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Re: (TFT) Hanging Magic in TFT.
Replying mostly just to add paragraph breaks. Some of us (me) suffer
from acute apathy triggered by long walls of text. So, for
handicap-accessibility and all:
On 4/28/15 2:58 PM, Jay Carlisle wrote:
When considering the athletic magic user in TFT I find it interesting that
in most instances the Figure is contemplated en tant qu'individu or as a
single individual. Why wouldn't a Wizard be accompanied by a few
apprentices with knowledge of the Aid spell in the manner of a Knight with
their retinue of squires and pages?
I've seen it happen, if someone can be suckered into playing a walking
ST battery, or if players get more than one character apiece.
As to the deep magics capable of
cracking stone tables this begs the question of sourcing magic to begin
with IMHO such that the addition of hanging magic on nothing is given
a raison d'etre that explains why this is possible when the more commonly
accepted method is the creation of magical items which would seem to suffer
a value hit in the face of such advanced methods with the creation of such
items itself an advanced aspect of study that would loose some appeal for
many magical methodologists mayhaps a minority making mercedary mercantilism
the mantra of magical mastery mindful of mammon and modus decimandi
as modus operandi.
Maybe the wizard himself becomes a "magic item", similar to a wand with
charges?
This of course opens up a entirely new arena of conflict
and engaging the wealthy merchant on financial footing without fortune is
the same folly as fighting a martial master in the combat arena without
arms or challenging the master of magics to a duel of spells when the ways
of mystical manipulation are a mystery unto You.
/
Another approach to finding more balance might be the addition of fatigue
costs for fighter types allowing athletic Actions along similar lines as
spells. This method opens up a myriad of options for play that flow
naturally from fST and in allowing fighter types feats of physical prowess
that temp Players to expend fST to preform the Wizards main dynamic for
effective Action becomes mirrored in the martial Hero's options. It's still
the addition of new mechanics but without hanging the burden on magic if
You take My meaning. Just spitballing by the by. Discussion fodder FWIW not
fault finding of anything put forward so far. Far be it from Me to berate
the addition of mechanics after My own folly fully indulges in the same
again and again.
Can't remember what battle this was, but I think the Spartans at one
point surprised their enemy by sprinting up a hill and then fighting at
the top of it, something they were only able to do because of their
intense training. Spending fatigue for combat actions seems like
something worth inventing a game mechanic to cover. Also, I've heard
that armor is less encumbering than fatiguing to wear, as well, though I
imagine this varies with the type of armor.
My only caveat concerning such tradition is the lack of
any formal system to help with the translation from one table to another.
I'm lazy and look to make My work as simple as possible to pick up from My
table and drop onto another in a straightforward fashion. Home-brewed
additions harbor the effect of pushing the game to a same in title
only separation that flies in the face of such efforts. As home-brewed
additions are traditional to the point of a necessary feature of white-box
D&D to even play the thing at all it flies in the face of RPG roots to
imagine attempting such additions were it not plainly folly in the first
place but I've seen little in the way of offering any objective procedure
for making these modifications and see the possibility not so much for
solutions as for a few small steps toward objectivity in addressing rules
additions in a more formal sense.
/
More important still is the possibility
for improved communication such added definition can bring which is
fundamental to the mediums unique strength of a cooperative experience of
shared imaginative creation which hinges on clear communication that
focuses each Players imagination on the same mental image in it's important
details. The impossible perfection that is the goal is for all the Players
to be imagining is such agreement that there would be no difference between
the mental images imagined by each if they were projected upon a screen in
the manner of a motion picture. See mirror neurons for a foundation of this
concept in Our physiological makeup.
/
I'm on a direct path to ending up tits
up in a field with one ear and a sucking chest wound over this but not
without referent for the methods to My madness. I've been avoiding making
My philosophical apology for My occupation with a passtime in public
perception but there is issues of very real import at play in this play and
the model of destructive action as the only path to advancement is purely
unacceptable as a defining aspect of play to pass on to those who come
after us. Better that gaming go the way of the dodo than continue with that
model much less hobbled with aspects that are the strengths from other
creative mediums cooperative play models poorly instead of featuring the
strengths the table-top holds as the primary elements of focus.
...I note the consistent capitalization of "My". So You've achieved
apotheosis, then? *bows down*
If D&D editions were in service of the Player community the ruleset would evidence
a refinement of established concepts rejecting only what proved fatally
flawed and in its core evidencing continuity and consistently less change
instead of essentially a completely different game the same in name only
which is evidence of a marketing ploy to sell a new set of product in an
endless cycle (note 5th edition is double that or more in actual editions
offered over the course of its 4 decades history) that preys on the
community with such pointless reworking of its foundations then
regurgitating its add on material cloaked in new artwork and statistics
rather than taking the more challenging path of perfecting its base system
and growing in the content it offers in supplement. Four decades of the
same destructive focus evidencing no growth is a horrible misuse of the
mediums potential and a moral affront to the soul of the hobby and the
community of highly imaginative people drawn to its potential for
imaginative expression but arrested in the development of the full
flowering of that expression by the frozen innovation cloaked in the guise
of the continual reworking of the destructive play concept that never
ventures further in its depth or focus. As We near a half century of RPG
history We deserve a concept that exhibits some growth and a grasp on the
possibilities offered by constructive models added to play and some
downside to the destruction that still fails to even require a cleanup of
the corpses from all the killing.
Hear, hear. If we liked D&D, we'd be playing that popular and
well-supported game, rather than an obscure one long out of print.
I don't mean that the model should be
abandoned entirely. The classic hack and slash dungeon crawl is a valid
form of entertaining play but I'm trying to point out that the potential
for so much more continues to remain unexplored coupled with real issues of
underling message when serving as the sole example of what a RPG is (and
the medium IS the message to quote McLuhan) that I find Myself tilting at
the ever cycling gristmill of the RPG marketing monster in a vein hope that
others might see the importance of taking responsibility for their hobby as
well and demand the progress and growth that should have been evidenced
long ago from what in potential is in fact a new medium capable of artistic
expression in its full application. Not every daydream is fixed upon
violence and plunder.
/
I can not believe I'm the only one capable of
imagining far beyond such narrow confines. This cannot continue to stand. I
owe it to all I have invested of Myself in My chosen hobby I hold so dear
to see it free to be more than this hobbled Harrison Bergeron harnessed with
the constraints of those that would hamper its fullness to control it in
pursuit of profit for profits sake knowing that unfettered the dominate
model repeating and repeating the same established cycle suddenly fails to
encompass the whole and as the carefully crafted control is lost so goes
the profit coupled to it and thus it falls to the likes of You and Me if We
are to ever see more from Our hobby that can be if freed to be. Screed
fini. Pardon Me.
Thus endeth the reading of Jay's Holy Word.
...all right, now I'm going back to cleaning up my own paragraphs
(mumble mumble stupid English paper - procrastinating on that thing is
90% of why I'm spamming the list recently, I swear). Thank You for Your
divine wisdom, and also for the excuse to do something else for a while.
=====
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