April book-blog: Twelve things the villagers mean when they tell you there's a troll in the hills, or: In which Ármann Jakobsson resolves an old TTRPG community argument

Here's the big deal of Ármann Jakobsson's The Troll Inside You: Paranormal Activity in the Medieval North - the thing that distinguishes (or at least elevates) it from any academic, critical work on myth and folklore:

'The first thing readers of this book must do is refrain from imagining that they know precisely what a troll is. While in the nineteenth century Icelandic trolls were taxonomised ... in a thirteenth-century narrative a troll has no such clear identity, not even within the human psyche. Trolls do not constitute a race or a species. The first step when considering the troll sighted on the ridge is to avoid the idea of a clearly demarcated group. ... Thinking like a nineteenth-century scientist will not further one’s understanding of the medieval troll. Furthermore, it might be useful to resist the glossarial impulse to treat medieval Icelandic words as concepts that are carefully defined as they are used. ... How could these men understand a troll? They accept it as an other which they fear and they cannot imagine knowing it. Why is the troll not described? Possibly it is too distant, a black shape in the night. How then do they know it is a troll? One suspects their own feelings told them so. They are afraid, that is how they know.' 

The first few chapters of the book - which is open access, so I'll leave you to read the finer points of the argument if you're interested - are devoted to demonstrating this fluidity amongst the Scandinavian (especially Icelandic) monsters and sorcerers that are its subject. For my money, Jakobsson sometimes takes it too far, especially in the later chapters, conflating concepts of divinity, demonic nature, undeath, trollishness, queerness etc. almost totally to the point that multi-step chains of such resonances can be made without any actual textual evidence along the middle links; he admits to using etic, imposed terminology like 'vampire' and 'zombie' deliberately to remove readers from a modern taxonomizing framework, but there's a difference between intentionally obscuring imposed categories to help create a more emic-esque perspective, and creating potentially-misleading linkages which universalize specific themes. The latter run the risk of homogenizing and distorting mediaeval perspectives as much as the taxonomizing folklorists Jakobsson critiques did. 

Still, this issue only arises in the last few chapters. Overall, for inspiration, wide-reaching and with frequent reference to parallels in fiction or modern folklore, it's well worth a read. Highly readable, too - under 200 pages, short, punchy chapters, and free access.

Anyway. Gameables.

Addressing the Controversy

It might be D&D discourse's most popular argument: if trolls exist, should PCs know they regenerate unless burned/dissolved? This usually devolves into a conversation about that amorphous phantom, metagaming. Not doing that; I direct you to those with more energy than I.

Let's make the conversation about something more interesting: epistemology. Trolls, in this conception, are (or might be) anything the local power/social structures call a troll, and the process of players coming to understand a troll and its capabilities might advance in a few ways:

• Players encounter trolls and learn through experience what sorts of results are common on the table below.
• Players hear stories of trolls. If you want, roll 3 times per player at the start of the game/when trolls become relevant, and that's the content of the stories they've already heard.
• Players hear false stories of trolls then encounter counterexamples. There's potentially a lot of politics going on in the definition of a troll: nobles want non-tax-paying mountain-dwellers to be trolls, but the villagers who buy food from them are pretty sure they aren't. A mercenary warrior for the enemy who slaughters hundreds might be a troll or be seen as a troll, and they might even uneasily straddle that line. The PCs could be defined as trolls if they prove to be trouble for a particular area. If you're feeling like introducing some existential body horror, this might literally 'troll' them, make them into the thing they're called, but that way lies themes that probably need some careful session 0 discussion. 

This might feel odd if you juxtapose it with other more defined monsters, and it probably does work best in a setting where the nature of monsters in general is not rigid or easily defined, such as the ones increasingly emerging from challenging D&D's stark 'racial' divides. But I don't think this is strictly necessary: 'troll' might just be a vague, broad word compared to the very-easy-to-understand 'manticore' or 'griffon.' 

Statting your Troll

The troll is a normal human with (in a class/level game) the capabilities of a level 1D8 (explodes) fighter and a level 1d6-3 (explodes) wizard (illusionist, demonologist, witch or diviner if specialisms are available in your chosen system) except A) it may attack with its bare hands which do damage as shortswords and B) it has some trollish traits:

(roll d150, 1d6 times)

1-3. The troll can turn invisible

4-5. The troll is burned by the touch of a king (or the chosen of a god, depending on how you read intent)

6-11. The troll can see the future; 65% it can speak it only in prophetic rhyme which it itself does not fully understand.

12. Troll was 'trolled', made into a troll, by a ritual from a far-off land.

13. Troll became a troll after killing another troll. Morally-impure or weak-willed (depending on your system's themes) characters who kill it must save or suffer the same.

14-15. The troll can take the guise of a normatively beautiful human

16. Troll can take any guise of approximately human-ogre size.

17-20. The troll is a demon or harmful minor god; 50% chance it is possessing an animal, in which case use the stats of a bear, wolf, bull, or other large and potentially-dangerous creature as the base stats.

21-3. Troll is an elf, whatever that means in your system

24-5. Troll is a dwarf, whatever that means in your system

26-30. Troll is a giant, whatever that means in your system

31-3. The troll can travel 'down under' through the earth, or possibly Hell, a power which it uses to escape if horribly overmatched

34-6. The troll can impart infection, from mild itching to lethal plague, with a touch

37. The troll's bones shatter if touched by a holy item

38-40. Troll is burned by holy water 

41-2. Troll cannot approach the sounds of sacred chanting

43-4. Troll is extraordinarily eloquent, as per constant Suggestion spell or equivalent.

45-59. Troll is a solitary mountain-dweller; replace its Fighter levels with Ranger levels if appropriate.

60. Troll has multiple bodies across which it exists, a sort of hive mind

61. Troll can change forms into an animal, adopting its statistics.

62-3. Troll can become a normal human by converting faiths 
64. Troll is surprisingly law-abiding and will abide by any legal procedures actively enacted against it
65-6. Troll burns in light as a vampire
67-70. Troll turns to stone in light

71-72. Troll simply cannot physically be moved into light

73. Troll disappears if it contacts light, reappearing at dusk

74-7. Troll hates light and avoids it wherever possible; disadvantage on all rolls whilst in it.

78-9. Troll consciously rejects the sexual and gender mores and norms of its time

80-81. Troll walks backwards
82-3. Form of the troll is forever ambiguous (this is largely a descriptive trait - use shadow and 'camera angle' creatively, think Eggers' Nosferatu castle sequence)
84-9. The troll is a zombie or other shambling, rotten revenant

90. Anybody (50%) killed by the troll or (50%) defeated in combat by it and left alive becomes one
91-4. The troll was once a human (75% reborn as a troll after death/25% transformed whilst alive) and lingers near its old home
95-6. The troll violently refuses to let anybody touch its possessions. 20% it holds an ancient treasure.  97. Troll's lair is protected by a sorcerous curse (90% as per Bestow Curse or equivalent; 10% as per Power Word Kill or equivalent) which affects anyone entering whilst they remain within.
98. Troll's lair is protected by a ring of fire (as per Wall of Fire or equivalent)
99. Troll's lair is surrounded by a terrible scent (50% as per Stinking Cloud, 50% as per Cloudkill, or system equivalents)
100-102. Troll's breath reeks badly enough to kill (as per Cloudkill or equivalent, within 5 ft. to front only).
103-6. Troll can lay curses by speech, as per a permanent Bestow Curse or equivalent.
107-9. Troll is incorporeal, ghostly.

110. Troll looks like but is not a ghost.
111-12. Troll can only be killed if beheaded and head placed between buttocks; otherwise, regenerates the next night.
113-5 Troll has a perfect memory of and always repays insults and injuries 

116 - Troll has a perfect memory of and always repays all deeds, good and ill

117-9 - Troll smears itself in its own faeces; it suffers no increased risk of infection due to this, which cannot be said of other creatures.

120-3. The troll is 'a perichoretic part of the human consciousness, immanent in humanity but somehow retaining an aspect of its inhuman identity' (d4: 1 - the PCs' psyches; 2 - a PC's psyche; 3 - The village's psyche; 4 - The collective unconsciousness of humanity; 5 - the experiences of the players). The troll can travel through the internal human experience.
124-133. Troll has skin like iron, and is armoured as if wearing plate.

134-9. Troll hails from a foreign land.

140-145. Troll derives pleasure from murder.
146-150. Troll worships or is manipulated by ancient gods now abandoned in the area.

Example Trolls

Ol' Sithemm, GLoG (Many Rats on Sticks):

Hunter 2

Background: Paymaster in the army of the Jarl of Thurgen when he invaded the local area forty years ago. A prophetic vision drove him mad and he fled into the forest the night before the wicked Jarl was slain in battle and his forces broken. Locals whisper that, if you find him, the wily old wild-man will tell you your future, though you may not like what you hear.

Description: Always lurking between the trees, swaddled up in rags and furs (hairs?) that reveal hints of strange scars. Wanders around the edges of the scene, never fully entering into sight unless to finish off a character he's decided  to kill - and even then, visible only blurrily in the fading night. Prefers thick undergrowth to clear plains, night to day, distance to intimacy. Speaks only in strange riddles and rhymes.

Motivations: Survival, first and foremost - a greedy, venal man, made half an animal by long years hiding in the wilds. Fears armed men, horses, fire, magic, and will try to destroy them in self-preservation if he thinks he can get away with it. Hoarder, but not compulsive, just likes the shine of treasure, especially coins. And yet... alongside all this, strange voices ring in his ears, dreams haunt his sleep, he knows on a level below thought that he is a vessel of Truth greater than he can say.  Sometimes he enjoys this, plays with his poems, with the power they give him over others; sometimes, the fact that he himself doesn't understand them terrifies him.

STR 11
DEX 12 (+1)
CON 12 (+1)
INT 11
WIS 15 (+2)
CHA 8 (-1)

HP 10 HD
Defence 12 (leather armour)
Movement 13
Stealth 12
Save 6
Attack 12

Skills: Wilderness, Soldier

Equipment: Crossbow (30', 1d12+1, reload 1 rd), 40 bolts, dagger, cloak, lockbox (hidden in cave, holds 100 gp in old gold coins)

Shining Eyes, Keen: -1 to attack with ranged weapons for every 20’ past listed range, instead of 10’.
Twisted Human:  -4 to Save against being mutated or transformed.

Prophesy: Can't speak except in cryptic, ominous rhymes. Each round of speech, one creature that hears this speech must make an Intelligence check. On a success, they learn an event that will take place in the future. The GM chooses one of the following:

• May act in next surprise round
• Learn one forthcoming background event
• Next time they roll a random encounter, may re-roll and choose either result
  

If it fails the save, the creature instead has Disadvantage on its next roll which might result in its death or a fate worse than death.

Crippling Shot: If hit with a ranged weapon, may choose to deal 1 damage instead of rolling. Next attack made by victim deals ½ normal damage.

Calculated Ruthlessness: + Dex bonus to damage rolls made with ranged weapons.

Troll-hands: unarmed attacks deal d8 damage

Malglur Ironskin, 2014 5e 

N.B. that as 5e tends to with monsters, I've simplified the statblock design so it's not just the classes it's based on, but nominally Malglur is a Brute Fighter 5/Demonologist Wizard 2

Background: A great warrior who fought against the coming of the new religions on behalf of the old druid-led faith. As it retreated and was defeated, Malglur turned to the secrets of demon-worshippers from far-off lands to transform itself into a monstrosity which could slay men in battle by the dozen, carrying on the fight alone. It still roams the countryside, killing those who keep the new ways and seeking out specifically those who defeated its allies in their later life for revenge.

Description: 7 ft. tall, with skin the texture and colour of pink granite. Otherwise roughly humanoid, and generally stands tall and proud. Stinks of rotting meat (which it eats). Malglur still wears its old ringmail armour, but doesn't really need it anymore and hasn't maintained it in years

Personality Traits: I grunt and moan like an animal, revelling in deliberate wildness; also, I like to throw cryptic and meaningless comments into conversation to throw others off 

Bonds: I still hold respect for my old commander, now retired to his farm, and would obey his orders if needed

Ideals: I fight for an old world, where might and cunning were all that mattered, and against the oppression of the new faiths; those who will join my war, I am willing to spare.

Flaws: I no longer see myself as human, and so I don't account for my weaknesses or frailties

Medium Monstrosity, Chaotic Evil

HP 68 (9d8+27)
AC 22 (natural armour, shield)

STR 16 (+3)
DEX 16 (+3)
CON 16 (+3)
INT 16 (+3)
WIS 13 (+1)
CHA 16 (+3)

Saves: Strength +6, Constitution +6
Skills: Athletics +6, Intimidation +6, Arcana +6, Perception +4, Deception +6

Senses: Blindsight 10 ft., Passive Perception 14

Languages: Common, Sylvan, Abyssal
CR: 5 (1800 xp)

TRAITS

Sunlight sensitivity: While in sunlight, Malglur has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Reeking Breath: A creature that moves to within 5 ft. of Malglur in its front arc or starts its turn there must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. The creature takes 5d8 poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Creatures are affected even if they hold their breath or don’t need to breathe.

Natural spellcasting: Malglur’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

At will: Suggestion

Perfect Recall: Malglur can accurately recall anything it has seen or heard in its life.

Demonologist (3/Long Rest):  By performing a dark ritual lasting one hour, fueled by a vial of blood from a humanoid slain within the past 24 hours, Malglur may conjure a creature with the Demon subtype and of CR 1 or less. The demon obeys its commands and remains until it falls to 0 hp.

Scholar of Horrors: Malglur has advantage on Intelligence (Arcana) and Intelligence (Religion) checks related to demons or their planes of existence.

Action Surge (1/long rest): On its turn, Malglur may take one additional action.
Holy Water Allergy: Malglur is burned by holy water as if it were a Fiend or Undead.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. Malglur makes two attacks with its Iron-hard hands or Longsword.

Iron-hard hands. Melee weapon attack. +6, 1d6+3+1d4 (9) bludgeoning damage.

Longsword. Melee weapon attack. +6, 1d8+3+1d4 (10) bludgeoning damage

Green Flame Blade. Melee spell attack. +6, 1d8+3+1d4 (10) bludgeoning damage plus 1d8 (5) fire damage, and a creature within 5 ft. of the target that Malglur can see suffers 1d8+6 (11) fire damage.
Scorch. (Cantrip from Compendium of Forgotten Secrets: Awakening) An object within 30 ft. of Malglur that it can see ignites. Up to two creatures within 5 feet of the burning object must make

a Dexterity saving throw (DC 14). If a creature fails, it takes 2d8 (9) fire damage.
Pain. (Cantrip from Not Really Complete Tome of Spells: Ultimate Edition) One minute, Concentration. Malglur touches a creature and it is wracked by agony. For the duration of the spell, that creature has a -1 penalty on all attack rolls and ability checks. At the beginning of each of its turns, the creature may make a Constitution saving throw (DC 14), ending the effect on a success.

Dazz, 'the Bogeyman of the Barren Hills' - WFRP 4e 

How to work out the levels in an XP-based system? I decided level 10, i.e. name level for games that use the concept, is pegged to the fourth tier of a career, which is also the point at which WFRP characters start to get a lot of political power. The minimum XP to reach that tier, by my very napkin-y maths, is 7225; call it 7200 to account for a little bit of taking-straight-rolls XP, and we can say a 'level' is about 720 xp in an appropriate class. A roll of Fighter 4 and Wizard 1 translates to 720 XP in Witch and 2880 in Protagonist. Then, since monsters don't tend to have super detailed skills except Weapon, I divide the XP by half and just ignore the skill requirement for advancing rank for other purposes.

I also generate a Giant who can lay curses by speech , so this should be interesting...

Background: People tend to assume giants are stupid, and Dazz, who lives around the fringes of the Barren Hills in Talabecland, definitely isn't. Since a young age, she's known that the humans who try to keep food from her are superstitious folks who'll bend at the first hint of Dark Magic. As such, she adopts the persona of a terrible monster, appearing out of the night suddenly to intimidate a lone traveller or reach through the window of a house to grab a tempting animal kept within. Rather than smash, she menaces. She's been doing it sixty-odd years and gotten rather good at it; the trick, she's discovered, is to never make totally clear what she is and keep implying that she could do much worse if locals didn't pay up. Her inborn ability to lay curses (probably a result of the high concentration of warpstone in the Barren Hills) always helps with this, and anybody who tries to rally support against her soon finds their life taking a turn for the worse in a manner more suggestive of a supernatural being than a big yet subtle bully.

Description: Dazz looks like a pretty typical giant if you see her, suntanned and prematurely aged by warpstone exposure, but she prefers to make her presence known through petty magic or to only show her slightly-overlong, claw-nailed hands. 

Motivations: Food, drink, and respectful dread. Dazz has no desire to better herself, which is why her definite low cunning doesn't translate to a higher Int score - she's extremely incurious. However, she can be persuaded to defend the villages from which she exacts tribute from other threats (without letting on unless doing so would enhance her reputation) and will back down in the face of superior force so long as she can do so without losing face. Anyone who works against her is a threat who needs to be shown their place as quickly and humiliatingly as possible. Dazz doesn't get overwhelmed by her anger, however - her vengeance is planned fast, but planned.

M      WS    BS     S    T    I    Ag    Dex   Int   WP    Fel   W

6         45     30     65  65  35  30      15     25    30     30    100

Traits: Armour 1, Night Vision, Size (Enormous), Stride, Tough, Weapon +15, Spellcaster (Petty Magic [Marsh Lights, Murmured Whisper, Careful Step]), Stealthy
Curse-speaker: By simply speaking to a target for a round and succeeding on an opposed Willpower roll against their Fellowship, Big Dazz may inflict on them the effects of Curse of Ill-Fortune, as per the Witch spell. 
Talents: Menacing, Reversal, Instinctive Diction

One more thing: 

'The Old Norse álfr is used to indicate not only a specific race or species or even category of elves but rather any kind of paranormal figure clearly superior to humans — somewhat similar to the way a modern anthropologist might use the term “god” (or “deity”) to mean “a god” rather than “God.” If we regard the term to be so broadly significant, then it comes as no surprise that elves in the sagas sometimes seem to be minor deities or cultic figures and perhaps are only rarely a distinct race or species, and neither would it then come as a surprise that an elf could be also a human, a dwarf, or a troll.'

'By and large, the medieval terminology, when explored with intentions of specificity, tends to obfuscate more than enlighten: a dwarf may well be an elf (as seen in such dwarf names as Álfr and Gandalfr), a dwarf may be referred to as a troll or at least act like one, and the same figure may be characterised as a troll, a giant (jǫtunn or risi), and even a man in the same source.'

You should be able to multiclass B/X style racial classes, is what I'm hearing.

Au revoir,

Jago

Also Read for Pleasure this Month: Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling, A Libertarian Walks into a Bear: the Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (and Some Bears)

Also Reading for Pleasure this Month: DKMU, Liber L.S.; Felipe Correa, Dossier on Contemporary Anarchism: Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Whole World (1990-2019); Kate Bornstein, My ^New Gender Workbook; William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, The Difference Engine

Next Month's Book: Jason Ananda Josephson-Storm, Metamodernism: the Future of Theory. Assuming I can hack it. If not, maybe Peter Sarris, Justinian: Emperor, Soldier, Saint, or some Marxist theory