Trollzine #9

Trollzine!

I find myself in the editor's seat with the intention of unleashing old no.9 early in 2018, in the long Aotearoan summer holidays.

I have picked up quite a bit of material from Gaptooth and have already elicited a heady mix of more offerings and promises of goodies from the shining stars of the Trollworld heavens.

I shall not be able to stop myself from lobbing a few T&T hand grenades into the cauldron and there are others in New Zealand marching militantly towards D Day (delivery day).

Your Trollworld needs you! Heed the call to arms, a place where the Muse descends and kisses the brow of writers and artists alike.

You've got it in you, now let it out...

The Bower of Bliss

Charlie and rolled up 2 L1 wizards, Volipiter the Gusty and Saruman, and they have been adventuring in a couple of solos. The second is KStA's Infinite Adventure. We stumbled across a puritan called Kyle on a beach and he's rowing us to a place called the Bower of Bliss after we declined to pay the 1,000 GP fee to just get there effortlessly.

Unfortunately the solo's paragraphs ran out before we got there and before we worked out if Kyle is a friend or not.

We have been plotting and ferreting about, asking the dice key questions and now we know that Kyle is a L11 wizard with what looks like an untamed deluxe magic staff.

The Bower of Bliss is utterly evil but not very dangerous. It is run by one of the Arch-Demon Ashgoleth's lieutenant's, Terju, the lord of a realm of fire and hatred.

The danger will come from rolling a critical fumble and we have to survive 10 life or death challenges.

In determining all this, we both rolled critical fumbles twice in a row. I estimated the odds of this being 10,006 to 1 and it actually is 104,976 to 1 so I scored about 95% for my estimate.

The Bower of Bliss is a 16th century poem by Edmund Spenser.

More Sightings of Monsters and Delvers in Hawaii

I didn't go looking for trouble and I wasn't seeking adventure but I certainly found it...

 

Fairies go surfing in Hawaii.

 

Imps like drying their wings at dusk at Waikiki.

 

The do tend to stalk the fairies.

 

But they can't catch them so they try to catch waves instead.

 

The dice do appear to be loaded.

 

The skeletons get spooked easily.

 

Not surprising given how fierce the warriors are.

Unexpected Evidence That World's Premiere Artist Has Moved To Hawaii

Seen in Honolulu car park...

The Blunderbus Adventure

Here is the recently constructed dome, replete with dwarves mutated into gharg guards, at the neck of the Undead Peninsula where the Blunderbis adventure is taking place:

The game has 7 players and all the pcs are dwarves. 4 of the players are new to T&T. They have taken to it like ducks to water. For me, it has the makings of the Best Group Ever :)

Meanwhile, do some clearing out, I rediscovered these:

The Shrouded Hall of Makadee

This is my contribution to a collaborative L3-6 dungeon being brewed at the Trollbridge...

It's rather AR Holmes, I think, gothic and dangerous!

The door to this room (5’ wide and 15’ high, 3” thick) has a steel, virtually indestructible, clock set into its bronze surface. The hands of the clock are not moving. Magic can be detected from the clock – it has a ‘duration’ spell on it. Skulls are embossed around the edges of the door.

The door can be opened only if the hands of the clock – currently at 6.30 – are moved to 12 o’clock. If this is done, a ‘click’ will be heard which signifies the lock mechanism being sprung. Once started, the clock winds anti-clockwise. An Omnipotent Eye spell will now reveal that anyone not passing through the door will have a Hell Bomb Bursts go off inside their head when the clock completes its cycle back to 12 again. [Note for GM – if the pcs do not use Omnipotent Eye and then Glue You, they will really be racing against time.]

The hands are moving at a speed that will allow them to get back to 12 in 30 minutes. A further OE spell will reveal that the clock can be slowed by a Glue You spell to give double the time.

Beyond the door, the room is 50’ wide by 120’ long, with a ceiling covered with spikes some 20’ above the floor, which is a sheet of heavily oiled steel – very slippery so L1 DEX for physical activities requiring moderate movement, L2 + for more ambitious manoevres. The spikes will only fire downwards if the ceiling is struck hard (eg by the statue in a fight perhaps) – each pc would be hit by 1d6 spikes doing 2d6 damage each directly through armour with the level of a SR made on their choice of LK, DEX or SPD reducing the damge by 2 per level.

The walls are mirrors and the room is filled with musky mist, coming from large braziers burning in each of the 4 corners. Visisbility is no better than a half-moon, cloudy night. The braziers could be overturned with L4 SRs on STR. The mist saps those breathing it in so that SRs become 1 level higher every 5 minutes (L2 INT to notice, GM to get players to roll without telling them what for).

In the centre of the room is a statue of a 6-armed spider-eyed humanoid monster. The statue is 10’ up on a pale blue cube of rock, 10’ for all dimensions. The statue is itself 8’ tall and carries 3 bows and has a large sheaf of arrows on its back, as well as having 2 scimitars on each hip. It is magical and cannot be affected by magic less than L10 while un-animated. Its many eyes are rubies which can fire heat rays when it is active. The rubies are worth 2000 GPs in total.

The statue activates when a mirror is cracked. If this happens, the pc breaking a mirror must make a L7 SR on LK or appear to become instantly unlucky – a black cat tattoo appears on the back of each hand with the number 13 beside it (permanent). In fact, the pc just suffers the next SR being 13 levels higher (APs to boot) unless a critical fumble was rolled in which case the unlucky run is 13 SRs.

When a mirror is broken, the room begins to fill with thick green slurry from the place where the glass broke. The slurry smells very nasty. PCs need to make a L1 SR on CON of fight at 50% combat adds until washed off. If it is consumed, it reduces all physical attributes by 1d6 permanently. The slurry can be used to hide from the animated statue – or be hurled at it (the slurry will make bow shots harder by 1 level and the monster fights at 50% effectiveness if knocked into it – as do the pcs unless they make L3 SRs on the average of STR and DEX).

The monster has MR600 and cannot be harmed by magic or physical assaults until activated. Makadee will fire at the unluckiest 3 pcs each round until forced to join melee combat. It needs only avoid a critical fumble to be on target and does 4d6 damge directly through armour per hit. PCs can reduce the damage taken with successful LK SRS – L1 reduces by 25%, L2 by 50% and so on. The monster resists direct magical attacks if the caster’s WIZ is less than 60. It will attempt to slash ropes thrown about it once animated (its SPD is 20 if this is needed should the pcs attempt to topple it). The mosnter’s eyes can also do damage – it will target the smartest pc and do 2d6 direct damage unless that pc is able to make a L2 SR on either DEX or SPD to evade the attack.

The block of stone the monster stands on has 2 secret doors, one facing the pcs aas they enter, the other at the rear. They take an Oh There It Is spell or a L3 SR on any of INT, LK or DEX to find (the GM should listen carefully to what the pcs say they are doing rather than give an easy choice). The door at the front is unlocked and teleports pcs out of the room.

The rear door in the stone is also unlocked and contains a slim silver headband with the words, “Don’t Think To Possess Me”. The crown is magical but gives off a zap doing 2d6 damage if anyone attempts to cast magic on it (eg Omnipotent Eye). To possess the power of this artefact, a pc must fail a L1 SR on INT – the gain is to be able to cast the equivalent of Hold That Pose with one’s eyes (need to lock onto the target’s eyes) -  the immobilising effect lasts for 30 seconds and impacts on creatures with MRs up to 10 times the wearer’s INT  (or not greater than the caster’s INT for npc, etc).

All this against the clock! GMs might adjust the time allowed if it seems clear it will be too short but the screws should be turned! Any pc surviving this room should be awarded 600 APs.

The Games People Play

The Fun Boy Three and Bananarama once sang that "it ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it."

Fair call.

We just has a skype game with my mum, 4 of us. We played D&D mechanics - there were no fights and it felt just like T&T.

It's just a matter of how much freedom a GM allows the players and if he/share is prepared to skip happily off into the unknown.

Of course, it was T&T really - a rose by any other name.

This Charles II - he is a life domain cleric. Apparently, the party's composition means he should be in the front line fighting but Charlie thinks in Ebony and Ivory - as Paul said to Michael, "I'm a lover, not a fighter." So he's going to stay back with my wizard and do what healing he can, refusing to be a war-gamer.

Appearances Can Be Deceptive

I look here and see no activity - shame on me!

Beyond the surface, if not beyond the pale, several GM campaigns continue and a new one has begun involving a party of dwarves travelling home on the 'Blunderbus' who get sidetracked by a shanty town of vampire dwarves alongside the construction of a dome fortress at the head of the Undead Peninsula.

I have also finished the first section of 'Ocean's Edge', a seafaring solo where players can advance from apprentice to captain, joining the crew of either a merchantman, a naval man of war or a pirate. The first section dealing with the adventures of the apprentices weighs anchor at 405 paragraphs.

I recently made a friend in Joel at a session for TOG players. hee quickly decided T&T and he were a match made by Swan Vesta in heaven and abandonned involvemnt in wargamer mechanics for role-playing frivolity - he has already written a solo which will soon see the light of day!

The Trollgod Shows Who's Boss

Relaxing after overcoming the Giant Skeletal Ram of Miranda:

New Game On

"Chain Gang" by Sam Cooke came on the car stereo. It inspired a chain gang game.

The motorway sign read 'Walmsley Road' so Walmsley entered Trollworld.

I had in mind a game of attrition. We rolled Walmsley up with 8 rolls of 3d6, the attributes in strict order.

The dice had a clearer plan that I did - triples came up for CON and he emerged as a wizard who is a CON specialist.

With a rating of 24, the automatic doubles rule made L5 SRs easy. He casr no spells and manned up to every brutality the guards and the warden served up. He won money from inmates taking punches from big dudes.

I think an escape is on the cards...but maybe the dice will determine otherwise.

I Played D&D at the Weekend

I went to a D&D day at Auckland university with Charlie on Saturday - my character got killed and resurrected in all 3 sessions, as did the whole group. It was good to meet new people and I appreciated the friendliness and the effort put in but...

...there was zero role-playing, mechanical dice rolling and it had about as much to do with T&T-style play as Monopoly!

Then I found this on Google:http://angrydm.com/2014/08/three-shocking-things-you-wont-believe-about-dd-combat/

Not just me then.

I agree very much with the writer in not regarding combat as a separate game and not liking it to be so formulaic and stuck.

It seems to me that 'initiative' is the problem - and what a misnomer :)

The Trollgod has Fallen to Pieces!

Yesterday my new set of miniatures arrived - complete with a Trollgod in four pieces! Time for a Glue You spell.

Darcy has done a great job again as you can see in the photos below...

You can also see the character sheet for my fun-loving dwarf warrior, Meaty Mutt.

There two are Souza Fortescue, dwarf wizard, and House Elf, human wizard. Much written about and featured in the Deluxe T&T rulebook, last seen skiiing...

Random characters from the streets of Auckland.

Man having problems with broken glass.

A submerged countryside my way after a wet summer and a very wet start to autumn.

The Eye of the Kobra

Here's the gist of a T&T game I ran for 7 (mainly D&D) players on Sunday...

The Eye of the Kobra

The Kobratov family’s ancestral estate has lain in ruins for many years. Family members hire the pcs to journey there from Nesstlehaven to search for a diamond they believe has never been removed from their lands which will restore the family to greatness.

The two brothers, Dimitri and Sergei, and their two sisters, Irina and Katerina, buy the pcs tickets on the barge, the Rock Bottom, run by the dwarven captain, Dugmore Graves (L4, +36 adds). Some pcs are hired by one sibling, some by another, all for a handsome fee, trebled for success. The pcs are provided with amethyst amulets which allow communication with the Kobratovs – but it is the Kobratovs who control the amulets and who can see through them.

The journey through the underground canals is some 7000 miles and should take 45 days. The one-way ticket price is 1000 GPs. The contract price per pc varies according to who hired them but is in the range 500-1000 with board thrown in, with the expectation that up to 2 weeks searching of the ruins is part of the agreement.

Graves has mate, Mason Dixie (L2, +12 adds), to help him run the barge. Dixie is a gemcutter and Graves trades in gems as well as carrying passengers (the fare is GPs one way). Dixie is mute. The other crew member is Gnarla Root (L2, +1 adds), an elderly woman who acts as cook and cleaner. She is reputed to know a range of spells but will be very slow to warm to the pcs.

Graves has been warned of trouble on this trip, for he has a particularly valubale diamond he has transporting to the Lord of faraway Portree. For this reason, he has hired two minotaurs as extra secuirty, one named Hornpipe (L3, +30 adds), the other Bullwhip (L3, +30 adds), as well as their controller, a leprechaun called Biddlecombe (L2, +20 adds).

The truth if this voyage is a little different. The Eye of the Kobra contains the spirit of the first Kobratov, Uri, who is quite mad and who can manifest in semi-physical form. The Eye has been in the possession of the family matriarch, Olga, who has hired Graves to take it home to the ancestral estate. She believes once there, Uri will regain sanity and solidity and will join with her in forging a realm to surpass Portree itself.

Her children have learned of her plan. They either wish to take control of the Eye and Uri themsleves or see it destroyed or made safe.

Uri has managed to separate from the Eye – although – he cannot go far from it - but has kept this from Olga. In fact, the Eye can be used to control him. Graves has realised some of this and has driven Uri into the very bottom of his boat but the strain has told. Finally, fearing Uri is becoming too strong, he has given the diamond to Dixie to hide amongst all the others he is working on, thinking it best to prevent Uri from taking possession of the Eye himself.

All this has happened before the Rock Bottom leaves Nesstlehaven.

Episodes

1. The mission – being hired in the Crippled Sphynx Tavern by the half-uruk, Gratz Fulmer, receiving the amulets; each pc receives a contract from a particular Kobratov
2. Meeting the captain and seeing the boat
3. Attack by goblin archers from a bridge (need 13 to hit from bridge, 3d6 damage)
4. The captain falls into a coma at the tiller
5. The pcs find out about the Eye from Biddlecombe (who has limited telepathy) after 2 shivans attack (MR70), climbing onto the boat from the wate
6. The traps set in the captain's quarters – gas, darts and a ferrethog (MR30) under the bed
7. Losing control of the boat - the rapids (flat but fast and dotted with dangerous rocks)
8. The amulets speak
9. The race for the diamond as Uri stalks the Rock Bottom – WIZ SRs to use Eye to control Uri, CON SRs to survive his touch, INT/CHR SRs to survive his mad wails and hypnotising eyes, LK SRs to strike him while partially solid

Gm Games on the Go

Not sure I can keep a grip on what is happening all around me...

1 -Over at Castle Orinthos, the Duck Wizard is trying to restore his castle and needs to journey to the Jungles of Phantog with his trusty, reexcavated living statue servant, Ronina. After two big run ins with bands of trolls, they are after the very rare chickenite which is reputed to be good for restoration masonry.

2- Leaving the town of Blaghas, the dwarf Maxwell (a mayo fanatic), the second rate alchemist Omuga and the former-L9 wizard-now-talking-Scooby Doo-dog Pawbone are on the trail of Pawbone's cyclops friend, Jawbone. Once again chickenite is in the mix. They have just left the town of Roundsquare with another former-wizard-now-creature, Slowcoach the Snail - who has been enlarged and whose tardis-like shell they are now travelling in. Despite several almost-moments, they never quite entered the annual bowling contest in Roundsquare, despite taking out mutant skinheads, a clackerman et al...

3 - Qadouche - with Studley now king and Runey prince, things would be looking good but there's always a but... van Persie still can't get it together as the new ponifex and has just destroyed the Staff of Rains and the old pontifex at the small town of Bodrun. They are unpopular in Qadouche because of the ongoing drought and are off to the Pyramid of Kafacaca to find the next pontifex down the time chain - but they find a cult of hermits who have all taken his name. Confusing!

4 - Vulgaria - out of the Palace of the Silver Princess with the precious ruby, My lady's Heart, the group are now faced with a take-ever by Lady Dognes of Gulluvia who has hired an army of mercenary ogres. With the Bear Cult in the background, Colin, Conan, Aldeross, Big Hobbie and Dominia need to find the means of stopping Dognes and her ogres.

5 - Deep Space 9 crossover: Garrick flies through a Higgs-Boson field to escape a Dominion ambush and finds himself stranded without technology in a massive forest before befriending a simple jelleton family.

6 - 50 years into the future, just before First Contact: smuggler running forbidden goods through the US/Mexico forcefield wife gets entangled with Government scientist, trying to leak the news of alien threat to the outside world, a fastfood ordinary joe - and then dicovers his lovely Mexican wife has been transferring 90% of his income to her extended family.

And there are more... but I won't remember them until they just resurface of their own volition :)

Caves of Nerja - artwork finished

Yay! Addicted to writing solo paragraphs instead of watching YouTube or being on Facebook so I've started the next one - a rollicking pirate adventure (more later).

Here's a recent illo for Caves:

Games Galore

I've been quiet since I got back from Thailand because I've ust been running too many games! Is this a bad thing? Can't be, can it :)

Here's some artwork doodled recently by a player as the game went along. Pretty cool...

Monsters at the palace in Bangkok

This guy and his mate prompted an in-depth conversation spun out of a Trollbridge debate on whether a warriors' bonus is excessive at 1d6 per level as against +2 per level. The contention was that at L15 it would be. We saw this guardian with MR200. The L15 warrior we imagined was pitted against two of them. They would have been the victors with the +2 bonus because of spite while on the extra dice basis things were evenly matched. Conclusion: the extra dice per level shouldn't ruin your game at that high level.

We agreed that we had not had any significant palace game as castles had dominated. Then again, I've never seen a palace like this one anywhere else.

This monster seemed pretty quirky but not one to underestimate.

We suspected this guy was wielding a Thai knobwhacker.

Now she seemed ready to charm delvers into a false sense of security.

I didn't know they had leprechauns in Thailand...

End of Day 6 Standings

(Just the front runners.)

1 - Dworphi: 3 clues solved, getting close to mountain #4

2 - Souza: 3 clues solved, on the way to mountain #4

3 - Grawp: 3 clues solved, stuck on the mountain for Day 7 after falling foul of yetis

4 (equal) - Mr. Jenkins and Meaty Mutt, both struggling to solve the third clue

6 - Sir Geoffery: fumbling about trying to find the third clue

Most of the others are on their way to the third mountain. At the back of the field are Cuddles, Rooney and Pencilvania, all failing to crack the second clue, while Chi Chi is having disaster after disaster and hasn't even got their yet. Having established a Chaos Cult shrine on the first mountain, Lepacin is now taking things more seriously.

At the end of Day 5, Gibby and Bad Boy found themsleves camped out together overnight and composed I rather endless drinking song consisting of verse after verse of all the things they'd like to see f*cked up.

Ski Race Standings

After 3 nights in the mountains, the leaderboard looks like this:

1- Dworphi (grew to immense power in the fabled Goblin Crag dungeon) - 2 clues solved, streaking on to the third mountain without raising sweat thusfar

2- Grawp (human) within striking distance of his old friend (also a Goblin Crag veteran)

3- Souza Fortescue (dwarf wizard, rescued many moons ago from enforced servitude in GC) - camped overnight on the second mountain but ready to race for the next peak on the morrow

4 (equal) - Minster (minotaur of Rainbow Castle fame), Meaty Mutt (mercenary dwarf with a 'take it on' attitude to life), Sir Geoffery de Boyks (animated suit of armour powered up in a Boozer solo), Bad Boy Bernard Michaux (human engineer-warrior, co-founder of Pythagorax and infamous bridge-saboteur) - all these fell foul of yetis after solving the second clue

8 (equal) - Mr. Jenkins (human pyromaniac four-armed servant of the demon Zorgoth) - stuck overnight on the second mountain without having solve the clue yet; Sentinel (centaur) - trying to prove that quadrupeds are fine on skis, also stumped on second clue

10 - Shoppie - businessman/politician not quite at second peak yet after breaking skis on Day One

11 - Lucky (dwarf owner of continent-wide transport business) - finding roads to be easier than snow

12 - Pencilvania (vampire animations artist) - the ban on magic has left him without any aces to play

13 - Donald Neuf-Trump (human wizard with Control ring) - again, the barring of magic is proving a big hurdle to overcome

14 (equal) - Reccardio (elf archer and all round social pariah) - not being able to shoot people leaves little left up his sleeve; Cuddles (human) - being as nice as Reccardio is obnoxious is yet to pay dividends

16 - Kangaroo Jack - bound to pick up sooner or later...

17 - Nux Fractor (ball-breaking human) - done nothing to interest spectators thus far

18 (equal) - Chi Chi (famous for escaping from Khosht and consistently annoying Reccardio) - not finding it easy to make progress in this company and now missing Day Four after falling foul of yetis; Spontanous Combustius (bad-tempered human) - troubled by ski problems on Day One and now set to miss Day Four after failing to deal with yetis (probably best not to ask for autographs at the moment)

20 (equal) - Gibby (co-founder of Pythagorax, divorced by a With-Goddess and using just one ski to go with his axe leg) - failed to solve first clue and entirely indifferent; House Elf - thoroughly distracted by Gibby at the first peak - didn't even find the clue; Lepacin (jelly-blob leprechaun high-priest of the Chaos Cult) - hasn't been able to solve first clue yet after taking more than a day to find it; Rooney (he of the magic socks, now Prince of Qadouche) - couldn't solve first clue and not in a good mood

From Stars to Snow

The Space Olympics turned out to be a triumph for the original Star Trek series - the Klingons got gold fairly comfortably with the Romulans pushing ahead of the pack for second place.

Now back to Tunnels & Trolls and a skiiing in the Mountain Kingdom. The challenge is to ski to 12 different mountains, find and solve a clue there, ward off yeti attacks without harming the yetis and make it back to Dobby's palace. The first one back might not necessarily win if they have not solved all the clues.

We have 23 contestants and the mechanics work like this:

• there is a set distance to each mountain
• each contestant can ski a distance equal to the lower of a STR and CON saving roll
• instead of using full attributes, a modifier is given based on the full attribute with a maximum of +10; 2d6 DARO are rolled and the modifier applied
• each clue has a level of difficulty set to find it; the SR is on LK with the modifier for LK added
• each clue has a level of difficulty set to solve it; the SR is on INT
• on each mountain yetis attack; the yetis get different numbers of dice on different mountains, ranging from 2-4 (no DARO); contestants get 2d6 no DARO and may add in a DEX, CHR or SPD modifier to deal with the threat; losing to yetis means a day lost
• critical fumbles on STR relate to ski damage; those on on CON relate to health problems - possible skiiing distance is reduced to just 1d6 after a c/f
• No magic is allowed

The contestants are:

Warrriors: Dworphi, Grawp, Lucky, Mr.Jenkins, Kangaroo Jack, Meaty Mutt, Sir Geoffery de Boyks, Rooney, Bad Boy Bernard Michaux, Minster, Sentinel

Rogues: Chi Chi, Gibby Honeydew

Wizards: House Elf, Souza Fortescue, Donald Neuf-Trump, Cuddles, Nux Fractor, Spontaneous Combustius, Lepacin

Citizens: Shoppy, Pencilvania

Kindreds entered: human, dwarf, elf, hobbit, vampire, minotaur, centaur, kanga-kin, leprechaun