By far the greatest game I played as a kid was Tunnels & Trolls.

So the day I heard my kids in the back of the minivan (approximate ages ranged 5-10), one talking about being a warrior, the other a fairy, and another something about an elven archer, and I think there was a forest and some kind of a monster they were about to fight but they were trying to figure out (make up) how to do combat, the old T&T spark was reignited. I knew it was too early to drop a rule book on them, but over the next 6-12 months I planted seeds of information on how to make their game work. Next, I dropped hints of “real” games like Dungeons & Dragons and, of course, Tunnels & Trolls. About a year later we had a new generation of T&T players asking to play solo adventures AND dungeon master adventures.

HA-HA!
YAH MISSED ALL
MY VITAL SPOTS!!

So what does that have to do with this website? If it wasn’t for my kids I would have almost assuredly never gotten back into T&T. At this point I am much more a collector (and an occasional dungeon master) than a gamer, but that is in great part what I was as a kid, too (a seeker of shiny new Falchions, “worthless” Yuurrks, Viking Spike Shields, bars of mithril, etc., and drinking from every fountain or potion I could find along the way!). Now I spend much of my free time seeking real life Tunnels & Trolls treasure. And what good is treasure if you can’t show it off a little? I mean, um, if you can’t share it with your friends? Either way, I know how hard it is to research, let alone find, these treasures. I know many of you have never even heard of many of these treasures because that was me just a few years ago! And here in this Treasury is where I will share with all of you *almost* everything I have discovered so far…

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.

I didn’t realize it at first but many of the T&T treasures scattered across the lands are actually my fellow T&T fans. Far and wide – from the Trollgodfather himself and Liz Danforth and Steve Crompton, to the original pioneering “amateur” (some now professional) content creators like Tori Bergquist and Simon Hanks and Garen Ewing, to the “next gen” of T&T creators like Andy “Boozer” Holmes and Sid Orpin, to the dozens of plebe fans/collectors like myself – we have shared many a tale as we barter over some obscure T&T treasure or another. I remember my first (and second) trip to the trollcave as fondly as I remember my first trips through the Deathtrap Equalizer Dungeon. I remember how long it took, the many offers rejected, and then finally getting my hands on my first original copy of Agent of Death (the “newspaper” solo…with the cover page) just as fondly as I remember our first Minotaur character (play more of the original dungeon master adventures if you don’t know what I mean). So, in all sincerity, I want to thank all of you that helped me create this Treasury; your contributions have been much more to me than just the pieces of paper, lead, plastic, and the rest that I have captured in the images displayed here.

To everyone, even if I never interact with “you” directly, I truly hope this Treasury gives you some joy and helps you find T&T treasures of your own. Many of us find our way here following trails of nostalgia. What we can find are both physical prizes and real-life experiences and their resultant memories (maybe with your kids, spouses, friends and/or even strangers in other countries!) that may last a lifetime.

Tunnels & Trolls can always deliver the real treasure; that is true now just as much as when we were kids.