Eald Scōl # 4: Apothecary on the Street of Dreams

Apothecary on the Street of Dreams

Little Shop of Poisons and Potions Book 2

Bob Liddil
1990
Image from:
http://tomeoftreasures.com/tot_nontsr/bob_liddil/apothecary.htm

Here's another out of the rare and obscure pile of my RPG collection. Though I never got my hands on Book 1, it isn't needed to enjoy this one.

The Apothecary is a glorious collection of 30 potions, and includes a second collection of 30 books that contain potion formulas and other valuable information. The book is written to be usable with any RPG game system, and succeeds at the task.

This great book also contains rich background story on the Apothecary and it's owner, Griswald Grimm, as well as Sri Karnuth, Bookseller.

PERFECT for T&T GMs looking to slip something new, unexpected, and often goofy into the mix just to mess with their players. In most cases, no converting is neccesary, the items can be placed directly into T&T.

Some HEAVILY paraphrased examples:

Poisons and Potions #10
Bulk Powder
Cost: 1200 GP
Adds muscle. For 25 turns STR and CON are doubled, INT is reduced by 50%, and DEX is reduced by 20%.

Poisons and Potions # 20
Gender Bender
Cost: 750 GP
Changes to opposite gender for 1d100 turns (Editor's Note: Hardcore T&Ters can use 17D6 to generate 17-102 turns)

The Karnuth Manuscripts # 5
Yo Momma!
Value if real: 54,000 GP
A catalog of greetings to the female gender in every known language.
Potion contained within: a formula allowing universal language


Apothecary on the Street of Dreams is a treasure I've been lucky enough to own since it was first published. Good luck tracking down a copy at a reasonable price! It is definitely a wonderful and unusual piece in my collection.

NEXT: Dark Folk, a Role Aids supplement from 1983, 'Suitable for use with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons' that details Trolls, Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, and Gnolls. VERY adaptable to T&T.
~ ~ ~

Copyright 2012 Paul Ingrassia

Eald Scōl (Old English for Old School) showcases Old School P&P RPGs, first published 1990 or earlier, ranging from rare and obscure games to well-known favorites.

Eald Scōl # 3: Tunnels & Trolls 1e

I bought a reprint of the 1st edition of Tunnels & Trolls off of ebay a while back, skim-read it, then put it in the 'needs to be looked at closer' pile of RPGs. Recently, I picked it up again and read it more carefully, and got pretty excited to see how my favorite RPG started off. Amazingly, at its heart, T&T hasn't changed at all. Sure, 7.5 is bigger, and there have been some changes to core mechanics over the editions, but at its mighty heart, T&T is the same game it was back in 1975. I just had to give it a go.

I played T&T1e solo for the better part of a week, running a total of 4 warrior characters (only the 4th still lives) through Buffalo Castle, then Labyrinth. I have early printings of both solos, and they worked perfectly 'as is' with the 1e rules. I had a lot of fun, it wasn't hard to retrofit my brain from 7.5e to 1e.

As I get older (I started playing RPGs around 1979-80), I have been enjoying short, all-in-one rules booklets far more than lengthy, over-complicated foot-thick tomes. T&T1e was the prototype for every short and simple RPG to follow. There is just enough meat to chew, but you don't get the whole cow, you get to make it your own.

There are differences from then to now. There were only three classes: warrior, rogue, and magic-user. Monster dice, as determined by MR, is at a different range scale. All saving rolls are to be made using the Luck attribute. Armor is, in essence, an extension of Con, as armor 'wears out' as it takes hits. Shields, however, do not, they deflect a set number of hits every combat round. Warriors and rogues receive personal adds, magic-users do not receive positive adds, but must incur negative adds. There are other differences as well.

As I played, I developed some house rules for my solo play. Burke's Wild Lands PHB (find it over at the Trollbridge) was inspirational in implementing some of these rules.

~ Treasure Generator from T&T5.5
~ At character creation, humans may roll 4d6 for attributes, but only count the three highest
~ Lost Con regained after a night's sleep. If Con reduced below half, 1 point per day is recovered until back to half Con, then a night's sleep to regain final half
~ Missile weapons may be fired at the beginning of the first round of combat, they do not replace melee combat, and they do not count towards the round HPT
~ Missile weapon ranges:
bows and slings: 100 yards
spears: 20 yards
knives and axes: 10 yards
double range = x2 difficulty to hit
spear throwers double range
~ regain expended arrows:
roll 1d6:
1-3 lost or broken
4-6 recovered
~ 2 weapon combat: character's Str and Dex must exceed the combined required minimum Str and Dex of both weapons

Experimenting with 1e has peaked my curiosity for other early editions, T&T4e and T&TUK1 in particular. I have picked Mahrundl of Trollhalla's brain for clues to reconstructing some info found in T&T4e by using 5.xe rules, so my house rules will be getting an update soon. I also have not yet experimented with magic-users and rogues in 1e, so I look forward to exploring the rules further.

Unfortunately, there are no legitimate sources for getting your hands on a copy of Tunnels & Trolls 1st edition, there are no official reprints being sold today. The original was self published by Ken himself, and only 100 copies of it, as the story goes. So, I suggest keeping a keen eye on ebay, an old reprint may be your only shot at taking the original rules for a test drive.

~ ~ ~

Copyright 2011 Paul Ingrassia

Next: Monsters! Monsters! revisited

Eald Scōl (Old English for Old School) showcases Old School P&P RPGs, first published 1990 or earlier, ranging from rare and obscure games to well-known favorites.

Eald Scōl # 2: Monsters! Monsters!

Do you ever get tired of playing a human or elf or dwarf? Have you ever fantasized about being a troll terrorizing the countryside? Have you ever wanted to know what life was like from the monster's perspective? If you answered 'yes', than Monsters! Monsters! by Ken St. Andre is for you!

First published by Metagaming, and later reprinted by Flying Buffalo, the edition of M!M! that I own is a reprint of the original FBI print, also published by FBI, and currently available.

While players of later editions of Tunnels & Trolls are used to being able to play monstrous kindreds, Monsters! Monsters! was first released over 30 years ago, at a time when playing a monster was far less common. Basically, Ken adapted the T&T 4e rules to give us M!M!, but there are plenty of 'monster only' rules and guidelines, like handling Charisma and gaining experience, which make this game unique.

M!M! is packed full of great stuff, and is wonderful as its own stand alone game, or as a reference tool for any T&T GM: the five pages of monster descriptions and the included Woodsedge Inn (an 8 page removable center insert containing a scenario) are worth the cost of the rule book alone! Additionally, although I'm not sure if it is still included, the current printing contains a special insert by Ken which includes monstrous versions of myself and other members of Trollhalla, and artwork by the awesome Jeff Freels!

So, if your ready to storm an Inn, ransack for treasure, devour good kindreds, and be rewarded for your evil, depraved actions, then head on over to Flying Buffalo and order your copy today:

http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/mm.htm

Additional Notes: 'The Toughest Dungeon In The World', a solo adventure published by Judge's Guild way back when, is playable with M!M!. They also published 'Rat On A Stick', a GM adventure usable with M!M!. Of course, because of its relation to T&T, many T&T solos can be used with it as well. You can also find 'Bludgeons and Flagons', an M!M! GM adventure written by Justin T. Williams, in issue #3 of TrollsZine, a FREE T&T magazine published in pdf format.
~ ~ ~

Eald Scōl (Old English for Old School) showcases Old School P&P RPGs, first published 1990 or earlier, ranging from rare and obscure games to well-known favorites.

Copyright © 2010, Paul Ingrassia

Eald Scōl # 1: The Creatrix

The Creatrix
Multi-Purpose Role-Playing Game
Written and Created by A.C. Donovan
Creative & Technical Consultant: Yoon S. Chung
Artists: Bob Park, Edward Reynolds, Robert Hayles
Cover art: Edward Reynolds
Copyright 1990 by Alexander C. Donovan

This just might be the rarest RPG in my collection, I've never seen another copy of it, and I've not been able to find reference to it online anywhere. I'd love to hear from anyone who owns, has played, or even heard of The Creatrix.

I think the back cover describes the spirit of the game best, so check it out:



The Creatrix is a classless system, characters are built based upon their Traits (Attributes) and Skills by spending Creation points, as opposed to random dice rolls. The game has only one mechanic, a 5 x 5 matrix based on Action vs. Resistance, decided by the roll of a single d6, and generally based on character's Traits and Skills.

As the game says, this little matrix and a d6 are all you need to play, along with a ton of common sense, creativity, and of course time to build your game setting. There is no setting for the game at all, hence the 'Muti-Purpose' bit of its moniker, The Creatrix is a generic RPG, like GURPS or Risus. The text hints at setting books to come, but, as I mentioned, I cannot find any references to confirm if any further books were produced.

The Creatrix weighs in at a light 16 pages of 'rules', in reality mostly example after example of how to use the matrix in various circumstances. Also included are a reference sheet and character sheet, which, as the booklet says, you can play Creatrix with and never once have to pick up the book.

The combat system is based on the matrix as well, of course, but I think a bit of the simplicity is lost here. For some reason, where the matrix determines outcomes in a single roll in virtually all circumstances, Donovan made combat a series of many rolls on the matrix to determine a single attack outcome. One must roll twice (at least) just to see if armor is penetrated after a hit has been scored. Damage is deteremined by a series of individual d6 rolls, the number of which is determined by various factors such as traits, skills, and weapon strength. These rolls include the armor rolls I mentioned earlier, and rolls left over from penetrating the armor finally score damage.

Overall, I like this little set of rules. So much so, I would love to 'rescue' The Creatrix from RPG obscurity by tracking down A.C. Donovan to talk to him about reprinting it. If anyone knows Mr. Donovan, or any of the others mentioned in the credits above, please ask them to drop me a line.

Paul Ingrassia
troll_hammer_press@yahoo.com
~ ~ ~

Eald Scōl (Old English for Old School) showcases Old School P&P RPGs, first published 1990 or earlier, ranging from rare and obscure games to well-known favorites.

Copyright © 2010, Paul Ingrassia