Re: (TFT) A little moralistic digression...

["John Paul Bakshoian" <hailmelee@hotmail.com>]

> From: JodyM529@aol.com
> Subject: Re: (TFT) A little moralistic digression...
> Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 22:47:42 EDT
>
> In a message dated 6/15/00 3:08:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> hailmelee@hotmail.com writes:
>
> << Why you subscribe or why you lurk or why you want to participate?

> JPB:
>
> Actually, this is an example of why I subscribe AND lurk BUT rarely
> participate.  I'm afraid I just haven't the stamina to personally
> duke it out in the endless debates.

Lurking is fine.  I lurked the archives (read them straight thru) for four 
months before I was ready to subscribe and participate.  Some of us like to 
rant and rave in between our posting of rules and variations.

> For all that tho' I have to say I've seen some
> incredibly good rules ideas posted on this list (which is why I
> CONTINUE to subscribe and lurk).  It's just that I hate to see the  good 
> ideas all locked up.  To say that this whole idea of
> creativity versus theft in the fantasy gaming genre is a complex,
> multi-dimensional issue is easily the understatement of the year.
>  I could blab on for about 10 or so pages on that topic alone but
> to save anyone actually reading this all the associated eye
> strain I'll just confine it to a few comments.  What the hell is true
> originality?  Is it possible (or even desirable) in this genre at this 
> point?.  I can't recall one idea I've seen printed in any FRPG
> (and I have the obligatory closet full) that I haven't seen printed
> in some form somewhere else.

> I personally think RQ (a more neutral example, hopefully) is an excellent 
> and very imaginative concept.  But is this game original?  Maybe the 
> question should be, 'could RQ have possibly been written before D&D?'   I 
> think the answer is no.

I agree.  It took a group of miniatures players a leap of faith to follow 
their GameMaster from a napoleonics game to a medeival miniatures game set 
up in a very moody castle environment of Blackmoor.  The mood and the 
environment shifted the players attitude.  No longer were they playing with 
troops, they were exploring the bowels of the castle.  Magic and races were 
added to the rules.  One could start personally identifying with the 
gamepiece & stats for it (no longer a troop, but a character.)  In the 
enthusiasm of the play, miniatures might be forgotten as one acted out the 
situation, etc.  It took the miniatures gamers Dave Arneson, Robert Kuntz, 
Gary Gygax and others to explode and alteration game into an industry.

It's not like that's a conclusion I'm really
> delighted with but look at RQ's systems and D&D's and tell me RQ didn't
> 'borrow' quite a bit.  What constitutes a rip-off is really in the eye of 
> the
> beholder.  As far as I know TSR never sued Chaosium but what if , instead, 
> RQ
> first came out in the mid-late 80s when TSR was at the height of its reign 
> of
> terror?  Think Chaosium would have stood a chance then?  Should the final
> arbiter of elusive originality really be the size of your enemy's war 
> chest?
>
> Jody
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