Suggested Stretch Goals from Sweden

[tbone]

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

Articulated 7-hex dragon counters - a 4-hex front and a 4 hex rear, that articulate in the manner of Car Wars semis.

And when you force the dragon to retreat, it just might jackknife! : )

On those counters, I'm glad that people like the idea of keeping GURPS and DFRPG players in mind when creating TFT flat counters. I don't know whether that's a good idea from SJG's perspective too, but I hope so.

On a technical note, there's the question of how to depict flat figures. A top-down view for big animals and monsters, like the dragon that was shown by SJG earlier, is a perfect match for how GURPS/DFRPG presents counters in examples of map usage.

Actually, those games present top-down views for humans, too. That's nicely consistent – but a top-down view is kind of lousy for depicting PCs. You see the top of the head, a couple of arms, and that's about it!

TFT's way of depicting humanoids has the obvious advantage of actually showing the character, face and all. At the same time, it's odd in that the character is "lying down" on the map, and it makes human figures unusually short (so they'll fit into one hex), but so it goes.

I suppose TFT animals/monsters could then be drawn using front or side views, not top-down views, to match the way humanoids are depicted. But a human PC "lying down" on the map for visual clarity is one thing; a 14-hex dragon "lying" on its side would just look weird.

In the end, I suppose TFT's old method is best: frontal views of humanoids (even if that means they "lie down" on the map), top-down views for larger animals/monsters (and even small ones where it makes sense). I don't imagine any GURPS/DFRPG players would have a problem using those.

While I'm here, I'll make one more comment on counters: a hope that the game will be generous in what it provides, with plenty of counters for objects as well as creatures, and – budget willing – double-sided printing to essentially double the available counters.

On my site, I recently made a number of comments on the figures/counters included with DFRPG. Mostly praise! But for anyone pondering TFT counter selection, I'll paste a thought I had on the number of counters included in the DFRPG box:

...it puzzles me that the counters’ boards don’t use all of their available space. Each of the two boards has empty space that could hold one more largish piece and six more small squares. If those were used, we’d have 2 more large critters – say, a bear (for the druids!) and a void brute – and 12 more square counters. If those squares were double-use flat pieces, like the pits and slimes noted above, we’d have 24 more square counters – say, 2 more slimes, 4 fire counters, 6 types of dropped weapon, a cluster of fungus, a puddle, a pile of bones, a pile of rubble, a snake, a chest, a barrel, a tome, a pile of coins, a pile of generic "treasure", a shield, and a pile of clothes or rags. (Add to that three more spiders or other crawlies, if the above-mentioned small spider counters used alternate reverse-side illustrations. That’s a lost opportunity of 29 more counters in total!)

FWIW, I'd love to see TFT include plenty of object counters like the above. Even if GURPS/DFRPG players stick with their Cardboard Heroes figures for PCs and foes, I could imagine them buying TFT counters just for the added objects!