Re: (TFT) Rodney King where are you???

["David Michael Grouchy II" <david_michael_grouchy_ii@hotmail.com>]

> ---------Justin asks -----------------------------------
>   How many of you can say you can play this game now without the rules?

  Very easy to play TFT on a car trip with out any rule books handy.

  We didn't start out playing TFT on road trips.  Usually one person will 
read a book of fiction out loud to the rest of us, or we take turns reading 
from the same book.  It's hard to read a book at night in a car just by the 
dome light.  But that didn't stop us until the police got involved.

  [ the scene takes place on the side of I-10 in Florida ]

  The driver answers the officer "We're just reading a book."
  Officer:  "What?"
  Driver:  "We're taking turns reading a book."
  Officers eyes turn hard and his eyebrows narrow. "Your doing what?"
  Passenger hands the book to the driver.  "Show him."
  Driver holds up the book to the officer.  "We're reading."
  Officer's head tilts back and he looks down his nose at us.  I get the 
feeling he doesn't beleive us.  He writes us a ticket for speeding.

  Latter at the next pit stop, instead of getting out of the car and 
excitedly discusing the story, we talk about the officer.  (That ------- 
explicative deleted ------ must not read much.)  Of course we have no idea 
if we were speeding or not.  We are too caught up in the shared story of the 
book.  Kinda like the shared experience of a good game session.
  So we just TFT on road trips at night now.  Of course no one brings the 
rule books along.  If the hook sets in we TFT during the day too.  Heck, you 
can even do a scenario while riding up a ski lift.


> How many other RPGs can you play without constantly refering to the rules?

    There are other RPG's ?  (toung firmly in cheek.)


> How many of you are cinematic GMs?
>
> How many of you are realistic GMs?

  I'm as realistic as my players will tolerate.  I got too realistic on 
them once when we were younger and they beat me up.  Litteraly knocking me 
from the GM's chair onto the floor in a big brawl.  It was kinda fun 
actually.  But I try to cut em a little slack now.
  As far as cinematics go... my bad guys, or campaign events, are as 
cinematic as possible.  I make it a point to blow the special effects budget 
and make them huge, larger than life, and supernatural.  A sample quote "His 
sword is so black that as he raises it up, it sucks the very light out of 
the air around it.  He pulls the reigns and turns the undead jaguar to 
charge you."  The Characters fled.  I have many bad guys the Characters 
refuse to engage.


> How many of you play TFT healing like D&D healing?

    That would tarnish my reputation as a killer GM.  I enjoy having a gimp 
or two in the group of characters.  That is someone missing a limb.  Though 
I've laid off blinding them, even in one eye, as I find players particularly 
sensitive to this.  They can take loosing an arm or leg, but for some reason 
if you take one of their eyes the players take it personally.
   Weeks of down time to heal are instrumental in regrouping for a second 
attempt on the labyrinth.  And questing for a wish to restore lost limbs is 
a usefull foray into politics.  D&D healing takes all the fun out of it.  
There is a lot of role playing possible with maimed characters in the group. 
 Some groups turn on each other, others turn charitable and fasion litters 
to carry the wounded.  With D&D healing we'd never find out what the 
characters are really made of.

    David Michael Grouchy II
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"