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Re: (TFT) TFT Healing
To be clear, this isn't a counter-rant, but just an explanation of my
perspective in relation to Erol's. I entirely agree that every player has
his own tastes, and that players that like easy-healing and nerf weapons
have every right to prefer those types of games.
At 01:30 AM 9/13/06 -0400, ErolB1@aol.com wrote:
...
o To what extent are the people here *players* in TFT games, as opposed to
being TFT GMs?
I've done many years of both. I definitely prefer playing (as a player just
as much as when I'm the GM) in a game with realistic risks of combat,
because "swords aren't really very dangerous" fails to convince me, or to
interest me, or to make me worried, and I end up quickly being unsatisfied
with the game and not caring and wanting to play something more gritty. I
want to relate to a tactical situation in a way that makes sense to me and
doesn't feel gamey.
o I find that high lethality interferes with roleplaying. And since
roleplaying is a big part of the fun, that makes high lethality a problem
for me.
Realistic damage and risk doesn't have to lead to high lethality, though.
Experienced people can learn how to increase their chances of staying alive
in realistic ways, rather than just because the game system gives them
orders of magnitude more hitpoints than any weapon can inflict in one turn.
For my own TFT game I've settled on an
active defense roll for skilled combatants (i.e. those with the Fencing
talent) and sucked up the extra overhead this adds to gameplay. (I've also
replaced Warrior and Veteran with a new "Toughness" talent.)
I like active defenses too, and think one of the greatest shortcomings of
TFT is that there are very few defensive effects besides armor. It's one of
the biggest reasons I prefer GURPS combat to TFT - characters that parry,
block and dodge to stay alive, instead of relying on armor, magic, or
incapacitating the enemy first.
o Something that I've never seen any game system do a good job of emulating
is the character with the "crazed weasel defense." This is the character with
little or no armor, who jumps a bunch of low-skill opponents armed with
weapons that *would* hurt badly if they connect, and then jumps around
like a crazed weasel in such a way that - somehow - he never gets hit. (Or
at worst he gets hit very very rarely - a grazing wound once every 10 to
100 fights).
I think GURPS does this very well, though you need to invoke some cinematic
optional rules to get to the extreme level you are talking about. But I've
done what you're talking about, though through skillful playing rather than
"my character is just nearly unhittable" rules. The last major campaign I
was in, I started as a dexterous peasant with a quarterstaff. By the end of
our many years of gaming, I was still using mainly a quarterstaff and some
gator-skin armor (like leather +1), plus some knives and brawling and
wrestling in a pinch, and I was about the most dangerous PC around, and
often did defeat entire groups who, if they ever got in good hit, could
have taken me out. However I had to use serious tactics and caution as well
as high skills to do it, and it was a blast. It wouldn't really be possible
to make that character work in TFT, because of the TFT engagement and
Defend rules, and the lack of active defenses, GURPS' Wait maneuver,
detailed and skill-based HTH rules, etc. Also, if I didn't play really well
and carefully, I could have been defeated much more often than I was.
Though I lost a few fights, I only remember getting really nailed by a
fluke roll once, fighting a blacksmith who had a phobia about my character
because I beat him up some years before. He was screaming and shouting
"Ahh! It's Stick Man!" as I recall. I very nearly died in one blow and lost
the fight (fortunately, his rage subsided or onlookers subdued him after I
fell - I don't really know since I was unconscious), but it was hilarious
(even my character thought so) and felt right and I really didn't mind
having to heal up - it made a good story.
The computer game Dominions by Illwinter does this pretty well, too, though
that is a high-lethality conquest game. I often try to keep heroes alive
with high defense skills, tactics, and magic weapons, though, and have had
lots of fun with that. Dominions handles attack and defense in one opposed
open-ended skill contest per attack, which works pretty well but in a board
game wouldn't be much easier than GURPS to resolve. Fortunately for that
score, it's a computer game.
o Rapid healing isn't necessarily *instant* healing, and there's a good case
for keeping healing from being instant even if it is rapid. I have healing
potions "convert" regular injury into fatigue loss/stun damage rather than
just being a "poof, you're healed" effect. I'm thinking of also applying
this to physicker healing. The "Life" spell or potion will still be a
"ShaBoom! You're Healed!" effect that (if you're alive) completely heals
all injury, stun, & fatigue - but it *is* the ultimate healing spell in my
campaign, able to bring back the (recently) dead.
Sounds good. I'm not entirely opposed to quick healing, and have used it as
GM and played with it, but just haven't liked the effects it had as much as
more limited healing situations. I try to apply limits, especially resource
costs, so it isn't unlimited and has a cost and an expendable resource to
use it.
PvK
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