Yes they are typically viewed as the standard against which the other kindred are compared. So dwarves are typically stronger and healthier than your average human while elves are smarter, more agile, and prettier if a little less robust. But don't humans bring something special to the table?

What makes humans so successful in our own world? We lack the strength, dexterity, and constitution of most other large mammals (for the most part), but we do tend to be smarter (again, for the most part). What do we use this intelligence for? We make tools; tools that allow us to survive the elements, collect food, and defeat our enemies. I think, therefore, that humans in T&T should start with more of these tools than the other kindred.

We can model this condition by simply modifying the amount of gold with which newly created humans start the game. Starting gold for humans can be determined either by rolling 4D6 and multiplying by 10 or by rolling 3D6, multiplying by 10, and then applying a 1.5 modifier (rounding up). This gives humans 40-240 gp to start using the first method and 45-270 gp to start using the second method; it all depends on how much of an edge you want to provide. Compare this to the typical starting amount of 30-180 gp. The average amounts of starting gold come to 105 (standard), 140 (4d6), and 158 (1.5 modifier). This extra gold can be used by your human character to buy better armor, weapons, and equipment than his/her non-human companions possess. This falls right in line with how humans deal with adverse conditions despite their relatively frail bodies and it is not an overwhelming advantage in terms of game mechanics. Of course if you wanted to provide more of an edge, you could increase the number of dice or increase the modifier to 2.

D&D Follows T&T?

I have been reading some of the reports on D&D 5th edition (or Next?) posted by Scott Malthouse at The Trollish Delver. I honestly don't care all that much about the development of this new edition. It's not that I don't like D&D; the Moldvay Basic set was my introduction to role playing games and I still play PbP games using OSRIC and Labyrinth Lord. I just never thought any rule changes were necessary, even 2nd edition AD&D, but especially not complete overhauls (3, 3.5, 4).

What I did find interesting, however, was this statement:

Iconic monsters will remain threats at higher levels
This is something that has always bugged me about the game and it looks like it's finally being rectified. Iconic D&D monsters like goblins and orcs will be just as capable of challenging a party at 1st level as they will be at 8th level. Monte Cook said: "I think it offers a better play experience that the orc/ogre can remain in the campaign, and people can know how the monster would work from a previous experience, but they remain a challenge for longer." Instead of having a level 1, level 5, and level 8 orc, there will just be the quintessential 'orc' creature that easily scales.

I find the statement interesting because Ken St. Andre got this right in 1975 with Tunnels and Trolls 1st edition. With each monster assigned a Monster Rating (MR) by the Game Master and not a book, a goblin, orc, or even a jellyfish can be as weak or strong as you want to make it; there are no set standards that says a goblin has to be a weak opponent. In fact, no two goblins in that war party coming over the hill need to be the same. You can even tweak their MRs to reflect differences in weapons or armor. What is best is that it is simple and can be done on the spur of the moment.

Even better, your weak little monsters never really become insignificant in the T&T combat system. You may decide that all goblins have a MR of 10 giving them a measly 2D6+5 in combat. But what if you throw 20 or 30 of the little buggers at your overconfident friends? "They're only goblins," they'd sneer. But those dice and adds add up fast (40D6+100 for a company of 20 MR10 goblins) allowing those goblins to pack quite punch (up to 340 punches in fact); and if you are using spite damage? Ouch. That's 40 chances to roll a 6 on a six-sided die. Each 6 means one point of damage to those high and mighty PCs; no excuses, no way out. You're wearing enchanted plate armor and a shield made from a dragon scale? Too bad. This is quite different from the D&D mechanics where I have played high level characters that have cut through hordes of the rank and file with no risk of injury. The T&T system allows large numbers of small opponents to quickly overwhelm a few powerful ones. Hell, it happened to Conan countless times, why not your 6th level warrior?

Goblin MR 10
Charge! Wait, there are how many?

Goblin MR 40
Proceed with caution.

(Illustrations by Robert Hermminger, used with permission.)

The Dungeon of the Rat: GM Adventure from Lone Delver Games

I have just released a new version of the GM adventure The Dungeon of the Rat along with the town of Millet's Crossing in cooperation with the author, Mike Hill (aka Hogscape), through my Lone Delver Games storefront at RPGnow. This is a fantastic starting adventure for low level characters. All proceeds earned from the sale of this book will be donated to the JeffWerx Transplant fund, which will go toward kidney transplants for Jeff Freels (aka Grumlahk) and his wife Raquel.

You can currently get a pdf copy from RPGnow, but hard copies will be available from Lulu next week.

Here are the details:

The village of Millet's Crossing is a small and unassuming place. There is little of interest to the wandering sword-for-hire except for a nice inn and a general store. But the Troll's Trove provides a welcome bit of rest and relaxation to your band of road-weary adventurers. Just as soon as you have settled in, however, your host offers you a rather odd business proposition. It seems that the Troll's Trove has rats in it's cellar and these rats are stealing things all over town. What is really odd is that they are leaving behind small jade rat statues. A nice reward awaits those that can clear out the infestation and put a stop to the thefts. It appears to be a simple task, but one must be careful; even rats have gods.

This book contains details for the village of Millet's Crossing and the Dungeon of the Rat which lies right beneath the calm, rural community. The Dungeon of the Rat is suited for a party of four to six first-level characters. A mix of character types is recommended including at least one wizard and one rogue.

The Dungeon of the Rat is designed for use with the Tunnels and Trolls™ game system. You will need a copy of the T&T™ rules to play this game.

Special Note: All proceeds earned from the sale of The Dungeon of the Rat will be donated to the Jeff and Raquel Freels Transplant Fund. Jeff is a great friend and contributor to the Tunnels and Trolls™ community. Both he and his wife are in need of kidney transplants.