Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy New Year!

I wanted to wish everyone who follows The Lone Delver a Happy New Year. I hope that 2012 was a good year for you and I wish you all the best for 2013. I also hope that you were able to find some use for my various T&T related ramblings on this blog. I was excited to see an increase in the number of followers this year and an upswing in the number of page views; The Lone Delver is now approaching the 50,000 mark. I was able to get more posts in this year than the past two years; I'd like to exceed this in 2013.

The coming year should be an exciting one for T&T with the release of Deluxe T&T. As I've said before watch out for the upcoming Kickstarter campaign. There's sure to be a lot of great stuff available to supporters in addition to the new book. With this new release of the T&T rules I am hopeful of even more support of T&T by Flying Buffalo. I will be doing my best to release some new material this year. While my position as editor of TrollsZine! has taken much of my time in 2012, I plan to release a new GM adventure and a new solo in 2013. Also keep an eye out for a new website for Lone Delver Games currently under development.

Happy 2013!

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls Website

There is now a website dedicated to providing news and feedback about Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls from the games designers including Ken St. Andre, Steve Crompton, Liz Danforth, Bear Peters, and Rick Loomis. This is definitely the place to go for behind-the-scenes information on DT&T. You can even post comments and questions about the project that will be answered.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Hobb Sized Adventures: Eight Free Solos and Counting

One of the great new Tunnels and Trolls resources to come out in 2012 was Hobb Sized Adventures, a new blog created by Charlie Flemming dedicated to providing free mini solo adventures for T&T on a regular basis. At the outset, Charlie proposed to publish a mini solo of about 20 paragraphs every two weeks either by himself or contributed by another author. This was an ambitious goal. While Charlie did not make that goal, he did publish a nice catalog of eight solos in about six months, five of which he wrote himself. That is something to be proud of in my opinion.

True to his word each solo is only about 20 paragraphs and can easily be completed in under an hour. The shortest is the first solo, Tomb of the Toad, with only 11 paragraphs. It sounds short, but it makes for a great adventure. The longest solo, The Harvester of Souls, is still only 34 paragraphs and was a special solo for Halloween. One way to increase the replay value of short solos like these is to include tables to randomize monsters, traps, and treasures. Charlie made great use of this mechanic in Challenge of the King which at only 15 paragraphs is short but with these three tables can be very different each time you play.

Here is the list of solo adventures that you can find and play for free at Hobb Sized Adventures:

Tomb of the Toad by Charlie Flemming

Adrift in the Ocean by Mark Thornton

Duck Soup by Charlie Flemming

Challenge of the King by Charlie Flemming

Fairyland by Mark Thornton

Dark Deeds and Cabbages by James Fallows

The Harvester of Souls by Charlie Flemming

The Tower in the Marsh by Charlie Flemming


If you have not done so, you should definitely roll up a character and try these adventures out.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

T&T Deluxe News

There have been some updates on the upcoming T&T Deluxe edition, some old, some new.

The first is a pretty interesting alteration of the rules for spell casting from the more recent 7th edition. There will no longer be a Saving Roll required to cast spells. This was of course the norm for the 5th edition and older rules (1975-2005). How did this change back to the original rule come about? Ken St. Andre asked T&T players which they preferred and an overwhelming majority preferred no required Saving Roll. Of course there is always the "house rule as wanted" caveat for those that like the newer rule.

A second piece of news is a preview of one of the items available to supporters of T&T Deluxe in the upcoming Kickstarter campaign: Trollworld coins.


While these are simply prototypes of what is to come, they seem pretty nice and would make good props for group games.

There have also been a number of posts since November by Ken at the Outer Sanctum of Trollhalla detailing some of the sections of the rule book such as the various kindreds that players can use as characters:

Common Kindreds of Trollworld

What was missing from this list? Leprechauns. Leprechauns have been a staple PC option since 1e T&T back in 1975. Their absence from this list sparked a bit of an uproar in the T&T community. What happened? Ken added them back in:

Common Kindreds of Trollworld Take 2

I love that Ken is actually listening to the players of the game in this new edition and being so open in the design process.

Here are links to some other bits of the kindred rules that Ken has previewed:

Uncommon Kindred

Mixed Kindred

You can find a lot more information about Deluxe T&T in the Outer Sanctum. Just have a look around you'll find a lot more great articles by Ken and others as well.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Free T&T GM Adventures Direct from the Authors

What's that? You're lucky enough to have a group of eager players together ready to play some T&T but you don't have an adventure ready to go? Check out these GM adventures provided absolutely FREE by other T&T fans, long-time contributors, and it's creator.

Gristlegrim by Ken St. Andre

Riverboat Adventure by Ken St. Andre

Temple of the Whispering Dark by Tori Berquist

The Tomb of Agathor by Tori Berquist

The Restless Mausoleum by Salvatore Macri

The Hunt by Salvatore Macri

Bludgeons and Flagons by Justin T. Williams

The Wild Woods by Russ Westbrook and Scott Grant

The Horned Hold by Stephen Dove

Ice Exile by Mark Thornton

Bats in Dabelfry by Jason Mills

Something in the Wind by Jason Mills

The Rainy Day Puzzle Dungeon by Jason Mills

The Pharaoh's Tomb by Jason Mills

The Kare Bears Dungeon by Jason Mills

The Dungeon with No Name by Jason Mills

The Dungeon's Dungeon by Jason Mills

The Tomb of Dipsom Dints by Andreas Davour

The Tunnels and Trolls Random Dungeon Generator


That should keep your group busy for a while.

Please remember that the contents of these sites are the copyright of the authors. Publishing the contents in any form without consent of the author is forbidden.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Free T&T Solo Adventures Direct From the Authors

Here is a list of T&T solos available to play online or as downloads. These solos are made available either directly by the author or with the authors permission.

These solos can be played with any edition of the T&T rules. If you don't have one yet you can get an abridged version of the T&T 5th edition rules here.

If you have trouble coming up with enough characters, you can find an excellent character generator here.

If for some reason you don't have enough 6-sided dice, you can find a very useful online dice roller designed specifically for T&T here.


Solos to Play Online

Buffalo Castle by Rick Loomis

The Eye of the Serpent by Andy Holmes

Khosht by Ken St. Andre

Hela's House of Dark Delights by Ken St. Andre

The Old Dwarf Mine by Roy Cram

Sorcerer's Solitaire by Walker Vanig

Labyrinth by Lee Russell

Dargon's Dungeon by Bill Hart, Michael Stackpole, Paul O'Conner, Liz Danforth, and Pat Mueller

The Blood Wars of Saxon by Tom Grimshaw

Dark Rising by Tom Grimshaw

The Murren Moors by Heinomynous

Tomb of the Toad by Charlie Flemming

Duck Soup by Charlie Flemming

The Challenge of the King by Charlie Flemming

The Harvester of Souls by Charlie Flemming

The Tower in the Marsh by Charlie Flemming

Fairyland by Mark Thornton

Adrift on the Ocean by Mark Thornton

Dark Deeds and Cabbages by James Fallows


Solos to Download

The Barony of Sanris by Patrick Witmer

Dark Side of the Desert by Patrick Witmer

No Rest for the Weary at War by Patrick Witmer

Queen Scorpions and Lady Nymphs by Tori Berquist

The Sunk of Tarsus by Tori Berquist

The Bullow Lands by Tori Berquist

The Temple of Issoth by Dan Hembree

Escape from Khosht by Andrew Greene

Four Jars of Mead by Ken St. Andre

Goblin Lake by Ken St. Andre

Down Time by Michael Eidson

Beneath the Arena by Scott Grant

Soul Survivor by Sid Orpin

Night Walk in the Wild Woods by James Fallows


That's a lot of adventures for free! Play them and let the authors know how much you enjoyed them.

Please remember that the contents of these sites are the copyright of the authors. Publishing the contents in any form without consent of the author is forbidden.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls Trailer



This trailer was posted at Ken St. Andre's YouTube channel announcing the release of Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls by Summer 2013. An additional comment stated that the KickStarter page should be up by next week. Exciting times for T&T!