Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

Da Roolz

Glorantha’s most exciting cultural export

Rules devised by Michael O’Brien and Nils K. Hammer, ©1994

Inspired by Chaosium’s RuneQuest supplement Troll Pak, ©1982 and with thanks to John Hughes, the original ‘Bhagwan’

As played at:

  • RQ Con I (1994), Baltimore USA
  • Convulsion ’94, Leiecester UK
  • Dragonmeet ’94, Kiel Germany
  • RQ Con II (1995), San Fransisco USA
  • German RQ-Con ’95, Berlin Germany
  • Dragonmeet ’95, Kiel Germany
  • RQ Con Down Under (1996), Melbourne Australia (action pic!)
  • German RQ-Con ’96, Bacharach Germany (action pics!)
  • Convulsion ’96, Leicester UK
  • Dragonmeet ’96, Kiel Germany
  • German RQ-Con ’97, Bacharach Germany
  • Convulsion 3D (1998), Liecester UK
  • German RQ-Con ’98, Bacharach Germany

Special Coaching Tips by Bhagwan Broobasher, Line Backer of the Bogside Wanderers, Current holders of the Oztralian Trollball Ashes

BHAGWAN SEZ: “Urgghh!”

‘Da Roolz’

1. Trollball is a Rolesport

More than scoring goals or dismembering trollkin, roleplaying is what makes this the sport of Heroes.

BHAGWAN SEZ:
It’s the chants, the insults, the songs, the rubber chickens, the facepaint, the Kyger Lager t-shirts and the random attacks on spectators that make Trollball such a satisfying experience. In Trollball you learn to appreciate the beauty and poetry that dwells in the heart of an Uz.

2. Play begins when the giant referee in the centre throws the trollkin (a rag doll with velcro limbs)

It’s liable to go in any direction – so watch out!

BHAGWAN SEZ:
Please do not eat the live part of the trollkin until after a point is scored!

3. The Game is played at WALKING PACE

When moving imagine you’re SIZ 28, lumbered with a huge gut and weighed down by a rock gizzard still digesting that dwarf from last night. Better still, imagine you’re a Ray Harryhausen Dynamation monster – think of Clash of the Titans, or better still Jason and the Argonauts or any of his Sinbad movies.
Move at several frames per second. And don’t forget to growl a lot!

BHAGWAN SEZ:
Moving too fast results in getting kicked by the giant referee!

4. Any “Palpable Hit” takes out that location

What’s a “Palpable Hit” you ask? In a nutshell, any hit that gives a satisfying THUD.

  • If you get hit on an arm, you drop what you’re carrying (weapon, trollkin body part, etc.)
  • If you get hit on a leg, you fall down, and will have to drag yourself around.
  • If you get hit on the head or body, you’re down and out – you’ll need Healing. Scream a lot.
BHAGWAN SEZ:
To test your weapon, you’ve gotta belt yourself over the head for 3 minutes. If you’re still standing at the end, the weapon is okay to use in the game!

5. Healing

Unless you know a Heal spell, any time you’re injured, you’ve got to get yourself to one of the beautiful Xiola Umbar Healers on the sidelines…

BHAGWAN SEZ:
Get at team-mate to ‘drag’ you, if you can’t make it over to the side under your own steam!

6. The Trollkin Ball

The trollkin is considered “alive” if its head is still on. If it “dies”, a new trollkin is brought into play and starts with the giant referee.

BHAGWAN SEZ:
Australian experience has found that using small humans (eg. 13 year old Magic TG players) proves to be unsatisfactory – Humans are difficult to dismember and it became hard to recruit further volunteers…

7. The Giant Referee

The Giant Referee can punish infractions – real or otherwise – by KICKING the offending player. If you get kicked, you RUN 30 paces in that direction, and then shamble back to the game, shamefaced and angry…

BHAGWAN SEZ:
Hey Spectators!, Don’t forget to pelt those rulebreakers!

8. Magic. Hey, Trollball don’t use Magic!

Corse it does, just don’t let the Giant Ref catch you!
Magic is incredibly simple – each player gets 3 spells on slips of paper. To cast the spell, take out the paper, shout what spell you’re casting, crumple up the paper and throw it at the target. If it hits, the spell works!

BHAGWAN SEZ:
Spells are only usable once, so make ’em worth it!

Spells (write these on slips of paper)

  • HEAL – Restores one Hit Location.
  • BEFUDDLE – Act like you’re on Dreamweed until someone hits you.
  • DISRUPT – Destroys the location hit by the bit of paper.
  • JUMP (self only) – once cast, play stops and the player is allowed to take 12 paces in one direction. Play the resumes.
  • MOBILITY – move at jogging pace for a while.
  • SLOW – move at 2 frames per second for a while.
  • DISPEL MAGIC – Negate effects of one spell (except Heal and Disrupt).
  • COUNTERMAGIC – use if it by an oncoming spell. Negates that spell.
  • RAISE ZOMBIE – turns dead troll player into zombie with insatiable appetite for raw flesh. Ignore ball, attack other players including those on own side! (only have a limited number of these)

Action Pics

photo by Elise Bowditch

Here’s me, striding like a colossus in the centre of the pic, in my role as the Giant Ref at the trollball game played at RQ Con Down Under, held under glorious summer skies in Melbourne, Australia in January, 1996. But note the trollkin-sized player on the right, Wes Nicholson’s 4 year old daughter Su. With some well-placed MGF by the Ref, she was the overall winner in our Last-Uz-Standing demolition derby!

This game featured the memorable chant, “Give me a T! Give me an R! Give me an O! Give me an L! Give me an L! What’s that spell?” In unison came the reply: “We don’t know!”.

For more about this epic match, check out the trollball section at David Dunham’s excellent Glorantha site. David’s site also features a bevy of pics from the German RQ Con ’96’s trollball match, held in the courtyard of the almost stupidly picturesque Castle Stahlek in Bacharach, Germany.

Jörg Baumgartner as the Giant Referee
Kick-off
More Action!
Action!
The A-Team
Xiola Umbar Priestess
Lewis Jardine took these fine photos.

Live Action Trollball is brought to you by
ARGAN LAGER
The troll beer that reaches the parts human beers can’t!

Related Pages

  • An Introduction to Live Action Trollball

1982, Michael O’Brien, Trollball

Page Last updated: 2022-10-24 12:11:39
Glorantha Archive

Return to MOB’s Glorantha page

This page is part of MOB’s old Glorantha Website

Sections

  • Search Tips
  • Current RuneQuest Glorantha Publications
  • RuneQuest Glorantha Corrections and Q&A
  • Catalogue
  • References for Glorantha
    • Gloranthan Canon
  • Gloranthan Documents
  • RPG Systems & Versions
  • Gallery
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • The Grasslands of Prax

    Something to keep in mind about Prax. The grasslands of …
  • Praxian Kinship Groups

    Praxian tribes are divided into smaller kinship groups or clans, …
  • Lunar Resettlement of Tarsh after 1460 ST

    After 1460, large sections of Peloria (especially east of the …
  • The Spread of the Lunar Way

    In the Lunar Provinces, about 26% of the total population …
  • Gods of Fire and Sky and the Lunar Way

    The Gods of Fire and Sky co-exist alongside the Lunar …
  • How Much Land is a Hide?

    So in RQ, a “hide” is a unit of accounting …
  • Agricultural Data for RuneQuest

    Back in the late 70s and early 80s, Greg‘s only …
  • Farming in Dara Happa

    In anticipation of the Fire/Sky Book, here’s a few notes …
  • Farming in the Big Rubble

    There are some 1600 humans in the Big Rubble, with …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Chaosium’s RuneQuest RPG Wiki
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on Discord
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • creating a spirit cult of Fralar
  • Thoughts on running an Animal Nomad/Praxian game
  • Fillable excel RQG character sheets?
  • Where is there a list of temples in Dragon Pass?
  • New on the Jonstown Compendium: Many Suns
  • Secular and religious hierarchies
  • Subcults vs Associated Cults
  • Gorgorma and Dendara's Chess Game
  • Merged deities
  • Elf plant ships and dwarf stone ships

Popular Tags

Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Colymar (Sartar tribe) Contents Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) FRA Furthest (large city) G+ post Gods Wall Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt Jar-eel Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Malkioni pantheon Map Michael O’Brien Mongoose MRQ1 New Pavis (small city) Old Glorantha Q&A Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Photo reference Population demographics Prax (homeland) RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Star Subcult Tapatalk post Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province) Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • Spirit Magic by Cult and Associate Cult

  • ISS1102 Glorantha: Introduction to the Hero Wars (2000)

  • Dragon Pass – A brief outline (2013)

  • Some Fronelan Population And Cultural Details

  • Notes on Fronela III

  • Notes on Fronela II

  • Notes on Fronela I

  • Hon-eel Temples and Shrine

  • Seven Mothers Temples and Shrines

  • Ernalda Temples and Shrines

  • Barntar Temples and Shrines

  • Babeester Gor Temple and Shrines

  • Voria Shrines

  • Ty Kora Tek Temples and Shrines

  • Asrelia Temples and Shrines

  • Maran Gor Temple, Shrines and Site

  • Odayla Shrines

  • Humakt Temples, Shrines and Sites

  • Orlanth Rex Temples, Shrines and Sites

  • Hippoi Shrines

©2025 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme