Here are the various house rules I play with when playing T&T. Some of these ideas are mine, while some have been taken from individuals smarter than myself. I have done some modification of these rules, based on play-testing, changes of heart, hardening of heart, and other reasons. Additionally, I don't always use these rules for all situations where they may be used. Sometimes I just do what I feel like. Remember, you're only playing the game wrong if you're not having fun.

These house rules are specifically written for the current edition of hte game, 7th edition. These rules are never considered "final," and may change from time to time as playtesting shows something that needs to be adjusted and as new ideas are discovered.

• If you want to randomly generate a character’s gender, roll 1d6. On a roll of 1-4, the character is male. On a roll of 5-6, the character is female.
• If you want to randomly generate a character's kindred, roll 1d100 and consult the following chart:
  • 01-60: Human
  • 61-71: Dwarven
  • 72-82: Elven
  • 83-89: Hobb
  • 90-93: Leprechaun
  • 94-96: Faerie
  • 97-00: Rare Kindred (roll on Rare Kindred chart)
  Rare Kindred Chart, roll 1d10 for results:
  1. Gnome
  2. Goblin
  3. Hobgoblin
  4. Kobold
  5. Ogre
  6. Ratling
  7. Forest Troll
  8. Rock Troll
  9. Urook
  10. Dark Elf
• Once a character has been created, new languages can only be learned by taking them as a Talent.
• New human characters get to select an additional talent at 1st level. Therefore, a 1st level human would have two talents, a 2nd level human would have three talents, and so on.
• All new characters get the following equipment pack for free: basic clothing (pants/skirt, shirt/blouse, and shoes), backpack or sack, tinderbox, flint & steel, belt pouch, waterskin, and a dirk (or similar weapon of 2d+1 or less) and scabbard. These items may not be sold right away to generate extra starting money, but can be sold after the character has completed an adventure.

• Combat turns are considered to be 30 seconds in length, not 2 minutes.
• During combat, players can attempt to score critical hits on their opponents. This can be done in two ways. The first way occurs when a player’s side wins a combat. A player can trade in 5 points of damage their character caused to her opponents and attempt a critical hit on a foe. To determine if the hit is successful, take a standard deck of poker cards and draw a card, and apply the result from the chart below. Only the number matters, the suit is ignored:
  • 2: The character fumbles and hits himself for five points of damage.
  • 3-9: The character misses and the foe takes no damage.
  • 10: The foe takes five points of damage.
  • Jack: The foe takes ten points of damage.
  • Queen: The foe takes 20 points of damage.
  • King: The foe takes 30 points of damage.
  • Ace: The foe takes 50 points of damage.
  Alternatively, if a character finds himself in a hopeless situation against a foe too strong for him to fight normally, the character can use an All Or Nothing attack against the foe. To make this attack, the character draws a card from a standard deck of poker cards and applies the results in the table above. On anything less than a 10, the opponent has warded off the attack and proceeds to roll his standard attack, applying full damage against the character, less any armor worn by the character. If a 10, Jack, Queen, King, or Ace is drawn, however, the attack is successful and stuns the opponent. The opponent takes the damage shown on the table and can not attack the character this round. The smart character usually runs away at this point.
• In combat, there may be situations where the standard "everyone joins the maelstrom of death" style of fighting doesn't fit. Examples of this are narrow corridors where only one or two delvers can pass at a time, or when enemies can scale walls/ceilings and drop on specific targets. In addition, one player might want to shield another, taking one some set opponents, while the other character prepares spells or missile weapons. In such situations, break up the fight into as many separate combats as the situation calls for, using your own judgment about who the monsters are likely to attack.
• Any character can wield a weapon in each hand, if each weapon can be used one-handed. The weapon in the off-hand has its DEX requirements doubled. For example, a character wields a saber and a taper axe. The saber (STR 9 and DEX 10) is the main weapon, so its requirements are kept the same. The taper axe (STR 8 and DEX 4) is in the off-hand, so its DEX requirement is doubled to 8. Therefore, the total requirements are STR 17 and DEX 18.
• Characters who do not have the STR to wield their current weapon may still do so, but after each combat round they suffer fatigue that reduces the character's STR by the difference between the character's current STR score and the score required to wield the weapon properly. Once STR is exhausted the character drops unconscious. STR lost this way recovers at the rate of one point per ten minutes of game time.
• To try to bring some balance between narrow and focused talents, and to make more focused talents useful during play, I have a narrow talent provide a lower saving roll target than a more general talent, usually by 1 level, but perhaps by more. For example, two characters are playing Poker (or the Khazani equivalent). Skuttle the goblin has a talent in Gambling, while Fabio the Hobbit has a talent in Poker, specifically. To successfully win a round, I would make Skuttle, with the more general talent, roll a L3 saving roll, while Fabio, with the more focused talent, only has to make a L2 saving roll. However, once they moved off of Poker to playing roulette, Skuttle could still use his talent, while Fabio would be using his Luck alone to try to win.

• Instead of increasing Attribute points at a cost of 100 AP x Current score, use the following chart to determine the cost of increasing an attribute.
  • If attribute score is 1 - 9, cost is 500 AP for a Level Attribute, and 750 for a non-Level Attribute.
  • If attribute score is 10 - 19, cost is 1000 AP for a Level Attribute, and 1500 for a non-Level Attribute.
  • If attribute score is 20-29, cost is 1500 AP for a Level Attribute, and 2250 for a non-Level Attribute.
  • If attribute score is 30-39, cost is 2000 AP for a Level Attribute, and 3000 for a non-Level Attribute.
  • Apply the same logic for higher attribute scores.
• After each adventure that a character survives, each character must pay 1d6 gp to perform upkeep and maintenance on their adventuring equipment. This simulates the fact that armor and weapons must be maintained to keep them in proper shape. If this can not be done, the Gamemaster should consider removing one or two combat adds from a weapon or one or two points of protection from armor, due to the worn and abused nature of the equipment. The lost points can be restored by paying the 1d6 gp after the next adventure.
• If a character lives in a permanent residence, even if just a long-term rental situation rather than fully property ownership, they will have to pay taxes to the local government. This will usually range from five to ten percent of their earnings for the year. Obviously, most adventurers do not keep detailed records of their treasure hauls, so the tax man might just ask the character for 100 gp, or 500 gp, or whatever seems reasonable considering the opulence (or lack thereof) of the character’s home.

• Previous editions of the game assume you only take damage when you lose a round of combat. The lack of healing opportunities in most solo adventures make Spite Damage very lethal, so I use my own judgment about when to apply spite damage. I usually don't use it, but if a fight is very evenly matched I may use it to allow the fight to actually come to an end.
• The WIZ attribute is new to 7th edition, and 5th edition solo adventures do not take it into account. If the standard rule of taking 1/10 of the MR doesn't apply in a specific situation, I roll 3d6 to generate the opponent's WIZ score, modifying for race as necessary.
  Some solo adventures (most significantly, Arena of Khazan) require you to roll up opponents using special rules (roll 4d6+5 for STR, 3d6 for DEX, etc.). WIZ was never considered in coming up with those rules. Because 5th edition spells were powered by STR, but in 7th edition WIZ can be expected to somewhat track to INT, I look at the rules for rolling up STR and INT, roll a total for both, add them, and divide by 2 to find the character's WIZ. If the character is an obvious non-magic using fighter-type, then I will just roll 3d6 and be done with it.

This page was last updated on August 15, 2006