(TFT) Jobs table: 100,000 simulated soldiers and farmers

[Jay Carlisle <maou.tsaou@gmail.com>]

On Saturday, September 17, 2011, Mark Tapley wrote:

> "realistic" game style. I highly approve.
>

> "play is the thing" (cinematic?) game style, focused on the enjoyment of
the players (from the Referee's point of view. I highly approve.
>
> ...woops. I'm trying to agree with two divergent opinions....
>
>        Well, for "solitaire" play, the realism *has* to be there -
otherwise it's no fun.
>
>        For players taking over functioning of towns as they work up to
duke or higher level (Jay?), the realism *has* to be there. Regarding the
TFT table, salaries may be a bit high in general for most barons to sustain
- not sure about this.
>
>        I think in general, it's truly wonderful if *both* conditions
(realism and exciting adventure) can be satisfied.

As I see it there is a time to design and there is a time to play.
In the design phase it's generally a good idea to let reality reign and just
tweak the ends of it with fantasy so to speak.
Rather than start with the concept of Orcs and try and work all the way down
to mundane details of everyday life I find it much easier to take the body
of knowledge of ancient Polynesians say, and tweak it to my purposes and
vision.
That way, even if some unexpected aspect comes up during play I at least
have a reasonable chance of being able to look up some info on it rather
than make some off the cuff statement (stripes) that comes back to bite me
in the ass.
Tolkien did this, as did many others.
Ever read Harry Potter in ancient Greek?
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/harry_potter.htm
The names are GREAT!
In the play phase cinematic's rule IMO.
It is a game and not a scientific model and players generally don't expect
to be playing "themselves" at least physically speaking.
TFT is basically glorified craps in the same way that World of Warcraft is a
series of timed clicks and keystrokes.
The trick is imagination.
The more immersed in imagination the players become the higher the enjoyment
factor I find.
If something "realistic" detracts from this then it has to be changed or
dropped, i.e. many games forgo encumbrance for the most part or go with a
double fST system for magic.
If I want an encumbrance system or fST then it has to be playable or its
just not going to work.
Fantasy role-playing has some absolutely HUGE disadvantages as opposed to
something like film or video games in getting imaginative points across but
it likewise has advantages that in my humble opinion qualifies it as a new
artistic medium.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artistic_media
The media IS the message.
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