Jay,Just where are you going with this? Way back when in...uh...high school, a friend and I tried to expand on the system to be more, I don't know he word, maybe "measurable" and realistic. We came up with elaborate charts for wounds based on whether the weapon gave slashing, crushing or puncture wound. Depending on what type of wound you received in a particular spot, you suffered immediate effects regardless of the number of hitpoints you actually had. You might bleed out in a turn or two or you might just be killed outright. It was fun but did slow the game down considerably.
I think much of the difference between the damage that weapons can do in TFT is just a way of allowing characters to do more damage as they increase in attributes, specifically Str. This ability to inflict more damages as you get stronger is an offset to the very important DX attribute. Sure, some weapons would do more damage based on mass . I like that TFT abstracted out weapons into groups and unlike D&D didn't distinguish between every type of sword.
A sword can do more damage than a knife, even though both can kill a human in one strike if used properly. While some swords rely more on weight for damage, others rely on speed and cutting edge of the blade. Just look at the difference between a western European bastard sword and a katana. They are used differently. OTOH, is there any real difference as far as damage goes between a short sword (roman gladius/bolo) and a cutlass or broadsword? Maybe on a hunk of meat hanging from a hook when it is hit with full Louisville slugger power...but then again, maybe not. Have you guys seen the Cold Steel clips where the guys hacks at meat with various Cold Steel swords? Most do enough damage to kill a human in one strike or at least end the fight with one good smack.
In reality, a sword or knife may be slower or faster than another, may be used to attack the opponent in general or may be used to attack specific vital targets. The realization of damage is a combination of weapon type, style of fighting and skill of the fighter, the enemie's skill and armor...oh, luck plays into it too...I think. :-) IMHO, it's too complex to figure out and represent in a game in terms of stats. That's what D&D has tried to do in the past (who knows what 4th Ed holds). And since I don't believe the TFT damage system was necessarily built from the ground up by taking into consideration the real world effect of weapons, I think you're talking about making a significantly different game.
This complexity of representing the dynamics of real combat is also why I think unarmed combat is so difficult to replicate, particularly if you are attempting to distinguish between various martial arts. I've never seen the GURPS martial arts book but I wonder if it distinguishes between a Wing Chun/Kung-fu fighter and an Okinawa Karate fighter. Throw Aiki-jujutsu or Brazilian jujutsu in the mix and it's a mess!
I would love to be able to represent different fighting styles but I don't think it is possible. I have the role-playing game "Bushido". It distinguishes between striking attacks and grappling attacks but that is it.
Hope this helps. Aidan----- Original Message ----- From: "Jay Carlisle" <selfinflicted_wounds@boardermail.com>
To: <tft@brainiac.com> Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2007 2:14 PM Subject: RE: (TFT) Killing Joe
Actually this kinda reply is EXACTALLY what I need. I know with e-mails that sometimes it can be easy to offend someone without meaning too. It's not my intention to upset anyone on this list even if I disagree with their ideas and I don't get offended simply because someone disagrees with any of mine. This stuff is appearing here because of its nature. I am litterly going through my old notebooks and pulling together old margin notes and scribbles and the like and trying to consolidate. Some of my main problams have been a lack of compleate info as in having voltages but no amps for electric chairs. It dosn't susprise me but especally THESE days it can be let us say a little inconvinet to ask too many questions about chemical weapons say.Introduction to Naval Weapons Engineering http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/navy/docs/es310/chemstry/chemstry.htmAnyway Mr. Jackson quite obviously labored quite hard to maintain a balance within the system. If I'm gonna make really really big booms (needed if your gonna allow big units of martial wizards in mass combat......) I wanna do it as much as possable within the context of the existing rules and NOT tag on additional stuff. Units are built useing "New Followers" for example. (Hitler didn't run the German army he had a Command Staff of followers, each of which had a staff they used to control their paticular branch.) Another diffaculty I find is that this stuff is so intertwined, with one concept depending on several others, that it can be very hard to seperate out all the pertinent data on stuff like buildings. Next thing you know your babbeling.Like I am now.Anyhoo this is just to let y'all know that I have a purpose behind the floods.Maybe one day I'll get a spell check! (ROTFLMAO!)----- Original Message ----- From: pvk@oz.net To: tft@brainiac.com Subject: RE: (TFT) Killing Joe Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2007 11:37:20 -0700 (PDT) On Sun, August 26, 2007 10:38 am, Jay Carlisle wrote: ... > 19 people struck at golf tourny in AZ in 2004 (none killed?) ... I just read that part. Sorry, I'm being a cad laughing at this brave attempt to make a statistics-based damage system. George Peckinpah's Salad Days comes to mind (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Peckinpah%27s_%22Salad_Days%22) They say a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing... LOL! ===== Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com. Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body "unsubscribe tft"-- _______________________________________________ Get your free email from http://www.boardermail.com ===== Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com. Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body "unsubscribe tft"
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