Jody,It may be true that it costs $150 for a set and this for a game that's been out of print for 20 years.
However, it is not this usergroup who are driving up the prices. I would say that amongst us we have about 30 legally printed copies each of ITL, AW & AM. This out of maybe 10,000 printed of each. And we !play! the game. I have a feeling that the 'Collector' is the culprit and would raise these prices regardless of whether we were here or not.
The best way to play the game (and I'm refering to TFT, not the 'Collectors' game) is to borrow a copy, study it intensely, figure out how to retain the information when you return the borrowed copy and then PLAY. Then if you ever get the chance to get one of these out of print booklets, it becomes a joy instead of a I MUST HAVE THIS ONLY COPY IN THE E-BAY.
Scarcity of manuals is one of the prime reasons for its still being a cult and not wider played. However, we who play are mostly "Lawful-Good" and cannot quite condone violating the copyright by posting the books on the web or just bulk xeroxing them and selling the xerox.
And Howard could care less if we are the last survivors of The Fantasy Trip and it goes down in a glop of melted dice (otherwise he would have something to say to us). Any negotiations for the purchase of the TFT rights were tried by members of this group and failed. Heck, now the way for Howard to make money on this and still not sell the rights is: Sloooowly sell any of the remaining 100 sets or so he may have stashed at $100 each on e-bay. That'll make him over $30,000.
The Librarium will soon be open and I think Marty will be the next patron. Hold tight Marty.
Hailmelee, John Paul
From: JodyM529@aol.com Subject: (TFT) Rules for the newbies Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 07:03:25 EDT Fellow listers: Ya know it really is a funny thing how a defunct game system tends to staythat way when the average inquiring joe has to either (1) surf ten differentused game websites for six months or (2) shell out upwards of $150.00 on e-bay just to acquire a copy of the core rules. Do you guys think this might somehow contribute to the present situation where there are only a handful of TFT players nationwide? Does anyone know what Howard Thompson thinks? Just wondering in Cidri, Jody ===== Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com. Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body "unsubscribe tft"
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