Re: (TFT) Healing spells in TFT.

[ErolB1@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/3/2003 8:35:21 PM Central Daylight Time, pvk@oz.net 
writes:

> My experience with games that have healing spells (especially unrestricted
> GURPS magic, and other GURPS games with even heavily-restricted healing
> magic), is that it tends to remove a major interesting element of risk
> from gameplay, and reduces many elements of decision, and reduces the 
> possible consequeces of dangerous behaviour.

My experience matches yours, except on one point: I find the "major element 
of risk" to be *boring* rather than "interesting." 

For me, having reduced consequences for dangerous behavior is the whole 
*point* of playing RPG's: I play to vicariously experience doing things that I can 
not, dare not, or ought not do in real life. Being "realistically" screwed 
over while doing these things is counterproductive, to my way of thinking. If 
that's going to happen, why should I bother playing at all?

> Also, players who actually enjoy roleplaying "good guys who always win"
> will of course enjoy the healing. The popularity of the CRPGs I mentioned,
> pop drama, and so on attest to the appeal to that sort of thing. I tend to 
> think though that TFT fans may have other interests.

Many do; I don't. 

I've noticed (and I think I've commented before on it) that many if not most 
of the list *like* the deadliness of the TFT rules, whereas I personally 
consider that deadliness to be one of the few *flaws* in the system - something to 
be worked around and/or house-ruled away. 

My own solution was to make "natural" healing very fast - fast enough to 
compete with the relatively rare magical healing. I agree that PCs and smart NPCs 
will try to exploit fast magical healing to the max - it would be strange if 
they didn't. But while I don't like the grittiness of realisticly slow healing, 
I also dislike the idea of "magical healing as the norm, at least among PC 
types." So I try to jigger things. 

One thing I've considered, but haven't done, is to make healing potions 
convert injury to fatigue, rather than simply eliminating injury. 

-- 
Erol K. Bayburt
ErolB1@aol.com
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