I have a specific reason for the title of this post. However, when I thought up the title, it reminded me of a humorous misunderstanding I once had. When I fist started role playing with the LBBs art was scarce. Our imaginations did almost all the "heavy lifting", sometimes with certain inaccuracies. For me, one such was the two-handed swords. For some reason, in my mind, I saw the two-hander as having a grip on each end of the blade, kind of like bicycle handlebars, only straighter and sharper. I could not understand for the life of me how someone would use one or why they would even want to. Anyway, I still get a smile whenever I think of that.
So, on with the business at hand. Back at the end of October I was hired as a temporary driver at FedEx. Once the Christmas rush had passed, I was one of three temps that were offered permanent routes. This is a great job, but I am on it between 10-12 hours per day, usually closer to 12. That leaves very little time for gaming (or blogging about it). Thus we approach the relevant conundrum . . .
A simple, but more sparse game, or a more complete game? The sparse game requires less upfront effort to read and understand, but requires more work on the backend, filling in important gaps. The complete game is the opposite: more time upfront reading and taking it in, but less work on my part.
My current interest, as of this weekend, is The Fantasy Trip: In the Labyrinth. It has some pretty cool campaigning rules, while remaining very straight-forward. Advanced Melee/Wizard start to drag on my time, though. So, I have come up with a possible solution. Legends of the Ancient World by Dark City Games. It provides the nuts and bolts of the system in a scant 7 pages. I can spend a little mental elbow grease to bolt it onto the campaigning rules in ITL and viola! Simple enough to not give me a time issue, but meaty enough to occupy my over-active mind (I hope).
Showing posts with label TFT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TFT. Show all posts
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Friday, November 18, 2011
Fondly Recalling: The Fantasy Trip
Let's take a quick trip in the Way-Back Machine, shall we? The year is 1980, the place is a row of shops in Pembroke Mall, Virginia Beach, VA. A gangly, bespectacled 17 year old picks up something called In the Labyrinth . . .
As I've said before, D&D was my first RPG. I started gaming life as a wargamer, though, but that's a different story. I was introduced to D&D by a friend of mine, I didn't discover it on my own. He was the DM, always, and I was the only player in his games. We played as constantly as two teens could manage. We lived less than a mile apart, so we played a lot.
Being a wargamer, too, I loved learning and trying new games. Being a mid-level teen from a four-child family, money was tight, so when I saw a little ditty called Melee, I was in. Melee was great fun. It was much more tactical combat (with a board and counters!) than D&D, which definitely got my wargamer blood a'flowing. Then came Wizard. Dueling mages, what could be cooler than that!? Magic-users, uh, sorry, I mean Wizards, actually duking it out on the sands of the arena, something I'd never done, or seen, in D&D. A magic system with points, rather than fire-and-forget. Damn!
Anyway, I played those two as often as I could find an opponent.
Then, that fateful day in The Alley. In the Layrinth was, I think, $7 or $8, somewhere in there. It was rich for my budget, but I had to own it. Here was a book that turned Melee and Wizard into a full-blown RPG. But not just any RPG. It had a combat system I loved, and a magic system I thought was the coolest thing since sliced bread. More than that, though, it was mine. Nobody lead me to it. Nobody taught me to play it.
(I should mention here, that I'm not trying to imply that my friend ruled our gaming. I wasn't a victim of RPG oppression or anything.)
I devoured In the Labyrinth as well as the first two Micro-quests. It was the first skill-based game I'd ever played. It had it's sticking points, sure enough (You mean there's only three stats?! I only get to use d6's?!), but they didn't diminish my love for the game. But, two trans-Atlantic crossing and three years later, and it was gone, along with Melee and Wizard. I'll always love it though, because it was my first RPG discovery.
As I've said before, D&D was my first RPG. I started gaming life as a wargamer, though, but that's a different story. I was introduced to D&D by a friend of mine, I didn't discover it on my own. He was the DM, always, and I was the only player in his games. We played as constantly as two teens could manage. We lived less than a mile apart, so we played a lot.
Being a wargamer, too, I loved learning and trying new games. Being a mid-level teen from a four-child family, money was tight, so when I saw a little ditty called Melee, I was in. Melee was great fun. It was much more tactical combat (with a board and counters!) than D&D, which definitely got my wargamer blood a'flowing. Then came Wizard. Dueling mages, what could be cooler than that!? Magic-users, uh, sorry, I mean Wizards, actually duking it out on the sands of the arena, something I'd never done, or seen, in D&D. A magic system with points, rather than fire-and-forget. Damn!
Anyway, I played those two as often as I could find an opponent.
Then, that fateful day in The Alley. In the Layrinth was, I think, $7 or $8, somewhere in there. It was rich for my budget, but I had to own it. Here was a book that turned Melee and Wizard into a full-blown RPG. But not just any RPG. It had a combat system I loved, and a magic system I thought was the coolest thing since sliced bread. More than that, though, it was mine. Nobody lead me to it. Nobody taught me to play it.
(I should mention here, that I'm not trying to imply that my friend ruled our gaming. I wasn't a victim of RPG oppression or anything.)
I devoured In the Labyrinth as well as the first two Micro-quests. It was the first skill-based game I'd ever played. It had it's sticking points, sure enough (You mean there's only three stats?! I only get to use d6's?!), but they didn't diminish my love for the game. But, two trans-Atlantic crossing and three years later, and it was gone, along with Melee and Wizard. I'll always love it though, because it was my first RPG discovery.
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