Did anyone actually play Tunnels and Trolls with friends?

[Greggy C]

For be I bought the yellow 5th edition boxed set and loved reading it (I was enamored by all the weapon choices), loved reading the fights in the examples of combat and I am pretty sure I ran the dungeon of the bear. But I certainly didn't play with friends, it was more of a solo affair that, like the Fighting Fantasy books, was a temporary fix until I started Advanced D&D.

Did anyone actually play with friends like a campaign or something?

On my nostalgia trip I bought the boxed set again (damn hard to find) and actually did some work on creating an online combat simulator (maybe I'll finish one day, still waiting for Flying Buffalo to get back to me). But the combat is a little flawed "out of the box" and I see it needed some fixes over the years to make it not a stalemate and not to take 100 rounds to complete... heh. Still, I really loved that "world".

One thing I find interesting, is people point to it for "solo play". Not sure it really is more solo playable than say the Basic set, but certainly the dungeons were designed with solo play in mind.
I am tempted to create a website for solo play of T&T but the licensing/copyright is a problem, even if free, probably I would need to create my own version of D&D to do that.

 

[BigJackBrass]

Did anyone actually play with friends like a campaign or something?

Many, many times over the years. I've run it for kids at summer camps, with various groups of friends, at conventions and online. It's a terrific, reliable and flexible set of rules, fifth edition in particular, probably the game I've personally run more than any other.

Combat stalemate, the problem of a warrior with a lot of armour stuck in a fight where he can't hurt his opponent but the opponent's damage can't get through his armour doubling bonus, is not that common and easily solved either by introducing Roy Cram's Spite Damage rule from Sorcerer's Apprentice or with "stunting" using Saving Rolls: let the fighter suggest a tactic such as distraction, throwing sand in the eyes, taunting etc and then have the player roll am appropriate SR to achieve the desired result, which could be something like disarming, disengaging, bypassing armour or whatever.

Your second problem of combat taking many, many rounds is something I've never encountered. In my experience it's harder not to have things become a complete bloodbath with one side wiped out after a few rounds, especially in the case of foes using Monster Ratings where their ability to fight declines as they take damage.

 

[5atbu]

I have only played T&T face to face twice, once thirty years ago and once five years back. Both were great.
But I play T&T solo a lot over the last 36 years.

I really must run it face to face, I think I might be ready....

 

[Greggy C]

talemate, the problem of a warrior with a lot of armour stuck in a fight where he can't hurt his opponent but the opponent's damage can't get through his armour doubling bonus, is not that common and easily solved either by introducing Roy Cram's Spite Damage rule from Sorcerer's Apprentice or with "stunting" using Saving Rolls: let the fighter suggest a tactic such as distraction, throwing sand in the eyes, taunting etc and then have the player roll am appropriate SR to achieve the desired result, which could be something like disarming, disengaging, bypassing armour or whatever.

Your second problem of combat taking many, many rounds is something I've never encountered. In my experience it's harder not to have things become a complete bloodbath with one side wiped out after a few rounds, especially in the case of foes using Monster Ratings where their ability to fight declines as they take damage.

Right in my simulator I added the spite modifier. Did you also separate the constitution from the monster rating so the monsters kept up their full strength of attacks like players? Also did you only use MR or did you stat out creatures with Str, Int, Wis etc like players as well?

 

[BigJackBrass]

I mix things depending on the situation. Some creatures get full stats, some just an MR and some might have a separate Con or armour.

Mind you, more often than not the opponents were human and monsters comparatively rare in my games. Same idea though.

 

[aramis erak]

Did anyone actually play with friends like a campaign or something?

Yes, I have. Many shorter campaigns, none past about 5th level.
My first T&T was 5th ed, tan cover in black with gold text box.
I've run 5.0, 5.5, 7.0, 7.5 and deluxe, all as multiplayer.
I've done solos using 5.0 and 7.0 only...
I've done a single session of 7AR... it's good, but VERY different.

The trick in FTF groups is to let PC's not casting nor shooting do a "Stupid Player Trick" of some form.

My standards for SPT's...
Defensive fighting SRL = # for increasing worn armor (by no more than base) for this round
Offensive fighting SRL = increased adds. (Max +1 per die of weapon(s) used)
"Tanking" SRL = 1+(# of damage shares added) to have more than your fair share of damage
Targeting SRL = # of extra shares inflicted: Pick a target. If you succeed, they count as N+1 targets for damage
Isolate a target SRL=their level (or their MR/10). This pulls the doer and the target to a separate "fight"
Protect ally SRL = points of damage they don't take (but you do).

Anything else vaguely reasonable gets an SRL (Saving Roll Level) assigned.

On fail, I inflict 1 point of suitable att damage per 2 points missed by as a blanket default.

I don't let casters do these when casting.
I don't let archers do so while ranged fighting, but I do consider archers to be outside the fight as long as there are no more enemies than melee fighters.

 

[aramis erak]

Many, many times over the years. I've run it for kids at summer camps, with various groups of friends, at conventions and online. It's a terrific, reliable and flexible set of rules, fifth edition in particular, probably the game I've personally run more than any other.

Combat stalemate, the problem of a warrior with a lot of armour stuck in a fight where he can't hurt his opponent but the opponent's damage can't get through his armour doubling bonus, is not that common and easily solved either by introducing Roy Cram's Spite Damage rule from Sorcerer's Apprentice or with "stunting" using Saving Rolls: let the fighter suggest a tactic such as distraction, throwing sand in the eyes, taunting etc and then have the player roll am appropriate SR to achieve the desired result, which could be something like disarming, disengaging, bypassing armour or whatever.

Your second problem of combat taking many, many rounds is something I've never encountered. In my experience it's harder not to have things become a complete bloodbath with one side wiped out after a few rounds, especially in the case of foes using Monster Ratings where their ability to fight declines as they take damage.

Cram's Spite was adopted by Ken in the late 1990's, and was added to the corpus in 5.5 and is in all subsequent official editions (7.0, 7.5, D)
Note that in deluxe, MR critters dice don't change, but their adds to, as they take damage.
The option to not reduce their combat ability is in 5.0....
But monsters losing capability as they're damaged does keep things quicker.

Oh, and once you get heavily armed parties with large weapons, one may need literally dozens of dice at the table.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

No campaigns, but I've played a bunch of one-offs, both at home and at cons. Only dabbled in solo play once or twice. Mostly just for the novelty of the experience.

 

[jdrakeh]

I've played it with friends several times back in the day. 5th edition I think.

 

[5atbu]

Yes, I have. Many shorter campaigns, none past about 5th level.
My first T&T was 5th ed, tan cover in black with gold text box.
I've run 5.0, 5.5, 7.0, 7.5 and deluxe, all as multiplayer.
I've done solos using 5.0 and 7.0 only...
I've done a single session of 7AR... it's good, but VERY different.

The trick in FTF groups is to let PC's not casting nor shooting do a "Stupid Player Trick" of some form.

My standards for SPT's...
Defensive fighting SRL = # for increasing worn armor (by no more than base) for this round
Offensive fighting SRL = increased adds. (Max +1 per die of weapon(s) used)
"Tanking" SRL = 1+(# of damage shares added) to have more than your fair share of damage
Targeting SRL = # of extra shares inflicted: Pick a target. If you succeed, they count as N+1 targets for damage
Isolate a target SRL=their level (or their MR/10). This pulls the doer and the target to a separate "fight"
Protect ally SRL = points of damage they don't take (but you do).

Anything else vaguely reasonable gets an SRL (Saving Roll Level) assigned.

On fail, I inflict 1 point of suitable att damage per 2 points missed by as a blanket default.

I don't let casters do these when casting.
I don't let archers do so while ranged fighting, but I do consider archers to be outside the fight as long as there are no more enemies than melee fighters.

Do the characters not in combat add their combat total to the party total?
What happens if the characters in combat fail their SPT?