Thread: TFT Defense
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Old 05-11-2018, 11:43 PM   #57
Jim Kane
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Join Date: Mar 2018
Default Re: TFT Defense

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bayarea View Post
If you want to do this the simplest way (no extra rolls) one player designates how many DX points he will add to the opposing player's attack. He then subtracts this from his own DX on his own attack.

Example 1: Robin Hood DX 19 is fighting Sir Guy DX 15, Robin decides he wants to be safe so he takes 7 DX to use for defense and that is added to Sir Guy's DX roll. Thus Sir Guy will need to roll an 8 or less to hit Robin. Robin will need a 12 or less to hit as he used 7 of his DX defending.

Example 2: Robin against 3 henchmen DX 11. Robin decides to use 2 DX points on each of the henchmen lowering their to hit number to 9 or less. Robin still has an AdjDX of 13 as he needs to knock out at least one of them from the fight before the numbers catch up to him.
Yes, this is a rough equivalent to what 1st Ed CHAMPIONS did with what they called: Combat Value (think of this as your raw DX in combat), and you could split that value, up or down, between your modified Defensive Combat Value (DCV), and your Offensive Combat Value (OCV), on a turn-by-turn, or phase-by-phase basis (can't recall which).

Does it work? Yes.

However, when applied to TFT, we found the following results: 1) It slowed play. 2) It didn't feel like TFT anymore. 3) We were not sure why we liked it for CHAMPIONS, but didn't like it for TFT. 4) We abandoned using it in TFT and very quickly went back to the "as written" TFT rules.

Stating the matter as briefly as possible, with the insights I have today versus then, I would say "why" it didn't feel like TFT, and caused us to abandoned this concept is the simple fact that it takes the play out of that fixed and binary, Chess-like, TFT-feel, form, and flow, and into a gradient mode.

I keep coming back to this fixed, binary and Chess-like feel to TFT as key. As gradient rules, being scalable, may offer more fine-tuning in reflecting the detail of what's happening with an attack or talent, but at the cost of moving the feel further away from what feels like TFT to me.

So, yes, the simple formula Bayarea presents as an option DOES work; it just didn't work for US in TFT - however, your mileage may vary.

JK

Last edited by Jim Kane; 05-12-2018 at 02:50 AM.
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