The Worst Rule in TFT/Melee/Wizard

[farbror]

I got very excited when I heard about SJ getting his hands on this wonderful game. I started to think about if I could remember any rule I did not like in the system.

1 - I think we considered Pole Arms (i.e. "charge attacks") was a wee bit unbalanced
2 - the experience bonus for the final blow was annoying (caused some fighting within the party)
3 - I think I remember a 32p wizard having a hard time beating a 32p non-adventurer.

[farbror]

4 - I think the Illusion spells were too powerful or we did not use them properly

[farbror]

5 - Halflings throwing fistfulls of Throwing stars in the face of opponents very also an unbalancing factor. I think a marksman's "shot" could ignore any protection and that damage of three or more would incapacitate the opponent?

The Cheapskate Game Master always tried to break as many of the throwing stars. Then a ST4 Halfling was less impressive.

[BrotherBill]

The first rule that we set aside in our house rules was the "replay part of the turn" effect on reverse missiles. We resolved the reversed missile on the spot.

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by BrotherBill

The first rule that we set aside in our house rules was the "replay part of the turn" effect on reverse missiles. We resolved the reversed missile on the spot.

Practically, we fell into doing this, as well. Waiting became problematic, though it probably does affect the rest of the turn. It's a fun rule, just didn't get played that way too often.

We started implementing rules for damage to thrown weapons and arrows. After a combat, based on the terrain, arrows that hit walls or armor, etc. had a good chance of breaking and being unavailable, as well as those that were surely lost in the woods or forest, even assuming taking of the field. If you've ever been an archer, you'll know hunting down arrows in the outdoors is incredibly time consuming and many times fruitless.

The worst offender was the bola, and characters would run around, due to the weight rules for belt space, with several on their person. Knocking people down seemed just too powerful, especially as setups for fellow adventurers to then get a +4 DX and have the knocked down person have to spend an action removing the bola, then standing up only to be knocked down again, if not already dead.

So anyone with an edged weapon at hand would be able to automatically destroy the bola when removing it, making the bola maneuver more short-lived or at least better considered when utilized.

[ecz]

per RAW any hero at zero ST dies instantly. Besides fatigue and wounds are added together.
So a ST 10 wizard spending 6 ST points in spells, risks to die if a boy hits him with a small stone (1d-2 damage). Or if a cat attacks him ( 1d-2 damage).

Or a heavily wounded hero could die just because he takes two extra fatigue points for extreme weather condition, lack of water or sleep, or for an extra physical effort like a short 100m run wearing plate in hot weather...

This rule was instantly changed being unbalancing.

In the examples above If the fatigued and wounded wizard goes to zero, he only falls inconscious. When he restores enough fatigue points to reach 1 ST he automatically awakes.

Death is for wounds > ST only.

Later we added that an hero can go below zero (to his ST value in negative) and still stay alive if he receives medical/alchemichal/chemichal/divine help in a few minutes (minutes = his orginal ST).

Other unacceptable but easy to fix rules were:

the damage bonus for pole weapons (fix: a) only damage going beyond armor/protection is doubled b) any figure adjacent the pole weapon user subtract -2DX to the DX of the attacker).

the risk and pay for jobs. Too easy make a lot of attribute points with boring "administrative sessions". A small break between adventures is fine, but the way the job table manage risks is simply wrong because certain players look for easy gains. And if things go bad, they just retry with another hero. So I lowered those numbers and made the job roll monthly.


But the vast majority of rules are not only fine, but GREAT.
My three favorite best are:
1) mounted combat, I find it simple and realistic
2) tactical combat in general, it works for our purposes
3) how is quick and easy create NPCs and enemies. Just 20 or 30 seconds, and basically four or five numbers

[JLV]

I actually think most of the issues listed by the OP have been pretty exhaustively discussed previously in this forum, and in many cases, Steve has said he was taking the issues under advisement -- especially the Pole Charge and oddball weapons issues.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by ecz

In the examples above If the fatigued and wounded wizard goes to zero, he only falls inconscious. When he restores enough fatigue points to reach 1 ST he automatically awakes.

Do you mean 2 ST (since 1 ST is unconscious)?

Oh, that reminds me of a weak point in the rules, which is not defining what someone can do if they are down to 1 ST after combat, if anything (i.e. are they in a coma or can they talk, walk, run, use any talents, and if they can walk, can they do anything in combat?).

Also rules for dragging around bodies (live, dead, bound, and/or unwilling) would be good to have.

Originally Posted by ecz

Later we added that an hero can go below zero (to his ST value in negative) and still stay alive if he receives medical/alchemichal/chemichal/divine help in a few minutes (minutes = his orginal ST).

This sounds like as long as you've got a physicker helping, no one would ever die, no?

[Rick_Smith]

Originally Posted by farbror

4 - I think the Illusion spells were too powerful or we did not use them properly

Hi farbror,
I agree, I found a lot of rules about Illusions were confusing and there were many strange exceptions to them.

I wrote about them here...

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...&postcount=651

In my campaign, I've split Illusion up into regular illusions (which do real damage) but can be of a limited number of things, and phantasmals, which don't do real damage but are flexible and can be of anything.

Warm regards, Rick.

[Rick_Smith]

Originally Posted by BrotherBill

The first rule that we set aside in our house rules was the "replay part of the turn" effect on reverse missiles. We resolved the reversed missile on the spot.

Hi BrotherBill,
I agree. In a huge combat with a dozen and more people on each side, "backing up time" is a huge hassle. Also it breaks a fundamental rule of TFT than everything happens in order.

The way I solved this was to to say in an ambush, a bunch of archers want to all shoot at once to maximize surprise. Otherwise a DX 19 archer fires, and then all targets shout, "I change my option to dodge" and the rest of the ambushing archers do not get an advantage for surprise.

So ambushing archers can all wait until (for example) DX 16. Even archers with DX above 16 fire at this time, by delaying their action.

All archery shots are resolved at the same time. Survivors of the arrow shots can THEN say, "I change my option to dodge", after this surprise attack is over.

Since the archers are firing simultaneously, if several fire at a guy with Reverse Missiles, all of these arrows fly back.

***
These rules are likely too complicated for the new TFT, but I agree that the line about backing up time should be dropped.

I do think a few more rules about ambushes and surprise would be welcome.

Warm regards, Rick.