(TFT) Heretical notion

["Marc Gacy" <mgacy@maad.com>]

Hello all,

I just recently completed my collection of all things TFT-ish (at least to
my knowledge anyway, except for magazine articles, long way to go there).

The last three things I picked up were Dragons of Underearth, Lords of
Underearth, & Starleader: Assault.

Please excuse/ignore me if this is too familiar or redundant with previous
posts.

I have three threads here. The first thread is
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Has anyone used the Starleader: Assault rules, grafted onto TFT to make an
SF game?

Clearly there would be some work to do, as one of the three SL:A attributes
is emotion which is only used for Morale checks and was going to be expanded
in further games. It is interesting speculate how it was going to be used.

Also ST & DX are rolled into one attribute, Prowess, which they mention can
be split into separate ST & DX values if converting to ItL, which I'm sure
most people would do anyway.

IQ is pretty much the same, although strangely, it determines the max tech
level item a character can use.

They use an action point system for movement and combat such that when it is
the character's turn, the character can perform any combination of movement
and combat actions up to the total number of action points a character has.
Each player starts with 8 AP adjusted upwards due to gadgets (equipment) or
downwards due to combat damage.

The second thread is
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Has anyone ever heard of hidden/lost/bootleg/design versions of Conquerors
of Underearth or other Starleader RPG components?

Just checking.

The third and longest one that inspired the subject heading is:
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My initial impression is that DoE is not nearly as horrible as I had been
led to believe by summaries etc. I have read.

The following is a brief description, for those of you who don't know, of
the booklet content (I won't talk about the map & counters). 

There are two 16 page "modules" in one folded over 8 1/2 x 11 booklet.
The Combat Module and the Character Generation Module.


The Character Generation module covers attributes, spells, talents, and
armor/weapons.
Magic items, non human characters, experience points and creating scenarios
(with a monster table) are considered optional rules


The Combat module is broken into three sections of increasing "difficulty",
really rules additions.

There are three accompanying scenarios in each rule section for a total of
nine scenarios, including a "Bridge of Khazad-Dum" (not called that of
course) that I remember David Miller said he adapted for his Mass Combat
rules.

The Introductory Rules include the basics of the map and counters, movement,
facing and sequence. It also includes direct engagement combat (swords,
clubs, etc.).

The Intermediate rules include primarily thrown and missile attacks, with
creatures, poison & bare handed attacks included as optional rules.

Finally the Advanced rules include Wizards, spells and magic items.


There is no mention of Cidri, which means of course ---- no Prootwaddles!

Sure, it's watered down ItL, but in Interplay 8, Keith Gross describes the
differences between ItL & DoE.

There is one I don't really understand:
DoE characters can be created at any level (I didn't see how that was NOT
possible in ItL) and an accompanying point system to assess monsters,
characters & magic items for scenario generation.


There is a set of changes that can be considered straight simplifications:

Talents, Spells, Items & Monsters are a subset of ItL, with the notion that
it would be expanded (& actually described) later. 

It IS explicitly stated though that there are no longer images/illusions and
invisibility, reverse missiles & teleport are slightly different.

Advantages of great strength simplified (I didn't do a point by point
comparison, but I wonder if it was less simplified than broken up &
described in appropriate sections).

Weight carried uses the same rules as Melee, instead of ItL.


Now the combat mods can be considered either a simplification or a new
combat system altogether.

No HtH, Shield rush, Flight during combat, or DX penalty for taking 3 or
more hits in one round. 

There is no roll to miss for friendlies in the way of a missile or thrown
weapon. Instead there is a rule that you can throw or fire over/around
someone immediately adjacent to you without penalty, but not if they are
further away.

The two that (again, to me at least) seem to really differentiate DoE from
ItL in combat playability are:
No automatic hits and misses
No individual initiative (roll once for each side per turn)

I know some people don't like auto hits and misses anyway, and the "side
initiative" gives it a miniatures flavor.


I might even be tempted to hand this to complete newbies instead of Melee,
Wizard & ItL (without even considering Advanced) except for one key thing
that bugs me (and probably lots of other people too).

Monospaced fonts are <<hideous>> for extended reading. Metagaming, near the
end of their tenure as a gaming company clearly slid in production values
with respect to printing.

I guess it must have been cheaper but it sure makes it (and other products
like Unicorn Gold and Starleader: Assault) look MUCH more amateurish than
the impression that Metagaming wanted to give that they were a serious game
company.

Finally there is of course the lack of Steve Jackson's name. They could have
at least credited him with design principles if not the actual text of the
game (which is actually quite different).

There, I think I covered everything.

I know this is not new to many of you, but sometimes you just have to tell
someone what's on your mind, right?

- Marc Gacy
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