(TFT) Engaging in TFT ---> rats

["rsmith" <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi all,
	In my campaign people can say, "he does
not engage me!" and just move away from enemies.
However the enemy gets a free attack with either
bonus damage or bonus DX.  If you survive the
attack, well, I guess he DIDN'T engage you after
all!

	I've never posted the rules because they
are fairly complicated. However the paragraph
above summarizes the theory behind them. It
makes combats more fluid and much less predictable.

	I think that your rat rule (nuisance critters
engage you when the reach your attribute total)
would work well.  Surely at some point the physical
mass of rats would start getting in your way
(assuming that they are working in an organized
group).  Perhaps if the enemies are organized they
need your att. total, if they are attacking randomly
they need double or triple your att. total.

	Since rats can not reach into adjacent hexes
they CAN'T hurt you from one hex away. Therefore
they can only engage you from one hex.

	My theory...
	Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: tft-owner@brainiac.com [mailto:tft-owner@brainiac.com]On Behalf Of
David Michael Grouchy II
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2001 2:42 PM
To: tft@brainiac.com
Subject: Re: (TFT) Weapon Multiplier --> Repost


>From: dwtulloh@zianet.com
>
>Armed one-hex figures?  I never noticed this before .. what
>about characters with UC talents?  For the purposes of this
>paragraph, I'd consider them armed.

Dan,
   Strange enough that its in a different section, but there is more on
engagement.  It's two pages before the previously quoted engagement section
of page four, and appears in section two, page two, of the GENERAL
DISCUSION.  I think it shows how central engagement is to the combat system.
   Here are the first three paragraphs of that section.  A little long I'm
afraid, but it does end with that memorable bit about a knight being engaged
by a thirteen year old girl.  Under the reasoning presented there I think a
figure with unarmed combat would constitute the threat of being
"endangered".
   Its easy to miss the fact that unarmed pesants watching a fight do not
engage combatants who happen to step in one of their front hexes.  Gives new
powers to the drop weapon spell.  "poof, he drops his weapon and I'm no
longer engaged!"
   At the end, after this rather long section, I do have a speculative
question.

  "2 TURN SEQUENCING AND OPTIONS
     Combat takes place in turns, representing five seconds each.  During
each turn, each figure may execute one "option" from the list below.  Each
option consists of a movement, attack, defense, or other combination of
options.
     The options available to a figure depend on whether it is "engaged" or
"disengaged."  An ENGAGED figure is one that is adjacent to an armed enemy
figure, and in one of that figure's front hexes.  See below for diagrams and
more details.  A figure of three or more hexes is not considered truly
"engaged" when the figures engaged with it take up 1/3 or less of the space
the larger figure does.  A single 1-hex figure does not engage a giant, who
occupies 3 hexes.  The lone man IS engaged - but the giant may proceed as
though the man were not there, trample him, etc.  Two men don't engage a
7-hex dragon.  Three men, or one giant, DO engage a 7-hex dragon.  And so
on.  When in doubt, count the hexes.  If the smaller figure(s) occupy 1/3 or
fewer of the hexes that the larger one(s) do, the larger one(s) are not
engaged.  Situations are possible, for instance, where three men can engage
two giants - because each giant, individually, is engaged by two men.  The
fact that one man is counted twice is unimportant.
     The concept of "engaged" is used to identify figures who are actually
involved in combat, and standing next to an enemy who endangers them
physicaly.  Thus a single warrior cannot really engage a large dragon, the
dragon can just walk past him if it wants to.  A figure with his back or
side to you does not engage you; he can't hit you.  As a general rule, a
figure engages you if you are in one of its front hexes.  In certain cases,
the GM may 'declare' that a figure is not engaged - i.e., a knight in plate
mail is not endangerd by an unarmed thriteen-year-old girl, so he is not
engaged by her, but may walk through her front hexes as though she were not
there.  And rats, wasps, etc., do not engage a figure, even when they
attack."
     AM page 2-3

     So the question is this.  How many rats does it take to engage an
armored knight?  I know most players balk at the very idea of being engaged
by nuisance creatures.  It seems that a swarm of rats should be able to
reach critical mass at some point though.  Ten, twenty, or maybe thirty two?
  Would anyone object to this optional rule, even if it threatened their own
character?

     NUISANCE OPTION:  A figure is engaged by small 1 ST nuisance creatures
when the total number of creatures in the figures hex exeeds their attribute
total.  The figure may then be engaged, knocked down, even forced back.

     David Michael Grouchy II

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