Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls

Having survived the End of the World recently, we can now look forward to Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls in 2013.  Details for the kickstarter are promised soon.

Oaky Wood

It has been a while....

Set in Wilowisp's Oaky Wood region, my trollspawn have been exploring this setting this spring and summer, and now autumn, I guess.  They've cleared out the Ghostly Alchemist's lair and other minor excursions and were moving on to Merchant's Rest by traveling through the Oaky Wood.  Without going into great detail, they were accosted by the thieves in area 9.  I had intended it to be a brief shakedown and then we would get on with exploring the rest of forest between Lake Fall and Merchant's Rest.  Instead, they wanted to get back at the thieves and their guerrilla attacks on the thief camp took up the rest of the session.  I have to say their tactics were pretty solid, especially for kids (14, 12, 10, 8).  The oldest said he was inspired by reading the Guardians of the Flame books that I gave him.  An interesting tactic was the idea to cast Will-o-wisp on a makeshift staff as a decoy in the woods at night while the PCs escaped in another direction.

My point, I think, is that it is always interesting what the players will focus on and how they drive the play.  A good GM (if I can flatter myself by pretending to associate with such) will go with this.  I always have ideas to pursue if the PCs have nothing motivating them, but I always enjoy play more when the PCs have an axe to grind.

Posts...Not so Much

We've been playing lots of T&T and have several campaigns going, but I haven't managed to post much about them.  Campaign #1: The Thieving Magpie, five players (had seven but that was too much), Marillion; #2: Dedicated to Chaos, four players (spillover from #1), Queensryche; #3: The Devil You Know, five players - all female.  We call it the Girlie Group and it has been going for about 18 months, Black Sabbath/Heaven and Hell ; #4: Demons & Wizards, four or five players - this is the group with the trollsons and an old friend, Demons & Wizards.  Plus we have various one offs at times with high level semi-retired characters, Lovecraft Variant, or whatever.  Almost everyweek we play with at least one of the groups.  All campaigns are inspired by the music of the above listed bands.

I would love to blog and publish more T&T stuff, but honestly, if I have to choose between playing and prepping for games or blogging about what I want to do, I choose the former.  Still, the summer is fast approaching and I have summers off, so maybe I will be able to post seesion summaries and other miscellania as I hope.  I haven't given up hope just yet even though I am reconsidering my dependence on technology.

Free RPG Day

Free RPG Day is 6.16 this year.  Doesn't look like FBI is participating.

Some Pics of my Game Room

T&T Grimoire Followup

 

Here are a few other (low quality) pictures of my T&T grimoire.  Our "house rules" are an entire rewrite, as our group likes to play T&T...largely 5th edition with the best bits of 7e, and various minor tweaks.  All players have access to the entire book (but the binding is one of a kind).  The rules are meant to be a "living" document and evolve as our play style changes over time and we experiment with various ideas.

The Company

In our private T&T yahoo group, we are discussing the merits of T&T...what we get out of it other than entertainment.  For many it is just a social event like getting drunk and playing poker.  I have been playing T&T for 30 years this year.  To me T&T is much more than an occasional social event.  To me it has been friendship, creative license, motivation to further my education, and exploring a sense of wonder most people abandon in childhood, among countless other things.  For me, T&T is The Company, as explained by Fish in his eponymous song:


Where beggars take cheques and children steal credit cards from the pockets of wrecks in the middle of the road. I came to in my future and that was just yesterday, unsure of my past and that's a knot in my gut. You buy me a drink then you think that you've got the right to crawl in my head and rifle my soul. You tell me I'm free and want me to compromise, to sell out my dreams you say you'll make it worthwhile. Oh, boys would you drink to me now, here on the hill, half way up, half way down. You tell me I'm drunk, then you sit back and smug a while, convinced that you're right, that you're still in command of your senses. I laugh at your superior attitude; your insincere platitudes make me throw up. Oh, boys would you drink to me now, here on the hill, half way up, half way down. Oh, boys would you drink to me now, here on the hill, half way up, half way down. Oh for the company born to the company, live for the company until I die. The sooner you realise that I'm perfectly happy if I'm left to decide the company I choose. The company I choose is solidly singular, totally trustworthy, straight, and sincere; polished, experienced, witty, and charming; so why don't you push off, this company's my own. Oh, boys would you drink to me now here on the hill, half way up, half way down. Oh, boys would you drink to me now here on the hill, half way up, half way down. Oh for the company, dream of the company; live for the company until I die. Oh for the company, dream of the company, drink to the company until we die; until we die; until we die.

T&T Grimoire

Some years ago the trollwife bought me an awesome leather 'grimoire.'  Never completing my research to properly fill it, I have recently repurposed it.  It now contains my house rules for T&T...and adds a great aura of mystique to the game when we play and I have to reference it.  Even when it is just sitting there, it fills the players with a sense of awe.  It fits the ambiance of our game room well, which is furnished in items right out of Earth's past, or some parallel fantasy world: swords, gargoyles, skulls, tapestries, candles, censers, and so forth cover the entire area.  I will have to post pictures soon of the game room to do it justice.

Kayleigh

Just an anecdotal addendum to the Kayleigh info....  Kayleigh is based on several sources, one of which (and the origin of my use of the name) is the fabulous Marillion song.  While having dinner last night our waitress commented that her name was Kayleigh, and when asked how she spells it (the right way, obviously) and where it came from, she said her mother had named her after the Marillion song.  Quite the coincidence, that.  Apparently, the small group of us (Kayleigh, mother, trollwife, and myself) are the only Marillion fans on this side of the pond, and somehow three of the four managed to connect in single restaurant in an obscure village in the Burned Over District....

Kayleigh - Goddess of the Night

Kayleigh is the Goddess of the Night.  To those she favors, at times her glistening eyes and faint smile can be seen watching from above as her long hair blows in the breeze.  She isn't so much a goddess of the night itself, per se, but rather of those things that happen during the night: namely dreams and assignations.  Her formal symbol is a silver abstract image of woman with arms raised above her bare breasts and head, with a spiral over her womb.  Kayleigh tends towards capriciousness and wistfulness.

Her worshippers - called Kayleighanders - honor her by engaging in trysts under the stars and through lucid dreaming, wherein Kayleigh sometimes visits her faithful.  Dreaming isn't always practical, so followers of the goddess who lack their own sensitivity to the hypernatural frequently use mind-altering substances to allow them to see and feel Kayleigh's presence around them.

Kayleigh's faithful tend to congregate in a walled garden courtyard, under the open sky.  The area is filled with hallucinogenic smoke, laughter, and cries of passion.  Various couches and similar furniture are arranged around a central couch upon which lies the high priestess.  The high priestess has remained in such a state for many years, sleeping the entire while.  Other followers cluster around her to hear her mutterings from the Dreamlands, which they take as divine wisdom imparted to her by Kayleigh.  While not doing this, and sometimes even while the do so, the faithful drink opium-laced wine, smoke from the hookah, or feed their carnal appetites upon a soft mossy bed beneath the stars.  For those skilled in lucid dreaming, the high priestess awaits visitors in the City of Ravens, which is found only in the Dreamlands.  There is a vague prophecy that should the high priestess ever wake from her sleep, it will usher in an era of ill-tidings.

While prone to occasional bouts of paranoia, Kayleighanders open their rites to almost anyone who is interested in joining them.  The cult is popular, with almost everyone dabbling in it at some point during their lives, but few people remain followers for long.

[More to come as I develop it - this was all pretty much stream of consciousness and I just wanted to get it down while I was thinking about it.]

Trollszine #4

Trollszine #4 is now out.  Check out the information about it at Lone Delver and  Adventures and Shopping,  and get it at DrivethruRPG.

Purple Mountain Conversions

Purple Mountain features three new spells and several monsters, amongst lots of other stuff.  Below are some of my conversions to T&T.  As previously noted, I had intended to convert everything but it became too cumbersome.  There are a bunch of other half-finished notes - Talents based off of feats, magic items, and the like - but I won't post them here.  These meager offerings will have to do.  Note below that I use Stackpole's 8 Cs of Magick, so these schools will need some fiddling with to fit standard 7e/7.5e.

APPENDIX I – MONSTER STATISTICS

CAVE SCORPION MOUNT

MR: 50

Special Attack: 2/sting

Special Defense: 5 hits off due to chitin.

Special Abilities:  darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft., Immune to mind-affecting effects

Cave Scorpion Venom: Slows the victim's responses for the next 3 combat rounds, with the effect that her combat adds total is reduced to 3/4 normal.

Cave Scorpions are a dark gray color and blend in well with their subterrene surroundings.  They have been trained by Scorpion Knight mites to serve as mounts.

FLASH BEETLE

MR:  30

Special Attack:  1/flash: a flash beetle can create a brilliant flash of light. All creatures within a 10 ft. area must make a LKSR at a level equal to the number of 6s rolled, or be dazzled for 1d3 rounds, attacking at ½ during that time.

HO: 4 due to natural carapace.

They are immune mind-affecting effects with low-light vision.  Being a beetle, they can fly.  A flash beetle’s glowing glands provide light in a 10-foot radius. A dead flash beetle’s luminescent glands continue to glow for 1d6 days after its death.

GIANT AMOEBA

MR:  100

Special Attack: 1/3 due to acid.

Defensive Abilities: all attack do half damage due to squishy body.

MITE GUARD

MR:  15

Special Attack: 1/1 spite; however, due to a special kindred-based hatred of dwarves and gnomes, they will direct all spite toward members of those kindred, and score double spite against them.

Mites are tiny humanoids, only about 2½ feet tall.  They can see in the dark and suffer from light sensitivity.  Mites speak Undercommon.  Mites also tend to develop an empathy for ‘vermin’, training them to obey commands and even serve as mounts.

SCORPION, RED AND BLUE

MR: 45

Special Attack: 2/sting

Special Defense: 5 hits off due to chitin.

Special Abilities:  darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft., Immune to mind-affecting effects

Red and Blue Scorpion Venom: Slows the victim's responses for the next 3 combat rounds, with the effect that her combat adds total is reduced to 3/4 normal.

SCORPION KNIGHT

MR:  30

Special Attack: 1/1 spite; however, due to a special kindred-based hatred of dwarves and gnomes, they will direct all spite toward members of those kindred, and score double spite against them.

Scorpion Knights are mites who specialize in mounted combat.  Their mounts are, obviously, scorpions. Mites are tiny humanoids, only about 2½ feet tall.  They can see in the dark and suffer from light sensitivity.  Mites speak Undercommon.  Mites also tend to develop an empathy for ‘vermin’, training them to obey commands and even serve as mounts.

APPENDIX VI: UNCOMMON SPELLS

LEVEL 1

Muscle Spasm [Combat]

WIZ Cost: 2

Range: 25’

Duration: Instantaneous

Power Up?: Yes.  With each power up, the level of the required DEXSR is increased, or double the range.

Description:  You cause the target’s muscles to twitch and cramp for 1 round. If the target fails a First Level DEX SR, they drop any held items; if they make their save, they manage to hold on to everything.

LEVEL 2

Disfiguring Touch [Conjuration]

WIZ Cost: 3 per 1 point removed

Range: Touch

Duration: Instantaneous

Power Up?: No.

Description: With a touch, you cause the victim of this spell to suffer a painful curse that causes it to grow hideously disfigured. This spell is like Curse You, removing attribute points, except it also creates a physical appearance of deformity that is subject to the caster’s whim.  Most demon worshipers choose deformities that reflect their Hellish patron’s shape or form.

LEVEL 3

Cold Feet [Construction]

WIZ Cost: 10

Range: 25’

Duration: Instantaneous

Power Up?: Yes.  With each power up, it lets the caster increase the ice’s CON and STR SR required to escape.

Description:  Thick, heavy ice forms around the target’s feet and freezes to whatever surface he is standing on. The target cannot move, fights at ½, and can make melee attacks only against foes within reach. He can chip his way out of the ice, or an ally can hack at the ice for him; the ice has 5 hits off and CON points equal to the caster’s level X10. A successful Strength Saving Roll at the caster’s level allows the target to break completely free of the ice.

Purple Mountain Nears An End

Last week Friday we had another session in Purple Mountain, pretty much ending our play of the first level.  They gathered the loot of the fallen cult leader and his minions, explored the split-level "Swarming Zone", and killed the mighty throach - a scorpion without pincers that implants eggs into its victims.  While the PCs haven't cleared the entire Temple of the Locust Lord, the areas that are left are mostly rooms that they failed to discover due to secret doors.  I will likely allow them one last foray to see if they can locate the main treasure room and then we will wrap it up.

I will be posting some of my conversion notes in the near future.  Before actual play began I converted all of the dungeon text and about half of the monsters, spells, et cetera, in the appendices.  As I noted in a prior post, this was very time consuming and not something I am used to having to do.  If I used material from other game systems in the past I usually do so on the fly.  I wanted to formally go through that process in its entirety in this case but never completely finished the process.  Having tried it, I am reinforced with my prior philosophy, widely held in the OSR, that a minimum of preparation is the way to go.

Down Goes the Cult Leader

The party continued its exploration of the first level of Purple Mountain.  They defeated the inhabitants of the rubbish room, but didn't investigate the trash or the shaft.  They made a circuit of the octagonal corridor to get their bearings and then decided to head through the double doors.  Beyond, they traded blows and spells with the guardians of the lower level, while the cult leader lobbed spells on them from the upper level of the room.  Magic resistance saved them more than a few times.  After a long and drawn out fight, only the leader was left.  Realizing the gig was up, he discorporated into a scattering mass of worms and was gone...for now.

One of my house rules is a variant on magic resistance, a new concept in 7e T&T.  Having played 5e since way back, I gave 7e a try when it came out, but after playing with it for several years I realized I still didn't like it so we went back to a 5e base.  The better bits of 7e - Talents and the new types, for instance - were incorporated, but what to do with magic resistance?  I was torn.  I like magic to be chaotic and uncertain at times, but I also liked the point and shoot style of 5e spells.  What I finally decided on was a system based off of 5e: spells automatically work, unless the subject makes a conscious effort to resist the effects.  In this case they make a SR on WIZ at the spell's level.  Fail and the spell works as normal.  Succeed and the spell might be resisted.  The last bit, why it might be resisted, is that the effort to resist the spell burns WIZ just like casting a spell whether the resisting is successful or futile.  The subject has to spend WIZ just as if they were the caster of said spell, with appropriate reductions based on level, focus, and type.  Without sufficient WIZ, resisting fails and the spell works as normal.

Return to Purple Mountain

Now that we are back into a normal routine after the break, we were able to get back to Purple Mountain tonight.  After our previous experience, I dropped the use of the battle mats and figures for this session.  I feel that they don't match well with T&T, at least not as I prefer to play it.  We were only able to clear two more rooms in this session.  Neither room involved monsters so there was no combat.  There was a thorough search of a storage area, full of various foodstuffs and a case full of mealworms.  Then it was on to another room where there was a navigation to avoid a swinging axe trap and disable it old-school style: a super-strong dwarf (with a Talent in Brute Force) and a half-orc held a massive iron bar by its ends and stopped the axe's momentum when it crashed into the middle of the bar near the end of its arc.  It still caused a bone-jarring impact and a clang that alerted many of the dungeon's denizens.  Nevertheless, I thought it was a fairly clever idea for children to come up with, so - with successful STR SRs - I allowed it.  After forcing open the room's chest, they found the gold, wand, note, and scrolls within it.  With that we suspended play until next time.  We've almost covered half of the 1st dungeon level now.

I'm finding that while the adventure was easily converted to T&T (if time consuming), the flavor of what I expect from a T&T game isn't shining through.  Instead, as one might expect, the feel of Pathfinder manifests in the game, even when dropping that ruleset.  This may be obvious to some people, but, as I stated in prior posts, for me this is an experiment.  T&T's 'sensibilities' are masked by the feel of the original ruleset, even when everything has been reworked to use T&T rules and lingo.  I'm also finding, even though we play short sessions due to the age of the children involved, that we are only progressing though about half as many areas as I'd expect to.  I think that this is because of the mechanics involved, even converted to T&T.  In my conversion I have tried to leave the 'integrity' of the mechanics, so they tend to be more involved than a usual T&T adventure might otherwise be.

While it might appear that I am just griping and that things don't seem to be working out in this experiment, I would say that isn't the case.  By trying something new the process is helpful to show me what T&T's strengths are and what the style of play is that I enjoy.  More to come.