RE: Re: (TFT) Rant riposte

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

> I don't think the rules need an ultimate bad guy. Back when I
> played D&D Orcus et al were just another monster. There was a
> clear progression - Orc, Ogre, Giant, Lich, Orcus, Demigod,
> Deity, Player Character gone bad, new bad guys created by the
> DM, end of the campaign. The big bad is adventure related, I
> think, not game related, at least that's how it is for me.
>
> regards,
> John

     Thanks for the response. The info about pencil boxes was surprising, and
the rest is very interesting. As to the Uncle adventure; I guess I really
should try to finish it on my own. (Shuffles some papers and looks confused.)
     While I have the outline, and conclusions planned, the original method of
writing it was to bang out about seven or ten episodes then let a Friend or
family member read it. I then ask them "what do you think" and other
questions, till I've shown them it's ok. to tell me the truth. After that I
would ask them "what would you do?" I then write the next series in answer to
that question and get the adventure back on track. For instance, my Aunt said
"I'd go after the boy who ran away." This explains why there is a series going
after him, and then returning to killing demons.
     I guess now I have two questions too answer. Both, "what was in the Iron
ship", and your "I still want to know what happens to Uncle and the girls".
But, as you may have noticed, these are both questions and not declarations of
"what you would do." Oh also... "glamor Trip" wizard (whose name escapes me)
sees in the future and adopts to help beat back the demons on Branya)." His
name is Glemantrious. His twin is Dematrious.

     Now two things. I'm consumed lately by a planet/solar system creation
program. As such I haven't taken the time to sit down and ask someone "what
they would do." I apologizes for that. Let me just sum up about Uncle by
saying the Outline and plan is to Have SOLO 1 with Lubik the Priest, Demon
World with Uncle and the girls, and a latter series "Drafted" all cross plot
and wrap up together. So the two things are this, namely I have neglected the
SOLO adventures and I'm still enamored by planet creation.
     Indulge me while I talk about the idea behind the program a little. I had
this notion to make a program where one could choose a cosmology and then whip
out a planet at the click of a button. Be it a flat earth on the back of a
turtle, and Egyptian volcano belching out stars, or a Giant cow. In the
process of doing this I got into the Earth centered systems of late middle
ages, and then the hybrid "earth at center" but all other planets "orbit the
sun" of Galileo. Then I discovered Kepler. Suffice it to say I haven't come up
for air since, except maybe to speak in tongs incoherently about things like
gravity coronas.

     Now allow me to share a little. Speaking to great evil, and great bad
guys specifically. My greatest fear, even greater than death, is to be
misunderstood and then ignored. Specifically those two things together. Being
misunderstood I can overcome. Being ignored I can handle. But being
Misunderstood and then ignored devastates me. I have no chance to overcome the
misunderstanding. I affectionately call this fear, that dwells within me,
"Azathoth's Curse."

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azathoth

     Coming to terms with our own fears, I feel, is one of the great services
that Role Playing Games provide. It may be obvious now that I have confessed
why I take steps to write concisely and always try to have a conclusion. I
over compensate sometimes, but at least I have come to grips with it. I have
given my fear a name.
But what fear does TFT present us with, or suffice it to say "what ultimate
bad guy?" Consider this. Player Characters gone bad is toward the end of your
list of D&D bad guys. Yet TFT starts with the premise of character hunting
each other down out of sport, or boredom. As mentioned in the section on the
Mnoren, as one possible explanation for their absence. In conclusion I ask, is
the great fear that TFT wants to face that there is no one God, and that
creation was done by a group of almost normal people? Is there even a name for
that fear yet? And is it empowering or enfeebling?

     I will attempt to answer that last part a bit. I myself have faced that
fear countless times with my friends in RPG's and in thought experiments.
Having passed through it, I find my beliefs intact and the feelings in my
heart to be unshaken. In fact I believe that one day we will all get to create
worlds, and that being a GM is just a small taste of what is to come. As a
parent would you not want your children to grow into parents themselves?

     I stand by my original conclusion, amended. What ever ultimate bad guy we
can create, it needs a name. Is the great fear that TFT wants to face that
there is no one God, and that creation was done by a group of almost normal
people?

David Michael Grouchy II

p.s.  Pencil Boxes and Balanced rules, you described both as timeless.
Maybe that is why people always seem to come back to Fantasy.
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