Nu Tunnels & Trolls

Well, a mere fortnight after the announcement by Chaosium of a new e̶d̶i̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ version of RuneQuest, Rebellion Unplugged has announced that a new edition of Tunnels & Trolls is in the works and is going to be published in 2025.

Yay! Talk about living in interesting times.

A lot of people were worried that the new T&T wouldn’t be true to its roots (or even that Rebellion Unplugged would be sitting on the licence), but the announcement today mentions that Scott Malthouse (of Trollish Delver fame) is one of the people working on the new ruleset. Scott is a true blue fan of Tunnels & Trolls, so I know we can only expect Good Things from the new edition.

Yay! Can’t wait!

Mike Mearls About the New Rules

Mike Mearls has been interviewed by Luke Gygax on his Twitch TV channel.

Obviously, he addresses Nu RuneQuest; the ‘meaty’ part starts at 00:33:30 and ends at 00:40:30, so it’s a mere 7 minutes to listen to.

If you still don’t want to listen to it, here is the salient information:

1. Nu RuneQuest is not a new edition; it’s more like Pulp Cthulhu vs ‘normal’ Call of Cthulhu.

2. Nu RuneQuest will concentrate on adventures set in Pavis & Big Rubble: dungeon crawling, treasure hunting, dealing with chaotic foes…

3. In the rules, social actions will be as important as combat [c’mon this is already the case in RQ...]

Nu RuneQuest

So Jeff Richard dropped a bomb today on Facebook. Here it is, verbatim:

New RuneQuest? 

The cat is out of the bag! Mike Mearls, Jason Durall, and I have been secretly working on refining and streamlining the RuneQuest rules for the better part of a year! The rules are in final playtest (and any playtesters present please do not comment on them publicly until we give the word). And man we are EXCITED! Loads more info very soon, so watch this space.

But sharp eyed folk might want to carefully review some of my posts over the last year!

OK I’m way too lazy to review Jeff’s FB posts over 12 months, but someone over at BRP Central noticed that he posted a lot about Pavis & Big Rubble. I thought this was because the new Pavis & Big Rubble book would be the next in line, but someone smart wrote that Nu RuneQuest may drop all the extra chargen shit and concentrate on Pavis & Big Rubble as a single locale for starting PCs, with a fair bit of dungeon delving.

Anyway, it is clear to me that the reason Jeff hired Mike Mearls is that Mike has been successful with D&D 5E and Jeff wants to sell RQ to new players looking for a simpler FRP game rather than to (or on top of) us grognards.

Then obviously the next question is: on top of the complex chargen chapter, what is going to be removed from the core rules in Nu RuneQuest? On Bluesky, Facebook, BRP Central, everybody is speculating... Some think the rules are merely going to be streamlined (everything in one place, errata included, Passions/Runes going to work in boon/bane mode); some others are expecting major overhauls like removing the SR system altogether.

Anyway, you may sign up to the playtest rules — but then you have to also sign an NDA. I’m signing up so don’t expect anything from me from now on.

Oh, and BTW, how should we refer to Nu RuneQuest? ‘New RQ’? ‘RQ 2025’? ‘RQG 1.1’?

Tunnels & Trolls Back in 2025?

Remember? Two years ago, Rebellion Unplugged purchased the Tunnels & Trolls licence from Webbed Sphere who were idly sitting on it.

We haven’t heard much since; however, a few days ago, Rebellion Unplugged posted the following on Bluesky:

2024 is drawing to a close but we're already looking ahead to 2025. We see big, big things on the horizon that may change TTRPGs forever... Illustration by @nathanandersonart.bsky.social

[image or embed]

— Rebellion Unplugged (@rebellionunplugged.bsky.social) 20 décembre 2024 à 11:45

That sounds rather... bombastic, but here’s hoping.

Cthulhubane

So this started as a joke on Bluesky with Old Scouse Roleplayer: if Dragonbane = streamlined RuneQuest then we ought to have ‘Cthulhubane’ = streamlined Call of Cthulhu, right?

I have pondered this and jotted down a few ideas.
(post updated on 1/1/2025 with input from ian.fenrisgames) 

DAGONBANE

Your Investigator

Attributes

Same as Dragonbane; add a new attribute, EDU (2D6+6).

SAN is replaced with RESolve. Starting RES is equal to the average of WIL, INT and EDU. Whenever a scenario calls for a SAN roll, make an EDU roll instead. Success: nothing happens; failure: lose 1 RES. 

Professions

Athletic

Key attribute AGL

Skills: Acrobatics, Awareness, Bluffing, Brawling, Evade, Swimming

Heroic ability: Veteran

Sample occupations: acrobat, boxer, gangster, soldier…

Charismatic

Key attribute CHA

Skills: Acrobatics, Bartering, Bluffing, Languages [Living], Performance, Persuasion

Heroic ability: Insight

Sample occupations: actor, clergyman, prostitute, solicitor…

Cultured

Key attribute EDU

Skills: Awareness, Etiquette, Evade, First Aid, Languages [Dead], Spot Hidden

Heroic ability: Intuition

Sample occupations: archaeologist, author, book dealer, librarian, occultist, humanities professor…

Investigative

Key attribute AGL

Skills: Acrobatics, Awareness, Bluffing, Brawling, Sneaking, Streetwise

Heroic ability: Word on the street

Sample occupations: journalist, police detective, private investigator…

Scientific

Key attribute INT

Skills: Awareness, Evade, First Aid, Languages [Living], Sneaking, Spot Hidden

Heroic ability: Practical Science

Sample occupations: laboratory assistant, physician, psychiatrist, science teacher…

Skilled

Key attribute STR

Skills: Awareness, Brawling, Sleight of Hand, Spot Hidden, any skill based on the investigator’s occupation (Drive Auto, Elec. Repair, Mech. Repair, Pilot Aircraft…)

Heroic ability: DIY

Sample occupations: driver, mechanic, pilot…

List of Core Skills

Acrobatics

Awareness

Bartering

Bluffing

Drive Auto (like ‘Riding’ but for automobiles)

Elec. Repair (like ‘Crafting’ but for electrical gear)

Etiquette (like ‘Bushcraft’ but in the jungle of high society)

Evade

First Aid (‘Healing’ renamed)

General Knowledge (new skill, EDU)

Languages [Dead]

Languages [Living]

Mech. Repair (like ‘Crafting’ but for mechanical gear)

Occult (like ‘Myths & Legends’ but based on EDU)

Performance

Persuasion

Pilot Aircraft (new skill, INT)

Pilot Boat (‘Seamanship’ renamed)

Riding

Sleight of Hand

Sneaking

Spot Hidden

Streetwise (like ‘Bushcraft’ but in the urban jungle)

Swimming

Weapon Skills

Brawling (STR)

Firearms (AGL)

Mêlée weapons, ancient (STR)

Missile weapons, ancient (AGL)

List of Heroic Abilities

Catlike

Contortionist

Defensive

Disguise

DIY (works like ‘Master Blacksmith/Carpenter/Tanner’, but is based on the investigator’s occupation, Requirement: Elec. Repair/Mech. Repair 12)

Eagle Eye

Fast Footwork

Fast Healer

Fearless

Focused

Guardian

Insight

Intuition

Iron Fist

Iron Grip

Lightning Fast

Magic Talent – you can cast a single mythos spell without incurring the associated RES loss (TBD). This heroic ability must be selected for each such spell.

Marksman (new heroic ability: boon on firearms, Requirement: Firearms 12, WP 3)

Monster Hunter (only available in pulp games)

Musician

Mythos Creature Slayer (‘Dragonslayer’ renamed, only available in pulp games)

Practical Science (works like ‘Master Blacksmith/Carpenter/Tanner’, but is based on the investigator’s speciality, Chemistry, Medicine, Physics…)

Relic Hunter (‘Treasure Hunter’ renamed, only available in pulp games)

Robust

Sea Legs

Veteran

Word on the street (like ‘Intuition’, but for street wisdom-based decisions, Requirement: Streetwise 12)

Dragonbane Readthrough, Part Eight

Despite its title, the eighth and last chapter of the Dragonbane rulebook, Adventures, does not provide any adventures (those are in a separate book of the core set). What it does provide, though, is a miscellanea of GM advice and campaign game rules for ongoing campaigns.

Nothing really particular here, but a meaty selection of useful gaming advice:

Travelling

You get travelling times, including the effects of a forced march on the player characters; getting lost; a mishaps table for wilderness adventures (which is much more fun than wandering monsters), etc.

Foraging

To my taste there is waaaay too much detail on foraging in the wilderness and on the effects of not having enough food 🥱, but I understand this may sound ‘fun’ to other players (after all, why should combat be the only area where frp games rules are über detailed?)

GM Advice

This section is both classic and useful. We old timers may safely ignore it, but inexperienced GMs will find helpful advice. I particularly like the paragraph about managing mooks. In a stat-heavy game such as Dragonbane it can be tedious to keep track of fully-statted ‘low-level’ NPCs, and you get plenty of advice here as how to reduce bookkeeping in this area.

Creating Adventures

On top of useful advice about the kind of challenges the PCs may encounter, and when and where, there are a few random tables reminiscent of my own adventure generator 🙂

Monsters are such a central and peculiar part of Dragonbane, what with their automatic and diverse attacks, each with their own tables. Therefore I am slightly disappointed that there aren’t any guidelines for creating your own Dragonbane monsters.

Dragonbane Readthrough, Part Seven

The seventh chapter, Bestiary, is one of the areas where Dragonbane shines, because of one peculiar feature of Dragonbane: monster attacks succeed automatically. My mind went boom 🤯 when I realised the implications. The days and nights spent at trying to create interesting challenges for my players, which they destroyed in a few lucky rounds… The yawn elicited at the mentions of the creatures I’d throw onto their player characters… If monster attacks succeed automatically, fear will change sides.

How does this work? The GM will draw an initiative card per each monster attack (monstrous creatures often have multiple attacks per round). When it is the monster’s turn to act in the combat round, the GM determines who the unlucky target of the monster attack is, rolls a D6 on the monster attack table, and applies the results to the hapless victim.

Each monster has its own unique ‘monster attacks’ table; it’s not simply a ‘roll D-something for damage’ (well, it can be, but it’s usually just one of the entries in the table).

Demons possess or curse their opponents; dragons flap their wings and create hurricane-strong winds; ghosts inflict all kinds of conditions… Even more mundane monsters such as giant spiders have deadly poison attacks or may mesmerise you with their many eyes.

The monster becomes the ultimate foe in an adventure, not a mere passing threat.

The only drawback is that, since each monster takes up several pages, the selection in the bestiary is quite limited.