Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls

I'm pretty excited about this!  I really liked all of the changes in 7.5 but it looks like this version is going to be even better!

Troll World Art Challenge - #2 Troll Tavern (Sketch)

This is just a sketch at the moment but it's starting to take shape.  Hopefully this captures patrons celebrating inside a tavern in Troll World.  I'm not sure what a Trolf looks like but that's the female in the illust.

Trollworld Art Challenge: #1 Rat Kin

I sent off a facebook message to Ken St. Andre and asked him if he'd like to help me out of a drawing slump.  I was looking to do some more illustrations depicting Trollworld so I asked if he would give me a weekly assignment on what to draw.  Ken chooses the subject matter and I crank out the illustration.

Today's illustration is a Rat Kin adventurer, one of the colorful characters that you could find strolling around in the taverns of Khazan or in the sewers (either way it's the same thing).

Rose of Stormgaard

Ken St. Andre mailed me a copy of his novel "Rose of Stormgaard"  and I just received it in the mail today.  It's got a few of my illustrations in it so I'm stoked about that.  I'm also looking forward to reading it!  Check out the link to get a free preview of the book at RPG Now!

Also did a new book page illustration of Gandalf confronting the Balrog at the bridge of Khazad - Dum!

Tunnels & Trolls Computer Game

Thanks to DosBoxMom for doing these videos!   I've never actually played the T&T computer game from 1990 but it's cool to see it in action here!  If you can get through all 24:42 minutes of the walkthrough there are about 70 more videos!  I've got to say though, I really like reading (and hearing ) more lore from the Trollworld!

Trollszine 4 Is Out!

If you are not familiar with Trollszine it's a free Tunnels & Trolls magazine put out by all the creative folks over at Vin Ahrr Vin's Trollbridge.   My artwork made the cover this time.  I'd like to thank Dan Hembree for taking over the editorship role, it's a big job!  Congrats to everybody!  You can download it at RPG Now!

**Trollszine is a free pdf and is not available in-print form, if you see it in-print just know that some low-life is selling it without permission.**

I Hate Your Guts

Sometimes when you are delving you might find yourself in a room full of goblins, orcs or trolls and find that you have to relieve them of their mortal coils as well as their gold.  But when the wet-works are over you are covered in guts, offal and entrails, not to mention the rest of the area.

Well fear not!  If you have a level 2 Wizard he can cast a "I Hate Your Guts" spell!  It'll clean up any mess of a sanguinary  persuasion leaving behind no evidence that there had been a battle there.  Leaving marauding monsters none the wiser.

This level 2 spell can only be used once per day.

Wastrel Opus - Hustler of Counterfeit Magick

Wastrel Opus is man of low moral character, but it wasn't always that way.  A long time ago he was a student at the Citadel Fantastick under the tutelage of two great wizards, Andante Sinker and Micro Kilos.  He showed some promise but couldn't get out of the shadow of his two great teachers.

To remedy that, he copied down as many spells he could from his teachers and then left the confines of the Citadel and set up shop in downtown Imajapoor.  He encouraged budding wizards to come  share and develop their magick inside his shop.  But little did they know, he was closely watching what they were doing, and eventually started duplicating various spells and potions.  He kicked out the developing wizards after he copied and sold much of the magick that he stole from the students and from Andante Sinker and Micro Kilos.

Now the problem with counterfeit magick is that it has a tendency to come back to bite you.  It's a pale shadow of the original magick so it might drain some of your Kremm or you could lose control over the spell that is being cast.  So a lot of magick newbies found themselves either with failed spells or injured because of poor quality spells.

This went on for about nine years until a few of the former students noticed some of their work was being sold under the name of Wastrel Opus.  Infuriated they brought it to the attention of the Citadel and Andante and Micro notice their work was also amongst the stolen magick.  The two wizards went down to Wastrel's shop to confront him, along with a couple of Ogres .   Wastrel childishly denied the accusations even though he had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  An infuriated Andante cast him out of Imajapoor and Wastrel was forced to pack up and leave Imajapoor in disgrace.

A few years passed and some counterfeit magick started popping up again in Imajapoor.  The counterfeits are a bit more obvious, and Imajapoorans don't truck with cheap magick.  So somewhere on the outskirts of Imajapoor, an indigent Wastrel lives in a shack and is the butt of a lot of the Hobbillies jokes as he hustles cheap magick.  And if you listen from the walls of the city you can hear him shouting, "I'm still here, people still love me and I'm still important!"

Schools Of Magick In Imajapoor

"Alright class, who can tell me how the schools of Magick are organized at the Citadel Fantastick?" Queried Headmaster Herionymous Posh.

"That's easy sir, by color of course." squeaked a new student "You've got black and white magick wich are oppposites and then you have the various color spectrums like green for druidry, and Blue for..

"Yes yes yes that would be all too simple wouldn't it?"piped in the Headmaster "But here at Citadel Fantastick we do things differently. Instead we opted for smell !  If you think about it smell has a way of getting embedded in your memory, you smell a spell and instantly you know what form of magick it is.  No color charts or bar graphs, it's all up here," said the Headmaster pointed at his head.

"Sweet smells can be identified with Enchantment, rotting smells with Necromancy, organic smells with Druidry, sulphuric smells with Demonology, and so forth."

Sir I'm picking up a smell right now, what magick is brewing?"  Questioned a student standing close to the Headmaster.

"I smell something too, kind of like brimstone.  Is it a summoning spell?"  Chimed a student.

"No, it smells more like a curse" added another student.

"Oh, erm ...sorry I stopped off at the Rat On A Stick before class," said an embarrassed Headmaster "I mean that was a warding spell.  Class dismissed!"

The Cursed Codpiece of Consuming Coruscation

Mondo Pizarro IV Conquering Principe of Imajapoor seeking a cure for baldness (after all a conqueror just can't be seen in oil paintings without any hair) had his court magicians hard at work on it.  One particular magician Don Fuego de la Pantalones claimed to have the cure and produced an elixir that the Pricipe of Imajapoor was to put inside his prized golden jewel encrusted codpiece.  Little did the Pizarro know, that Don Fuego was actually attempting to assassinate the prince and take the crown of the City State of Imajapoor.

Luckily Pizarro had his loyal garment donner try on the codpiece first (after all who wants to wear a codpiece unless someone else had tried it on first)?  The royal donner screamed in pain and ran around the courtroom.  Finally the courts magicians were able to remove the codpiece but the damage had already been done.

Don Fuego was captured by the Imajapoor Guard and thrown in the dungeon awaiting execution.  The codpiece disappeared, some say it was discarded, othere say Don Fuego was forced to wear it, others say it ended up in the Underdrekk of Imajapoor waiting to be claimed by some unsuspecting treasure hunter.

If the Codpiece is donned whether being added to an armor collection or what not it will inflict 6D6 worth of damage.  Otherwise it may be worth a hefty sum just in it's gold weight in gold and jewels (around 1,200).  But otherwise I don't recommend putting on strange codpieces that you just happen on.

Imajapoor: Followers Of Chaos In Tunnels & Trolls

No religion is more evil than those that worship the gods of chaos. Their bloody handed priests offer up unwilling sacrifices to the foulspawn of the void. Thuggee fanatics skulk in the dark alleyways of Imajapoor awaiting fresh victims for their bloody rites. Evil sorcerers recite blasphemous incantations to call up the powers of eternal damnation to do their bidding.

This evil that festers in Imajapoor would be a force to be reckoned with it it weren't for one thing....Chaos has a hard time getting organized.....

Thuggee #1: "Aye, 'ere comes a victim of opportunity. A chance to show the Dark Lord Aaaaactchooolhu my quality as a servant! Pass me the garrote."

Thuggee #2: "Garrote? I thought you brought the garrote? I brought the liverwurst sandwiches."

Thuggee #1: " 'ow are we going to relieve our victims from their mortal coil with a liverwurst sandwich?"

Thuggee #2: " I dunno, it's a few days old maybe we could give 'em food poisoning."

Thuggee #1: "Arrrr yer son-of-a-bachelor!" (Biffs Thuggee #2 in the snout)

Thuggee #2: "There's no call for violence, I was just trying to be thoughtful and pack a lunch for us. And you have to get all cross with me. Honestly I don't know why I try any...."

Victim of Opportunity: "Excuse me sir, is this your garrote?"

Thuggee #2: "Why yes, thank you sir. Very kind of you to return it."

Victim of Opportunity: "Think nothing of it, I wouldn't want it to get into the wrong hands. There's Chaos cultists in these back alleys. Have a nice day."

Thuggee #2: "He was a right sort of chap, wasn't he?"

Thuggee #1: "A real gentleman. You never expect to meet someone with manners in the back alleys."

Thuggee #3: "Hello chums, I brought the tea kettle!"

Thuggee #2: "Cracking good idea! I could go for a cuppa. Did you bring any cups?"

Thuggee #1: "No I didn't, but I have a pocket full of currents. By the way, where did the victim go?"

You get the idea. It's a really evil cult that does really really bad bad things if they ever got around to doing them.

Tunnels & Trolls: "Retro-Clones? We don't need no stinking Retro-Clones"

This is not really a dig at Retro-Clones, I actually enjoy Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry. But one game I keep going back to is Tunnels & Trolls! The nice thing about T&T is that it is still owned by the original author, the Ken St. Andre (a.k.a. The Trollgod) and it's still published by the original publisher Flying Buffalo owned by Rick Loomis.

T&T is currently in it's 7.5 version of the game, but was completely written by Ken St. Andre. The 7.5 version is backwards compatible with older versions of the game, but the current version just has a few more additions that in my opinion really add a lot to the game (spite damage and skills). T&T remains the old reliable rpg, in the sense that you don't have many versions that have been published by different authors with different interpretations. Everything has remained the way the author intended it to be! Plus it's one of the few RPGs that has solitaire adventures!

As far as online support, T&T has some great resources for Q&A and ideas for gaming. You get to interact with the Trollgod himself over at Trollhalla (I admit I haven't been as active as I should over there), explore the depths of Gristlegrim's Floating Fortress, or you can browse through some great game ideas over at Vin's Trollbridge, not to mention Troll bridge's free Trollszine and you can download free adventures over at Free Dungeons. Plus some great blogs like Troll Hammer's creature features, Alderwood Cemetary, Take That You Fiend, Trrrommms Weebly, Lone Delver, H'rrrothgarrr's Hovel and The Omnipotent Eye.

For other publishers besides the wonderful products over at Flying Buffalo, check out the T&T Lulu Page, Perryton Publishing, Jeff Freels blog, Jeff Werx is artist and creator of Bean! and Lone Delver Games.

But most of all, I love the humor and lightheartedness of T&T. I myself am basing my gaming world (actually city) Imajapoor, in Trollworld. If you're a fan of Discworld, Xanth, Wuntvor, and Robert Aspirin's "Myth" series you'll love gaming in Trollworld! So what are you waiting for!

-Charrdd

Mapping Your Game Setting

Do you rely heavily on maps for your setting? Do you pour over every detail in the cities and boundaries of your world? Or do you let it flow through game play?

I've tried to map my Tunnels & Trolls setting, Imajapoor and have found that it doesn't work. Now I'll be the first to admit that Imajapoor is a more humorous setting, and is not to be taken seriously like Greyhawk or Faerun. So maybe the most detailed route isn't the right way to go. It's always interesting to see what hashes out in a game session. Besides, I'm a big Terry Pratchett fan so I'll just take an idea from the man himself...

What are your thoughts?

Bo Hemoth

Hobbillies need some protection from time to time, being bootleggers is powerful dangerous stuff. Fortunately Ma and Pa Hemoth have a really big son named Bo (Junior's his nickname). There has been talk that Bo isn't really Pa's son, after all Bo is a big drink of water. This eight foot tall Hobbilly looks a lot more like an ogre than hobkin, maybe there's something that Ma has kept secret from her husband. Pa ain't too bright so he's not liable to figure it out any-time soon. But he's so proud of this big lummox!

Str: 28
Con: 24
Dex: 9
Spd: 12
Int: 6
Wiz: 9
Lck: 13
Chr: 12

RAT TOUCHED!

The Cult of the Rat envy the features of their rodent brethren, and through alchemy and dark magicks they've learned to alter their physiognomy. The cultists refer to this as being Rat Touched. Slowly their front teeth start to turn into the visage of the Ouroborats gnawing teeth, chipping away at the vermin covered sphere of the world. Some start to grow tails and tiny hairs all over their bodies.

The most horrendous of all is the Aspect of Bubo. Hulking ten foot tall, half goblin half rat beast forever roaming the mazes of the underdrek looking to glut itself on man-flesh! Sometimes goblin flesh too, although they consider it a great honor to be chosen by the Aspect of Bubo and to feed the holy World Rat!

**JUST A REPOST THAT I THOUGHT WAS MORE APPROPRIATE FOR THIS NEW BLOG.**

Gutter Dwarves - Imajapoor

Criminal activity is a way of life in the garbage strewn streets of Imajapoor. A lot of the urban youth start urban tribes also known as gangs. Dwarven youths who grow up in the strict and stoic manner of their parents, find themselves at odds with traditional way of life. Many dwarves choose to leave their ancestral homes of stone (Steinheim) for the streets of Imajapoor. Living on the streets is tough, many of the dwarf kids turn to petty larceny, theft, armed robbery and sometimes murder.

Some time ago a lowlife gang calling itself The Gutter Dwarves formed, and has become quite a nuisance in Imajapoor proper. A lot of the gang members choose to shave their heads and beards (which is a huge taboo in dwarf society), while others spike up their hair and dye it unnatural colors.

The Gutter Dwarves aren't very sophisticated mainly due to their youth, average age is around 40-70 years of age. They stick more to low level of street crime and thuggery, Don't let that lull you into a false sense of security, if you see members of the gang avoid them at all costs!

**Thanks to the good Prof. Gremlin for this idea**

Keep on Rockin' and Role Playing!

Tunnels & Trolls Monster: The Inner Child

This was originally a character I created for the Swords & Wizardry Monster Book, so I decided it was time to do a version for T&T!

Inner Child

Monster Rating: 80
Combat Dice: 9D6 + 40

Powers:
ESP
Blasting Power
Shield Me

The Inner Child is a semi-parasitic organism that lies dormant inside it's human host. It has the ability to dimensionally shift outside it's host but remains bound by a psychic umbilical cord (6ft).

It resembles it's host creature but with mutated features. The host creature is aware of the Inner Child but usually keeps this a secret.

The Inner Child has strong psychic abilities, and also has a psychic blast (60ft) and a force wall that can shield itself and the host. If the host is killed, the inner child dies within 1D6 turns.
**Any person, PC or NPC, within the six foot range of the deceased host needs to make a contested Will power (Average of Int+Con) SR or end up the Inner Child's new host.** (Thanks Prof. Gremlin!)

Keep Rockin' and Role Playing!

Foulsome Prison Blues- Imajapoor

"But I stabbed a man in Imajapoor, just to watch him die" - popular song in Imajapoor by The Bard In Black

Foulsome Prison is where they throw you when they want to forget about you. You don't necessarily have to do something immoral or against the law to get sent there. In fact, Imajapoor was built upon criminal activity. But if you don't pay off the right people, you might find find yourself shackled to a 40 pound iron ball inside a 4X8 cell with three other room mates.

Getting out of Foulsome can be a bit tricky too. There's plenty of guards inside and on the walls of the prison, plus several beasties guarding the courtyard. If you can get to the storm sewers that would be your best route, but they lead to the mazes of the Underdrek!

Best thing to do is lay low, and keep a low profile when visiting Imajapoor. At least until you have enough geld to pay bribes, or enough muscle to not worry about paying bribes!

Keep on Rockin' & Role Playing!

Imadjapoor: Gong the Honeydipper (City Sanitation Department)

There's only one giant living in the city of Imadjapoor, and that's Gong. Gong is also the city's sanitation department, affectionately known as a honey dipper. Somebody has to do the job, and Gong is very good at it!

Every night, Gong walks the city emptying the cities public outhouses of their cache. Each outhouse is equipped with hinged roofs that can be opened from the top, this is easy for a giant. He then dips his giant ladle inside, scooping out the contents and emptying the treasure into his "Honey Wagon" and then moves on to the next one. Sometimes local citizens get quite a surprise if they head out for a late night constitutional, but most of Imajapoorians know better.

The honey wagon is then taken to the sanitary headquarters where the waste can be converted into fuel for the rest of the city. Very economical and green (or brown depending on what people have eaten that day) friendly!

It's customary for citizens to leave a tip in the tip box outside of the outhouses, otherwise certain districts might find their outhouses overflowing. Just a friendly reminder when visiting the great city of Imadjapoor!

I Hate Tourists! (Dungeon Delving from the monster's perspective)

"Those sun dwelling above world scum think they're so high and mighty. They come down to our homes rob, cheat, and murder all in the name of some righteous cause like rescuing fair damsels, recovering a stolen magic item or adventure. Feh, I say! I hate above world tourists!" - Feh The Troll

Let's face it, adventurers are nothing more than tourists with delusions of grandeur. They camp out, leave a mess, harass the locals, and head back home with lot's of loot.

Ken St. Andre of Tunnels & Trolls fame wrote a game called "Monsters Monsters" that basically turned the tables and made the monsters the good guys, and the tunnel raiders the bad guys. This game has been long out of print, and if you are lucky enough to find it you'll pay through the nose for it. But there's no reason why you couldn't run a game of D&D in the same way.



You could have an orc warband defending their cave warrens from "stinkin' 'oomans" who came to murder them in their home. Sort of an orcish homeland security.

Or how about a lovesick dragon who was so smitten with a fair damsel, that he just had to fly off with her to his lair. And now a company of adventurers are coming to steal her back.

How about spirits of the dead who are just minding their own business haunting their own tombs when some burglars break in to steal their grave offerings!

This would give the players something to think about next time they try to rob some poor innocent goblins of their ill gotten gains!