Tuesday, August 16, 2011

If not on about modernity, how about halflings?

Chatting Ken up at GenCon was fun, but when I mentioned my deep secret to the man about what would make a T&T rules set, he basically just shook his head. You see, I still think there is a need for a modern set of T&T rules as I feel both Mercenary, Spies and Private Eyes (MSPE) and my own Wildly Heroic Action Pulp (WHAP) go off on tangents. I was never overly impressed by PowerTrip, but don't the set of rules available at my desk to review them. He stated that his modern rules were in the PowerTrip superhero rules from 2009. Which I find kind of ironic as he will not release them again because of disputes with Outlaw Press, but hey. He did play around with the idea of re-releasing the rules under another name back in 2010, but really none of the names that he was replacing the title with were any good. So anyway, so much for the idea clanking around my head.

Now about halflings in T&T; it's really not what most of you are thinking. I happen to have just finished a scenario of PeryPub's Elder Tunnels. In this scenario I use were-sharks, and while describing them in their half-human form I couldn't think of a name for them. There is the White Wolf styled term "metis," and I believe they came up with a were-shark back in the day -- one of the best things that happened in gamer literature since Dave Hargrave had sky sharks lurking the skies of Arduin--
alas and probably Trademarked, as well. Well I could not find the right term. And then wallah, why not use the term "halfling?"

Can anyone tell me why not? "Halfling" for the D&D headset, and most of the gaming world in general, is a term for hobbits used by Tolkien but not trademarked by his estate. Well T&T already has a take on that, listed as the "hobb." I already have fun turning hobbs into all sorts of monsters as is. And while everyone at the Halls, Trollhalla uses the term hobbits, instead of hobbs, when talking about big footed short folk; generally I haven't seen much use of the term halfling.

Technically it's no different than calling half-elves and half whatnots "half-breed." To me using the term halfling as the half-way point for a were-creature not only makes since, it spices up my T&T dishes with an ingredient that is not seen elsewhere in other RPGs as well D&D. Anybody else like the idea? If nothing else, just think of the look on the guest D&D player at your T&T session when he sees a fellow player turn into a halfling of a wolf under the full moon!

Monday, August 1, 2011

I have a secret

Stay tuned, delvers. Something occurred to me while reading Shippy's "Apshalt Warrior: Highway to Hades" "modern" T&T scenario a couple of weeks ago. I've been looking over my WHAP! and MSPE rules since. Want to run something past Ken St. Andre at GenCon coming up this week.

It'll be a Lovecraftian monster of an idea if it comes to fruition.