Sources Of Power

Almost forgot to mention. In my ongoing, massive re-write of the Tunnels and Trolls spell book, I'm drawing upon all of these resources:

• Tunnels and Trolls 7.5 Rulebook
• Codex Incantatem
• Codex Incantatem II
• Tunnels and Trolls HQ
• Dungeons & Dragons: Complete Arcane
• Sword & Sorcery: Advanced Players Guide
• GURPS: Magic (thanks to Tim Shorts for the heads up on this one)
• Dragon Warriors
• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

If there's a good one I've missed, I'd sure appreciate a point in the right direction. :0).

It's Bigger.. What Do You Know!?

Ever have one of those moments of realisation.. That comes way too late.

When I decided that I wanted to give the spell book for Tunnels and Trolls a bit of a sort, I figured piece of cake. All I had in mind after all was a re-classification of the spells already in the rulebook into new "classes". Then it struck me. Like a bolt of lightning it struck me!

Dividing the spells from 4 classes up into 17 new and different classes, whilst limiting new characters to having access to only two of these classes at creation is going to massively devalue the Wizard type. They'd only have a couple of spells.. At best!

This is suffice to say a problem. I either ditch the plan, cut down the number of classifications (which would kinda defeat the purpose) or, go with plan B: Add lots of new spells.

So if I tell you I have spent the better part of the evening after work sifting through Tunnels and Trolls 7.5 AND Dungeons and Dragons: Complete Arcane, I'm sure you can pretty much guess which route I've decided to take.

Which posses another question. All told, how many spells would you expect to find in a grouping and, what level should they run to?..

Okay that's two questions. ;0).

Alchemy's Workbench #11: Putting Meat On The Bones

In my last post, I made comment that I would be looking to tweak the new release of Dungeon!, the classic board game of dungeon crawling. Despite a couple of questionable choices with the revamp, this was nothing to do with Dungeon! being a bad game. I just think that it could be more.

So here's what I have brewing so far:

Leveling up: Whenever you roll a double that is greater than your current level (you start at level 1), you go up one level. This should give a nice curve to progression, making it harder to achieve higher levels, which I feel is truly representative of early role playing games (and more modern ones come to think of it). I intend to introduce bonuses based on class and race that will be gained at various levels but those are still very much on the drawing board.

Character Generation: Instead of going with the box standard Halfling Rogue, Elven Wizard etc, players will be able to mix and match race and class as they wish. The treasure target will depend upon the combination selected, so whilst certain races may offer bigger benefits to the player, they will need to earn more treasure in order to win.

The race / class build list looks like this so far, using those in the base game:

Class

Rogue: +5,000 GP

Cleric: +5,000 GP

Fighter: +10,000 GP

Wizard: +15,000 GP

Race

Halfling: +5,000 GP

Dwarf: +5,000 GP

Human: +10,000 GP

Elf: +15,000 GP

So a Human Rogue would need to collect 15,000 GP worth of treasure and return to the Great Hall to win the game and, would have access to the Rogues and Humans bonuses as they leveled up.

That's all that I have so far but I also have a few ideas for the bonuses that certain classes / races might grant the player as well as a few other modifications that I would like to add to the game, including different "Monster Attacks" tables for different classes, maybe introducing puzzles in addition to monsters and traps that simply cause a player to lose turns instead of inflicting damage upon failure to overcome them. The actual monsters, their levels and, their values also seriously need tweaking.

Dungeon! (2012): Huh?

I finally picked up a copy of the Wizards of the Coast re-release of the dungeon crawling classic, Dungeon! and, on closer inspection I have been left wondering, well, huh?

As much as I appreciate Wizards breathing new life into this game and opening it up to a new generation of gamers, without forcing them to trawl E-Bay, a number of the changes that they have made have left me puzzled. Some of which just defy logic.

For example, one of the cosmetic changes that they have made is to include a minotaur, which is great. Minotaurs are a firm favorite of mine. But as a level 1 monster? Really? A minotaur on the same level as goblins and kobolds. Level 2 is only orcs and hobgoblins and, you're telling me they're tougher than minotaurs!? The values that they have assigned to defeat these monsters seems more than a little arbitrary as well.

The other major change (other than a tweak to the way magic swords work) is to the characters. This change is purely cosmetic, meaning that instead of Elves, Heroes, Super Heroes and, Wizards you now have Halfling Rogues (instead of the Elf), Dwarven Clerics (instead of the Hero), Human Fighters (instead of the Super Hero) and, Elven Wizards (instead of the Wizard).

Despite being purely a re-branding of the old characters, I did find it interesting that the introduction of Dwarves, Clerics and, Halflings didn't draw upon the expansions for those very classes released for earlier versions of Dungeon!

So all in all, the new release has raised a lot of questions, for me at least, but I am sure as with the previous versions the fans will set it straight in the long run. I may even have a crack myself. As a start though, some veteran players have released some interesting variants on the Wizards website that are worth a look.

What Do You Know!?: Part Deux

Following on from my previous post on the handling of spells in Tunnels and Trolls I've decided that I am going to go down the colleges route with a twist.

At creation, a Wizard will begin play with all of the 1st Level spells from the two classes that they "majored in", with each class granting 5 spells.

If a Wizard tries to learn a spell from one of their majors later in their career, they will need to make an INT SR at that spells level to do so, double the level if it's a spell from a class that they didn't major in and, four times the level if they are attempting to learn a spell from a class that directly opposes one of their majors.

As for the actual schools of magic, I have a lot of ideas knocking around at the moment, including:

Fire

Water

Air

Earth

Medicinal Magic

Necromancy

Illusion

Enchantment

Shifting

Eldritch

Psychic

Prestidigitation

Alchemy

Scholarly

Witchcraft

Quite the list don't you think? Quite a way off complete too as I imagine that as I sift through all the currently existing spells and, add my own to make up the numbers, the nature of the colleges may well change.

So what do you think? Did I miss something that you'd like to see added?

Kremm 101

Commenting on a previous post, I complained (if complained is really the best word to use) about how I felt the allocation of WIZ costs within Tunnels and Trolls was fairly arbitrary (okay, it sounds a LOT like complaining).

However, after having spent the better part of this afternoon studying the spellbook like a first year apprentice at the Grand College of Wizardry, I have found that whether by coincidence or design, there is a pattern linking the level, cost, range and, duration of a spell. Of course, it doesn't apply to every spell in the book but, as the 7.5 manual I am working from had several different authors designing spells, that's no wonder.

Still, it makes for a nice framework when Wizards reach the 5th level and want to leave there own mark on the Trollish domain.. It'll also be all kinds of useful for my proposed plans to create new colleges of magic.

So here's what I have so far:

• The base cost to cast any spell is the level of the spell multiplied by three.

• Next apply the following range modifiers to the casting cost.

Up to 10 Feet: x1

Up to 20 Feet: x1.1

Up to 30 Feet: x1.15

Up to 40 Feet: x1.12

Up to 50 Feet: x1.25

Up to 100 Feet: x1.5

• Now multiply this new value by the desired modifier for duration

Up to 1 Combat Round: x1

Up to 2 Combat Rounds: x1.1

Up to 3 Combat Rounds: x1.15

Up to 4 Combat Rounds: x1.12

Up to 5 Combat Rounds: x1.25

Up to 10 Combat Rounds: x1.5

That's level, range, cost and, duration covered! Now all I need to do is build up some kind of list of what effects you can expect to generate at each level. Which is probably the trickiest part of the task at hand.

Some effects seem much easier than others to pigeon hole from a peruse of the spellbook, such as how much damage a spell can dish out, but I'd really love to hear what other people think a spell should do at any given level.

Can you really become invisible at level 2? What are your thoughts guys?

What Do You Know!?

Admission Fee: 10 DEX, 10 INT.

There's not much that I don't like about Tunnels and Trolls, but that's not to say it's perfect. Far from it, and one of the nagging problems I have with the latest edition (7.5, not the French 8th Edition or, the forthcoming deluxe edition) is the fact that 1st level Wizards start out with 20 spells spread across all four disciplines.

That's double the amount that their 5.5 counterparts started out with!

Granted, some of the new additions don't do anything towards tipping game balance but, that's not really the point. My problem isn't even the ever spiraling list of spells. My problem is that we've added so much new material and a Wizard is just a Wizard.

It's almost the assumption that everyone that goes off to Wizard college follows the same curriculum, when where in the real world we choose what to study based on the career we want to pursue or, we choose to learn more about the things that interest us. Either way, the keyword here is choice.

There is already a website out there (which I am struggling to find for some reason) that divided up the spells into such categories as "Fire Mage" and what not. Which, I felt was a great idea and, I have already archived Bruce V. Edwards great work on magical colleges over at my old website, which is exactly along the lines of what I would hope to achieve if I undertook this task myself.

So, my question is if you were in the driving seat of the deluxe Tunnels and Trolls project, how would you handle spells?

Flame On!

Human Torch by Covens Oz

When it comes to attack magic in Tunnels and Trolls, Take That You Fiend! is the standard, and, why not?

It's far more potent than any Magic Missile could ever be and, as the Wizard progresses and gains access to even more powerful magics it doesn't become redundant. Best of all, it's a part of your opening repertoire of spells, so it's a freebie!

This creates a bit of a problem though. With TTYF! at your disposal from the word go, why would you bother with spells like Call Flame and, Call Water? They cost more to cast and likely do less damage.. At least on the face of things, but take a look at that spell book again.

TTYF! cannot target inanimate objects. Call Flame can! So, whilst your TTYF! spell is always going to be subject to Kremm resistance, Call Flame can cause absolute havoc amongst your enemies with indirect attacks and the collateral damage that they can cause.

Don't believe me? Why not give some of these a try the next time you're at the gaming table:

• Blast a bow string: Render the Ranger's missile adds moot with this one.

• Flaming backpacks: Watch your foe struggle as the material sack he strapped to himself combusts. I hope there wasn't anything too expensive in there.. Or any flasks of oil.

• That'll cost you: Burn a rivals wand to run up their Kremm costs.

• Exploding lanterns: A sudden blast of fire should be more than enough to ignite all the oil in that lantern at once.

• Feel the burn: A sudden blast of fire should also be more than enough to heat a metal weapon to the point where it is too painful to hold on to.

• Blackpowder backfire: Gunnes are pricey, so why not trash one by igniting the powder in the breach. It might even go off with a bang.

• Typo: Any magical object that relies on runes to weave its spell could be rendered useless by a blast or two (particularly those made of precious / soft metal), warping the metal. 

Well worth the pandemonium for the cost of 1 extra WIZ.