Saving Fang From the Pits of Morgul
Publisher: Flying Buffalo Games
Page Count: 49
Cost: $2.95
Release Date: 08/13/2013
Get it Here: DriveThruRPG.com
Saving Fang is the latest Tunnels and Trolls release from Flying Buffalo as we count down to the release of Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls. Saving Fang was free to Kickstarter backers but is $2.95 for everyone. Three dollars for a full length solitaire adventure is pretty good, though, and this particular adventure definitely gives you your money’s worth.
It’s interesting to note that as Buffalo Castle and Deluxe City of Terrors have been rereleased with the Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls branding, Saving Fang is actually for FIRST EDITION Tunnels & Trolls, which is crazy old when you think about it. The foreword mentions that you need a copy of 1e T&T to play the adventure, but honestly, I don’t know where you can even get one. It’s not on RPGNow.com or DrivethruRPG.com. They have the fourth edition rulebook up there, but not first edition. While this does somewhat constrain who can play Saving Fang, Tunnels & Trolls hasn’t changed that much since the original version from the late 70s, so adapting this adventure to a later system shouldn’t be too difficult a task. So on one hand, it’s a bit odd to see a solo adventure coming out for 1e T&T in 2013, while on the other, it’s great to see the older editions are still being supported as Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls creeps ever closer to release day.
Like all solitaire adventures, Saving Fang is one you play by yourself in a vein similar to the old Lone Wolf or Choose Your Own Adventure novels. You follow the text of the adventure, turn to the sections it tells you to, roll dice when appropriate and so on. It’s a lot of fun and because there is so much variance and branching paths to these adventures, you can replay them multiple times with completely different events and outcomes. It’s great fun if you want to play a RPG but can’t get a group of friends together. These are also great if you fly a lot. Put down your tray, break out your Kindle and some d6s and play your way to your destination.
As you can probably guess from the title, the plot of the adventure is that your protagonist has to save a man named Fang from being sacrificed in the Pits of Morgul. He was carried away by ghouls and there are plenty of undead for your character to encounter. What’s interesting is that also you are playing this adventure in a solo manner, you can actually start off in a party with a red headed woman named Cherry and a river troll. Of course you can choose not to adventure at all, which gives you a short but amusing story too. That’s all part of the fun with these types of adventures. I played through it four times and ended up with everything from gathering an army to attack Morgul to going on madcap adventures with Cherry. It’s also worth noting that the ghouls in this adventure look an awful lot like baboons for some reason. None of your playthroughs will be very long. Some will take minutes and my longest was still under an hour, but that’s not uncommon for this type of adventure. It’s about having a fun solitaire adventure and that’s something Saving Fang definitely provides in spades.
All in all, this is your typical Tunnels & Trolls solo adventure. There are a lot of plot options, the adventure is saturated with a wry sense of humour, mixing mayhem with mirth and with a price tag of only three dollars, it’s a great addition to your collection of solo adventures. Heck, if you don’t have any other friends that like tabletop RPGs, Tunnels & Trolls is a great investment due to the sheer number of high quality solitaire adventures like Saving Fang that have been made for the system. It easily boasts the most solitaire adventures for any system and although Saving Fang is for a much older version of T&T, it’s still one you can easily spend a lot of time coming back to and finding it as fun the fifth or sixth playthrough as you did the first. This is definitely a must buy for any T&T fan or someone looking for a solitaire experience.
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