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GREATER GAMES INDUSTRY • #43 WINTER 2018 In

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by s. CROMPTON

Gaming companies come and go, but for many gamers

Flying Buffalo feels like it’s a permanent fi xture in the gaming industry. Founded in 1970, Flying Buffalo Inc. is still run by Rick Loomis, the man who started the company 47 years ago.

Flying Buffalo started out as the very fi rst Play-by-Mail company that created and ran its own games. Its best known PBM game is Starweb, which, along with Illuminati, has Illuminati, has Illuminatiwon several Origins awards over the years. Flying Buffalo also runs BattlePlan, Riftlords, Heroic Fantasy and BattlePlan, Riftlords, Heroic Fantasy and BattlePlan, Riftlords, Heroic Fantasy Feudal Lords PBM.

But Flying Buffalo’s destiny was changed when Rick Loomismet T&T creator T&T creator T&T Ken St Andre and agreed to carry Ken’s game to the Origins game convention one year.

In 1975 Rick Loomis started publishing Ken’s Tunnels & Trolls, the second oldest role-playing game. T&T did quite well for T&T did quite well for T&TBuffalo, no doubt partly due to the fact that T&T could be T&T could be T&Tplayed solitaire, with the invention of the solo adventure. Buffalo has published over 25 different solo adventures, which read like a choose-your –own-path book, only you use the T&T rules for combat, casting magic and escaping T&T rules for combat, casting magic and escaping T&Tdangerous situations. Rick wrote Rick wrote Rick Buffalo Castle, the fi rst ever (anywhere) solo adventure for a role playing game.

T&T’s rules are less complicated than the earlier editions of the other famous RPG and that allowed it to expand into other languages as well. It also was easier for people who used English as a second language. Within a few years of the well-known 5th edition of T&T (published in 1978) it was 5th edition of T&T (published in 1978) it was 5th edition of T&Tavailable in German, Italian, French, Spanish and Japanese and the game was widely sold in the UK, Europe, South Africa and Australia.

The 5th edition of T&T remained the standard for the game 5th edition of T&T remained the standard for the game 5th edition of T&Tfrom 1978 to 2012. In 2011 a beautiful new French edition of T&T was published and this inspired the T&T was published and this inspired the T&T T&T fellowship T&T fellowship T&Tto do something similar in English. In 2012 Flying Buffalobrought the old team together to create Deluxe Tunnels &Trolls. A hugely successful Kickstarter was launched and a new age for T&T began. T&T began. T&T Deluxe T&T uses the same basic Deluxe T&T uses the same basic Deluxe T&Trules as 5th edition, but now with added optional rules, more detailed charts and more information about the creatures, kindreds and history of Trollworld, the place where the T&Tadventures take place. The new book is 365 pages, but still maintains the original simplicity of the game.

Many of the old products were put back in print (updated to work with dT&T) and new adventures were published as well. The renewed interest in the game leads to MetaArcade’s T&T Adventures App that you can now play for free on your smartphone. There are now also a Polish edition of T&Tand work is ongoing for a Finnish, a Portuguese, and a new Spanish edition as well.

Old is new again:The Tunnels & Trolls Renaissance

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GREATER GAMES INDUSTRY • #43 WINTER 2018 Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk

In Japan, DT&T was a huge hit and they sold out their fi rst DT&T was a huge hit and they sold out their fi rst DT&Tprint run in two weeks! They have been busy translating and publishing the US solos over there as well as create new adventures in their T&T Magazine. T&T Magazine. T&T

Back in the US, we realized that the fans would love to see what Japanese created solos and GM adventures might be like, so we got the rights to the art and the text got it translated and are now releasing it as T&T Adventures Japan. We think that even manga and Anime fans who have never played T&T will be curious enough to try this book out. We’ve T&T will be curious enough to try this book out. We’ve T&Talso included a mini-version of the T&T rules in the book T&T rules in the book T&Tso that all you have to do is get this book and you can use it without even having a copy of the regular T&T rulebook. T&T rulebook. T&TThis book is available to order right now.

Find out more about T&T at:T&T at:T&Twww.deluxetunnelsandtrolls.com

Old is new again - continued from pevious page.

Please visit Flying Buffalo, page 90, Thank you

www.fl yingbuffalo.comwww.fl yingbuffalo.com