Tunnels & Trolls & Saving Rolls

I just realized over lunch break that the Saving Roll (SR) mechanic from Tunnels & Trolls would work fantastic in the Finsterschmerzen play-by-email campaign. The SR is kind of like a saving throw+skill attempt+combat maneuver+attribute check all together in one. The reason it would work great in the campaign is because a PC earns experience points for every SR attempted, no matter if it was successful or not. This means that the "xp bonus for each post" house rule is no longer necessary. The player should be attempting a SR each and every turn to gain xp. If the player does not explicitly declare a SR on their turn, then the DM will roll one for them such as a spot check or wandering monster check. Either way, the player gets xp every turn. This is why SRs are the most abundant source of xp in T&T.

A PC can attempt nearly anything with a SR. It could be a SR as simple as "I'll listen for noises behind this door" or as complex as "I'll run up this taught rope and then jump to catch the falling baby in a thunderstorm." The DM assigns a difficulty level. Here's where things get awesome: the amount of xp gained from a SR is based on the difficulty level chosen by the DM, no matter if it succeeds or not. You can declare a relatively simple action that is likely to succeed but won't grant you as much xp. Or you can declare a super difficult action, knowing that the DM will assign a high difficulty level to it, but also knowing that you'll get a nice chunk of xp no matter what. It should also be noted that even the most difficult SRs have a possibility of succeeding because they are decided via "exploding dice"...doubles add and roll again.

Saving Rolls are also useful in combat to attempt special maneuvers. For example, instead of just attacking, you could try to "roll between the ogres' legs, slicing its wanker in half, and causing them to fall over each other as they try to grab me." If the SR succeeds, you've just done something amazing and get an attack bonus AND an xp bonus along with it. It the SR fails, you'll get a minor attack penalty, but still get xp bonus too.

Normal T&T combat is very abstract with little in the way of tactics, but adding SRs to the mix really spices it up. In the Finsterschmerzen campaign this means the players can choose how involved each combat will be. If it's just a little wimpy wandering monster then they can choose the quick, abstract combat procedure to advance quickly in the time-sensitive dungeon delve. Or, if it's a tough monster in a crucial encounter, the player can choose to describe their special SR actions. The SRs will slow down resolution of the combat, but it will make the PCs more powerful for that combat and grant bonus xp.

T&T 7.5 rulebook, with size reference