[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: (TFT) Why not GURPS?



At 02:50 AM 9/12/03 +0000, John J Hyland wrote:
-- pvk@oz.net wrote:---------------------------------------------
...
---------------------
I've had much success with
running games without even trying to teach new players the rules. I can
just ask them what they want to do, and immediately translate it to the
game system. Of course, I had 10 years of GM experience (2-3 in GURPS)
before I realized I could do this.
------------------------------------

I've done that for grade school kids who wanted to learn AD&D (a long time ago) but in TFT and GURPS character generation is an important part of the game (and the fun). And GURPS has a steeper learning curve.

True. Though characters the GM makes (or helps to make) for the players can also work really well. I've seen players have a lot more fun when I just assign them an existing character from the current game situation, compared to when they make their own character.


------------------------------------
once you learn and
get used to it, it's not bad, at least to me. However I have to remind
myself I've been gaming so long that some of my capacities, tastes and
perceptions are unusual.
----------------------------------------

I'm sure your right, once you get used to it, those 5 rolls and 6 calculations per swing become second nature. I just don't have the desire for detail and complexity to want to get there. But if I did, GURPS would likely be my choice too.

Plus all that rolling would slow down my big melees, and they are my bread and butter. And I may have mentioned this already, but I really hate disadvantages.

It does depend on the players. However your 5-roll/6-calculation example is quite exceptional. Usually it's either one roll (a miss), two rolls (a hit and a successful defense), or three rolls (a hit, a failed defense, and damage), which isn't much more than TFT's one (miss) or two (hit and damage) rolls. I suppose it takes a little longer than TFT even after you get used to it, but I tend to relish the added interactions, rather than seeing them as an obstacle. Each GURPS melee also tends to play out uniquely (even a replay of the same encounter) with weapons and bodies often scattered all around, while in TFT they seemed more predictable and often had a relatively set "battle line" where both sides Engaged each other - a lot of that results from the TFT Engagement rules, and the side-based turn order (GURPS has figures of both sides moving throughout the turn).

PvK
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"