Re: TFT Expansion for The Lords of Underearth (TLoU)

[Rick <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi Marc, 

Comments inline.

On Oct 20, 2021, at 8:35 AM, Marc Gacy <marcgacy@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Rick,

This looks very interesting and has rekindled my interest in LoU!

I'll need to dive in further, but the first thing that comes to mind is "moral" should be "morale"

Hmmm, my spell checker didn’t catch this. sigh.

It looks like you more fully incorporate TFT heroes up into LoU scale; years ago I tried to make a simple equation to better scale up an individual character to LoU scale as a group.

Value = (ST + adjDX + 2*hits stopped)/15

Note this doesn't have anything about other special abilities, but "hits stopped" includes armor,shields, special talents and maybe typical spells

To incorporate (non-PC) wizards, or even IQ-based heroes, Value = (ST + adjDX  +  1.5*IQ + 2*hits stopped)/21 seem to work well.

I tried to make these rules super easy to use, and a table look 

up is as easy as it gets.  For some reason, “Look up a value on a 

table and then modify it” seems to be easier than “Calculate an 

equation, and then modify it.”

Also, I wanted the values to increase more steeply as you got 

to the really tough adventuring parties, and that sort of behaviour is 

tough to capture in simple linear equations.

This is from a page I had put up on the TFT wiki a LOOOONG time ago.

----------------------------------------------------------

1: Companies

• Composition:
  • About 30 individuals
• Combat factor:
  • The sum of ST+DX for all in group divided by 13
  • Assumed leather armor
• Modifiers:
  • 5 to 10 points lower for no armor
  • 5 to 10 points higher for chainmail
  • 'Home Ground' provide bonus
• Movement:
  • One point lower than regular MA (due to maintaining formation)

The movement of companies in this game bugged me.  No 

reason that they could not be one lower than individuals (at a given 

armor level) right across the board.

I keep thinking about making a simple “create companies in 

a RPG and then fight them in a simple war game”, but I have so 

many projects, I’ve no idea if I’ll ever get to it.  (My next project is 

expanding SPI’s “War of the Ring”.  Again.)

2: Individuals (Leaders)

• Combat factor:
  • The sum of ST+DX divided by 10
• Modifiers:
  • Special abilities & magic items increase

3: Maps

• Scale:
  • One LOU hex is equal to 8 megahexes across
• Corridors:
  • Tunnels are 1 hex wide
  • Narrow corridors are 1 Mhex wide
  • Wide corridors are 4 MHex wide

4: Turns

• Scale:
  • One LOU turn is 72 ITL rounds (six minutes)

5: Magic

• Magic system can be scaled up by adjusting ST cost

Has anyone ever made a magic system for TLoU by scaling 

up TFT spells?  They suggested it in the game, but I’ve never 

seen house rules published anywhere that actually did this.

Independent Commentary
Does this work? I don't know. The one obvious problem is that the time and map scales don't match up, being off by a factor of three. It looks like a ninefold difference, but really it is only a threefold difference, due to the Mhex conversion. Still, if the LOU turns were 24 rounds (two minutes), it would match perfectly.

Thanks for the idea of making the TLoU turns 2 minutes.

I’ll make that official in my game.

The conversion is weak with no real examples, but it could be codified a bit and made workable.

A cleaner conversion system that works, keeps roughly the same values, and implicitly includes armor is (ST + adjDX + 2*Armor)/15

Nice.

I think that your equation above does a good job of capturing 

the importance of armor.  PC’s have healing magic and healing 

potions and are crazy rich, so skimping on armor is a valid strategy.  

But for a standard spear carrier, being able to limit damage in one 

fight after another (as happens in this war game) is a very serious 

consideration.

The wealthy PC’s can break the “high armor = move slower” 

with fine armor, weapon / armor enchantments, flesh spells, 

warrior / veteran talents, Speed Movement items, etc.  

(I felt that Speed Movement spell was too powerful, so I made 

‘Haste’ items.  Haste gives you: +1 MA if you are in heavy armor, 

+2 MA in Chainmail or lighter armor, and +3 MA in no armor.  This 

item fit much more comfortably into my campaign than doubling of 

MA given by Speed Movement items.)

My PC’s feel that any armor that slows them at all is a 

MASSIVE imposition.  They rarely are willing to put up with it.

:-(

Hopefully this expansion will get people to pull out this fun 

game again.  Thanks for your comments!

Warm regards, Rick.