New Tunnels & Trolls first look at UK Games Expo. Update: Beta releaseed.

[schneeland]

Alpha playtest report from UKGE:
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Thanks for sharing! That sounds nice actually. Maybe I'll have a closer look once the game is out.

 

[BigJackBrass]

This is a relief, right?

I remember seeing a thread on here awhile back about how somebody talked to somebody from Rebellion at a different, earlier convention and they were very concerned from that interaction that the new T&T would be nothing like the old game.

Sort of like how that new Alternity game has nothing to do with the OG game except the name.

As far as I can tell from the reports and writeups, the Rebellion game has nothing to do with T&T except the name. Stats are different. Mechanics are different. That's 95% of what T&T is, so there's not a lot left to identify it as the same game.

 

[Some Dude]

As far as I can tell from the reports and writeups, the Rebellion game has nothing to do with T&T except the name. Stats are different. Mechanics are different. That's 95% of what T&T is, so there's not a lot left to identify it as the same game.

At the risk of sounding like a joyless old grog, I'm with @BigJackBrass on this one. i may be in the minority in liking the Trollworld setting as well, though it was largely implied before Edition 5.5, and wasn't made explicit until Deluxe (unless you count Japanese editions, lol). I know the Phoenix Cosmic Circle intended for people to make their own settings, but I'm lazy, and if I like a game, I wanna play in that game's world where possible. I've never been much of a homebrewer. It just doesn't interest me.

So, I wish Rebellion luck with this. I really hope they make good on their pledges to continue making "legacy" T&T products available, and to allow third party products. But it doesn't sound like it's gonna be for me. I'm willing to be proven wrong. But without Saving Rolls, without Trollworld, what's left that makes it "T&T?"

 

[SteveC]

Oh did I play some Tunnels and Trolls back in the day. They had so many excellent solo adventures that I could take it with me on trips (along with a brick of D6!)

The solo adventures were really exceptional, and I loved the non-combat rules. This was a really early roll versus target game system (perhaps the first) and dice exploded. It was a lot less serious and grim than a lot of other games at the time.

But, if I'm honest, the standard combat rules were not something I ever liked. It's roll a brick of dice, compare the results and subtract the difference in hits. Didn't like it one bit. But the adventures were so much more than that and I really enjoyed them.

 

[Some Dude]

The beta of this has been released, and is in the hands of people who signed up.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

The beta of this has been released, and is in the hands of people who signed up.

Alpha. It's out in the wild as well. I started a thread looking to discuss what other people thought about the mechanics from running a test combat, but no one's responded.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

But, if I'm honest, the standard combat rules were not something I ever liked. It's roll a brick of dice, compare the results and subtract the difference in hits. Didn't like it one bit.

You'll be glad to know that the new system (at least from the Alpha, which is presumably missing a lot of options and stuff that will only come into play as PCs advance) definitely offers a lot more tactical choices during a fight and generally uses fewer dice (and Combat Adds aren't a thing at all). Don't believe the Alpha doc's claims that you'll only need about six dice, though. My test run using the finale of the canned adventure had me using over a third of a 36-count brick for one character's strike, with the opponents around the same. The threat mechanic is clever, but if a fight goes long it produces some biggish die pools. At least you're not just comparing total numbers, it's much deeper than that.

The Alpha shows a playable system with some good innovations, but needs balancing and is definitely slower than Ken's version. People looking for something to port back and forth are going to be sad, there's no real resemblance between the two systems and I don't even know where you'd start converting monsters between them.

 

[The Soloist]

I see the changes as the divide between D&D 2e and 3e. It will foster a new generation of players but many old timers will not join.

I’m just discovering original T&T via The Lair of the Leopard Empresses (Mindjammer). I find it’s great for solo play. The fiction emerges after the dice rolls with exploding dice, triggered special abilities, spite damage and damage allocation.

I scanned the alpha briefly yesterday. It’s more tactical which is not what I’m looking for in solo play. Doing all the attack, damage rolls for both sides can be daunting if you are not in a war gamer mood.

 

[The Soloist]

If you’ve played 40k, rolling from 2d6 to 6d6 ain’t bad compared to rolling buckets of d6 attacks, then rolling about half as much to wound.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Normal successes are on 4+, blessed rolls are on 3+, cursed are on 5+, which is a familiar to-hit spread for GW players. Instead of having a separate tier of wound rolls, you have to pause and look for doubles, triples, quads, etc. I managed two crit fails (triple ones) in initial rolls with large pools, didn't once get lucky enough to crit (trip sixes) despite the odds being identical in a single pool - but I also never had a crit fail from rolling exploding dice, because unless it's life or death there's rarely going to be a justification for taking the risk. Actually sorting out explosions is simple as long as you have enough dice that you don't need to re-use any of them, so yeah, a 36-brick is not an unreasonable thing to bring to the table. Maybe swap out one die for something of a different colors as a stunt die - or better, several of the 36 to make room for a larger, different-color stunt die so it really pops.

In hindsight, my test run unintentionally devalued the value of luck and stunts, since they're one of the few ways to just add a die to your pool by paying a luck, and can trigger your stunt as well as maybe dealing more damage. Still, with a brand new system I was feeling a little strain running 3 PCs and all the mobs at once, and remembering to stunt when you can afford to was a bit much. As you said, they've added just enough complexity that it's not as ideal for solo play the way Ken's T&T was..