Re: (TFT) A visit to the old stomping grounds

[jh@metheny.brainiac.com (Joe Hartley)]

Guy McLimore <guymc@evansville.net> wrote:
> It pleases me that TFT has survived in the hands of lots of 
> players who remember it and still play the micros.

I've tried to play a few other RPGs, including D&D a few times.  While I
liked the concept, the mechanics always got in the way.  TFT got down to
the bare essentials of it; the battles were easily and clearly resolved.
As someone else mentioned, D&D always got bogged down in details, requiring
a library of resources to find out if losing your hanky and getting a
booger caught in your beard affected you in any way (probably caused a -3
to charisma :)

As I've gone through TFT materials that I've only seen for the first time
in the past month or so (both Advanced Melee & Wizard and ITL, especially),
it's clear that it works on a number of different levels.  Working through
the Microquests with Melee/Wizard makes for fast-paced fun, and adding the
refinements of the Advanced games adds some subtlety.  ITL brings it all
up to the full-blown level of D&D - it can be as complex as you want, though
in comparison to D&D,  TFT at its biggest is still very streamlined.

I've been playing computer RPGs for a long time; I cut my teeth on Adventure,
Zork and Telengard on VT100s at CMU back in the early 80's and worked my way
up to the Ultima, Bard's Tale and Black Crypt games on the Amiga in the
80's and 90's.  In all of these games, the mechanics and the bookkeeping
were taken care of, and they were fun, but it's not quite the same.  If
it were, none of us would have looked back!

So, thanks for your contributions to this - I've had a lot of fun thanks
to you and your comrades.

> Would you folks mind if I bounced a few of these ideas off the people in 
> this mailing list from time to time, as I have occasionally in the 
> Microgames list? It would help us to have some other die-hard TFT players 
> to give us some feedback.

I have no problem with this at all.  Since TFT must remain frozen in time
(at least until Howard resurfaces!), I'm sure we'd all appreciate being able
to help shape a successor in some way.


========================================================================
        Joe Hartley - jh@brainiac.com - brainiac services, inc
 PO Box 5069 : Greene, RI : 02827 - vox 401.539.9050 : fax 401.539.2070
  Without deviation from the norm, "progress" is not possible. - FZappa
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