(TFT) Mark's comments on hex geometry. Rick replies.

[Rick Smith <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

On Mon, 2006-03-27 at 16:21, Mark Tapley wrote:
> Perhaps, but you have almost single-handedly made the hexes as easy 
> to use for the rest of us! I missed this the first time around. 
> *Very* nice, thanks! 

 Thank you, Mark!


> Moria is kind of the great-granddaddy of all dungeons that I've ever 
> heard about. Maybe it's sacrilege to map more than a part of it, or a 
> single path through it? Like trying to map all of Cidri, there should 
> always be unexplored turns and twists? In that sense, I guess my 
> ideal Moria map would have "here be demons" on all edges, or at least 
> two edges and below, and quite possibly above, where the party goes.

 I agree.  I talked to Steve Jackson when I
did the gaming for Westercon 44.  He said 
(about GURPS) that it made the game writer's 
job much easier if you have a lot of "The GM
Will Decide" in your rules.  However he 
always felt that was a cop-out and felt that
if the GM wanted a FAIR way to do something
it should be written down somewhere.  Then 
the GM can use it or ignore it as he wants.

 (The problem, is most GM's don't ignore 
most of it, but try to memorize it / look it
up and the game bogs.)

 I feel this way about a lot of supplements
that map a "vast dwarven city".  There are 
just not enough interesting details to them.  
But if they give you a lot of material (many 
residential areas, many mines, the royal 
apartments, the furnaces and chemical 
reducing vats, etc.), I wouldn't mind adding 
some more similar areas if I want them.

> 
> ...  I guess the implication is that they can 
> and do tunnel a lot faster than they reproduce. That solves a lot of 
> the logistical problems I would otherwise associate with a habitable 
> volume that big, ie getting food and water in, waste out, 
> ventilation, etc. etc. 

 Not really, I think.  Mines are dangerous, 
& they don't get healthier for being left 
'fallow'.  I'm a science / engineering geek,
an adventure that spent a lot of time talking
about air pressure, air flow, sewage, heat
flow, flooding control, etc, would be major 
cool.

> It does not really solve the "tailings pile" 
> problem, though, and I'm still at something of 
> a loss on that subject.

 If you have running water the problem is 
simple.  Dump your tailings bit by bit in a fast
river and they will move down stream and form 
big sand banks when the river leaves the 
mountains.


> >   If we assume that the TFT hex is exactly 1.13
> >meters across (for the reasons given above) then
> >the LothU hexes are about 20.9 m across.  Assuming
> >a scaling factor of 2.645, then:
> >
> >Lv 1 hex:   1.13m   ~1 meter   or 13.0 % error
> >Lv 2 hex:   2.988m  ~3 m        or  4.0 % error
> >Lv 3 hex:   7.91    ~8 m        or   1.13 % error 
> >Lv 4 hex:  20.91m  ~21 m        or  0.37 % error
> >Lv 5 hex:  55.31m   ~55 m       or  0.67 % error
> >Lv 6 hex: 146.2m   ~150 m       or  2.36 % error
> >Lv 7 hex: 386m
> >Lv 8 hex: 1023m    ~1 km        or  2.3 % error
> >Lv 9 hex:  2.706 km
> >

> *SWEET*. OK, this is good enough to be effectively canon for me henceforth.

 Thanks.

 I like the idea of saying 1 hex = 1 meter (counting
in any direction along hexes).  You are a bit long if
going along a hex grain a bit short if using the 
alternate hex grain.  But this way, it is close 
enough and only the geeks will ever notice or care
about that extra 13 cm.  The extra 13 cm does make my
table above fit a lot nicer than several version I
tried.


>> <Rick>  Lv 4 or Lv 5 for hex wargame???

> >   Note that a Company will fit with room to spare
> >in the Lv 4 hex, but things are too tight for a
> >Battalion.  ....
> 
> This seems like the overriding concern for me. If at Lv 5  
> individual parties are down in the noise, it may share the  
> name but it's basically an unrelated game. However if *my* 
> party could take part in a battle at Lv4, it connects. 
> If there's some connection to ITL rules, too, that'd be
> even better. Like, maybe:
> Move/move/act/act turn sequence.
> Ranged attack values, with a table showing how to convert 
> total missile weapons carried by the company to the ranged 
> attack for the company counter.
> Movement and defense values based on the heaviest armor in 
> the company?  Magic values, maybe in several flavors, based 
> on total wizard IQ?  Fatigue level?
> Injury level, with ability to heal based on high enough fraction 
>  of physickers in the party?


> Don't know either, but as above, Lv 4 so my characters can swing the 
> battle has enormous appeal to me.

 Really I think that you will end up with a 
separate game in any case.  Unless you make 
the wargame REALLY complicated most of the
fine effects that you want your party to 
give will just wash out.  However this is 
exactly the feed back I am looking for:
Check! Mark wants the party to have an effect
- keep scale large and make sure that there
is chrome that the players can affect things...


> >   Maybe I should post some thoughts on my TFT
> >wargame for you all...
> 
> Or just the pointer, if already done. This'd be great!

 The game is not done, just a bunch of 
ideas swimming about.  Writing an essay on
it for you guys might help prompt me to get
some more work done.

 Warm regards, Rick.
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"