Tag Archives: tunnels & trolls

Impressions from the Essener Spieletage 2010 (Spiel 2010)

spiel20101This year the Essener Spieletage – or Spiel 2010 – as it is also called take place from the 21st of October to the 24th. (I just noticed that the official name seems to be “Internationale Spieltage” – we never called it that ๐Ÿ™‚ ) It is the largest game convention in the world with over 150.000 visitors and more than 700 exhibitors from more than 30 nations… all of them enthusiastic about board games, card games, tabletop games, roleplaying games, cosims and various gaming related topics. For me visiting the Spiel 2010 is the 23rd year in a row… you might call me a Spieletage Grognard. Here are some impressions…


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RPG Design: Experience for skill checks

chessFor my latest RPG design I already have decided to use a level based system as explained in another post. I also love skill-based systems because of the variety they IMHO add to characters. One issue I find myself toying with again and again is how (and if) to reward skill checks with experience points.


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Review: Tunnels & Trolls 7.5

tt-coverYesterday I received the Tunnels & Trolls (T&T) 7.5 edition box I ordered from Flying Buffalo Inc. (FBI). This review will summarize my impressions based on a first partial reading and some experiments with character generation and the included solo adventure.

In summary there are quite a lot of things I love about this edition, a few things that might be improved (8th edition please) and some product decisions I find discussable. Content-wise T&T 7.5 is a great old school game that includes all the benefits of more recent indie games as far as simple mechanics, freeform rules and easy customization go. Definitely a good game to get newbies into role-playing and as great for old timers who do no longer have the time to read through rules manuals with hundreds of pages before they can start a game.

Here come the details…


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Being a Fanboy… and a Troll

Today is a good day. After a long hard day of work, I visited my blog and noticed that the Trollgod himself graced my comments with his wisdom ๐Ÿ™‚


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