Tunnels & Trolls is one of my areas of ignorance as far as RPGs go. I've never played a game of it, nor have I ever read any incarnation of the rules.
Tell me what I'm missing. Is there a particular edition that I'd want to check out? Is there anything hinky in the rules that I'd need to watch out for and house-rule? What sort of play does the game provide?
There's a set of free rules online here:
http://www.freedungeons.com/rulesThese are the same as the abridged rules that were printed in the front of the Corgi solos.
One unusual feature of the rules is that, compared to other role-playing games, it's very difficult to hit anything with a missile weapon.
Another is that character death is unusually common. This might be because of the emphasis on gamebooks, and because characters are very quick to create.
Another thing to watch out for is that Rogues aren't thieves - they're more like fighter/magic-users. There is in fact no official thief class.
Most people on the Trollbridge forum (
http://trollbridge.proboards44.com/index.cgi?) seem to play 5th edition rules, with some changes - most notably spells being powered by a seperate attribute, Wizardry, instead of Strength, and characters having Talents. Talents are a simple skill system. There's no set list of skills, you pick one skill to start and a new one every level (Talents don't have levels, you either have the Talent or you don't), and a relevant talent can add to your saving roll.
The consensus on this forum is that 7th edition has good ideas but is quite under-edited, and that new people should get 5th edition (5.5 is 5th edition plus some extra articles).