Re: (TFT) Outdoor Scale - Request for Comments

[Peter von Kleinsmid <pvk@oz.net>]

I think Rick's scale is a bit off the usual interpretation, with lower 
values than usual. If he's a male in decent shape who does regular 
activity, then he's above average at least for modern folks, and I think 10 
is supposed to be average (albeit medieval average, in TFT). Depending on 
how large Rick is, it sounds to me like he is more like ST 10-11 rather 
than 8-9. I guess maybe it depends on what aspect of ST you are measuring, 
though. I tend to think of TFT ST in terms of weapon minimum ST, and maybe 
the schism here is at least partly from using ST to represent so many 
things (muscle, size, power, energy, endurance, condition, psychic energy, 
damage capacity...). Because thinking about it another way, if 10 is an 
average medieval male with a daily physical occupation, and we're talking 
about ST for purposes of endurance and conditioning, maybe I would agree 
with Rick. However if we're talking about ST for short-term power and 
minimum ST for weapon-wielding, and an amateur martial artist is an 8, then 
what are the average modern slobs? 6-7? What about typical non-athletic 
women? 5-6? Going back to weapon minimum ST, as we all know, a Rapier 
requires 9, and a shortsword or spear 11. Rick, do you think you'd rate a 
DX penalty to wield a Rapier?

I think I may have seen one of the greatswords Rick mentions in London when 
I was 11. Huge alright. At 11 anyway, it seemed like it was made for 
someone phenomenal.

Back to the topic of marching, though, I think condition and encumbrance 
have more to do with march rate than strength or sprint speed (MA), though 
again TFT lacks the distinction. It seems to me though that if anyone in a 
group is out of physical condition, regardless of muscle or sprinting 
ability, they will tend to have a very hard time keeping up a good pace for 
a whole day. When I used The Desert Environment (a nice 3rd party Traveller 
generic desert adventuring rulebook) in TFT, I actually assigned each 
character an Endurance score on the Traveller (2-12) scale, which was not 
necessarily related to their strength - more to my idea of their health and 
current fitness. In general though I just used the ITL travel rates as a 
baseline, adjusted by the GM for circumstances, and I and a friend of mine 
made some pretty enormous TFT worlds mapped using the 12.5 km hex scale.

GURPS BTW has some pretty good travel rules that are not very complex but 
are more developed than TFT. IIRC it is 50 miles/day on perfect terrain for 
no encumbrance, 40 for light, 30 for medium (the lightest most typical 
equipped adventurer parties would usually be), 20 for heavy, 10 for 
extra-heavy. Adjust down for terrain and circumstances.

PvK
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