Troll Thread

[abcd_z]

Um, hi.  I was accused of being a troll in the first thread I made here, and I thought, "well, if you're going to do a thing, do it right."  So here's my attempt.

You have several personal qualities that aren't as good as you think they are.  Additionally, the games that you like are stupid and vastly inferior to the games I like, for incredibly arbitrary reasons.  I shall now proceed to disagree with you over the definition of a term you used WITHOUT ever stopping to define what I mean by the term or what you mean by the term, leading to endless debates.  Also, your personal hygiene leaves something to be desired.  I shall now use a derogatory term to accuse you of being part of a social group that I perceive to have low value.

So... how'd I do?

[rgrove0172]

As your thread has nothing to do with gaming it will be pulled forthwith I am sure, but for whats its worth - I too have been labeled a Troll for similar reasons. Its better to just ignore it and keep commenting... you will get little sympathy here - they actually respect you more if you just throw shit back!

[abcd_z]

Ah.  Yeah, I looked for an Off-Topic section but couldn't find it.  Was I looking in the wrong place, or does this board just not have one?

[Dave]

I was really hoping this was about actual RPG related trolls since I'm considering running a Forgotten Realms game.

How do you guys make trolls interesting at the table?

[Old One Eye]

Trolls are tough, mean, wicked beasts of legend who will kick your ass, take your bridge toll money, and not waste one minute being bothered by their precious little feelings.  

The trolls you are describing from your campaign sound like wussies.  Use tougher trolls and earn the players' respect.

[Black Vulmea]

I was really hoping this was about actual RPG related trolls since I'm considering running a Forgotten Realms game.

Yeah, I was expecting something along the lines of this . . .



. . . instead of the OP's fucking shit-pile.

So let's make this thread awesome in spite of the ass-wipery.

How do you guys make trolls interesting at the table?

Out-of-the-box trolls are iconic, but they're also really predictable, so you gotta mix things up.

First, skrags are far more dangerous than conventional trolls by virtue of breathing underwater. In my campaigns back in the day, it was skrags who lived under bridges, down in the reedy stream - grapple an adventurer, drag her in the water, and hilarity ensues.

Second, change up the vulnerabilities. Trolls who are injured by salt or iron filings instead of fire and acid appeared in campaigns I ran.

[RunningLaser]

So let's make this thread awesome....

Sgt Dicecock reporting for duty!

One of my favorite trolls in cinema, Meg Mucklebones from Legend.
[video=youtube;IxjYJayuWoA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxjYJayuWoA[/youtube]

Not even certain she's supposed to be a fucking troll, but she works for me.

[David Johansen]

I've done a fair bit of work on the Troll Lands area in Dragon Shadowed Lands because I created it for my last Rolemaster campaign.

There are degenerate trolls like you find in marshes and old ruins, common trolls which are more intelligent and upright, giant troll lords, troll wives, troll princesses, dwarf trolls (closest I've come to being lynched while DMing, see a troll the size of a dwarf doesn't very powerful magic to look like a dwarf and assassinate kings), and various wild life from the volcanic land mass raised out of the oceans by the troll lords.

[Anon Adderlan]

[video=youtube_share;cdTBIQDPZt4]https://youtu.be/cdTBIQDPZt4[/youtube]

[Doom]

My Minarian campaign has a Troll Kingdom in it--a confederation of large or larger humanoids. The regeneration makes trolls remarkably slow learners, but the citizens of the troll kingdom tend to wear insignia, to let the "Mur Dur Ho Bows" know that they're not to be killed and looted...indiscriminately, at least.

[Simlasa]

I was reading about trolls earlier today... and, in regards to actual folklore, they're a murky subject, about as specific a description as 'fairy'. So I think I'd favor giving them a lot of individuality and quirks... fair haired and comely troll queens who will eat a knight's horse right from under him, alongside nests of knobbly warty things with fearsome appearance but no interest in men-things at all. Definitely something I'll want some random tables for... as with goblins.

[Azraele]

So let's make this thread awesome in spite of the ass-wipery.

Two contributions:

1. Troll hunter. Not super recent, but a great movie about a modern troll hunter working as a government employee. You can see it on netflix if you're so inclined. It is so much better than it has any right to be.

2. The lone "boss encounter" troll I put in my current campaign's starting dungeon was befriended and tamed by my wife's character, who now uses it for a battle mount. She named it Torg.

[abcd_z]

Out-of-the-box trolls are iconic, but they're also really predictable, so you gotta mix things up.

First, skrags are far more dangerous than conventional trolls by virtue of breathing underwater. In my campaigns back in the day, it was skrags who lived under bridges, down in the reedy stream - grapple an adventurer, drag her in the water, and hilarity ensues.

Second, change up the vulnerabilities. Trolls who are injured by salt or iron filings instead of fire and acid appeared in campaigns I ran.

This raises an interesting question: how much can you change a troll before it is no longer recognizably a troll?

If I defined a troll as, for example, a human from a different dimension with grey skin, candy-corn horns, the occasional psionic ability, a caste system based on blood color, and a bizarre reproductive system, is it still a troll?

[estar]

Interesting a troll thread threadjacked by a discussion on Trolls. Only on this site!

[Tristram Evans]

Trolls for me will always be epitomized by the works of John Bauer: