Interviewing the Fans #2

[Buzzardo]

We just did arena battles. Then GURPS arrived, and we switched from The Arduin Grimoire to GURPS. We didn't know there was a whole role-playing game built around Melee and Wizard until years later.

[Shostak]

Initially, we played Melee and Wizard as combat games in arenas, forests, caves. Inspired by the Microgame adage that you could put the game in our pocket and play it at school, I did. It made a great solo game, too, when pals weren't around. I recall some huge battles, (which were played on extra-large boards) with 50-point wizards and a dozen minions on each side. Death Test was played so often, it was quickly memorized.

Then D&D hit our neighborhood, and we switched to that for a short while, until we found In the Labyrinth, Advanced Melee, and Advanced Wizard in our hobby store. When we shifted back to TFT, our days of just basic combat were pretty much over, and we used it for full-blown RPGs. We invented our own worlds, with our own Tolkien-inspired maps. I loved TFT for how its rules were so simple and few, that they rarely got in the way, and there was little rule-lawyering. And, best of all, it was super-easy to improvise adventures, since NPCs and monsters had so few stats. And I loved the groovy counters!

[Buzzardo]

Originally Posted by Shostak

I loved the groovy counters!

7-hex dragon! :D

[JLV]

Please, please, please, Steve -- give us a 14-hex dragon!!!!! Pretty please?

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by JLV

Please, please, please, Steve -- give us a 14-hex dragon!!!!! Pretty please?

Let's see...

4 hex is 1:2:1
7 hex is 1:2:1:2:1
9 hex should be 1:2:3:2:1...
14 would be 1:2:3:2:3:2:1

Yeah, those would work.

[larsdangly]

there must be a 14 hex dragon!

[ecz]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

How did you use TFT, back in the day? Stand-alone combat games, combat module for other RPGs, or a full RPG system of its own?

It was our first RPG system. Never considered any other use. We were thirsty for role-playing games

[tomc]

We always played it as an RPG.

[tbeard1999]

I started my wargaming career in 1978-79* with Ogre/GEV. Since I was in junior high at the time, Microgames were all I could afford. So I consumed a steady diet of Microgames. In short order, I bought Olympica, Warp War, and Ice War.

Then in 1979-80, a buddy bought Melee and showed it to me. For some reason, I found the individual weapons counters evocative. I soon bought a copy...except I accidentally bought Death Test instead. Eventually I bought Melee and later Wizard. We played them as arena games. Then I heard about this game called Dungeons and Dragons. I recall thinking after my first D&D game that D&D was like a complicated version of Death Test.

I tried a number of ways to use Melee with AD&D, but teenaged AD&D players in my school were utterly hidebound. Then ITL came out. I bought Advanced Melee. Then Advanced Wizard. I think that ITL might have been released last.

It took my local game store awhile to receive ITL, so I prepared to start an AD&D campaign using Advanced Melee as a combat system. A sorta proto-D&D 3.0, I suppose.

But then I got ITL and scrapped the AD&D variant before launch. I started the first of MANY TFT campaigns.

*My early gaming memories are indexed by the school year, not the calendar year. I got Ogre/GEV when in 8th grade, so it was 1978-79.

[Tolenkar]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

How did you use TFT, back in the day? Stand-alone combat games, combat module for other RPGs, or a full RPG system of its own?

Greetings, all:

My best friend and I were in a hobby store, in 1978, looking at micro-games. He chose Wizard and I purchased Melee. We then spent untold hours creating characters and running through both games until the rules were burned into our teenage psyche. We introduced a few of our friends to the rules during lunch, long bus rides, or after school. Melee was especially easy to teach others and addictive: "let me try my elf archer against your armored dwarf one more time".
After that, we created small parties and took them through Death Test and Death Test II.

I remember the pain of waiting impatiently for the Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard, and ITL books to come out. I can still recall the sheer joy when I opened the envelope for Advanced Melee in July of 1980 (a glorious day). My friend already had a D&D group and basically just shifted over to TFT. We recruited the other friends that had tried Melee or Wizard and pretty much every other Friday night for the next two years were dedicated to playing TFT. It became a large group that had ten players, at its peak, for many adventures. After high school, we would get together to play during college break and summers.

There are eight of us now. We have had a couple of great reunion adventures, including one to replay, and finally survive, Tolenkar's Lair. The announcement of Steve getting the rights to the game got us all talking again, and we plan to get together sometime next year, with new copies of the rules.

Although we used the micro games as a training ground for the rules, it was always about the RPG system for us. It is simple to learn, has complexity and depth for mastery, and gives great flexibility for creating incredibly imaginative characters. In a nut shell: It has kept us young for 40 years. For this, TFT will always have a special place on my gaming shelf (actually, on my wall... I framed a copy of Advanced Melee and hung it in the game room).

Sincerely,
Tolenkar