(TFT) defending and request

["Steve Reinhardt" <stever08@fastmail.fm>]

Hi.  Sorry for the long post.  I don't contribute very often, so I am
making up for lost time. ;-) Please comment on the following.
A common perceived shortcoming of TFT that has recently come up again is
the fact that high DX figures are no harder to hit than anyone else. 
Some good solutions have been presented.  Besides special weapon
talents, some of my favorites are the defense roll used in Dave
Seagraves online Thail campaign and also the idea of allowing the player
to lower their own adjDx to hit and forcing attacking figures to lower
their adjDx by the same amount (can't remember who to credit this to).  

With the defense roll, attacked figures roll 2 dice more than the dice
used in the attack roll to defend.  The attacker has the option of using
more than 3 dice in order to make defense more difficult.  This means
rolling more dice, but this is somewhat mitigated by rolling for defense
first, and skipping the attack roll if it is successfully defended
against.

The sliding Dx method is nice in that the player can specify just how
offensive/defensive their attack is going to be.  The downside I see is
that min-maxing players may suspend the flow of combat some while they
compute the optimal modifiers for their figure and the figures they are
engaged with.  Some groups I am sure don't see this as a problem.

What I am suggesting is to expand the Defend option with what is
essentially a combination of these.  Currently Defend seems to be only a
good option for a figure trying to buy time until their buddies can come
over and bail them out of a bad situation.  I propose allowing a
defending figure the option of making an attack at the same 4 dice as
the figures attacking it.  This can represent a skilled figure parrying
and dodging while still having a decent chance of hitting.  For a low Dx
figure, they can defend but still have a small chance of occasionally
hitting.  Optionally, a figure with a real high dex might dictate 5-dice
attacks.  This should probably be restricted to figures with
weaponmaster talents(and pre-req adjDx).
---
Also, I am currently working on a browser based version of Melee
(eventually to incorporate Wizard spells).  personally, I have three
reasons for doing this.  First, I wanted to teach myself javascript and
see what I could do with it.  Second, its kinda fun translating the
rules into code (well I think so anyway).  Lastly, I want to be able to
play out some of the microquests at work during my mandated lunch hour. 
The program is being cobbled together using rules from melee, adv melee,
and posted house rules from the tft archives.  Interestingly, and
unintentionally, many of the house rules I am using are Erol's (e.g. his
Str table, pole weapons do +1d6 on/against charge).  It's not yet ready
for prime time.  If anyone is interested I will definitely let y'all
have it when it is ready.  It is being written as a single PC, turn
based board game ideal for playing the solo quests.  I am sure it could
be adapted for network play, etc.  As it will be tested at work, the
display will definitely leave something to be desired.  Once I get the
tactical part working I want to expand it to run complete microquests. 
For example, if the players enter the Azure room, I want to change the
map to display the rooms obstacles, inhabitants, etc.  That is the
reason, I am bringing this up now.  Do any of you have text, rtf, or
better yet html versions of any of the microquests?  By the way, thanks
John G for making pdfs of the microquests available and everyone else
who has made the old metagaming products available again.  If anyone has
editable versions of the microquests, please send them to mthead at
mywaydotcom.  Thanks.

Steve Reinhardt
-- 
  Steve Reinhardt
  stever08@fastmail.fm

-- 
http://www.fastmail.fm - Same, same, but different
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"