Tunnels and Trolls: Trollworld

Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls includes an amazing atlas of the Trollworld campaign setting. This was (and still is) the home-setting of the game's creators, and it seems all legendary campaign settings in pen-and-paper gaming begin this way. After reading the nearly 100,000 years of history in the atlas and pouring over the maps and details about the cities and other places, I come away feeling I have really misunderstood and underestimated T&T's setting over the years.

I thought mostly T&T's home setting, Trollworld, as referenced in the solo adventures and other sources,was more of a humorous and rather silly place like something pulled out of a Monty Python skit. There were funny-named spells, all sorts of black humor in the traps, and a tendency to wink-wink-nod-nod about the humor in town-names and other NPCs. Even the continents are shaped like fantasy creatures, so how can one take this place seriously? I mean, this place is no Greyhawk or Faerun, right?

I am feeling really humbled right now after reading and understanding what the designers were shooting for here. I really had misunderstood how the dark humor plays into the setting, it is like a world shaped by powerful, malevolent and uncaring beings of pure malice and a lack of caring - the "dragon shaped" main continent was made that way as a "self portrait" of a powerful dragon. While it was still populated.

Imagine that, some dragon comes alone and starts reshaping a continent the size of North America, dragging out a head from the states of Washington and Oregon, dragging a huge swath of California out into the ocean to form claws, pulling Mexico off the bottom border, tucking up the stomach of the Gulf Coast, twisting Florida into a back claw, and dragging all of New England up into a long, twisting tail.

The people and cities? Well, I hope you all take cover while I finish my handiwork. Never mind the earthquakes and ripping off the land apart around you, would you? I might be done the job in a couple hundred years, I am sure you won't mind the short little interruption while I finish my masterpiece.

There, perfect! Now that wasn't so bad, was it? Hello? Hrm, I wonder where they went and why every surviving civilization is so mad at me? No worries, I am a dragon after all.

Trollworld is Black Humor

Black humor permeates this setting from top to bottom, and once you understand this one fact about Trollworld you get everything else. A wizard so powerful he creates a dungeon which is essentially  his personal "MMO" where real people unknowingly enter to fight and die for his amusement? A wizard war with armies, sides, and years of bloodshed caused by the misunderstanding about fork placement at a magic wizard's birthday party centuries ago? Monsters terrorizing towns created by the careless dumping of magical toxic waste from a wizard's alchemy lab? Take any abuse of power from the headlines today, replace "the abuse of power" with "careless and who cares about the little guy" magic, and you are all set to create adventures.

And the little guy, the average person knows nothing about the capricious and deadly causes of the world they live in. The lands are dangerous because they always have been, not because everybody knows about the magical toxic waste dumping. When you find out about these "dark secrets" during your adventures and begin to piece together the insane and sadistic reasons why the world is the way it is, you begin to fear a world that is more chaotic and full of random death than even a Lovecraftian setting.

Little People Don't Matter, and Don't Know Better

This is worse. The powerful beings in control of this world don't care about the little people. And yet they still try and live their lives, build cities which routinely get burned to the ground, and survive in a world full of madness wracked by forces no one really understands or can control. In a way, it is a world out of a Monty Python skit, but here there is no laugh-track or studio audience. You are literally living in a world being torn apart by forces out of control with no care for those who live in it.

No other setting does this as well, and in fact, the humor plays into the "we are all seriously doomed" sort of feeling here. There are funny things, silly-named spells, and all sorts of intentionally humorous places and people here. Some could be created as a joke by a wizard and then set free upon the world, like a pair of trolls, one short, smart and weak; the other dumb, large, and strong like something out of a Steinbeck novel and out looking for a lost pet rabbit. Once the joke was over, the wizard forgot about them and went on to other pranks and more interesting things. And these two trolls wander the world until their demise, fate, or they find a place of their own.

Or until the adventurers meet them and either help them find the rabbit, or get smashed to a pulp by Lennie the troll. "I'm sorry George."

The Abuse of Power is Funny, and Great Fun Too!

It's funny and pop-culture-tastic, but in another way, it's a sad reflection on the abuse of magical power in this world and what the average person has to deal with. You are constantly a victim of some careless mage's plans, in-jokes, plots, power-mad schemes, or manipulations of the world. Perhaps the White Rabbit from one wizard's version of Wonderland wanders the world as a lone knight, the rest of his version of Wonderland's inhabitants long gone, and he is out to clean the world of all other magically summoned versions of Wonderland that other wizards create for their amusement.

It is madness and I love it. The best part about this whole setup is T&T will actually let your character be one of those mages or powerful forces. It is intentionally overpowered and super-deadly, all the way up the level chart, and the spells at the higher levels can be created by the players. Want a spell that summons an insane version of Wonderland yourself? Spend some time and write it. If your character survives, they too can join the fun.

Now, this is my take on the setting as I read it - other people may play this differently. But from what I see, that humor and wild abuse of magical power makes this world unique, and the humor softens the blow a little bit and plays into the fun. It reminds me a little of the original humor in the Warcraft universe (before the game got all serious and multiplayer), and it has that insane and madcap charm to me.

And all the while, the box of broken toys, insane deathtraps, and crazy schemes keeps living on. Once you understand it, nothing else comes close to the insanity and power-mad nature of this place. A misunderstood, richly detailed, unique, and true classic of a setting indeed.