Re: (TFT) Welcome Ray

[ErolB1@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/10/2008 12:13:41 AM Central Standard Time, 
rsmith@lightspeed.ca writes:


>   As for weaknesses in TFT I would say these are
> my top candidates.
> 
> - Not enough fST (fatigue strength).
> - Not enough memory for spells and talents.
> - HTH could use polishing.
> - Many people are bothered by lack of healing magic.
> - "Industrial Disease" on magic system. (Magic & magic 
> items are too predictable.  Too technology like.)


I'd add to this list "Not enough hit points." But this is a controversial 
point here on the list. I think it's a huge bug that TFT characters die like 
flies when the game is played by the book, while many others on the list consider 
it a feature. (OTOH I'll allow that I might be an extremist: I think that *D&
D* is too lethal - and that it implicitly admits to being over-lethal with its 
various "return from the dead" spells and the assumption that of course a 
character will die and return several times over the course of his adventurering 
career.)  

As for the rest of Rick's list: 

- Not enough fatigue St. 
Yes. My solution has been to house rule in various discounts and reductions 
in St costs, starting with a general 5x increase in the duration of most 
spells. (E.g. spells that formerly cost 1 St per turn to renew now cost 1 St after 
every 5 turns). 

What I don't use is the standard trick of apprentices providing master 
wizards with boatloads of fatigue St via the Aid spell. My analysis is that that 
would require too many apprentices making too many Dx rolls vs an apprentice's 
low Dx score to be practical. By the standard "guild rules" an apprentice is 
limited to providing 25 St per day - I've added a coda "and no more than 5 St in 
any one-hour period." A typical St 10 or St 11 apprentice simply isn't going 
to be able to provide 25 St in a single lump. 

- Not enough memory for spells and talents. 
True for larger-than-life PC types, but not so much for mundane NPCs. Joe 
Peasant and Joe Townsman get enough memory, IMO; it's the adventurerous, 
larger-than-life PC types who feel the pinch. As I see it, part of what makes heroes 
heroes is that they're overachievers, and my solution is to just give "hero" 
class PCs double the standard memory. (Wizards I allow to buy talents at the 
normal cost rather than double cost if they have very high IQ scores.)

- HTH could use polishing. 
Or a complete rewrite. As I see it, a large part of the problem is that HTH 
is simply a complicated and powerful tactic no matter how you slice it. 

- Many people are bothered by the lack of healing magic. 
I have mixed feelings about this one. I don't like the idea of magic being 
the standard mode of healing, but OTOH a lack of healing magic adds to the "not 
enough hit points" problem and fails to make sense in other ways as well. And 
on the gripping hand an old player of mine has complained about the way 
healing potions heal damage by the point when damage is generally inflicted by the 
die - and he was right. So I've increased healing potions to healing 1d+1 
damage each, instead of 1 pt. 

- "Industrial Disease" on magic system. (Magic & magic items are too 
predictable. Too technology like.) 
I agree that "Industrial Disease" is a problem, but I disagree with Rick as 
to what gives magic its "Industrial"/technology-like flavor. More on this later 
since I give to go to work now. 

Erol K. Bayburt
Evil Genius for a Better Tomorrow


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