Re: (TFT) Converting Dungeons and Droolers...

[Joe Hartley <jh@brainiac.com>]

"Anthony Merlock" <amerlock@execpc.com> wrote:
> Oooh!  Flame-bait!!! Yipee! I haven't been in a good flame war in days!

Heh - you should have been on rec.games.board.marketplace last week!

> Quite frankly, how much role-playing is required for Death Test, DT2, TSD,
> Orb Quest, Grail Quest, or even Tollenkar's Lair?
> 
> It's all in how you play it.  Some people can't role-play to save their
> lives.  Some people hate the thought of dice determining the outcome of their
> character's actions at all.  I can run both types with both TFT *and* D&D,
> and as long as the two don't mix beyond their tolerance ratio, things go
> well (assuming people's irrational prejudices don't get in the way).
> 
> My point?  I guess it would be that the player's and the GM define the game,
> not the rules, and it's far easier to avoid the rules and get to the
> role-playing if everyone knows the rules well.

Ah, the crux of the biscuit.  The game module, be it Tollenkar's Lair,
Grail Quest or Death Test, rests in a large part on the people involved,
but especially on the GM.  The game you're playing is nothing more than a
framework, and people shouldn't be afraid to add or remove as seems 
appropriate.

I played GrailQuest with Brett a while back, and had a great game.  part
of that is that the game lent itself to RP, but also because I wasn't afraid
to embellish where I could.  One of the best encounters was a random "on the
road" encounter that I turned into a blood feud between Brett's wizard and
a crazed person from out of his past.  For a moment or two there was some
real uncertainty as to whether the new character was a nut or whether Brett's
wizard (who was an NPC hired along the way) was really a murderer.  Brett
role-played it very well, with his knight staunchly defending his hireling's
honor, and it went great.  It was a lot more fun than "You meet 3 orcs who
want to rob you."

> Or, you could run them thru Death Test/DT2/Orb Quest and bore them to death

There's not much to these 3, that's for sure.  I can see using them as a
small part of a *much* larger game (in the same way TL is set in the
larger setting of Dran), but it takes a lot of work on the GM's part.

BTW, did you know TL was originally going to be part of ITL?  Apparently
HT thought that ITL was getting too big, and that it would benefit by
having a module immediately available and that a separate module meant
more $$$, so it was split out.  There are some things in each book that
don't make a lot of sense unless you use them together.


======================================================================
       Joe Hartley - UNIX/network Consultant - jh@brainiac.com
     12 Emma G Lane, Narragansett, RI  02882 - vox 401.782.9042
Without deviation from the norm, "progress" is not possible. - FZappa

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