Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post

Sinanju · 05-26-2019, 08:11 PM

So my regular bi-weekly Saturday game of Champions was canceled on Friday. I emailed a fellow player and suggested getting together to give TFT a try, as I'd talked about to him a couple of times. After some emails back and forth, he eventually roped in most of the rest of our Champions group to give it a try.

They seemed to be under the impression I was going to run a full-on fantasy campaign session, not the "getting your feet wet" test combats I intended.

In any case, we got together and everyone made characters. Two elven wizards, a dwarven fighter with a war axe, a human fighter with a bastard sword, an orc fencer, and a thief. With only one copy of the book (mine) and some handouts I hastily produced the night before with lists of talents and spells and combat options, we had at it.

I had the players fight 3-on-3. The results were...disappointing. Partly, I think, because they were all unfamiliar with the system. More to the point, I think they didn't like how the combat system limited them compared to other games.

They were all 32 point characters, and most wore heavy armor, so their adjDEX scores were pretty low, leading to a lot of turns where nobody hit his opponent, which also frustrated them.

One player found himself engaged by two opponents (briefly by three when a summoned bear joined the combat), and was clearly frustrated by the limits on his ability to disengage. A limitation that I, personally, find perfectly plausible and realistic. In a real fight, your opponent is NOT going to let you get away easily (unless he, too, thinks breaking off is a good idea for HIM), and unless you're lucky, trying to escape combat leaves you vulnerable.

Of the two wizard players, one seemed to enjoy it. He was unclear on a lot of details of course, being a complete newbie to the system, but he seemed to "get" it and made good use of "Summon Bear" to to maul one of his enemies.

The other player concluded that wizards were "useless" and it was pointless to play one, that spending ST to power your spells was an idiot's game, and he created a new fighter character after the first combat. (The existence of the higher-level Staff spells intrigued him, and it also frustrated him that I didn't let him start with a fully charged Mana Staff.)

Overall, they found the combat system "clunky" and didn't particularly enjoy the game. We might have played out a short scenario where they tracked down and fought some bandits, but I was feeling a bit demoralized myself and didn't particularly push to run it.

I think part of the issue is that they're all long-time Champions players (as am I, for that matter), and they're used to a system where hitting your opponent is usually pretty easy and mostly just knocks them out of action without any serious injury, as opposed to the lethality of TFT. Nonetheless, I don't think any of them are likely to be interested in playing the game with me in the future. Which is disappointing.

05-26-2019, 08:11 PM	#1
Sinanju Join Date: Jan 2015	Current Play: Portland Debacle So my regular bi-weekly Saturday game of Champions was canceled on Friday. I emailed a fellow player and suggested getting together to give TFT a try, as I'd talked about to him a couple of times. After some emails back and forth, he eventually roped in most of the rest of our Champions group to give it a try. They seemed to be under the impression I was going to run a full-on fantasy campaign session, not the "getting your feet wet" test combats I intended. In any case, we got together and everyone made characters. Two elven wizards, a dwarven fighter with a war axe, a human fighter with a bastard sword, an orc fencer, and a thief. With only one copy of the book (mine) and some handouts I hastily produced the night before with lists of talents and spells and combat options, we had at it. I had the players fight 3-on-3. The results were...disappointing. Partly, I think, because they were all unfamiliar with the system. More to the point, I think they didn't like how the combat system limited them compared to other games. They were all 32 point characters, and most wore heavy armor, so their adjDEX scores were pretty low, leading to a lot of turns where nobody hit his opponent, which also frustrated them. One player found himself engaged by two opponents (briefly by three when a summoned bear joined the combat), and was clearly frustrated by the limits on his ability to disengage. A limitation that I, personally, find perfectly plausible and realistic. In a real fight, your opponent is NOT going to let you get away easily (unless he, too, thinks breaking off is a good idea for HIM), and unless you're lucky, trying to escape combat leaves you vulnerable. Of the two wizard players, one seemed to enjoy it. He was unclear on a lot of details of course, being a complete newbie to the system, but he seemed to "get" it and made good use of "Summon Bear" to to maul one of his enemies. The other player concluded that wizards were "useless" and it was pointless to play one, that spending ST to power your spells was an idiot's game, and he created a new fighter character after the first combat. (The existence of the higher-level Staff spells intrigued him, and it also frustrated him that I didn't let him start with a fully charged Mana Staff.) Overall, they found the combat system "clunky" and didn't particularly enjoy the game. We might have played out a short scenario where they tracked down and fought some bandits, but I was feeling a bit demoralized myself and didn't particularly push to run it. I think part of the issue is that they're all long-time Champions players (as am I, for that matter), and they're used to a system where hitting your opponent is usually pretty easy and mostly just knocks them out of action without any serious injury, as opposed to the lethality of TFT. Nonetheless, I don't think any of them are likely to be interested in playing the game with me in the future. Which is disappointing.