What are _____ like in your game?

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

The Hobbit is fairly traditional with Trolls - in that they are giants that turn to stone in daylight. That's quite folkloric.

Regeneration isn't AFAIK

Looking up the online Etymology dictionary-

 

troll (n.)

"ugly dwarf or giant," 1616, from O.N. troll "giant, fiend, demon." Some speculate that it originally meant "creature that walks clumsily," and derives from P.Gmc. *truzlan, from *truzlanan (see troll (v.)). But it seems to have been a general supernatural word, cf. Swed. trolla "to charm, bewitch;" O.N. trolldomr "witchcraft." The old sagas tell of the troll-bull, a supernatural being in the form of a bull, as well as boar-trolls. There were troll-maidens, troll-wives, and troll-women; the trollman, a magician or wizard, and the troll-drum, used in Lappish magic rites. The word was popularized in Eng. by 19c. antiquarians, but it has been current in the Shetlands and Orkneys since Viking times. The first record of it is from a court document from the Shetlands, regarding a certain Catherine, who, among other things, was accused of "airt and pairt of witchcraft and sorcerie, in hanting and seeing the Trollis ryse out of the kyrk yeard of Hildiswick." Originally conceived as a race of giants, they have suffered the same fate as the Celtic Danann and are now regarded in Denmark and Sweden as dwarfs and imps supposed to live in caves or under the ground.

 

[edit] O.N. = Old Norse

 

 

I did some illustration work for a campaign that had Trolls as a race that were a lot like Neandertal Satyrs. Horns, hooves, tusks, big, hairy and not particularily evil, just very primitive and self interested.

 

They were fun to draw

[Curufea]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

A lot of subclasses, species and races we have these days defined with specific names for roleplaying purposes all derive from what is basically fairy tale, folk lore, and storytelling traditional names which just mean "monster".

The game designers in their quest for names for new and interesting creatures, just looked up what "monster" means in a non-English language and used that.

 

Hence we have the confusion from what we "know" of a particular type of monster based on our memories of roleplaying games, and what the monsters actually were in myth.

 

You say potato, I say tuborous subteranean vegetable race.

[Gawain]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

So here's my question: Does the idea that trolls regenerate come from somewhere other than deendee?

 

Yes, in Poul Anderson's novel Three Hearts and Three Lions there is a troll that regenerates and each piece of it continues fighting until it grows back together. (The appearance of deendee trolls is taken from The Incomplete Enchanter by L. Sprague DeCamp and Fletcher Pratt. Of course deendee trolls are much larger.)

[Curufea]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

The Trolls in Poison Elves create a new Troll from every drop of blood they spill.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

You say potato, I say tuborous subteranean vegetable race.

 

Wait, your game has a whole race of Mr Potatoheads?

[Curufea]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

Dwellers in the Underdark. The multi-eyed root of the starch truth.

[Markdoc]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

Yes' date=' in Poul Anderson's novel [i']Three Hearts and Three Lions [/i]there is a troll that regenerates and each piece of it continues fighting until it grows back together.

 

Yep. And Three Hearts and Three Lions was specifically cited by Gygax for inspiration. If you want D and D specific monsters look for bizarre things like the Beholder and Otyugh.

 

cheers, Mark

[Lethosos]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

Dwellers in the Underdark. The multi-eyed root of the starch truth.

 

I weep at your attempt to chip the trut-ber our of our dirty hands in the garden of inconsitancy.

 

Have mercy on our soil, for we have mulch to do and little lime to do it in.

 

*gags at the gags he perpetrated*

[Manic Typist]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

Hmm... I am not sure how to fix this thread drift.

 

Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[Old Man]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

Does anyone here use trolls as PC races?

[Cancer]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

The only campaign I'm running now is a very light one in which my kids (ages 9 & 11) are playing, whose tone and content are largely out of Saturday morning kidvid. Everyone's a more-or-less anthropomorphized animal (so far, the PCs are all mammals, but there's no real restriction and I can imagine arthropods, molluscs, etc.); humans are so rare as to be near-legendary.

[Curufea]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

Does anyone here use trolls as PC races?

 

Not in my current setting. Trolls, Orcs and Goblins are the equivalent of "flesh golems" - just of different size/rank/power. They only have slightly more than animal intelligence and are programmed to be an army. They can, however, play Ogres or even Rakshasa amongst other things, which are actual species capable of reproduction. My Trolls, Orcs and Goblins are manufactured and incapable of reproduction.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

*gags at the gags he perpetrated*

 

Throw him overboard!

 

[Lucius]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

Does anyone here use trolls as PC races?

 

I have, but not extensively.

 

They were playable options in Runequest too.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary asks why I'm not in bed.

[Lethosos]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

Throw him overboard!

 

Oh noes! Deep for me not, for I shall be a-swell with retribution, and all my harbor against you shall rain upon your crest!

 

[Rick]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

Eh, ny next game is going to be a world set in the tradition of D&D, paired down and aimed more at roleplaying then Dundgeon Crawling. I've Humans, Dwarves and Elves; all very similar to there D&D equilvilant, except that they have their own history. In terms of "Evil" races there is only the Orn. They are varied in size and culture but they are all simply befouled Humans, Elves or Dwarves from the rule of the Dragon-God.

 

I've several players who never played classic D&D so I'm going back to my roots, hopefully with a touch of maturity and experience.

[tkdguy]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

At one point I was contemplating a setting without traditional demi-humans' date=' but where the Neanderthal didn't die out, and basically filled the "orc"/"goblin" role. I would have also set an island out beyond something akin to the Wallace Line and have a race of "halfling" akin to Homo floresiensis. I considered researching other proto-human races to fill in the "elf" and "dwarf" roles.[/quote']

Here are a couple of links you may find useful:

 

Wikipedia has a list of hominids you can choose from.

 

The Roleplayer has this race. It didn't actually exist, unlike the ones listed in the Wikipedia link. Still, you may get a few ideas from it, and there's little conversion from GURPS to HERO required.

[tkdguy]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

Here's an old thread about this topic.

[Curufea]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

Plus there are various hominid races in Ringworld that are quite useful.

[assault]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

Does anyone here use trolls as PC races?

 

Only in PBEM's.

[tkdguy]

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

 

Does anyone here use trolls as PC races?

No. As an admin on a couple of forums, I have to fight those things, as well as spambots. I think I've earned enough experience to make me a low-level superhero.