Post originally by Holt at 2003-08-20 23:38:14
Converted from Phorums BB System

Xagen-

You said--
"Now I'm tweaking the combat, the magic system, the setting, and the experience reward system. And not little teaks, but major ones. And if the characters aren't given a chance to succeed because they always get killed in any combat they enter, is that fun?"

And also--
"Am I asking too much out of a game? It just seems like I can any other RPG without this much effort (as a GM)."

My question would be to you...Why 'are' you playing with TROS?

It would seem to me that you would be much happier and have less work, if you decided to take D&D and make it more realistic and deadly in combat. Rather than having to do so much work to make TROS something that it is not.

IMHO, TROS is not a perfect game. Nor can I state any game that is. It does however do a damn fine job of doing what it set out to do. It is not balanced...and it says so right there in the book. It never intended to be balanced. It intended to be a game about serious conflict between people with drives, beliefs, passions, and destiny.

With that in mind, it has a serious and dangerous combat system and a serious and dangerous magic system.

The 'balance' that you seem to want for the magic system doesn't come from the game. It comes from the players and the GM. The first time one of your magic using characters finds himself 4ft away from a man with a 3ft sword. He and I think you, will realize where the balance is. He has very few options at that point, and even if he should manage to survive he will probably be a good deal older and that is when you as a GM show him what it means when people have SA's. The dead swordman's brother might not be too happy about his next of kin being 'magicked' or 'witchcrafted' to death. He will look for a smart way to off the 'witch'. That will either involve a knife in the dark (which actually is a valid option with this came, rather than being more like an annoyance in D&D), or a horde of angry villagers with burning torches.

I would argue that the maxim for a mage in TROS is definetly "Walk softly and carry a big stick".

Let your players off of their leashes a little, they might surprise you.

Failing that, like I said, you would have less work making D&D more realistic than making TROS more D&D.

My last word on the matter, would be to point out that something made you choose to do the work that you are doing to make the game 'playable' for your gaming group. That to me, speaks volumes about TROS. Surely it must have some quality that drives you to want to put in that much work?

Thank you for the review, it is refreshing to hear the other side of the arguement sometimes.