Tunnels Trolls 5.5 Boxed

I recently received this in the mail. It was sold as a Summer Special at less than retail and represents amazingly fine value for money ! As an old Delver from the 80s, I have a keen soft spot for T&T. It has that old school feel of dungeon delving and pizza munching and appeals to the dice roller resident in all of us.

The box comes shrinkwrapped and contents include the 5.5 edition rule book (essentially the 5th edition but with an added chapter of Ken St Andre's House Rules; my particular fave being Spite Damage), the original (yes 1981, folks) 'Catacombs of the Bear Cult' by Jim 'Bear' Peters, 'Isle of Darksmoke' (GM module from early 80s by Larry Ditillio), 'When the Cat's Away' 3 part module, 'Castle Ward' adventure and a Mint copy of the 1986 Corgi edition of 'City of Terrors' solitaire adventure. There are also 3 Skull Dice in the Box to round it off as well as some very rough looking character cards straight out of the 70s (it seemed!).

Overall, I am suitably impressed. I have a nice new box sitting on my gaming shelf and for less than $50 US, I have a complete game which thoroughly appeals to my sense of gaming nostalgia !

I played a lot of T&T in the mid 80s and it was the first game where I felt the freedom to be able to make things up on the fly and actually focus on storyline rather than remembering heavy rules. I still think that it lends itself quite well to a narrativist gaming approach.

Packaged Gaming Goodness...

A gaggle of cardboard packages arrived today in the post. All Role Playing related goodies ! Very eager to open them up and sort through them. I hear the likely clatter of dice when I turn one parcel...not sure what it could be though. Don't remember ordering any dice in this one ! Tunnels & Trolls 5.5 boxed edition perhaps?
I doubt it's the Deryni Fudge dice I ordered (yes, I have the Fudge 10th anniversary edition...going to try it and like the idea...but Fudge dice....we'll see).

Engine Oil and Dragon Warriors

One of my favourite RPGs from the mid 80s is Dragon Warriors; that most stout British stalwart available in regular bookstores for very little money. I had friends just around the corner from us who played it often and somehow, rolling up characters in their outside garage, filled with the smell of engine oil and paint stripper, lent the whole experience an air of earthen griminess, so that it sticks in my memory as a fantastically gritty game (interesting to note that another Brit developed RPG from the same period was similarly gritty: Warhammer FRP)

I recently acquired the very shiny Mongoose edition of DW. Flipping through it brings back those Saturday afternoon garage memories and I am pleased to say that it seems Mongoose have changed very little of the content.

I am all for nostalgia these days, and my RPG buying habits lately have reflected this. Dragon Warriors sits on my bookshelf alongside Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, Runequest II and Tunnels & Trolls (yes, I still have my old Corgi paperback edition from 1986 - more on that in another post). Now, if only I could find some players !!