Rebellion Acquires Tunnels & Trolls

Flying Buffalo’s entire game line acquired along with the classic first published in 1978

Rebellion Unplugged, the new tabletop division of UK video games developer Rebellion, has acquired Tunnels & Trolls, a fantasy RPG which was first published in 1978.

T&T publisher Flying Buffalo’s CEO passed away in 2019, and the company was purchased by management and holding company Webbed Sphere in 2021. Rebellion has acquired the whole of its game line, which also includes well-known properties like Grimtooth.

4C9E4123-BB1F-4891-B9EE-BD77CE311B43.jpeg

World-renowned independent creative studio Rebellion is delighted to announce the acquisition of Tunnels & Trolls, one of the trailblazing games of the fantasy genre, and the second roleplaying game ever published.  

First published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo as a more player-friendly alternative to Dungeons & Dragons, Tunnels & Trolls introduced roleplaying to new audiences through its streamlined mechanics and pioneering approach to solo roleplaying. Now, almost 50 years after its original publication, the Rebellion Unplugged team is bringing Tunnels & Trolls into a new era. 

“Tunnels & Trolls is an unrecognised trailblazer in the games industry”, said Duncan Molloy, head of Rebellion Unplugged. “The team at Flying Buffalo responded to an entirely new medium by focusing on how roleplaying could be more approachable, more accessible, and more fun. So much of the modern era of roleplaying from old school hacks, to streamlined systems, to solo play, can directly trace its roots directly back to this series. We’re very excited to channel that spirit in bringing Tunnels & Trolls into the modern era.”

“When I first discovered Tunnels & Trolls in the mid-1970s, I didn’t realize I was unlocking a life-long interest in fantasy roleplaying games, books, movies, and all things genre-based” recalled Rebellion CEO and Creative Director Jason Kingsley OBE, “The game has remained with me throughout my life, and I can’t wait to see what the team have in store for it!”

After the passing of Flying Buffalo founder Rick Loomis, the company had been taken over by Webbed Sphere Inc. “We are very excited to see Rebellion expand this rich property” added Jon Huston, president of Webbed Sphere. “As a long-time fan, I always felt that the Flying Buffalo roleplaying lines had such incredible potential.”

As part of the acquisition Rebellion have taken over Flying Buffalo’s entire line of roleplaying games, including the cult classic Citybook, Grimtooth, and Merchants Spies and Private Eyes series. The entire back-catalogue of Flying Buffalo PDFs will remain available to purchase online, with future releases coming directly from Rebellion Unplugged. 
 

log in or register to remove this ad

aramis erak

Legend
I wonder if Ken St. Andre will return to working on Tunnels & Trolls, since he had previously stated (either right before or right after Webbed Sphere's acquisition) that he was only going to be doing Monsters! Monsters!
Based upon Steve Crompton's posts on Trollhalla, Ken & M!M! are going their own way. They've already opened up a number of M!M! licenses...
 

log in or register to remove this ad


aramis erak

Legend
Not surprising, all things considered. Still, it would've been cool to see St. Andre return to T&T.
Ken never left it... He was directly involved in every US commercial edition except the 7-AltRules, which was copackaged with Ken's 7.0. The French 8th edition was done under license; anything labeled 6th is a fan work, and labeled such with Ken's blessings. The Corgi sub-edition differed only mildly - most notably in the spell names (but not effects), and was UK; the first few UK versions were by GW (pre-Warhammer) with only new layout. As yet, there's no US version that hasn't had ken involved.

Until now... and M!M! is promised to support non-monsters in a year or two. (implied strongly by Steve Crompton on Trollhalla, and explicitly mentioned in Monsterary.) Ken doesn't appear to be unhappy with the deal - the new version of M!M! is going to be more robust than even the 3rd M!M! (which has not only Ken on it, but also Steve, and possibly also Liz, Bear, &/or Mike).

And we don't know that they won't ask Ken back - we only know that Rebellion bought out the rights Webbed Sphere didn't give back to Ken. And that Ken and WS had worked out an amicable split.
 

jdrakeh

Front Range Warlock
I hope they do another print run of the Deluxe hardcover. It's a good game and has become quite scarce over the last year.
 

BigJackBrass

Explorer
the first few UK versions were by GW (pre-Warhammer) with only new layout.
To the best of my knowledge Games Workshop never published T&T: the first UK edition, published under licence by Strategy Games Limited, had no exact US equivalent, being compiled from a couple of FBI's published books and completely re-illustrated by Polly Wilson; subsequent UK editions were published by Chris Harvey Games (aka Flying Buffalo UK), then by Corgi.
 
Last edited:

aramis erak

Legend
I always felt guilty for not giving this game a try back in the day but the spell names were silly and I was a serious rpger back in the day.

According to my T&T fan, the real gold was in Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes and thought it was shame that MSPE didn't become its own kind of CoC or RuneQuest.

It had even supported its own small KS back in 2019!

MSPE-Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes: Combined Edition RPG - Flying Buffalo | Mercenaries, Spies, & Private Eyes | DriveThruRPG.com
for those who don't know, MSPE had 2 editions; they differed in that a few pages were dropped and a few different pages added. Not a lot.
The recent KS edition simply takes the contents of both, then applies the errata.
And copies are still available from Ken and Steve on ebay, and the PDF at DTRPG.
 



Some Dude

Explorer
Based upon Steve Crompton's posts on Trollhalla, Ken & M!M! are going their own way. They've already opened up a number of M!M! licenses...
Yep, like the just-released Lair of the Leopard Princesses by Sarah Newton of Mindjammer fame. It's a full-on, pulpy, Sword & Sorcery game with a cool setting that takes M!M! (and by extension T&T) to some neat places. I wasn't too excited about this, to be honest, but curiosity got the best of me, and I l bought it this morning. It's REALLY good.

 

BigJackBrass

Explorer
Yep, like the just-released Lair of the Leopard Princesses by Sarah Newton of Mindjammer fame. It's a full-on, pulpy, Sword & Sorcery game with a cool setting that takes M!M! (and by extension T&T) to some neat places. I wasn't too excited about this, to be honest, but curiosity got the best of me, and I l bought it this morning. It's REALLY good.
Part of me wishes it was still the Tunnels & Trolls supplement it began life as, mainly because I'm a fan of smaller books, but anything from Sarah gets my attention; and it makes far more sense as a standalone product in the modern marketplace.
 

Related Articles

Remove ads

Remove ads

Top