(TFT) introduction

["Patrick Keleher" <patkeleher@hotmail.com>]

Hi,
    I tried to join this list a few weeks back but apparently that attempt 
didn't take, so here's another go.
    My first experience with RPGs was in'74 -- a first edition of D&D.  I 
didn't understand the rules but liked the idea.  D&D was soon followed by 
EPT, a much neater world than that of D&D.  The Fantasy Trip provided the 
first set of roleplaying rules which made sense to me, and I really liked 
the solitaire microquests.  The truth is I rarely played the various RPGs, 
instead I read the rules and modules, as a sort of metafiction, and 
daydreamed about playing.  Then, around ten years ago, in a fit of 
housecleaning, I threw or gave away all the RPG material I'd accumulated 
over the years.
    Last Fall, one day, I wandered into a local gaming store, Crazy Egor's, 
where I found a rack displaying old Metagaming's various microgames.  I 
bought Melee and a couple of microquests and was hooked again.  While 
searching the internet for other The Fantasy Trip items I stumbled into Ty 
Beard's site and from there to here.  So far I've found all the microquests, 
both Underearths (I've been playing the microquests with rules cobbled from 
Melee, Dragons of Underearth, and the house rules from Ty's site.), Melee, 
about one third of the issues of The Space Gamer which contain tft related 
articles, a few other magazines, Tollenkar's Lair, the Codex and Fantasy 
Master's screen, and all four Gamelords modules.  The most expensive items 
have been the magazines.  (And, I hate to admit, one night when I was way 
too tired to think straight, I decided to CUT the tft articles from the 
magazines in order to include them in my binder notebooks!)  Other items 
have cost between $4 and $15.  And I've filled four binder notebooks with 
material printed from the tft archives.
    Currently I am having fun with Warren Dew's The Crown of Kings.  Has 
anyone else played his programed adventure?  I am particularly interested in 
such homebrewed programed adventures.  I would really love to find copies of 
the microquests from Fantasy Forum, and Forest Johnson's article, 'Minor 
Institutions of Cidri'.  (Oh, and Van Campbell's articles on Barsoom for 
tft, and Howard Trump's 'Making Solitaire Adventures', and Harry White's 
'Coming of Age in Cidri', and...  Let's be honest, I want it ALL!)
    Here are two IQ7 talents I've found useful:  Nothing is more annoying 
than to be all hepped up for a good fight only to have your opponent roll 3 
or 4 and cut your favorite character down in his/her prime, so...
    Luck.  Cost: 2IQ.  allows a character, once per adventure session, to 
ignore the worse effects of a critical hit against him; ie treat an 
opponent's roll to hit of 3 or 4 as 5 -- still does damage, but not double 
or triple damage.  Luck does not count against fencing skill.
    Grace.  Cost 2IQ.  Can be applied once per adventure session.  Gives a 
player character the panache to turn a total flub into less disastrous 
results -- treat a roll of 17 or 18 as 16.  A warrior will still miss but 
does not drop or break his weapon.  The quality of grace is probably of more 
use to wizards; let the player improvise a description of how the spell's 
energies are misdirected, as long as the results are not to the caster's 
advantage.

                              Respectfully,
                              Pat Keleher
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