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

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

"C. Michel Boucher" <alsandor@netcom.ca> wrote:
> I remember running a solo campaign of arena combats with a character, female,
> wearing leather armour and armed with a sword and dagger.  I pitted her against
> fellows wearing plate mail and a two-handed sword.  In D&D, she wouldn't stand a
> chance because the combat system favours heavily armed individuals but, in TFT,
> she ran circles around the fellow and perforated him many times while he never
> got a single stroke in, bogged down as he was by the weight of his armour and
> weapon.

There was a thread on the microgame list a few months ago about a heavily
armored dwarf as a good starting character.  Others disagreed, preferring
the better chance of hitting with a lightly armored character.

I think the fact that it still sparks debate shows that there is an excellent
balance between speed and strength

> ... I have found from running AD&D is that players will
> tend to try to figure out the odds before deciding on a particular approach,
> whereas in TFT, it's much less obvious, so you're less tempted to fudge.

Actually, I think the odds are _more_ obvious in TFT, but that they're so
basic to the character that it often runs the character for you.  Chars
with platemail and a 2-handed sword are always going to wade right in and
start swinging.  It's highly unlikely that they'll try an option like dodge
on their turn!  So the fine-tuning of a character is something that you end
up thinking about, whereas in D&D, more armor was _always_ better.


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        Joe Hartley - jh@brainiac.com - brainiac services, inc
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