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Old 01-17-2018, 11:27 PM   #351
David L Pulver
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Default Re: The Fantasy Trip

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Originally Posted by pyratejohn View Post
Hey, between this and Triplanetary being re-released, I'm feeling like the proverbial kid in a candy store.
Need TFT maps for Triplanetary spacecraft to do pirate boarding with space axes...
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Old 01-17-2018, 11:33 PM   #352
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Default Re: The Fantasy Trip

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Originally Posted by tbeard1999 View Post
I’ve pulled this point out of my rambling post above because it encapsulates my reasoning about the delightfully controversial d20 mechanic.

I think you can have (a) 3d6 resolution, (b) a “roll under attribute” task system, or (c) a wide useful attribute range. Pick 2.

If I’m right about this, then obviously I picked (b) and (c). Default TFT picked (a) and (b). Most of the other changes I’ve seen picked (a) and (c).

For me personally there simply isn’t anything inherently magical about rolling 3d6.
I don't think it would still feel like TFT with d20 rather than 3d6 to most people, though... That said, I got mileage out of using modded TFT with PERCENTAGE dice for one campaign for the same reason you used d20:

I used 5% x attribute. (Thus DX 10 is 50%, etc.). The reason I used that rather than d20 is that if you rolled, on percentage die, the base attribute or less, you got a critical. Seemed to work nicely... But I think it was no longer TFT by then...
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Old 01-17-2018, 11:35 PM   #353
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Default Re: The Fantasy Trip

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Originally Posted by tbeard1999 View Post
So...if you were Steve Jackson, and assuming you want to retain the good will of the TFT Grognards, what would you do to toss them a bone? Obviously, you can’t include even a fraction of their zillions of mods, and still have TFT be your product.

So what so you do?
Create a TFT equivalent of the OGRE BOOK and publish a new one in PDF every year...
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Old 01-17-2018, 11:42 PM   #354
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Default Re: The Fantasy Trip

I do agree with a few other posters that the armor rules give characters the shaft a bit when they choose better armor, and that a straight -1 DX per point of armor reduction might be better, possibly with ST 16+ reducing the armor DX penalty by 1.

What do people think about having the rapier do 1d+1 instead of 1d, or perhaps if you have Fencing talent? The jump between it and cutlass (could we also call that cutlass or saber just for flavor?) always seemed a bit extreme.
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Old 01-18-2018, 02:39 AM   #355
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Default Re: Limits on Broo. Yes!!! Many limits!

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Originally Posted by tbeard1999 View Post
Hey Rick. I imported Broo into my campaign from Runequest. I highly recommend it. PCs HATE fighting Broo.
Hi Ty.
I looked up Broo and read the theology / Background for the race. WOW! The people at Chaosium has such great world building skills! I was always impressed with their supplements.

Yes, the Broo WOULD suck!

Warm regards, Rick.
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Old 01-18-2018, 09:24 AM   #356
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Default Re: The Fantasy Trip

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Originally Posted by David L Pulver View Post
I do agree with a few other posters that the armor rules give characters the shaft a bit when they choose better armor, and that a straight -1 DX per point of armor reduction might be better, possibly with ST 16+ reducing the armor DX penalty by 1.

What do people think about having the rapier do 1d+1 instead of 1d, or perhaps if you have Fencing talent? The jump between it and cutlass (could we also call that cutlass or saber just for flavor?) always seemed a bit extreme.
There is some fine-tuning to the numbers that should be done, but all should serve the aim of bringing things closer to the idealized exchange of 1 point of protection for 1 point of DX and MA penalty and 1 point of ST for 1 point of damage, and 1 point of damage for 1 or 2 special qualities (charge attack, jab, thrown, etc.), or 1 talent for either 1 point of damage increase or a modest increase in adj.DX (or corresponding penalty to adj.DX for your opponent). Any time you select one item or skilled action and make it the exception in the interests of flavor, you basically wipe out the balance that typifies the rest of the game system. So, if you want a rapier to do more damage for some reason that's cool. Just raise its ST requirement and/or require a special talent just for its use (i.e., make it a 'peculiar weapon').
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Old 01-18-2018, 01:51 PM   #357
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Default Rick's Thoughts on Weapon Damage - Bows:

Hi Everyone,
I have some suggestions on the weapons tables:

-- Bows do too much damage. The ability to strike at a distance is an awesome bonus. A TFT longbow does 1d+2 damage at 11 ST (average 5.5 damage). A Shortsword does 2d-1 at 11 ST (average of 6 damage). A light crossbow does 2 dice damage at ST 12, EXACTLY the same as a broadsword.
In addition to the attack at range advantage, bows can fire twice per turn at high DX. This effectively doubles their potential damage! Let us say that one type of sword (say a Bastard Sword) could attack twice per turn like a bow. How popular would that single sword be, compared to other swords without that bonus?
In my campaign I've lowered their average damage by at least a full point of damage per attack, and my players still take missile weapons.

Digression: I'm fine with a ST 11 bow doing around 4 or 5 points of damage per turn, but I do not think it should be called a longbow. The English Longbows had a 100 to 110 lb draw. I've made them a 15 ST weapon in my campaign and made a bow with a different name for ST 11.

Warm regards, Rick.
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Old 01-18-2018, 02:07 PM   #358
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Default Rick's thoughts on Weapons - 2 Handed weapons & shields.

Hi all,
I think that two handed weapons should do more damage. Currently they do about 1 point more damage than a one handed weapon. (Two handed clubs do EXACTLY one extra point of damage.)

A fighter taking a two handed weapon gives up a shield, which is a very important defence.

In my SCA experience heavy fighters almost always use a shield. It is a lot harder to get a good hit on someone with a shield. (A large shield stops 2 hits per attack thru your front hexes. If you are fighting a horde of small figures, that shield could easily be stopping 4 or 6 points of damage per turn.)

And two handed weapons historically, were scary. Claymores, war hammers, lochaber axes... These two handed weapons were designed to smash thru the heaviest of armor.

One extra point of damage seems insufficient to capture the advantage in leverage you gain from adding an extra hand to a weapon.

Now in my campaign, I felt that shields were underpowered compared to real life. So I allowed people to gain talents that made shields more useful. (Stopped extra damage and gave melee attacks -2 adj DX to hit you thru your front hexes.)

So my two handed weapons now do +3 damage over 1 handed weapons at the same ST.

A nice advantage of this change is that weapons in the weapon's table are better distinguished from each other. And when the PC's encounter 3 orcs, armed with a battle ax, great hammer, and 2 handed sword, there is a thoughtful pause. ;-D

Warm regards, Rick.
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Old 01-18-2018, 02:23 PM   #359
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Default Rick's thoughts on weapons - Impaling damage.

Hi all,
I read in the Space Gamer an article where Steve Jackson wrote that he realized in reality a rapier could do more damage than a broadsword, but that he intended to ignore such things. He wanted the weapons table to simply show increasing damage as ST increased and didn't worry about such details.

In GURPS he DID worry about such things. He has thrusting weapons, swung weapons. Impaling weapons. Impaling+ weapons. Impaling++ weapons. Swung impaling weapons, etc. And rules to make all of these fine distinctions work.

Thinking about this, I occurred to me that impaling weapons could do a LOT of damage if they hit the right spot (important organ, major blood vessel), or they could do very little damage (small point hits armor, or does a small localized wound in some less important flesh).

I didn't want to write a tonne of special rules for different types of weapons but I decided that I did want to capture that impaling weapons have a high range of damage.

So I retooled my weapons table so that impailing weapons did damage like 3d-5 (about 5.5 hits on average) and blunt impact weapons did damage like 1d+2 (exactly 5.5 hits on average).

So in my campaign a Horse Bow (ST 11) does 2d-3 damage. (From 0 to 9 damage.) Where as a small ax (ST 11) does 1d+2 (from 3 to 8 damage).

(I thought longbows needed a high ST to fire so they got moved to 15 ST, where they do 3d-4 damage.)

With ZERO overhead in rules, I have captured the idea that impaling weapons do a wider, less predictable range of damage.

As an additional bonus, this gives the weapons table more variety. Weapons feel more different from each other.

Warm regards, Rick.

Last edited by Rick_Smith; 01-18-2018 at 02:44 PM. Reason: Fixed an error.
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Old 01-18-2018, 03:34 PM   #360
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Default Re: Melichor's new weapon talents.

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Originally Posted by bookworm562 View Post
Any critiques? I've always liked the dead is dead in TFT, but the roll the body mechanic might work for it. Plus the howls of victory and lamentations of failed rolls seems to be the heart of role playing.
In campaigns we quickly added a rule that if a [Master] Physicker's healing would bring a character's ST back above 0, then the character was only mostly dead, and the Physicker, if he acted quickly, could save the character's life.

This worked pretty well for us, I think.
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