What about fanzine topics?

[Jeff Lord]

Originally Posted by

The (what I have thought was almost universally accepted) method is "per wound" healing.

I get it. A lot of folks don't want TFT to be so deadly - and that's fine. House-rule away!

But many others prefer the fast and deadly nature of TFT as written. Some, including myself, find the following example extremely unpalatable:

ST 11 guy wanders into an ambush with a bunch of shortbowmen. He is hit exactly four times for three hits each. He is now at ST -1 and close to permanent death. A master physicker comes over and heals each three-point wound, bringing the character back to full ST. ST 11 guy is now doing cartwheels, so pleased is he at his good fortune.

Not for me, thanks. But I completely understand the appeal for some.

[timm meyers]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lord

I get it. A lot of folks don't want TFT to be so deadly - and that's fine. House-rule away!

But many others prefer the fast and deadly nature of TFT as written. Some, including myself, find the following example extremely unpalatable:

ST 11 guy wanders into an ambush with a bunch of shortbowmen. He is hit exactly four times for three hits each. He is now at ST -1 and close to permanent death. A master physicker comes over and heals each three-point wound, bringing the character back to full ST. ST 11 guy is now doing cartwheels, so pleased is he at his good fortune.

Not for me, thanks. But I completely understand the appeal for some.

I agree completely but the alternative is equally unpalatable to me.
St Guy is saved from near death and pulled back to a weaken state of 2ST.
Rumage Rumage, clink clink.... oh here sir Guy drink these magical elixirs... 9 heavy chugs later amidst a litter of bottles and loud belch sir Guy is now doing cartwheels, so pleased with his good fortune and the sale price on healing potions at Magic-R-Us

I feel somewhat cheated in either scenario...sigh... if only sir Guy could wear some armor....

[David Bofinger]

If healing quickly gets people back on their feet then people complain that wounds have no consequences. If it doesn't then people complain being wounded just takes you out of the game with nothing to do while you slowly recover. There's just no good way for healing to work. RPGs are impossible.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

If healing quickly gets people back on their feet then people complain that wounds have no consequences. If it doesn't then people complain being wounded just takes you out of the game with nothing to do while you slowly recover. There's just no good way for healing to work. RPGs are impossible.

If you want to have characters who wantonly incite violence as though getting stabbed is of little more consequence than a poison ivy rash, healing quickly supports that. If, however, you want to play a game in which your characters are a bit more like real people for whom wounds are serious things to be avoided whenever possible, having Physickers heal only two or three points off the sum of wounds is generous.

[timm meyers]

Fear of Death vs. Fun/player engagement/game flow
This is not an easy balance at all. I think everyone would agree we all want both.

TFT has the deadly combat resolution ie you can go down very very fast and or easily in any encounter. This means the fear of death is very prominently felt leading up to and during a fight.
Fear of Death box- Check

Post combat need not have the same "weight" of looming death so healing per wound while sometimes immersion breaking (see the bow riddled sir Guy posts earlier) does help the fellowship adventure move along at a better pace ie lets work on setting up the next meaningful encounter, plot line etc. without a need to fall back on heavy magic availability or recuperation siliques.
Fun/game flow box- Check

Thats the way I see it.

[TippetsTX]

An alternate approach for 'per wound' healing by someone w/ PHYSICKER or MASTER PHYSICKER...

The act of healing will have diminishing returns when applied to the same figure for multiple wounds incurred within the same engagement. For example, imagine a PC with 12 ST that is hit three times in combat. One a grazing 2-point wound, another for 3-points, and also a serious 5-pointer. In my game, someone with the MASTER PHYSICKER talent can heal the (normal) full 3 points on the most serious injury, but only 2 on the next one and finally 1-point on the minor wound. That would still leaves 4 points to heal naturally (assuming no magical remedies are available) over 4 days.

Each wound requires the same 5 minutes to treat.

[timm meyers]

Does anyone have a topic from the fanzine they wish to address or should we just move on to the "Three New PC Race Options For TFT" by Joe Tippets?

[TippetsTX]

Bring it!

;)

[timm meyers]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

Bring it!

;)

Spoken like a true author :)

I think this is an example of one of the best things about fanzines.
New races or revised takes on the old ones. Honestly all our player fantasy worlds combined would drown a publisher in a sea of denizens and cultures. Getting well balanced creative templates of other races in print form brings life to this content desert while leaving the canon source material unblemished.

Of the 3 races in the article, I liked the Ghillies best. The reskinned hobbit/halfling is a great idea imho. We even get a weapons list specific to these undersized humanoids making them all the more unique and realistically playable.
The special bonus of being small and harder to hit + attacking big ones from within their own hex appears to be reasonable and balanced with their low ST build + attribute cap.
I do worry if my players will uniformaly cry "no fair" when attacked by Spearhook pole arms (tripping them). These and the fighting ribbon really appeal to me as great narritive visuals.

[TippetsTX]

Originally Posted by timm meyers

Spoken like a true author :)

Of the 3 races in the article, I liked the Ghillies best. The reskinned hobbit/halfling is a great idea imho. We even get a weapons list specific to these undersized humanoids making them all the more unique and realistically playable.

The special bonus of being small and harder to hit + attacking big ones from within their own hex appears to be reasonable and balanced with their low ST build + attribute cap.

I do worry if my players will uniformaly cry "no fair" when attacked by Spearhook pole arms (tripping them). These and the fighting ribbon really appeal to me as great narritive visuals.

Gotta give the little guys some kind of edge, was my thinking. I really love Brian's rendition of the Ghillies.

The format does limit what I can present, obviously. The original article was a bit longer, but even that version didn't attempt to capture my own specific implementation of the race in my campaign. They come from a verdant, balanced w/ nature, version of Earth where intelligent life evolved from various species of prehistoric deer and bovine (the Ghillies' ancient ancestor was something like 'hypertragulus hesperius'). On Cidri, their dominant culture is based on an aesthetic w/ a distinct Song Dynasty vibe, but for the 'zine I didn't want to pre-define aspects that a GM might want to come up w/ on their own.

My version of the Firbolg race also hail from this variant Earth.