Weapons vs Armor in T&T

Andreas Davour of the Omnipotent Eye made a comment on my last post detailing a simple weapons and armor list for T&T that I thought was worth responding to in a new post. Andrea commented that the number of hits taken by the different suits of armor seemed high. Here are the protective values of my five armor types:

Leather..............5
Scale.................8
Mail..................12
Plate and mail......15
Full plate.............18

In particular Andreas mentioned the suit of full plate that takes 18 hits. I'll admit that some of these numbers appear pretty high, but actually they are not when you take the damage potential of the weapons into consideration. Where did I get these protective values? They are almost directly from the 7.5 edition rules. The only exception is 'Plate and mail' which I gave a number of hits exactly between 'Mail' and 'Full Plate.'

But to the point at hand. Armor is supposed to provide passive protection from blunt objects, sharp points, and blades wielded by those that intend to do you bodily harm. In T&T the damage potential of weapons is measured in the number of six-sided dice rolled plus (or minus) some fixed number.

So what kind of damage can the various weapons dish out? I put together the minimum, average, and maximum damage potential of various weapons from my simplified list. Let's look at the progression for the different bladed weapons:

Dagger (2+2)................4...8....14
Short sword (3).............3...9....18
Sword (3+4).................7...13...22
2-handed sword (6+1)......7...19...37

From this progression, we can see that even a dagger can penetrate a suit of mail (12 hits of protection) if the blow solid enough. The same is true of a short sword against a suit of plate and mail (15 hits). Of course these are near the maximum values for these weapons, but they can penetrate leather and scale with near average hits. As the swords get larger and heavier, their ability to cut through heavier (naturally) goes up. A two-handed sword has the potential to break through full plate with an average hit. With greater than average hits, the sword should also fatally wound the person wearing the armor (37 hits!). This is, in fact, why larger and larger weapons were produced. As time progressed, armor became heavier so larger weapons were needed to penetrate it; this either meant making bigger blades wielded by two hands or making a big chopping or smashing head like the 'hafted' weapons.

If we look at hafted weapons, we see a similar increase in damage potential as the weapons get bigger:

Hand axe (3+2)..........5...11...20
Mace (3+3)...............6...12...21
Warhammer (5+1)......6...16...31
Battle axe (6+3).........9...21...39

Even on an average hit, a battle axe can break through full plate armor and injure the wearer while the smaller bashing and cutting weapons are more effective against lighter armor; although it should be noted that each of these weapons can defeat the protection of full plate at their maximum values. These types of weapons were ideal for inflicting pain on those in heavy armor.

Now for 'pole weapons':

Staff (2)............2....6....12
Spear (3+1)........4....10...19
Polearm (6+5)....11...23...41

Polearms were designed to take down heavily armored warriors. As you can see here they can do that in game terms even when facing a warrior type with doubled armor protection; the 41 hits that can be generated by a polearm are tough to withstand. The spear and staff are less effective against armored foes. If your wielding a staff, you'll be hard pressed to do much against an opponent dressed in anything heavier than scale. The spear can penetrate plate and mail, but once again this is only when maximum damage is dealt.

All of this discussion does not take Personal Adds into account. Personal adds are a measure of the strength, skill, speed, and luck of an individual warrior making him/her more or less capable at inflicting harm upon others. With trained warriors, the minimum, average, and maximum values would go up considerably. With highly trained warriors possessing 50+ Personal Adds, the number of hits generated by the weapons can even become insignificant.

Of course all of these hits will not be delivered with every blow. There is the opponents attack and active defense to overcome as well if the opponent is aware of the attack. This is was blunts most attacks and leads battles between well-armored warriors into long-term slug-fests. This is where spite damage comes into play. In most situations this means the fighter throwing the most dice is going to be the winner since he/she has a better chance of rolling more 6s. This assumes the two fighters are evenly matched and have roughly equal personal adds. Again, personal adds are often the deciding factor and can outweigh the input of weapons. A warrior with 50 personal adds could care less about your fancy armor. What does it take in 7th edition to have that many personal adds? Only a 2nd level warrior with an average ST, DEX, LK, and SPD of 24.

But for a final check we'll look at the damage potential of the different missile weapons. Remember that the damage they inflict is only reduced by the defense rating of the targets armor and is not affected by the hits generated by the opposing side.

Sling (2)...............2...6....12
Short bow (3+1)......4...10...19
Long bow (4+3)......7...15...27
Crossbow (5).........5...15...30

Now we see that even a person wearing full plate is likely going to be feeling some pain when hit by a crossbow bolt or arrow from a long bow. Even a sling shot is potentially deadly to someone in leather armor.

But what is really important is that someone wearing full plate should take little or no damage from someone with a sling or short bow (unless they are really good shots). But even these weapons can generate between 12 and 19 hits. A 2 die weapon, while seemingly small and ineffective, is still capable of killing the average person in leather armor (5 hits protection, 7 CON) and injuring someone in scale. A 3 die weapon can kill someone in mail. Once again it's important to remember that these are hits dealt by the weapon only, without considering the Personal Adds of the archer. A good archer on the battlefield is someone to be feared. You'd better get a shield to go with that plate.

Simple Weapons and Armor Chart

In my previous post on the evolution of arms, armor, and equipment in Tunnels and Trolls, I mentioned the simple Weapons and Armor lists from the 1st and 4th editions of the T&T rules. While I like all of the weapon choices available in T&T, something about this chart appeals to me. In some instances too many choices can be a bad thing. If you want to run a quick game or introduce new players to T&T, a simple list is better. It can get overwhelming when trying to pick a weapon sometimes. If you want your character to have a one-handed axe, in the 7.5 edition rules you have five to choose from; for a one-handed sword there are 24 options between those with long or short blades. The free abridged T&T rules do provide a short weapon and armor list which is also the one presented in the Corgi edition T&T solo adventures, but these lists still use the more specific weapon types from the 5th edition.

So I decided to put together my own simplified weapons and armor lists for use with the 5th and 7th edition rules. The lists are compatible with either, as long as you only use the lists and you don't have players using both the simple weapons presented here and regular weapon choices.

Those of you familiar with Moldvay or Mentzer D&D will recognize many of the weapon types. I thought the broad categories presented in those rules were pretty good and provide an excellent toolkit with plenty of options while still keeping it simple.

When creating the various attributes (dice, adds, cost, weight) and requirements (strength and dexterity needed) of each weapon and type of armor, I primarily consulted the 7.5 edition rules, but I also looked to the 5th edition rules to see where changes had occurred. Where broad categories included many different weapons on the standard T&T lists, I chose average values. The best examples are the 'sword', 'polearm', and 'hand axe' weapon types. Some weapon types did have only one T&T equivalent weapon such as the club, spear, and warhammer. In these situations, however, I did not use the exact values from the rulebooks but instead altered them so that they fit into the ranges of the other generalized weapons. At the minimum I changed the weight and cost of the weapons.

I also included armor and shield, with only five full suits and three basic shield types. These are also based upon items in the 7.5 rules, but all have been modified in some way (at a minimum cost and weight). I changed the costs pretty substantially for suits of armor, making heavier armor more and more expensive. My suit of full plate, for example, costs 1000 gold whereas the 7th edition full plate only costs 460 gold. The three shield types, small, medium, and large, make for a nice simple progression of defense, cost, and weight. I did lower the weights of shield significantly from the T&T rules, because I've always found them to be too high.

So without further ado, here is my Simple Weapons and Armor Chart for Tunnels and Trolls 5th and 7th editions (click to enlarge):

Evolution of T&T: Arms, Armor, and Equipment

Every delver needs equipment. Swords, spears, axes, hauberks, helmets, shields, backpacks, rope, torches, oil; we're talking about delving here after all. This stuff is dangerous. It might be surprising, but as simple and basic as it is to a fantasy role playing game, equipment in T&T has changed over the editions.

One of the biggest surprises when I first looked through the 1st and 4th edition rules was this weapons table:


I was always used to the much longer weapons list from 5th edition. Granted, there is a more comprehensive list of arms and armor at the back of the rulebook, entitled the Advanced Weapons Chart, which Ken states that everyone in his gaming circle uses but there is something I like about this simple list. It certainly makes that much easier to put a character together quickly and get into the game. I'll come back to this in another post. I will say, however, that the array of weapon choices I saw when I first looked through the 5th edition rules was one of the hooks that got me into the game.

One of the biggest changes to weapons through the editions has been the inflation in the number of dice weapons get between 4th and 5th editions. The effectiveness of most weapons were increased by one die and/or an add or two. Most swords were only 2 die weapons in 1st and 4th editions; two-handed swords like the great sword were 3 die weapons. In 5th edition this was no longer the case. Many swords, like broadswords, short swords, and sabers were 3 die weapons. Still others became 4 or 5 die weapons. The great sword became a 6 die weapon! Suddenly gamers needed to buy more dice, and swords. Daggers likewise increased in effectiveness, going from 1 die weapons to 2 die weapons as a whole. This made wizards happy I am sure. Hafted weapons, polearms, and spears did not have the big increase that swords did in 5th edition. These only increased by 1 die for the most part. It is apparent that swords were underpowered in 1st and 4th editions and were put on a more equal footing with other weapons in the 5th. But the general increase in dice is interesting. It likely has something to do with the change in how monster dice and combat adds were determined in the 4th and 5th editions (the subject of a later post).

There were other substantial changes to weapons in the 5th edition rules. In 1st and 4th editions, not all weapons had minimum Dexterity requirements to use them like they do in 5th and 7th editions. Interestingly, no swords had a required Dexterity, while all daggers did. Polearms, spears, missile weapons, and some hafted weapons like flails and a pickaxe (???) did have required DEX scores. Not so for axes, maces, and hammers. Crossbows also do not have a minimum required Dexterity. Something about that makes me nervous. The same is true of required Strength; most daggers have no minimum strength nor do slings. One extra aspect of weapons in 1st and 4th editions lost in later editions was 'DEX-', a DEX penalty for carrying and not wielding large weapons like polearms, spears, swords, bows, etc. The bigger the weapon the bigger the penalty; although the biggest penalty was -4 for the poleaxe. This is nice for game masters that want to keep their players from walking around with and armory on hand. It also adds a nice dose of 'realism' I like to see from time to time (Warrior: 'I pick up the three spears, then attack the orc with my sword!" Really? Where are you putting all of those spears?).

Other aspects of weapons have changed as well, from the amount of strength needed to wield them, their cost, or even their weight. Let's look at how the basic broadsword has changed:

1st/4th ed (2+3, ST 10, DEX 0, 50 gp, 75 wu)
5th ed (3+4, ST 15, DEX 10, 70 gp, 120 wu)
7th ed (3+4, ST 15, DEX 10, 140 gp, 120 wu)

I like how the price has gone up in each edition. Inflation? The weight also went up between 4th and 5th. This actually occurs for all weapons. You can also see that the ST and DEX requirements changed substantially from 4th to 5th editions making the broadsword the unusable by most starting characters.

Projectile weapons like crossbows and bows also received new treatment and the number of different weapons were expanded in 5th edition. In the 1st and 4th editions, even in the expanded weapon tables bows were limited to three types: composite bows, longbows, and selfbows. These weapons got little in the way of dice (2+5, 2+3, and 1+5 respectively). If you wanted to do heavy damage with a projectile weapon you needed an arbalest (7 dice) or a cranequin (4 dice). This changed in 5th edition in that self bows and long bows became categories each with subtypes ranging from extra-heavy to very light. The damage potential for these weapons became more lethal, with extra-heavy versions doing 6 dice of damage plus adds. Crossbows changed as well, they just did not diversify. Arbalests and cranequins changed places in lethality; cranequins became 8 die (!!) weapons and arbelests 6 die weapons. Perhaps Ken did some more research on these weapons to find out which was more powerful. Their costs also skyrocketed along with their dice. Arbalests went from 100 gp to 400 gp and cranequins from 75 gp to 600 gp! Obviously these weapons became much rarer in 5th edition games. The regular crossbow (5 dice) also made its first appearance in 5th edition along with a more powerful version of the light crossbow (2+3 in 4th, 4+0 in 5th). This increase in dice meant that players (and monsters) could take out an enemy with a single good shot; even a well-armored enemy.

Speaking of armor, it to has changed right alongside weapons. There have been some substantial changes in the variety, parts, and even the use of armor.

One of the most extreme changes to armor occurred between the 1st and 4th editions. In the 1st edition rules armor is entirely ablative. When you lose a combat turn you can take hits against your Constitution or your armor. Damage taken by armor is lost for good. If your armor reaches 0 hits of protection, then it is destroyed and worthless. This made the choice between taking hits on armor and CON a tricky one. It also kept character's pockets rather empty since they had to buy or repair armor after every adventure. In 4th edition onwards, however, the same armor provides constant, never-changing protection against injury and death. The armor values, types, costs, weight do not change, only how protection is treated. But this was a huge change that certainly altered game play and likely made players much more willing to enter combat.

In 5th edition, to counteract the increase in damage caused by all weapons, the protection of armor increased over those of 1st and 4th. Plate armor went from providing 10 hits of protection to 14; mail from 5 to 11; scale from 4 to 8; and leather from 2 to 6. Characters were becoming much more formidable by 5th edition. It's also interesting to note the low values of the 1st/4th edition armor and the ablative armor rules of 1st edition. If you had leather armor, it could only take 2 hits before being destroyed. Mail could only take 5. That's not a lot of protection.

Other aspects of armor also changed. In 5th edition a strength requirement was added to each armor type; this makes sense when you consider the weight of a suit of metal. These values increased by 2 or 3 in the 7th edition, making it even harder to get heavier armor. For example, plate went from needing a Strength of 11, well within the realm of a starting character, to 16. Weights and costs of armor also changed, but not across the board or uniformly. Here's what happened to the complete suit of mail:

1st/4th (100 gp, 500 wu)
5th (300 gp, 1200 wu)
7th (250 gp, 360 wu)

That's quite an up and down fluctuation, especially in weight.

As for basic equipment, there was little change from 1st through 5th editions. The only new items for the 5th edition were the spare skin of oil and the Delver's Pack (mirror, wax, chalk, string, salt, and matches), my personal favorite. Interestingly the cost of these items does not change like they did with almost every weapon. There is an explosion of choices in the 7th edition, including mysterious first and second aid kits, a solo delvers dream. There are tables of everything from individual items of clothing, tools, writing implements, lockpicks, riding animals, and almost anything else you wished you could have had in previous editions. The glaring exception are provisions, those handy and simple (but expensive) trail rations that have kept many a delver fat and happy.

So what effect does all of this have on game play? There is a real difference in the damage dealt by weapons and the damage absorbed by armor between the 4th and 5th editions. There are even some between 5th and 7th editions. This difference must be realized when trying to convert older game material like solo adventures to more recent editions of the rules. It also means that characters will be outfitted very differently depending on which set of rules is being used, since each has its own set of advantages, disadvantages, and restrictions.

New Lone Delver

This guy looks like he's in some trouble. He's facing an opponent, possibly and ogre, who has a flail about as long as he is tall and is wearing armor as well as carrying a shield. This will be a tough fight. At least the lone warrior is well armored. This is a good example of the unique assemblages of armor one can get when buying 'by the piece.' He has a full helmet, a leather or brigandine vest, leather gauntlets, greaves, and a heater shield. That should soak up some damage as well as look pretty stylish. Unfortunately, the sword he is wielding looks like a toothpick against the ogre. But perhaps he has the skill to put that toothpick where it really counts. I've always liked this Liz Danforth illustration (and all of her work in general) from the 5th edition rulebook. It really sums up the solo delving experience. You face tremendous odds with no one to rely on but yourself. No wonder so many lone delver character sheets end up in the recycling bin.

Evolution of T&T: Character Types

Since it's creation, Tunnels and Trolls has been dominated by only three different types of characters which are defined very broadly as warrior, wizard, and rogue. The details of what each of these types means for specific characters is left up to the player to decide. A warrior could be a barbarian, viking, knight, samurai, pirate or any other kind of person who makes his/her living fighting. There really is not a need to codify each and every subtype of warrior, and T&T has never tried. That's one of the things I like about the system. But despite the relative adherence to these three classic types, the game mechanics associated with each type has changed from the 1st to 7th Editions. There have even been some new character types added and some name changes. Overall the changes to the Big Three appear to have taken place to create a sense of balance; although I could be and very well might be wrong. Warriors, for example, have gone from having completely undefined abilities simply summed up as "they fight", to having carefully coded, numerical advantages in combat over other character types. Below is a run through of the character type descriptions and abilities from the 1st through 7th Editions of Tunnels and Trolls.

In the 1st Edition, the various rules for the three different character types are scattered throughout the text. Finding them all is a bit of a challenge, but below is a summary of the different abilities of each type. The three character types in 1st edition are warrior, magic-user (yes, magic-user), and rogue which are modeled after, in Ken's words, Conan, Gandalf, and Cugel the Clever.

Warrior: Choose if Strength greater than Intelligence or Luck. Warriors may not cast spells under most circumstances, although they may use enchanted items. This is all that is said about warriors.

Magic-user: Choose if Intelligence is greater than Strength or Luck. Magic users are limited to 1D weapons (i.e. daggers, slings, javelins in 1st Ed.) and get no bonus adds, personal or weapon, in combat although they do get negative 'adds' for low Strength, Luck, or Dexterity. Magic-users start knowing all 10 first level spells which are powered by expending their Strength attribute. They can use magic staffs, however, to reduce the Strength cost of spells and may cast spells of a lower level at lower Strength costs (i.e. It's easier and therefore costs less Strength for a 3rd level wizard to cast a 1st level spell). At 5th level, magic-users may start to create their own spells (at a cost of course).

Rogue: Choose if Luck is greater than Strength or Intelligence. Rogues can fight and use magic but start with no spells and must be taught each spell by a magic user. There is no mention of rogues being able to use staffs or cast low level spells at reduced costs. Rogues can only advance to Level 7. At that point the player must choose to become a 3rd Level magic-user or a 5th Level warrior to continue advancing but in doing so loses either their fighting or spell-casting abilities.

I found a few things interesting in reviewing character types for 1st Edition. The first real surprise was the use of the term 'magic-user.' I had thought Ken always used the term 'wizard' for spell casters. Second was the relative lack of explanation for the abilities of warriors other than the reference to Conan. I was unable to find any reference to the 'double armor' rule of later editions. As it is, warriors and rogues have the same fighting abilities in 1st Edition, but rogues get to cast spells. The only disadvantage to being a rogue is that you can only advance to 7th level before having to give up your hard-earned abilities in one of your callings and lose several levels. At first glance, this seems to be a means of regulating the power of rogues, but it seems odd that a person would suddenly forget their years of training and experience in fighting or wizardry. Another interesting note is this statement: "Changing character types is frowned upon, but it possible." Really? The rules go on to explain that while warriors cannot change types, magic-users and rogues may become whatever they want. In doing so, however, they loose all experience points and are reduced to Level 1 characters. A heavy price.


In 4th Edition the rules for character types are fairly similar (and once again hard to find) but there are a few significant changes.

First, the rules for combat are expanded. In the combat section, new rules for making warriors special come to light. Warriors are now assumed to be more skilled in defending themselves with shield and armor. As a result, in 4th Edition warriors gain the ability to 'burn' armor. If they so choose, warriors may elect to multiply the number of hits taken by one piece of armor (or full suit) or shield by their level number but at the cost of completely destroying the armor. This is a rather high cost for this ability and is really only useful for buying some time for help to arrive. It is also kind of useless to 1st level warriors. If I was running a warrior using this rule, I would be carrying three or four shields with me at all times. Of course, this is what ancient warriors actually did. Warriors also gain the ability to use two weapons at the same time. It is interesting to note that the 4th Edition rules state that only warriors may do this. To do so a warrior simply needs the Strength and Dexterity of both weapons combined, although Strength can be lower at the risk of eventual exhaustion.

The second big change is with rogues. Now a 7th level rogue may opt to become a warrior or magic-user OR to continue as an 8th level wizard-warrior IF he/she maintains a Strength greater than Intelligence and has the required IQ and Dexterity to cast any spell as a magic-user of the same level (for example, Level 8 spells require a 24 IQ and 15 DEX). This explanation is in the experience progression table and is the only explanation available in the rules. Rogues are also clearly defined as characters with the ability to cast magic but who lack formal training. This is an important distinction from other definitions of rogue that equate them to thieves.

The rules for magic-users remain mostly the same. There is a more detailed explanation about the 'rules' of magic and the training involved. More importantly, in 4th Edition it is stated that magic-users may receive positive personal adds when fighting bare handed or with a quarterstaff, a 2D weapon (they were previously restricted to only 1D weapons). While this greatly increases the fighting ability of magic-users, this new rule is never fully explained. Does this not apply when using a 1D dagger, for example?


The arrival of 5th Edition and the wonderful editing of Liz Danforth put all of the special rules for each character type in one easy to find section. It also marked some changes to character types and the emergence of the new uber-type, the warrior-wizard.

In 5th edition warriors gain the ability to double the normal protective value of any armor or shields without penalty or 'burning' due to their special training. No more trashing armor to take some extra hits. Of course, this is the only special ability warriors get except for being able to use any weapon they can get their hands on (which rogues can also do) and front row seats to any fighting that needs to be done (which rogues often avoid). Interestingly, the use of two weapons at once is no longer discussed in the 5th Edition rules. In one of the combat examples, however, a rogue (Reethe Tigersclaw) is described as fighting with a gladius and dirk; so this fighting style now appears to be at the disposal of other character types even though it is not actually discussed.

Wizards (formerly magic-users) change a little in 5th edition, but mostly just in name. Wizards still start with 10 spells, use their Strength to power them, and can reduce the Strength cost with staffs and experience. Wizards may also still invent new spells at 5th level. As far as weapons, wizards may not use weapons with more than 2 dice which are still mainly daggers (the number of dice used for most weapons just went up in 5th Ed.) but also quarterstaffs, slings, very light bows, javelins, crowbars, batons, and foils. There is, however, no restriction on wizards using positive adds, personal or weapon, in 5th Edition, and they can use whatever armor they wish without restriction. Presumably they can also fight with two weapons at once if they have high enough Strength and Dexterity. This makes wizards much more useful and versatile on the battlefield.

Rogues still have the ability to use any weapons and armor they can afford and can learn magic. They just cannot use either as well as warriors or wizards; so not armor bonus, no starting spells, and no inventing new spells. New restrictions to rogues were also written in 5th Edition. Rogues can no longer use magic staffs and may not cast lower level spells at reduced strength costs (they could do both of these in 4th Edition). Finally, rogues can longer use spells above 7th level; they are just too complicated to be taught. This is an interesting change from the old 'Rogues can only advance to Level 7' rule. They can still increase in level, fight, and cast spells; they just won't be casting Death Spell #9.

Finally, there are the brand new warrior-wizards. These are interesting creatures indeed. To be a warrior-wizard, all of a characters attributes need to be at least 12 when rolled (before changes due to kindred). Warrior-wizards are born, not made as Ken says. Warrior-wizards, true to their name, start knowing all 10 first level spells and may use magic staffs. They do find casting lower level spells easier, but not to same degree as wizards (reduce 1 ST cost per 2 levels above). They are not able to create new spells, however. On the fighting end of things, warrior-wizards get to add 1 to the hits taken by any full suit of armor or shield beings used. Not great, but it's something.


The 7th and 7.5 Editions treat types identically, so I will treat these as one edition (7th) here. The 7th edition marked a lot of changes to the T&T rules including some new abilities for the standard character types, the renaming of one, and the arrival of two new types: citizens and specialists.

Warriors in 7th Edition still get double protection for armor and shield, but they also gain some new offensive abilities. Now warriors receive bonus adds equal to their experience level finally giving them them the ability to use their weapons better than a rogue. Two-weapon fighting is still not mentioned, but it is generally accepted that all character types can do this if they have the necessary Strength and Dexterity.

Rogues are still able to use any weapons and armor their attributes allow and cast spells. In 7th Edition, rogues even get to start with one 1st level spell. However, rogues still cannot use magic staffs and do not get to reduce spell casting costs as they increase level. On the other hand, rogues gain a special Talent (new to 7th Edition) called Roguery which is equal to 1D6 plus the highest of their Intelligence, Luck, or Charisma. This is nice because Roguery can be used in place of any saving rolls based on those three attributes giving rogues a potentially nice edge in tight situations.

Wizards still cast spells in 7th Edition. However, in 7th Edition they start knowing 20 1st level spells; twice what they had in earlier editions. Wizards still get to use staffs to reduce the energy cost of their spells, now coming from their Wizardry attribute as opposed to Strength, and can cast low level spells at lower energy costs when they reach higher levels of experience. Wizards also retain their ability to invent new spells at 5th level. Wizards are not as restricted in their choice of weapons in 7th Edition. They may still use any 2D weapon (there are even more choices this time) and get pull personal and weapon adds. But they can also use 3D or higher weapons like a broadsword or a pike with the loss of any combat adds; they are also unable to cast spells while using these weapons. It's a gamble, but if your wizard is out of spell-casting energy and the only weapon in reach is an axe you might as well go for it.

Warrior-wizard are renamed Paragons in 7th Edition; I suppose this was done to make them more annoying and snooty. Paragons still require a 12 or higher in all initially rolled attributes. When fighting, Paragons now get double armor protection like warriors but do not get the new bonus combat adds with each level. As far as spell-slinging goes, Paragons start with all 20 1st level spells and can use staffs to full effect. They can also now create new spells, but not until they reach 10th level. It is unclear in the rules whether or not they still get to reduce lower level spell costs at higher levels of experience (it's not mentioned).

Citizens are an interesting new addition to 7th Edition. Citizens are the average people that populate your fantasy world. They have no special training in combat or spellcraft. While Ken does not advocate their use as player characters, I think they would be fun to try. Maybe you want to play a merchant, a blacksmith, or a tailor; this is role playing after all. As far as game mechanics go, citizens may use any weapons or armor in combat, but they only get half of the usual combat adds for their attributes. Here's what really interests me though, citizens can cast spells. To cast a spell he/she knows, a citizen needs to make a saving roll on their intelligence and dexterity (as opposed to just intelligence for wizards). But they can cast spells. Citizens also get Talents like other types, which is likely where one of these characters would excel in a game.

The second new type in 7th Edition are called Specialists and includes three subtypes. Specialists are described as "mutants or savants born with an ability bordering on the supernatural." Specialists include Specialist Mages, Rangers, and Leaders.

Specialist mages are wizards that cast only one type of spell. You get to be a specialist mage only if you roll a 15 or better on your Wizardry attribute. In 7th Edition, there are now four different "schools" of Wizardry: Combat, Cosmic, Conjuring, and Metabolic each with it's own group of spells. A normal wizard can cast spells from any of these schools, but has to pay to learn new spells above the first level. Specialist mages can only use the spells from one of the schools, but they have an innate understanding of all of the spells of that type. Therefore, once a specialist mage reaches a new level of experience, he/she knows all of the spells of that level in the school of specialty. In addition, the specialist mage casts the spells at one-half the energy cost of a normal wizard. This can obviously make for a rather potent character.

Rangers are essentially exceptional archers according to the rules. You get to be a Ranger only if you roll natural triples in Dexterity and get a result of at least 15. That's tough. What can you do as a Ranger? When using any missile weapon (I assume this means thrown weapons like spears and daggers as well as bows) the Ranger only needs to make a Level 1 saving roll on Dexterity to hit as long as the target is in range. That's 150 yards with a heavy longbow. Of course, with a minimum of a 15 Dexterity to start, a Ranger only needs to roll a five or better on 2D6 to hit any target. Nice.

The final Specialist is the Leader. Leaders are charismatic and persuasive individuals and therefore require natural triples on Charisma resulting in a 15 or better. Leaders only need to make a Level 1 saving roll to convince others to do what they want or believe what they say; no matter what. That could come in handy if you're surrounded by a few dozen armed orcs and you're naked except for a necklace of orc teeth.

So there you have it, the history of character types in Tunnels and Trolls. This has a much more linear progression than the history of character kindreds, so I have to think that these changes were thought out and planned in each edition. I have to say that I am rather happy with the way the types are finally presented in 7th Edition. They each have their own special bells and whistles, but it's still not too much to require multiple tables, charts, and equations to refer to when playing. There are some things I would add, two-weapon fighting for warriors only for example, but that's why we have house rules.

New Solos by Ken St. Andre

Ken St. Andre, the creator of Tunnels and Trolls, has recently published two new solo adventures, Khara Khang's Random Rainbow Maze and Deep Delving. Both of these solos are published under Ken's new Trollhalla Press and available as pdf downloads from the Flying Buffalo storefront at RPGNow/DriveThruRPG.

Khara Khang's Rainbow Maze has the distinction of being the first solo published under the Trollhalla Press brand. The Rainbow Maze is a 'funhouse' dungeon adventure, where you enter a series of rooms designed by the Maze Master to lure in foolish delvers with promises of fame and riches. Inside you'll face a fantastic array of monsters and hopefully make it out alive with some treasure. This solo has 33 paragraphs and is thoroughly illustrated by David Ullery

In Deep Delving you play a rock troll tunneling deep below the surface of Trollworld in search of one of Great Old Ones- trolls that have lived since the beginning of time. Your adventure takes you beneath an active volcano, down rivers of magma, and pits you against devious creatures of the underworld. You may also learn a thing or two about the ecology of rock trolls. It even includes three ready-to-run trolls just in case you don't have one handy. Deep Delving has 37 paragraphs and is once again well illustrated by David Ullery.

I have to say it's great seeing Ken publishing new material again. I look forward to seeing more from Trollhalla Press.

Game Review: BEAN!

BEAN! is a new fantasy roleplaying game system by Jeff Freels. What makes this game truly unique compared to the multitude of FRPG systems out there is that BEAN! is a D2 system. While one may wonder how a game system can be run using only a D2, Jeff has pulled it off quite beautifully.

BEAN! has an intentionally simple rules system. The mechanics are explained in seven (yes, that was 7) pages. There are another four pages of spells, two pages on money and equipment lists, two pages of sample monsters, and two pages of sample magical artifacts. But these are just trimmings. The fact that the core rules of the game are explained, and explained quite well, in only seven pages is extraordinary. The rules can be read and understood in 10-15 minutes. This makes BEAN! perfect for people new to role playing games, children, or for quick pick-up games among experienced gamers. The simple mechanics also make it perfect for solo play.

The mechanics of BEAN! are simple, straightforward, and fairly smooth. As I mentioned, BEAN! is a D2 system. What you use for 'dice' is therefore pretty flexible. You simply need something that randomly generates a '+' or '-'. This can be a coin (heads or tails), six-sided die (evens or odds), a flat bean as the game suggests with a '+' written on one side and a '-' on the other. This really adds to the flexibility of the game because you can play without any special equipment; you really just need a handful of coins.

To start a game you need to have some characters. BEAN! uses only three Attributes to define each character: Body which is a measure of physical strength, endurance, and dexterity; Mind which encompasses intelligence, wisdom, and logic; and Spirit which is a measure of luck, charisma, and mana. BEAN! also uses only three basic character types, similar to 5th edition Tunnels and Trolls. You can be a Warrior, Wizard, or Rogue and each character type has an linked attribute, namely Body, Spirit, and Mind respectively. In BEAN! Warrior are trained in fighting and survival, Rogues are scouts and thieves, and Wizards are mystics and scholars. All characters are rated by the number of 'beans' (or dice) in each of their attributes. Characters start with three beans in each attribute and one extra in their type attribute. Equipping starting characters is kept equally simple; give your character the basic equipment you would expect depending on his/her profession. If you're a warrior, take some leather armor, shield, spear, dagger, backpack, some torches, and maybe a rope and you're all set. No need to worry about shopping or budgets. In addition, characters may start with a random number of copper coins but this is actually discouraged by the author. Jeff makes the point (which I agree with) that characters should stay poor to encourage adventure. Why else would they risk life and limb?

The conflict resolution system of BEAN! really sets this game system apart. These are broken down into Contests, Challenges, and Combat. In each type of conflict, the player throws a number of beans, coins, or dice equal to the attribute being tested. The player tries to match a certain number of positive results as defined by the GM (+, heads, evens, odds) or get more positive results than his/her opponent. For example, if a character is trying to jump over a wide chasm to escape a band of twenty angry goblins, the GM first decides how hard it will be to make the jump. If it is not a particularly wide chasm, the GM may call it a moderate challenge and only require two positive results. This would be a Body challenge, so the player throws as many beans as his Body attribute and tries to get two or more positives. Simple. Combat works much the same way except that both opponents are throwing beans and trying to get a higher number of positive results. Weapons add to the number of beans thrown. The loser takes a number of hits to his/her Body attribute equal to how many beans he/she lost by minus any armor that may be worn. That's really all there is to it. There is also a built-in mechanic to allow for really difficult tasks to be accomplished by low level characters. The 'Add-A-Bean' rule allows a player to throw an extra bean if he/she throws all '+'s'; the player keeps throwing new beans until a '-' comes up.

The magic system is also straightforward. Wizards start with a number of spells equal to 2xSpirit. There is not limit on how many spells wizards may learn and they may cast spells repeatedly and without limit (only a maximum of once per round however); there is no memory or point-based attrition system. The combat spells, however, are about as effective as a normal weapon, so there seems to be a nice sense of balance. Spells are defined by a Difficulty Rating (1-4), which a wizard must roll against using their Spirit beans to determine if the spell is successfully cast. This is another nice check against the infinite spell-casting ability. The rules come with a nice list of 28 spells covering a broad range of effects; more than enough to keep any wizard busy.

The presentation of BEAN! is fairly tongue-in-cheek as might be expected. Jeff Freels is well-known for his art in the T&T community, and he has done a good job providing a lot of original artwork throughout the rulebook. Fantastic illustration of anthropomorphic beans wield swords and casting spells abound. The art definitely sets the mood for the game. While the art is comical, the overall layout of the book is very professional. I printed by rules in booklet format on 8.5 x 11 paper and it looks great.

In addition to everything mentioned above, the 27 page rulebook also includes an introductory 19 paragraph solo adventure and a short GM adventure so you can get started right away. Both are well-written and conceived. The solo adventure is perfect for first time gamers and could always be run as a one-on-one game with a player and GM. The GM adventure is pretty simple with only a handful of rooms to explore in the basement of a wizard's tower, but it would make for a fun night of gaming. Additional support material is already available for BEAN!, including a fun mini-solo adventure by Ken St. Andre (Death Phrogg Attack!) and two rather lengthy GM adventures by Mike Holcomb (Princely Ransom and Gone to the Dogs). All three of these are available for free from RPGNow.

As you can probably tell by now, I would highly recommend picking up a copy of BEAN! This is one of the most original and innovative RPGs to come out in quite some time. Plus, at only $2.00 for a pdf or there is really no reason not to have a look. I guarantee you'll like what you see. You can a pdf or print copy from RPGnow.