(TFT) Healing Spells - how has TFT philosophy changed with these?

[Rick Smith <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi David, my comments interleaved below.


On 2015-09-01, at 4:49 AM, David Bofinger wrote:

> Rick,
> 
> A minor issue with the healing rules:
> 
> It's ambiguous whether this happens instantly, or over the course of two
> days.

This healing happens at once.  Thanks for pointing it out.  When I get some
time, I will update the spells.

> 
> ---
> 
>> To allow some low IQ and very high IQ spells to be entered into the spell
> list.
> 
> I once wrote up IQ 7 spells like ...
> for prootwaddle wizards.

Nice.  I didn't like prootwaddles.  It seemed like making fun of the stupid.  I 
expected better from Steve Jackson.  

However, a friend ran an adventure where this big town was having an
election and there was a prootwaddle reservation near by.  The prootwaddles
had been given the vote, and how Glenn played the politicians trying to buy
prootwaddle votes was WICKEDLY funny.  Some absolutely hysterical dark
humor.  That one adventure did a lot to rehabilitate the idea of the prootwaddle
race in my mind.  That said, I've not used that race in my campaign for 
decades.


> More seriously, philosophical issues:
> 
> It seems lo me that the TFT paradigm is something like
> * everyone goes out and has an adventure
> * one or more is severely wounded
> * everyone retreats to a safe place
> * the wounded member(s) are then tied up at home for a considerable period,
> perhaps weeks.
> * the other members of the party have various choices at this point
> (adventure with a replacement character, adventure without, get a job,
> etc.) but none of them is ideal
> (These issues can be solved by healing potions but that's usually
> economically infeasible.)

Yes, I agree with this completely.  It is not so bad if you are near a town.  If the
adventurers are deep in a wilderness, the problem is even more biting.


> It seems to me that the main purpose of introducing healing magic should be
> to change this paradigm to something that players and GMs think is better
> (more entertaining, more adaptable to telling stories, whatever). In his
> healing rules, Rick writes:
> 
>> 
> ​ ​
> To speed healing after combat and allow slightly wounded figures to keep on
> adventuring
> 
> The actual impact of Rick's healing rules would seem to be to change the
> paradigm in quite a modest way: the period for which wounded characters are
> tied up is reduced. How much depends on wizard IQ but typically it might be
> halved.
> ​ ​
> It doesn't really help people to keep going, except perhaps at IQ 19.

The most important part of the spell is in all versions, even down to IQ 7.  It is
the part where PC's can heal, even if adventuring.

Many times PC's get in a fight, and one or two of them are modestly wounded.
"Crap.  What do we do now?  If we keep adventuring, those guys won't heal.
Sooner or later we will get in a fight, and do you want to start a fight down 3 or 4 
hit points?"

In my campaign, you do not get into minor fights all the time.  Often a few weeks
will go by between fights.  (Some times they happen on adjacent days, but that 
is rare.)  Rather than having everyone stop and build a camp to hang around 
for several days, a person who is down a point or two might say, "Screw it, let's
keep going.  Likely I'll be healed up before the next fight anyways."  And right
there, the pace of the story is improved.  

Now if several people are wounded, then sure, the party will stop for a while.
But with bed rest, the length of time is reduced.  Let us say you have 4 people 
down 2 or 3 points, and one person down 5 points.  The majority of the party
recovers, and the final person says, "Let's go, I'm only down two.  By the time
we get to the fight at the fort, I will be healed up."

If you were in a campaign where wondering monsters made a deadly fight
most days that you travel thru the woods, people wouldn't risk it.  But if 
wilderness fights are rare, the ability to heal while travelling really does speed
things up.

> 
> Now there's probably someone who thinks this is a really important change
> that makes the game much better. But it's not obvious to me why. Rather, it
> seems like the roleplaying issues are much the same as before.
> ​ ​
> Players still need top think about "What will we do while Tritum recovers
> from his injuries?"
> 
> I'm not sure what paradigm I'd prefer but this one leaves me wondering why.
> They aren't bad rules, but I think, tentatively, that they're a solution looking for a problem.
> ​ I don't really know what Rick's trying to do here.​
> 
> --
> David

If the party is far from civilization, situations will arise where the ability to move
and heal is very useful.  

And as you have observed, the spells are not that powerful.  (Especially at 
reasonably low IQ.)  This was done deliberately.  I didn't want to put in powerful
D&D style healing.  However, with out these spells, if you travel while hurt, you
GUARANTEE that your next fight will be started with you down hit points.  In 
that situation, people tend to be very conservative.  If you are down three, but
you know that the next fight you might be down 2, 1 or most likely zero hits, 
you are more likely to say, "eh, screw delay, let's get on with the adventure."

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"