From: Henk Langeveld (henkl@Holland.Sun.COM)
Date: Mon 20 Aug 1990 - 09:56:33 EEST
In this article I would like to compare the two editions
of the Trollpak supplement for RuneQuest. When the original
Trollpak was published in 1982, it soon became my favourite
roleplaying supplement. And not me alone, it prompted many
others to revive the saying "monsters have feelings too".
After a long wait, it has finally re-appeared, but in a slightly different packaging. Whereas the original pak included Into Uzdom (adventures), the major Troll Gods and their cults, and the Sazdorf clan, these now have to be purchased separately. They are now called Troll Realms, Troll Gods, and Haunted Ruins. I think that the Troll ball rules come with either Troll Realms or Haunted Ruins. Maybe somebody else can shine some light on this matter.
There is a lot of new material in Troll Gods, however, and it's really worth the money to get this. The Jonstown Compendium excerpt is very special. The Cults book deals with fifteen major cults: Annila*, Aranea, Argan Argar, Arkat* (a Hero cult of course!), the Black Sun*, Gorakiki, Himile*, Kyger Litor, Mee Vorala*, Moorgarki*, Subere*, Xentha*, Xiola Umbar, Zong the Hunter, and Zorak Zorang. The book concludes with am item on some important spirit cults. (Cults marked with an * are new in Troll Gods, Zong used to be just Hunter in old Trollpak.)
Trollpak itself contains little that is new. The contents are:
Book 1: Uz Lore. - Mythos, History and Geography. Book 2: Book of Uz. - Playing Trolls. Book 3: Munchrooms. - two party scenario.Troll character sheets, with permission to copy for personal use. A new and more detailed map of Dagori Inkarth. Thunderbreath Gobbleguts Restaurant Menu
Uz Lore is almost identical to the original. Even the line up of different Troll Types contains the same error as first: The trolls and human are drawn against a background of shaded bars, each one foot wide, to indicate the creatures' length. However, a foot is said to be 35 cm long, which is almost 5 cm too long. I wonder, did they use a Troll's foot?
Book 2, the Book of Uz, contains all the RQ3 stuff. The first chapter sees character generation for RQ3 rules, including new occupation tables. Troll Monsters is one page of stats on troll-type monsters, there is a section on the Troll Military, and there's a copy of the Kyger Litor Cult description, just in case you didn't buy Troll Gods or Elder Secrets. Yes, I've got all three, so I''ve got three identical write-ups for KL. There are stats for Giant Arthropods. This used to be the Giant Insect section, but they've found a biology textbook since then. The section on Troll Encounters was moved from the adventures book. Also the Troll data from the RuneQuest Companion are now included in this book.
It is difficult to come up with a good conclusion. If you're new to RQ, and don't have the original Troll Pak, you will need Troll Pak for more info on Troll culture. If you want to let Trolls be player characters, you also need Troll Gods. By then you only have about two thirds of the original Troll Pak, as you're still missing Troll Realms and Haunted Ruins. I think you will end up paying three times as much as for the original Trollpak, while the only added value consists of the extra cults in Troll Gods, the new color map, the character sheets, and the menu.
If you've still got the old Troll Pak, just buy Elder Secrets Troll Gods, and eventually Troll Realms and Haunted Ruins. Don't buy the RQ3 Trollpak! The only things you'll miss are the character sheets, the stats for the giant arthropods, the adapted list of Troll war gangs and the annotated encounter table. An item of human interest appears at the end of the Book of UZ: the Designers' Notes by Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen.
Still, Uz is a great people, and I am glad they're here again.
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