I suppose I should say first of all that I hesitate to call Troll an invention. It is more in the way of a discovery, a discovery moreover that many other people appear to have made on many occasions. Anyone who's ever browsed the net will have seen evidence that not only has Troll already been discovered, but that it is being actively played on a regular basis. Before Play Starts Appointing A "TrollMaster" The first thing you must do is appoint one person to be the "TrollMaster". The TrollMaster does not participate in the game. Instead, they act a combined referee and scorer. It is obviously vital that the person selected as TrollMaster be decent, honest and trustworthy. Admittedly, if you a big enough bunch of shits to actually want to play a game of Troll, finding one of your number who is decent, honest and trustworthy is going to be a near-impossible task. But I'll leave you to worry about that. Selecting The Venue And Timescale The next task is to determine when and where the game of Troll will take place. When is obviously up to you. As to where, games of Troll take place on moderated web-based forums. You simply need to select one. For example, you might decide that the game will take place between 9am and 5:30pm Friday, on the Open and Tangency forums of RPGNet. Creating Accounts Finally, each player needs to create accounts on the target venue. There are a number of rules covering account creation. Usually, all accounts must be created before the designated start of the game. However, some people play variants which state that the accounts must be created after game start. A player may only create three accounts. One account will be designated the "primary" account. The other two accounts are designated as "shadow" accounts. If the player has existing accounts on the target venue, then he must not use them during the period that the game takes place. All account details (names and type, i.e. primary or shadow) must be sent to the TrollMaster prior to the starting of the game. The TrollMaster will then circulate the names of the primary accounts to each player. The names of the shadow accounts remain secret. Some care should be taken when selecting account names. It is often best to not select something too flashy, as that may draw attention to yourself. Many experienced Troll players suggest picking something fairly nondescript, such as "martin" or "bloke". Playing The Game... Page 1 of 4 Copyright © 2003 Critical Miss Gaming Society