OSR Commentary - 'A Very Different Ecology For 'The Troll' In Dungeons & Dragons & Retroclone Games'

 

If there is one monster that I love to use as a cross point in my games its trolls from Dungeons & Dragons, this goes all the way back to original Dungeons & Dragons. For me 'the troll' as monster are the perfect cross point  between the Arthurian legends or the  Swords & Sorcery style games.




Maybe because I read Three Hearts & Three Lions at an early age along with many of the Arthurian romances plus  C.L. Lewis's Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe. Couple this with a huge swath of Robert Howard's Conan, classic era Marvel comic books & other sundry Sword & Sorcery paperbacks. The one constant in many of these sources was the appearance of the troll.  The troll as a monster was well established in OD&D thanks to Paul Anderson's Three Hearts & Three Lions.

"In Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions, trolls are depicted as eight-feet tall creatures, man-eating creatures which are almost impossible to kill, since their bodies immediately re-knit and repair any damage, however severe. Even beheading a troll is of no avail - he would simply pick up his head and place it back on his neck and within a moment be "as good as new". A troll's only vulnerabilty is to fire - the only way to kill one is to cut him to pieces and burn each and every one of them before they had a chance to re-knit."
That quote is from the Wiki entry on trolls in popular culture we get a pretty consistent view of them in popular culture from Three Billy Goats Gruff, right on through the comedy series Ugly Americans.
Trolls are ugly, very dangerous, & seem to be classified with giants from Scandinavian legend & mythology.
"A troll is a class of being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings.

Later, in Scandinavian folklore, trolls became beings in their own right, where they live far from human habitation, are not Christianized, and are considered dangerous to human beings. Depending on the source, their appearance varies greatly; trolls may be ugly and slow-witted, or look and behave exactly like human beings, with no particularly grotesque characteristic about them."
So how does this relate to the popular monster of Dungeons & Dragons? I've noticed, there are tons of  species of troll based around various elements, geologies, & planar conditions; "In Dungeons & Dragons, the Trolls are depicted as tall skinny humanoids with long noses, rubbery skin, a regenerating ability, and a weakness to fire. Other types of Trolls include the Black Trolls, Blood Trolls, Cave Trolls, Crystalline Trolls, Desert Trolls, Fell Trolls, Fire Trolls, Forest Trolls, Giant Trolls (which is a crossbreed between a troll and a Hill Giant), Giant Two-Headed Trolls (which is a crossbreed between a troll and an Ettin), Gray Trolls, Ice Trolls, Mountain Trolls, Rock Trolls, Scrags, Slime Trolls, Spirit Trolls, Stone Trolls, Tree Trolls, War Trolls, and Wasteland Trolls. In addition, they keep the canine-like Trollhounds as pets in their tribes."
Trolls have three things going for them,the ability to adapt to any conditions they're put in, the ability to regenerate from any damage, and an almost artificial violence & ferocity toward others.

Many of the giants & trolls of Arthurian legend are far closer to the classic Giant Troll from the Fiend Folio Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. A giant troll is a cross between a troll and a hill giant, resulting in a troll over 10 feet tall. Once again we've got a species of monster whose close but not quite human living & mating with other monsters to produce another species. This can't be simply random chance, I'll postulate that perhaps the classic troll species  is a product of an ancient experiment going wrong. Sure I'm not the first to say this but there's a bit more to it. The mythological weakness to 'sunlight turning trolls to stone' & fire is troubling but we'll get to that.



Erol Otus from the AD&D Fiend Folio a classic piece of artwork.

I think that the answer for the origin point for the modern  troll species might actually be found in the original Three Hearts & Three Lions book by Paul Anderson.
"This world is divided between the forces of Chaos, inhabiting the "Middle World" (which includes Faerie), and the forces of Law based in the human world, which is in turn divided between the Holy Roman Empire and the Saracens."
This arrangement of the planes is definitely artificial as we see reading through the novel. But its important to note that Faerie plays a central role in the Paul Anderson novel in terms of both secondary characters & the antagonist's forces. The forces of Faerie are fickle at the best of times towards mankind & downright malevolent at the worst of times.

Looking into the legendary background of  classic mythological Faerie nature spirits & Elves  I came across tid bit on Wiki ;"Another belief is that the fairies were an intelligent species, distinct from humans and angels.^[37] In alchemy in particular they were regarded as elementals, such as gnomes and sylphs, as described by Paracelsus.^[38] This is uncommon in folklore, but accounts describing the fairies as "spirits of the air" have been found.^[39] The belief in their angelic nature was common in Theosophist circles"



If we look deep into classic mythology primal Chaos was one of the first things to exist; "In Greek mythology, Chaos (Greek: Χάος, "Chasm")^[1] was the first thing to exist: "at first Chaos came to be" (or was)^[2] "but next" (possibly out of Chaos) came Gaia, Tartarus, and Eros (elsewhere the son of Aphrodite).^[3] Unambiguously born "from Chaos" were Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night)" its also a powerful force of occult energy. The troll species is always associated with giants, or humanoid kind along with humans. We even  find this connection  in J.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series; "In The Lord of the Rings franchise, there were different types of trolls ranging from Stone Trolls (which turn to stone when exposed to sunlight), Two-Headed Trolls, Hill Trolls, Cave Trolls, Mountain Trolls, Snow Trolls, and the Olog-Hai (the type of Trolls that can withstand sunlight)."

Once again we've got that elemental adaption connection, the artificial species connection, & the presence of spirits creating new possibly human connected species powered by primal chaos; "The Olog-hai were a fierce race of Trolls. They only spoke Sauron's Black Speech, and it is possible they only existed because Sauron's evil will empowered them. They were bred by Sauron from an unknown stock, though it's suggested that they could be corruptions of some primitive human types." There are lots of varying opinions when it comes to the Olog-hai.
As a dungeon master I stay away from Tolkien because of these varying opinions & because gamers feel so strongly about the Middle Earth material.


Trolls make excellent Sword & Sorcery monsters especially when their origin crosses human, giant kind, & something else. We would need a race of highly advanced masters of the biological & engineering arts who had been here since Earth's origin & were capable of planar creations & demi planes (Faerie). Oh wait we already have all of those in HP Lovecraft's at the Mountains of Madness Elder Things.

 Toward the end of their reign on Earth when mankind was first emerging the Elder Things were looking for a replacement for the rebellious shoggoths. A breed of easily adaptable workers, army,etc. They began to experiment & some of their first creations could not exist in sunlight & were vulnerable to flame.
The latter half of the Elder Thing's empire was fading fast & it was already too late. 'The Shoggoth Rebellion' destroyed millions of years research. The first & secondary Ice Age Floods did the rest. There are qualities  that trolls have in common with shoggoths from regeneration to a pastiche for adaptability.



The laboratories in Troughburn, in Northumberland, England, were erased from existence originally Trolhop, Norse for "troll valley" is now only a dim racial memory of a place far to horrid to have existed. The troll species is regarded today as toxic waste spread across planes. How did this come to pass? We & other species found the nearly immortal proto trolls & wizards finished the work of the Elder Things. The Elder Things' city is identified with the Plateau of Leng  which has been the site for pilgrimages by necromancers, wizards, & occultists for centuries.  It has been speculated among certain circles of gamers over the years that the knowledge of the creation of trolls was spread by Nyarlathotep  through "The High Priest Not to Be Described. "

I have yet to run one game that does not feature trolls so players beware for they are a hidden menace!

Monster Ecology - Huygen's Trolls & Poortvliet's Goblins For Your Old School Campaigns

 So it's Nineteen Seventy seven or Seventy nine and I'm sitting down with my grandmother Rose on Christmas day. I get a copy of  Gnomes  by Wil Huygen and illustrated by Rien Poortvliet.

And I pretty much fascinated by the book. Everything else pretty much falls by the wayside for all of three or four hours. So we're now in Twenty Fifteen and six copies later I've still have the book with me. In point of fact I'll be using it tonight. But its not the Gnomes who fascinated me it was the trolls. By the way those are not actually gnomes per say they're actually Kabouter. But that's a story for another day, so flash forward to the Monster Manual in Eighty One or so. My copy of the Monster Manual is sitting next to me along with the D&D booklets. And I'm planning out my next AD&D campaign at the time. Friends of mine were complaining about AD&D not having monsters like out of mythology and horror films. What they were really angling for was Deities & Demigods like encounters but they got something different. Gnomes contains a good solid section about the various foes of Gnomes written in the voice of  David the Gnome. Whom later on would turn into a kids cartoon which ran in the Nineties and might still be in reruns.


The trolls of the world of Gnomes were incredibly dangerous and were killers and torturers of gnomes throughout Europe. This was heady stuff for a kid to read and were quite a step up from the usual species of trolls found in most D&D books. They're described as stupid, greedy, incredibly dangerous, and one derivatived from a variety of mythological sources including bits of  Norse, Scandinavian, English, and European  folklore. When the Fiend Foilo came my way so too did a pack of Troll subspecies and that's where Dr. Huygen's Trolls & Poortvliet's Goblins came from.

Dr. Huygen's Trolls


Number Encountered: 1d4 

Alignment: Chaotic Evil 

Size: M 

Movement: 40 

Dexterity: 7 

Armor Class:6 

Hit Dice: 5 

No Attacks: 3(Claw/Claw/Bite) or By Weapon

Damage: 1d6/1d6/2d6 

Saving Throw: 14

Morale: 9 

Experience Points: 200 

Treasure type: C
Huygen's Trolls are a subspecies of the common troll and unlike their more dangerous relative this species of troll are slightly smaller at less then six foot tall. But make up for their lack of height with a cruel and evil streak a mile wide. Huygen's Trolls  are a malicious and slovenly lot of humanoid horrors who live in caves and cavern works preying on nearby communities. They eat both humans, Fey, cows or any other creature they can catch and cook. Huygen's Trolls are very greedy and crave treasure above most else. They love the scent of blood and entrails.
They are often employed by local wizards and warlords as muscle and raiders. They are of average intelligence but very cunning and dangerous.. These horrors know human technology and have been known to wield enchanted blades, use magic, conduct coordinated raids on farms, villages and the like. This subspecies of troll speaks the tongues of men, Fey, and Troll kind. They may breed with humans, the result of these abomination of  'unions' is always a creature of troll kind. These beings often willingly serve the cause of evil and Chaos with abandonment.
Special abilities -
Dark Vision up to a Fifty foot radius.
Acute Sense of smell  Able to smell prey within one mile unless up wind 

Regeneration after three rounds after sustaining damage, wounds heal at a rate of 3 hp per round. Unless fire, acid, is the cause of damage. They will not fully regenerate if killed and fire is applied to the corpse.
Poortvliet's Goblins

Number Encountered: 1d6

Alignment: Chaotic Evil 

Size:S

Movement:50

Dexterity: 7 

Armor Class:8

Hit Dice:3

No Attacks:  By Weapon or Magic

Damage: By Weapon (see below)
Saving Throw: 14

Morale:6

Experience Points:200

Treasure type: C

There are small humanoid species that are distantly related to Goblin kind, Poortvliet's Goblins are small malevolent little manling like beings that live and haunt the deep woodlands far from civilization. They are beings who live close to the howling and haunted graveyards of ancient kings and forgotten races. From these places they have learned secrets of black magic and forbidden lore. This race of Fey like beings have been twisted by their closeness to the blackness of magick.  Poortvliet's Goblins haunt graveyards, dungeons, and other fringe places in search of magick, treasure and gold. They are hateful things that wield magic as third level black wizards and can curse men with rotting and wasting diseases upon the new moon. They use blow guns for one point of damage and their darts coated with horrid poisons that cause victims to save vs death or die in agony. They create dead falls, traps, snares and worse for adventurers in their territories. They've been known to haunt prominent families of the recently dead for gold,treasure, ransom or 'favors' or they will kill the first born sons and daughters of  simply out of spite. They willingly serve chaos and evil out of sheer principle. Poortvliet's Goblins continue to grow in number because they are able to convert victims into new monsters of their kind. They are highly intelligent and dangerous beings of evil. Poortvliet's Goblins are considered a disease on the face of humanity by many clerics and scholars of Law.

This post is for educational purposes only and is not an attempt to violate the trade marks or copyrights of the holders of the Gnome properties or Pan book LTD. This simply the rabid ramblings of a Gnome and AD&D, D&D and retroclone  fan.

Freaky Friday - Monster Ecology - Huygen's Trolls & Poortvliet's Goblins For Your Old School Campaigns

So it's Nineteen Seventy seven or Seventy nine and I'm sitting down with my grandmother Rose on Christmas day. I get a copy of  Gnomes  by Wil Huygen and illustrated by Rien Poortvliet.

And I pretty much fascinated by the book. Everything else pretty much falls by the wayside for all of three or four hours. So we're now in Twenty Fifteen and six copies later I've still have the book with me. In point of fact I'll be using it tonight. But its not the Gnomes who fascinated me it was the trolls. By the way those are not actually gnomes per say they're actually Kabouter. But that's a story for another day, so flash forward to the Monster Manual in Eighty One or so. My copy of the Monster Manual is sitting next to me along with the D&D booklets. And I'm planning out my next AD&D campaign at the time. Friends of mine were complaining about AD&D not having monsters like out of mythology and horror films. What they were really angling for was Deities & Demigods like encounters but they got something different. Gnomes contains a good solid section about the various foes of Gnomes written in the voice of  David the Gnome. Whom later on would turn into a kids cartoon which ran in the Nineties and might still be in reruns.


The trolls of the world of Gnomes were incredibly dangerous and were killers and torturers of gnomes throughout Europe. This was heady stuff for a kid to read and were quite a step up from the usual species of trolls found in most D&D books. They're described as stupid, greedy, incredibly dangerous, and one derivatived from a variety of mythological sources including bits of  Norse, Scandinavian, English, and European  folklore. When the Fiend Foilo came my way so too did a pack of Troll subspecies and that's where Dr. Huygen's Trolls & Poortvliet's Goblins came from.

Dr. Huygen's Trolls


Number Encountered: 1d4 

Alignment: Chaotic Evil 

Size: M 

Movement: 40 

Dexterity: 7 

Armor Class:6 

Hit Dice: 5 

No Attacks: 3(Claw/Claw/Bite) or By Weapon

Damage: 1d6/1d6/2d6 

Saving Throw: 14

Morale: 9 

Experience Points: 200 

Treasure type: C
Huygen's Trolls are a subspecies of the common troll and unlike their more dangerous relative this species of troll are slightly smaller at less then six foot tall. But make up for their lack of height with a cruel and evil streak a mile wide. Huygen's Trolls  are a malicious and slovenly lot of humanoid horrors who live in caves and cavern works preying on nearby communities. They eat both humans, Fey, cows or any other creature they can catch and cook. Huygen's Trolls are very greedy and crave treasure above most else. They love the scent of blood and entrails.
They are often employed by local wizards and warlords as muscle and raiders. They are of average intelligence but very cunning and dangerous.. These horrors know human technology and have been known to wield enchanted blades, use magic, conduct coordinated raids on farms, villages and the like. This subspecies of troll speaks the tongues of men, Fey, and Troll kind. They may breed with humans, the result of these abomination of  'unions' is always a creature of troll kind. These beings often willingly serve the cause of evil and Chaos with abandonment.
Special abilities -
Dark Vision up to a Fifty foot radius.
Acute Sense of smell  Able to smell prey within one mile unless up wind 

Regeneration after three rounds after sustaining damage, wounds heal at a rate of 3 hp per round. Unless fire, acid, is the cause of damage. They will not fully regenerate if killed and fire is applied to the corpse.
Poortvliet's Goblins

Number Encountered: 1d6

Alignment: Chaotic Evil 

Size:S

Movement:50

Dexterity: 7 

Armor Class:8

Hit Dice:3

No Attacks:  By Weapon or Magic

Damage: By Weapon (see below)
Saving Throw: 14

Morale:6

Experience Points:200

Treasure type: C

There are small humanoid species that are distantly related to Goblin kind, Poortvliet's Goblins are small malevolent little manling like beings that live and haunt the deep woodlands far from civilization. They are beings who live close to the howling and haunted graveyards of ancient kings and forgotten races. From these places they have learned secrets of black magic and forbidden lore. This race of Fey like beings have been twisted by their closeness to the blackness of magick.  Poortvliet's Goblins haunt graveyards, dungeons, and other fringe places in search of magick, treasure and gold. They are hateful things that wield magic as third level black wizards and can curse men with rotting and wasting diseases upon the new moon. They use blow guns for one point of damage and their darts coated with horrid poisons that cause victims to save vs death or die in agony. They create dead falls, traps, snares and worse for adventurers in their territories. They've been known to haunt prominent families of the recently dead for gold,treasure, ransom or 'favors' or they will kill the first born sons and daughters of  simply out of spite. They willingly serve chaos and evil out of sheer principle. Poortvliet's Goblins continue to grow in number because they are able to convert victims into new monsters of their kind. They are highly intelligent and dangerous beings of evil. Poortvliet's Goblins are considered a disease on the face of humanity by many clerics and scholars of Law.

This post is for educational purposes only and is not an attempt to violate the trade marks or copyrights of the holders of the Gnome properties or Pan book LTD. This simply the rabid ramblings of a Gnome and AD&D, D&D and retroclone  fan.

OSR Commentary - 'A Very Different Ecology For 'The Troll' In Dungeons & Dragons & Retroclone Games'

If there is one monster that I love to use as a cross point in my games its trolls from Dungeons & Dragons, this goes all the way back to original Dungeons & Dragons. For me 'the troll' as monster are the perfect cross point  between the Arthurian legends & Swords & Sorcery style games.




Maybe because I read Three Hearts & Three Lions at an early age along with many of the Arthurian romances plus  C.L. Lewis's Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe. Couple this with a huge swath of Robert Howard's Conan, classic era Marvel comic books & other sundry Sword & Sorcery paperbacks. The one constant in many of these sources was the appearance of the troll.  The troll as a monster was well established in OD&D thanks to Paul Anderson's Three Hearts & Three Lions.

"In Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions, trolls are depicted as eight-feet tall creatures, man-eating creatures which are almost impossible to kill, since their bodies immediately re-knit and repair any damage, however severe. Even beheading a troll is of no avail - he would simply pick up his head and place it back on his neck and within a moment be "as good as new". A troll's only vulnerabilty is to fire - the only way to kill one is to cut him to pieces and burn each and every one of them before they had a chance to re-knit."
That quote is from the Wiki entry on trolls in popular culture we get a pretty consistent view of them in popular culture from Three Billy Goats Gruff, right on through the comedy series Ugly Americans.
Trolls are ugly, very dangerous, & seem to be classified with giants from Scandinavian legend & mythology.
"A troll is a class of being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In Old Norsesources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings.

Later, in Scandinavian folklore, trolls became beings in their own right, where they live far from human habitation, are not Christianized, and are considered dangerous to human beings. Depending on the source, their appearance varies greatly; trolls may be ugly and slow-witted, or look and behave exactly like human beings, with no particularly grotesque characteristic about them."
So how does this relate to the popular monster of Dungeons & Dragons? I've noticed, there are tons of  species of troll based around various elements, geologies, & planar conditions; "In Dungeons & Dragons, the Trolls are depicted as tall skinny humanoids with long noses, rubbery skin, a regenerating ability, and a weakness to fire. Other types of Trolls include the Black Trolls, Blood Trolls, Cave Trolls, Crystalline Trolls, Desert Trolls, Fell Trolls, Fire Trolls, Forest Trolls, Giant Trolls (which is a crossbreed between a troll and a Hill Giant), Giant Two-Headed Trolls (which is a crossbreed between a troll and an Ettin), Gray Trolls, Ice Trolls, Mountain Trolls, Rock Trolls, Scrags, Slime Trolls, Spirit Trolls, Stone Trolls, Tree Trolls, War Trolls, and Wasteland Trolls. In addition, they keep the canine-like Trollhounds as pets in their tribes."
Trolls have three things going for them,the ability to adapt to any conditions they're put in, the ability to regenerate from any damage, and an almost artificial violence & ferocity toward others.

Many of the giants & trolls of Arthurian legend are far closer to the classic Giant Troll from the Fiend Folio Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. A giant troll is a cross between a troll and a hill giant, resulting in a troll over 10 feet tall. Once again we've got a species of monster whose close but not quite human living & mating with other monsters to produce another species. This can't be simply random chance, I'll postulate that perhaps the classic troll species  is a product of an ancient experiment going wrong. Sure I'm not the first to say this but there's a bit more to it. The mythological weakness to 'sunlight turning trolls to stone' & fire is troubling but we'll get to that.



Erol Otus from the AD&D Fiend Folio a classic piece of artwork.

I think that the answer for the origin point for the modern  troll species might actually be found in the original Three Hearts & Three Lions book by Paul Anderson.
"This world is divided between the forces of Chaos, inhabiting the "Middle World" (which includes Faerie), and the forces of Law based in the human world, which is in turn divided between the Holy Roman Empire and the Saracens."
This arrangement of the planes is definitely artificial as we see reading through the novel. But its important to note that Faerie plays a central role in the Paul Anderson novel in terms of both secondary characters & the antagonist's forces. The forces of Faerie are fickle at the best of times towards mankind & downright malevolent at the worst of times.

Looking into the legendary background of  classic mythological Faerie nature spirits & Elves  I came across tid bit on Wiki ;"Another belief is that the fairies were an intelligent species, distinct from humans and angels.^[37] In alchemy in particular they were regarded as elementals, such as gnomes and sylphs, as described by Paracelsus.^[38] This is uncommon in folklore, but accounts describing the fairies as "spirits of the air" have been found.^[39] The belief in their angelic nature was common in Theosophist circles"



If we look deep into classic mythology primal Chaos was one of the first things to exist; "In Greek mythology, Chaos (Greek: Χάος, "Chasm")^[1] was the first thing to exist: "at first Chaos came to be" (or was)^[2] "but next" (possibly out of Chaos) came Gaia, Tartarus, and Eros (elsewhere the son of Aphrodite).^[3] Unambiguously born "from Chaos" were Erebus(Darkness) and Nyx (Night)" its also a powerful force of occult energy. The troll species is always associated with giants, or humanoid kind along with humans. We even  find this connection  in J.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series; "In The Lord of the Rings franchise, there were different types of trolls ranging from Stone Trolls (which turn to stone when exposed to sunlight), Two-Headed Trolls, Hill Trolls, Cave Trolls, Mountain Trolls, Snow Trolls, and the Olog-Hai (the type of Trolls that can withstand sunlight)."

Once again we've got that elemental adaption connection, the artificial species connection, & the presence of spirits creating new possibly human connected species powered by primal chaos; "The Olog-hai were a fierce race of Trolls. They only spoke Sauron's Black Speech, and it is possible they only existed because Sauron's evil will empowered them. They were bred by Sauron from an unknown stock, though it's suggested that they could be corruptions of some primitive human types." There are lots of varying opinions when it comes to the Olog-hai. 
As a dungeon master I stay away from Tolkien because of these varying opinions & because gamers feel so strongly about the Middle Earth material. 


Trolls make excellent Sword & Sorcery monsters especially when their origin crosses human, giant kind, & something else. We would need a race of highly advanced masters of the biological & engineering arts who had been here since Earth's origin & were capable of planar creations & demi planes (Faerie). Oh wait we already have all of those in HP Lovecraft's at the Mountains of Madness Elder Things. 

 Toward the end of their reign on Earth when mankind was first emerging the Elder Things were looking for a replacement for the rebellious shoggoths. A breed of easily adaptable workers, army,etc. They began to experiment & some of their first creations could not exist in sunlight & were vulnerable to flame.
The latter half of the Elder Thing's empire was fading fast & it was already too late. 'The Shoggoth Rebellion' destroyed millions of years research. The first & secondary Ice Age Floods did the rest. There are qualities  that trolls have in common with shoggoths from regeneration to a pastiche for adaptability.



The laboratories in Troughburn, in Northumberland, England, were erased from existence originally Trolhop, Norse for "troll valley" is now only a dim racial memory of a place far to horrid to have existed. The troll species is regarded today as toxic waste spread across planes. How did this come to pass? We & other species found the nearly immortal proto trolls & wizards finished the work of the Elder Things. The Elder Things' city is identified with the Plateau of Leng  which has been the site for pilgrimages by necromancers, wizards, & occultists for centuries.  It has been speculated among certain circles of gamers over the years that the knowledge of the creation of trolls was spread by Nyarlathotep  through "The High Priest Not to Be Described. "

I have yet to run one game that does not feature trolls so players beware for they are a hidden menace! 

OSR Commentary - 'A Very Different Ecology For 'The Troll' In Dungeons & Dragons & Retroclone Games'

If there is one monster that I love to use as a cross point in my games its trolls from Dungeons & Dragons, this goes all the way back to original Dungeons & Dragons. For me 'the troll' as monster are the perfect cross point  between the Arthurian legends & Swords & Sorcery style games.




Maybe because I read Three Hearts & Three Lions at an early age along with many of the Arthurian romances plus  C.L. Lewis's Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe. Couple this with a huge swath of Robert Howard's Conan, classic era Marvel comic books & other sundry Sword & Sorcery paperbacks. The one constant in many of these sources was the appearance of the troll.  The troll as a monster was well established in OD&D thanks to Paul Anderson's Three Hearts & Three Lions.

"In Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions, trolls are depicted as eight-feet tall creatures, man-eating creatures which are almost impossible to kill, since their bodies immediately re-knit and repair any damage, however severe. Even beheading a troll is of no avail - he would simply pick up his head and place it back on his neck and within a moment be "as good as new". A troll's only vulnerabilty is to fire - the only way to kill one is to cut him to pieces and burn each and every one of them before they had a chance to re-knit."
That quote is from the Wiki entry on trolls in popular culture we get a pretty consistent view of them in popular culture from Three Billy Goats Gruff, right on through the comedy series Ugly Americans.
Trolls are ugly, very dangerous, & seem to be classified with giants from Scandinavian legend & mythology.
"A troll is a class of being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings.

Later, in Scandinavian folklore, trolls became beings in their own right, where they live far from human habitation, are not Christianized, and are considered dangerous to human beings. Depending on the source, their appearance varies greatly; trolls may be ugly and slow-witted, or look and behave exactly like human beings, with no particularly grotesque characteristic about them."
So how does this relate to the popular monster of Dungeons & Dragons? I've noticed, there are tons of  species of troll based around various elements, geologies, & planar conditions; "In Dungeons & Dragons, the Trolls are depicted as tall skinny humanoids with long noses, rubbery skin, a regenerating ability, and a weakness to fire. Other types of Trolls include the Black Trolls, Blood Trolls, Cave Trolls, Crystalline Trolls, Desert Trolls, Fell Trolls, Fire Trolls, Forest Trolls, Giant Trolls (which is a crossbreed between a troll and a Hill Giant), Giant Two-Headed Trolls (which is a crossbreed between a troll and an Ettin), Gray Trolls, Ice Trolls, Mountain Trolls, Rock Trolls, Scrags, Slime Trolls, Spirit Trolls, Stone Trolls, Tree Trolls, War Trolls, and Wasteland Trolls. In addition, they keep the canine-like Trollhounds as pets in their tribes."
Trolls have three things going for them,the ability to adapt to any conditions they're put in, the ability to regenerate from any damage, and an almost artificial violence & ferocity toward others.

Many of the giants & trolls of Arthurian legend are far closer to the classic Giant Troll from the Fiend Folio Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. A giant troll is a cross between a troll and a hill giant, resulting in a troll over 10 feet tall. Once again we've got a species of monster whose close but not quite human living & mating with other monsters to produce another species. This can't be simply random chance, I'll postulate that perhaps the classic troll species  is a product of an ancient experiment going wrong. Sure I'm not the first to say this but there's a bit more to it. The mythological weakness to 'sunlight turning trolls to stone' & fire is troubling but we'll get to that.



Erol Otus from the AD&D Fiend Folio a classic piece of artwork.

I think that the answer for the origin point for the modern  troll species might actually be found in the original Three Hearts & Three Lions book by Paul Anderson.
"This world is divided between the forces of Chaos, inhabiting the "Middle World" (which includes Faerie), and the forces of Law based in the human world, which is in turn divided between the Holy Roman Empire and the Saracens."
This arrangement of the planes is definitely artificial as we see reading through the novel. But its important to note that Faerie plays a central role in the Paul Anderson novel in terms of both secondary characters & the antagonist's forces. The forces of Faerie are fickle at the best of times towards mankind & downright malevolent at the worst of times.

Looking into the legendary background of  classic mythological Faerie nature spirits & Elves  I came across tid bit on Wiki ;"Another belief is that the fairies were an intelligent species, distinct from humans and angels.^[37] In alchemy in particular they were regarded as elementals, such as gnomes and sylphs, as described by Paracelsus.^[38] This is uncommon in folklore, but accounts describing the fairies as "spirits of the air" have been found.^[39] The belief in their angelic nature was common in Theosophist circles"



If we look deep into classic mythology primal Chaos was one of the first things to exist; "In Greek mythology, Chaos (Greek: Χάος, "Chasm")^[1] was the first thing to exist: "at first Chaos came to be" (or was)^[2] "but next" (possibly out of Chaos) came Gaia, Tartarus, and Eros (elsewhere the son of Aphrodite).^[3] Unambiguously born "from Chaos" were Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night)" its also a powerful force of occult energy. The troll species is always associated with giants, or humanoid kind along with humans. We even  find this connection  in J.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series; "In The Lord of the Rings franchise, there were different types of trolls ranging from Stone Trolls (which turn to stone when exposed to sunlight), Two-Headed Trolls, Hill Trolls, Cave Trolls, Mountain Trolls, Snow Trolls, and the Olog-Hai (the type of Trolls that can withstand sunlight)."

Once again we've got that elemental adaption connection, the artificial species connection, & the presence of spirits creating new possibly human connected species powered by primal chaos; "The Olog-hai were a fierce race of Trolls. They only spoke Sauron's Black Speech, and it is possible they only existed because Sauron's evil will empowered them. They were bred by Sauron from an unknown stock, though it's suggested that they could be corruptions of some primitive human types." There are lots of varying opinions when it comes to the Olog-hai.
As a dungeon master I stay away from Tolkien because of these varying opinions & because gamers feel so strongly about the Middle Earth material.


Trolls make excellent Sword & Sorcery monsters especially when their origin crosses human, giant kind, & something else. We would need a race of highly advanced masters of the biological & engineering arts who had been here since Earth's origin & were capable of planar creations & demi planes (Faerie). Oh wait we already have all of those in HP Lovecraft's at the Mountains of Madness Elder Things.

 Toward the end of their reign on Earth when mankind was first emerging the Elder Things were looking for a replacement for the rebellious shoggoths. A breed of easily adaptable workers, army,etc. They began to experiment & some of their first creations could not exist in sunlight & were vulnerable to flame.
The latter half of the Elder Thing's empire was fading fast & it was already too late. 'The Shoggoth Rebellion' destroyed millions of years research. The first & secondary Ice Age Floods did the rest. There are qualities  that trolls have in common with shoggoths from regeneration to a pastiche for adaptability.



The laboratories in Troughburn, in Northumberland, England, were erased from existence originally Trolhop, Norse for "troll valley" is now only a dim racial memory of a place far to horrid to have existed. The troll species is regarded today as toxic waste spread across planes. How did this come to pass? We & other species found the nearly immortal proto trolls & wizards finished the work of the Elder Things. The Elder Things' city is identified with the Plateau of Leng  which has been the site for pilgrimages by necromancers, wizards, & occultists for centuries.  It has been speculated among certain circles of gamers over the years that the knowledge of the creation of trolls was spread by Nyarlathotep  through "The High Priest Not to Be Described. "

I have yet to run one game that does not feature trolls so players beware for they are a hidden menace!

Monday Monster Ecology : Huygen's Snotgurgles For Your Old School Campaigns

Snotgurgles are the relatives of both trolls & ogre families but are distinct mutational strains from both of these monsters. They are horrid creatures  of extreme evil, degeneration and violence reveling and exemplifying every chaotic and evil tendency of the universe. They are gross psychopathic murdering creatures who delight in killing, maiming, torturing, and murdering anyone or anything that they come across. These horrors are drawn to the lonely places, ancient outposts of horror, and the barrow downs of old  kings of legend  for they are also an incredibly greedy species and seek gold,artifacts, magical relics and more only to keep these from the hands of the just and good.  Snotgurgles are rabidly strong and violent, they stand a little over seven and a half feet of twisted muscle and wicked flesh rending claws. Their  bite is  disease filled and caustic to the flesh of men and those of the supernatural alike . Those who survive encounters with Snotgurlges must roll save vs disease or contract an aggressive flesh rot disease similar to mummy rot with 1d4 rounds. Snotgurles are able to see in total darkness up to 70 feet; they have keen sense's of smell and are able to hear prey up to 200 yards. Anyone coming within 10 feet of a Snotgurgle's bug infested hide must save vs disease or wretch from the sheer scent of rot, bug infested fur, and fly blown filth.




These mad bastards are drawn to scenes of violence and depravity as moths to flames. Snotgurlge's are bug infested creatures and lairs are full of lice, fleas, and sometimes giant ticks. They use a wide variety of places for lairs and anyone coming within 10 feet of a Snotgurgle lair must save vs or gag from the smell. Old hunting cabins, caves, tumble downs, dungeon ruins, and old military bases are often used by this species as lairs and bases.
The snotgurgles are of low but cunningly average intelligence but live to be two thousand years old. They have six twisted fingered claws and seven flat toed feet both of which make the Snotgurle excellent climbers and are perfect for woodland, mountainous and temperate terrain.
Snotgurlges are born thieves and steal anything valuable that they can lay hands on. They accumulate vast hoards of relics, jewels, coins, money, magick items and have at least three or more bug infested bolt holes.Snotgurles are mostly loner killers and hunters but occasionally a sport is born that is a natural leader these monsters will be of a particularly dangerous cunning aspect. These cunning horrors  lead bands of 1d8 Dr. Huygen's Trolls as outlaws and bandit raiders to terrorize the surrounding countryside.
They are master torturers and go out of their way to capture victims and torture them for hours before consuming their prey. They especially hate Gnomes and other Fey with a burning passion taking special delight in torturing and murdering them

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Huygen's Snotgurgles
Number Encountered: 1d4 

Alignment: Chaotic Evil 

Size: M 

Movement: 40 

Dexterity: 7 

Armor Class:5

Hit Dice:10

No Attacks: 3(Claw/Claw/Bite) or By Weapon

Damage: 1d6/1d6/2d6 

Saving Throw: 1

Morale:10

Experience Points: 700 

Treasure type: C,D,E 

Certain Snotgurgles become phantom horrors and killers stalking the countryside as lone monsters of incredibly dangerous aspect. They grow more cunning & insular as time goes on. These horrors stalk certain families across centuries as curses and kill bloodline members after driving  them to almost madness. They seem to derive as much pleasure in the physiological torture aspect as in the murder.




This post is for educational purposes only and is not an attempt to violate the trade marks or copyrights of the holders of the Gnome properties or Pan book LTD. This simply the rabid ramblings of a Gnome and AD&D, D&D and retroclone  fan.