RE: (TFT)What happend to the Mnoren?

[raito@raito.com]

Quoting Jay Carlisle <selfinflicted_wounds@boardermail.com>:

> I care about what you think of TFT. 

Here's what I think of TFT, which will also tell you why I like it. 

1. Rather like pre-corporate D&D, TFT isn't so much a set of rules, as 
a set of
meta-rules with examples. 

Take the Talents. The idea of Talents is part of the system. But the set of
Talents in ITL are just examples. Any Master out there can add new ones. Write
a description, figure out IQ level and cost, and you've added to your game. In
fact, it's not strictly limited to the GM. A character could research a new
Talent (successfully or no). 

Look at stat rolls. Some situation not strictly within the written rules comes
up, and the GM decides which stat (or stats) and how many dice. It's a done
deal, and can be repeated the next time it comes up. 

2. It's very hard to play your character sheet, because there isn't 
much of it. 
You have to play the character. 

Even in the latest version of what D&D has devolved into, pretty much a 
fighter
is a fighter is a fighter. There's 2 reasons for this, and they interact with
each other. The first is abstract combat, where there is a particular min-max
that works for fighters. The second is that because of that, its much 
easier to
play the character's stats than to play the character. 

In TFT, not only does the character generation process encourage non-cookie
cutter characters, when all is said and done, a beginning character has 
a race,
3 primary stats, a derived stat (MA), and a handful of Talents and/or Spells. 
And that's pretty much it. The characters are diverse, yet it is difficult to
play just the sheet, because there isn't much on it. 

3. Concrete combat

I'm not interested in the heroic. I have more than 30 years of my life 
invested
in various martial arts, bare and weaponed. I have held jobs where busting
heads was one of the outcomes that might happen. I've been the guy who didn't
bring anything to a knife fight, and walked away without a scratch. I can say
with some certainty that looking for realism in a game system is nearly
pointless. I prefer consistency. I want a good game, not necessarily a
realistic game. 

That said, I prefer the concrete combat of TFT to the fuzziness of most other
systems. It leaves no doubt as to the outcomes. As my model is more Lankhmar
than Middle Earth, I prefer combat to be quick and deadly under most
circumstances. I want it to be something to either be avoided completely or
planned carefully to be successful.. That much realism I like. And, given that
characters are a dime-a-dozen in TFT, I have no problems letting them die. 
Unlike D&D, player characters aren't different than the regular Joe. 
They start
at 32 points and work from there. It's what they do that separates them. A
properly set up character can be dropped into a wilderness and carve out an
existence. A weapons master of equal points less so. That much realism I'll go
for. 

> I'm GONNA bug you till you either acquiece to MY storyworld, or you 
> counter me with something better. 

In a word, no. 

> P.S. 
> I know you wont take this the wrong way or I wouldn't even mention 
> this, but I got a Christmas present last night that was a bumper 
> sticker that says "I'm not mean, your stupid!"

I want the T-shirt my neighbor in Austin had. It said, "What I need is more
money and less crap from people like you."

Neil Gilmore
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"