Re: (TFT) this new TFT like game popped up. here are some links. Mr 'No self control' bought a copy

[raito@raito.com]

I can see it's time again for my usual rants. (again)

>> some how craft the talent system so that a person can get more talents
>> with
>> out upping his IQ
>   A couple of people have come up with different systems for learning
> more stuff without upping IQ, usually involving buying "memory points"
> or buying talents directly with experience. The talent XP cost formula I
> have in my head is (IQ level of Talent) x (number of points to learn) x
> 10, don't know if I came up with that or stole it from someone.

Don't like it. Don't like it at all. Part of the design of TFT is that if
you just play your numbers, you're either doing only combat (which is
fine), or you're having less fun than people who play their characters.
The only reason to have a laundry list of Talents or Spells is because you
can't figure out how to roleplay without using numbers as a crutch.

I must confess that I just don't see the appeal of having to have reams of
Talents, other than to be a munchkin. For me, part of the fun of TFT is
character development. Starting characters shouldn't be able to have
unpteen Talents.

>> a magic healer subset of spells
> Agreed. Physicker talent should probably remain the more viable/useful
> choice for healing though.
>> a herbalist talent that actually does something
> Maybe knowledge of healing herbs is the difference between Physicker and
> Master Physicker? Still, that would be nice to see. I like the idea of
> being able to forage for your first-aid kit.

Again, I don't like it. Again, part of the design of TFT is that healing
isn't easy nor plentiful. This isn't D&D, where permanent death never
seems to happen. And damage hurts and keeps your character out of play.
Real healing costs, and costs a lot.

> No one seems to particularly like the charge-attack rules as they stand.

I do. Those rules help to make combat more tactical, rather than just a
bash-fest.

>> make the game NOT as gritty while at the same time not nerf the spell
>> and
>> combat damage system

I don't think that can be done. Part of the reason it IS gritty is because
things are actually dangerous.

> My own suggestion: Fatigue should impact non-wizard characters. I've
> wondered what a system that let you make multiple melee attacks by
> spending fatigue (and probably taking a DX penalty) might look like.

I've experimented with a lot of changes to TFT, and haven't kept any of
them. For fatigue, I had a variant where a character could spend 1 point
of fatigue on an attack to reduce the number of dice to hit by 1, or on
defense add a die. It worked OK, but I didn't keep it around. Part of the
unwieldiness was having to keep whether an attacker or defense was doing
it secret. Tried allowing more than 1 point at a time, but that got a bit
silly. It does somewhat unbalance things at the upper end, especially
against lower characters (even more than the system does now).

What it did do was to leave fighters exhausted after a hard fight. And
remember, I don't separate fatigue from wounds as far as death goes. So
the idea was that you'd take a 1 point hit to prevent a larger hit.

I don't think I ever tried allowing a character to spend a point to gain
adjDX. That might have been interesting, especially if a character could
move up in the action order. I do recall considering allowing fatigue to
be used when rolling against stats, but can't recall if I tried it, or
what any results were.

Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com
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