What is Tri Tac Compatible d100?

Tri Tac Compatible d100 (Ttd100) is a 21st Century reworking of Richard Tucholka’s classic Tri Tac game settings and system rules.  Mel Natcher promised Richard Tucholka a new gaming engine for Tri Tac back in 2011, but life, illness, and work commitments kept throwing up roadblocks while he was alive to see the results.

So Tri Tac Compatible d100 is Tri Tac, only streamlined, modernized, and made compatible (whenever possible without losing Tri Tac’s unique skewed perspective and tongue-in-cheek humor) with today’s d100 expectations.

Why d100?

To start off, the Tri Tac engine has always been a d100 system – it was one of the earliest, in fact.  But it was designed during a period when games were much more crunchy-simulationist than is popular today.

As examples, the classic Tri Tac engine breaks down skills into eight pages of microselections, and there are 12 pages dealing with called shots and hit locations.  But classic Tri Tac and d100 both use a roll-under percentile roll to settle whether a character succeeds at a task.  Both use Ability scores and Skills in similar ways.  Both use polyhedral dice for things like weapons damage.

Individual Game Masters have adapted Tri Tac’s settings to work with everything from Fate to Pathfinder, but adapting to be d100 compatible allows us to retain the “classic feel” more than going further afield would.  Plus, there’s less concern about licensing.  There’s always a worry when you license something – maybe the IP rights will be sold a decade later, and the new owners will flip everything upside down.  Years of work ends up orphaned without warning.

And… we had volunteers eager to jump ahead with d100.  Enthusiasm won.

But what if I *like* the classic Tri Tac system?  

Continue using it, but check out the new line, anyway.  Tri Tac d100 will still be worth your investment – for the updated production values, improved organization, and expansion on subjects that Richard Tucholka only thumbnailed, if nothing else.

What if I prefer 5e or Fate or system x?

If you are interested in adapting Tri Tac settings, the Tri Tac d100 System will still be worth your time and money.  If nothing else, the new books will be easier to read and will be indexed, so it will take less time for you to find all the things to convert them.

What if I just want to change things up?

When it’s your game, you do you.  If you decide you want to write for us, we’ll need you to keep continuity in mind and hew pretty close to canon.  If you are GMing your own homebrew setting that incorporates Tri Tac elements, have fun doing it your way.