Re: (TFT) d20 TFT

["Ty Beard" <tbeard@tyler.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Matt Picone" <matman@mysticworks.com>
To: <tft@brainiac.com>


> > >Anyone with better adjectives?
>
>  Challenging (-4)
>  Tough (-8)
>  Difficult (-12)
>  Very Difficult (-16)
>  Near Impossible (-20)
>
> Excellent thread by the way. Hope to see more elaboration on your
> summary. I'd been thinking of giving the d20 a go myself...

Well, it is a heresy. But I have finally decided after 20 years of tinkering
with TFT that the 3d6 bell curve is the problem. There's simply not enough
distance between average and excellent for a long campaign. Consider -- a 36
point TFT character can have ST, DX and IQ of 12. On an average roll on any
attribute, he will succeed about 75% of the time. And 36 points is
relatively low level for a TFT character (500 ep).

One way to mitigate this is to implement GURPS style parry rolls. No thanks;
life is too short. Another is to decouple the attribute from the 3d6 roll
ala Champions. This loses too much of the flavor in my opinion. Hence, the
decision to use a d20.

But using a d20 system, you'd need a 45 point character to get to the same
performance. Quite a bit of difference, it seems to me. This simple change
has 4 advantages in my opinion:

1. It is an easy retrofit. No re-rating of attributes, no changing of
modifiers, etc. 10 is still average.

2. It preserves the TFT system's great strength -- starting characters are
actually capable.

3. It gives far more room for expansion.

I'm looking forward to trying it out.

--Ty Beard
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