Re: (TFT) Standing up... movement or action?

[Richard Walters <rick.walters@yahoo.com>]

Well, this is a sticky wicket. The rules are pretty straight forward.  On page 18 of advanced Mele it says "A figure takes 8 or more hits in one turn immediately falls down.  If it has not already attacked, it may not attack that turn.  It may do nothing NEXT turn except stand up (or stay down)."  
 
That said, I've never met a GM that didn't eventually change this rule and allow standing as both a movement and an action.  The alternate rule allows that you can stand during movement (as a move) or you can stand during attack (as an action).  So, If you hit someone and do enough damage to knock them down, and they have not attacked yet, then they may choose to stand and ready as their action.  
 
Why is this adopted?  Well, the likely reason is because it makes sense. It doesn't make much sense that a person can be knocked down and execute the action of taking someone HTH, but that they can't simply stand up.  
 
It is also terribly unfair.  If you're a low dex character, you'll quickly know how unfair it is.  Against a fighter with a higher dex and a greatsword, you can get knocked down and NEVER get a chance to get up again.  You just get knocked down again and again until you're dead.  The fighter will have two rounds to hit you and knock you back down once you've been badly hurt.  It just makes players super angry.
 
There is also another interesting craziness that comes with not being able to stand as an action..  Let's say that I don't have a pole weapon, but I want to slide into an adjacent hex against a person setting on me.  Provided they don't kill you when they hit you, they will almost certainly knock you down if they hit (double damage on a set).  So, you're hit and you fall down.  Now, because you don't stand up during attack, the defender loses the ability to "force retreat" in the next round (which occurs at the end of action).  So, you've just robbed the defender of the ability to set on you twice.  Personally, I see "force retreat" as one of the most important aspects of Mele.  "Force Retreat" makes battle lines "fluid" and without it, often there doesn't even need to be a movement round.  So, I don't like aspects of the game that remove this as an option. 
 
Lastly, I think that GM's get really frustrated by the "stand next round" rule.  The main problem is balancing a battle.  This is especially true when characters get up and above 40 points.  What happens is that the characters almost always hit and nearly always knock down their opponents with their high DX and bad-ass weapons.  So, in order to try to balance the fight, the GM is left no option but to put the party up against enemies with equal or higher dex and equally large weapons to give them a chance of hurting the party at all.  Unfortuantely, what happens is that one side or the other gets the early luck and the  other side dies.  So the rule is hard to work around.  
 
Anyway, I hope this helps.  You can be a purist and stick to the rule, or you can allow standing and readying as an action.  Either way, just stay consistent and let people know your house rule before a game if you change any rule in the book.  
 
Good Fortune,
Richard
 
 



----- Original Message ----
From: Jim Zmrazek <jzmra@hotmail.com>
To: tft@brainiac.com
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2008 7:02:51 PM
Subject: (TFT) Standing up... movement or action?

This has been bothering me for awhile, so I'll just ask it now.  When during
the turn does a figure stand up if they were knocked down in combat?  I'll use
an example.  There are elves and orcs fighting.  The elves have higher DX, so
all of them go first before any of the orcs.  A few elves attack an orc and
deal 8 hits to him.  He falls down.  The other elves that have not taken their
actions may attack the orc on the ground (if they were adjacent) and get the
+4 bonus to hit him.  When the knocked down orc's turn comes, will he be able
to stand up?

The next question I was wondering is when you actually stand up during your
turn.  Do you do it during your movement phase?  I believe it mentions
something about kneeling or prone figures just standing still and changing
their stances.  Or do you have to wait until the action phase in the order of
DX?

I've been playing if that if you get knocked down, you lose your action for
the turn if you didn't take it.  You must wait until your action next turn to
stand up.  Is that correct?

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