(TFT) Is extra memory 'corrective' or 'inflationary'?

[Michael Taylor <MichaelTaylor1@compuserve.com>]

>>>>>>>Also if you make it very hard to learn everything
>>>>>>>you assure that there will be a need for parties
>>>>>>>and cooperation.  If TFT is not broke, why fix
>>>>>>>it?

Personally, this is how I feel. TFT encourages specialization and
discourages 'jack-of-all-trades'. I think this is more appropriate to team
oriented play and makes for better roleplaying. You are encouraged to
'think on your feet' to get better, rather than 'aquire more stuff' to get
better. You are also encouraged to be part of a team. 

>>>>>>> First if you read many biographies, you 
>>>>>>>will come across many people who had many more
>>>>>>>talents than they could get with any reasonable
>>>>>>>IQ.  They were highly skilled but not super
>>>>>>>geniuses.  

I dont think this is very accurate. TFT allows alot of things to happen
'under the wire'. I think this is as it should be. Having a game mechanic
for every niggling thing that's ever happened to a person or every book
they've read is tedious and unecessary. 

The line between when someone is using a 'default' and when it is actually
a 'talent' is pretty flexible. So I think for every case where you could
say a person had "this many talents" you could just as easily say "Well,
they only did that once", "Tthey got lucky" or "Well they're just smart
enough to be able to pick that up - doesn't mean they have the talent". I
think its perfectly fine for "knowledge" of the character to be seperate
from their game mechanic talents. 

>>>>>>> Steve J. seems to think that he had gone
>>>>>>>too far with TFT. In GURPS, there were a host
>>>>>>>of small talents that made up a thief which 
>>>>>>>had to be bought separately. I think that he
>>>>>>>went too far the other way with GURPS. 

Again, in this case, I also think this analysis is flawed for one simple
reason. SJ didnt have a "choice" about evolving TFT. He was legally
prevented from "evolving" TFT. 

If he had - while I feel certain he would have made some changes, those
changes made to GURPS arent *necessarily* the EXACT changes he would have
made to "advanced TFT".  

>>>>>>>         I've said before that I feel a weakness
>>>>>>> of TFT is that all powerful characters tend to
>>>>>>> get medium high to high attributes in all 
>>>>>>> categories and that tends to make characters 
>>>>>>> feel the same. Various people have suggested
>>>>>>> that with strong enough role-playing, it won't 
>>>>>>> matter and I agree. However new people learning
>>>>>>> TFT may not be strong role-players.

This seems strange. "New people learning" TFT are unlikely to run into
these "all powerful characters" aren't they? 

And it seems to me that if they DO run into these "all powerful/high level"
characters, they aren't likely to be looking at their character sheet are
they? (Which for TFT are boring for any character!) 

Arent' they much more likely to hear the stories about the characters? And
in that sense be inspired to role play far more than looking at how
intersetingly different their character sheets are?

I picture new players looking over two high powered characters sheets and
say "Hey?! These guys are almost identical!" And then the players
laugh....."Not quite! Here's what I've done and here's what he's done". I
dont want new players saying "Wow! You've got Master Armoury 5! I can't
wait till I get that poweful!"


>>>>>>> By making it more relatively easy to pick
>>>>>>> up talents, instead of attributes, characters
>>>>>>> should be more differentiated, which I feel is
>>>>>>> a good thing. 

Personally, this 'differentiation' seems to me to be a bad thing. Specially
because the character is differentiated by the acquisition of stuff. In
other words, if this becomes big factor of the game - it will tend to
become a goal (espeically for these new players who are not yet strong
role-players). 

TFT allows the acquisition of talents and attributes to be so trivial and
boring as to be 'invisible' to the roleplaying. At that point characters
are distinquished by the "legends" that surround them.

TFT is the next step up from "Free Form" roleplaying. And personally, I
think that where the most roleplaying and the least rules
lawyering/munckinism occurs. 

To me, its the difference between "My character has Advanced Fencing and
Courtesan" and "My character was the one that started the fire in Bodington
and stayed as a guest of the Troll King for a year." If there is only
"Master Theif" then I'll bet we're much more likely to hear the later types
of stories than the former. 

>>>>>>  If memory was to be cheaper there would 
>>>>>>be the tendency to say "we need Thief Level 3
>>>>>>talent 'cause I want a REALLY good thief and 
>>>>>>everyone is a Master Thief now." This is not 
>>>>>>good, but I feel there are worse things. 

I cannot IMAGINE anything worse happening in a role playing game. 

Avoiding this is EXACTLY the reason that I like TFT. This just doesn't
happen. Characters have far more interesting things to do and making *this*
kind of acquisition the motivation for PCs will lead to some very
munckin-like PCs. 

>>>>>>  In summary, in the campaign style that I
>>>>>>like to run, the basic TFT rules don't cut it.
>>>>>>Therefore I feel that adding a bit more memory
>>>>>>is not inflationary, it is corrective. 

In summary, I personaly just wanted to formally take the "other side" view
that it is largely an 'inflationary' problem. More "stuff" does *not*
typically lead to better roleplaying. 

Making the rules take place in the 'background' of character motivation
seems to allow the players imaginations to become more involved with the
"role" than the rules. 

>>>>>>That said I think that there are lots of ways to add more
>>>>>>memory to TFT that won't work very well.

That said, I also allow "adjIQ" which allows more 'knowledge' points
WITHOUT changing the balance of characters that choose not take that
option. 

I also think that if a GM wants to allow "additive" rules that allows extra
IQ points for their particular campaign I think that's fine. It allows us
to both share rules additional talents and specializations without breaking
the 'universality' of TFT (I'm thinking of 1/2 or 1/4 point talents or
Extra IQ Point type talents). 

Its only the 'wholesale' changing of existing talent costs that I think
changes TFT to too many 'non-corrective' ways. 

In other words. If we agree that Knife is a 1 point talent - then YES,
Mimic IS a 2 point talent! And I think the balance of the costs is well
worked out. It's board-game simple and its board game balanced. I would
"trust" much whole-sale tinkering to be as precise as origonally worked
out. 

>>>>>>Comments are welcome!

You asked for it! ;P

Hope I wasn't repeating myself too much, but I wanted to give as
well-thought out a counterpoint as this 'point' was intelligently and
succinctly made (and better spelled!)

Thanks!
Michael 
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