At 09:00 PM 12/27/04 -0500, ErolB1@aol.com wrote:
I use to think that myself, but I've been convinced otherwise. When it comes to real fights - especially life-and-death fights - I've been convinced that such results are the rule rather than the "surprising exception." Or rather, they're only the surprising exception in those cases where an *fatally* injured person (negative St, in TFT terms) fights at full effectiveness for a brief time before dropping dead.
Doesn't this kind of depend on how you interpret the damage scale, though? In GURPS, there is a negative damage scale. In by-the-book TFT, negative ST is dead. So perhaps what you are thinking of as the negative ST point, is what by-the-book TFT would define as down to ST 3 or less. No?
Seems to me that in real life, either thing can happen. The limited violence I have seen first-hand has included examples of both extremes. More often I have seen people get incapacitated or at least reduced in effectiveness by hits that probably were not even a single point of TFT damage, but then almost everything I have seen was more like roughhousing or brawling.
I think it also affects both balance and tactics to remove the damage effects on DX. In general I think it would favor the stronger, armored, and very-hard-hitting characters. Also it would encourage continuing to fight when nearly dead. I suppose if the damage system is changed so ST can go negative without dying, then that's another story... again, it's more like redefining the damage scale - saying people can take more damage or weapons can do less.
Also, another element I miss in TFT (compared to GURPS, for instance) is the ability to use one's skill to reduce the chance of getting hurt... except by hitting first and causing effects, two big ones of which you're suggesting removing.
I still haven't read the proposed rules, and Erol, I don't remember what your house rules are. Just commenting from the original TFT perspective.
PvK ===== Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com. Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body "unsubscribe tft"