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Re: (TFT) week 2



Ray,

I was "converted" from D&D to TFT about 25 years ago or so. I had been out of gaming for years but got back into when a group of friends invited me to play D&D. I was stunned by the complexity. I always enjoyed playing wizards in TFT but found that running a D&D wizard gave me a headache. I'm not trying to bash D&D but it's the way it hit me. Love TFT wizards; hate D&D wizards.

I always loved playing a wizard because my GM usually ran a game with only a couple of players. This allowed things to get "personal". When my wizard went up against the bad guy wizard, it was a real fight between GM and me. It was great fun. It was always a challenge to judge just when to commit your last bit of ST in wizard combat.

I tried introducing my friends to TFT but it went over like lead balloon. Part of it was my fault in not preparing them properly for it. I might try it again.

Because of the way that we played TFT, we never got real fond of our characters. Characters didn't die every time we played but death was expected to some degree due to the nature of the adventures and the uncertainty of TFT combat. A character would get whacked and it would take a few minutes to draw up another one and work him into the story. In the D&D group, the guys were much more invested in their characters. The characters were very well developed in stats, abilities, etc... So much work is put into their characters, I can see why there is an emotional investment. I'd certainly rather lose a TFT character to a D&D character.

Oh well, just my .02.

Aidan


----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Rangel" <ray.rangel@cox.net>
To: <tft@brainiac.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 7:56 PM
Subject: RE: (TFT) week 2


Forgive me if I speak out of turn. I'm quite new to TFT but not so new to
RPGs and gaming in general (30+ years). I joined this list to learn from
others about the TFT system.

Let me share with you the reason that I chose to pursue TFT. I have been
playing a lot of D&D over the past few years and more recently, WFRP. What
I've found is that I really have come to appreciate simple game systems that do not require calculators, computers, Mentats, and piles and piles of rule books to play. The character sheet that I use for TFT fits on a 3x5 card. I want to play a game, not the rules. I have become committed to this concept. So much so that a few weeks ago I invited some gaming friends over and gave
them all of my D&D 3.5 collection. It was a stack of books that was about
four and half foot tall. By way of comparison Advanced Melee, Advanced
Wizard, and In the Labyrinth isn't even an inch.

You can, I think, understand my concern when people start talking about
rules for joules. Did I leap from the frying pan into the fire? I came into the TFT fold to escape the RFES (Rule For Everything Syndrome) that plagues other systems. I'm seeking sublime simplicity. Who cares how far a Claymore can penetrate ballistic gel.my Conan like character slices and dices without
regard for the unscientific (albeit, highly entertaining) antics of TV
personalities on Mythbusters.

When I GM and an event isn't covered by the rules occurs, I'll make it up as
I go along. I don't really need to know how many joules are represented by
one ST. All I need is general idea, or feel, for what's reasonable in order
to make a judgment which is consistent with the heroic PCs, NPCs, monsters
and the game as a whole. As a player, that's what I expect the GM to do.
After all, how "real" can a game be that includes dragons, goblins, and
elves?

So now we come to the meandering thoughts of Jay. Jay, I mean no offense,
but I just don't understand the value of much of what you have posted.
Cutting through the "stream of consciousness".err.style of your posts and
looking at the "data" that you present, it means little to me as an RPG GM
or player. After reading through the various books and adventures, I have to say that there is little attempt to be true to real world physics. There is approximation, not precision, and then only to the extent required to allow
a fantasy game player to suspend disbelief.

The bottom line is that I'm afraid I have to agree with Rick. Furthermore,
your statement that you use the list as an on-line notepad demonstrates a
disregard for others. My impression was that the purpose of this list is to share and communicate with others about TFT, not that it is to be used as a
personal scratch pad.

I'm certain that you have valuable contributions to make. Please organize
your thoughts and ideas before posting them. Not doing so and making
everyone else do it for you, is inconsiderate in the extreme and doesn't
communicate them well, if at all, to other readers. Please stop telling us
that you aren't a writer. The moment you hit the "Send" button, you are a
writer regardless of your disclaimer. You cannot claim no responsibility to
readers while you writing a message which you fully expect others to read.

So, all that being said, would someone like to carry on a conversation about
TFT? I'm curious to see what characters others have played, what their
starting characteristics were and why. I'd like some of the experienced
players to share nuggets of wisdom about playing solos adventures. How
'bout, since I'm new to the game, where the pitfalls and gaps are in the
rules. Does anyone have a home brewed adventure or campaign they would like
to share?

Ray Rangel
ray.rangel@cox.net
http://xraysvision.blogspot.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: tft-admin@brainiac.com [mailto:tft-admin@brainiac.com] On Behalf
Of Jay Carlisle
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 1:30 PM
To: tft@brainiac.com
Subject: (TFT) week 2

Progress report
(note Today is 9th making this report 1 day late)

>
> Schedule for week 1, Jan '08
>
> Scan Images from "Places of Worship, 150 years of Latter-day Saint
> architecture".

This did not get accomplished.
In my defence, I had more trouble finding an Image converter than I
anticipated so I purchased another cheep scanner (3 in 1 that won't
print, Lexmark) and low and behold! It'll do decent OCR so Wizard is
now scaned. This is a significant bonus as I figured to be typeing on
this for ?, weeks?

>
> Brush up at least one chart, table, etc. in Plain Text TFT.
>

I did the Job Table
Also the above work on Wizard.

> Edit at least one Wiki page.

Well...., yes.
I did tidy up some of my thoughts on IQ but,...
I need to do a little better this week.

> Prepare presentation post "Laborer".

Well it appears I'm a slick little so and so.
I HAVE prepared Labor.
I'm on my THIRD preperation now.
LOL
After reading some of the feedback, I went back and took a long look at
what I'd written and decided that explaining ME in essay form is no
better than explaining ME of the top of my head.
So I'm pulling my campagne as an example and trying for a focus on
principals w/o long, rambeling discriptions.
Again, I'm not a writer so this is difacult and frustrating for me.
Sorry if/when I go a bit cookoo.

> Prepare speculative post "Intelligence".

Oh bloody yes.
I got THAT done.
I recieved an english lesson in return instead of much thought on IQ,
but any feedback offered honestly deserves to be answered with honest
consideration.


> Start pulling together a Bibliography of reference material.

This suprises me.
I'd forgotten this one.
Yet it seems I didn't because I've actually gotten quite a bit done on
this.
I've even pulled a page on a couple of styles of reference.
I think I'll write it up in Esperanto...

> Look again, for the umpteenth time, at how to structure this
material.
> Is there a clearer method to present this material?

Rewrites!
Aparently I was AFRAID of this!

Okay so Week 1 in review?
Eehhh
At least it's something.




Schedule for week 2, Jan '08

Scan Images from "Places of Worship, 150 years of Latter-day Saint
architecture".
Buildings are coming up fast, I'd like to have Images available.

Edit at least one Wiki page.

Check feedback and prepare a speculative post in response.

Post Labour.

Prepare presentation post on Cities.

In PlainText tidy up the Spell List.



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