RE: (TFT) Character Fragility

["Gadda, Charles A" <charles.a.gadda@lmco.com>]

Yendorian spake, saying:

>>>>>In all fairness to the many and varied playing styles out there. This
may be 
>>>>>what this individual was striving for. I for one look for a more
realistic 
>>>>>playing style. But by the same token, I have ran games in the past with

>>>>>"naked Conans" and was looking for a less realistic approch myself. I
guess 
>>>>>the end result is if your suspension of reality is lost upon a nacked
guy 
>>>>>winning a battle.

True - I just said if they took it ***seriously***. Its ultimately up to the
particular game group how they want to play, of course. The two problems I
have are the "reality check" and also game balance. To be accurate, most
ducking and weaving and so forth doesn't *really* result in a clean miss -
most "misses" are the result of the target successfully blocking and
redirecting the blow. If you watch a karate match, you will note that they
usually hit each other - its just that they block each others blows. As I
was taught in Tae Kwon Do many years ago, you don't try to solidly "block" a
blow - that can be detrimental! The idea is to **redirect** the energy of
the blow to somewhere other than your delicate body. Even when using a
shield, the idea, at least with a more manueverable
Viking/Germanic/Anglo-Saxon/Celtic style light shield (i.e. not strapped to
your arm, but simply held in the hand) is that you try to rotate the shield
around with the blow to deflect, rather than absorb it. Done correctly, it
can really throw your opponent completely out of line, and make him very
vulnerable to a counterattack.

Also, game balance suffers when rules like that become used. Again, its a
matter of perspective: what kind of campaign do you want? Personally, since
I've tried to deal with all powerful D&D characters and found it to be less
than enjoyable (not impossible, but difficult to plan and execute properly)
I am less than enthused about changes to TFT that essentially turn it into a
streamlined version of D&D. The one level of Defensive Quickness I could
handle; I envision it as a sort of "Zen" ability that combines quickness
with intuition (reflected in the 14 IQ of the talent) to anticipate and
dodge your opponents. But when you start talking about people with DX 32 and
needing 9 dice to hit them ... that's a bit ***much***. And from a game
balance stand point, it becomes very difficult to devise encounters that
will be meaningful. Further, you have the same potential problem with player
characters running amuck that you do in D&D.

>>>>>>What happens when the undead start rising from their graves?

Obviously, you've never been around our offices at 8:00 in the blessed A.M.
The Walking Dead are an everyday occurence, and not worthy of note or remark
... further, one may witness a miraculous and blessed Resurrection of the
Dead when the first Holy Cup of the Sacred Coffee courses its Living Fire
through their veins.

The supernatural is all around us ...

>>>>>>Throwing a log on the fire,
>>>>>>>Rod

Pyro.

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