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Re: (TFT) Rules for the newbies



From: JodyM529@aol.com
Subject: Re: (TFT) Rules for the newbies
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 12:31:51 EDT


Jody writes of Davids posting:
> <<copies for "their own personal use". In this vein the Mnoren Librarium
> was
> started.  Till it re-opens this following is all I can offer.>>

The Librarium was (is?) a great idea. Hands down the best answer to the sort
of chattel I posted.  I've got nothing negative to say about the library.

Thanks for support. I (or was it Giovanni) started the Librarium exactly to handle this sort of thing. I was not going to part with my hard won copies. I thought "What can I do to help in this situation." The Mnoren Librarium was founded. There may be some risk that some-one might check it out just to rip off the books (as my wife cautioned me), but if I let that worry stop me, then I am not contributing to the TFT effort and without risk there is no experience points and I won't go up another attribute. HMMM, I seem to have digressed...

I have started many groups who now play TFT. I need many books for this as you will see. Sorry for the following history, but I think it does show that if the books were more in circulation and players beat down the OH NO of 'another new game', it could spread.

I started playing in about 1977. I got pretty involved with it in 1978-79 with Jeff and I swapping DM rights. Years passed and other games came and went. (I would have liked to have played more than just one game of RuneQuest.) It turned out that just the two of us played TFT intensely, no one else. I have a suspended game where I am running Jeff through a converted QUESQUETON and he is running me in a suspended TOLENKAR'S LAIR. Oh well.

In 1984 I moved to LA, about 30 miles away from my friends. So I got new gaming buddies. But they played D&D. So I played D&D. But I kept saying that the only game I RUN is TFT. Soon Big Jim and Jim the Sarecen and Mark and Jeff were playing the occassional TFT Miniatures Roleplaying.

The big change came though, when Jeff's new (not quite so young) wife brought along her 4 sons that it started cooking. Brian, Richard and Kevin (Ian was already out of the house) played D&D. I played TFT and was learning GURPS. I started teaching them the wider aspects of wargaming by putting down troops of characters for them to battle. They liked the ease of it. I started calling them The Riverside (CA) Group.

Big Jim and I created our first Dungeon structure an underground Alchemy College. We got ambitious, using 4x4 plywood and 1x4 to make rooms, hallways, stairs, traps... 2 levels it was. And I fully stocked it because I am a miniatures collection freak and have enough furniture to stock a small ... well... Dungeon. As I said, I also got ambitious because I also decided this was to be the debut of GURPS for all of us. I ran it like TFT for the most part, but everyone (especially rules lawyer Richard) helped clarify what we were doing.

That converted the boys to GURPS (sorry Michael, but they saw a whole new realm that D&D didn't fill). However, I found that I couldn't handle RUNNING GURPS. So I decided to go back to TFT and convert what I wanted from GURPS.

I ended up running more and more TFT miniatures battles. Richard and Kevin fell out, but Brian and his friend Dave took to TFT miniatures. They started buying figures to field an army. We play TFT at cons and in a campaign I am running for them.

At the gaming conventions, I ran into a group from San Diego while playtesting my game FANTASY CHESS. The loved Fantasy Chess and started coming up with expansion sets. The RPG they played was D&D. I introduced them to TFT. Dave moved to San Diego for school. Turns out he became best friends with THE SAN DIEGO GROUP. I ran them in the Double Dungeon, this time as TFT. They were amazed. Even now they talk about waiting at a door, having it open and shining a light through the opening to see whats inside, until someone steps in and the ceiling comes off. That was in the mid 90's. Now they play GURPS with zest. They love GURPS. However, I bet had TFT been available to them, they would be playing that.

Finally, I got my nephew to play. He was a D&D player in the '80s. I got him playing TFT and he broadened out to VERY MANY other games. (He likes PARANOIA especially). Well, he moved to Sacramento a couple of years ago. And a few months ago, he got his group of players up there to play in a TFT campaign he is going to run for them.

And this isn't including the TFT games I run for anyone at the game conventions. I know the rules. I have a cheat sheet typed up for them. I bring all three books. I set the layout up with terrain and miniatures. I provide all the stats. I put up a sign saying :"The Fantasy Trip - Dwarves of NavaRhun" and I recruit players to sit and play an easy game to learn. And I am pretty successful at it.

So yes, I would say that lack of materials is keeping the game from being widely known, but in the circles of your own sphere, it can spread!


Regardless of what anyone thinks of me or my postings if potential players
cannot get hold of the rules they cannot play the game.

Jody

Most of us have ranted about the problem. If it wasn't for the ranting, I wouldn't have known about all the stuff David summarized or half the stuff that was creatively brought forth in the copyright discussions. So I don't think bad of you 'bout this.

BTW does the library have a copy of Tollenkar's Lair?

Yes, I have a copy and it is in excellent condition. As I said, I am mid-Tolenkar's Lair, so I feel I cannot look at the rulebook until my character is finished with that scenario (however many years of hiatus.)

The Librarium will be open soon.

Hail Melee,
John Paul


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