Current Play: Portland Debacle

[JustAnotherJarhead]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

TFT is simply a poor fit for players who expect to win as the 'default' case, or who want to be clearly signaled when they are in a situation that carries a risk of defeat. It is hard to play TFT without a significant risk of defeat...

Lars nails it again.

Heroic games are for heroic players.

TFT has always been the mortal game for 'normal' players who don't actually EXPECT to survive a heavy crossbow bolt to the chest.

Just the shortage of healing type magic lays out the mortality and realism of the system from day one.

It's also what makes TFT awesome for decades now, and for decades to come.

[GranitePenguin]

Originally Posted by oldwolf

With TFT, I think it is critical to point out the deadliness of the combat. That in an actual campaign, any time the PCs find themselves in anything resembling a fair fight, they have screwed up spectacularly in the prior planning department.

Originally Posted by JustAnotherJarhead

TFT has always been the mortal game for 'normal' players who don't actually EXPECT to survive a heavy crossbow bolt to the chest.

I have the same love/hate relationship with Rolemaster. The deadliness of the systems promote the RP part of RPG. Fighting is the tactic of last resort, because you are likely to get killed if you do. Roleplaying your way out of a situation is a better option if possible, and IMHO makes for a much more interesting game. If all you want is a hack-n-slash HP-fest, this isn't necessarily the right choice to accomplish that.

[DarkPumpkin]

Originally Posted by GranitePenguin

I have the same love/hate relationship with Rolemaster. The deadliness of the systems promote the RP part of RPG. Fighting is the tactic of last resort, because you are likely to get killed if you do. Roleplaying your way out of a situation is a better option if possible, and IMHO makes for a much more interesting game. If all you want is a hack-n-slash HP-fest, this isn't necessarily the right choice to accomplish that.

The difference with Rolemaster is that character creation is a major undertaking in that game. The mismatch between investing hours in a character then dying in 10 minutes is a near-fatal flaw in the system. At least TFT doesn't have that problem.

[GranitePenguin]

Originally Posted by DarkPumpkin

The difference with Rolemaster is that character creation is a major undertaking in that game. The mismatch between investing hours in a character then dying in 10 minutes is a near-fatal flaw in the system. At least TFT doesn't have that problem.

Man, you aren't kidding about that. That was so excessive our first sessions used to be "character gen parties" because there was no way you were going to play that first day. I actually wrote a program back in 92-93 to do a lot of the heavy lifting, which is just insane.