First off, let me say that I love love LOVE this game. I have multiple copies of this edition. Tunnels & Trolls is a game that was designed to be easy and inexpensive, with a minimum of extra cost & material needed to play. It's fast, fun and flexible. It's loaded with tropes, but not weighted down with lore. Easy to learn, easy to teach and fun to play. Combat is deadly and often unbalanced. Character mortality can be very high. None of this has ever kept me from having an absolute BLAST playing T&T.
T&T uses either a variant of 2d6 vs. target number that is very scaleable, or a simple both sides compare and highest roll wins mechanic. It's simple and intuitive. It works well, and is easily dialed if/as needed.
Some might find T&T a little threadbare, but I find its simplicity refreshing. Easy to play, easy to run, it's a great game whose genius is often overlooked.
If you're looking for a lot of class options, or tactical depth, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a deadly earnest game that takes itself seriously, look elsewhere. If you're looking for old school fun and adventure with a healthy lashing of humor, look no further.
T&T can be played with a group or solo (don't get attached to the characters if you play solo, though lol), and is a hoot either way. There are many great modules for it, so many (including third party) that I doubt anyone could play them all.
T&T is more Lieber than Tolkien (though ot does have some of the latter's elements), and that suits me fine.
Now for the bad: There is one, and only one, spell that has a horribly racist name. I know it costs money to do so, But I'd really like to see Flying Buffalo take the initiative to rename that spell, as they did in later editions. They obviously know it's unacceptable, or they wouldn't have changed it. I know you want to do the right thing, as evidenced by your alteration of art from the City of Terrors module.So, please, FBI, go back and alter this appropriately. It's overdue. This ruleset was ahead of its time (and ahead of its peers) in certain ways, such as not making sex-based distinctions in stats, height or weight, but that spell name has got to go. Slavery isn't funny. I say this as a Massive T&T fan. Do that, and I can happily alter my review.
Bottom Line: one of the best games ever, with one glaring, jarring bit of racism spoiling everyone's fun.
UPDATE: The publisher, FLying Buffalo, Inc., has taken swift and decisive action to remove the offending spell name from previous editions of the PDF! This took less than 3 weeks. Other publishers: there is a lesson here. Also, FBI took care to match the fonts up to the existing books, so the transition is seamless! I love this game, and this publisher!
|