Joy Ride - Let's All Play

I think this is worth adding here:-

Greetings, Great Ones!

And a happy shortest day to you all!

I'm bored. Not getting enough email to keep me entertained. So let's start another game on Trollhalla. :)

I recently received Khaghbbooomm's mega-solo adventure: JOY RIDE. It's a hoot, and very funny. IMHO, Khagh has done a better job on this adventure than he did with A WIZARD WENT A WOONG, and that is quite a feat.

So, let's play through it together. Here's how it's going to work. Our hero is going to make all the saving rolls and win all the fights, and you players are going to make all the choices by plurality vote. And we're gonna play as quickly as I can manage to write up each segment and send it out. I check my email frequently. If I have more than 7 votes received when I check it, I will tally the result, write up the next segment, and post it for the next vote. If your vote doesn't arrive in time to be counted, then it doesn't count, and you get no tvp--you missed the boat. The amount of tvp awarded each time will depend on the number of votes received. For example: if I get 9 votes on the first segment, then the first vote will be worth 9000 tvp and the last will be worth 1000 tvp. In addition, each player who votes with the winning section will get 1 Correctness Point, and the player who gets the most Correctness points for the whole game will be declared the actual winner, and may get a special prize from me when it's over.

I'll also write up the whole thing and post it in a blog for the world to marvel at when we're done.

In case of ties, I will vote to break the tie. Otherwise I will not vote, thus, I will get a Correctness point each time I vote. Another challenge to you will be to get more correctness points than the Trollgod.

For your vote to count, you must, Must, MUST sign your trollish name in the letter. If Mark Thornton votes, and signs as Mark, I will ignore it. I won't even remind him. I'll just ignore that vote.

So, this is as easy a way to get tvp as there is. Simply answer these letters when you get them and choose one of the alternatives offered. As a cooperative game, the more people who participate, the better everyone will do.

Got it? Good!
I'm eager to get started, so here we go:

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Chapter One: A Night in the Town

Our hero (name yet to be determined) has entered Caerthaeph't, a city of cruel watchmen, cutthroats, and small-minded bullies. There are some good folk there but they tend to keep to themselves and stay behind locked doors, certainly after dark. (Let us consider our hero's mode of transport. (1) Did he/she arrive in a flash carriage pulled by a team of white purebred stallions, driven by a stylishly tailored coachman? or (2) did he/she plod along on a sledge on runners pulled by a faithful old donkey? or (3) did he/she come through the city gates carried piggyback by a Spirit-Mastered peasant, wheezing along on crutches, and close to cardiac arrest under the weight?

(Please choose option 1, 2, or 3. Remember speed counts. For extra credit: I'm inclined to let one of the first responders in this game be the titular character, so for even more extra credit, pick a number between 1 and 10, the number that gets the most votes will determine which of you gets to be the title character. If you think that's a bad idea, say so. If you don't want to be the title character, also say so.

Okay, get those votes in. I'll be checking my email again in a couple of hours.) My guess is we can do 3 or 4 turns per day this way, and keep the narrative moving right along.

H'aaarrrggghhh!
Khenn Arrth

My Map of Sukandar (for Stefan Jones' not-yet-published solo, "Down and Out"

Wizard Went A-Wooing

I wanted to tell you more about this none-too-small solo but my friend Chet had already done the job:

A Wizard Wuns Thwough It

 A Wizard Went a-Wooing 

by Mark Thornton, a volume of adventure, solitaire and otherwise, for Tunnels & Trolls.

This isn't just a book. This isn't even just a solo adventure! No - THIS is the beginning of a hernia. Your mail person will hate you.

It's huge not only in size and weight, but in scope. The adventure is actually multiple adventures, which can - oddly enough - be played simultaneously or in sequence -- and with one or more characters each time.

You've read the synopsis, so you know the basic plot. It's right there in the title. We never really know why your character decides to risk his or her life to become the mate of one of the queens of various "levels" of a human/bee hybrid species. (I'd love to see the best backstories that players/readers will undoubtedly invent!)

It would help a lot if you have the Tunnels & Trolls rules (cheap at any price, but usually Darned Inexpensive) any edition. And it would help you a bit further if you hung around in Trollhalla http://www.trollhalla.com/ where players, writers, and artists of TnT (as we like to call it) have far too much fun and spend far too much time to have a real life. There, you would pick up on hints and tropes which can save your character's life or dignity. But probably not both.

This is so adaptable that Khenn himself (the creator and ever-trollish Trollgod of Tunnels & Trolls as well as Monsters! Monsters!) ran this as a play-by-post game with a dozen or so players.

Let us not neglect the useful, delightful, and rather fun/goofy illustrations by Stanley Ditko, who is rapidly becoming a pillar of art in the fantasy culture. (He MUST get lots of jokes about being the cloned child of Spider-Man's two fathers!) Some of his art in this book is better than other pieces, but you'll enjoy watching his work grow in maturity and expression. Soon, we'll be saying we knew him when.

For twenty bucks, you get probably months of adventure for yourself, scenarios you can use on your players (heh heh heh!) and a chance to give your mailman a heart attack. Do not believe Lulu's claim that the book is only 2.06 pounds! I'm pretty sure that Mark translated incorrectly from that fantasy metric stuff.

And beware the snot monster!

*jeep! & God Bless!
 ----Grandpa Chet

A Wizard Went a-Wooing by Mark Thornton is $20 + much postage from  LuLu, the Other Tunnel & Trolls printer

Sneak Preview

Here's the cover of the solo I'm working on now....

The End Of Noah

Noah wasn't very interested in his sons but he did offer them a place on his ark if they helped out. As the great ship grew near to readiness, he had the boys either help him with the last few refinements to the ark of to look after the cooking and the animals on the farm. Shem and Jaepeth preferred house and farm work but Ham wanted to try his hand helping out his irrascible old dad.

Trouble was, he was such a clutz... Noah got pretty riled by the things Ham broke and cursed and cuffed him. The climax came that night at supper when Ham dropped a bowl of hot broth in Noah's lap. The old man was tired after a day's hammering and screwing and he leaped upon Ham.

Ham fought back and in the stress of the battle, he went 'were'. So did his brothers. Suddenly a were-pig, a were-wolf and a were-lion were laying into the boat builder and patricide descended into were-cannibalism as the brothers gave way to rage, hunger and cleared away the evidence.

They were nearly finished when there was  a knock at the door...

The Sons of Noah

While in Spain, we developed a campaign involving the three sons of Noah (Ham, Shem and Jaepeth). The starting point was Noah needing help finishing the ark because he knew a flood was coming. The twist was that the three boys were were-creatures: a pig, a wolf and a lion respectively).

We rolled for attributes as they were needed - Ham was very clumsy, Shem was stupid and totally devoid of charisma and Jaepeth was very slow. They turned out to have complementary skills and could make up for each others' weaknesses if they worked together but none of them were very lucky (it was tough to make a L1 SR). Swimming would come into it a lot predictably.

I shall write a little on how the game evolved tomorrow...

Joy Ride at Lulu

Here it is - in time for Christmas!

330 game paragraphs, I think, and a cast of dodgy characters borrowed from peculiar points of fiction... Watch out for those passing Wizard-Gods!

http://www.lulu.com/shop/mark-thornton/joy-ride/paperback/product-21325772.html