Several readers contacted me this morning to draw my attention to some big news on the Tunnels & Trolls front.
World-renowned independent creative studio Rebellion is delighted to announce the acquisition of Tunnels & Trolls, one of the trailblazing games of the fantasy genre, and the second roleplaying game ever published.
First published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo as a more player-friendly alternative to Dungeons & Dragons, Tunnels & Trolls introduced roleplaying to new audiences through its streamlined mechanics and pioneering approach to solo roleplaying. Now, almost 50 years after its original publication, the Rebellion Unplugged team is bringing Tunnels & Trolls into a new era.
“Tunnels & Trolls is an unrecognised trailblazer in the games industry”, said Duncan Molloy, head of Rebellion Unplugged. “The team at Flying Buffalo responded to an entirely new medium by focusing on how roleplaying could be more approachable, more accessible, and more fun. So much of the modern era of roleplaying from old school hacks, to streamlined systems, to solo play, can directly trace its roots directly back to this series. We’re very excited to channel that spirit in bringing Tunnels & Trolls into the modern era.”
“When I first discovered Tunnels & Trolls in the mid-1970s, I didn’t realize I was unlocking a life-long interest in fantasy roleplaying games, books, movies, and all things genre-based” recalled Rebellion CEO and Creative Director Jason Kingsley OBE, “The game has remained with me throughout my life, and I can’t wait to see what the team have in store for it!”
After the passing of Flying Buffalo founder Rick Loomis, the company had been taken over by Webbed Sphere Inc. “We are very excited to see Rebellion expand this rich property” added Jon Huston, president of Webbed Sphere. “As a long-time fan, I always felt that the Flying Buffalo roleplaying lines had such incredible potential.”
As part of the acquisition Rebellion have taken over Flying Buffalo’s entire line of roleplaying games, including the cult classic Citybook, Grimtooth, and Merchants Spies and Private Eyes series. The entire back-catalogue of Flying Buffalo PDFs will remain available to purchase online, with future releases coming directly from Rebellion Unplugged.
This is potentially big news, especially if Rebellion makes a serious go of publishing and promoting Tunnels & Trolls and other Flying Buffalo RPG properties. I find it interesting, though, that the name of T&T's creator, Ken St. Andre, appears nowhere in this press release or anywhere else on the Rebellion website. Even if he's not involved in the future development of the game, I nevertheless would have expected him to be mentioned, perhaps with a quote about how happy he is that his baby is now in safe hands.
Regardless, I'll be keeping my eye on this story.
I saw this news too and was a bit surprised; Rebellion is no stranger to games of all kinds, but even so, Tunnels & Trolls didn't seem like their sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's some news indeed.
ReplyDeleteI honestly think that deluxe wasn't all that it could have been.
Literally never heard of Rebellion Unplugged before, but they're based in Europe so not shocking. Looks like they got the rights to redo GW's old Judge Dredd RPG and a limited printing of the Block War games. Beyond that I'm unfamiliar with their products.
ReplyDeleteRebellion owns and publishes 2000AD itself. They started out as a computer game developer, and unplugged is the tabletop gaming arm of the company.
DeleteHuh. It makes sense that they could do this, they have publishing experience with 2000AD, but I wouldn't have expected it. I mostly know them for their computer gaming development.
ReplyDeleteThey've published a handful of rpgs in recent times.
DeleteNothing from Ken's twitter since the end of March, nothing on his blog since 2016. There is a private Facebook group that *might* have some info: "Trollhallans" if anyone is a member.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know Ken is no longer involved with T&T and focusing instead on renewed Monsters! Monsters! line published by his own Trollhala Press.
ReplyDeleteAfter Rick Loomis died, his family sold Flying Buffalo to Webbed Sphere (https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/48989/webbed-sphere-inc-acquires-flying-buffalo-inc) and they took over the Tunnels & Trolls property. As a part of the sale, Ken was no longer able to privately sell T&T products. He likely could have done so with products they were publishing, but they never published a product prior to selling to Rebellion.
ReplyDeleteHe shifted his creative energies on Monsters! Monsters!, which he owned the rights to and not Flying Buffalo, and has a couple of successful Kickstarters. The shift to M!M! has allowed him to go outside the normal fantasy and even more into a St. Andre-land brand of Fantasy.
I'm pretty excited about Rebellion buying T&T as they are a proven publisher and they've recently shown a desire to support table top games. They republished the Judge Dredd and Block Mania board games and have published a small fantasy and small SF/Horror RPG already. If they produce T&T with the same quality as those, the game has a bright future indeed.
Certainly looks like it's in better hands now. Considering its age and pedigree it should be bigger than it is. Nostalgia is bigger than ever these days and the way Hasbro/WotC keeps self-sabotaging there are an awful lot of people looking for other companies to throw money at for their fantasy RPG needs.
DeleteI always dug T&T except for one thing: those awful names for the spells. Change them, and I might actually buy a copy.
ReplyDeleteThe more recent editions changed the names of the most offensive ones - "Yass, Massa" for ex - but the rest are the same "humorous" ones as always, so it depends on how you're defining "awful" there.
DeleteWell, I like names that evoke a sense of what a fantasy game is about: Magic Missile, Detect Magic, Invisibility, Finger of Death, ect. You know, the good stuff.
DeleteSo boring cliches then.
DeleteWas it cliché to use names like magic missile and teleportation back in 1975 when T&T came out one year after OD&D? Hardly. But as you obviously like bad and insulting puns as the titles of the spells in your games, have fun "playing" with yourself.
DeleteMerchants, Spies, and Private Eyes should be,Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes, their modern RPG, and a fine game in its own right.
ReplyDeleteI hope Rebellion does big things with each. T&T was, by a couple of days, the first RPG I ever played.
"I find it interesting, though, that the name of T&T's creator, Ken St. Andre, appears nowhere in this press release or anywhere else on the Rebellion website."
ReplyDeleteThe closest we get is "The team at Flying Buffalo..."
Team? When I discovered T&T in 1979 (along with RPGs themselves), one of the first things I learned about it was that one guy had designed & self-publishing the first edition.
So this isn't some minor trivia point. It was Ken's baby.
Whatever comes out of this, Rebellion is going to have some serious competition from Sarah Newton's Leopard Empress.
ReplyDeleteWhile a tad more complicated than I would like, it is the most complete/best edited T&T edition I've ever read.