Re: (TFT) Pole weapon charge attacks. The year is 20XX...

[rich <sca_rickard@yahoo.com>]

Hi.  We play it basically like Rick said.  I know every group is 
different.  My group has always done more role-playing than arena comb
at, and we have never found pole weapon’s double damage to be an is
sue.  
 
Most our players don’t want to use them beca
use of all the drawbacks...they are hard to sneak into places that don��t allow weapons, they don’t fit into a backpack or ‘s
ling’ well on the back so a hand is most always in use to hold them
, they reduce your ability to climb or swim, they don’t bend around
 tight corners such as sewers or small cave tunnels, if you have to leave i
t somewhere you waste time retrieving it later and it might not still be th
ey when you go back, etc.  They can be such a nuisance that our player
s usually do not even pilfer them off the dead.  
 
And as fa
r as game masters using them against players, if they really wanted to, the
y could wipe out the party in much more creative ways than arming their evi
l minion hoards with pole weapons.  
 
Then there are the wid
e variety of situations the players face where charging does not even come 
into play... the group gets ambushed, they are attacked by lots of little c
ritters that are all over them, it is a ranged battle over some chasm or ba
rrier, or they are facing traps or other mental obstacles. 
 
Pole
 weapons in our games certainly do have their place (just as they did in hi
story), but they are not so deadly that everyone ‘just has to have 
one’.  Then again, if you are on a mission to slay a dragon or
 ogre, you will glad you or your buddy can do some double damage.  And
 if you are the GM and the party tears into your dragon...killing it in hal
f the time expected due to all the double damage they did, well I guess tha
t is just part of the game.   You can always have them face 2 dra
gons next time. 
 
Just my $0.02... Your mileage may vary. 
��
Rich
 

________________________________
From: Rick Smit
h <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca>
To: tft@brainiac.com 
Sent: Wednesday, April 
16, 2014 1:02 AM
Subject: (TFT) Pole weapon charge attacks. The year is 2
0XX...


Hi all,
  We used the 3 hex charge rules from the tim
e they came out on,
and had no problem with them.  I also gave DX pe
nalties for 
pole weapons in tight situations and that seemed to get them
 
back in line with the other weapons.

  As for what Steve Jack
son intended: if he wanted pole weapons
to ALWAYS do double damage, why s
pecify they only got the bonus
for charge attacks?  I looked at the 
new rules more as clarifying his
intent than anything.

  The 3 
hexes to get x2 damage means that if a spearman knocks
you down on turn 1
, he can back up and hit you again for x2 damage
if he has Running talent
.  It kinda made sense.

  Anyway, feel free to play as you w
ill, but we've used the 3 hex
charge rule from Melee for years.

�� Warm regards, Rick.
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