Revamped Rogues

I know I said I wasn't going to tinker with the rules, but I lied.

As written, Rogues in T&T5th are useless. They were aiming for the Grey Mouser and landed squarely on unplayable. Wizards have spells and staves, warriors have the doubling of shield and armour stats(!) and the Rogue has … nothing. Plus, there is already the Wizard-Warrior class that makes the Rogue’s ability to cast spells and fight look really weak. I’ve tried to make three Rogue Characters now and only Kheebler was worth rolling a dice for. Taking the system back to its Old Skool roots, I’m going to give them a Saving Throw bonus to fit Rogues into the classic Wizard/Warrior/Thief model.

Rogues can still cast magic (IF they can find a teacher) but are not allowed in the magic guild and learning spells is costly. They may not use staffs. They do not get the armour bonus of warriors, but they can use all weapons. Finally, to make them at least somewhat useful, Rogues’ fail Staving Throws if they roll 3 of below (as opposed to 5), plus they make all Saving Throws at -1 Level, (but still accumulate experience points as normal)! If a saving throw is Level 1, they must roll better than 15-Luck on 2d6.

Solo Tunnels and Trolls

Master Darkberry successfully made it into the Labyrinth, and was doing quite well, until an angered hydra knocked a wall down on his head.

Soon after, Grod Rusthelm of the Dwarves came to Midden. He easily made it through his first attempt at Buffalo Castle and returned in triumph, but with little reward. He girdled his loins to venture forth again, but was warned by the Wizard Zurn that Buffalo Castle has its secrets and is forever changing. More still, it may remember those who have walked its halls before and will be waiting.

[Solo Notes: Why the heck would anyone play a human in T&T? Demi humans are a great way to compensate for lousy stat rolls and very few of the demi-humans have significant penalties.

Because Grod had such an easy time of it the first time through, I'm doubling all the monster stats (within reason) even though he didn't bump up a level.]

Spending some of his coin, Grod refitted himself with stronger armour and a better axe and returned to Buffalo Castle. Remembering the wizard’s warning, he chose the left-hand door and ventured inside…

Alas, he never returned and no-one ever knew whatever became of poor Grod.

Trollstone Caverns

Did an inaugural Solo Run through using Trollstone Caverns adventure included with the 5th Ed Rule Book. It went pretty well and to my amazement, Master Darkberry didn't wind up rotating on spit over some orc's cooking fire. He is however currently trapped in the Caverns unable to solve the riddle of the Sphinx, find the secret door (lousy low IQ score!) defeat the giant Silver Serpent or figure out a way to sneak past the party of orcs currently guarding the exit.

The designers did include a blank door for a GM to expand the dungeon,so I may use that to give Darkberry a chance to escape. Looking over the first few modules, Labyrinth seems to be the best jumping off point here for a low level character.

I'm happy with the Tunnels and Trolls system so far, the only thing I'm not terribly keen on so far is the simplicity of the monster stats. I do like how the system handles multiple monsters (two or more opponents can get deadly, fast), but I don't like how the stats have a hard time reflecting special attacks or abilities. This doesn't give the monsters much flavor and in the end you might as well be battling a statistic. The tinkerer in me can't help but think there has to be a better way and I have a few ideas I might try.

That and the low number of available monsters inspired me to grab my old D&D Monster Manual, my Talislanta Bestiary and any other crittercatalogue I could find and start thinking about conversions. The Wandering Monster table I plan on building is gonna be sick!

The Rules of Play

In honor of my first ever Red Box D&D character, Darkberry, I was trying for a Hobbit thief. Did you know that Tunnels and Trolls 5^th Ed doesn’t have a Thief class? It does have a ‘Rogue’ and while supposedly modeled on the Grey Mouser; is in fact in a weird mix of Warrior and Wizard without the benefits of either and no real bonuses on its own.

Still, I put ‘Rogue’ down on the Character sheet so Rogue it is. Unfortunately, reading up in the rules, I learned that since I had rolled a 6 for his STR he won’t be able to cast spells yet (need at least a STR 10 to cast). Then I rolled on the Height/Weight tables and came up with 2’6” and 100lbs; chubby little midget! I have a certain fondness for young Master Kheebler Darkberry, but methinks he won’t be around long.While I am committed to the idea of playing the game straight there are a few things I will have to GMinize. Figuring out the vagaries of Magic can wait until Kheebler gets up to 10 STR or I roll up a Wizard (whichever comes first), but what I really need are some Rules and a Setting.

The Rules of Play
-Play by the Rules. All of them.
-Random is good! Obey the dice.
-Character death is character death. However, this is a continuous story so if a character dies in the dungeon, there is a chance that any loot they collected will be there if the next character can find the body. I’m going to say that, provided the character did not die in a manner that destroys the body and all equipment (the gullet of a dragon, fall into a lava pit, for example), there is a 2 in 6 chance that they body is still there (and not dragged away and eaten or rotted away or become undead etc).
-I’m sure I’ll be adding more. My next Excel projects are to create a random Treasure Generator and a Wandering Monster generator. May even try for a map at some point.

The Setting: Welcome to the Nether Regions

For 500 years, the evil Sorcerer Zurn Ballcock, guarded by the terrible dragon Snoggs, ruled with an iron fist over The Kingdom. Finally, group of friends banded together to steal some treasure from Snogg's horde overthrow the Sorcerer and put an end to his horrifying rule.

Their names have gone down in history:

King Khurgen the Good (once a northern barbarian called The Kannibal): who went on to marry Zurn’s daughter and rule the Kingdom. He then moved the capital from Zuen's ruined city of Midden to the southern city of Sunbeach and rechristened it Khurgania.

Sissy Bignleafy: the Elvin Wizard-Warrior who went on to lead a revolution to overthrow the Queen of the Elfwood.

Hugfoot the Hobbit: incinerated by Snoggs while trying to steal the Great Golden Guzzundar.

Lightbottom the Fairy: who died heroically being crushed under a fifty ton slab

Patty O’Phernychur: the leprechaun who disappeared in the Beer Swamps.

And finally Zagnut the Wizard; rewarded for his service to the King with the Barony of Midden and all the accompanying lands.

Unfortunately the lands in question were the vast, unexplored waste known as the Nether Regions. Discouraged, but not undaunted, Zagnut set out with a handful of retainers to the ruined city of Midden, once the capital of Zurn’s mighty empire. There he established an inn and tavern called ‘Fortune Favors’. His retainers opened a smithy, a general store and a gift shop. Together, they make their living equipping bright-eyed adventures seeking their own fame and fortune in the bleak Nether Regions.

Our adventure begins one morning when a young Hobbit enters the Fortune Favors...

New Year's Gaming Resolution

Please bear with me; I promise that this will get around to RPGs in a sec…

Anyone who has been forced to navigate the treacherous waters of the medical system knows that it consists mostly of waiting: waiting for tests, waiting for results, waiting for appointments to get the results. Waiting for another appointment to see if the results mean you have to wait for another test to see if you need a special test … and so on.

I think they do it deliberately so that by the time they actually give you a diagnosis you're so happy just to KNOW you don't care what it is; "It's an alien embryo embedded in my chest that will tear itself out in an explosion of bone, gristle and intestines? Thank you, Doctor! Thank you!"
"Seriously, this didn't turn up on one of the first twenty X-rays?"
I'm currently in the "waiting for more tests" phase, but the point to all this is that there is the chance that I will be facing a (hopefully short) convalescence in the (hopefully near) future. This got me thinking about what I might do with that time, gaming wise. I did a little net-cruzin' and came across this golden-oldie.
In Jr. High, a buddy down the street had T&T and I think we might have played it once, but we were so used to D&D rules by that point weren't interested in variants.

But I remembered that T&T had a bunch of Solo Play adventures. Hey, why not? I may or may not have to go through any extended recuperation time, but Real Life has scattered my regular gaming group to the far winds anyway and I don't have the time right now to set up a regular Google+ game.

So my New Year's Gaming Resolution is to play as many T&T Solo Games as possible. I will play using the straight 5^th Ed Rules (encumbrance and everything!), then maybe try my hand at writing one of my own.

For the past few weeks I've been scouring ebay, calling some old buddies (Thanks to Matt for donating his old 5^th edition rulebook!) and building some Excel sheets to help me out with the heavy crunching. I also found this particularly awesome site. This weekend I plan on beginning to delve deep into "Buffalo Castle".

Anyone else have a New Year's Gaming Resolution?