Tunnels and Trolls Adventures - iOS/Android App

Once again the Fans of Dead Games Society came up trumps.  A member pointed me in the direction of the Tunnels and Trolls Adventures app (available for both iOS and Android).

During this COVID-19 Lockdown I need some solo adventuring whilst I wait for eBay to deliver my physical T&T Solo Adventures.

Tunnels and Trolls Adventures

The app is free and comes with 27 adventures:

The Ascendant (Free) Buffalo Castle (40) Blue Frog Tavern (40) Sword for Hire (40) A Sworded Adventure (40) Gamesmen of Kasar (40) Misty Wood (40) Caravan to Tiern (40) Road to Gull (40)

Golden Dust, Red Death (40) Hot Pursuit (40) Sewers of Oblivion (40) Deathtrap Equalizer (40) Stop Thief! (40) City of Terrors (50) Ultimatum (40) Overkill (50) Naked Doom (Free)

The Black Heart (Free) The Necropolis of Vaarh (Pt 1) (Free) The Necropolis of Vaarh (Pt 2) (40) Labyrinth (40) Circle of Ice (10) Seven Ayes (10) Grimtina's Guard (10) Thief for Hire (10) First Command (10)

The Characters

You start with 4 basic characters which can be selected using the horned hemet icon, these are:

• Borgoth  - Dwarven Warrior with
  
• Lelana - Elf Warrior
  
• Morgan (Human Warrior)
• Rufus (Hobb Warrior)

Like all solo adventures your class is limited to warrior types for simplicity's sake, no spell casters here.

However, there is the option to roll your own character with a fairly simple pick and place interface which I like.  You get to choose from the four basic races Dwarf, Elf, Hobb and Human and Lore panels give a little bit of flavour text to explain the race, how "Adds" work and what your modified scores will be if you select the race. 

Updating Your Character

The app handles all the recording of experience and items you acquire as you complete the various adventures. 

However, it does not level you up or equip your character with new weapons you acquire on your adventures.  Make sure that you check back regularly to update your character and their inventory.

The Ascendant (Free)

This an introductory game designed to teach you the basic mechanics of T&T and the interface but the storyline is well written, rich in descriptive text.  It is a bit binary in terms of the decision tree, you either choose to do something or not, but this is understandable given that it is essentially targetting a newbie audience.

Your character goes from a humble villager to a starting adventurer which reminded me of the Dungeon Crawl Classics 0-level character concept.  I am a fan of this method of starting a new character as it is a refreshing alternative to the cliched "You meet in a Tavern".

Naked Doom (Free)

Buy it on eBay

As author Ken St. Andre says "I'm trying to kill your character" and there's no mistaking that.  You will have to acquire a decent weapon and some bonuses if you want to successfully beat some of these challenges.

It's been a long time since I played Naked Doom IRL, but this brought the memories rushing back.  I felt a real sense of relief when I finally escaped and a nagging sense that I'd left much yet to be discovered.

The beauty of this app is that you can pick another character and be dungeon delving again within minutes.  You may have to try several different characters to find the optimal combination of Attributes and Adds to successfully complete every path.  Good Times.

The Necropolis of Vaarh Part 1 (Free)

This is a well written but short taster adventure which sets the scene and gets you through the wilderness and up to the gates of the Necropolis.  To continue you must purchase part 2 or as I did play using one of my hearts. 

It is very short but still it has some excellent characters and some items can be acquired which have some significance both in this part and the next.  I enjoyed our brief time together and was sufficiently intrigued to give Part 2 a go which proved much more in depth and deadly. 

The Black Heart

A night on the town sounds like fun, you've got a coin full of gold and the Black Heart Gambling Den awaits. 

Essentially this adventure is a series of games of chance which are played using attribute checks.  The twist is that if you win you gain adventure points, if you lose you pay with your life force (CON).  An interesting concept which is definitely finding its way inside one of my cities.

Micro Transactions

The majority of the adventures must be purchased using the in game currency of Gems at the (bracketed prices) listed above.  You acquire Gems in game as loot and also buy puchasing them at the store.  You can buy 50 Gems for the $4.99.

However, the game is supported by ads.  If you watch an ad you earn 1 heart and can play any adventure once without owning it by spending a heart.   

Good Cheap Fun

This was some good cheap and incredibly fast fun whilst I waited for my solo adventures to arrive and to be honest why not take advantage of technology if it is available.  I really appreciated the fact that every adventure could be played for free.  If everything had been locked off with micro transactions I would have not given this app the time of day.

I blazed through the five adventures in no time and would have played more but the postman delivered my new solo adventure book in super quick time. 

Wish me luck as I enter the Arena of Khazan!

Coping with COVID-19: Online Gaming - How Low (Fi) Can I Go?

Some people call it a "Shelter in Place" others " Self Isolation" but we all know it as "Lockdown".

Whilst many might accuse us roleplayers as being sad loners, nothing could be further from the truth.  The vast majority of games need to be played with at least 2 people and most RPGs don't function without 3 or more.  That puts us roleplayers in a dangerous position.

Alternatives to Illegal Assemby

So you want to continue your normal (insert day of the week) roleplay session and still want to stay safe and legal?  What are your options?

You could sign up to the usual suspects, the Benicio del Toro of Roll20 or the Gabriel Byrne that is Fantasy Grounds.  Playing D&D? Then you probably already use D&D Beyond.  There are other smaller players such as Astral Tabletop, Beyond Tabletop, Tabletopia or Tabletop Simulator.  All of these services are more than up to the task, but the question is are you?

In my experience these offerings don't replicate the sitting around the table experience and come with an Everest of a learning curve.  Pre-game setup is also arduous just for simple encounters and the nice things typically sit behind a subscription paywall.

Do it for Free

The thing is most of us, thanks to corporate homeworking,  already have the necessary kit at our fingertips.  Video calling software such as Whattsapp, Google Hangouts, Facetime and Skype can all manage group video calls. The chat and game streaming services such as Discord and Twitch are probably two of the easiest services to use and are available across the spectrum of devices from iphone to laptop.

You will need to do some initial trials to see what works best for you in your situation but the last three weeks has seen my group using a combination of Twitch / Discord for the video & chat and a second service such as skype for the audio.

Virtual Game Setup for Games Masters

The setup for a GM is trivial.  You already have all the maps, minis, rulebooks and handouts that you use in your regular game all you need is:

1. A mobile device (or preferably 2) - capable of being used as a video camera and don't forget the charger(s), you are going to be on a video call for a couple of hours.  If you are using a second device make sure that you mute the microphone on this one so it is only capturing the video.
   
   
2. Wi-fi - don't blame me if you rack up a huge data bill hosting your game.  Make sure that you connect your device(s) to your wi-fi.
   
   
3. A tripod or selfie stick - to get that high level over head view of the battlemap.  If your location allows position it on a hig shelf with a good view of the map.
   
   
4. A headset on a second device - a headset is essential to cut down on any unwanted noise from appliances and feedback from speakers.  Using a second device logged into a different account or a different service to handle the audio is ideal.
   
   
5. An arms length indication device - AKA a stick!! The more tech obsessed (and cat lovers) will no doubt possess a laser pointer which is a suitable alternative.
   

Set Up For Players 

The setup for players is even more trivial and just requires you to have a mobile device and a headset.

Add-Ons and Resources

Here is a list of services which you might find useful to enhance your sessions.

• Dice Logger - free dice roller service which creates a read only log of every roll you can share with your DM or vice versa.
   
• Sketchup - you can quickly create 3d illustrations of rooms in your scenario using the warehouse of free 3d objects.

5 Boardgames Still Crying out for an App

1.  Car Wars

Original Car Wars "Pocket Game" Box Art
Published way back in 1981

There are a few noteable real time car combat games out there such as Death Rally, Auto Mangle, Indestructible, and Horror Racing.  I've had fun playing them all, but there's but nothing that's turn based.  A while ago I went through a period of playing Dark Wind which is a 3D turn based combat game, it was fun for a while but the interface was a bit clunky on my old mac.  there's a massive gap in the market here for a top down, turn based car combat game with an RPG/Tournament community angle.  Come on SJG this needs to happen alongside the re-launch of the Car Wars boardgame you promised during the OGRE kickstarter.

2.  Citadels

There's an iOS version of San Juan which sports a similar theme and variable abilities mechanic, so I don't see why there's not been a Citadels app.  I don't know how difficult it would be to program the  AI element but surely it's not be too tough a nut to crack.  If you solve that problem I think you're half way towards a version of the other Bruno Faidutti classic Mission Red Planet.

3. Formula D / Formula De

When Asmodee re-launched Formula De as Formula D an inbox flyer promised "raceronline", an online version of the game with tournaments and the usual multiplay options.  Well that never really happened (unless you spoke french) and the online site has since gone belly up.  Before anyone calls foul, yes I am aware of Racer Feud, which whilst a pretty good version is not officially licensed and personally I've found a bit buggy on my iPad2.

4.  Robo Rally

This is one of my favourite and a classic of the "programming" style games.  Once again a talented developer has released their own unlicensed version in the guise of Parcours.Robo, sadly it's a one player puzzle game and not the multiplayer anarchic deathmatch so typical of every game I've ever hand the pleasure to play.  I don't know who holds the licencse for this one as it's been through the hands of several different publishers since it was originally printed in 1994.  It's last reprint was in 2006 and it's high time that this got some appification.

5.  Thebes

Thebes by Queen Games

Whenever I feel the itch to be Indiana Jones, I dig out Thebes (no pun intended).  There's just so much variety in it but the game itself is quite simple to play, you either travel, research or dig.  I'd love to play it more often but the pre-game set-up takes a while to resolve in exactly the same way as Settlers of Catan.  It's probably not on any developers wishlist, but it's a game I love and I'd relish the opportunity to buy it in app form.

Honourable Mentions

I was going to add Battlelore to this list, but it appears that Fantasy Flight are in the process of releasing an iOS/Android/PC version, (albeit single player) of the game in time for Christmas.  I'll also be checking out the Bloodbowl app, maybe do a video review in the not too distant future.  

Two Birds, One Stone

Buy it on eBay

On Good Friday I stepped into the breach to run a filler game whilst our regular DM was absent, and I used the opportunity to complete two firsts.

One was to run a game of TOON RPG, which I enjoyed playing for the first time a few months back, at Dragonmeet 2011 and the other was to attempt to GM my first session using an iPad.

TOON

Having only played TOON was no real barrier to GMing, but I did kind of struggle with writing the scenario until I found THE TOON ADVENTURE GENERATOR in my copy of TOON SILLY STUFF. 

Clearly, I was overthinking this whole thing and as I recalled the game I played, the players pretty much drove the whole plot with their character choices and actions. 

With this in mind I just came up with the plot synopsis:

Save The Cows Save The World The PCs are all farmyard animals who have to save the cows on their farm from being rustled by an invading Martian with a penchant for strawberry milk shakes.  - Download it Today

I grabbed an image of a farmyard from googleimages and drew a rough map in inkscape to give the players an idea of what was on the farm.  This then gave me enough to start fleshing out some of the zones to give the players enough ammunition (literally) to see off the bad guys.  This was then converted into a PDF and loaded onto the ipad. 

A quick search of the interweb rustled up MP3s of the opening and closing credits for Looney Tunes which would help get my players into the mood.  I also stumbled on a great site with some free sound effects (http://www.freesfx.co.uk/) which I hoped to use during play and these were installed in the usual way via iTunes.

Using the iPAD

I've been trialling a few RPG apps on the iPad (which I'll cover in another post), but the most useful ability is to read and annotate PDFs and after a few false starts I found eDocReader Multiple PDF.  As the name suggests this app allows you to open multiple PDFs at the same time as tabs in the same application, allowing you to have a copy of the rules open as well as your scenario.  The simple annotation tools enable you to make notes directly onto your scenario by either typing or writing with a finger or stylus.

The Experience

The game ran very smoothly which was surprising as all my players were TOON newbies, but from the opening credits to the "that's all folks" they let their imaginations run riot.  The PCs were a duck billed platypus in search of a mate, a dumb but incredibly fast guard dog whose kennel sat atop a subterranean hi-tech lair, a machinating pig who had been ordering ACME products for years and last but not least a bull whose sole mission was to impress the 5 dairy cows with his muscle poses.

All the classic cartoon capers occurred; the pig dressed up as a female Martian to woo the bad guy into eating strawberry looking grenades, the bull became enraged by anything red and broke open the yellow barn to reveal an Indiana Jones style warehouse full of ACME crates, the platypus dropped a gigantic fake bomb on the pond squishing the piranha and the dog and his Martian double ended up having one of those cloud fist fights.

However, the playback of MP3s in the Music app was troublesome, particularly having to stop the iPad from playing the entire playlist.  There are lots (and I mean lots) of SFX pad apps in the appstore but no free ones that allow you to allocate your own custom sounds to buttons as triggers (please correct me if I'm wrong).  I am also on the hunt for ways of embedding sounds into my scenario PDFs so I can play them back from within the PDF Reader as I read out the relevant description text.

Although this first experience wasn't an unquallified success, the main advantage with the iPad is that you can GM with just an iPad and a few player handouts, so the days of carrying whole libraries of books around with you everytime you want to run a game are definitely over.  My new motto from now on will be "Have iPad... will GM".

Angry Birds the RPG?

May will see the release of Mattel's Angry Bird's the Boardgame which I'm sure will be a huge hit and a guaranteed money spinner for the company.  This is the first translation of an iOS app to a Boardgame rather than the other way round.  I'm sure that the suits at Hasbro are watching this space closely and having all sorts of covert app to game discussions. 

Of course the knock on question for our little niche interest group is "When will we see an official D&D product on iOS (or android, i'm not platformist)?".

Apps are the hot ticket in gaming right now, heck even Nintendo are scared that their next gen DS will lose market share to the iPod / iPhone / iPad / Android devices before it hits the streets.  Surely WotC should be concentrating on how to make D&D products work on these new devices and more importantly make oodles of cash!!

Hello Whirled! ...grr... Hello World!

Just had my case for membership of the rpgbloggers.com network approved, so woot! is me.  Sadly the first of my posts which was visible was an abortive mobile blogging attempt via BlogWritter app on my 3GS.  Damn unintuitive GUI!! I've just worked out that if you're in the "New Post" screen you can save a post in draft format just by tapping "Back".  Lesson learned...

"What was your first post then!" you ask

It was an instructable on how to make a scroll case from a Pringles can.

Let me explain, I'm looking through my old copies of Dungeon to get a few scenarios to link together to form a new plotline for my campaign world The Lands of Dual and I came across the scenario "A Race Against Time" (Issue 81 Jul/Aug 2000).  The scenario features a nice 3 hour timed plotline which calls for the delivery of a message in a scroll case delivered via juvenile winged snake courier.  The message is the cornerstone of the scenario and will be poured over ad-infitum by the players, so I thought it would be nice to give them a nice handout to look at.  The theatrics are very important for the message's punchline so I need to make a scroll case to hold the message.  The campaign starts in Jan 2011 so watch-out for more posts about the make and a session report.