Sunday 9 September 2018

Let's take a look at T&T Adventures Japan


Despite Tunnels and Trolls being the second roleplaying game ever, the majority of material created for the system is made by small press publishers like my own. In fact, in the scheme of RPGs T&T is one of the more obscure (criminally so). Despite this, the game has enjoyed great support over in Japan where it was actually released before D&D (I believe the same goes for the UK through Corgi publishing).

The most prominent publisher of T&T material in the land of the rising sun is SNE, who produced the localised Deluxe T&T, a series of adventures and T&T Adventures Magazine, which includes solos, GM adventures and manga. This is all genuinely high quality stuff with its own art, including Kiyoshi Arai (Final Fantasy VII). Earlier this year T&T Adventures was released for the first time in English, complete with original manga plus some Steve Crompton illustrations.


T&T Adventures is an introduction to the game with examples told through some light-hearted manga antics starring a dwarf warrior, human rogue, elf wizard and fairy wizard. It's a nice little explainer that leads into a few pages of mini rules and a short spell list. Rather than using the classic racial multipliers, the mini rules give you bonuses to add. It's not a bad idea actually, though it means you're less likely to get the swingy attributes we all know and love. That said, it gives you everything you need to get started and I kind of love it.

After the rules we get into the adventures. First up we have Kitten-napped, where the PCs have to become tiny animals to save a little girl from a troll. Yeah, it's manga-licious and beginner friendly. The Secret Order of the Eye is the solo adventure, which has a pretty cool innovation where NPCs will change their reactions towards you as the adventure goes on. It's something I've not seen in a solo before. Journey to the Black wall Street is the final GM adventure in the book, which is followed by some  more manga to close everything out.

If you want to introduce a newbie to T&T, give them this. It really is everything they need and more, complete with manga that both brings the rules to life and provides veterans with a fresh perspective on the game.

Images: Group SNE/ Flying Buffalo Inc.

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