Re: (TFT) House Rules?

[Matthew Skipper <tywyll@yahoo.com>]

Because to me, part of what defines flavor is mechanics.  If there is no
mechanical distinction between builds or set up, then there is no flavor.  If
your character is defined by the spells he picked up and you had some back
story explaining why you had the spells you had... but then later on you
really wanted to learn X and there was no mechanical incentive or
disincentive, and all magic is equal... your concept becomes watered down
because there is no reason to stick to it, no trade off for choosing it in the
first place.  You become more and more generic and ultimately bland.  It is
distinctions, both restrictive and beneficial, that create flavor.  
Equally, as I mentioned, I hate settings wherein you have magic that can do
anything because its magic... ;?  There is no inherent logic to the existing
spell list, other than these are the spells that SJ came up with at the time.
 Had Melee and Wizards been designed in a different time, by different people,
undoubtedly the list and potentially the flavor the magic had would have
changed.  
I'm not proposing a 'universal' house rule that everyone should adopt or else
be guilty of wrongbadfun.  What I am talking about, and working on, is making
something for a campaign (one I hope to run), and those interested in yoinking
it for themselves.  I'm sure other people like settings wherein there is more
internal consistency (I know Fireball and all these fire spells because I can
control elemental flame... sorry, I can't learn Ice or Shadow).  

--- On Mon, 1/11/10, raito@raito.com <raito@raito.com> wrote:

From: raito@raito.com <raito@raito.com>
Subject: Re: (TFT) House Rules?
To: tft@brainiac.com
Date: Monday, 1 November, 2010, 21:21

We're obviously on oppposite sides of this. I like flavorless magic, because a
character built with a flavorless system can have any flavor. At the other end
of the spectrum is something like Runequest (at least, the original) where
everything had so much flavor there was really only a single world where
campaigns could exist.
And I still disagree that that having either restrictions or bonuses on skills
and spells makes it somehow that more different sorts of characters can be
built. If you have restrictions, it restricts what can be built. If you have
bonuses, it restricts what will be built.
Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com

Quoting Matthew Skipper <tywyll@yahoo.com>:
> That sounds like a pretty cool idea!  I've never been that fond of magic
that
> is completely devoid of flavor, which I feel overly generalist magic
typically
> is (magic can do EVERYTHING!!!).  It also allows for different character
types
> and builds.  Have you seen the TFT-JME yahoo group's spell groups
breakdown?
>  There are some interesting ideas in there I think. I might see about trying
something along what you are proposing.  Though I
> agree that determining the 'balance' mechanic is where the difficulty lies.
You might want to consider having some generic spells (detect magic) that all
> the elements can use. Matthew
>
> --- On Mon, 1/11/10, Margaret Tapley <barnswallow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> From: Margaret Tapley <barnswallow@sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: (TFT) House Rules?
> To: tft@brainiac.com
> Date: Monday, 1 November, 2010, 20:59
>
> I've been thinking about doing something similar, but with magic and based
on
> the four classical elements. The idea is that a wizard character can decide
to
> specialize in one particular element. Then, spells related to that element
are
> easier either to learn or to use, and he also gets to learn spells unique
to
> that element. So a wizard specializing in Fire might be able to cast the
Fire
> spell at no ST cost, or learn it at IQ 8 instead of 9, or get a DX bonus
when
> casting it, or some combination of those (Right now I'm in favor of the DX
> bonus idea, but something else might occur to me later...). Ty's site had
some
> ideas for elemental spells, which I'll probably use.
> The system would, obviously, have to be balanced, which means that a
> specialist would have more trouble casting spells outside their specialty
than
> a non-specialized wizard would have with those same spells. Hmm...
> On Nov 1, 2010, at 8:15 AM, Matthew Skipper wrote:
>
> > But they are written with the 'feel' of Medieval Christianity and praying
> for
> > miracles whose effects are minor and typically invisible rather than the
> idea
> > of a high fantasy world (or even a mythological one, say like Glorantha)
> > wherein the gods grant powers to their followers. >
> > As to making miracles a rule, its pretty simple, you base them off
spells,
> but
> > you tailor the list to the gods in question.  A Fire/Sun god should
provide
> > different abilities from a Storm or Healing God.  You just need to create
a
> > spell/miracle list to fit the god and decide how to handle the talent
that
> > gives access to such abilities. >
> > --- On Mon, 1/11/10, raito@raito.com <raito@raito.com> wrote:
> >
> > From: raito@raito.com <raito@raito.com>
> > Subject: Re: (TFT) House Rules?
> > To: tft@brainiac.com
> > Date: Monday, 1 November, 2010, 12:40
> >
> > I disagree. The Talents, as written, are pretty vague. > And I don't think
that there's any good way to make miracles a rule. > Neil Gilmore
> > raito@raito.com
> >
> > Quoting Matthew Skipper <tywyll@yahoo.com>:
> >> It allows more divergence because the character types behave differently.
A
> >> priest is a priest per the current tules, and their behavior is based on
> > fantasy
> >> 'Chrisrian ideology' more or less (i.e. Prayers create intangible
> benefits,
> >> reliance on faith, etc). If you want a world where priest perform
miracles
> > and those miracles are
> >> directly tied to the gods (so a war priest and a storm priest do
different
> >> things), then you have to jiggle the system somewhere. Further by
creating
> > those
> >> concepts and tying their benefits to mechanics you create more divergent
> >> characters because they are quantifiably different. > =====
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