Yes, it’s time for Solos and … satisfaction? It’s time for Tunnels and Trolls.
Intro:
Caroline is in big hair and specs, because we’ve had another iTunes in America!
Potted History (4.00):
A quick run through of the origin story of T&T.
Open Box (8.23):
Brought to you from a replica of Dirk’s teenage bedroom, as we bring memories of the early games, until the dog signals that it’s time to leave.
The White Dwarf (30.22)
@dailydwarf has light pickings from the early days of White Dwarf, but there are some great St Andre pieces.
Judge Blythy Rules! (44.36)
We take time to delight in elegant simplicity.
Ed’s Bargain Shed (1.15)
The first games that Ed played were with T&T. Sister Barbara could prevent the discovery of Trolls and Girls at school.
There isn’t final section (1.22)
Update on the Patreon campaign.
Send in your Traveller questions and comments.
Details of the next part of the episode which will feature Big Jack Brass, Jon Hancock, in interview.
-Dirk
Thanks for the kind words, guys. The usual view of T & T back in the day was that it was a silly game and a ripoff of That Other Game. Over the years I’ve striven to differentiate the two games more and more. Gotta remember, I didn’t know what I was doing when I wrote the first edition of T & T. I just wanted a game I could play that would make sense to me, and be amusing at the same time. Being serious has always been difficult for me.
Excellent Podcast, I’m looking forward to the next part with Big Jack Brass. How’s his beard?
You can read the two articles Ken wrote for White Dwarf here:
http://www.tunnelsandtrolls.com/the-apocrypha-according-to-st-andre-1982/
http://www.tunnelsandtrolls.com/a-world-of-your-own-by-ken-st-andre-1982/
Cheers,
-dekh
It’s looking very trim. He gave a really good interview, I’m looking forward to getting it out next month. Thanks for the links.
There’s another really good interview with Ken from last year here: http://poplitiko.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/tunnels-trolls-creator-ken-st-andre.html.
It covers the origin of T&T, but also the motivation behind the new Deluxe edition, and even touches on Ken’s other opus, Stormbringer.
Of the games you have covered, the two I have not played were both written by Ken St. Andre. Must be a colossal oversight on my part. I think we skipped T & T because we already had D & D for D & D type stuff. And skipped Stormbringer because we already had Runequest for d100 sword and sorcery.
My experiences with Tunnels & Trolls chimes with many of your own. Like Blythy I pencilled in replacement names for the spells. I spend hours examining the weapon lists and rolled up many characters, all of whom died in the Buffalo Castle solo adventure one way or another. And like you I found it difficult to convince my regular gaming group of school friends to play it due to the perception of it as a silly, lesser game. Oh, we were daft and po-faced callow youths. Now, older and I hope less po-faced I see the beauty in the clever rules but still can’t convince my group to give it a go. Back to the solo adventures for me!
Fascinating view from some long-time T&T fans from the UK. An interesting examination of T&T and its legacy towards simplicity. It certainly gives us a perspective we don’t always hear in the US – great job!
Big soft spot for the game. Loads of fun, and a good introduction because the dice are familiar and easy to find. I always enjoyed T&T, and appreciated the solo’s because they allowed me to play more than once a week. Years later I was in a new village, with no games books, when I found a paperback version of T&T, published by Corgi, in a charity shop. I used it to introduce some new players and form a new group. That copy was lost, or fell apart ( pity, it’s worth loads now: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tunnels-Trolls-Rule-Corgi-books/dp/0552127647 ), but we wrote our own rules, ran our own games ( one of us stuck to fantasy, one sci-fic, two of us “historical”- pirates, Rome etc. ). When the Kickstarters for 7.5 and Grimtooths traps came up I went in for the PDF – I’d have loved the hardcopies, but the cost, and shipping…. It’s coming up to games season again (too busy in the summer) and I’ve got a new prospective player who found Traveller too serious. Maybe I’ll run 7.5, see if the magic still works.
I will admit that I am and have been a D&D player for the three and a half decades of role playing. I also have to admit that T&T has been high on my list of “Must plays” in all that time. I have never had the opportunity to do so. In the next year I intend to fix that. T&T is however, still one of my favorite games and I recommend it to people.
So many game designers brush up against “That Other Game” and have an allergic reaction to them. The reaction is not always a bad one and sometimes the reaction is very bad but I am always curious about it. About six months after I started playing D&D I designed a game called Pommels & Paradoxes. If D&D can be said to have done anything, it can be said that it has inspired people to take its concepts and turn them into something that fits our own visions. I think this is fantastic.
Thanks for talking about this game, I am sharing the podcast with others and hopefully it will create a few new fans of T&T.