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RE: (TFT) TFT Mapping
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The purpose of this book is to give you pleasure.
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The dilemma is quite real, for there are many stories around which bear the same close superficial resemblance to honest science fiction that a lead quarter does to a product of the Denver Mint.
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Science fiction is sometimes miscalled "escape literature" a mistake arising from a profound misconception of its nature and caused by identifying it with fantasy.
Science fiction and fantasy are as different as Karl Marx and Groucho Marx.
Fantasy is constructed either by denying the real world IN TOTO or at least by making a prime basis of the story one or more admittedly false premise - fairies, talking mules (Shreck), trips through a looking glass, vampires, sea coast Bohemia, Mickey Mouse.
But science fiction, no matter how fantastic its content may seem, always accepts all of the real world and the entire body of human knowledge about the real world as the framework for the fictional speculation.
Since the field of human knowledge concerning the real world, its natural laws, events, and phenomena, is much too large for any one brain (except for Jay's), every science fiction author is bound to make some slips, but here it is the intention that counts: the author's purpose is not to escape from reality but to explore seriously the complex and amazing manifold of possibilities which lie unrevealed in the future of our race - to explore them in the light of what we DO know NOW.
If such is escape literature, then so is an insurance policy.
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All of the stories herein are honest science fiction, but there is another type of story masquerading as science fiction which circulates like the lead quarters mentioned earlier.
Call it "pseudo-scientific fantasy."
The writers thereof are either too ignorant or too careless to do the painstaking work required to produce honest speculation.
(Towards the end, the Dean goes on to point out studies at Duke on Telekinesis and advises against betting on Dice.)
(HINT!)
Anyway that was from Heinlein's intro to "Tomorrow, the Stars", an analogy from...
< flips pages >
1952.
Seventeen years down the road finds Ellison telling me about the waves in Rio.
I'z only one so he decided to wait by writing it down for me.
Seventeen years after that found me a "seasoned" gamier, with my first decade of experience under my belt.
June'll make that about a double-dozen years ago now.
If you substitute RPG for science fiction in the above stuff from Heinlein then I suppose that I'm trying to push, "speculative gaming."
For example, a point of Strength is highly abstract in TFT.
IMO, it's in there, but it's buried deep.
"I" think it's in Encumbrance.
So I looked hard at it and went ahead and tweaked it.
At 1pt ST = 5.5lbs @ 1fps I can tie ST directly to horsepower, which is VERY useful when tying in Car Wars to TFT.
Form there we can scale up to Units of vehicles al-la Ogre, with the overall command and control described via Illuminati.
Downtime is campaign rules.
There are other features of this figure, like it only being 1 pound off of the weight measure of a bushel and so encumbrance gives a good idea of a days work for "farmhands", pyramid stone gangs, etc.
I'm not talking about using fST as a measure of how long a fighter can stay in the fight and only applying "damage" via ST has bleeding, i.e. it's only a flesh wound.
An injury would be given by the force of the blow minus any protection, the type of weapon used, and the location of the contact.
One turn of STamina per 1pt ST, multiplied by fitness level.
Some Actions would require more Stamina than others.
That'd be crazy.
I'd just like to know what 1pt ST is susposed to mean?
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