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(TFT) Re: TFT Digest V3 #878

We ran into the same types of anomalies over the years. For example, if you wanted your wizard to be able to cast a lot of spells, a high ST is required. So, your frail old wizard dude with a ST of 20 can also bash holes through walls with his fists. Additionally, a tank-type fighter who has a bunch of weapons skills ends up with a high IQ, which may be at variance with his character type. We ended up expanding to 5 attributes - STR (Strength), CON (Constitution), DEX (Dexterity), INT (Intelligence), and KNW (Knowledge). A starting character is 54 points instead of 32. There can't be a difference of more than 3 points between STR and CON, or between INT and KNW. STR determines how physically strong you are....how much damage you do, how big a weapon you can carry. 
CON is your hit points, and where you cast spells from
DEX is the same as DX
INT is your innate intelligence.....what you roll on to notice things, and how high a level of talent or spell you can take. 
KNW is the sum total of the talents/skills/spells that you know.
Thus, Mr. Tank may have a whole bunch of weapons skills, Warrior, Veteran, etc. His knowledge may be high, but his intelligence is not so high. We didn't tinker much with the rest of the rules, but this one change made for a much more playable system. We also have a graduated Experience Point table, so that the cost of additional levels goes up as you get bigger (example, say points 54-58 are 125 EP each, 59-62 is 250 EP each, etc. etc.).
If anyone is interested in our written version of this, let me know. By chance I ended up having sushi one night with Steve Jackson in Las Vegas, and he said he actually liked our modifications. :) 



TFT Digest wrote:

TFT Digest          Sunday, February 11 2007          Volume 03 : Number 878




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Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2007 22:24:42 -0600
From: raito@raito.com
Subject: Re: (TFT) Small Adjustments to UC talents...

Quoting "Craig W. Barber" <craigwbar@comcast.net>:


Sounds like you see the same problem: it's hard to get any useful benefit for
the cost spent at lower levels of UC.  The main question is, how big an
adjustment to basic canon should we make, which I suppose boils back down to
the usual question, what kind of campeign do you run?


I see a worse problem at the higher levels.
If you're IQ 14, DX16, ST9 (as in the example), you have spent 11 points of that IQ to get the 'benefit' of the UC skills. Someone of equal experience spent 2 in 
sword and will likely kick your butt, because he'll be wearing armour and you
won't damage him. And if you go HTH, he'll have his dagger doing 1+2 with the
+4DX, even with the 4 dice to hit. About the only decent alternative is to keep 
throwing the other guy to the ground, and hoping for double or triple damage.
Works fine as long as you have the DX on him. If you don't hope he doesn't hit
you first -- not a good bet if his DX is 16+.

Realism is in conflict with the system here. Real fighters didn't train
exclusively with one type of weapon (many of the existing treatises from the
15th century start with 'wrestling' and move on from there). Also, those
'wrestling' moves (most of which were designed to break limbs or put the other
guy on the ground) were also used in armour (which the UC skills disallow). And if you could punch armour with your hand and damage the guy inside, you'd think 
that there'd be some cult of bare-handed armourers out there.
As far as campaigns, mine are pretty agnostic as far as keeping characters alive is involved. Combat is deadly and per canon. Not surprisingly, it doesn't happen all that often unless the party can get an advantage from the start. Shooting a 
guy in the back with a longbow works out pretty well...

Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com
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Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 23:46:01 EST
From: ErolB1@aol.com
Subject: Re: (TFT) Magical Tattoos for TFT
In a message dated 2/9/2007 12:36:28 PM Central Standard Time, craigwbar@comcast.net writes: 



What is the rationale again for not allowing others to skin the character
after death, cut off the tattooed arm or the like, then claim the magic is in the ink? I think that rationale needs to be strong, or we need to live with 
some gruesome "Waterworld" scenarios!   Sorry if I'm not paying attention
here.
The tattoo's magic only works for the tattooed person. If you killed a tattooed person, and then cut off his arm or skinned him, then the magic might still work for the arm or skin, but would not do anything for *you.* 


Here's another one: a magical scroll may burst into flames when read...  So
guild wizards tattoo magical scrolls onto  ENEMIES, say on their forehead.
After that, if another wizard ever has a problem with the victim again, he
knows the guy has been trouble to wizards at least once before and he just
reads the words. The spell itself could do additional damage to the victim in 
addition to the scroll flames.
Scrolls will only work if written on a highly flammible writing surface. A living enemy's body is not such a surface. A scroll written on a living body would simply not work. Just like scroll engraved on a steel plate or carved into a stone tablet would not work. (No, the metal or stone would *not* burst into flame, or melt from intense heat or any such thing. Not in my campaign. It would simply be a wasted effort. Nothing would happen if a wizard tried to read such a "scroll.") 
Erol K. Bayburt
Evil Genius for a Better Tomorrow
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Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2007 21:04:09 -0800
From: Rick Smith <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>
Subject: (TFT) ST based damage table.
Yes, there were a couple versions, none of which were PERFECT so I built my own of course. (See Advantages of Great ST on Ty's site for details if you want.)
The TFT system basically said that for each 20 ST you did 1 die of damage with special rules 
for ST less than 20.

Realistic, but for some reason my players rather
use swords...

Warm regards, Rick.

On Fri, 2007-02-09 at 12:32, dwtulloh61@cox.net wrote:

Wasn't there a table somewhere that gave damage for unarmed
combat as a function of ST?  I seem to recall using it long before
GURPS published a similar table.

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Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 22:42:08 -0700
From: "Dan Tulloh" <dwtulloh61@cox.net>
Subject: Re: (TFT) ST based damage table.

I thought so!    Thanks, Rick.

So your UC guys should be using that table instead of 1d-1 or
1d+2 in HTH ( I hope I remember those numbers right ). A high ST with UC V is nasty. 

Dan

From: "Rick Smith" <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>
Subject: (TFT) ST based damage table.
Yes, there were a couple versions, none of which were PERFECT so I built my own of course. (See Advantages of Great ST on Ty's site for details if you want.) 
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Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2007 12:21:52 -0700
From: "Craig W. Barber" <craigwbar@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: (TFT) Magical Tattoos for TFT

Scrolls will only work if written on a highly flammible writing surface. A
living enemy's body is not such a surface. A scroll written on a living body
would simply not work. Just like scroll engraved on a steel plate or carved
into
a stone tablet would not work. (No, the metal or stone would *not* burst into
flame, or melt from intense heat or any such thing. Not in my campaign. It
would simply be a wasted effort. Nothing would happen if a wizard tried to
read
such a "scroll.")

Erol K. Bayburt
Evil Genius for a Better Tomorrow

***

That makes sense.  The waste energy contained in the scroll isn't enough to do
any serious heating.

I'd probably modify your rule to state that the spell itself would still come
off, but that metal would merely get warm briefly, and a person so tattooed
would take one point of damage without scarring: one point would not be enough
to impress anyone.

You could also invoke standards of legibility: is a scroll written on
someone's stomach still usable after the victim gains or loses 40 pounds?  ;)

Craig
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End of TFT Digest V3 #878
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