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RE: (TFT) a survey of Melee and Wizard editions
Interesting. It is true I haven't very often read much ITL recently,
but I nearly memorized it back when I ran campaigns with it, but
decades ago. I have a very good memory, but not so much for word and
phrase use. If we can run a count of pairs of words, though, I think
"GM discretion" ought to appear a lot. ;-) My copy of ITL is worn
soft like a broken-in shoe, and has plastic side tab labels I added
for quick reference (same for AM and AW). Cidri is my sentimental
favorite fantasy setting, and my actual favorite for generic "let's
do some fantasy gaming" setting. My original TFT campaign flows out
from the map of the Duchy of Dran in the back of ITL, stretching out
several further maps in all directions until you need a fairly large
empty room to lay it all out (using the same 12.5km hex map format
and extending the map key).
TFT was my first RPG (when I was 11), and remains one of my favorite
games, but after my friends and I had played it extensively for about
7 years, we could often predict how combats would play out, and we
were more and more sensitive to the limitations, so that it started
to feel more like an abstract board game that wasn't satisfying in
its representation of how violence might really play out, so we
started inventing new rules, and then GURPS came out and covered
everything we were trying to improve, but in a much more elegant,
playtested and complete and ready to use way (than our own rules).
Many years later, from time to time I have also played TFT, and found
that I still like it but that I still think it's missing several
things (that I prefer and am sensitive to, which I know not everyone
is) from GURPS, but (I was surprised to find) that it's also possible
to add fairly simple house rules that do some of the same things in a
fairly satisfying (to me) way.
I think I'm just a detail&realism-oriented simulationist player, and
that has me always looking for detailed realism-oriented rules. It
was only about 4 years after switching from TFT to GURPS that I
started adding all sorts of detailed house rules to GURPS, too. I
also show up on GURPS forums and talk about details like how I'm
working on more detailed house rules for where characters should land
when they fall down, etc., and how 4e GURPS dumbed down several
things compared to 3e GURPS.
I certainly don't read and participate here to be negative. I didn't
realize I was rubbing anyone the wrong way. I don't mean to be coming
across as saying "GURPS is better", and I think I rarely if ever say
that. I think when I do mention GURPS, I'm trying to offer something
I think may be interesting or useful.
PvK
At 07:26 AM 3/16/2016, David Michael Grouchy II wrote:
I'm sorry for delurking, PvK always rubs me the wrong way. For
instance; in the word-count-analysis of ITL, the word "will" is
ranked as the most frequently appearing at 590 occurrences. The
book is full of phrases like "the GM will", "the Player will", etcetera.
But PvK asks "I wonder why 'will'? " Causing me to wonder if he
has ever actually read ITL. Which has now triggered me. As I have
always felt he was anti-TFT. Like another contributor who's answer
was always "g.u.r.p.s. is better".
I have no stomach for a flame war with such hard headed negative
minded people. I return to radio silence. /grouchy's submarine
sinks back beneath the surface.
David Michael Grouchy II
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