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

[Jeffrey Vandine <jlv61560@yahoo.com>]

That's the same thing I saw in Starfire, way back when, too.  Feature 
creep.  Which is kind of what soured me on GURPS after a couple of yea
rs -- I just didn't have the time to keep up with it all, anymore.  Wh
ich put me right back into TFT.  I actually have no regrets about that
...  ;-)
Besides, I find it extremely easy to convert GURPS characters and monsters 
and beasts to TFT, so all those source books are pretty useful to me too.
  Add in DCG's addition of the Western and Space rules for modern/post
-modern play, and it's really no problem to even run Call of Cthulhu advent
ures using TFT characters!  


      From: Edward Kroeten <ekroeten@farmersagent.com>
 To: tft@brainiac.com 
 Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2016 2:00 PM
 Subject: Re: (TFT) a survey of Melee and Wizard editions
   
I am a big Starfleet Battles player too but even that game's mechanics co
uld be kept moving and I like the Fed and Empire except they went to far 
adding raids (going microtactical in a strategic game).  Of course TFT
 is
 not at that level but the mechanics flow so well that I am willing to sa
y good enough.
  

  

  

  

    

      

        

          

            

              

                

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en
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  ------ Original Message ------
    Received: 01:07 PM PDT, 03/16/2016
    From: Peter von Kleinsmid <pvk@oz.net>
    To: tft@brainiac.com
    Subject: Re: (TFT) a survey of Melee and Wizard editions
    

    

    

    

      At 11:45 AM 3/16/2016, Jeffrey Vandine wrote:
        >This particular exchange raises an interesting
 point. To my min
d (and I sin
        >cerely doubt I'm being original here) there ar
e two kinds of pl
ayers
        

        Yes. There's more detail to different people's 
tastes, but basic
ally yes,
        at least as far as contrasting me to most other
s, I know I'm way
 out on the
        far end of wanting to simulate combat in great 
detail.
        

        ...
        >As a recent example, I prefer to run with Wiza
rd and Melee as m
y basis (wit
        >h only a few of the Advanced Wizard or Advance
d Melee rules in 
play at any
        >given time), but someone (sorry, I forget who,
 now) basically d
emanded to k
        >now why anyone would think that was better. ..
.
        

        Well (hehe) that was me too, but I didn't mean 
to come across as
 demanding
        to know, or to say others were wrong. I may hav
e overstated it, 
but I have a
        hard time relating to why people prefer Melee a
nd Wizard over AM
 and AW.
        

        The analysis of the different versions recently
 underlined that,
 and reminded
        me of the sequence.
        

        Steve Jackson did versions 1-3, which improved 
things, and then 
added ITL,
        AM and AW, which added even more stuff, which s
eemed all good to
 me. Then
        there were the HT editions of Melee, which adde
d a couple of att
empts at
        rules development, but also accidentally put in
 weird reversions
 to 1st
        edition Melee. So that looked pretty useless, t
o me. Melee seeme
d less
        useful than AM for campaigning because its cont
ext is arena comb
at, and
        has none of the ITL-compatible context than AM 
does, such as wei
ghts for
        equipment.
        

        But yes, since we were the type of players you 
mentioned who pre
fer details
        of simulation, Melee offered nothing but less, 
which was a step 
in the wrong
        direction unless you wanted to give someone a s
hort version of t
he rules
        to learn with. And even then, you wanted to che
ck they didn't ha
ve a weird
        version of Melee, which was 3/5 of the versions
, including the l
atest versions
        for sale, which was problematic.
        

        Being so detail-oriented (and even back in high
 school, used to 
playing other
        far more complex wargames, such as Squad Leader
 or Starfleet Bat
tles), it's
        hard for me to relate to Advanced Melee as havi
ng too much stuff
.
        

        But it makes sense too that the players who fel
t TFT was just th
e right amount
        of rules, and have kept playing it, would tend 
to not be rules-h
ungry players
        like me.
        

        Though I think TFT is a great example of a comb
ination of short 
rules
        (especially if you just use Melee & Wizard) yet
 having a excelle
nt amount of
        details and logic.
        

        PvK
        

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