Re: (TFT) Foot races again

["Jay Carlisle" <Jay_Carlisle@charter.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cris Fuhrman"
Subject: Re: (TFT) Foot races again


PvK wrote:
> > I'd go slightly Jay and look at statistics and correlate them to the game
> > stats.
>
>
> Just had to comment on this :-) The Internets and the Google are enablers
> for us to "go Jay" from time to time.

I must admit that Google, Wikipedia, et. al. are awfully nifty.
My hard-copy encylopedias don't fit in my "Wizards Chest".
I have to hold sessions at my house to have access to my "Wizards Lab".

I know right now that it seems I'm advocating for some kind of "extream" 
realizam form of RPG's.
I have no intrest in killing Connan; well maybe in a fight, but not the 
possability of "Super-heros".
I wanna play Superman in Vlad's service against the comming horde.
And so fourth and so on.
I feel that if I can describe Joe H. Average well then I can describe Connan 
in relation to Joe even if Connan has statistical abilities far beyond what 
might be considered realistic.
I think that game-rules should work to help create the same 
"imaginative-picture" for the whole group.
What I've found from many players is that there seem to be certian 
expectations involved in the mechanics of play and the reading and 
application of game-rules.
The majority of players consider success rolls in combat to represent and 
actual blow.
"I missed or I hit."
There are many game situations in which this could actually be the case.
In sports (formalized combat) a baseball batter swinging at a pitch is 
looking for the hit or miss.
TFT's 5 second turns are offering "combinations" of strokes and steps, with 
the success roll determining relative effect w/o information about which 
particular blows in the series were more effective than others.
I find it more effective imaginativly speaking to have these 5 second combos 
more well defined... a single-edged blade doesn't "wrap" and still strike on 
an edge for example.
Single edged blades perform different combos than double edged blades.
I'd think the best place to start something like this would be how to have 
basic athletic contests between Figures.
I find it a little silly to be able to hit a Figure with a club but be in 
the dark about hitting a pitched ball game-rule wise.
I think the one leads from the other.
Of course, this is just my oppinions... but my goal is NOT to try and force 
everyones imagination into somekind of box defined by me.
I'd rather offer a base Figure in an enviroment we all share (Earth in this 
universe) as the "rule example environment for Joe Average".
If you see Connan as twice as strong as the strongest average human you can 
say my campagin has a max Figure ST of 60 and hopefully you've considered 
the construction of the buildings and other enviromental variables that 
become important with such a dialing up of the Figure power.
The force generated by ST 60 belongs to the player if allowed by the GM and 
to dial it up or down at the GM's whim or oppinion is poor art IMO.
IMO just putting a hole in the ground and running a group through it is 
already a LOT of work to pull off well.
I respect such effort.
Don't tell me that the Hill, Fire, and Frost Giant modules are a campagin in 
and of themselves however.
Stringing together several 'dungeon crawls' does not a campagin make.
A campagin about James Bond allows a movie in between actuall movies to let 
James spend money, improve properties, study, try and institute policy, and 
etc.
To say a campagin is a series of "adventures" w/o such is a dead end.
A campagin might make The Lone Ranger wear a pair of Foster Grants when he's 
60.
This is all about how one frames what is being presented to players in the 
quid pro quo of "willing suspension of disbelief".
"I start digging" is a direct challenge to the Figures free-will.
If you've sold the players on a 24 style time-limit to their Actions then "I 
start digging" is an Action that will take the players Figure out of the 
rest of the session.
How many sessions can such a ploy hold off "I start digging" though?
I'd figure at some point the kidnapp victim is saved/killed or whatever... 
then what?
There is an illusion in RPG's that a player can try just about anything they 
can imagine.
All too often however play seems to boil down to moving from a different 
combat in a different room and rolling dice like so much craps.
IMO there are other interesting opertunities for play beyond killing stuff.
...
Ughhhh, didn't mean to make this a rant. 
=====
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