[larsdangly]

I used it exclusively as an engine for gladiatorial combat 1978-1979 or 80, and since 1980 have used it ~3/4 as a full blown roleplaying game and ~1/4 as a combat engine (stand alone gladiatorial combats, or a series of fights where we track surviving combatants for a while. I've never really pasted TFT in as a combat engine for another game system, though I do have 3 or 4 editions of my house ruled version of TFT, the biggest of which is more like a fantasy heart breaker that has TFT as its core system.

I would say the funnest thing I've done with TFT, just measured by how many howls and laughs happen at table per hour, is to run 'rumbles' of all the group's main roleplaying game PC's. A 'rumble' is an all-against-all fight to the last survivor, in a good sized arena (usually about the size of 2 or 3 Wizard maps, but using a Chessex battle mat). The important point is that all the combatants are the player's long standing PC's, so people actually care what is going on. But, these basically take place as an activity separate from the campaign, so when all but one of the party is dead it doesn't actually mean anything; everyone is automatically revived when we return to 'real' campaign play. the point is just to have some thrills and earn some bragging rights. My group has done this with 1E AD+D, Runequest and TFT. TFT is by far the funnest engine for this sort of game. You learn a lot about tactics in the game when both sides are really trying to win. A lot of the stuff that seems to work when you are playing against the DM's mooks doesn't turn out well when the opponent is trying his or her best.