Re: (TFT) armies and healing

[Peter von Kleinsmid <pvk@oz.net>]

At 01:41 AM 9/15/06 -0400, Erol wrote:
> As for PCs latching on to items - *of course* they will. They're
> professionals. Professionals will have professional-grade gear. And in a 
> RPG with magic items, those items *are* "professional-grade gear."

Naturally.

Of course I wasn't saying everyone should use the rules we came up with to 
suit our tastes.

However we were unhappy with the effect of magic items on gameplay, and the 
way it ended up emphasizing toys, wealth, shopping opportunities, theft, 
and character abilities defined by things they owned, yet were practically 
inseparable from (always wear rings, sleep in armor, carry magic weapons 
everywhere at all times). After playing situations where ability and 
cunning were vital, and then having characters get their hands on items 
which made them able to massacre whole squads of people with relative ease 
and little risk, and without using any particular tactics, even though they 
could never do that without their magic items, it was making the games less 
interesting for us.

The breakdown rules we came up with didn't stop magic item use, or make it 
not professional gear. It just made added uncertainty, gradual consumption, 
and reasons not to use them all the time even when they were unnecessary. 
Real professionals value their best equipment but they also ration its use, 
and use the right tool for the job.


> And even leaving out the aesthetics, "works great - until it breaks"
> mechanics in general tend to be problematic in terms of balance. The 
> result is usually something that's been generally described as 
> "overbalanced" or as a "fragile" or "unstable" balance.

That's certainly something to watch out for. Especially if (as in your 
case) you are happy with the infinite use magic items. We ended up liking 
the results of our system pretty well. It also added some details we found 
interesting, like magic items being more valuable depending on who 
enchanted them, and hanging onto worn out magic items as unreliable but 
sometimes useful devices.


PvK
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