(TFT) TFT: a slow start (ab-1)

["Jay Carlisle" <confused3141@hotmail.com>]

My first monster.....

I've been doing allot of stuff about structures lately and I've been asked 
about a abstract combat system deally that I've played around with. First I 
wanna make a observation. Next I have this guy I'd like for y'all to meet 
and then I can tell you how to play with armies without having to buy a 
bunch of miniatures or even use a diffrent set of rules. But like I said the 
first thing I wanna do is to talk about 'Gelatinious Cubes'. Let's make up 
some facts about our cube creature.

Size 1 Cube Creature:
      Height = 1; width = 1; thickness = 1
      Cross Sectional surface area of face = 1 square
      Weight = 1 pound
      Weight lifted over its head = 10 pounds
      It can lift 10 times its weight over its head.
      Pretty strong - ten times its weight over its head.

So we've got a little guy that can slither around the basement of my new 
castel and keep the floors pretty clean. This little guys not gonna be much 
good for the big boulders that some of you guys magical construction 
companies are leaving behind, (why can't y'all get your people to clean up 
after themselves) not to mention if any of those pesky adventurers start 
pokeing about. Let's start growing this puppy.

Size 2 Cube Creature:
       Height = 2; width = 2; thickness = 2;
       Cross Sectional area of face = 4 squares
       Volume = 8 cubes
       Weight = 8 pounds
       Weight lifted over its head = 40 pounds
       It can now only lift 5 times its own weight over its head.

Ummmmmmmmmmm, this rots. Can we all see where this is going?

Size 10 Cube Creature:
       Height = 10; Width = 10; Thickness = 10;
       Cross Sectional area = 100 squares
       Volume = 1000 cubes
       Weight = 1000 pounds
       Weight lifted over its head = 1000 pounds

How bazzar. Of course this assumes changing size proportionately, and I 
don't even wanna talk about if there were bones involved. Proportional 
growth also has a certian minor advantage as well. Classical art set the 
proper hight of the human form at eight heads. Couple that with a weight and 
as a GM I can now have a much better idea of how much it would cost to have 
the 5'9" 180lbs knights field plate adjusted to fit the 5'4" 150 elf. 8.625" 
head unit for the knight, 8" head unit for the elf. Not a huge gap for 
chainmail. I'd guess it'd be a problem for field plate.

It's a nifty little ratio though huh? The implications for STR are obvious 
but what about shrinking? Ya think it works both ways?

Another way of looking at all this is to ask what are the fundamental 
elements of a game? What are the minimum number of rules before it's not an 
RPG anymore?

Jay
"I knew it wasn't mine anymore when we got to the point that other people 
started explaining it."
D Arnsen
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