RE: (TFT) Re: TFT Digest V3 #479 Kiraz

["rsmith" <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi all, Justin,
	Kiraz sells for $19.95 on the Columbia games
website.  I got it for less than that, but it came
to about $20.00 after shipping.

	Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: tft-owner@brainiac.com [mailto:tft-owner@brainiac.com]On Behalf Of
Justin Grabowski
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2003 8:09 PM
To: tft@brainiac.com
Subject: (TFT) Re: TFT Digest V3 #479


The two numbers represent the # of possible guards and the percentage chance
of them being at that location.  I roll for each guard.  Harnmaster is worth
the buy.  I think it is the most accurate combat system available.  TFT is
the most fun though.  Crossby's world is well thought out but you cannot be
an expert on everything.  This world has an intense following from all
around the world.  I have corresponded with Finns, Australians, South
Africans, etc... about this game system
and world.  BTW I believe I originally bought Kiraz (new) for about $15 to
$20.  Yours in Cidri and Harn and Sanctuary, and Haven, et al,    Justin

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 00:03:50 -0700
From: "rsmith"
Subject: (TFT) RE: Dwarven Mines --> Harn Kiraz the Lost City: a review and
call for help.

Hi Everyone,
I bought a copy of Kiraz on ebay and
just finished reading it. First of all, I
would like to say that $20.00 US funds is
way too much to pay for this supplement.
It is 24 pages long (not counting covers &
a one sided map in center of the booklet).
Despite the small size of the book there
is a fair amount of white space. A couple
maps are duplicated, so you pay twice for
the same material.

The maps are filled with special
symbols which there is no key for. (One
reason why I find the white space so
aggravating.) Does anyone know what is
the little sword symbol with two numbers
near the hilt? It always points north but
I have not been able to figure out what
the numbers are. There is a symbol all
over which is a circle with the left
side white, and the right side black,
does anyone know what this is?


The maps are nicely done. Someone
said that the Harn maps were done by a real
cartographer and it shows. Lots of fine
detail is given on the maps.

There still are problems. In the
Ushet mine opening map, they give us an
outside map with contours. However these
contours show that most of the under
ground mine complex is about 10 meters
above the forest & steam.

Mr. Robin Crosby also has no idea
how ore is turned into metal, and then
how the metal is worked. He has the ore
storage, milling, concentrating, smelting,
liquidation furnaces, drying furnaces,
cupellation furnaces, leading, drying,
and refining of metals all in one room!

His ore cart system of rails would
work well if the mine has exactly one ore
cart.

There are some good ideas. For
example, he measures the height of various
levels from the water table which seems
very sensible to me. (I would put the zero
contour at the lowest point waste water can
leave the mountain, as the water table will
vary from location to location. However on
such a small map, his system works fine.)

The biggest problem for someone who
wants to run an adventure in a Moria like
adventure is how tiny the 'city' is. For
the richest dwarven city in the world which
had a 7000 year history, it feels like a
smallish village. For example the area
mapped is 47 meters across. By shouting
down the main shaft, you could be heard by
everyone in the city.

(Admittedly he says there are unmapped
residential areas north of the map and
encourages the GM to do a bunch of work
mapping out more areas.)

The story of how the dwarven city was
destroyed is fairly interesting. But (like
many would be Tolkiens) he throws around
a 1000 years here and a 1000 years there
like confetti. Most fantasy writers have
no conception of how much history happens
in 1000 years. If you replaced a 7000 year
history with a 700 year history you would
get something that would sit better with
me.


All in all, I found the supplement to
be too small and too expensive. It feels
like something that was banged out quick to
meet a deadline. There are a few good ideas,
but anyone who wants Moria should sit down
for a weekend with some graph paper. I bet
that you would come up with something more
interesting.

Rick
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End of TFT Digest V3 #479
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