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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Trollish Taproom - The Many Sizes of Tunnels & Trolls 5e

Tunnels & Trolls really hit it's stride with the release of the 5th edition rules.

On the left is a second printing (Jan '80) of the T&T rules.  Later printings (including 5.5e) blow up the cover art to encompass the whole cover.

The smaller book with the orange cover is a second printing (also Jan '80) of the Tunnels & Trolls 5th edition for the UK.  This edition is secured by two staples, the art is a line drawing on orange cardboardy paper (that dog ears nicely.  Other then that, it's pretty much a carbon copy of it's larger sibling the best I can tell.

The yet smaller book on the far right (with the nice flash glare - go me!) is the Corgi printing (1986) of the Tunnels & Trolls rules.  It's printed on mass paperback quality paper (which means poor).  It is however, probably the easiest size for normal reading habits.  Corgi publishing is the company that decided to excise many of the sillier T&T spell names, so if that is keeping you from jumping on the T&T train, you might want to track this down.  You could also pick up the T&T Double Solo's that Corgi put out - most are still available from Flying Buffalo Inc at very reasonable prices.  Each includes a shortened version of the T&T rules, but as the character advancement and spell lists allow for advancement to level 11, you have an additional added value.

I have UK versions of some of the earlier T&T Solos, which I may post to compare to their American siblings at a later time.

4 comments:

  1. I bought Corgi's City of Terrors from FBI based on your recommendation and it came last week. Yay! I didn't have any version of the 5th edition rules, apart from the Free Abridged rules available from Free Dungeons and RPGNow, so your comments about the volume of rules covered in the solos was a particular incentive.

    I noticed the spell names right off! I'm curious about the pedigree of 7th Edition's spell called "Spirit Mastery" (level 2). I thought 5e had an ill-advised spell name "Yassa Massa" that might be related, but I can't find anything like it in the Corgi abridgment. Do you know if the spells are related, or if "Spirit Mastery" has an antecedent at all? Was it excised from the Corgi edition completely, or is it known there by another name?

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  2. Ill have to peek at the rules tonight. Good question tho'.

    Glad you are enjoying the Corgi edition of City of Terrors.

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  3. Would you believe I'll take a look at this tonight? how about this weekend? over my vacation? Chief, its me... Max!

    sorry... i need sleep ;)

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  4. as an aside, the orange cover is the same art as the early gold on black 5e boxed set

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