Interviewing the Fans #2

[JLV]

I like that Lars -- sort of like Car Wars, only with swords! ;-)

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

How did you use TFT, back in the day? Stand-alone combat games, combat module for other RPGs, or a full RPG system of its own?

Melee: Both stand-alone and used for solo-modules, tested as a combat module for D&D.
Wizard: Both Stand Alone and used for solo modules.

I played TFT as a full-up RPG, as well.

Note that I never tried to use wizard as a substitution into anything else. It was (and is) too constrained by essentially including half of melee's rules, plus the full magic rules... too much to sub-in.

[Carnifex]

We played arena style Melee and Wizard, but never transitioned to using it as an RPG, we were fairly satisfied with D&D. However, there was a role playing aspect to the games we played. Gladiators who survived would develop personalities, make friends and form teams. Occasionally there would even be interesting dramas and blood feuds, at least one of which lasted a couple of years.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

How did you use TFT, back in the day? Stand-alone combat games, combat module for other RPGs, or a full RPG system of its own?

I started doing arena combats with Melee. Then I got my friends and dad involved in playing Death Test and other MicroQuests. It was great challenging fun figuring out tactics, and seeing what worked. We loved that the combat was dangerous but based on logical cause and effect, and so tactics really made a difference and worked for reasons that made sense.

Then we mostly played campaigns using the full TFT system. We really got into the campaign style suggested in ITL and Tollenkar's Lair, where the world is mapped in detail with different regions, terrain details, river and road networks, and places to visit and explore. We appreciated that things mostly make some sort of sense, and one level of play interrelated with the next.

Creating and exploring mapped worlds became one of the most interesting parts of play. The GMs never showed their maps of the world to the players, but they could get maps during play, which would never be entirely complete or accurate. Some players were more interested in developing their map collections than treasure or magic.

[Buzzardo]

We just did arena battles. Then GURPS arrived, and we switched from The Arduin Grimoire to GURPS. We didn't know there was a whole role-playing game built around Melee and Wizard until years later.

[Shostak]

Initially, we played Melee and Wizard as combat games in arenas, forests, caves. Inspired by the Microgame adage that you could put the game in our pocket and play it at school, I did. It made a great solo game, too, when pals weren't around. I recall some huge battles, (which were played on extra-large boards) with 50-point wizards and a dozen minions on each side. Death Test was played so often, it was quickly memorized.

Then D&D hit our neighborhood, and we switched to that for a short while, until we found In the Labyrinth, Advanced Melee, and Advanced Wizard in our hobby store. When we shifted back to TFT, our days of just basic combat were pretty much over, and we used it for full-blown RPGs. We invented our own worlds, with our own Tolkien-inspired maps. I loved TFT for how its rules were so simple and few, that they rarely got in the way, and there was little rule-lawyering. And, best of all, it was super-easy to improvise adventures, since NPCs and monsters had so few stats. And I loved the groovy counters!

[Buzzardo]

Originally Posted by Shostak

I loved the groovy counters!

7-hex dragon! :D

[JLV]

Please, please, please, Steve -- give us a 14-hex dragon!!!!! Pretty please?

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by JLV

Please, please, please, Steve -- give us a 14-hex dragon!!!!! Pretty please?

Let's see...

4 hex is 1:2:1
7 hex is 1:2:1:2:1
9 hex should be 1:2:3:2:1...
14 would be 1:2:3:2:3:2:1

Yeah, those would work.

[larsdangly]

there must be a 14 hex dragon!