Mix and match T&T rules - Rules for gear

Finally, after dissecting multiple editions of the game, I get so mix and match up the rules for the perfect experience. According to me. I would agree with critics who claim the game is taking too long with big dice pools, and I have my own issue with the lack of money sinks. I think these can successfully be handled, together.

Less dice - faster combats
For me, two things should be done to the game as written in the latest edition. My first suggestion would be to scale back the number for dice for all weapons. The older editions had smaller numbers and I see nothing to be gained by bigger numbers on both armour and weapons. One big benefit of this would be a game that runs faster. It's not hard to add at max 6 to 6 and so on, but every little step counts. Worth noting for those who like big pools of dice is a trick I learned Hero and D6 system players using, is to block the dice up in sums of ten, i.e. sort out those 5 + 5 and 6 + 4 matches and then you can quickly count those groups times 10. Supposedly it speed things up a bit. I'd just use less dice.

Ablative armour - money sink and more tactical combat
In my games I've found that after a short while, everyone have gotten the best armour they can buy. This is very similar to how D&D works in older editions. Check the price list in the B/X edition and you'll see what I mean. In D&D there's the possibility to save money to build that hold of yours at 9th level, but in T&T the only thing you have to pour money into is spells. The other option is to have a very developed system with an open market of magic items in general, but since that would make them feel less magical I don't like that option. 

The solution would be to go back to ablative armour. If you take a hit, the armour absorbs the damage and gets reduced at the same time. An interesting option would be to take a page from dT&T and allow a LK roll to see if the armour holds up. But, in line with my first point, I'd limit that to a special occasion. Allow a LK roll to see if the armour absorbs all damage a round, and then it's wasted. For good.


This relates somewhat to character abilities, like Warriors and armour. That's the topic for the next post...

[From A to Z in Kalamar] Lamellar Armor

Can you tell that I pick the most catching words in the index of the KoK campaign sourcebook? I have once again missed a day, but hopefully this will be of some interest.

In a sidebar of the KoK sourcebook we can read about lamellar amor. It's the kind of stuff you usually see in sourcebooks, right? More classes, monsters, equipment and spells. Using all of this is another kettle of fish, entirely.

I once ran a 3rd ed campaign. It started when the game was fairly new, and it ran for something like five years. Originally I had intended it to be longer, but the group became geographically dispersed and the game fizzled. In that game I allowed everything imaginable. We had weird spells, weird items and god knows what. I totally lost any sense of control of where the feel of the game was heading, and I knew nothing of how to make it right. Doing the right thing from the beginning would have helped, I guess. But what?

Now I see all this options as something of a hindrance. Considering how common the "rules light" meme is in the OSR parts of the web, I guess I'm not alone. I'm not against the idea of new stuff, but it has to somehow reinforce the setting.

So, what use are a thing like lamellar armor? Well, I think one way to make a secondary world, like a game world, come alive is to make it stand out. To have all the magicians cast spells from the same PHB spell lists, and to have the all monsters be the same old, same old from the MM, it will feel just like any other game world. While you can go as far as Talislanta, or Glorantha, or Tekumel, I think there might be a middle ground.

Take some of that crunch, like special classes or a odd piece of equipment that might have the same game stats like any other, and make it culturally significant.

Let's say our bold hero, having slain a hobgoblin chief, wanders into Bet Rogala i Pekal wearing the armor of his fallen enemy. Suddenly everyone's attitude towards him seem different, and suddenly people start to expect him to behave in a special way. Maybe they suddenly want him to take part in some dangerous task, or religious ritual? What if that kind of armor is something only the sacred chief, bound to be sacrificed to the gods after the campaign or war, is supposed to be wearing. Suppose that armor means something else, and quite significant as well, to some other culture the characters might encounter.

In that way even a suit or lamellar armor might be more than just another piece of "kewl power" from the latest sourcebook to plunder for maximum powergameing potential. Maybe it can be that as well...

Reading T&T 7.5 - Equipment p.41-89

After a lengthy battle with the flu, which is still not finally won, am once again able to think my usual semi-clear thoughts. Since I'm also bored out of my skull I want to blog, talk and feel a bit alive again. Time to read T&T and talk about the next chunk of pages.

Starting on p.41 we gets treated with multiple ways of equiping a character. Personally I like the third method of just giving out some basic stuff and jump into the fray. It sure makes the game going quicker. "Don't get bogged down" is solid advice.

I find it kind of amusing that silver is described as the common currency in most places, and then most of the stuff in this chapter is still priced in gold!
Real nice is that we get a short mention of reselling, lower quality and such stuff.

Regarding selling and buying, we get to know that there are merchants for everything you need for life on Trollworld, but that the Wizards' Guild are the only one dealing in magic items.

I'm very divided about selling and buying of magic items. Treating magic items like any other commodity to be bought and sold is a sure way to devalue their mystery and "magic". The question is of course if the publication of the Greyhawk supplement in 1976 with it's long shopping lists opened a door that can now hardly be closed again. I'm not so much thinking of the idea of selling off some loot, as I am of players taking their characters to the magic shop with a wish list in hand. That feels wrong on many levels. But, even in my own campaign I played it by the book that way. I had inventive players who did something fun with it, so maybe I'm just needlessly wary. But still...

Then start the most thankless part of a rpg publishers work. Long lists and tables which can be so very, very wrong without you noticing. My advice to everyone doing this. Do the layout, and then make a FREE pdf of it you give to ALL the fans to proof! There are no sane reasons what so ever not to let as many people as possible look over your tables. They will crawl with errors.

T&T 7.5 have some oddities, but it could be worse. It was worse in 7.0, I can tell you. Still a few things to wonder about.

• Why are there no descriptions of the first/second aid kits?
• Why are there no descriptions of why there's two values for DEX sometimes, like for Daggers?
• Why isn't there no description of how a bola is used?
• What does all the / separated values for the lance really mean?
• What the heck is "rifing" mentioned in the Gunnes table?

I have found some of it out in conversations with the Trollgod, but it would have been nice to have that in the book. I'm dead sure that would have been caught if 500 persons had seen those tables.

In my campaign we said the first aid kit healed 1 CON, the second one 5 CON (since it hinted at it in the table). I'm pretty sure it screws with the economy of healing, but such is life.

Next we get to armor. It's very cool to have listings of full suits, so you can just buy one of those and pick and choose later. What makes up a full suit? I don't know, it don't say so in the book. Since I'm stingy I said it didn't include a helmet. Also worth noting is that a suit of Plate is 460, but Full Plate for two measly more points will cost you 1300! Almost three times as much money for two points. Ouch! It makes no sense not to buy a suit of Soft Leather, it's dirt cheap and gives almost a third of that Plate for a lot less than a third of 460 gold.

Included in equipment is also Poisons and Treasure! The former is fun and to the point. Let's talk more about the Random Treasure Generator. The Treasure generator wsn't in 7.0, and since I was using that set as my only T&T solo rules, I did feel that lack. Many solos ask you to use the Treasure Generator to figure out the loot. We also had a lot of fun with it in my own campaign. Nobody could say I screwed my players over with loot. They roll the generator themselves, and might score high.

The procedure it simple, with subtables and the possibility of generating coin, weapons and armor, potions, gems and magic titems. Yes, magic items by random roll. The only part which I feel is broken is when you roll for jewelry, and get 4 on the Jewel table, "Value of item plus value of jewels". What the heck is the value of the item, then?

Finishing off the big chunk of equipment is something sorely needed. A glossary. I haven't mentioned much what's in the weapon tables, but trust me that most any kind of weird stuff is in there. Being able to delve in dungeons with a Bich`wa, Chakram, Estoc or any such kind of odd weapon is a classic of T&T. While I like the choice, I must say I don't think the long list does much for me. I need something sharp to hit people with, on the cheap. Still, some like it. The oportunity for worldbuilding is there, with all elves using weird weapons and dwarves refusing to fight someone using a weapon "without honor" or something like that. But, you'll have to build it yourself.

That was a big chunk, eh?

Next Week: Monsters and Combat!