Re: (TFT) Long aimless rant, tangentially including Hanging Magic in TFT.

[Rick Smith <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi all,
  My comments inlined below:


On 2015-04-24, at 11:57 PM, Meg Tapley wrote:
> ...
> My thinking thus far had been along the lines of: take spells from D&D, nerf/edit/derange them until they make a reasonable degree of sense, keeping their original categorization as transmutation/evocation/etc. To cast a spell, first a wizard must learn the talent that lets him cast spells from that category and level (i.e. level 1 evocation), then he can prepare and "hang" the spell. I was thinking of using IQ, or "number of IQ points invested in that spell category", to determine how many spells could be hung.
> 
> I like Rick's version better. Though I'd want the option to hang normal spells as well (Emergency Teleport, anyone?). And also the option to invest points in HM at character creation.

Of course, that would work.  In particular hanging a long distance teleport is a very powerful 
escape spell.  (Tho it does not help the rest of the party much.)  I was thinking that if HM is 3, 
you could only hang existing spells, at HM 6 you can combine 2 spells together, at HM 9 you 
can combine up to 3 different spells, etc.  So as HM increases, you not only get to hang more
spells but they become more flexible and interesting as well.

> ...
> 
> Incidentally, Rick, I used your superscript rules in a campaign that ran briefly and sporadically, dying when I left for college. They were mostly as-written, though I think I added a rule that superscripts couldn't be more than half the base attribute. Most of the players ignored them entirely, except Dad, who cleverly munchkinned them to make his character a much more powerful crossbowman than he would otherwise have been able to be at 32 points, by taking negative superscripts on DX and ST, making himself slower and in worse shape, but stronger and more accurate - and prompting me to start thinking of ways to make fighters have to pay fatigue in combat...just seems realistic, right?

In the past we have said that superscripts are limited in this way.  (I think our house rule was
they couldn't exceed the attribute so a ST 10 wizard could not buy more than 10 fST super-
scripts.)   I am surprised that they were not used more in your campaign.  My players love 
talents, and extra memory was always in high demand.

I have long given fatigue costs for combat.  1 fST for a combat that lasts 30 second or more,
and higher penalties for longer fights.  (Surprising how rarely a fight lasts more than a minute.)  

> ...
> 
> Bonus story, because it's late and I'm still procrastinating on writing this paper: Another time, I was running a TFT game for people who'd mostly played Pathfinder up to that point. Party of beginning characters runs into a dragon. The goblin PC hides under a rock. The other characters brace for combat... except the one who'd taken Charisma and Sex Appeal, who boldly walks up to the dragon and TRIES TO SEDUCE IT...

Sweet!  smiles out loud.

warm regards, Rick.
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"