Re: (TFT) TFT II

[Joe Hartley <jh@brainiac.com>]

On Mon, Oct 22, 2007 at 12:46:05PM -0500, Kirk Woller wrote:
> He did mention a Dave Jackson (relation to
> Steve???) who he has some knowledge of being an instigator in shutting down
> sites that permit downloading of TFT.  Does anyone know anything about this
> or him?

I've never heard of such a person.  I believe that I would have at least had
some discussions with someone on such a mission, as the TFT gameboxes use
images taken from the original games.  My request for a "statement of intent"
stating that the downloader already owns the material and can therefore use
such materials under "fair use" provisions might be enough to satisfy him.

I know that there were some sites that were selling PDFs of the original
games, and he might have focused on those sites that were trying to make
some money off them.

At one point, I'd had email discussions with someone who claimed to be
Howard Thompson's son, and checking I made seemed to prove he was authentic.
He was satisfied that I was not trying to be disrespectful of HT's copyrights.

>From my experiences, I do not believe there will ever be sanctioned downloading
of TFT material to people who do not already own it.

> 3)  Legends vs. TFT in adventure game development 
> Someone had mentioned they didn't see how Legends versus TFT could stall a
> microquest adventure.  Primarily, play balance is supremely affected in a
> well designed module depending on which system is used (reference above
> statement).  Being able to run around people without being engaged and not
> forcing characters to act on their DX creates very definite problems in the
> tactical play as I documented and confirmed in several playtest groups.

** Goes back and checks the rules again **
Hmmm, I absolutely missed the lack of engagement in the Legends rules.  (Can
you tell I've run everything according to TFT up until now??)

> These difference, IMO, make it very difficult to design a
> finely tuned adventure that works well using either TFT or Legends rules;
> clever players will either be able to destroy most anyone they meet, or
> consequently BE destroyed by a clever GM.  I have gamed this enough times to
> shut down playtest sessions in disgust because of it.  There seems to be no
> solution forthcoming, unfortunately, as no changes to these "differences" is
> in the works according to anything George has made me aware of.

This is fascinating to me, because I've quite enjoyed my playing of the
Legends modules so far with TFT rules.  There have been a couple of situations
that didn't seem quite right,but I attributed them to some error on my part,
or simply a less-tested room in the game.

Interesting bit of trivia on the game boards...  I'll have to check out my
1st ed. of Melee when I get home.

-- 
======================================================================
       Joe Hartley - UNIX/network Consultant - jh@brainiac.com
Without deviation from the norm, "progress" is not possible. - FZappa
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