Re: Dark City Games etc

Well, in DCG's defense on the maps thing -- if you pop open your old Death Test map, you'll see that DCG's maps are clearly a cut above! (Of course, 30 years after the fact, they sort of should be, I guess! ;-) ) And I like the fact that I get a completely playable game, right out of the baggie...much like the old Microgames/quests when it comes right down to it.

I agree with you that much detail for a full RPG experience is missing -- if you check out the forums at DCG, you'll see all sorts of comments on that, but at the end of the day, what they give you works quite well for it's intended purpose -- a quick playing miniquest. I would like to see them go in to more detail though...

To me, their best feature is the way the skills work -- that and the healing magic! For the rest of it, I have to admit I backslide into TFT pretty thoroughly when playing the games.

Likewise, CW Brandon's Heroes and Other Worlds is an interesting take on TFT, and he has a lot of support material out for it, including a fairly comprehensive monster manual that translates most of the D&D monsters into TFT-ish versions (though I think a number of them are fairly overinflated in characteristics). I disagree with his EN (Endurance, or health, or HPs, if you like) characteristic though -- not because I feel it's a bad idea (after all Steve Jackson went down that road with GURPS), but because it only applies to the PCs...which feels a bit "gamey" to me. Still he's got an interesting system there, and he too uses a DCG-like skills system.

Finally, I'll mention something going on right now -- Steve Jackson has a Kickstarter under way for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy which seems to be a fairly stripped down version of GURPS dedicated to dungeon delving. According to SJG's puff, it's a lot less involved than GURPS itself is and is stripped down to it's basic elements. Several of the backers have compared it to a juiced up version of TFT (though Steve Jackson isn't biting on that one, since you could bet dollars to donuts that Howard Thompson would sue the crap out of him if he even used the name TFT as a comparison -- I still can't figure out what got HT's knickers into such a twist, but whatever). Anyway, the Kickstarter is in it's final couple of days, and has fully funded, along with a few stretch goals (half of which simply reduce shipping costs; someone definitely learned a lesson from the Ogre Designer's Edition Kickstarter!), and it might be something some of you want to take a look at to see if it interests you. (Full disclosure: I AM a backer, and at the "I want it all" level, but like I said it's already funded and therefore my only motivation in mentioning it is that I assume anyone and everyone on this list likes that kind of game...)

From: Peter von Kleinsmid <pvk@oz.net>
To: "tft@brainiac.com" <tft@brainiac.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2016 10:21 PM
Subject: Dark City Games etc

At 09:02 AM 9/28/2016, Jeffrey Vandine wrote:
>Wouldn't we all? Of course, you can check out Dark City Games and
>Heroes and Other Worlds for a more modern take on the old
>system. Frankly, I think DCG is pretty close to the way Steve
>Jackson himself might have re-worked the skills set in a
>hypothetical re-write of TFT.

I recently took the effort to study those rules and give them a run.
I think they are basically pretty good, but are sorely lacking in
detail. So they're good enough for people who don't know or don't
care what's missing or weakly defined. And for people who do know
what's missing (like experienced TFT players), those players can add
house rules (and/or TFT rules) to fill in the gaps. That is, I'd
rather have a decent core system with many missing details to fill
in, than a system with details done poorly.

I do like the DCG system for learning and improving skills better
than the ITL system in some ways, though like the entire DCG system,
it wants some embellishment and details (or a GM who want to use GM
discretion all the time for all the missing details, or players who
don't notice or don't care about the missing details).

The DCG programmed adventures are many and those I tried seem well
done, though... again with the exception of being a bit lazy on the
details (e.g. re-use the same maps for everything with little or no
terrain specified or different for each room - room says there is
furniture but no map for it, etc.).

>If I ever become a billionaire, I fully intend to buy the rights to
>TFT and then commission Steve Jackson to do an update and rewrite...

Excellent!

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