Originally released in 1975, Tunnels & Trolls was the second fantasy role-playing game ever, having hit the market just one year after Dungeons & Dragons and three years before RuneQuest. This year, Flying Buffalo, Inc. released Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls (dT&T), stating that "it's back, and better than ever!"
In this series of articles, I'm going give dT&T a thorough work-through, starting with character creation. The article continues below.
At their core, dT&T characters are defined by 8 "prime attributes". They are: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Speed, Luck, Intelligence, Wizardry, and Charisma. Prime attributes are initially rated from 3-18, but can go well beyond that based on character race ("kindred") and earned experience, and can be generated either by a 3d6 roll for each (rolled in order, or assign to taste), or distributing 84 points among them.
While point distribution can eliminate the randomness of rolling dice, the option of creating a "specialist" character is lost, which is an option when triples are rolled. "Specialist" characters will be addressed later, so at this point, I'm just going to note any attributes for which I roll triples. In addition, a point-buy would invalidate the TARO ("Triples Add and Roll Over") rule; if you get triples on any rolled attribute score, roll again and add that to the total. As long as you keep rolling triples, you add that value and roll again until you stop rolling triples. So if I were to roll 4, 4, 4, I would roll again; if I rolled 2, 2, 2, I would roll again; if I then rolled 1, 2, 3 I would stop rolling, and the total would be 24 (4+4+4+2+2+2+1+2+3).
I'm opting to roll 3d6 and assign to taste; my scores are: 14, 8, 10, 13, 13, 12, 10, and 12. I did not roll any triples, so I do not need to apply TARO or mark any of the scores as a triple. After generating prime attribute scores, the dT&T rulebook goes into determining personal adds, but I'm going to hold off on that. I'm also going to hold off on assigning my scores to the prime attributes, because I want to choose my character type first.
In dT&T, a character type is analogous to the character class of other fantasy RPGs, although they're not as tightly defined and are subject to player interpretation. In that respect, they're almost like powers in Savage Worlds, where a bolt is a bolt is a bolt until the player assigns trappings and you wind up with a gout of magical flame, demonic pac-men summoned through a small, magical gate, and energized bullets shot from a spiritual gun. Thus, a dT&T warrior type could represent someone like Conan the Barbarian, a knight like Sir Lancelot, or a martial artist like Bruce Lee. The available character types in dT&T are the warrior, the wizard, and the rogue.
While the dT&T warrior and wizard are fairly self-explanatory, the rogue bears a bit of explanation. While the standard fantasy trope of a rogue is the shadowy, sneaky thief type, in dT&T the rogue is a catch-all type for those characters who want to adventure but didn't get the training required to be a warrior or a wizard. As such, they get aspects of both types; they have some fighting ability and some ability to cast spells and later (at 7th level) have the option to focus all that potential and become either a full warrior or a full wizard.
I think that the character I'm creating is going to be a rogue, and so I'm going to assign my attribute scores as follows: Strength 12, Constitution 12, Dexterity 13, Speed 13, Luck 14, Intelligence 10, Wizardry 10, and Charisma 8. With an average of 10-11, my rogue is strong and healthy (STR & CON 12), agile and quick (DEX + SPD 13), very lucky (LK 14), of average smarts and ability to use magic (IQ & WIZ 10), but not very likable (CHA 8); he probably skated by relying on luck and inherent ability to get by in his pre-adventuring days instead of his ability to charm others.
Now, I could loop back and figure out his personal adds, but I've decided I don't want my rogue to be human; I want him to be half-elven. The way that dT&T handles different kindred is through an attribute multiplier. Basically, you multiply each attribute by the kindred's multiplier, rounding off fractions as follows: if the multiplier is > 1, round down; if the multiplier is < 1, round up. So, a human, for instance, has a multiplier of 1 for each attribute. Half-elves have the following multipliers: Strength x 1.25, Constitution x 1.25, Dexterity x 1, Luck x .75, Intelligence x .9, Wizardry x 1, and Charisma x 1.25, which was found in the Elaborations section, much later in the book.
I should add that I had to jump to the Elaborations section for the half-elf because it's not considered one of the "core" playable kindred in dT&T. They ("the Good Kindreds") are considered to be humans, dwarves, elves, hobbs (halflings), fairies, and leprechauns. Half-elves are considered part of "the Familiar Illkin", along with creatures like gnomes, goblines, kobolds, orcs, and so on. There are also "the Less Common Illkin" and "the Extraordinary Illkin", comprising more monstrous and odd choices for player characters, but they're all playable (given GM approval, of course.)
So now, my half-elven rogue has the following scores: Strength 15, Constitution 15, Dexterity 13, Speed 13, Luck 11, Intelligence 9, Wizardry 10, and Charisma 10. Turns out, he's much more strong and healthy, not quite as amazingly lucky, a little less smart, and much more likable than I had originally thought.
Now, with prime attributes, kindred choice, and character type established, I can total up his personal adds. Originally called combat adds in previous editions of T&T, personal adds are a combat modifier that a character receives based on the character's attribute scores. Basically, for each point over 12 in STR, LK, DEX, and SPD, the character gets one "add". So, looking back at my character's scores, he has 5 personal adds (3 for STR, 0 for LK, 1 for DEX, and 1 for SPD). As attributes go up due to earned experience ("Adventure Points"), his personal adds will go up as well.
I can also now determine his character level, which is the integer value of his highest attribute divided by 10; with 15 as his highest score, my half-elven rogue is level 1.
Height and weight for a dT&T character are generated usually by player fiat. However, there is a table for randomly generating HT and WT, and if your character is a non-human kindred, there are multipliers for the value generated on that table as well, just like with the prime attributes.
So! Here is my first dT&T character so far:
Name: Penhaligon
Type: Rogue
Level: 1
Gender: Male
Kindred: Half-Elf
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 175
Hair:
STR: 15
CON: 15
DEX: 13
SPD: 13
IQ: 9
WIZ: 10
LK: 11
CHR: 10
Adds: 5
That's all for now. Equipment, weight carried and magic will be covered in part two of this series.
