RE: Tactics

[Lyle H Janney <lhjanney@adpc.purdue.edu>]

Hmmm, interesting.  Circumventing a momentary lapse of reason or common
sense on the players' part with an in-game skill.  Sounds like a crutch to me.  ;-)

Wonder what other ways we can think of to keep players from accidentally
killing each other (or getting each other bent over).

Hey, I have an idea; shouldn't we try to solve this with in-game actions, maybe
set up some form of code or a programmed sequence of actions, as opposed
to messing around with the rules (or adding new ones)?  Wait, I've heard this
before.  Isn't it you, Steve, who goes around tsk-tsk'ing those who try to add
or change rules when in-game solutions work just fine?  ;-)

Seriously, I would think that playing long enough with a particular group would
give you, as a player, that sense of tactics.  Otherwise you just aren't learning
from your mistakes in play, are you?  Also, do you truly only apply this skill at
full value when playing with the exact team you developed it with, or are you
getting the same roll despite who your erstwhile companions are?  All round,
this 'Team Tactics' skill sounds to me like a way for players to get a rule-based
system to keep them from screwing up.  I don't agree with its inception and I
will not allow its use on any game I moderate until Dan gives the go-ahead.

Lyle

-----Original Message-----
From:	Steve Ames [SMTP:steve@ns1.cioe.com]
Sent:	Thursday, August 20, 1998 4:19 PM
To:	gmlist@cioe.com
Subject:	Re: Tactics

> Land Tactics: Leading foot soldiers directly.  Formerly known as "Tactics"
> 	that many people already have.

Neagative... I think. A bunch of us have a 'tactics' skill which is
actually 'team tactics' of a sort. We specified in game terms that
we trained together (and did nothing else) for a good chunk of times.
Doing this gave the adventurers a good feel for how people would react
in a given situation and allow us to work around one another. I will
never run in front of one of my teams lightning bolts without getting
a tactics check. That was the goal.

We have also, on occasion, applied this skill to trying to predict
what another group would do... less than succesful in most attempts.

						-Steve