An overview of the changes that I’ve noticed between T&T v5.5 and v7.5  All the comparisons phrased in terms of what 5.5 has/lacks vs. 7.5, since I read 7.5 first and went over it extensively.  Also, some of the changes in 7.5 appeared in 5.5 in a couple-page appendix of Ken St. Andre’s house rules: […]

Magic in Tunnels & Trolls is a fairly standard (though innovative back in ’76) system of individual spells that cost spell-points to cast.  In earlier editions, your spell-points were your STR, now they’re your WIZ, which seems to me widen the range of possible character types quite a bit.  The names of the spells are […]

Here’s a stat-block for a monster from Tunnels & Trolls: Basilisk MR 78 Here’s the same monster, with the initial Combat Adds prefigured: Basilisk MR 78  Adds 8d6+39 Here’s a Basilisk with special damage: Basilisk MR 78 Adds 8d6+39 4/Medusa 4/Medusa means that any turn when it rolls four 6’s in its damage it also […]

Continuing our look at T&T 7.5, the next bits deal with Armor, Poisons, and Treasure. Armor is damage resistance; the value of the armor is subtracted from any damage rolled against the character (apparently including magical damage), though not against “spite” damage.  It can be bought either in complete suits or piece-by-piece, with the values […]

I went over chargen in T&T in some detail yesterday, but because of the length of the post held off on my musings.  Overall I’d say I quite like it. It’s simple, quick, and reasonably flexible for a class-based system. It does have a large random aspect, which is going to be a turn-off for […]

At first, the mechanics seem fairly standard.  You have 8 Attributes: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Speed, Intelligence, Wizardry, Luck, and Charisma.  (Wizardry is apparently new in 7+…previously Magic used Strength, which meant that powerful Wizards were also amazingly strong.)  You roll 3d6 for each Attribute…and here you run into the first somewhat unusual thing: if you […]