RE: (TFT) Is it an RPG or really a Tactical RPG?

["Ray Rangel" <ray.rangel@cox.net>]

I'm mostly a historical miniatures gamer. When I moved from a big city to my
present location lost my miniatures gaming club too. At that time there was
game store here where I found some people who introduced me to GURPS, which
I enjoyed. Later I found a great DM who had a small group who were willing
to help an old guy learn some new tricks and we played D&D 3.0 without any
miniatures or grid. It was great! That group, as groups sometimes do,
drifted apart. I later joined another D&D group playing 3.5. That was a big
disappointment. There were no puzzles, no role playing except for the bare
minimum required to get to the next fight which turned out to be on grid
with miniatures. It was awful. Not because of the board game aspect (which
is fun in its own way). Rather it was terrible because all of the overhead
of hideously complicated role playing rules which are totally unnecessary if
you're just going to jump from one board game encounter to the next.

That's where TFT comes in. Since TFT makes no pretense at being anything
other than a basic RPG layered on top of a simple board game, it
accomplishes exactly the same thing as described above, but without $1000+
worth of source books. What's more, since it is basically a
combat-interlude-combat game, it lends itself to programmed solo adventures
(as does another of my favorites--Tunnels & Trolls). I must say that I
thoroughly enjoy these games solo games and I hope to GM a group game in the
not too distant future either using TFT proper or the similar rules
published by Dark City Games (see my blog for more information on DCG). I
also quite like Tunnels & Trolls and its derivative Mercenaries Spies &
Private Eyes for the same reasons.

By the same token, I also enjoy "pure" role playing games that take place
entirely between one's ears. I think I've settled on Hollow Earth Expedition
and Savage Worlds (and its spin-offs like Pirates of the Spanish Main) as my
choices for that type of game. Again, they are mostly self contained and
simple yet "meatier" than TFT or T&T for imagination based role playing
campaigns. Again, it's not that TFT can't be used as a "pure" role playing
game, it's simply that it's better at what it was designed to do.

Of course this all goes with the standard disclaimer that these are my
personal preferences and opinions; your mileage my vary.

 
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 Todd Roseberry
> Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 1:34 PM
> To: tft@brainiac.com
> Subject: Re: (TFT) Is it an RPG or really a Tactical RPG?
> 
> Ah, must have misread what you wrote. I understand what you're saying
> about
> using props/grids. When I first played D&D, combat was entirely played
> out
> in the imagination- no miniatures. Some friends introduced us to
> miniatures
> (they were more wealthy and could afford such luxuries). Even when they
> used
> miniatures, they didn't use them tactically like we do in TFT.
> 
> I think my brother has the first edition of the AD&D Dungeon Master's
> Guide.
> A great book in my opinion. I vaguely recall that it had some rules for
> tactical combat using a grid system. We just never used it. The D&D
> group I
> have played with do use a tactical system with miniatures to play out
> combat. They had found the system cumbersome. I introduced TFT to them
> and
> while they found it quicker it was sufficiently different from D&D that
> they
> weren't receptive. BTW, when I got back into D&D I got a copy of the
> newer
> DM Guide and was very disappointed with what they had done to it.
> 
> FWIW,
> Aidan
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ray Rangel" <ray.rangel@cox.net>
> To: <tft@brainiac.com>
> Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 11:33 AM
> Subject: RE: (TFT) Is it an RPG or really a Tactical RPG?
> 
> 
> > You are 100% correct (I'm really not sure what you're disagreeing
> with).
> > Any
> > of these games can be played focused on role playing or combat or
> anything
> > in between. My personal experience is that some lend themselves more
> > readily
> > to pure imagination while others lean toward using props. D&D (pre-
> 3.5),
> > GURPS, Traveller, Masterbook, Tunnels & Trolls, etc. all have combat
> > systems
> > that *can* use miniatures or boards, yet they support combat played
> out
> > totally in the player's imagination very well. TFT, on the other hand,
> is
> > a
> > lot more oriented toward playing out combat on a hex map (in this
> respect
> > it
> > is much like D&D 3.5 and it's grid). Please don't read any goodness or
> > badness into this. There are simply different styles of play and all
> have
> > the potential for enormous amounts of fun...at least they do for me!
> >
> >
> > 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 Todd Roseberry
> >> Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 9:28 AM
> >> To: tft@brainiac.com
> >> Subject: Re: (TFT) Is it an RPG or really a Tactical RPG?
> >>
> >> Ray,
> >>
> >> Can't say that I agree. I was "converted" to TFT from AD&D way back
> >> when. I
> >> must admit that most of our TFT games in the old days were combat
> >> oriented
> >> but so were all of our AD&D. There as no real difference in the way
> we
> >> played. As a teenager, we didn't "role-play" so much. I guess we
> weren't
> >> sophisticated enough...or maybe we were just blood thirsty
> barbarians,
> >> power-mad wizards and thieves with politician like greed- why cut a
> >> purse
> >> when you can cut a throat too? We made characters we liked and went
> and
> >> beat
> >> up the bad guys. I stopped playing many years ago.
> >>
> >> A few years ago, some friends of mine invited me to play D&D 2.56788
> >> Player
> >> Choice, etc...ad inifinitum. I wasn't thrilled to play D&D but it was
> an
> >> opportunity to socialize. What I found with these guys was a
> different
> >> style
> >> of role-playing. They really role-played. They've been to some Cons
> and
> >> have
> >> received awards for their role-playing. They've commented that most
> of
> >> the
> >> other folks playing D&D don't role play like them. Most are still
> "line
> >> 'em
> >> up and chop 'em down" role-players.
> >>
> >> I was just thinking some time ago, there's no reason why TFT can't be
> >> role-played in the same manner. It just depends on your style. What
> D&D
> >> gives you that TFT doesn't are all the books with really neat ideas
> and
> >> charts, etc... Even when we played TFT, we'd used D&D books for
> ideas.
> >> We
> >> just like the TFT mechanism better. It really shouldn't matter what
> >> system
> >> you use, you should be ablet to role-play any way you like.
> >>
> >> My $.02.
> >>
> >> Aidan
> >>
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Ray Rangel" <ray.rangel@cox.net>
> >> To: <tft@brainiac.com>
> >> Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 6:10 AM
> >> Subject: RE: (TFT) Is it an RPG or really a Tactical RPG?
> >>
> >>
> >> > Your impressions are spot on. It all began with simple board games
> >> named
> >> > "Melee" and "Wizard" then evolved into an RPG. Of the three core
> >> products,
> >> > "In The Labyrinth" was the last and layered RPG elements on top of
> the
> >> > board
> >> > games and tied them together. That's why, it would be virtually
> >> > impossible,
> >> > IMHO, to play TFT as a pure (or "true") RPG. The essence of TFT is
> the
> >> > encounter on the hex grid with just enough role playing to get from
> >> > encounter to encounter. This is true, of course, of any RPG. The
> >> others
> >> > that
> >> > you mention focus of the role playing, rather than the board game,
> so
> >> an
> >> > encounter can be played without any physical representation at all.
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