01-20-2018, 11:39 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Arizona
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Fear and Loathing In TFT
To my mind, one of the weaknesses in TFT as written is that there is nothing in the way of a “fear and loathing” mechanism built in. While perhaps it’s not as suitable for a high-fantasy setting as it is for a horror/gothic style of play, there would still be plenty of things that would cause “fear and loathing” in people, even in a high fantasy setting. Besides, how do you make the “evil cult” really evil, if you don’t have some tool to cause the players to feel fear effects and see how that plays out on the game board?
Sure, I know, the GM should be causing the fear through his roleplaying and description — but how many GMs have you ever had that could do that so well that it actually affected the player characters on the battlemat/game board? Even if you make the PLAYERS afraid, there’s nothing happening in game terms that make the FIGURES afraid; they go right on exploring the horrific place and fighting the nauseating creatures without a break in the action… In more "fear" oriented games, such as Call of Cthulhu, I could freak the players out with my descriptions, and mechanisms existed to cause their characters to break down, or flee in terror, or faint on the spot, or whatever, as well. It would be interesting to see some kind of fear mechanism added to TFT. |
01-20-2018, 05:57 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: Fear and Loathing In TFT
Something you could build on to this end that is part of TFT canon is the Personality option rules on p.7 of ITL. I'm focusing on material for the core published rules right now, but I have a 'module' in my house rules that uses this as a launching off point and develops it into ways of handling horror, morale, and religious piety.
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01-20-2018, 11:23 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Tyler, Texas
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Re: Fear and Loathing In TFT
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01-21-2018, 03:02 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: London Uk, but originally from Scotland
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Re: Fear and Loathing In TFT
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Now this works fine, but changes the way the game plays as players are frequently unable to do what they'd like to as there were be a lot of missed morale checks. It gives a grittier, more realistic feel, but it's neither better nor worse. Some of the great moments in adventures come when Dildo the Hobbit decides to charge the Dragon single handed and is toast in 2 seconds flat. That sort of thing is largely done away with once you bring in morale effects. I think this sort of thing is best left totally out of the Melee/TFT reboot and consigned squarely to the realm of House Rules. It's easy to tack on if you want it but once it's in the rules it's harder to take out or ignore. |
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01-21-2018, 09:05 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: Fear and Loathing In TFT
Another thing I've done in my somewhat less heavily house-ruled variant of TFT (i.e., no new stats) is to introduce one talent per major type of behavior ('Brave', 'Pious' etc) and then just explain in the talent description what sort of ability it unlocks. This option keeps you closer to the core rules, but has the disadvantage of moving you down that road toward the level of complexity seen in GURPS
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01-21-2018, 10:31 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: London Uk, but originally from Scotland
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Re: Fear and Loathing In TFT
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01-21-2018, 01:48 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Arizona
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Re: Fear and Loathing In TFT
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I think you may have been "over-applying" morale checks if you used them to prevent heroic acts like you describe. I would only use morale checks when there is clearly a reason for them, and then only at the absolute beginning of an encounters -- the party suddenly finds itself confronting 40 orcs; morale check; party members pass, after that it's a free-for-all until the party is dead or the orcs are dead, fled or captured (of note, I would use morale checks a LOT more liberally on NPCs than I ever would on the party -- after all, the players control the party and can make decisions for themselves on when to run away; the NPCs are individuals controlled by a single mind (mine) and I should be taking steps to "individualize" their behavior much more than I'm forcing the players to conform to some random die roll. I like CR Brandond's Morale system in Heroes and Other Worlds -- it is one of the simpler, more effective, ones I've seen for this purpose. I still think there should be some sort of agreed-upon, standard procedure for this, regardless of how much anyone chooses to house-rule it later. Last edited by JLV; 01-21-2018 at 01:54 PM. |
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01-21-2018, 02:34 PM | #8 |
President and EIC
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Re: Fear and Loathing In TFT
Plain old 3d6 roll could make sense, modified by GM according to any effective roleplaying of the character's history. I'd give Heniochus the Brave a bonus to stand fast, if only because he thinks he can settle everything with his sword.
If an advantage/disadvantage system is introduced, Bravery, Prudence, and Cowardice might all be descrived in terms of morale/fear/horror rolls. To my mind, this should be used only for the BIG stuff (Cthulhu) or the transitory stuff (who gets initiative when surprised by something unnatural). I would not roll for fear against natural foes. |
01-21-2018, 03:01 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: London Uk, but originally from Scotland
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Re: Fear and Loathing In TFT
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01-21-2018, 03:10 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: Fear and Loathing In TFT
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If you are a minimalist then I'd say add a handful of relevant talents, accept that IQ is just a score that means 'how good I am at non-DX or ST based talents', and treat it as you would Charisma, Sex Appeal, New Followers or Diplomacy or any number of other talents that involve thoughts and emotions. The risk is that you go bananas and write 100 of these sorts of new talents, or make up a new sub system for each, and now you are playing something that looks casually like TFT but is much more bloated. If you add new attributes it will be more aesthetically pleasing in the sense that things like bravery or piety can develop separately from other IQ based talents, and perhaps that seems more 'right' or true to human character. But of course now your character sheet has a half dozen attributes and lots of old material needs to get revised - it feels more like a significantly new edition or even new game. |
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