From: gusar@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (Sean A Reith)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Survival of the Trolls (was Re: Swords of Sharpness and ...)
Date: 30 Sep 1992 18:38:41 +0800
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: uniwa.uwa.edu.au

boelter3945@iscsvax.uni.edu writes:

>In article <1992Sep28.212012.6975@Princeton.EDU>, tao@potato.princeton.edu
>   (Terry Tao) writes:
>> Brings up another interesting question.  What DOES kill trolls apart from
>> fire and acid:: what about

>   Well, here's my opinions on how I view trolls..

And mine...

>old age -- No, as old age is the dying of cells, which they could regenerate

I agree, old age shouldn't kill them (ignoring phycological problems,
but trolls are usually viewed as pretty dumb/mindless).

>death spells -- Yes, as most death spells snuff out the life force itself

Agreed.

>suffocation -- Hmm, this would deprive cells of oxygen, and even though they
>               could regenerate, they would die almost as quickly, and if
>               kept that way for a long time, all the cells would die, so
>               sure, why not.

Assuming the cells need oxygen, then they shouldn't be able to
regenerate them without it either.

>poison -- Depends, most poisons just cause damage, which could be regenerated,
>          so I would say no, not unless you have a real wicked poison of some
>          sort...

Trolls fail a save involving con?   Nahhh...

>freezing to death -- Nope, just would put the troll into suspended animation

This seems to be the general opinion (mainly I think because everyone
thinks it is a cute idea), though I would rule it would, anything that
killed every cell would kill the troll (IMHO), and freezing would rupture
them.  Bye bye troll.

>psychic attacks -- Sure, the troll regenerates its body, not its mind

I disagree, you yourself say they regenerate from a fall, but the fall
is just as likely to splatter their brain matter as any other cells.
Furthermore, the trolls regeneration can be viewed as the state that
babies developing in the womb are, they can (re)create limbs from the
DNA print (hey, I'm no genitic expert, so excuse me if this is rather
simplistic, the concept still hold (I think)), so why not brain cells?
Sure, the new brain cells would not contain any memories etc etc, but
would still work (even if at the level of a newborn).

Though, if they _couldn't_ regenerate brain cells (a) they would be much
easier to kill, and (b) it would solve the "if you cut a troll in equal
halves, which half regenerates" question (given the assumption that only
the largest segment regenerates)....

>disease -- Doubtful.. I don't think the disease would get the chance to take
>           hold, with the trolls regeneration ability

Agreed.

>falling long distances -- Nope, that's just damage, which the troll will be
>                          able to regenerate as well

Agreed.

>petrifaction -- Nice way to hold the troll indefinitely, but won't kill it,
>                unless it fails its system shock roll

Agreed.

>                                        John "Nightwind" Boelter

I think the "can't regen from acid or fire attacks" ruling is rather
limited and stupid, why not?  Surely the dead material can be shed, and
new cells regrown in their place.  Better would be a set of rulings,
along the lines of:
(a) Anything that destroys all the cells kills the troll.
(b) Cells need energy to regenerate, and can store enough energy to
    regenerate three times (pick a number, any number), but these
    new cells won't have any stored energy, and cannot regenerate
    unless more energy is introduced into the system (eg: eating),
    thus, if the troll can regenerate to the point where it can
    eat, then it will totally regenerate, other wise it will
    (eventually) die.

The number (3) in part (b) is rather small to make the example simple,
it would probably rather large, and can be fine tuned to make the
regeneration as nasty as you want...  Note, that the regeneration can be
used to either maintain the current state for as long as it takes for 3
generations of cells to die, or to create new cells to replace destroyed
ones, cells in the middle probably can't create new ones...

Thus, trolls would eventually starve to death, and dicing them extremely
finely would kill them (though perhaps adjacent collections of cells could
merge, so the diced blocks would need to be separated...).

Comments?  Additional 'rules'?

Enjoy, be free,
Sean.
-- 
Sean A Reith aka Lynscar             | gusar@uniwa.uwa.edu.au
C programmer and net.addict at large | sean@gu.uwa.edu.au
Obquote:                             | reith_s@kultarr.cs.uwa.edu.au
 "I have a cunning Plan" - Baldrick  | sean@his.own.really.fast.machine (RSN)
Organization: Junior, Math/Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA