(TFT) HT's views on complexity

[Joe Hartley <jh@brainiac.com>]

On Sat, 29 Dec 2007 11:18:23 -0500
"Cris Fuhrman" <fuhrmanator@gmail.com> wrote:
> But just as the cover of ITL shows no administrators commanding their
> employees (LOL), a lot of people see the attraction to playing TFT/D&D/etc.
> about kicking ass and taking names in fantasy combat/magic. On the other
> hand, role-playing is definitely not part of basic Melee, so there has to be
> some balance.
> 
> Did everyone read the 1980 letter from Howard Thompson about TFT? It's
> pretty scathing, and slams the complexity of TFT.

I've wondered from time to time whether this really represented HT's true
feelings, or whether this was mostly sour grapes.  I can't say I recall
anyone thinking TFT is too complicated; opinions seem to range from "just
right" to "too simple".

It's no secret I like the abstractness of the combat, and if it's brutal,
that's life and death in the game.  (That said, I think good GMs make sure
that situations are fair, if not necessarily easy.)  I also think that ITL
added enough roleplaying to flesh out Melee and Wizard to allow for larger
games, but kept it from growing into a massively complex thing that turned
roleplaying into rollplaying.

I'll have to go take a look at Underearth again to see where things got
stripped down and whether it seems better - I haven't done that in years.
My feeling though is that if I'd liked it better, I'd have played it more.

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