Re: (TFT) The day the music died

[Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu>]

All,
	This is a really interesting exchange. It prompts me to share my
recent history. I got my daughters (ages 9 and 6) playing. The 9-year-old
*made up a dungeon*, unprompted. The 6-year-old and I made up characters
and walked in. The GM let us have advanced characters to start, and we
prepared ourselves by casting a 7-hex dragon illusion into the field of a
"maintain illusion" item before starting.
	The first dwarf through the door hears voices - the first pair of
fighters waiting to ambush the party. He grins, and runs into the ambush
yelling "'WARE THE DRAGON! RUN FOR YER LIVES, LADS!" at the top of his
lungs.
	The ambushers pale, stammer, throw down their swords, and run. A
turn later, they realize the door is only *one hex wide*, and start back.
Too late, we beat them - but we pull the last blows, capturing them instead
of killing them. They end up springing traps, lugging other prisoners, etc.
for the rest of the dungeon. We had a *great* time - everyone, me the
6-year-old, the 9-year-old GM, everyone. I think they were hearing the
music, and I was about to *dance* to it.
	Then the 6-year-old and I had a practice combat. I pulled out
*rules* tricks like having my wizards jump on her wizards for HTH, "Pinning
a foe", etc. etc. I won. She lost interest.

	Moral is, I think, just what you guys have been pointing to.

Simple rules, well understood by all the players -> easy to concentrate on
role-playing -> good time.

Complex rules -> gotta keep thinking about the rules, not the characters
and situtions -> this is work, not fun.

	Tolkien did not lay out the relative bonuses and capabilities for
Sting, Glamdring, Anduril, and the rest - but he gave them names, clear
descriptions, and personalities. Even more so for his characters. That's
what made him great.

	A corollary, by the way, may be that "the fun possible to have with
the game system is inversely proportional to the number of pages you have
to read to play it". No publisher will ever report this fact (and if true,
it's an *awful* commentary on Gurps....) but it matches my experience.
								- Mark

PS I think the 9-year-old is going to hook the 6-year-old again - we'll
see. We still have to sell off/divide up the loot from the dungeon. And we
cleaned it out completely - the dwarves are thinking of renaming it
"Lindelve" and moving in.
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