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Old 10-17-2018, 02:40 PM   #11
platimus
 
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Default Re: TFT Beastiary Suggestion

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Originally Posted by TippetsTX View Post
Or maybe just include a 'difficulty rank' in the stat block somewhere?
If by "difficulty rank" you mean "stat total", yes! LOL
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Old 10-17-2018, 02:50 PM   #12
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Default Re: TFT Beastiary Suggestion

So besides organization and categorization, what else will a TFT bestiary need?

More races! Cidri is a huge world, after all, so there should be a lot of interesting variety.

As far as monsters go, TFT really needs some unique, iconic creatures. D&D has the Beholder and Mind Flayers so TFT deserves its own 'signature' foes. There are some great ideas in the New Monsters thread.

Maybe SJG would consider a book in the vein of the original Fiend Folio, full of GM submissions as well as official content.

Last edited by TippetsTX; 10-17-2018 at 03:17 PM.
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Old 10-17-2018, 03:17 PM   #13
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Default Re: TFT Beastiary Suggestion

I'd recommend detailing the monsters alphabetically. But, including a good graph that includes information about habitat, stat totals, presence of special abilities like flight or magic, etc., could be helpful.
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Old 10-17-2018, 03:37 PM   #14
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Default Re: TFT Beastiary Suggestion

My old game-design partner Greg Poehlein has been working with refining a way to balance combats in TFT. Where everything is a numerical comparison (D&D, for example) things like the old White Dwarf Monstermark works pretty well.

(Fun fact: the ship design system that was the underpinnings of the FASA Star Trek starship combat game was actually based on a variation of the Monstermark.)

The tactical nature of TFT really limits the usefulness of this sort of scoring system. Greg, being the kind of math-obsessed perfectionist he is, is still working at it long after my own eyes have rolled up in my head. I’m not convinced any such system for TFT can be of more than passing utility in limited circumstances.

Still, if anyone could do something like this, it would be Greg. He’s surprised me before. Often.
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Old 10-17-2018, 08:05 PM   #15
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Default Re: TFT Beastiary Suggestion

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I wouldn't really like this organizing principle; I'd greatly prefer something more conventional, like a grouping by broad type (plants, wild animals, spirits, etc.)
I also would prefer something in Broad Type as I would like to see the style of monster/beast in that kind of grouping. An alphabetical index and a "Level" of monster index could handle my quick searches.
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Old 10-17-2018, 08:31 PM   #16
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Default Re: TFT Beastiary Suggestion

Monsters by setting?
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Old 10-17-2018, 08:35 PM   #17
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Default Re: TFT Beastiary Suggestion

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Monsters by setting?
If by setting, you mean "terrain", I thought about that too. I think there would be too much overlap though.
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Old 10-17-2018, 08:51 PM   #18
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Default Re: TFT Beastiary Suggestion

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The tactical nature of TFT really limits the usefulness of this sort of scoring system. Greg, being the kind of math-obsessed perfectionist he is, is still working at it long after my own eyes have rolled up in my head. I’m not convinced any such system for TFT can be of more than passing utility in limited circumstances.
This was my thinking as well. Nothing will be absolutely infallible but I think stat-totals are a good starting point. For PCs/humanoids, I'd add the point cost of the talents/spells they know to their stat-totals. For critters, I'd add their armor, # of attacks, damage dice, etc. Factor in things like only being damaged by silver or magical weapons, regeneration, etc. Again nothing is absolutely infallible but I think these factors would give a good baseline.

Average the PC scores (as described above), multiply by number in party, and you've got that many "challenge points" with which to build an encounter or series of encounters between opportunities for rest and recovery. Again, I know this wouldn't be perfect but it would be a starting point for tweaking.
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Old 10-17-2018, 09:24 PM   #19
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Default Re: TFT Beastiary Suggestion

I would prefer that it be organized by taxonomy (plants, animals, etc.). Then I'd like three items in the back of the book: A table that lists the critters and their points in point total order (lowest to highest), a table that lists critters by terrain type, and an alphabetical list of every critter (basically an index for the critters).All of those should include page numbers. I'm guessing the actual index would have entries other than monsters. If there aren't many such entries, then I'd be fine with simply putting the monsters in the index.
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Old 10-18-2018, 07:58 AM   #20
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I'm with Buzzardo on this.
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