Bicycle Chains, Stilettos, Baseball Bats...

tbeard1999 · 03-17-2018, 01:43 PM

The Other Weapons list (p. 12 Advanced Melee) was an incredible resource in my opinion. I don't recall any other RPGs at that time having such a list.

Anyhow, dystopian movies featuring gangs were very popular in the late 70s/early 80s. Examples I can recall are "The Warriors", "The Wanderers", "Fort Apache: the Bronx", "Escape from New York", and "Assault on Precinct 13."

Inspired by the Other Weapons list, I ran a single TFT session based on The Warriors and it was actually pretty fun. The plot, like the movies, is a retelling of the story of the Ten Thousand.

Did anyone else use TFT for modern games in the early days?

Jackal · 03-17-2018, 03:32 PM

No, but what a great idea. "Warriors! Come out to plaaaayyy!"

~~Jim Kane~~ · 03-17-2018, 05:15 PM

Yes, for modern-era, my cousin ran us through his TFT-version of: John Caprtenter's, Escape for New York. - it was outstanding! AND you could get a highly-detailed map for the game-world at any newsstand in the NYC Metro area.

Skarg · 03-17-2018, 07:00 PM

I used it for some modern and sci-fi action, and when I ran Traveller for a while, I quickly started importing TFT rules into it because I missed the logic and tactical combat.

However, I felt there were major things needed for satisfying guns combat, since most sane combatants have a strong focus on not getting shot, and there aren't really great rules for using cover, pop-up attacks, waiting to shoot anything that shows up the moment it appears around a corner, suppression, etc.

JLV · 03-18-2018, 12:19 AM

Yes, we did, for an espionage campaign -- but found many of the same issues that Skarg did when we tried. We did some hand-waving on some things, and came up with some half-assed "rules" for things like cover (in effect a -DX mod for hitting the target, though if the "cover" was flimsy (like a car door) it was considered to just be a few points of "armor" since about all it could do was slow the bullets down). It worked, but we really needed a pre-game conference where we worked all this stuff out and wrote it down somewhere -- but we moved on soon afterwards to other games (that was about the time Call of Cthulhu came out, and we found modern combat more satisfying there, I guess).

03-17-2018, 01:43 PM	#1
tbeard1999 Join Date: May 2013 Location: Tyler, Texas	Bicycle Chains, Stilettos, Baseball Bats... The Other Weapons list (p. 12 Advanced Melee) was an incredible resource in my opinion. I don't recall any other RPGs at that time having such a list. Anyhow, dystopian movies featuring gangs were very popular in the late 70s/early 80s. Examples I can recall are "The Warriors", "The Wanderers", "Fort Apache: the Bronx", "Escape from New York", and "Assault on Precinct 13." Inspired by the Other Weapons list, I ran a single TFT session based on The Warriors and it was actually pretty fun. The plot, like the movies, is a retelling of the story of the Ten Thousand. Did anyone else use TFT for modern games in the early days?

03-17-2018, 03:32 PM	#2
Jackal Join Date: Mar 2018 Location: New England	Re: Bicycle Chains, Stilettos, Baseball Bats... No, but what a great idea. "Warriors! Come out to plaaaayyy!"

03-17-2018, 05:15 PM	#3
~~Jim Kane~~ Banned Join Date: Mar 2018	Re: Bicycle Chains, Stilettos, Baseball Bats... Yes, for modern-era, my cousin ran us through his TFT-version of: John Caprtenter's, Escape for New York. - it was outstanding! AND you could get a highly-detailed map for the game-world at any newsstand in the NYC Metro area.

03-17-2018, 07:00 PM	#4
Skarg Join Date: May 2015	Re: Bicycle Chains, Stilettos, Baseball Bats... I used it for some modern and sci-fi action, and when I ran Traveller for a while, I quickly started importing TFT rules into it because I missed the logic and tactical combat. However, I felt there were major things needed for satisfying guns combat, since most sane combatants have a strong focus on not getting shot, and there aren't really great rules for using cover, pop-up attacks, waiting to shoot anything that shows up the moment it appears around a corner, suppression, etc.

03-18-2018, 12:19 AM	#5
JLV Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Arizona	Re: Bicycle Chains, Stilettos, Baseball Bats... Yes, we did, for an espionage campaign -- but found many of the same issues that Skarg did when we tried. We did some hand-waving on some things, and came up with some half-assed "rules" for things like cover (in effect a -DX mod for hitting the target, though if the "cover" was flimsy (like a car door) it was considered to just be a few points of "armor" since about all it could do was slow the bullets down). It worked, but we really needed a pre-game conference where we worked all this stuff out and wrote it down somewhere -- but we moved on soon afterwards to other games (that was about the time Call of Cthulhu came out, and we found modern combat more satisfying there, I guess).