T is for Tunnels & Trolls

Tunnels & Trolls is another good game that I rarely got the chance to play.

It has spent it's entire life being unfavorably compared to D&D which, while somewhat merited, is disappointing all the same.   T&T was the SECOND RPG ever created.  It came right on the heels of D&D, written by amateur game designer Ken St. Andre. Ken saw D&D and decided that it was poorly done, so he went home and wrote his own rules.
You can read about his recollections here, but what I want to do is talk about mine.
I have talked about Tunnels and Trolls in the past, mostly dealing with the whole Outlaw Press affair.

I think one of the reasons my group avoided Tunnels & Trolls, other than the appearance that it was "D&D Little Kids" was the humor.  T&T had a humor about it absent in D&D.  Today I can look at it and appreciate it for what it is, but then that was too high a mountain to climb.  This roleplaying stuff was serious business to my 12-13 year old mind.  And there was the whole status deal.  I learned early that if you were not playing "The Right Game" you could get shunned.  Yes social elitism from a group of social outcasts (read: nerds) but it happened.  So even if I was so inclined to try T&T, I doubt if I could have gotten anyone to play it with me.

Looking back today I can say while I am disappointed that didn't give T&T the chance it deserved back then, I can certainly make up for lost time now.  I make an effort to go to the Flying Buffalo booth each Gen Con and buy something, even if it is something small. The T&T fan communities, Trollhala and Trollbridge are the two largest I know of, are very active.  Truth be told, maybe even more active these days thanks to the OSR.

Anyone familiar with D&D will recognize a lot in T&T.  Same sorts of creatures, same sorts of adventures. Players have levels, races and classes.  Plenty of weapons, spells that go 20th level and magic.
I would love to play this a couple of times with my kids, or even sit in on a Convention game.

You can still get official Tunnels & Trolls products from the Flying Buffalo website.

Play? Ghosts? Me?

My wife just pointed out to me that I have never actually played Ghosts of Albion (not Angel, not Buffy) as a player.   I have played the rules before. But never as an honest to goodness, made in 1839 player.

How in the heck did I manage that???

A to Z Blogfest So Far .

We are in the home stretch of hte A to Z blogfest for this April.

I have now visited EVERY SITE on the on the list.
There are a lot of cool sites out there and I want to go back to a lot of them.

If there is something you want me to see or if I have not posted to your blog yet, let me know!
Leave me a link in the replies below.

S is for Spellcraft & Swordplay

Continuing on with some of the games of the Old School Renascence I want to talk about my favorite game.
Spellcraft & Swordplay by Jason Vey.

Now, just I get this out of the way first.  Jason is a friend of mine and we worked on a lot of Unisystem games together.   Also I worked on a supplement for S&S called Eldritch Witchery that is due out soon.  That all being said I developed my opinion of this game long before EW ever was thought of.

 Spellcraft & Swordplay is not a retro-clone exactly.  It is more of a "near-clone" or as I often think of it as an alternate reality version of OD&D.

When D&D was starting out it grew out of the rules in Chainmail.  Using a d20 (twenty-sided die) was the "alternate" combat method that became the norm.  But the original combat method involved 2d6 (two six-sided dice), S&S (among other changes) explores that further.

There are other changes such as saving throws are made against the appropriate ability (which is not to far off to how 3rd or 4th ed does it) and there are no skills, but ability rolls.

So in many respects it is a much simpler game than the other clones.
I have written a rather long review here for the core book:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_reviews_info.php?&reviews_id=57722&products_id=94105&affiliate_id=10748

I wrote that before I got the gig to write EW.  In fact I got the book, read it, reviewed and then convinced Jason to let me write EW.

If you are new to this sort of game or want to check it out then PLEASE give this a shot.  All you are two normal 6 sided dice, just like the ones in your Monopoly game to get started.

There is the core book, Spellcraft & Swordplay and a supplement, Monstrous Mayhem.
Both PDFs and print copies are on sale now. Plus if you buy the print copies you can get the PDFs for free.

I really can't say enough about this game. In fact here are my old posts about it.

Get it.  You can thank me later.

Zatannurday: My God It's Full of Stars!

It's "S" day for April, so for this morning's Zatannurday post I thought some stars would be nice.

Zee and her assistant Mikey going to a formal party.

BTW here is the before shot:

Good trick to have I say.

R is for Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death

One of my first exposures to Victorian era gaming was through the Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death.

Last year I did Ravenloft, and this year given all the Victorian games I am talking about this seems a natural.

Masque of the Red Death was a Ravenloft branded supplement for both AD&D 2nd Ed and for D&D 3.  Both dealt with a familiar; Earth, but one that was darker and magic was real.  It's almost a cliche with me anymore.  What made the first MotRD special was that for the first time you could play "D&D on Earth", in particular Victorian Age Earth that they called "Gothic Earth".

There were a lot of classes (kits too for AD&D 2nd Ed) and I always thought it was some what overkill. Magic was much more limited than your typical D&D game and a lot of the rules (Horror, Fear and Dread) were ported over from the Ravenloft line proper.

I SOOOO wanted to run this game, but it came at a bad time in my gaming career.  I was just about ready to give up on D&D altogether and this was the only thing I was excited about anymore.  Some of my first writing gigs was for the official Ravenloft Netbooks from the Kargatane. A lot of that I have been able to re-use here in fact (Haunted Illinois and the Piasa Bird).

There was such a cool, dark vibe to the game but it did do somethings that irked me.  To many of the bad guys were in fact monsters that looked human; Moriarty was a Rakshasa for example.  Sometimes I like my monsters to be human.  Also there were just too many classes.

I'd love to revisit Gothic Earth.  Maybe under one of the game systems I have reviewed already or even as something for Ghosts of Albion.

Sadly, Masque of the Red Death is long out of print.  You can still find copies though on ebay and at Nobel Knight.

• 2nd Ed.
• 2nd Ed.
• 3rd Ed.

Q is for QAGS

QAGS is an interesting little game and my post today for Q.

It is the acronym for Quick Ass Game System, and that is pretty accurate. What is QAGS or more to the point why is there a QAGS?

A bit of history. Back when RPGs were becoming popular it was quickly obvious that people liked to play multiple games, but not always play with multiple rules.  D&D had one ruleset, Boot Hill another, Star Frontiers another and so on, and this was all in the same company.  The need then for a "Generic" system arose.  Something you could learn once and use anywhere.  This was the birth of GURPS and many other games such Fudge, FATE, Fuzion, QWERPS and eventually QAGS and even d20.

QAGS though is a little looser than GURPS, but not quite as loose and Fudge or FATE.
QAGS is nice because it works well as an entry to Role-playing that is not a kids game (by no means is this one for kids!) and it can be used by the old pros out there.  Yums-Yums aside of course!

Chapter 1 then is all about Character Creation. What I like about QAGS are such things as the descriptors of your character. In fact they are not even called abilities but "Words".  So there is much more of a author feel to this than say character creation.  You describe your character in terms of these Words, such as Body, Brain, and Nerve as the base ones, and others like Job, Gimmick and Weakness.  I also like the tacit nod to "Who Will Play the Character in the Movie" which is something everyone does anyway.  I snarkily always say "Gary Oldman" cause he can play anything and anyone. Like with other games I have played, there is something to learn here.  This chapter could help you define who your character is regardless of what game you play.

Chapter 2 is Doing Stuff or how to play. The system is pretty simple really.  Words are given a value of 6 to 16 and skills can add up to 5 to these.  These numbers then become the target numbers.
Chapter 3 expands on this with Combat.

Chapter 4 is the most entertaining, Yum-Yums.  What are Yum-Yums?  They are pieces of candy that are character rewards. They are points on your sheet, but they are also a pile of M&Ms or other candy in front of you. They are used like Drama or Hero points in other games, but if you eat them all well then your are literally out of luck.

Chapter 5 is a bit about role-playing your character. Making them more than a concept and stats on a page of paper.

After this we have the GM (Game Master's) section.   Chapter 6 covers the basics of being a GM along with the rules and what you can do with your new found power over life and death.  Chapter 8 goes into the Fine Art of GMing.

Chapter 7 deals with the story you are trying to create.

The Appendices are rather nice.  The first one is a Big List of Words used to describe your character.  Which seems to me would have utility in a Fate or Fudge game as well.

Appendix 2 is the quick start rules.  1/2 a page.  They got the Quick part right.  So quick in fact it is "Qik" start.
Appendix 3 is the section of Genres.  Each one gets a page and covers the basics.
Appendix 4 is a collection of sample characters.
Appendix 5 is a list of creatures
Appendix 6 includes some equipment
Appendices 7 & 8 are sample adventures
Appendices 9 & 10 are dumb maps and dumb tables respectively
And 11 is a conversion from QAGS 1st Ed.
Finally ending with a character sheet.  The first I have seen that lists Social Security Number.

QAGS is fun, but it might be too silly for groups.  Or it might be perfect if the GM opts to play it straight.