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Re: (TFT) Aimed Shots
At 0:09 -0400 5/22/12, TFT Joel wrote:
Ok. I took a breath. You make some good points. What you are saying
essentially is to reward characters for their character designs, which I
agree with.
I must say in the many years ive been playing this, I never considered
aimed shots. I dont know why. I guess im not adventurous. I dont recall it
ever coming up. I guess I always thought that a -6 will never hit, mostly
because i tend to not min/max/munchkin my characters. I tend to build my
characters aesthetically. Maybe thats why they die young (and stay pretty)....
Well. Around here, the ongoing problem is MPNS hobbits
(stands for Murderous Psycho Ninja Sniper). For a beginning hobbit,
ST:4, DX:17, IQ:9, Thrown weapons, huge handfuls of sha-ken. Racial
bonuses kick in, and pretty much every one of the sha-ken is likely
to hit *and* every one does +1 damage. Unarmored opponents are
shredded; if the hobbit backs off a few hexes to run up the distance
adjDX penalty, half of the handful will miss the first target - and
go on to take out the *next* target. For armored opponents, the
head-shot rules still come in handy if the hobbit also carries a
dagger. And then there's weapon poison...
Once, it was an amazing curiosity. Now, there's at least one
every party. Sigh.
On the one hand, it was a board game first, and the MPNS
hobbit players should be commended for finding a beneficial
corner-case in the rules. Really high adjDX simply rocks.
On the other hand, I feel really bad for the guys that take
the traditional sword and shield and get left in the dust on total
kills, by a character that "...might have vanished ages ago if not
for one thing: They are very likeable." - but nevertheless spent
much of his childhood learning to use stealthy-kill weapons.
er, yeah.
My favorite idea so far is, "use it, expect to fight it".
That is, sooner or later my party is going to run into a nest of
short, cuddly highwaymen sporting belts loaded with jingling pouches
of sharp, pointy things. Can't wait to see the looks on their faces.
At 0:09 -0400 5/22/12, Joel wrote:
Thats one of the things I appreciate about TFT. I have been trying really
hard to get the character to look at the talent list, so they can become
useful out of combat.
Its a hard push.
I find it to be a relatively easy *pull*.
"Anyone have engineer? Too bad, the fascinating looking machine
(CoughTrebuchetCough) isn't going to do you any good, then. How are
you going to get up that wall with the orcs on top?"
"There's a medium-sized rowboat on the bank. The river is slow here,
but downstream you hear a muted thundering noise. How do you get to
the other side?"
"Those of you prisoners with useful skills will be spared for castle
duty. The rest go to the mines, and should prepare your wills in
advance. Now let's see, we need a beekeeper, a baker, 2 stableboys, a
gardener, oh, and I don't suppose any of you scum can translate
sindarin or transcribe maps or sing a decent ballad?"
If the campaign mostly rewards fighting - or if the campaign
requires fighting, to the extent that anyone that can't fight won't
survive long enough to exercise their other talents - then the
players learn fast to load up on fighting skills. The converse is
also true, as Neil's experience shows.
FWIW, watching Boy Scouts at a camp, trying to earn various
merit badges, can be pretty instructive in this context. Someone
without the skills in a given area can be amazingly helpless.
In our last game, the MPNS hobbit was also a cook, and ended
up retiring to open a sushi restaurant.
Hope this helps!
--
- Mark 210-379-4635
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