(TFT) TFT: Garbage

["Dave Seagraves" <dseagraves@austin.rr.com>]

Rick writes . . .

>That is right, while they are running around playing the
>game, they are also cleaning up the park.

   That's a great idea, and very amusing.  As people cast spells the "mana
level" drops!  This means almost no magic can be performed in an area that's
just been visited by the city's cleanup crews, while an area like the
Woodstock '99 grounds (right after the riot) would allow spells of
Earth-shaking power to be cast.  A garbage dump might even allow apotheosis!
8^)


Michael writes . . .

>Now, the rules can't stop a GM from giving out too much EP, but is
>anybody *really* having a problem with characters becoming too high
>level too quickly in TFT?!?!
>
>Are there really ST 30 player-characters wandering around in your
>campaign?

   Nope -- I don't have a problem with it at all.  Even if the experience
goal chart is changed to a more "elegant" one -- allowing faster
promotion -- I still don't have a problem.  I've never seen a character with
an attribute higher than 18.
   And even if I /did/ have a guy in the group with ST 30 I would still
allow him as long as his player can truthfully tell me that it's a legit
character.  PC's should be allowed to enjoy the fruits of their labors
instead of players being forced to retire their characters (i.e. punished
just because they were successful).  Liberals and socialists punish
excellence; GMs should never do so.

   So how does one handle these combat monsters?  Simple . . .  increase the
scope of the campaign as the character becomes more powerful, and increase
the maximum challenge level the character must face to keep the player from
boredom.

>While I'm very interested in this, I have to say that if you *don't*
>give TFT style statisitics for the NPCs you've greatly reduced
>my level of interest in a supplement like this.

   Here, here!  I feel the same way.  Just for fun, I do plan on writing an
adventure for the list here which will contain complete TFT stats for all
NPCs, locations, etc.  If I don't do this I imagine most readers will say,
"nice, that" and never use the adventure that I've so carefully crafted.
Tollenkar's Lair alone has about five dozen characters with complete stats,
and it would be a pain in the ass for a GM to have to generate all of these
NPCs from non-game descriptions.
   (This is what GURPS can be like -- massive amounts of preparation for
only a few hours of game session.  I've learned my lesson.  Even being a
/player/ in a GURPS campaign can be a lot of work.)


Rodger writes . . .

>  My reason for posting, though, is not to take the discussion off-
>topic, but to let you know that there is a fairly good facility for real-
>time online gaming at WebRPG.

   Thanks for the heads-up on this, Rodger.  I'll definitely be checking
this out.


Dan writes . . .

>The point of my discussion was that TFT is broken with regard to
>characters of high experience.  And, realistically, can you really
>imagine a character with ST 25?  Arnold Schwarzenegger is probably
>about an ST 18 - I personally just can't envision a character that
>could toss physically toss Arnold around like he was a rag-doll.

   I can.  Based on the numbers found in The Guinness Book of Records
(1996), a record-breaking strength level is somewhere between 20 and 21, and
a 25 ST is not much more.  Given the fact that TFT is a game meant to model
heroic fantasy literature (and not necessarily reality) I wouldn't have too
much trouble accepting the existence of a ST 25 brute.  This doesn't harm my
suspension of disbelief at all, especially with the likes of wizards and
dragons running around!


   Speaking of experience, I've come up with two optional rules for the way
experience is dished out in combat:

Experience for Killing Opponents with Multiple Attacks
   When a monster is killed, the character that finished
it off now gets experience equal to the monster?s DX
for /every/ attack that the monster can use in a single
turn without penalty.  (Normally characters only get the
monster?s DX in experience once, no matter how many
attacks it had.)  For example, normal dragons can attack
three times per turn without penalty (claw, breathe fire,
and tail swipe), so killing a DX 13 dragon would net
13 x 3 = 39 experience points to the character who put
in the death blow.
   This rule change gives characters a bit more reward
for killing monsters that ? because of their multiple
attacks ? are more dangerous than their DX alone
would indicate.

Experience for Neutralizing Opponents
   Characters now get experience equal to an opponent?s
DX for /neutralizing/ opponents (i.e. taking them out of
the fight through whatever means) as well as killing them.
(Normally characters get this extra experience only for
/killing/ opponents and nothing for neutralizing them in any
other way.)  So a character who kills, knocks out, /Sleeps/,
/Freezes/, /Ropes/, or otherwise incapacitates a hostile
wolf (DX 14) gets 14 experience points.
   Players can be discouraged from using non-deadly
attacks because their characters don?t get any experience
for them.  This rule change allows PCs to make attack
decisions based on humane, moral, and/or efficiency
issues (and not necessarily lethality) and not be punished
for doing so.

Dave Seagraves
Seagraves Design Bureau   dseagraves@austin.rr.com   1 (512) 255-2760
"It's not reality . . .  it's Car Wars."


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