December 26, 2017: The Fantasy Trip Returns Home

[tbeard1999]

I wish I’d noticed this thread when it was posted. We all had the flu in my house and this would’ve improved my mood considerably. It’s truly delightful news. And there was a time, if I recall correctly, when TFT was the second most popular RPG after AD&D. Of course, there was probably a huge gap between first and second place, but still. It truly is an elegant system; sorta the Ogre/GEV of RPGs. That’s high praise from me, by the way.

And it is very different from GURPS. GURPS is obviously descended from TFT but I always thought GURPS owed more to Champions than to TFT. I’d humbly disagree with the designer about its suitability for long term campaigns. I ran three multi-year campaigns (meeting weekly), including a campaign that my friends still call The Grand Old Campaign.

I may have to get the band back together...

—Ty www.fft3.com www.texaswargamer.com

[tbeard1999]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

So what everybody is saying is that if we do MELEE minis, at least one fighter has to be wearing purple bell-bottoms. Do I have that right?

I think it’s actually legally required.

[tbeard1999]

Oh, and Real Men play RPGs with no healing spells and death at zero hit points. Just sayin’.

[stefanj]

I looked at the MELEE and WIZARD booklets again. Dang, the hobbits are called hobbits!

I have been chewing on a design for a creature. The physical nature of the creature poses some problems. It is a wee thing but needs to wield magic. Came up with a possible solution involving terrain . . . in the TFT big books, were there rules for rough terrain, undergrowth, and so it? Melee and Wizard kind of assume an arena with perhaps some pillars and pits.

[tbeard1999]

Originally Posted by stefanj

I looked at the MELEE and WIZARD booklets again. Dang, the hobbits are called hobbits!

I have been chewing on a design for a creature. The physical nature of the creature poses some problems. It is a wee thing but needs to wield magic. Came up with a possible solution involving terrain . . . in the TFT big books, were there rules for rough terrain, undergrowth, and so it? Melee and Wizard kind of assume an arena with perhaps some pillars and pits.

Yes, Advanced Melee (pp. 18-20) has them. Advanced Melee was quite comprehensive (if not terribly well organized or proofread).

[tbeard1999]

Originally Posted by Groknard

Joe, thanks for keeping the torch lit all these years. It seems that folks like you, "The Maverick", Brett Slocum and David Miller have been there almost since the beginning of web browsers. It was kind of important to me to find that I wasn't the only one who loved and treasured The Game, even though we "knew" this day would never come.

Here here. Joe, in particular, has done more to keep TFT alive than anyone. The brainiac TFT list was TFT Central in the early interwebs days. And I think that Joe, Brett, David, the Maverick, etc., should get some kind of shoutout in the rules.

[Groknard]

Originally Posted by tbeard1999

Here here. Joe, in particular, has done more to keep TFT alive than anyone. The brainiac TFT list was TFT Central in the early interwebs days. And I think that Joe, Brett, David, the Maverick, etc., should get some kind of shoutout in the rules.

And you, Ty. Sorry, I knew I was going to leave one or two luminaries out, d'oh!

[pyratejohn]

I taught my youngest son how to play Melee when he was eight or nine (about the same time I taught him GURPS). Yesterday evening I taught my eldest son, and... he really really liked it. He especially like how fast and easy it is. We played a one-on-one swordsman versus swordsman, then a swordsman versus archer, followed by an archer versus archer, and lastly an archer and swordsman versus same. All this in about an hour. His comment at the end, "PVP works much better than it does in Destiny 2."

Once done, I went on to tell him all about the MicroQuests, and he was intrigued.

So the game can hold the interest of teens. And I think the quickness and ease of play are a huge selling points for them.

[tbeard1999]

Originally Posted by Groknard

And you, Ty. Sorry, I knew I was going to leave one or two luminaries out, d'oh!

Well thanks, but I sorta abandoned the faith due to Real Life (and focusing on A Fistful of TOWS 3).

[marctabyanan]

Originally Posted by Buzzardo

Now on to my idea, which was triggered by Stefan's post: Perhaps we could set up a site for shared open-source content for TFT. Where the official product stops, we can continue. For example, I really hope to see an official bestiary, but that still leaves room for adding and sharing our own monsters Similarly, we could share adventures and campaigns. Maybe a wiki?

Folks, I would offer up the bestiary I have already put on my fan site: https://inthelabyrinth.org/column/bestiary/. I posted all of the ITL creatures, plus some more that I found or converted. Right now I just have the text from ITL for those monsters. My intent was to eventually redo all of that text with better descriptions--ecology, tactics, even useful parts of their bodies, etc. Unfortunately, that is a larger task that I have not had time to do yet...

Big Note: This was all before any of this happened. After SJG goes through the process of determining what content can be posted on fan sites, I will willingly take down/leave up whatever is cool.