Swordplay You Say?

Talents are one of the few big tweaks that came with Tunnels and Trolls 7.x. There was also obviously a couple of new attributes thrown into the mix and, the way you measured character level changed significantly. Experience points were spent as well as earned but all of this was pretty black and white.

Talents however where left (quite intentionally it would seem) ambiguous. They could be pretty much anything you wanted them to be and, you don't even have to declare them from the get go. Which is all well and good but, I'd be lying if I didn't say that the vague nature of the official ruling didn't bug me just a little.

It's all well and good when you're constructing a vanilla Talent, such as Climbing say. It's bonus applies when you're climbing, but what of Talents with a combat or magical focus. You know a player will want to take one eventually. Just how do you handle it?

If you're playing it by the rulebook Talents don't do anything for improving how well you fight, which I frankly don't agree with. In the example given in the rulebook Fang uses his Swordplay Talent to disarm an opponent when he is outnumbered, which logically suggests that he is armed with a sword of some description. Yet his Talent affords him no bonus directly to his combat total.. Which just doesn't add up to me.

He should get a bonus, but what exactly? The value of his Talent (not his Talent plus his Attribute) in adds? In dice? Something else completely?

Dungeons & Conversions

Do you know the great thing about D&D 3.5?

It's a great source of inspiration. Whilst I have no great interest in ever running any of the material as it is written, nor the system that it was written for if I can ever help it again, many of the supplements do have a lot to offer to the budding homebrewer.

A great example would be Complete Scoundrel. I recently picked up a copy of this because I was thinking to myself "Well, they've done Warrior World, how about Rogue World?", which is in itself a whole other matter, but keeping on topic, inside Complete Scoundrel I did find a lot of great material. Where they list Skills and Feats, I see Talents, likewise Prestige Classes can easily be broken down into the Talents that make them up. Equipment is a little trickier to convert but not impossible with a little common sense. The same goes for spells. Honestly, this book is a goldmine!

Then the matter of "Rogue World". I picked up this book expecting it to be rather "theif-centric".. Okay I made that word up but, I'm pretty sure that it communicates my point. I expected a world full of assassins, pick-pockets and, cat-burgulars. That's what I expected as that's pretty much how the D&D world views the rogue. What I got however was quite to the contrary as it turns out even Paladins can go rogue with this supplement..

So for the purposes of conversion, this particular book was a bit of a mixed bag of mostly good things. The Skills are good, as are the Feats, and equipment. I also like the idea of being able to flesh out the roguish nature naturally inherent in delvers into other classes but, given my previous example of the Paladin, doesn't always work in my opinion.

All-in-all though a good solid resource for adding some spice to your game.. Once you remove the "other game" that is. ;0).

Going Solo #0: Munchkin

It's not often that I start a new feature with entry zero (in fact this is a first in our short but eventful history) but, upon surmising to myself what I wanted to achieve with "Going Solo", I realised that I already effectively had an entry for it.

Whilst the ultimate goal of this feature is to create solitaire versions of games, that compare closely to the original in both play-style and mechanics (not just another game that uses the same components but has nothing more to do with the original than that), the solitaire Munchkin variant that I created wasn't half bad.

It was pretty basic and in hindsight a little clunky, but it worked. Either way, I dare say that I will revisit it in time with fresh eyes and new ideas as I am quite the Munchkin fan. For now though, I say let sleeping dogs lie.

Predators, Tribbles And, The Fett

A recent discussion over at the Peryton Publishing Facebook page, in which we
conjured an alternate universe populated solely by science-fiction parodies (Shatner's Toupee meets a Tribble meets the Brain Slug's of Futurama anyone) has set me thinking.

The original topic matter was who would come out on top in a death match between Boba Fett and The Predator? This combined with the tangent that we traversed inspired Tom to want to pay homage to The Predator within his gaming world and, has set me wondering just how a Predator would shape up in Tunnels and Trolls terms.

What modifiers should the Kindred receive and, how should it's vast arsenal be statted out?

Whilst I am far away from reaching any definitive answers, I have found some great resources after a dig on-line, covering not only The Predator (which is apparently a "Yautja") and his weapons locker but, also a great fan-written supplement for the "other game" covering the usage of sci-fi weaponry in a fantasy setting.

+1 More Blog For The Feed

Something that I have taken to doing (or more accurately something that I have been doing for a while but had yet to blog about), is perusing the blogs that others are following. It's how I find great new reads. So if I am following you, I'll also take a look over your reading list to see what's peaked your interest.

A lot of the time you do find that you are mostly just running around in circles because I may be following A, who follows B, who follows me, but I still find this an enjoyable and worthwhile exercise. You never know what you'll find.

One that I have found over the past couple of days is The Rat's Digs, a Tunnels and Trolls blog that despite looking quite new, and not have been updated for a month or so shows a lot of promise. The content that is there is pretty good and the author has also been nice enough to post a list of useful links at the foot of the page.

This will be an interesting one to keep an eye on, so it's definitely going in the feed. :0).

Geeks Do It Better #3: Scotty, I Need More Power!

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.