Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - At last, my personal equipment house rules

larsdangly · 09-18-2019, 02:43 PM

TFT is sort of 'piggy in the middle' when it comes to damage and injury: It is definitely more deadly to combatants than is typical of the more popular fantasy roleplaying games, but it lacks 'Mook' rules, so barring a lucky shot, you have to work at least a little to get someone on the ground.

Both of these observations are reflections of the fact that TFT's combat (and combat-magic) engines are rooted in a competitive board game. There is no competitive board game if there is no reasonably fair competition, and a fight between a mook and a non-mook isn't fair.

It is worth asking whether there is a house rule out there to allow for mook-like combatants in TFT. It is easy to reduce their offensive capabilities (making them less dangerous to PC's) by lowering DX - this requires no special rules. But you can't make them less robust to damage yet still capable of lifting a sword because ST fills both roles. So, I think if you want a cinematic variant where mooks burst into flames (or whatver) when you hit them with an arrow, then you'd need to have a special house rule that states if you fall into the mook category you are killed by any physical wound doing more than a certain number of points (say, 3). That way every substantial hit - something a PC would make significant note of - kills your mook.

09-18-2019, 02:43 PM	#41
larsdangly Join Date: Dec 2017	Re: At last, my personal equipment house rules TFT is sort of 'piggy in the middle' when it comes to damage and injury: It is definitely more deadly to combatants than is typical of the more popular fantasy roleplaying games, but it lacks 'Mook' rules, so barring a lucky shot, you have to work at least a little to get someone on the ground. Both of these observations are reflections of the fact that TFT's combat (and combat-magic) engines are rooted in a competitive board game. There is no competitive board game if there is no reasonably fair competition, and a fight between a mook and a non-mook isn't fair. It is worth asking whether there is a house rule out there to allow for mook-like combatants in TFT. It is easy to reduce their offensive capabilities (making them less dangerous to PC's) by lowering DX - this requires no special rules. But you can't make them less robust to damage yet still capable of lifting a sword because ST fills both roles. So, I think if you want a cinematic variant where mooks burst into flames (or whatver) when you hit them with an arrow, then you'd need to have a special house rule that states if you fall into the mook category you are killed by any physical wound doing more than a certain number of points (say, 3). That way every substantial hit - something a PC would make significant note of - kills your mook.