Shipslam #1: Hobbit Hole #24

Shipslam? What is a "Shipslam"?

Cover art by Jeff Freels

Well as many of you in the Tunnels & Trolls fraternity will know, one of the biggest problems that your average troll faces isn't a maddened Dwarf with a bright orange mohawk, it's a mad hobbit. James Shipman (hence Shipslam) to put a name to the shame.

Not content with pirating the work of hard-working creatives, he also pillages the web for anything he can find of a Trollish nature to fill the pages of his now widely defunct magazine, The Hobbit Hole. No self respecting Troll would ever buy it but, respect has never really been a consideration of the party in question, so he pointlessly persists. Personally, we think it's just because he likes seeing his name in print.

So what is a Shipslam already!?

Shipslam is a new feature that is going to show you just where he has lifted "his" new material from. He wants you to pay for it, we want you to have it for free, just as the original author had intended. We also want all of his Internet traffic too, but one thing at a time. ;0). So without further ado, here it is, his original advert for The Hobbit Hole #24, with hyper-links directing you to all the original content, gratis. Enjoy!

T&T NEWS -- (NOW IN STOCK) The Hobbit Hole #24 (T&T Magazine). This huge 120+ page, 8-by-11 sized magazine is packed full of T&T goodies we know you will love. How could you not? This is the only full-sized T&T paper magazine being published today! REGULAR FEATURES: Of Hairy Feet and Taters... Editorial. T&T ARTICLES: The Creating Wizard – By Ken St. Andre, Writing T&T GM Adventures, Magic Items and Enchantments, A Monkey Throwing Stones at Monsters, Novels that remind you of T&T, New T&T Character Types:Barbarian / Marksman / Huntmaster / Starwatcher / Storyteller &Minstrel, New T&T Spells To Rule Them All – By Ken St. Andre, Dragon Parts, I Live In Geekdom, Solo Gaming Record Sheet, The Trollish Tribune – By Ken St. Andre, Shippy's Interview, Writing Solo Adventures – By Ken St. Andre, Miscellaneous House Rules. SOLO / GAMING: Shipy's Cheap Ass Old School ASCII Solo, The Great Forest [A T&T GM Adventure], Zombie Apocalypse [A T&T Solo], Rock Monster Mayhem and Roll [GM/Solo]. FICTION: Reborn From Ashes [A T&T Short Story]. COMICS / OTHER: Trollwood, Sprite Chaos, Misunderstanding, Lonely Walk, Limericks, C&C Ash the Rogue, New T&T Character Sheets. This new brand new magazine is now selling for-- PRICE: $13.00

A Few Good Reads

From talking about my blog to taking the time to talk about the blogs of others and, some of the fine posts (in no particular order) that have been entertaining me of late. If you have a moment, they are well worth checking out.

Adventures in the Wilderlands: A good write up by Ken Harrison of his most recent GURPS session told from the point of view of his Dwarven Fighter. I don't know nearly ehough about GURPS to say too much other than that it made for an entertaining read and, as a reader, surely that's all that should really matter.

The Adventure of Ulthor the Conjurer: Next up is another play through but one that strikes a little closer to home for me because not only is through a Tunnels and Trolls solo but, one that I happen to own and are yet to best.. Which is a fair description of anything beyond Buffalo Castle. Lol. At any rate it is an interesting insight into the Specialist Mage type and, how little being a Specialist Mage differs from being a Wizard in many respects early in your characters career (you're still likely to be turned into worm-food).

The adventure that Dan has chosen is an interesting one and, has left me itching to break out my copy again and give it a bash. Maybe with a Wizard of my very own. If the read through peaks your interest, you can pick up a copy yourself here.

A Brief History of GMing: Last but by no means least is Jerry Teleha's post over at The Delving Dwarf that takes you on a journey through his personal experiences as a GM. What worked, what didn't. Jerry is a very eloquent writer so you won't go far wrong with any of the stuff that he has posted, this particular entry however I felt was noteworthy.

A Little Experiment On A Monumental Scale

It's taken a lot of re-reads and a fair bit of time but, I am finally in position
where I am not only looking forward to playing Race For The Galaxy solo but, I also feel fairly confident so without constantly referencing the rulebook.

Much of the confusion arose as a result of the sheer mass of symbols that the game uses to denote it's functions. It's like trying to read hieroglyphs without a Rosetta Stone to hand. Not easy. Not by a long shot. I'm past that now though (thankfully). I'll still keep the rulebook to hand but, I now feel that I can muster enough basic vocab to order a coffee in a galaxy far far away and not be served with a rusted tin bucket by mistake. ;0).

So with this new knowledge under my belt, something that I thought might be fun would be to build whole empires from my play reports (which I also plan on sharing). It's something that I have done before when playing Munchkin, creating some weird and wonderful delvers, so why wouldn't it work on a galactic scale?

Will the people favor trade, politics, diplomacy or, military might? Let the cards decide.

The only factor that the cards won't really determine is ownership of the empire in question as Race For The Galaxy doesn't really go anyway towards covering such matters. Still, having an instant power block to throw into games like Starfaring and New Khazan seems like a pretty sweet deal.

Just add alien lifeforms. ;0).

Crossovers #1: One Way Ticket

A Nuclear War Card Game / Ticket To Ride Crossover created by Rick Loomis, Ken St Andre, and Laura Samuelson. Edited and re-posted here by me. :0).

You are playing Ticket To Ride as usual, with the following exceptions:

• Create a separate draw pile containing all of the Warheads, Carrier, and Antimissile cards from the Nuclear War Card Game.

• On your turn you may draw a card from the "Nuke Deck" in the place of drawing or taking a Train card. Cards drawn from the Nuke deck are treated as train cards, so on your turn you may take any combination of two Train / Nuke cards or, one face-up Wildcard as a draw action.

• Instead of taking your normal action on your turn you may choose to nuke a railroad if you have a Carrier and a Warhead that match. The nuked railroad and all other DIRECT connections between the two cities are destroyed and route markers returned to their prospective players.

• A Nuke may be countered if the player being attacked has an Antimissile capable of taking out the attacking Warhead, and wishes to play it. If not the train markers on the targeted line are returned to their players piles, and no-one may re-build that connection for 1-4 turns, depending upon the yield of the blast:

10 Megatons = 1 Turn.

20 Megatons = 2 Turns.

50 Megatons = 3 Turns.

100 Megatons = 4 Turns.

• These turns are counted down at once the player that launched the nuke has taken their turn, so please note that the player that launches the nuke will be the last to be given opportunity to re-build there! Also please note that Bombers remain in play until they have dropped a full 50 Megatons worth of nukes, or are shot down by an Antimissile.

• Once a Ticket is completed, it is cashed in for points immediately (because that railroad may not be there for long) but, kept by the player who completed it. At the end of the game, the player with the most completed lines receives 10 bonus points.

You can read the original text here or, order your copy of the Nuclear War Card Game here.

Crossovers: Because Two Games Can Be Better Than One!

Whilst sifting through my Facebook feed this morning, I found a very interesting post from Rick Loomis over at Flying Buffalo. A very interesting post indeed!

Both he and Ken St. Andre are very talented games designers and, it seems that like myself, they can't help but wonder what could be done "better" when they sit down to a game. Even games with high production values. This isn't because we like to think that we know better though.

As I see it, all games designers, and indeed all creatives are free to express themselves and their ideas as they wish through their work. I wasn't there at the birth of the brainchild so who am I to say that they got it wrong unless they've made some glaring error?

So, for me, tinkering with a game is more like seasoning to taste and, we all have different ideas on what tastes good, and what's foul. That's why there are so many games out there! A creative individual sees  something they like, cuts away what they don't and those changes change again and again through active play until what you have is a completely new game that doesn't resemble anything like the original, except the theme.

Frankly, it's a great way to go, and you have to consider that the fans have a lot more freedom than designers. Fans can rummage through other games for components without the fear of being sued! Designers have to make everything look fresh, new, and different. So as a fan, you have a lot more freedom, and, thanks to the Internet, great chunks of the gaming community have ways and means to share their ideas.

What's all this building up to though?

A lot more crossover related content from me hopefully. There are a lot of interesting ideas floating around and I want to hook in the ones that catch my eye to share with you all, starting with the two recent additions by Ken, Rick and, Laura Samuelson.

What A Low Life Says, What A Low Life Means.. What A Low Life

Anyone familiar with the shady deeds surrounding Shipman and his one man mission to, I assume, try and destroy Tunnels and Trolls will probably no doubt be familiar with the fact that there is no low or demented level to which he will not sink in his cru-very sad-e.

Anything that will get him a few extra page hits and the attention that is both his life-blood and the oxygen it carries to his black heart.

So why give him what he needs?

Simply because I have a voice here, where on his site there is no room given to comment. So when he lies (signified by sound when his lips move) I can speak and, when he steals (and he does this a LOT), I can give you a link to the real deal. Whatever he does, I can set the record straight.

Starting with his latest humdinger, what he says:

"T&T NEWS -- Our friend and artist Jeff Freels who does work for Outlaw Press has sent us this new large print Tunnels & Trolls Character Sheet. So I thought I would share it with everyone. Just click on it to see it and make yourself a copy. Enjoy!"

And now, what he means:

"I have uploaded a copy Jeff Freels entry into Ken St. Andre's contest over at the Trollgod's Trollhalla in the hope that you will somehow think we work together. I admire Jeff's work greatly and I hope that my inclusion of it here makes me look more popular than I really am. Enjoy!"

Someone Already Did It!

Simpsons already did it!

I set my mind to "design mode" this morning, using Tunnels and Trolls as my framework and reached a somewhat startling realization that even with my fandom I had overlooked and, brought to mind some of the exploits of Professor Chaos.

It seemed that every idea that I came up with had already been done by someone, somewhere, some how.

Which ironically has still given me more than enough to write about! It's just not the post I was looking for. ;0).

So what have I found?

Pretty much that no matter what genre you want to set your game in, Tunnels and Trolls has you covered.

Now, that wasn't exactly news to me as I have always considered T&T to be a truly flexible gem but, keeping by and largely to high fantasy role playing I really hadn't given too much thought to just what else was out there on the market.

Each and everyone of these products is more than deserving of it's own post (which it will receive in the fullness of time) but, as a brief overview for those of you that want to jump ahead, here are some items that are well worth looking up.

Science Fiction: Peryton Publishing has really covered the genre well with their release of New Khazan, taking the familiar Tunnels and Trolls tropes to infinity and beyond!

Modern / Pulp: Mercenaries, Spies and, Private Eyes by Michael A. Stackpole, whilst not being true Tunnels and Trolls is so close to the original that adjusting to it's many nuances (all completely necessary I might add for the genre) should be light work for any budding gamer.

Horror: Currently being play tested but already looking amazing, Stay Alive by Jerry Teleha will no doubt become your one stop shop for Tunnels and Trolls Horror. Definitely one to keep a watchful eye on.

In the meantime however, it should be noted that there is an article within Mercenaries, Spies and, Private Eyes (called "Tunnels and Thompsons") for playing Call of Cthulhu style scenarios, which I believe was the original idea behind the re-write.

Supers: Ken St Andre has released a product in this field called Power Trip that has sadly fallen out of production as far as I can tell but, not to worry. The fine mind that is Dan Prentice has written up some great ideas for introducing supers into the existing Tunnels and Trolls rules here, at the Trollbridge.

There is probably, okay, almost certainly many more genres besides but in my opinion these are the biggies and, they're covered!

Someone already did it! ;0)

Minotaurs & Marauders

Nope, it's not yet another OSR game that plays on alliteration but rather an idea that I have been playing with over the past week or so, brought to the fore front by this post by the Trollgod himself, Ken St Andre over at Trollhalla.

The subject of which is minotaurs.

Whilst minotaurs are pretty much the reserve of the monster manual in most systems, playing Tunnels and Trolls (or Monsters! Monsters!) gives you the opportunity to bring one to the table as a player character.

In my experience, this can be a lot of fun.

What I have been procrastinating over of late though is the lifestyle of the minotaur. What makes them tick and, what causes them to seek adventure?

After much thought I have decided that the minotaurs in my world are representative of the dark age vikings of our world. It just tallies so well. Both are type cast as mighty warriors with short tempers and a warriors pride, with the seemingly inverse hedonistic nature that causes them to revel in mead, feast and the spoils of war.

So the motivation for adventure may be a their natural wanderlust, a desire to have their name sung in epic song by their kinsmen, the pursuit of wine and women or, simply the need to fulfill their urge for glorious battle.

I also see minotaurs that choose to live in clans (or as Ken puts it more accurately, "herds") as being dominated by one individual in particular. An alpha if you will but, I must concede that this may very well not be an alpha male as there is nothing to suggest that the minotaur females could not be every part the equal of the males. In many respects this would cast them as Valkyries rather than simple cattle, which I feel ties in nicely with the Nordic motif.

All the members of one of these such herds will most likely carry a common name as well as their given name that marks them as a member of that herd, which will often be derived from that of the alpha (or one of the alphas forefathers should they wish). This name will also be expected to be carried by any outsider that joins the clan as a sign of respect for the herd.

My final thought on minotaurs is that they have an attitude towards title and treasure unlike many of the other major kindreds in Trollworld, in that it belongs to whoever can defend it.

So if any minotaur believes that they are better suited to the role of alpha they may openly challenge the head of the herd to trial by combat. Such battles rarely involve weapons and are almost certainly never fought to the death. They are more akin to wrestling matches, that are resolved only by one party yielding to the other, with the winner taking title and the loser often slinking off with their honor wounded to seek redemption in combat elsewhere (which often means raiding a settlement and returning to the clan with the spoils as proof of their actions).

This attitude can also make for some interesting encounters when a minotaur enters general society.

For example, can you imagine a delver running into one of these guys in the alehouse laden with treasure and telling tales of his most recent exploits. This would almost certainly be seen as a challenge to any minotaur within earshot, where upon it would calmly walk over and DEMAND that the delver give him his haul.

This could end in a suddenly very poor delver, minotaur wrestling or, if the delver is silly enough to draw a weapon, probable death!

Review: Monsters! Monsters!

What is Monsters! Monsters!?

It could be said that and, I indeed have said so, that Monsters! Monsters! (M!M!) is the sister game of Tunnels and Trolls.

Whilst that is the case, a re-read of the rules has lead me to reconsider my stance on this considerably. Although the rulebook gives you everything that you need to run your very own M!M! session, the level of detail is minimal and, not much beyond what is made available to you freely here in the free abridged Tunnels and Trolls rules.

So should you pick up a copy? Definitely!

Whilst I would say that M!M! is far from being a complete and concise product (it is only 45 pages long), it makes for one hell of a supplement! So, if you own a copy of the Tunnels and Trolls rules this would make one great purchase for you.

So what do you get for your money?

52 new kindreds.
A new type, the Monster.
A description of each monstrous kindred.
An alternative means of missile combat.
The Special Monster Magic supplement by Bear Peters.
Wandering enemy (instead of wandering monster) tables.
Random treasure tables for your random enemy encounters.

Convinced? Pick up your copy here or, here ($7.50).

What He Lacks In Originality, He Makes Up For In Lack Of Originality

Well, I really wish that I had seen this sooner...


T&T NEWS -- (COMING SOON) This is the brand new Rule Book for Tunnels & Trolls that will be released by Outlaw Press Inc very soon. It will be called Tunnels & Trolls Solo Rules - 8th Edition and it will have a mixture of all the rule editions. As the title implies, it will help those who aspire to be better Solo Writers and Solo Players, with special rules devoted to solo play. This will be the largest edition of Tunnels & Trolls ever released. This version will offer many new and exciting features, such as updated rules, several new character races, additional equipment, new weapons, combat examples, new spells, a new treasure generator, all set in the World of Kaball (i.e. Trollworld), but designed specifically for the Solo Player and Writer in mind. This web site will be the only place you can purchase a copy of the Tunnels & Trolls Solo Rules. As you can see by the picture, the new book is coming together very quickly. Who hasn't really wanted a set of Tunnels & Trolls Rules that dealt primarily with Solo Rules? Watch this space and you will get your chance to buy a copy of this Deluxe Edition! It will sell for-- PRICE: $15.00

Because I love to start the day with a laugh.

A lot of people think that the secret to humor is surprise but with Ken St Andre's recent announcement of a deluxe edition of the Tunnels and Trolls roleplaying game going into development, James Shipman trying to jump on the bandwagon is no great shocker to anyone.

Have no doubt however, that what is being pushed by James (ILLEGALLY) as a new product will be no more than a poorly edited crapfest.

Looking through the advert I strongly suspect that the basis for his latest pathetic cry for attention will be the 7.5 box set released by Fiery Dragon. This edition was packed with tons of new equipment, new spells and, pretty much everything else that he's trying to suggest that he's been "working on" for his "brand new" rule book.

On top of this it would appear that he plans to slap in a couple of articles from previous issues of the Hobbit Hole on the subject of solo writing, in my opinion unquestionably without the original authors permission.

Trawling further through his web of lies, the next thing that stands out to me is that he starts out by calling the product, the "Tunnels and Trolls Solo Rules - 8th Edition", which then becomes just the "Tunnels and Trolls Solo Rules" and, ends up being the "deluxe edition".

This is just wrong on so many levels, in no small part due to the fact that the 8th edition of the rules already exists! Next we have to take into account that James has no legal ownership over the Tunnels and Trolls name, so no right to use it without permission. Last but not least, Ken is already working on a completely different product that will become the deluxe edition.

So he can't legally call it a Tunnels and Trolls product. Even if he could, 8th edition is already out there and, the deluxe edition is also already in the works...

Still, this is exactly what I have come to expect of Shipman and, he never fails to disappoint with his string of disappointing failures.

Week Of The Troll: Wrapping Up

Tunnels and Trolls 1st Edition

Well it's day seven, the sky is growing heavy and, it's just about time to draw a close to the week of the troll.

So as an extra special treat, settle yourselves into your bed and let me tell you a story. Through an act of fortunate serendipity the Trollgod himself, Ken St Andre only hours ago posted up his recollection of how it all began.

Although the information in the post itself would seem to date back as far as 1997, it's still well worth a read and, makes for an insightful end to a fun week.

Enjoy!

Links

The Origins of Tunnels and Trolls