A Non-Review of Tunnels & Trolls

This is an introduction to Tunnels & Trolls I wrote for players back in 2011. I’ve updated it for the latest edition.

Setting: Troll World

Ken St. Andre created T&T in 1975 after deciding D&D’s combat was too complicated, and he could write his own. T&T uses only six-sided dice – sometimes a lot – and eschews tactical combat for quicker resolution.

T&T doesn’t take itself too seriously. Most notably, spells have silly names like “Take That You Fiend!” (TTYF, a basic attack spell) or “Poor Baby” (a basic healing spell). While Serious Role Players may have problems with that – after all, pretending to be wizards and elves is serious business – one might need a vacation in Trollworld after fighting Chaos and foul sorcery in the Dung Ages.

Characters

Attributes

Characters in the 8th edition have eight attributes: Strength (STR), Constitution (CON; doubles as HP), Dexterity (DEX; hand-eye coordination), Speed (SPD; reaction time), Intelligence (INT or IQ), Wizardry (WIZ; energy for spells), Luck (LK), and Charisma (CHA or CHR).

Players typically roll 3d6 for each characteristic, using the Triples Add and Roll Over (TARO) rule. For example, if someone rolled three 3s, they’d roll 9 + 3d6 … and if those turned out as three 2s, they’d roll 15 + 3d6 … and so on, and so on.

There’s also a point-buy system, but there’s obviously no TARO rule. It’s boring.

Kindred

After rolling attributes, if a character is of a non-human Kindred – elf, dwarf, hobb, fairy, leprechaun, or something stranger – he applies multipliers (or fractions) to his attributes. For example, dwarfs multiply STR x 2, CON x 2, and LK x 2/3.

Characters made with point-buy do not modify their attributes based on their Kindred. (Boring.) They may still belong to a Kindred for its powers, like a Leprechaun’s teleport, a Fairy’s flight, or a Dwarf’s dwarfliness. That Dwarf should have at least 18 STR, though, or all the other dwarfs will laugh.

Types

There are six “Types” (classes) of character. Nearly all of them can work some magic, and all have some combat ability:

Rogue is short for “Rogue Wizard”, i.e. someone with magical talent but no training. Rogues start play with only one spell, and must learn others from other PCs, the local Thieves’ Guild, or “on the street” as it were.
They’re inspired by Leiber’s Grey Mouser and Vance’s Cugel, but otherwise have no connection to “Rogues” in That Other Game.

Specialists

The 8th edition defines these Specialist subtypes. GMs can allow others.

Talents

A talent is a free-form skill that adds its bonus (+3) to all Saving Rolls involving a specific subject, like Musician or Gunsmith.

Experience points can buy new Talents, and Rogues get additional Talents as they gain levels.

Roguery Talent

In the “advanced” version of the 8th edition rules, all Rogues may take a Roguery talent based on the highest of INT, LK, and CHR that substitutes for any saving roll on INT, LK, and CHR.

Levels

A character’s level (in this version) is 1/10 the highest attribute.² Attributes" for his Type (class). For example, a character with a 20 STR would be level 2 … but if his LK were 33, he’d be level 3. Certain Kindreds have clear advantages: a Dwarf gets double STR, so most Dwarf Warriors will start at Level 2 or even Level 3. “Game balance” is not one of T&T’s goals.

On the other hand, Level is less important than in previous editions.

• Warriors can add one die per character level to their combat rolls.
• Rogues may take an extra Talent per every two character levels.
• Wizards can reduce the WIZ cost of spells lower than their own level.
• Characters add their level to all Saving Rolls.
• Character level determines how many magic items a character can carry (being rare in this game).

That’s it, or at least that’s all I could find.

System

The system has two main types of die rolls, Saving Rolls and Combat Rolls.

Saving Rolls

Saving Rolls (Saving Rolls) add 2d6 to a relevant attribute³ (and sometimes a bonus) to exceed a target number. The rules define “levels” of saving roll as against a target number of 15 + 5×level; a Level 1 (L1) saving roll is TN 20, Level 2 (L2) is 25, and so on. The same mechanic resolve Talents (freeform skills) and ranged attacks, among other things. Saving Rolls use the DARO rule – doubles add and roll over – and a 3 is an automatic failure.

Combat Rolls will be explained below.

Combat Rolls

Combat Rolls total up all “dice” and “adds” on each side and roll the dice. The side with the higher total wins, and inflicts that much damage on the losing side (who decides how to distribute it). Characters derive dice + adds from equipment, characteristic and level bonuses, and any spells, missile weapons, or tactics used successfully in that round.

Monsters have a single “monster rating” (MR). Maximum damage is equal to MR, dice are level/10, and adds are MR/2 and decrease with damage.

Magic

Specialists notwithstanding, T&T has only one kind of magic.

To use magic one must know at least one spell. Once a caster learns a spell, it’s lodged permanently in his mind. Spells have levels, which among other things determine the minimum INT and DEX to cast.

Wizards and Paragons start play knowing all Level One spells, and may pay the Wizard’s Guild to learn others. Rogues start knowing one spell; the Wizards’ Guild doesn’t recognize Rogues, so a Rogue must learn other spells from PC Wizards or a Thieves’ Guild. Specialist Wizards, as noted above, automatically know all spells in their specialty as soon as they’re capable of casting them, but may learn no other spells.

To cast as spell, the caster must make an INT Saving Roll equal to the spell’s level. (Citizens must also make a DEX Saving Roll, reflecting their inexperience with spells.) If the caster succeeds, he reduces his current WIZ by the cost of the spell. One point of WIZ returns for every ten minutes of rest.

Interestingly, any spell whose target has a higher current WIZ than the caster will fail. The caster gets A Bad Feeling and can abort the spell … or cast it, losing the WIZ cost but reducing the target’s WIZ by the same amount. On the one hand, a Warrior with a high WIZ can shrug off spells by a lesser Wizard. On the other hand, a gang of lesser spellcasters can whittle down a Wizard until one caster’s WIZ exceeds the Wizard’s.

Conclusion

Since this is a non-review, I’m not going to pronounce this game good or bad. Rather, I’ll echo what I said in “In Praise of Tunnels & Trolls”: I had fun running this game. The combat system gets combats over faster so that we can get back to the actual adventure.⁴ Support for those non-combat, non-delving activities is pretty thin, but in 8th edition there’s enough for experienced tabletop gamers.

If players can get over the deliberate silliness of the setting they’ll find a somewhat retro but still nice game engine and 40+ years of background material, GM adventures, and especially solo adventures. (T&T lends itself nicely to solo gaming, since combat is so non-tactical.) And unlike Glorantha or Hârn the mass of material isn’t oppressive.

Resources

• Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls – $20 but the full rulebook from 2015.
• Beginner’s Bundle – $6 but from 2021.
• T&T Japan Adventures – $5 but from 2018.
• T&T Quick-Start Rules – FREE but out of date (2008, before 8th ed.).