Troll World

THEN

Informative film reel: Troll batteries clenching and coiling, knots of flesh corded around twisted limbs, twitching fingers and a ruined, beak-nose face in a biochemical bath, tubes for extracting the energy released. Troll batteries by the hundreds of thousands in the guts of Reactor 1 and Reactor 3. Troll batteries powering the homes, businesses, factories, all of New Nova city, weapons of futuristic 1993. From the ashes of the Third Elf Incursions, arises a new and better humanity!

Clip of Reactor 1, from an unsteady, hand-held camera. The ground trembles, ambient rumbles, mutters and moans. Something, a tiny, fleshy rope extends from the left stack of Reactor 1, the camera pans in and screams rise in a wave as a jet of muscle and bone shoots from the left stack, the right stack, the camera spins, twists sky word, catches in the last seconds the ground crack and from it spewing pillars of filth and vital tissue. The final shot is of grey clouds under a lowering red sky, choked with geysers of troll meat.

NOW

Trollworld

Trolls have built themselves a city around Reactor 1 like a nest of jumbled girders, ragged concrete, asphalt, and rebar. They patrol their walls, build siege weapons, infect the land, dig deep and raid New Nova city for food (humans), pets (humans), bodies to make new Trollkin (humans) or fun (hurting, killing, eating humans).

Human Town

New Nova city is a dump, man. The concrete is all cracked and tumbling and the streets are ragged asphalt and puddles. Without Trolltech we're stuck with dirty power and outages are common. The Jinro Power Company runs everything, pretty much. Jinro cops walk the streets while Jinro Educorp cracks younger skulls, Jinro foodcorp feeds us and Jinro Hospital spanks our shiny red asses or shuts off the ventilator at the end. You live in Quarantine 6, on the outskirts of New Nova, along the Wall.

Jinro, Unrest

For the time being, Jinro holds the Trolls at bay, but there is uncertainty about how long that can last. Jinro is run by a Board of Directors. One is fat, unctuous, cruel, ineffectual, terrified of everything. One is emaciated, tall, a former accountant, highly competent. One looks and acts like former military and is called "the Sergeant." One looks like a rat. There are other Directors too, some none have ever seen.

Jinro keeps New Nova relative safe, clean and running, but there is persistent doubt how long that can last. No one but the Directors knows all the facts and JinroNews isn't particularly trusted so there are insurrections and intrigues and the police are always shooting or arresting or looking for those suspected of industrial espionage or endangering the safety of New Nova or terrorism. There are wanted posters on top of wanted posters on top of wanted posters.

CHARACTER CREATION

roll two d4s and allocate as desired

BACKGROUND
		1	2	3	4
1	Cop	Beat Cop	Detective	On the Take	Rebel Symathizer
2	High School Kid	Dropout	Over Achiever	Runaway	Student
3	Scientist	Biomechanics Engineer	Botanist	Mechanical Engineer	Theoretical Physicist
4	Wageslave	Accountant	Bureaucrat	Human Resources	Sales

pick or just roll or make some other motivation up, whatever.

ON HIS LAST RAID, THE TROLL KING TOOK
1	Your old man/dear old mom or the grandparents/aunt & uncle that raised you
2	Your little/older brother/sister or your twin
3	Your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse/one or more of your kids
4	The nice old dude that hangs out on the corner and wasn't hurting anyone

then roll a d6, d8 and d10, assigning results as desired, but any duplicate rolls or results have to be assigned to a different Trait, if possible (if not possible, re-roll)

STARTING TRAITS
Traits	1-3	4-5	6	7-8	9-10
Strong	+1 checks	+1     Carry	+2 Attacks	+1 Carry	+1 checks
Dextrous	+1 checks	+1 Attacks	+1 AC	+2 Saves v Breath	+1 checks
Hardy	+1 checks	+2 HP	+2 Saves v Poison	+2 HP	+1 checks
Intelligent	+1 checks	+1 Kludge Repair	+1 Tech	+1 Languages	+1 checks
Wise	+1 checks	+1 Search	+2 Saves v Mind Control	+1 Foraging	+1 checks
Charismatic	+1 checks	+1 Henchman	+1 Bravery checks	+1 Henchman	+1 checks

PROFESSOR GURO WILL SAVE THE WORLD AND HELP YOU IN YOUR RESCUE EFFORTS

Back alley doctor and scientist, claims to have been senior assistant to Professor Troll-kun, father of the Troll Project, crazy, weird, bent-backed, often chuckling and wringing his hands, staring down from glasses ("Yes, yes this will do"). No one trusts him but everyone in your neighborhood (Quarantine 6) relies on him as an alternative to New Nova city's rationing of medical care.

Professor Guro has heard about your trouble and would like you to come see him.

Professor Guro has an experimental procedure, something that can take you into the heart of Troll World.

Professor Guro will turn you into a Trollomancer.

All he needs from you are your bodies and the bodies of Trolls you smuggle back into the city for him. He's paying about 1,000 Yen per pound of Troll meat you come back. Extra for living or well-preserved samples.

YOU ARE TROLLOMANCERS

You look like you used to, but you've got troll blood in you. On command, your muscles swell and your mouth splits, grows huge and toothy. Your hands are now claws, lacking the dexterity to hold  anything but a club.

Trollomancer Advancement
Level	XP	HD (d6)	Troll Strains & Traits	Saves
1	0	1+1	3 Traits & 1 Trollform/Strain	15
2	2,500	2	+1 Strains	14
3	5,000	3	+1 Trait (d8)	13
4	10,000	4	+1 Strains	12
5	20,000	5	+1 Trait (d8)	11
6	40,000	6	+1 Strains	10
7	80,000	7	+1 Trait (d8)	9
8	160,000	8	+1 Strains	8
9	320,000	9	+1 Trait (d8)	7
10	640,000	10	+1 Strains	6

Trollomancers attack bonus progression follows that of Fighters from whatever edition you prefer.

STARTING TROLL FORM
form		Effects of Strain (Hybrid Form only)	in human form
1	the wretched	+1 damage	smell like cut grass, 1/session, a kiss causes the victim death from asphyxiation in 1 Turn (save v breath weapon)
2	the burner	+2 Saves v Fire	smell like peppery pineapple, 1/session can breathe at any one person in melee range and cause horrible, burning, choking incapacitation for 1 Turn (save v breath weapon to avoid)
3	the puker	can vomit 20' cone 1/session (+1 uses each advance)	smell like horseradish or garlic, 1 session, your touch can cause horrific blisters to appear in a day, leaving the person incapacitated and writhing in pain until cured (save v poison)
4	the weeper	infravision (then: all-around vision, x-ray vision 1/session, x-ray vision 2/session, true sight 1/session)	frequently weeping eyes, 1/session you can cough on someone's face and they go blind for a turn (save v breath weapon)

Troll Form grants +1d6 HP, +2 AC and Trollcrits.

Human Form lets you do Coolcrits.

You only get XP from killing monsters or bringing stuff back to Professor Guro.

Trollcrits (or, you got a lot of guts, Oskar)

When a Troll crits while attacking with claws, teeth, etc, the target is eviscerated, loses a limb, has skin pulled from their body, has multiple compound fractures, etc and must Save v Death or be reduced to d6 HP (those with less than d6 HP are reduced to 0 HP and must make a second Save or die).

Coolcrits

When in human form and you critically hit, you get to do some cool move. Tell the GM what you're doing (think: acrobatic bullet-time attacks, punching through someone, etc).

New Strains/defEating Trolls

As you level you will get more Strain slots. You can use these slots to learn a new Strain or advance an existing Strain.

You can learn a new strain by defEating a different kind of Troll - feasting on the body of an overcome and dying Troll while in your Troll form, Slurp up their entrails while they still breathe, feel their lungs expand between your fingers and then squeeze, grind their bones beneath your teeth, feel the pump of blood down your throat and the squirm of living troll tissue in your mouth. Eat their heart whole, in one gulp. Works on dying Trollomancers too. Once learnt, the strain applies a new bonus while in troll form.

Instead of learning  a new Strain, you can also simply advance your current strain, applying the same bonus again (ie, advancing the Wretched strain once adds another +1 damage while in Troll form). Doing so on level up is free.

You can also replace an existing Strain by defEating  a Troll and passing a Save (fail and the switch doesn't happen). If you replace an advanced Strain you lose any of your current advances, but they're restored every 1,000 XP x your level or so you earn afterwards. Something like that.

DefEating Trolls may also get you access to special new Traits.

Checks

Are rolled on a d20 and succeed on a 17. Basically, the same as an ability score check.

If you think you've a Trait that applies and a +1 to checks with that Trait, ask the GM if it applies.

If you think your Background can help you on the roll, ask the GM and instead of rolling a Trait, roll as a Save.

GEAR

Raiment/Clothes/Tat

Cops probably wear their uniform (dark blue-grey paramilitary get up) or a ratty suit (detective)

High school kids are undoubtedly in a uniform unless they're in some cool puffy jacket with lots of denim and sneakers

Scientists undoubtedly wear lab coats at all times just as

Wageslaves are always in suits and dress shoes.

Everyone gets

a backpack that can hold ten items plus whatever "Carry" bonuses you might have. Troll meat is super dense so it's five or fewer pounds/backpack slot. Weapons and armour that are worn don't count.

Armour

Is ablative and only works in human form. Light armour costs 50,000 Yen and can take 2 hits before needing repairs while Medium armour costs 90,000 Yen and can take 4 hits (10,000 Yen/hit repaired). Medium armour is conspicuous and the cops will be suspicious (unless, maybe, you're a cop yourself). Heavy armour is heavily regulated and probably can't be found without a lot of work (think: mech-suits/small mecha).

Weapons

You get one each to start, roll d10:

1. Old-world sword (katana)

2. Baseball bat with Hanshin Tigers stamped on the side, gripped wrapped in loose, hanging white tape

3. Plank with nails sticking through it

4. Taser with 2d6 charges (can be charged by spending a turn shaking it/charge) that deal d4 damage but keep the target from acting the next round on a succesful check.

6. Brass knuckles (Cop only)

7. Knife, can be thrown

8. Pipe

9. Letter opener (wage slave and High School Kid only)

10. Scalpel (Scientist only)

Guns are going to be tricky unless you're a cop.

A revolver costs 50,000 Yen on the black market.

Laser rifle comes with a shoulder-slung battery and costs 200,000 Yen on the black market. Up to 2d6 rounds in a battery. Can be re-charged off a generator.

BRAVERY AND HENCHMEN

Bravery is a 2d6 roll used to determine the how an NPC in the Wilderness or Troll World reacts to the characters, how well they do when trying to recruit henchmen and is also rolled as a special Save by NPCs in dangerous situations. Characters with a bonus to Bravery checks can spend their turn bolstering NPC morale and give the NPCs their bonus to Bravery Save. Bravery Saves are rolled on a 2d6 under the NPC's Bravery Score.

Reaction Roll		Henchmen Roll
roll	reaction	roll	reaction
2-3	Attacks	2	Refuse, insulted (other potential henchman snicker, future rolls to recruit are at -1)
4-6	Aggressive, re-roll next round at -4	3-5	Refuse
7-9	Cautious, re-roll next round	6-8	Roll Again
10-11	Interested, re-roll next round at +4	9-11	Accept
12	Friendly	12	Accept, Impressed (Henchman has +1 Bravery)

Henchmen

Every Trollomancer can hire 2 Henchmen unless modified by a Trai. They usually take a quarter of your XP and Yen from the rewards. They have Two Traits (d6 and d8), a Background,  and are treated as Lamentations of the Flame Princess Fighters (4 in 6) or Specialists (2 in 6). They begin with 6+d4 Bravery Score and must make a Bravery Save the first time they see you transform into a Troll, when forced into what may seem like certain death and when they feel you've betrayed them (at -2). Failing the Save means they break, but may not be totally out of the party/disinterested in helping you anymore. They gain 1 Bravery per level, to a max of 11. Other NPCs will also roll their Bravery Save when they fear for their lives, etc.

Healing

You restore your level in HP a day without serious bedrest. If you can get relatively good rest in a night, re-roll HP and if the result is higher, take that as current HP.

Occasionally, by busting open oil drums, crates, cardboard boxes and the like you can uncover an apple, banana or other fruit (+d6 HP when eaten) or a full-on steaming, turkey dinner (+2d6 when eaten). Eating a human is also super healing and lets your restore your health as if you'd had a good nights rest.

"Magic" Items

These come in two varieties, 1 use and 1/use/session. The former can be had on the black market for about 100,000 Yen a pop, the latter have to be found or stolen.

*Hanshin Tiger Cleats - Next successful thrown attack in human form is a critical hit.

*Sneakers/Shoes/Heels of Sneaking - Make a Save to Move Silently and Hide in Shadows (if failed you only do one of the two).

*Sneakers/Shoes/Heels of the Fleet - May make an extra in one part of this round (ie, may move twice or attack twice, etc).

*Sneakers/Shoes/Heels of Jumps - May leap half your movement speed vertically or your entire movement speed horizontally

*Jacket/Coat of the Bullfrog - Expands enormously, knocking over anything within 10' (if target is large or not in melee with you, they get a Save v Breath Weapon)

*Jacket/Coat of the Snake - During an enemies round, may dodge one attack (may be delcared after attack die has been rolled but must be declared that same turn)

*Jacket/Coat of the Ox - Attack does an extra die of damage

*Jeans/Pants/Nylons of the Kangaroo - Kicks do an extra die of damage

*Jeans/Pants/Nylons of the Rattlesnake - Shake your ass and kick someone to render them incapable of action the next round

*Jeans/Pants/Nylons of the Python - On a successful grapple dealing an extra die of damage

EXPLORING

Outside of New Nova it's a wilderness exploration. Use the Planet Pyschon weird encounters from the fantastic elfmaidsandoctopi.

Troll World is a bunch of dungeons slapped together. Some of the trolls hate other trolls.

Find the lost Reactor 2 and climb down one of the stacks to discover the Lost Land (X1: Isle of Dread). Is the secret to the defeat of the Trolls here?

(in case it isn't clear, Trolls are basically any old monster you want to use. GM will determine what strain you get from defEating it.)

image credits: Akira, Biomeat, Devilman, something from Dennou Coil and then Yusuke Matsumoto/Mitzvah

Official anthem of Troll World

These are Dragons (Dragons for S&W Whitebox)

Talk of how to create a dragon in Swords & Wizardry inspired me to put this together.

First, Dragons are ridiculously dangerous opponents. They're intelligent, shaped for mayhem and murder, long-lived, possessed of enormous amounts of resources which they'll happily use to hire someone to kill you. 

So, things like HD, attacks, breath damage, etc. aren't super instructive when differentiating between Dragon ages (for me). They're also kind of boring; the granularity is interesting, but much less so if we're just talking about a change in a few mechanics. None of the below has to be true at all, it's just an ecology of Dragons based pretty much solely on the Dragon section in S&W Whitebox (free download of the whole thing here).

HOW BIG ARE THEY? HOW OLD?

Standard S&W rules apply for HD and damage, so roll a d8 for age:

1. Very Young Dragons (years 0-3 or so)

          "Hatchlings," about 5 feet long from end to end, lives in a brood of 3-18, flies at half speed and is ungainly in the air. Highly intelligent hunters, will likely lure prey into a trap,  when solitary, will fight only when cornered, otherwise, will prefer to nip/breathe/claw and run until its full numbers are available at which time all will pounce on the weakest looking target. Highly incautious and may not necessarily view adventurers as threats, more as playthings (they still kill their playthings). Most will hunt nearby wildlife or small humanoids. A forest devoid of game is often an early sign of a nearby brood. Most will nest near where they were born as they tend to be born in locations well-hidden.

2. Young (years 4-5 or so)

           "Whelps," about ten feet long from end to end, lives in a brood of 3-12. Will fight as hatchlings, will also have hunting patterns more established, will be highly aware of the terrain and may have more elaborate traps established. By this point some of its brood have likely died to illness, predation, roughhousing or adventurers and the Dragon will be much less eager to engage in melee if numbers aren't on its side, prefer to flee and fight another day (or more likely, return with the rest of its brood and stalk its former attacker).  Will begin to hunt and stalk larger, more intelligent creatures, especially orc and other humanoids living along the fringes of civilization. Eat less frequently than younger Dragon but tend to glut themselves when they do, mimicking the feasting/hibernation pattern of older Dragon.

3. Immature (years 6-10 or so)

            "Hunters," about fifteen feet from end to end, live in groups of 3-9. Dragons of this age will still often hunt and live in a group, but as they age, they begin to feel a certain distrust of others of their kin and the first roots of their greed and covetousness take hold. They will develop a craving for privacy and independence from the brood, but still prepare these lairs with the help of the brood, carving out a network of caves, mazes and traps replete with murderholes and the like which take maximum advantage of their breath weapon and other natural abilities. The obsession with preparing the most defensible lair is highly ingrained, part nesting behavior, part a coping strategy for leaving the safety of the brood's numbers.

Most will lair where their nature inclines or where they are best adapted (white dragons in areas with lots of snow, black dragons in swamps, blue dragons in abandoned, lightning-blasted wizard's towers), but this is far from a necessity. Immature Dragons are highly proud of their lairs and the various traps therein and the brood will compete and obsess over these lairs and increasingly elaborate tricks and traps.

Immature Dragons intentionally hunt and bait intelligent humanoids and pride themselves on their ability to take down increasingly dangerous prey. Most will intentionally hunt away from their lair and will bring food home for later. Some may even store food away from the brood, to prevent discovery of their siblings.

4. Adult (years 11-60 or so)

          "Lairing," about 20 feet from end to end. May live with one other of its kind, if only to have someone around to defend the lair while you're out foraging through towns and villages for food. Dragons of this age are frequent and wide-ranging hunters. As they begin to acquire more material goods, whether from conquests or as the result of defending its lair from looters, a Lairing Dragon will become slowly covetous and jealous, increasingly solitary and acquisitive. It's rare that any Dragon of this age that his laired with another will make it to old age without killing its partner in a fit of jealous, mistrust or abject fury.

5. Old (years 61-99 or so)

           "Solitary," about 20 feet from end to end. At this point, the Dragon is truly greed and solitary. If any of its brood or a Lairing partner have thus far survived, the Solitary Dragon is obsessed with finding them and silencing them and accordingly, Dragons this old are likely to die by the hand of one another than looters. Dragons of this age rarely hunt or even leave their lair but when they do, the result is often catastrophic for the surrounding area. After a good meal, the Dragon will sleep for days.

6. Very Old (years 100-200 or so)

            "Hibernating," about 20-40 feet from end to end, depending on precise age. Hibernating Dragons are rarely awake, but will decimate a series of towns or even an ill-prepared city when hungry. Most sleep for years and spend their little waking time not dedicated to eating to shoring up their traps and burying their hoard ever deeper. As they age, their waking/sleeping cycle is increasingly associated less with hunger and more with nearby cataclysmic events, making their awakening fortuitous (waking the day of an enormous battle, the winning side easy pickings, waking on the day of a high holiday in a nearby city, when the revelers are least cautious). The Dragons hoard likely contains at least one truly unique magical item, likely something from another age, perhaps an intelligent item. This will undoubtedly be the Dragon's prized possession and it may risk all to get it back.

During hibernation, particularly the last, long sleep it undergoes at around age 195 or so, the Dragon will begin to change, grow larger, grow more horns, eyes, wings, may take the ability to shapechange, may be able to cast magic as a Magic-User of its HD. It's scales become thicker, hollow.

7. Aged (years 201-399 or so)

             "Chiming," about 60 feet from end to end. The scales of Chiming Dragons are hollow and they produce alien tones when they move. These tones can be addictive, hearing them can be similar to taking psychoactive drugs (save v paralysis or you're tripping) but will grant visions of strange cosmological significance. Dragon addicts/cultists will likely attend/worship the Dragon. Dragons no longer sleep and rarely eat. When they do eat, they eat any and everything: rocks, sound, trees, the living, the dead, shadows, thoughts. Chiming Dragons begin to care less for their material hoard and more for lost knowledge, secrets. They may well kidnap religious leaders, powerful wizards in hopes of teasing out secrets from them (or attracting the attention of those even more powerful). May trade quite a lot of gold for a good secret (but then may try to kill you as they prefer their secrets...secret).

                 Near the end of this period, the Dragon will begin to build hundreds of cocoons thickly walled by its dropped, chiming scales.

8. Ancient (400+ years old)

             "True," about 80 feet from end to end (or much, much larger). Most True Dragons take on a different shape as their original is often painfully arthritic. True Dragons likely grant cleric spells as any other divine being. They now eat only strange, intangible things and they burn for the secrets of the universe. True Dragons may live for thousands of years before their memory begins to fail. This is the Dragon's greatest fear and many will do whatever they can, including inciting their worshipers into single-minded pursuit of a means of halting the progress of dementia and memory loss. Those Dragons that fail (it's believed that all have) commit ritual suicide, vomiting all of their secrets into the cocoon left in their lair. The cocoons will hatch into other Dragons or perhaps things stranger still, depending on the secret.

HOW DO THEY FIGHT?

Dragons are highly intelligent and clever but they fight like animals. They will try to bullrush, headbutt, use their tail and the length of their body to knock down and crush before bringing tooth and claw to bear. Larger Dragons will likely just try and step on you.

THINGS THE DRAGONS KNOW

Dragons are pathologically acquisitive and this behavior extends to less material goods as well. They collect and covet information (especially secrets), spellbooks and other sorts of less immediately tangible power. Accordingly, a Dragon always knows secrets about the area surrounding its lair. If the elf fortress has a secret backdoor, the Dragon knows it. If there is a cure for the plague ravaging the nearby towns, the Dragon knows it. How you get that information out of the Dragon is another matter.

Adult and Old Dragons know one of the things below. Very Old know two things, Aged know three and Ancient know three plus something apocalyptic.

the secret of a star

the recipes necessary to cook star flesh

the weakness of a god

why the elves do not die

what dwarves fear most

the language of an old, lost race

the location of something a character most wants/needs

the location and key to the treasure vault of another Dragon (or God)

the true name of another Dragon

a book containing the most powerful spell (ritual) the Dragon knows

what is buried beneath the city of the overlord

the magical sentence that will cause the giants to curl up like dead spiders

how to learn the secrets of trees or stones or the wind or rain

the secret of crow boy

what happened to the leader of your religion

where they've stashed their hoard

how to eat time

how to swallow sound

WHAT AN ANCIENT DRAGON KNOWS (APOCALYPTIC STUFF)

this should include stuff that makes sense in the context of your setting, like:

the location of one of the pillars that holds up the world

the true name of the worm that encircles the universe and is slowly devouring itself. When sated, it will crush the world between two hoary talons

a ritual that remakes reality

the location of the forge in which the world was fashioned

pictures: Albín Brunovský, Brian Froud