Re: (TFT) a survey of Melee and Wizard editions

[David Carter <clumsyspider@hotmail.com>]

Mostly a reply to your 2nd paragraph. 

Back in days of yore I was part of a gaming group that met once a week. Mostly single nerds in their 20s. When ITL came out we liked it so much that we started meeting 2 or 3 times a week. A really great system that we liked for its simplicity. After a while....a long while....we moved away from it and on to other stuff. It was a lot of work for the GMs and the group was raucous.

We still meet regularly but everyone is in to railway games now. Times change but they system was well done and we still reminisce about some of the campaigns.

DC

> On Mar 16, 2016, at 11:53 AM, Peter von Kleinsmid <pvk@oz.net> wrote:
> 
> 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
> 
> =====
> Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
> Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
> "unsubscribe tft"

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