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Post by bigjackbrass on Jan 6, 2018 6:16:14 GMT -5
Jon Peterson has an interesting piece on his blog about Sir Pellinore's Game, a fairly early RPG by the original author of Overkill that owes a debt to T&T. |
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Post by gaptooth on Jan 6, 2018 9:22:55 GMT -5
I've been trying to get my head around the list of games that branch from the Tunnels & Trolls tradition for a while now.
Monsters! Monsters!; Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes; and Wasteland are what I would call applications of T&T. If they were being marketed today, the tagline might be "Powered by Tunnels & Trolls".
There's also Risus, by S. John Ross, which claims T&T as a direct inspiration for its combat system. It's also possible to run monsters with a single rating in Risus, but I'm not sure if that was drawn directly from T&T or some other inspiration, or just a natural coincidence that suits the game well.
The first time I played T&T, I thought the magic system in GURPS, with spells powered by Strength (until the recent 4th edition), must have been inspired by T&T going there first. Later I learned that GURPS descended from The Fantasy Trip. I know M!M! was published by Metagaming, but I've never heard anyone attribute TFT's magic system to a T&T inspiration.
Combat in Fighting Fantasy/Sorcery! gamebooks is similar on the surface to T&T, but I don't know if FF was influenced directly by T&T or if it was a coincidence of convergence, from trying to develop programmed adventure books that T&T combat handled well. (FF combat is more buttoned-down than T&T, though!)
Likewise, I got to play Numenera once—a few years ago now—and a couple things felt a lot like T&T. The game has 3 core roles that resemble T&T's classic Types, and it also embraces a single-rating system for adversaries. But those could be coincidences.
I've heard of TAG by Peryton Publishing, but I don't know anything about it. I always guessed that it was T&T-inspired, but I don't want to jump to conclusions. And Bean!, the d2 RPG.
Someone told me the original Diablo game was heavily inspired by T&T. I see strong resemblances that suggest it's more than a coincidence, but I haven't seen any credit given for inspiration.
I also learned that the 1st edition of Das Schwarze Auge (Germany's most popular RPG) drew heavily from T&T. Notably, the authors of DSA translated T&T into German before making their own game.
Swords & Six-Siders is another contemporary retro game described to me as a mashup of T&T and OD&D.
Sir Pellinore's Game may be the earliest game of any to spin off T&T inspiration. Thanks to a comment on Peterson's blog, it seems like another game called Darkus Thel soon followed, and enjoyed popularity in Indiana until recently. I'd love to learn more about these games!
Does anyone know of other RPGs that deliberately take inspiration from T&T in their design?
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zanshin
14th Level Troll
Posts: 2,938
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Post by zanshin on Jan 7, 2018 11:30:17 GMT -5
Runequest had a power point magic system and armour points , and they credited Ken St Andre in their foreward.
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Post by gaptooth on Jan 7, 2018 12:20:01 GMT -5
Runequest had a power point magic system and armour points , and they credited Ken St Andre in their foreward. Thanks! I knew about the dedication to KSA for showing that Pandora's Box "could be opened again", but I didn't know about any specific lines of influence. |
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zanshin
14th Level Troll
Posts: 2,938
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Post by zanshin on Jan 8, 2018 11:44:32 GMT -5
Runequest had a power point magic system and armour points , and they credited Ken St Andre in their foreward. Thanks! I knew about the dedication to KSA for showing that Pandora's Box "could be opened again", but I didn't know about any specific lines of influence. I can't say they acknowledged the rules as T&T's but there is a straight line from one to the other. Also the Runequest attribute Power is like a mix up of T&Ts Wizardry and Luck (Runequest power affects your ability to do all stuff well, reflecting the favour of the gods, and the derived ability 'Luck' from 3e Runequest comes from your power attribute) |
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Post by gaptooth on Jan 31, 2018 12:51:59 GMT -5
As chance would have it, I found a copy of GURPS Basic Set, 3rd edition (1993) at the used books store on Saturday. It's identical to the copy I had in the 1990s, and the game I used for my longest-running campaign up to then. Skimming the introduction, I noticed Steve Jackson cites T&T as a direct influence on GURPS.
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