Elder Tunnels

I'm working on creation of new page for Peryton Publishing.

Peryton Publishing is an American role-playing game publishing company founded in 2004. It is co-owned by Christina Lea and Tom K. Loney. It is best known for their original role-playing game products, Crawlspace, Qalidar, and Spacers, as well as for publishing content for Tunnels & Trolls and Monsters! Monsters! role-playing game systems, frequently in collaboration with Ken St. Andre.

History

Peryton Publishing was founded by Lea and Loney in 2004, and started selling their first gaming system, Peryton Fantasy Role-Playing Game, written by Lea, built from Open gaming mechanics, and intended to simply the fantasy role-playing game experience, in 2006. It would go on to publish dozens of what can be only called niche RPG experiences.

The Peryton Fantasy Role-Playing Game has been called "the first 3.75 Edition" in mock comparison to Pathfinder RPG released a bit later. While Lea has worked primarily on her Peryton FRPG and a science fiction setting called Qalidar, she has managed and edited dozens of works by other RPG creatives. This is despite her retirement from RPG development to focus on her fiction writing since before and after that announcement. Through Peryton Publishing, Loney would advocate for expanding the Tunnels and Trolls product field after the publication of T&T 7th edition, seeking out new authors as well writing his own material for it. He'd also begin crafting rule sets for his specialty campaigns and publishing them. Both Lea and Loney assert that Peryton Publishing isn't actually about publishing anything, but "bringing gamers to the table." They name authors and artists that they have worked with since the company's creation as proof of this. They also point out the places that they go to game with other role-players to find people as passionate about the hobby as they are.

Their on-line club is Peryton Gamers, where Lea and Loney and other game masters arrange for video conference-based game sessions for various role-playing systems.

TAG System

To avoid any conflict with Rick Loomis with demands about T&T publications, also a bit uneasy about James L. Shipman's, Shippy, claims that he was in charge of the future of T&T, TAG was developed. "I was especially not found of Outlaw Press's release of "T&T: Sixth Edition," states Loney. TAG (Tom's Adventure Game) was two six-sided dice based and flexible. Also so that he could write and publish his works "Imp Hollow" and "Mount Loki". It was a set game rules for role-playing that could be used with a variety of settings without much modification.

TAG would go on to used for role-playing scenarios set in the pulp world genres of Westerns and Penny Dreadfuls. This Wildly Heroic Adventure Pulp WHAP! material would be played at Flying Buffalo's RPG conference in Scottsdale, Arizona in 2008. A standing ovation by the players at the end of the session, would catch some attention by even the original T&T crew in the conference room. Ken St Andre would contribute to the next year with "Cowboys vs Dinosaurs."

In 2010, the system would be written into Loney's already existing campaigns: Crawlspace (horror) and Spacers (science fiction).

2015 is when the TAG system was modified into the Red Bat System.

Crawlspace

Crawlspace is Peryton Publishing's horror role-playing game. "A Call of Cthulhu campaign gone awry." Claims Tom. "Players got tired of making up new PCs. I decided that were actors and could die and come back in the 'filming session.'"

The initial version of Crawlspace used "TAG" rules. This was to incentivize the players to keep track of their experience points.

In 2014 they published a new version using Tom's Action Card Kit ("TACK") system, where playing cards are used for randomization instead of dice. The GMs in the Crawlspace sessions noticed that most of their players weren't all that concerned with role-playing conventions like experience after playing out some pretty horrific scenarios. Playing cards got rid of the bookkeeping until after the games were done. Then both the GM and Players could sort things out.

• One scenario of note is "TerrorHog" published in 2022. It is a Crawlspace Event and brainchild of Lea. "The movie Hogzilla with Joe Bob Briggs in it became her Lord of the Rings for a couple years." says Loney. "Sadly, we couldn't name the work after it, but I think our title isn't bad." It was brought up the streamed TV show The Last Drive-In in 2023 by none other than John Irving Bloom, the actor John Irving Bloom, himself during a showing of Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre.

Add more info here from the Twitter links and add tv screen shot image from Robin:

• https://x.com/Shudder/status/1527902007427600384
• https://x.com/badtechno/status/1545813186863136768

Qalidar

(Mention the Qalidar line of products and the published novel.)

Tunnels & Trolls / Monsters! Monsters!

(List of products under these two product lines, including early years collaborations as well as M!M! Buzzard's Gulch products.)

Product Lines

• Spacers
• Red Bat System (aka "New TAG")
  • Wobble
• TACK System
• TAG System

Periodicals

Peryton publishes Elder Tunnels, a role-playing game magazine that features scenarios, stories, and other content for Tunnels & Trolls, with content by Peryton Publishing staff, Peryton Gamers, Ken St. Andre, and was officially "Trollhalla Friendly," meaning it was an approved product for the Tunnels & Trolls line.

External links

• Peryton Publishing Home Page

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Elder Tunnels was a role-playing game magazine created by Tom K. Loney and Christina Lea and published by Peryton Publishing.

Content

The first seven issues of Elder Tunnels focused on the Tunnels & Trolls ("T&T") role-playing game system during the time after T&T 30th anniversary (7.5th) edition was published by Fiery Dragon Productions in 2008, and before Deluxe edition by Flying Buffalo was published in 2015. At the time, Peryton Publishers had permission from Flying Buffalo to publish materials compatible and for use with T&T.

The most current three issues moved away from T&T and went into other gaming systems. Some were derived from T&T and others totally different. Monsters! Monsters! as presented in Thessally Chance's Buzzard's Gulch saga. Jerry Teleha's modern action rules for T&T-style play Stay Alive. Quick-Ass Games' Ian Engle contributed a scenario as well. Peryton Publishing's own game systems, such as Crawlspace and Spacers, authored by Tom K Loney and C.L. Evans respectively, popped up as well. "This would be advantageous," according to Loney "Things were changing in T&T with the death of (Richard) Loomis."

After the sale of T&T in 2021 to Webbed Sphere, that company contacted most of the independent producers, asking them to sell their products to Webbed Sphere or remove them from sale on various digital platforms such as DriveThruRPG. Many of those publishers, who previously had publishing arrangements with Flying Buffalo, would longer reference or publish content for T&T. Peryton Publishing chose to remove the T&T name and brand from their previously published materials and not use the game name or content in future publications, including Elder Tunnels."

During its run, the magazine included contributions from Tunnels & Trolls' creator, Ken St. Andre, as well as independent writers of T&T material produced in cooperation with St. Andre and/or Flying Buffalo, such as Brian Penn, Michael Eidson and David Crowell, as well as other game designers such as Scott Malthouse who later went on to join Rebellion Unplugged to design Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age in 2026. As for Elder Tunnels itself, Loney says, "It's not over, just yet. That said, the magazine's title is a bit dated as we're not doing T&T, or even Monsters! Monsters!, material anymore. 'E-Tunn' might just blend into a new gaming magazine as the 'Weird Fantasy' section."

Publication history

Peryton Publishing released 7 issues of Elder Tunnels between 2010 and 2012. After a hiatus of seven years, it produced 3 more issues between 2019 and 2021.

Reception

In October 2011, Scott Malthouse, one of the staff writers of Elder Tunnels, noted in his The Trollish Delver website the release of the Halloween 2011 issue of Elder Tunnels is "packed to the brim with awesomeness."

Thomas Grimshaw, in his Alchemy Gaming Blog, reviewed the premier issue (Winter - Spring 2010) of Elder Tunnels in July, 2012, admitting up front "Peryton Publishing now has 6 issues of the Elder Tunnels zine under its belt and, in my opinion, they just keep getting better and better," before analyzing the individual adventures in the first issue:

The first issue was a little hit and miss from my point of view. I absolutely loved the "Wuthering Depths" adventure written by Tom K. Loney. It had depth and an atmosphere that really drew you in as the GM reading over his notes. Stephen Butka's effort, "The Sorcerers Chimney" however left a lot to be desired."

In August 2012, Grimshaw favorably reviewed the Halloween 2010 issue of Elder Tunnels:

Balancing horror and high-fantasy can be a difficult task. Even in surreal, pan-dimensional warp spaces like the many worlds of Tunnels and Trolls it's a delicate balance. Many of the classic tropes have already been explored in depth by most gamers, either through the classic fiction that most of us will have read or, through popular culture.... Pick it up now, read through it within the next week and, your next session can really bring some bite to the table. Not only will the players not be expecting you to run such a scenario but, to their credit, the two GM adventures included in this issue don't read like horror at all... Until your players are already up to their necks in it that is.

Game designer and editor Dan Hembree of The Lone Delver Games, writing in his web blog on October 26, 2012, "The Lone Delver", complimented the Halloween 2012 issue: "This is their annual Halloween issue, and it's a good one," and "[a]t only $5.99 for the pdf it's quite a bargain."

As of June 2026, several issues of the magazine have earned Copper Best Seller rank at DriveThruRPG.

External links

• "Elder Tunnels". http://www.perytonpublishing.com/elder_tunnels.htm. 

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