Re: (TFT) Justifying an aspect of combat...

["Steven K. Mariner" <skmpu@bhmk.com>]

Dear David,

 > > From: joel.siragher@gmail.com
 > > After years of play, I just realized something.
 > > Combat is only based on your ability to hit, and it
 > > doesnt take your opponents dex into consideration.
 >
 > David Michael Grouchy II wrote:
 >
 > You have yet to make a convincing argument that
 > something is amiss.

Is that really needed?  In a friendly forum like this?

I think it's clear that Joel is addressing an issue of a perceived 
weakness of "realism" in the combat system.  The weakness in question 
seems pretty evident to me, so establishing that with a geometric proof 
would seem tedious at best.

By the same token, I suspect your stance is that Joel has missed the 
primary goal-set of the TFT combat system.

I have always held the opinion that the goal of the TFT combat system is 
"speed and ease of use through simplicity".

I also think it is fairly common knowledge that these two goals (realism 
and playability) are often at odds with each other, requiring some kind 
of trade-off in any game design.  In the business, I believe this is 
usually referred to as "abstraction".

So if I've sussed yours and Joel's stances correctly, my response would 
be something like this:

"Yes, it's a bummer we can't show that a master swordsman or someone 
with amazing reaction speed is likely to avoid being hit by a total 
newbie in a sword fight.  But if we wanted that level of detail then 
we'd take something like Rolemaster and add four more books of rules to 
it, and single combat would take a weekend or some serious computer 
support to play.  Melee is about gettin' it done quickly.  Detailed 
realism simply takes a back seat here."


My apologies if anything here is seen as disrespectful, as it was not 
intended as such.  Perhaps a tongue-in-cheek moment here or there, but 
again, not intended as an overt thing in any way.

And if I've missed your mark, David, I do look forward to being educated 
as to what you really were driving at.  'Cuz I do love your posts and 
your perspective on the game.


- Steve M.
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