(TFT) Madison Traditional Gaming.

[Jay White <riskoridan@hotmail.com>]

I have a question for everyone.  I am in a gaming group at the local game s
tore and we meet every Tuesday evening.  What we do is several of us are GM
s, actually anyone can GM, and about every four months or so we switch 
game systems.  The only requirement is that the system be pre-2K.  I have b
een running MERP.  And am considering running TFT in the new "season" start
ing in January.
 
Would it be better to run basic Melee/Wizard or could/should I jump right i
nto TFT/ITL?  I have been playing TFT since the time of the Beginning, th
e '80s...  Just would like some thoughts/ideas...
 
Jay White (the other Jay)
 
> Subject: Re: (TFT)  Shields and Feats.
> From: rick_ww@lightspeed.ca
> Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2015 10:22:10 -0800
> To: tft@brainiac.com
> 
> Hi David,
>   Thanks for the comments.
> 
>   Two handed weapons used to do one extra point of damage.
> In my revised weapon list they usually do 3 extra points of 
> damage.  (The exception is pole weapons.  A two handed pole
> weapon does +2 damage, but then gets a x 1.5 multiplier if
> it charges closing the distance by 3 hexes.)
> 
>   I have added lots of talents some of which come on the even
> number of IQ points, (e.g. IQ 10, 12, etc.).  However, to make
> talents easier to find, prerequisites are 2 IQ lower than the 
> more advanced talents.  This means that given that Shield is
> IQ 7, then advanced shield talents will fall at IQ 9 and 11.
> (I've added so many talents, that this rule is actually fairly 
> important to help people remember where to find talents.)
> 
>   We will have to agree to disagree about making an IQ 8 
> fighter obsolete.  I feel that a barely trained fighter SHOULD
> be beaten by highly skilled adversaries.  I am not troubled 
> that many of the advanced fighting skills are higher IQ than
> 8.  That is how the TFT system is set up.  If you wanted to 
> grab a bunch of my talents, but make them all IQ 8, it would
> not trouble me.
> 
> The last edition of D&D that I played much was 2nd, which
> was before feats, so I can't comment much on them.  But if
> you were to write up a bunch of feats, I would read them 
> with interest.  
> 
> In D&D you get more feats with higher levels.  Would your 
> feats be based on buying DX and ST (but not IQ), or would
> you have another system?
> 
> Warm regards, Rick.
> 
> 
> On 2015-12-01, at 1:25 AM, David Bofinger wrote:
> > If you make shields much better, you need to make two-handed weapons 
much
> > better as well. Or one-handed weapons worse. Probably a bit of both.
> > 
> > Caveat: This is based on what I've seen of Rick's advanced weapon talen
ts,
> > which might have changed since I saw them.
> > 
> > Rick, you seem to like putting all your combat expertise talents (shi
eld,
> > weapons) at IQ 9, 11. I'm not sure why you do that but it has a coupl
e of
> > effects I suspect are undesirable. First, IQ 9 is only just above the
 hard
> > deck of IQ 8 so it makes the classic IQ 8 fighter pretty much obsolete.
 The
> > benefits of IQ 9 talents greatly outweigh the cost of 1 point so IQ 8 i
s no
> > longer a sweet spot. As an example:
> > 
> > Fighter ST 12 DX 12 IQ 8 [Knife, Sword, Shield, Running, +3 @ I
Q 8]
> > broadsword, small shield: 2+0, aDX 12, stops 1, parries on 12 (
10%), MA 12.
> > 
> > Fighter ST 11 DX 12 IQ 9: [Knife, Sword, Shield, Improved Sword
, Shield 2,
> > +2 @ IQ 9] shortsword, small shield: 2+1, aDX 12, stops 3, parr
ies on 14
> > (22%), MA 10.
> > 
> > OK, it's not absolutely one-sided, but I know who I'd rather back i
n a
> > fight. It's a pretty huge gulf in capability. Two-handed weapons also t
ake
> > a hit.
> > 
> > I don't think the simple fighter should be made obsolete. Have to compe
te,
> > sure, but not get badly outcompeted by obvious analogous designs.
> > 
> > Generally it tends to make the odd-IQ levels more useful than the even
> > IQ-levels, for anyone with an interest in melee combat. That's alread
y true
> > to some extent in the standard rules, because the best stuff is, IM
O,
> > somewhat more common at odd IQ than even, at least at lower IQ levels
. IQ 8
> > has Seamanship/Boating/Horsemanship which might be useful but is highly
> > situational and anyway that doesn't count because we don't get to choos
e
> > whether we have IQ 8. IQ 9 has Missile Weapons which can easily be real
ly
> > important, IQ 10 has Fencing but that's not a huge deal, IQ 11 has 
Two
> > Weapons which can be quite a big deal (along with three critical party
> > skills, it's a big skill monkey level), IQ 12 has nothing much, I
Q 13 has
> > nothing much, IQ 14 has the high level unarmed combat abilities thoug
h they
> > cost a fortune. Add in your special combat talents and I think characte
rs
> > will be putting their IQ up two at a time.
> > 
> > (Another feature of your weapon talents is that IQ 9 to IQ 11 is a smal
ler
> > jump than IQ 11 to IQ 13 so characters tend to stop at IQ 9 or IQ 13. I
> > think.)
> > 
> > I'm not sure what the answer is to this. But I sort of like the idea th
at
> > the special abilities should be a bit more like what D&D calls feats an
d
> > less just "add two". Actually, my current theory of RPG design is to 
ditch
> > as many numbers as possible and describe everything by characters havin
g
> > feats. Because feats are more fun than numbers.
> > 
> > --
> > David
> > 
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