Monsters in The Hills on DrivethuRPG

[Karl]

I found this for another game and went to buy it and saw it had a Tunnels and Trolls version as well! So I bought it as well.It has a few Tweaks and things and its own little setting.It walks the new player through a lot of basic old school type activities as well. The combat and feel of it is a very toned down less gonzo style of T&T and I like it...at least in just reading it. It has a lot of interesting odds and bits to it and im not sure what to think overall besides it's neat. I think im going to print it out as it is only 58 pages. I will see if I can understand it better once I can actually read it. I'm old and do better with something in my hands. It was $3.99 on drivethru.

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[mosker]

[Tabling discussion of just how old all of us are...]
Curious as to the revised combat system, how it works. Give us a review (or one on DriveThru--feed that algorithm!)

And if there's contact info or Tim is on the bridge, give a tagged shout out! Found the Trollgod gave props to this on FB!

[darrght]

Dec 27, 2023 20:08:03 GMT -5 mosker said:

[Tabling discussion of just how old all of us are...]
Curious as to the revised combat system, how it works. Give us a review (or one on DriveThru--feed that algorithm!)

And if there's contact info or Tim is on the bridge, give a tagged shout out! Found the Trollgod gave props to this on FB!

View Attachment

Tim Lowell wrote "The Warren", another T&T solo and at least one other I think but considering my age it is not surprising that I cannot recall the title.....

[mahrundl]

I believe that Tim was the author of The Village of Kozon. Might that be what you're thinking of, darrght ?

BoardGameGeek mentions an article as well.  The Aliens Have Landed: A scenario outline for T&T: The Cumago Aliens have landed in the village of Sturlost!

Both of these were printed in issues of The Hobbit Hole, for those who have copies.

As for contact info, I recall that I tried to track him down a few years ago, but without success.

[branderwydd /|\]

Hello Karl. I was wondering what you thought of the setting.... I had my eye on this too and thought that some of the locations might be good to work into a corner of my campaign world. How detailed/interesting are the location write-ups? Also, it looks like some of the locations are in one version and a slightly different set in the other; is it worth having both to flesh out the setting more?

Thanks.

(Yes, been a while since I posted here, but I'm still alive and still playing T&T!)

[sscrompton]

MONSTERS! MONSTERS! 2.7 NOW ON DRIVE-THRU! 112 PAGES!
112 page 2.7 edition of Monsters! Monsters! is on Drive-thru and includes lots of new color art, over 160 monster kindreds you can play, with their dice modifiers and now each has a special power unique to its kindred. 50 of those monsters are described in a separate section in detail. There is a longer Spellbook, now with over 90 spells, 80 weapon/armor list choices, stunting and chaos factor rules, treasure generator & more PLUS to really cap off the rules, we are including in the book two Monsters!Monsters! GM adventures - The Village of Skogheim & the ruined dwarven city of Gael’Ka. Its 33 pages of TTRPG adventure.
Ken's New Crystal Caves Challenge is also now on drivethru! IT's a 50 page solo - plus material so you can run it as a GM adventure
Download your copies today!
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/465654/Monsters-Monsters-27-Edition

[Aramis of Erak]

Jan 1, 2024 16:40:04 GMT -5 sscrompton said:

MONSTERS! MONSTERS! 2.7 NOW ON DRIVE-THRU! 112 PAGES!

Grabbed!
Can confirm, is pretty.

One graphic feels really, really, very much wrong...
The 2d6 between the header "ROLLING UP YOUR MONSTER" and the body thereof. That REALLY should be 3d6 just in case someone new is looking at it...

GUNS??? Really? I was surprised to see that spelling rather than the early modern English Gunnes.

And the map is nice, especially since it has letter/number demarcations... it's a practical one.

[ishmann]

Dec 27, 2023 19:03:14 GMT -5 Karl said:

I found this for another game and went to buy it and saw it had a Tunnels and Trolls version as well! So I bought it as well.It has a few Tweaks and things and its own little setting.It walks the new player through a lot of basic old school type activities as well. The combat and feel of it is a very toned down less gonzo style of T&T and I like it...at least in just reading it. It has a lot of interesting odds and bits to it and im not sure what to think overall besides it's neat. I think im going to print it out as it is only 58 pages. I will see if I can understand it better once I can actually read it. I'm old and do better with something in my hands. It was $3.99 on drivethru.

View Attachment

I bought this a few days ago after reading this thread. I really like the encumbrance and combat rules. Going to try them out in my solo games.

[houndle]

Just bought the T&T version of Monsters in the Hills. Seems an interesting collection of ideas, aimed at 5th edition but largely suitable for any version. I'll certainly be trying the some of the quests (effectively a series of random adventure generators) and one or two of the rules tweaks. About the combat system I'm not sure. I'll give it a try but on a quick read it seems quite fiddly and I'm not sure of the benefits. The thing that made T&T stand out for me, right from the beginning, was the simplicity of basic combat and I tend to be nervous about anything which alters that.

**Edit**: so I gave the combat rules a quick spin using a couple of scenarios. For simplicity's sake I ignored stunts (or the close relative described in the Monsters in the Hills rulebook), and used a combat method based on what I think was the most common 5e convention for dealing with Monster Ratings, i.e. combat dice and adds both go down as MR decreases, adds are 50% in every round. I used 2 characters with a total of 6 dice and 23 adds between them plus armour worth 6 hits each.

First attempt was a pair of "orcs" (hey we are talking 5e) with a total MR of 45 which I calculated should be slightly too weak. Using 5e they were finished off in 4 rounds, roughly what I would expect.

Using the MitH rules I got the same result but it took 11 rounds. Essentially because the amount of damage each hero can do is limited by the rules. With tougher opponents combat could take a while. However, as promised only 2 dice needed and the monsters did get a chance to inflict damage on our heroes, which wouldn't have happened under 5e without adding Spite.

Second attempt was interesting. I kept the heroes the same but increased the orcs' MR to 60, slightly too powerful. Now under 5e the result was a stalemate - orcs kept hitting, but all damage was absorbed by armour. Under MitH the heroes got slowly reduced until their demise in about 12 rounds.

Though very short and unscientific my experiment indicated there is something in this system - more than I thought initially. As long as the "Combat Factors" of the two sides are reasonably balanced either side is in with a chance and the rules do avoid the "sudden death spiral" effect. Both sides are likely to take some damage, however there is a tipping point at which the weaker side is most likely doomed. Without some extra chrome (to be fair, MitH does include some) the outcome of many encounters might become fairly predictable.

*Addendum*: in case people missed it, the combat method I outlined elsewhere is even quicker:
1. Fight "bosses" using your normal T&T rules.
2. Against lesser enemies, assume your heroes win every fight but give them 1d6 Spite damage.

Though not quite entirely serious, this proposed method often re-creates what would have happened anyway.

[houndle]

Just a few more comments on this product.

Reading the "classic" 5e rules again (which reminded me just how well written they were) I'm less sure which edition MitH is aimed at. Spellcasting costs Strength, but there are references to SPD. Doesn't really matter anyway.

To answer a previous question, the setting is sufficiently generic that it would probably fit into most campaigns. It reminded me quite strongly of a fairly chaotic "old school" type of campaign - a random selection of monsters, many of which you'll end up fighting, and some rather deadly traps and encounters. Which is quite fun in its way, and does include some clever touches, but doesn't give the player a lot of strategic choice.

There is a clever scaling mechanism which means the toughness of the monsters will increase if you take higher lever characters. However, if I have read the rules correctly your opponents will often be slightly more powerful than the player characters and you'll have to "do a Snarfi" (MitH's evocative name for a stunt) to stand much chance in combat. If you do survive the rules on healing look fairly generous.

The dungeon mapping rules are fairly rudimentary, basically a table to determine whether the next section is a room or a passage and the chance of meeting a monster or trap (quite high).

I like the encumbrance rules and the section on travelling and other activities between adventures. Don't forget to take a packed lunch.

Overall there are some interesting ideas and it all hangs together properly. There probably isn't much in the package that an experienced T&T wouldn't already have thought of in some shape or form, and it does feel a little bit "old school", but it's a generous selection of material which could be played through as-is when you want a quick dungeon bash, or plundered for ideas.

[Aramis of Erak]

Jan 31, 2024 3:54:14 GMT -5 houndle said:

Just a few more comments on this product.

Reading the "classic" 5e rules again (which reminded me just how well written they were) I'm less sure which edition MitH is aimed at. Spellcasting costs Strength, but there are references to SPD. Doesn't really matter anyway.

Speed is an optional attribute in 5.0 (and thus in 5.5).
Power/Wiz/Kremm gets added in 5.5.
Faith was added in Dorothy March's Mirable Dictu article - along with D&D-ish clerical magic.

[houndle]

OK thanks for the clarification. I didn't use 5e that much and 5.5 not at all so I am hazy on what appeared when.

I hope my comments above didn't come across as too negative. I'll certainly be using MitH as a source of ideas or possibly even as a solo or GM campaign. It was only that it didn't seem to have the depth of some recent products. If it had been around when I was starting out with T&T (good grief, nearly half a century ago) I would have been delighted with it.

[Aramis of Erak]

Feb 3, 2024 2:58:15 GMT -5 houndle said:

OK thanks for the clarification. I didn't use 5e that much and 5.5 not at all so I am hazy on what appeared when.

I hope my comments above didn't come across as too negative. I'll certainly be using MitH as a source of ideas or possibly even as a solo or GM campaign. It was only that it didn't seem to have the depth of some recent products. If it had been around when I was starting out with T&T (good grief, nearly half a century ago) I would have been delighted with it.

5th ed is ALMOST that old... 1979... 45 years. Next year, T&T hits 50.
As for too negative? not to me, but I'm not staff...

And the SPD rule is one I've used for literally decades (90's on).

[nephilim]

I like it a LOT. I haven't played it solo, as it was intended, but used it to generate a small dungeon I'll use in the next few weeks. As a toolkit to roll up a random dungeon it is a lot of fun.

I'm not interested in actually using the modified combat system. Its chief feature is that both sides will be scoring hits and taking damage, and less damage is dealt out per turn. Houndl summarizes it nicely.

The monster encounters do seem to be aimed at making them just a bit tougher than the invading party.

I should go and give it a good review on DTR.

[mosker]

Mar 18, 2024 22:27:05 GMT -5 nephilim said:

I should go and give it a good review on DTR.

Excellent. The lack of written discussion or reviews on DTRPG--or really anywhere--is a growing concern/distraction/obsession--with me as it relates to the works, the authors and the communities. (And yes, I should practice what I preach, but am hiding behind the excuse of "I need to work with some of these creators/recruit them for TrollsZine/Am too afraid of my own medicine."
Pax.