Do you prefer Melee to MTM?

[middlearthenthusiast]

As a standalone combat game, do you prefer Melee or Man to Man? I've only played the latter and want to skin me a good LOTR combat game.

[Skarg]

I prefer MTM (i.e. the first edition of GURPS combat, which is very much like all later versions of GURPS combat other than a few tweaks, and the absence of hundreds of pages of non-medieval-combat stuff).

However, I have many years of experience playing TFT combat. I would tend to recommend new players start with TFT, since it's so easy to learn. And some players don't want any more complexity that Melee.

(And really, I prefer my own favorite mix of GURPS 3e/4e expanded & optional rules plus house rules. ;-) But really most of the rules from MTM are the same. )

[Stormcro]

Originally Posted by middlearthenthusiast

As a standalone combat game, do you prefer Melee or Man to Man? I've only played the latter and want to skin me a good LOTR combat game.

I love Melee I have MTM and - well even GURPS books but Melee has started it all for me a LONG time ago, 1978 and hauled it everywhere I went back in the day. you can tack scenarios onto either combat system, but Melee will give you that simple but very tactile combat. word of warning - Hobbits er I mean ( clears throat ** ) I mean Halflings are not very powerful in the system, but you can figure out some sort of buff for them. and getting back to Melee it's a great big sandbox for all sorts of battles, and you can add Wizard into it so you can play Gandalf vs. the Witch King or Saruman etc. so Give Melee a go. I'd recommend the Pocket Box ( if you don't have the games Melee and Wizard ) I've taught my kids to play Melee when they were old enough to understand. My daughter is 9 and she likes the Pixar Movie Brave, so we've made up a scenario based on the main characters of that. my son is 23 years of age and is a dedicated GURPS player but with Melee it's more than capable -you can always move onto Advanced or MTM or GURPS a bit later if your battles need a bit more spice.

[KevinJ]

As a stand alone tactical combat game I would take Man-to-Man over Melee. The first good game I ever played was ITL with Steve as the GM and that was already drifting towards GURPS. Man-to-Man was just the next obvious step up from Melee/Advanced Melee. The biggest advantage GURPS has over other games is that you can 'dumb it down' to just a bit more complex than Melee or ramp it up as high as yo0ur players like.

Once you include Magic, TFT is a good, working RPG that is easier to run than 1E GURPS and better as an introduction for players who may have only ever played one game their entire lives.

[JimmyPlenty]

Stand alone with no role-play or magic?

Gladiator fights (up to 3-4 a side) - MTM I've always loved the detail of specific armor hits and such.

Anything higher - TFT because of the speed and simplicity is better for many figures on the battlefield.


I got MTM for that above purpose of gladiator fights.

[Skarg]

In my experience, the more a GM runs tactical combats in TFT or GURPS, the faster the combat get, and the more interest there tends to be in having more details.

But I know there are people who still find TFT to be the level of detail they want. Even people who stick to basic Melee and/or Wizard, after several decades of play.

[larsdangly]

MTM is a superior rules set for 1:1 duels of non-magical beings. If magic is involved, TFT gets the nod regardless of the size of the combat, as Wizard is by far the most brilliant core system for magical tactical fighting anyone has dreamt up. If there are 3 or more combatants involved, TFT gets the nod due to speed of play. If there are more than 10 figures on the map, neither game works.

[JLV]

Originally Posted by KevinJ

As a stand alone tactical combat game I would take Man-to-Man over Melee. The first good game I ever played was ITL with Steve as the GM and that was already drifting towards GURPS. Man-to-Man was just the next obvious step up from Melee/Advanced Melee. The biggest advantage GURPS has over other games is that you can 'dumb it down' to just a bit more complex than Melee or ramp it up as high as yo0ur players like.

Once you include Magic, TFT is a good, working RPG that is easier to run than 1E GURPS and better as an introduction for players who may have only ever played one game their entire lives.

To be perfectly honest, I couldn't agree with this evaluation more. Man-To-Man is just about at my complexity limit. Adding in GURPS magic rapidly exceeded that. TFT remained my go-to game for precisely that reason.

[Mallen the dark]

I bought the orginial melee back in 1978. Loved it then, still love it now. But I still prefer melee. But I will not turn down a chance to play either.

[ak_aramis]

I played MTM exactly twice; both before GURPS was released. I've played hundreds of battles with TFT since then. I didn't even use the gridded option for GURPS when I liked GURPS...