Rebellion Acquires Tunnels & Trolls

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.

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. 

 

[Some Dude]

Saw this posted at The Big Purple:

Seen on reddit:

"So, I went to the Rebellion Games booth at GenCon last weekend and spoke to the folks there. I asked a ton of pointed questions and they kept using the R word.
"It's going to be a reimagining of Tunnels and Trolls."
From what I could gather based on the vague answers I was given, they are for sure changing the combat mechanics to "make it more accessible" and "remove some of the math." They almost made it sound like combat dice will be converted into a dice pool mechanic where dice will be "counted" (that word was used specifically) rather than summed.
They mentioned they would keep DARO intact so that leads me to believe skill tests may roughly be the same as is.
I asked about backward compatibility and weirdly enough they seemed entirely focused on compatibility with regard only to lore, not mechanics. I clarified my question and even asked if some kind of mechanic conversion guide would be needed. Paraphrasing, they said a conversion guide would depend on player demand for it; whether or not the players wanted something like that.
Needless to say, I'm quite nervous about this new edition now. They spent the majority of the time laser focused on their plans for their update of the lore. "More literal tunnels. And trolls are the the size of mountains. Some mountains are actually trolls that have turned to stone in the sun." When I could get them to comment on mechanics, they were vague and almost hesitant, saying it would be a reimagining. It almost feels like they're going to try "modernizing" the system to pull in new players. I get it from a business perspective, but... I don't know. Maybe Deluxe (or older editions) is as good as it's going to get for current fans.
Did anyone else go to the booth and talk to Rebellion? What was your experience?"

https://www.reddit.com/.../comments/1epoed6/comment/lhm1lvx/

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hmm.

On the one hand, this sucks for the existing fans of Tunnels & Trolls.

On the other hand, how many of them are there out there? And don't they, at this point, have all of the existing T&T catalog? It makes sense that the new owners would want to sell to a larger audience than a handful of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers.

I'm not sure how much of a contemporary audience there is out there for T&T, in a world laden with fantasy RPGs, but they've already bought the company, so that ship has sailed.

This sounds like it's going to be a new game with T&T trade dress and some version of the lore and world.

All that said, I think the way to make money with the Flying Buffalo properties isn't to focus on a new fantasy RPG, but to clean up and rerelease the Citybook series -- which can be used with any fantasy RPG -- and continue the line. I would bet that an open call for contemporary designers to contribute to a new Citybook volume would attract a heck of a lot of interest.

EDIT: /tunnels_and_trolls has 146 members. Compare that to /Shadowdark, which has 4.7k. They cannot just sell to existing fans if they want to sell new T&T books.

 

[The Soloist]

Hmm.

On the one hand, this sucks for the existing fans of Tunnels & Trolls.

On the other hand, how many of them are there out there? And don't they, at this point, have all of the existing T&T catalog? It makes sense that the new owners would want to sell to a larger audience than a handful of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers.

I'm not sure how much of a contemporary audience there is out there for T&T, in a world laden with fantasy RPGs, but they've already bought the company, so that ship has sailed.

This sounds like it's going to be a new game with T&T trade dress and some version of the lore and world.

All that said, I think the way to make money with the Flying Buffalo properties isn't to focus on a new fantasy RPG, but to clean up and rerelease the Citybook series -- which can be used with any fantasy RPG -- and continue the line. I would bet that an open call for contemporary designers to contribute to a new Citybook volume would attract a heck of a lot of interest.

EDIT: /tunnels_and_trolls has 146 members. Compare that to /Shadowdark, which has 4.7k. They cannot just sell to existing fans if they want to sell new T&T books.

T&T is popular among soloists. It gets mentioned regularly in solo FB groups. But yes, I agree they need to get new players to survive.

I never played T&T solo because I don't like the combat system. Maybe with 'counting results', I'll be more interested.

 

[dead]

I never played Tunnels & Trolls. Is it a roleplaying classic that you'd be remiss not to try at least once in your lifetime?

What is the best edition to pick up for the quintessential experience?

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I never played T&T solo because I don't like the combat system. Maybe with 'counting results', I'll be more interested.

Understandable. Supposedly the combat system is a selling point. I've never been able to see the appeal myself. Almost any change would improve my opinion of it.

I never played Tunnels & Trolls. Is it a roleplaying classic that you'd be remiss not to try at least once in your lifetime?

No. You're not missing anything you can't get elsewhere. Fantasy roleplaying is well-served when it come to rule systems, and modern rules-light design put it to shame mechanically. T&T's claim to fame is its historical position as either the second or third published RPG ever, but that doesn't make it a must-play game. Its other noteworthy feature is a large number of solo adventures, but that's nothing unique these days. Even back in the day The Fantasy Trip was treading on its heels for a while, up until Metagaming closed down and the game went into limbo for decades.

Others will disagree, of course. It has fans - at least 146 of them, apparently - and remains popular for solo players as mentioned above, in part because several of its modules are legendarily (and arbitrarily) deadly, so there's some real challenge just to completing them. Nonetheless, I personally rate it as an entirely skippable gaming experience.

 

[The Soloist]

Understandable. Supposedly the combat system is a selling point. I've never been able to see the appeal myself. Almost any change would improve my opinion of it.

No. You're not missing anything you can't get elsewhere. Fantasy roleplaying is well-served when it come to rule systems, and modern rules-light design put it to shame mechanically. T&T's claim to fame is its historical position as either the second or third published RPG ever, but that doesn't make it a must-play game. Its other noteworthy feature is a large number of solo adventures, but that's nothing unique these days. Even back in the day The Fantasy Trip was treading on its heels for a while, up until Metagaming closed down and the game went into limbo for decades.

Others will disagree, of course. It has fans - at least 146 of them, apparently - and remains popular for solo players as mentioned above, in part because several of its modules are legendarily (and arbitrarily) deadly, so there's some real challenge just to completing them. Nonetheless, I personally rate it as an entirely skippable gaming experience.

Good point about Fantasy Trip. I should add that Advanced Fighting Fantasy is far more popular among soloist than T&T.

 

[Von Ether]

I never played Tunnels & Trolls. Is it a roleplaying classic that you'd be remiss not to try at least once in your lifetime?

What is the best edition to pick up for the quintessential experience?

I think fifth edition and the latest edition were appreciated most by fans. In the past, it's most unique mechanic was the "Saving Roll," which was the first attribute check back in the day.

The bit that's still unique today is that melee combat was simultaneous with all the dice totals from both side being compared and the lower total taking the difference as damage to be assigned by the team. Which meant fighters with damage reducing armor were tanking long before MMOs.

Otherwise magic and ranged combat went by initiative order before melee.

For me personally, the jokey nature of spell names and puns turned me off. I wanted my ttrpgs to be serious darn it! It was also very abstract during a time when simulation and crunch were all the rage.

 

[The Soloist]

For me personally, the jokey nature of spell names and puns turned me off. I wanted my ttrpgs to be serious darn it! It was also very abstract during a time when simulation and crunch were all the rage.

When I saw the ads in the early 80s Dragon Magazines, because of the name Tunnels & Trolls, I always thought it was a parody game. How dare they mock D&D, the game we loved so much. We were all far too serious.

 

[eyeheartawk]

I don't understand buying something and then changing all the things that made it unique from the other fantasy RPGs out there. It's not like Tunnels & Trolls has huge widespread name recognition.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Good point about Fantasy Trip. I should add that Advanced Fighting Fantasy is far more popular among soloist than T&T.

That is true. I tend to overlook FF owing to having little exposure to it when I was young. It wasn't as accessible in my part of the US as Metagaming back in the day, and by the time it did start showing up in book stores Lone Wolf was pretty dominant in the game book niche. Me, I was more of a fan of the literature-derived series like Crossroads and Combat Command when it came to that style of solo play - having read most of the novels they were based on certainly did make them more appealing.

Dawns on me that solo gamebook fans (or people just curious about them) might find this site useful if they haven't stumbled on it already. If there's a more comprehensive listing of what's out there I don't know of it.