Post by ElvenScribe on Mar 13, 2017 16:17:10 GMT -5
Awhile back someone asked me if I would do a review of Rarr I'm a Monster Publishings very cool setting: Caustic Tunnels & Trolls. So, without further adieu, here we go:
The overall gist (what happens when Gamma World and T&T have a very small baby together?):
The book is said to be for “The Tunnels and Trolls RPG” the version of which is not defined. The book itself is a slim 20 pages, but chocked full of cool content. Right away the author explains that the book is intended to be for a “one off” or “pick up” game and not an entire campaign. This, I suspect is the reason for the lack of extensive content of the setting. It provides just enough for a fun one night’s outing into the post apocalyptic version of Trollworld. This gives the book a streamlined feel and was also a joy to read.
The feel:
The cataclysm that befell Trollworld is simply explained as a burning (which changed the face of the whole world) and left it in ruins. The setting takes place 150 years after that cataclysm occurred.
The inhabitants (Character creation):
The author explains that there are two types of people in the world: The Touched and The Tainted. The Touched are those who have been granted what is essentially super powers without any disfiguring physical mutations. They are called Touched as they are seemingly blessed or “touched” by the gods. The Tainted are like the Touched in that they too have special powers but they also have mutations (that are minor and/or major) which, are really quite fun. A Tainted character might have brightly colored skin, an animal head, horns/antlers, covered with carapace armor etc. Tainted have both mutations and “abilities” (which are super powers). And even some mutations seem like powers such as wings that can enable a character to fly.
I found it interesting that both Tainted and Touched are said to be essentially human looking (unless, in the case of the former, they have an animal head or some other really disfiguring mutation). Which begs the question, what about the other kindreds? This is Trollworld after all. It is implied that the cataclysm happened to a society that was high tech in nature (which can be seen with some of the relic type items that can be found). Did the Elves, Dwarves, Leprechauns, Faeries etc leave before the cataclysm? Or perhaps they too can be found in this setting? The book doesn’t say that they don’t. And it would be very easy (and I think very interesting) to include them.
More on Character Creation:
To determine whether a PC will be a Touched or a Tainted character, they simply roll 3 d4…wait! D4s? I saw that and thought it very interesting (as it breaks away from the standard use of d6s in T&T). Even results = a Touched character, odds = Tainted. If a player wanted to roll 3 d6s I don’t see why that wouldn’t work as well.
The powers:
A great deal of space in the book is used in explaining and cataloging these powers as part of the character creation process. Again, there is a non exhaustive list of powers for Touched characters that are randomly generated.
A Touched adventurer has 1d6-2 powers. Then the player rolls 3d6 and consults the table of powers to see what powers they have. Any duplications of number (same powers) doubles the effects or the potency of the ability. I thought some powers were better than others. Some just enhance attributes like STR or INT (which, from a DT&T perspective doesn’t seem like that much as it’s pretty easy to increase attributes through adventuring). Other powers are really impressive like the power of flight that allows the character to fly at 25 mph for every point of SPD they have, or invisibility, teleportation, telepathy, mental suggestions (think Jedi mind trick), enhanced vision (which enables a character to see up to a mile away!), etc.
A tainted character rolls 2d6 which tells if they have major or minor mutations. Tainted pcs can have 1d6-3 minor or major mutations. Minor mutations include things like horns, brightly colored skin, a third eye/one eye etc. Major mutations include things like shell on the back (for reason I think TMNT here), multiple arms, wings, giant/dwarf, animal head etc. There is also a chance that, when a tainted pc has major mutations they also might have minor ones. This could lead to some very interesting characters! Then the Tainted also have special abilities like telepathy, mental suggestions, invisibility, healing, energy absorption etc. Upon reflection, tainted characters could potentially be some of the most powerful (and FUN!) characters in this game.
Stuff
Then the book goes on to describe money and equipping characters.
The setting uses either bartering or what’s called old world money (owm for short). OWM is preferred over bartering by merchants. There are 2 brief lists of melee weapons those that are “make shift” and those that are manufactured. It’s assumed that the manufactured weapons are more durable and, in some cases, do more damage than the make shift ones. But, I found that even the make shift weapons were relatively expensive for a beginning character. Further, it is explained that “electro” do exist and they do quite a bit more damage than their more mundane weapon counter parts. I found it odd that there was no list of ranged weapons in the book. It would be very easy to include them from one of the T&T rule books though.
As a side note, I would be inclined to include more modern fire arms and weapons into the setting also (more as very rare artifacts) or maybe even ray guns. Just a side thought.
There is decently good listing of armor types from heavy cloth/furs, leather, to even higher tech “plasteel” and “reflective” armors. There are also a list of shields. All the armors are remarkably expensive, even furs. I found it amusing that wooden shields have a chance to fall apart with each hit it absorbs (when a 3 is the result of rolling 2d6).
The expense of even simple items makes the harshness and scarcity of this setting come through. And I really like that it makes upgrading to a sword from a club or being able to purchase armor a big deal.
After that there is a simple note that many other things can be purchased if the character knows what they are looking for and where.
Where are we going??
After this there are short descriptions of the “Tainted” lands, the “Touched” lands, and “The In Between”. The latter, being a kind of no man’s land/waste land full of dangerous things.
All creatures great and small…and radioactive
Then there is a good sized list of flora and fauna like giant ants and mutated bears.
Finally there is a short description of transportation in the setting. It seems, most folks travel by foot. So, no horses (or bipedal camelish beasts…couldn’t help the Wizards reference)?? There are giant scorpions and wargs that can be ridden…but imagine it is expensive and dangerous to own one! There is also the mention of electically powered vehicles, like the example “scutt” a small electrically powered car like vehicle (which is likely off road capable). These, like most other high tech items are quite rare.
So, I rolled up an example character to test the system (and for fun): I came up with a Tainted character (yes!). He turned out to have just one minor mutation (brightly colored skin, I’m saying it’s blue). Then he got the following special abilities: 1. STRONG, it adds +1d6 to “Build score”. I’m wasn’t sure what a build score is (and I don’t think it’s explained in this book). So, I interpreted it as STR and it worked fine. This power is kind of meh. 2. Healer: My PC can heal 1d6 (to himself or someone else) twice per one hour. Cool!
Then I went through the normal process of rolling up a T&T human. Sometimes the dice really cooperate. He ended up being quite strong (I rolled an 18 as one of the attribute scores and put in on STR), then I rolled a 6 as the power add on! And he is 6’4” tall and over 200# (of rippling blue muscle). So, he’s a definitely a warrior. He got $40 OSM which bought him a makeshift axe, a dagger, and some heavy fur armor. So, the guy looks like a brute, but he has a healing ability, so he might actually be kind of compassionate. Tons of fun potential there.
In conclusion
So, what did I think? I really like the book and I think it has tons of potential as a setting that could even be fleshed out for a campaign with enough add ons. And it might be fun to port some normal T&T delvers into this world and see how they do or vice versa. Further, I think the treatment of super powers in this setting has good potential of translation into a T&T supers setting (which I would like write myself at some point). And this has given me much food for thought.
So, if you are looking for a fun alternative T&T setting, this is a book that will give you a lot of bang for your buck.
The overall gist (what happens when Gamma World and T&T have a very small baby together?):
The book is said to be for “The Tunnels and Trolls RPG” the version of which is not defined. The book itself is a slim 20 pages, but chocked full of cool content. Right away the author explains that the book is intended to be for a “one off” or “pick up” game and not an entire campaign. This, I suspect is the reason for the lack of extensive content of the setting. It provides just enough for a fun one night’s outing into the post apocalyptic version of Trollworld. This gives the book a streamlined feel and was also a joy to read.
The feel:
The cataclysm that befell Trollworld is simply explained as a burning (which changed the face of the whole world) and left it in ruins. The setting takes place 150 years after that cataclysm occurred.
The inhabitants (Character creation):
The author explains that there are two types of people in the world: The Touched and The Tainted. The Touched are those who have been granted what is essentially super powers without any disfiguring physical mutations. They are called Touched as they are seemingly blessed or “touched” by the gods. The Tainted are like the Touched in that they too have special powers but they also have mutations (that are minor and/or major) which, are really quite fun. A Tainted character might have brightly colored skin, an animal head, horns/antlers, covered with carapace armor etc. Tainted have both mutations and “abilities” (which are super powers). And even some mutations seem like powers such as wings that can enable a character to fly.
I found it interesting that both Tainted and Touched are said to be essentially human looking (unless, in the case of the former, they have an animal head or some other really disfiguring mutation). Which begs the question, what about the other kindreds? This is Trollworld after all. It is implied that the cataclysm happened to a society that was high tech in nature (which can be seen with some of the relic type items that can be found). Did the Elves, Dwarves, Leprechauns, Faeries etc leave before the cataclysm? Or perhaps they too can be found in this setting? The book doesn’t say that they don’t. And it would be very easy (and I think very interesting) to include them.
More on Character Creation:
To determine whether a PC will be a Touched or a Tainted character, they simply roll 3 d4…wait! D4s? I saw that and thought it very interesting (as it breaks away from the standard use of d6s in T&T). Even results = a Touched character, odds = Tainted. If a player wanted to roll 3 d6s I don’t see why that wouldn’t work as well.
The powers:
A great deal of space in the book is used in explaining and cataloging these powers as part of the character creation process. Again, there is a non exhaustive list of powers for Touched characters that are randomly generated.
A Touched adventurer has 1d6-2 powers. Then the player rolls 3d6 and consults the table of powers to see what powers they have. Any duplications of number (same powers) doubles the effects or the potency of the ability. I thought some powers were better than others. Some just enhance attributes like STR or INT (which, from a DT&T perspective doesn’t seem like that much as it’s pretty easy to increase attributes through adventuring). Other powers are really impressive like the power of flight that allows the character to fly at 25 mph for every point of SPD they have, or invisibility, teleportation, telepathy, mental suggestions (think Jedi mind trick), enhanced vision (which enables a character to see up to a mile away!), etc.
A tainted character rolls 2d6 which tells if they have major or minor mutations. Tainted pcs can have 1d6-3 minor or major mutations. Minor mutations include things like horns, brightly colored skin, a third eye/one eye etc. Major mutations include things like shell on the back (for reason I think TMNT here), multiple arms, wings, giant/dwarf, animal head etc. There is also a chance that, when a tainted pc has major mutations they also might have minor ones. This could lead to some very interesting characters! Then the Tainted also have special abilities like telepathy, mental suggestions, invisibility, healing, energy absorption etc. Upon reflection, tainted characters could potentially be some of the most powerful (and FUN!) characters in this game.
Stuff
Then the book goes on to describe money and equipping characters.
The setting uses either bartering or what’s called old world money (owm for short). OWM is preferred over bartering by merchants. There are 2 brief lists of melee weapons those that are “make shift” and those that are manufactured. It’s assumed that the manufactured weapons are more durable and, in some cases, do more damage than the make shift ones. But, I found that even the make shift weapons were relatively expensive for a beginning character. Further, it is explained that “electro” do exist and they do quite a bit more damage than their more mundane weapon counter parts. I found it odd that there was no list of ranged weapons in the book. It would be very easy to include them from one of the T&T rule books though.
As a side note, I would be inclined to include more modern fire arms and weapons into the setting also (more as very rare artifacts) or maybe even ray guns. Just a side thought.
There is decently good listing of armor types from heavy cloth/furs, leather, to even higher tech “plasteel” and “reflective” armors. There are also a list of shields. All the armors are remarkably expensive, even furs. I found it amusing that wooden shields have a chance to fall apart with each hit it absorbs (when a 3 is the result of rolling 2d6).
The expense of even simple items makes the harshness and scarcity of this setting come through. And I really like that it makes upgrading to a sword from a club or being able to purchase armor a big deal.
After that there is a simple note that many other things can be purchased if the character knows what they are looking for and where.
Where are we going??
After this there are short descriptions of the “Tainted” lands, the “Touched” lands, and “The In Between”. The latter, being a kind of no man’s land/waste land full of dangerous things.
All creatures great and small…and radioactive
Then there is a good sized list of flora and fauna like giant ants and mutated bears.
Finally there is a short description of transportation in the setting. It seems, most folks travel by foot. So, no horses (or bipedal camelish beasts…couldn’t help the Wizards reference)?? There are giant scorpions and wargs that can be ridden…but imagine it is expensive and dangerous to own one! There is also the mention of electically powered vehicles, like the example “scutt” a small electrically powered car like vehicle (which is likely off road capable). These, like most other high tech items are quite rare.
So, I rolled up an example character to test the system (and for fun): I came up with a Tainted character (yes!). He turned out to have just one minor mutation (brightly colored skin, I’m saying it’s blue). Then he got the following special abilities: 1. STRONG, it adds +1d6 to “Build score”. I’m wasn’t sure what a build score is (and I don’t think it’s explained in this book). So, I interpreted it as STR and it worked fine. This power is kind of meh. 2. Healer: My PC can heal 1d6 (to himself or someone else) twice per one hour. Cool!
Then I went through the normal process of rolling up a T&T human. Sometimes the dice really cooperate. He ended up being quite strong (I rolled an 18 as one of the attribute scores and put in on STR), then I rolled a 6 as the power add on! And he is 6’4” tall and over 200# (of rippling blue muscle). So, he’s a definitely a warrior. He got $40 OSM which bought him a makeshift axe, a dagger, and some heavy fur armor. So, the guy looks like a brute, but he has a healing ability, so he might actually be kind of compassionate. Tons of fun potential there.
In conclusion
So, what did I think? I really like the book and I think it has tons of potential as a setting that could even be fleshed out for a campaign with enough add ons. And it might be fun to port some normal T&T delvers into this world and see how they do or vice versa. Further, I think the treatment of super powers in this setting has good potential of translation into a T&T supers setting (which I would like write myself at some point). And this has given me much food for thought.
So, if you are looking for a fun alternative T&T setting, this is a book that will give you a lot of bang for your buck.
