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Post by skathros on Sept 6, 2006 15:48:41 GMT -5
Being a child of D&D, I'm pretty familiar with the events and people that shaped the game through out it's history. I know the ups, the downs, the people coming in and being forced out. I know the mismanagements, the hard times, the creative times. I know about the TSR days, the WotC days. When it comes to T&T, I'm at a disadvantage in terms of "behind the scene history". As such, it tends to lead me to erroneous assumptions. For example, until recently, i thought FBI was KSA's company  Is there anywhere where i could find a detailed history of T&T and FBI? Some of the questions i wanted to find answers to are: How are KSA and FBI affiliated? Where does Rick Loomis fit into all of this? And Liz Danforth? What was the implied animosity between KSA and EGG all about? How/Why was FBI conceived? What's up with 6th edition T&T? How does Corgi fit into all of this? Why did D&D reach such heights of popularity while T&T (while still around) hasn't seen it's equivalent of success? Who does/has T&T belonged to? |
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khaydhaik
4th Level Troll
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Posts: 412
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Post by khaydhaik on Sept 6, 2006 23:51:48 GMT -5
Skathros, go to Wikipedia and search on "Tunnels and Trolls", "Flying Buffalo", and "Ken St. Andre". The articles there won't answer all of your questions, but they're a start. |
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Post by keltset on Sept 8, 2006 13:34:39 GMT -5
I did the seach, and here's what it said:
Tunnels and Trolls is a role-playing game that was first released in 1975. It was designed by Ken St. Andre.
Published by Flying Buffalo, it was developed to be an alternative to Dungeons & Dragons, aimed particularly at solitaire and play-by-mail gameplay. In the early 1980s a computer version (Crusaders of Khazan) was put out which embodied many of the favorite old solo modules, but which (in a fore-shadowing of modern computer role-playing game production) was buggy and somewhat difficult to play.
Tunnels and Trolls is a simple game that is rich in detail, easy to play and with a sense of humour. It was one of the very earliest roleplaying games from the late 1970s and was greatly influential on later systems. The game introduced the idea of playing a variety of humans as player characters, using a core character generation system, such that non humans were given greater strength or lower intelligence but still operated as any human in systematic terms. This led to players rapidly playing a wide range of non human characters in a pluralist setting. (A simpler system for monsters ran in parallel and most solitaire adventures used this simpler system). The game also introduced the idea that armour — which had been merged with defence in Dungeons and Dragons, making a character harder to hit — actually absorbed damage rather than reducing the danger of being hit. The game also published one of the earliest spell point systems, where magic is powered by mana points rather than memory slots derived from level, as in Dungeons and Dragons. The game was greatly influential on other early games such as RuneQuest, and Ken St. Andre went on to author the Basic Role-Playing game Stormbringer for Chaosium. Tunnels and Trolls underwent several modifications between 1975 and 1983 when the definitive 5th edition of the rules was published. This edition was also translated and published abroad in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, and Japan, and it entered these markets before Dungeons and Dragons did in most cases. (It didn't make more money, however.) In 2005, Flying Buffalo updated the 5th editon rules with a 5.5 publication that added about 40 pages of extra material to the end of the rules. During the same year, Fiery Dragon Productions of Canada produced a 30th anniversary edition under license in a tin box complete with CD, map, and monster counters, and not one, but two new versions of the rules. Ken used the opportunity to extensively update the style of play and introduce new role-playing concepts, such as character level being determined by character attribute statistics instead of by arbitrary numbers of experience points.
The only polyhedral dice you need to play Tunnels and Trolls are six-sided dice, however you can need quite a lot of them. The phrase "buckets of dice" has often been used to describe how many a high-level campaign requires.
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Hogscape
11th level Troll
Stalwart of the Trollbridge
It's not the years, it's the mileage.
Posts: 2,126
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Post by Hogscape on Sept 9, 2006 5:05:54 GMT -5
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Post by Vin Ahrr Vin on Sept 9, 2006 7:04:45 GMT -5
Nice, hogscape! Thanks for the link.
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Post by mahrundl on Sept 9, 2006 17:24:49 GMT -5
One minor correction Keltset: 'Crusaders of Khazan' was released in 1990, not in the early 1980s.
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Post by skathros on Sept 10, 2006 9:29:09 GMT -5
Thanks, guys. Nice link Hogscape!
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Boozer
4th Level Troll
Visit The Hobgoblin's Tavern today!
Posts: 299
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Post by Boozer on Sept 27, 2006 9:49:42 GMT -5
That is indeed a great link Hogscape! I hadn't seen that page before and enjoyed reading it. Good ole Ken for putting it together in the first place!
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Post by skathros on Feb 1, 2007 16:24:01 GMT -5
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Post by lionrampant on Feb 1, 2007 21:13:32 GMT -5
Ken's site has been down for close to a week. I don't know if there were technical problems, or if he ran afoul of Geocities' terms of service (easier to do than you would think). Hopefully it will be restored eventually.
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khaydhaik
4th Level Troll
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Post by khaydhaik on Feb 1, 2007 23:34:40 GMT -5
We're all hoping. Ken has said that there was a misunderstanding with Geocities. But I got the impression that he wasn't sure if the site would be restored or if it even could be restored. I assume that he has backups of the files on his home computer, but he hasn't even said that. So, hold your breath a while longer, and keep your fingers crossed. With any luck, the materials will either reappear on Geocities, or pop up in some other web space.
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Post by lionrampant on Feb 2, 2007 22:05:06 GMT -5
Yeah, I had a problem with geocities about 4 years ago (they host my site) and they took my site down for a week before they put it back up.
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machfront
11th level Troll
Stalwart of the Trollbridge
"Let's go dark!"
Posts: 2,147
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Post by machfront on Feb 3, 2007 4:22:01 GMT -5
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khaydhaik
4th Level Troll
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Post by khaydhaik on Feb 4, 2007 22:31:00 GMT -5
Thanks, machfront, for that link. Have an exalt on me!
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machfront
11th level Troll
Stalwart of the Trollbridge
"Let's go dark!"
Posts: 2,147
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Post by machfront on Feb 5, 2007 2:52:31 GMT -5
I appreciate it, khaydhaik.
Ya know, reading that, enlightening as it was, it was....I don't know...there seemed to be a bit of I guess you could say quietness to it. It seemed a bit...sad. I can't put my finger on it.
Reflective, yes. But there was something...more. I got the feeling of a person who was alone in a very silent room while writing those words.
Not so much the words that were written in '80 or so....the ones that were added in '97.
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