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Old 01-02-2018, 04:03 AM   #171
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Default Re: December 26, 2017: The Fantasy Trip Returns Home

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Originally Posted by dar View Post
Is it too early to ask for a tft section in the forums?
No, it isn't. :)

We've been discussing it on a fan page in facebook in the meantime.
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Old 01-02-2018, 12:46 PM   #172
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Default Re: December 26, 2017: The Fantasy Trip Returns Home

Answers to some questions, not in order:

TFT section in forums? Discussing it. I’m already having trouble keeping up. Need a Line Editor.

Article with memories of early development: Difficult, as those are OLD memories. A lot of that is probably covered in the various designer’s notes from old Space Gamers, not that those are easy to find :(

TFT issue of Pyramid – Submit things to SMarsh! The guess was correct: there is none sitting around in the slushpile.

Charles G’s many questions: I prefer to say “no comment” to questions about legal strategies past and future, and, to repeat an earlier important note: we don’t have a release plan yet and questions of the form “do you plan xyz?” have no answer yet.

Having said that, the game certainly would benefit by a “monster book” (as would GURPS Fourth Edition, and no, they cannot be the same book.) And any long release will need an index, which will certainly not be a separate product!

I would be delighted to hear from anyone involved in the former life of TFT. If there is unpublished material out there that the writers are free to sell me, so much the better.
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Old 01-02-2018, 02:11 PM   #173
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Default Re: December 26, 2017: The Fantasy Trip Returns Home

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Well spotted, that man. It is indeed he, and we're chatting. I let him know the fans would like to see the old team back together!
I am another vote for some retro style art and the insect eye dragons.
TFT was my intro to RPGs and I still played them after my AD&D group got started. I love GURPS and will never give it up but if the flavor of TFT as a simple fast paced game could be kept it would make an awesome addition.
Maybe TFT for solo and pick up games at stores or the company lunchroom?
I would not even mind an OSR type setup to keep the volume and attention out there.
I could see and hope it would also helps GURPS. Imagine a quick game of TFT like playing cards. Then afterwards saying "If you want a more serious RPG, the same guy built GURPS and we can try that."

Oh and how about an Awful Green Things like version for TFT?
You might even have the new Munchkin here...
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Old 01-02-2018, 02:55 PM   #174
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Default Re: December 26, 2017: The Fantasy Trip Returns Home

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TFT section in forums? Discussing it. I’m already having trouble keeping up. Need a Line Editor.
Where should we send resumes? :)
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Old 01-02-2018, 06:42 PM   #175
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Default Re: December 26, 2017: The Fantasy Trip Returns Home

Literally made me tear up a little reading this thread.

When I was about 12 or so, I used to haunt a local store in Bangor Maine called the Gamekeeper. I still have most of the microgames I purchased there, as well as those 3 little magazines. In jr. high, I managed to teach a few folks ogre or one world or warp war, but none of them were up for anything long term. Thus, I virtually memorized TFT, but just for my own amusement, often during commercial breaks while watching the tube. ( sort of the same way I did homework)

Until one afternoon while hanging around the jrotc office in high school. I had played a superhero role-playing game that I liked, but did not run. (V&V, actually) Anyway, I asked one of my buddies if they wanted to have a sword fight. We laughed, but as I started to explain Melee to them, they became intrigued. Started trying to work out how to play it with nothing but what I had in my pockets, so I cut out some squares of paper for counters, and hand drew hexes on some notebook paper. As it happened, I had a couple dice in my pocket, so we had to roll one of them twice. Pretty much just told my friends about Str and Dex, and the weapons they could use with what scores. Then we had a quick battle that took us up to about ten minutes before school let out.

After it was over, we had a laugh, and they asked me if I had just made that game up. Ah, nope. Revealed that TFT was a real game with real hard copy rules, and my friends expressed interest. When I mentioned it to the other friends I gamed with on Sundays, the fella running the superhero game said he could use a break, and started a game that ran for pretty much 6 years, with occasional breaks to try a different game or take finals... whatever. Due to a combination of poverty, and well, we all know the backstory to TFT here in general, right? Anyway, circumstances beyond my control, but I pretty much made up all the adventures for our TFT game.

Which might be why we stuck with it. While it is true that I have not had such friends before or since (still in touch with many of them) it was not my magnetic personality keeping them in thrall. My hypothesis on it is that a combination of TFT`s flexible rules and a bit of laziness on my part made a game that we were all invested in.

A lot of times I showed up on Sunday afternoon without a clue of where to go next, so I just asked my players what they wanted to do. That was what I built the next adventure upon. Some were better than others, as with any game, but it was entirely a collective storytelling. I think that was what kept the crew coming back. I wasn't the boss, just a referee, and part time writer. Well, being high schoolers might have had to do with it, too. We did roll with it after high school though, until GURPS came along.

Of course, occasionally players do ... stuff. Did not know the term 'munchkin' at the time, but I still had a player notice the rules regarding halflings with thrown stuff... and the rules on boomerangs. Yep, I let him do it, sort of. A fight heavy game might have been dominated by hoards of halfling boomerangers, but my game had a fair bit of roleplaying. He had a fair bit of fun trying to explain to the odd carpenter of a medieval village exactly what he wanted made, not to mention the very remarkable nature of a party of wanderers, one of whom is very short, with a relatively large and weird looking club.

Not that they were very sneaky anyway, as another player was a lizardman.

You might be thinking at this point that my game was just goofy as I caved to the whims of my players, but you'd be wrong. Like I said, everything the players wanted became a role playing opportunity. A village that has never seen a lizardman before might chase him off with torches and pitchforks, which can be a real problem when coming in half beat up and looking to heal. Not to mention any random encounter can be made challenging for the combat monsters just by putting a couple zeros behind the number of whatevers encountered. An entire herd of buffalo is pretty formidable.

As I think back on it, the guiding rule for my players might have been 'be careful what you wish for.'

In the years between then and now, I have gamed occasionally. The few I have run started as TFT before becoming GURPS. The only real house rule I run is that negative half Str to zero is unconscious.

Anyway, it made me really happy to read that the game might become available again. We had fun with it. Hopefully others do likewise.
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Old 01-02-2018, 07:58 PM   #176
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Default Re: December 26, 2017: The Fantasy Trip Returns Home

A great story!
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Old 01-02-2018, 10:12 PM   #177
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Default Re: December 26, 2017: The Fantasy Trip Returns Home

Somewhere I have a box with ITL, AM, and AW. Plus the microgames. And various pieces of paper with stuff written on them which my memory can pull no details of. I'm going to have to find that and see if there's anything publishable among them.
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Old 01-03-2018, 05:47 AM   #178
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Default Re: December 26, 2017: The Fantasy Trip Returns Home

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Originally Posted by Charles G. View Post
I have a blogpost on the Martian Metal TFT Microtures that you might find informative: http://angantyrs-games-things.blogsp...icrotures.html
Awesome! Thanks for sharing that.

Yesterday was my last day of Xmas vacation, so I pulled out some official minis and played through Death Test.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=83b1d64091
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Old 01-03-2018, 02:18 PM   #179
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Default Re: December 26, 2017: The Fantasy Trip Returns Home

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Originally Posted by Charles G. View Post
I have a blogpost on the Martian Metal TFT Microtures that you might find informative: http://angantyrs-games-things.blogsp...icrotures.html
I'm curious as to why you haven't updated your blog with this news yet. Not trying to be controversial here in ANY way; just asking. Most of the others I routinely follow (CR Brandon, Marko Tabyanan, Inthelabyrinth, etc.) have at least mentioned the return of TFT to Steve Jackson, and I always find your blog entries so very well written and interesting since they attack the subject from a different perspective than most folks do! I'd be fascinated with your take on all of this over there where you can really let your hair down.

Last edited by JLV; 01-03-2018 at 04:22 PM.
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Old 01-03-2018, 06:31 PM   #180
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Default Re: December 26, 2017: The Fantasy Trip Returns Home

Is this the Robert Phillips who did the art for TFT? He is from the Austin area:

http://www.robertgregoryphillips.com/
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