(TFT) Yet another old curmudgeon who plays with old things...

["Neil Gilmore" <raito@raito.com>]

Hello everyone,

I started playing Melee/Wizard back when they first came out, while I was in
high school. We played a lot of small battles of various sorts during lunch,
and I worked up a bunch of campaign rules that I'd be embarassed of now.
Then I got AM, AW, and ITL when they came out, and TL, and a bunch of the
MicroQuests. To this day, I still haul out the campaign every once in a
while and run something. Pretty recently, I ran some friends through
DeathTest and OrbQuest, and will probably begin the campaign again. They're
all pretty good role-players, so running them through MQs is just a way of
getting them used to certain mechanics.

I also wrote one of my own MicroQuest-style programmed adventures.

House Rules? Not that many, except that you can buy Fencing for any of the
basic weapon Talents. Often, though, a player makes me make up a ruling on
the spot. HTat'sa one of the things I like pretty well about TFT, it's more
rules for making rules than anything else. Figure out which stat, how many
dice, and what modifies it.

Well, I do use a 13 metal monetary system, and pretty extensive rules for
gems and jewelry. Gems have a base price and size, and flaws with size and
severity. Makes Mending a pretty popular spell.

As for the campaign, I took what was in the stuff I had and ran with it. The
Thorsz runs Ardonirane, along with his Council of Thirteen (wizards, and I
did this well before OQ, which I'll probably figure out how to fit in...).
Ardonirane sits between the southern edge of the Auric Mountains and the
sea, basically straddling the only viable land trade route between the west
and the east. Immediately to the east are the Red Plains, inhabited by
nomadic Orc tribes. Further east are the Old Countries (think Europe), and
this is where I placed Dran. The west is the really wild area, with all the
more R.E. Howard-like locales.

I use some of the Citybooks to flesh stuff out, along with the usual bits
and pieces I've done over the years.

As for Ardonirane (which most characters start off in), it's pretty well
stratified into a few sections based on social class. The Palace is cut into
the southernmost mountain peak. Just south of that is the really high-class
neighborhood where the nobles live, surrounded by a stone wall. No one owns
any land there, though. The Thorsz grants (and revokes) leases on it. The
next ring around that are the middle-class neighborhoods, surrounded by a
log palisade. There's the cleaner lower-class neighborhood, and the Pitwash
down by the docks where the seedier types hang out. These have earthworks
around them. To the northwest is Soldier's Round, where the mercenary
companies camp. The earthworks are patrolled constantly. There's a fair
amount of theft and such, but not much violent crime.

The Thorsz and his wizards came into the area (which was very wild then),
tamed it, and founded the city. That was 435 years ago (isn't Youth
wonderful).

The Thorsz makes the greater part of his wealth through taxing goods into
(and out from) the city. There's a trade road that cuts through the middle
of Ardonirane, walled off, with 4 gates. One to the east and west, one to
the south (the docks), and one to the north (the marketpplace). Everything
passing through a gate pays a toll, except the north gate (improves trade
within the city). Nobody complains much, though, because the Thorsz troops
keep things pretty safe for quite a ways in every direction, though for some
reason caravans never seem to be able to make it over the mountains...

Lots of politiking and intrigue there, but it's also a good base for
starting things up, as it's the crossroads for most of the world. Not lots
of magic items, because finding someone to make them isn't all that easy,
and getting the books is pretty difficult, but finely-made stuff is more
common. Much more common are chemists and alchemists.

Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com

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