Re: (TFT) new development Heroes and Other Worlds. interesting port of Mel/Wiz

[Jeffrey Vandine <jlv61560@yahoo.com>]

The Quarterstaff thing was from JME's version of the rules done a decade or
 more ago.
Not sure why he included it in, except that if you look at the talents, usi
ng a quarterstaff well doesn't seem to actually be represented in any way.
  Also, as a data point, I note that the only fight that Miyamoto Musa
shi ever lost (according to Japanese legend, anyway) was with a farmer wiel
ding a quarterstaff -- so yeah, someone who was real good with one might ve
ry well knock your sword out of your hand, basket hilt notwithstanding.
All in all, I think Brandon did a pretty good job of melding the two basic 
sets with a couple of changes to help smooth the worst inequities in the sy
stem as originally published.  If you don't like his changes (many of 
which actually originated in SJ's "rewrites" as Advanced Melee and Advanced
 Wizard), then I'd say you can safely ignore it.  There's no actual ne
ed to dis the guy for trying to put something coherent out there for people
 to look at.
As far as copyright violations go, two points -- one, it seems pretty well 
established at this point that you can't copyright a game mechanic, only th
e specific language used to document it (and even that requires some pretty
 fancy lawyering since there are only so many ways you can say "roll three 
six-sided dice" in the English language), and two, a copyright which is und
efended is worthless, and if HT were going to defend this one, he would hav
e done so when Dark City Games started publishing ten or more years ago.�� So accusing Brandon of "copyright infringement" is pointless unless or 
until the copyright holder chooses to do so.  Given the fact that Bran
don released his version for free, and that the items in question are not n
ow in print and therefore earn no money for the Copyright holder which Bran
don's version would cut into (creators don't get royalties on copies sold o
n e-Bay or Amazon), I see no inherent problem here.  Now, of course, y
ou could contact Howard and tell him what an evil thing C.R. Brandon has do
ne, but frankly I don't think he'll much care -- he seems about as disinter
ested in this entire subject as it's possible for a single human being to b
e.
Finally, carping is all well and good, and we all do it from time to time (
certainly I'm as guilty as any of us here), but if you don't like Brandon's
 effort, try one of your own.  I personally LIKE seeing everyone else'
s take on this old classic.  I note in passing that I don't really lik
e the way Brandon's Heroes and Other Worlds does the "Endurance" thing (onl
y heroes have endurance?  That would be a shock to the Balrog, I'm thi
nking), but so what -- he put out an idea and I can use it or not as I see 
fit.  Frankly, EVERY version of TFT is a homebrew version these days, 
so the more ideas I see, the more ideas I have to play around with in my ow
n "TFT" campaign.
Now this is not a personal attack on Jay or anyone else, but frankly, I'm a
 bit surprised by the negativity being expressed over what is, let's face i
t, a pretty good attempt to do this thing.  Let's try for a more posit
ive note in our critiques instead of lambasting someone for at least trying
 something....

      From: Jay Carlisle <maou.tsaou@gmail.com>
 To: "tft@brainiac.com" <tft@brainiac.com> 
 Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2015 10:19 AM
 Subject: Re: (TFT) new development Heroes and Other Worlds. interesting po
rt of Mel/Wiz
   
Mounted, ships, and flying I've combined into Vehicles (basically Car
Wars rooting much like GURPS at least the 3rd ed I think... WWII etc.
with the combat stuff folded in with Super Powers, fire arms (ah la
Old West) cannon, etc that also encompasses much of siege offence on
the construction side which also covers not simply buildings but
transportation and infrastructure like Transport Tycoon and "tile"
improvements like the Civilization series... till V anyway.
Religion is a rehash of a Ma Barker article on the same and I have a
root "campaign" for example purposes and a framework to expand from
but didn't mess with "Campaign Guides".
Honestly this rehash is meh to REALLY? it seems although I've not
perused it in depth so MAYBE I'm missing the work for all the cut and
paste spattered with the occasional "house rule" or mechanics tweak
(some to the point of reverse torque which is hell on the flux
capacitors causing rule balance to go all cattywumpus. Disarm My saber
with a basket hilt with a quarter staff? Somebody was way too
impressed with some Robin Hood Little John dust up and missed Daffy's
THRUST, HO, PARRY, DODGE bit for one thing.




On Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 9:59 AM, Jay Carlisle <maou.tsaou@gmail.com> wrote:
> Interplay 2, p. 5
>
> The following were requested from designers:
>
> TFT Mounted Combat Microgame
> TFT Ship Combat Microgame (see Interplay 6, below)
> TFT Religious Rules Module
> TFT Buildings Rules
> TFT Flying Microgame
> TFT Campaign Guides
>
> Interplay 3, p. 4
>
> DRAGONSLAYER (possibly became DRAGONS OF THE UNDEREARTH, in the LORDS
> OF THE UNDEREARTH boardgame vein)
> HIGH NOON (TFT western RPG, see TFT: WILD WEST in Interplay 2, p. 13)
> IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE (TFT superhero RPG)
> SUPERTANK series (HELLTANK and HELLTANK DESTROYER only two done)
>
> Interplay 3, p. 16
>
> AGAIN, DANGEROUS AIR-EATERS (3rd game)
> BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE AIR-EATERS (4th and final game)
>
> Interplay 6, p. 1-2
>
> TFT ship combat module along the lines of RAMSPEED
> STARLEADER: WARSHIPS
> CONQUERORS OF UNDEREARTH (combination Microquest-Microgame)
>
> Historical Notes:
>
> Games Research Group
>
> With respect to Games Research Group, I was able to find the following
> information (in Interplay?):
>
> Games Research Group was the games design branch of Metagaming; the
> two were separated by incorporation on Jan 1, 1982. Only four items
> were released by GRG.
>
> Gamelords
>
> I was lucky to get more information on Gamelords. In private
> correspondence dated 03JAN1993, Walter Hunt
> (hunt@inmet.camb.inmet.com) said:
>
> ...do you have the two books we (Gamelords) did after Howard cancelled
> the contract? The other two pieces of the TFT series were altered to
> become City of the Sacred Flame and Within the Tyrant's Demesne.
>
> With respect to Gamelords (and the fact that I thought they had
> mutated into Digest Group), Walter replied 05JAN1993:
>
> I thought Gamelords became Digest Group...or am I mistook?
>
> Mistook. What was left of Gamelords was to be transferred to Tadashi
> Ehara (Chaosium) in 1986, but he was supposed to pay some money for us
> to write the rest of Haven, as well as some other stuff. No money, no
> supplementary writing. Glub glub glub, lost beneath the waves.
>
> The two main principals of Gamelords were Rich Meyer and Kerry Lloyd.
> Rich and I are close friends and have co-operated on several works
> under the name Adventure Architects; we wrote the original MechWarrior
> system. Kerry died in 1988.
>
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 9:55 AM, Jay Carlisle <maou.tsaou@gmail.com> wrot
e:
>> http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/16/16331.phtml
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 4:59 PM, Peter von Kleinsmid <pvk@oz.net> wrote:
>>> Hmm. On first browse, it appears to be Melee & Wizard in one book, with
 art
>>> and diagrams mostly copied from Melee, Wizard, and a bit of art from th
e
>>> full books (AM, AW and/or ITL) almost verbatim but with a few minor det
ails
>>> different, and a little added stuff that's ok for reference but very sp
arse
>>> - i.e. sample monsters/historical fighters listed as stat lines. A bit 
of
>>> new (?) art. Measurements in feet rather than meters. A tiny bit of AM
>>> content (great sword, trident, warhammer, quarterstaff, staff of power,
>>> tower shield).
>>>
>>> A tiny bit of new ideas. I noticed Quarterstaff offers disarming at -4D
X
>>> (!), longbow nerfed to 1d+1, small axe called a war axe and robbed of
>>> throwing ability, a few new not-really-explained bestiary entires,
>>>
>>> Usable enough if someone really can't find a copy of the actual book. B
ut if
>>> you're going to copy the rule text and some art, I'm not sure how this 
is
>>> any less of a Copyright violation than just distributing a PDF of the f
ull
>>> book. Maybe it's an attempt at fair use? Also there are some inconsiste
ncies
>>> introduced, and a few details are left out, such as:
>>>
>>> Minor nitpicks: Unconsciousness at ST 0, death at ST -1 instead of 1 an
d 0.
>>> Spear in example does 1d+2, but on weapon table does 1d+1. HT version o
f
>>> polearm rules. I think the wording of the body and pit obstacle rules m
ay
>>> have drifted a bit. Dwarves get MA 8 but no axe bonus, so they're just 
short
>>> humans with a ST bias. Bestiary doesn't show how many hexes the big mon
sters
>>> are (let alone the hex shape/facing, which is vital), and doesn't expla
in
>>> the equipment of the human entries, nor breath vs claw damage for drago
ns.
>>> DX adjustment list contradicts armor table for plate armor.
>>>
>>>
>>> At 11:04 AM 8/11/2015, Joel BoardgameRpger wrote:
>>>>
>>>> http://heroworlds.blogspot.com/2015/07/swords-spells.html#comment-form
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> >>> Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
>>> Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
>>> "unsubscribe tft"
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"


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