Re: (TFT) Whimpy shields - what era?

[Joel BoardgameRpger <joel.siragher@gmail.com>]

PvK: nice post.

guns dont appear in my fantasy world.
like in cidri, people do find tech/artifacts in my world.
Gunpowder in the form of petards appear in my world.
they blew out a city wall with one, and got into REALLY big trouble.


On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 5:04 PM, PvK <pvk@oz.net> wrote:

> The example story in original Melee is from Imperial Rome. TFT can be used
> for various settings. The gunpowder only appears in the books oriented
> around Cidri, which is actually a futuristic (or at least 1980's ;-) ) time
> period, though on another world, and with mostly a mix of ancient/medieval
> and magical technology.
>
> To answer your question, though, I think the TFT shield mechanic of
> subtracting a little damage best simulates resistance to gunfire, where a
> bullet might tend to be slowed but not stopped by a shield.
>
> Comparing TFT combat to GURPS combat, it strikes me that the fighting
> style of TFT fighters in GURPS terms might be the tactic of using
> all-out-attacks most of the time, since TFT fighters rarely defend and rely
> on taking the enemy down (or having lots of armor and shrugging off hits)
> before they get hurt. In that style, having a shield doesn't do much
> because you're focused on attack rather than defense.
>
> However I think that the shield effect was chosen during the design of
> Melee, where SJ was balancing equipment for his arena combat design, and I
> remember when I was learning Melee in the context of mostly duels, that
> having a shield was a fairly important advantage for starting characters
> trying to duel another starting character, because it stopped more damage
> than it reduced your own DX. I imagine SJ thinking about Melee balance and
> considering people with ST 11 or less with swords and axes, having trouble
> damaging someone with say a Large Shield AND Leather, for 4 armor, and
> didn't want armor to get to be too strong for balance purposes.
>
> That's just my imagination, of course, but I think the values that exist
> come from that stage of design, which was focused on balancing lowish-point
> characters in duels, and having it be fairly balanced with different
> weapon/armor combos all being somewhat viable. That, and wanting it to be
> fast and simple and so not have too effective defense that might be seen as
> tedious or complex.
>
> PvK
>
>
> --- rsmith@lightspeed.ca wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>   We can all agree that TFT is set in the time
> period known as "Fantasy".  However, the
> inclusion of gunpowder tends to make us think
> that TFT belongs fairly late in human history.
>
>   That said, gunpowder is not an entirely
> happy addition to TFT and I know of several
> TFT GM's who simply don't use it.
>
>   Neglecting the early gunpowder era, what era
> of human history would TFT shields best simulate?
> At what point are TFT shields closest to being
> realistic?
>
>   Warm regards, Rick.
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