Talk:The Fantasy Trip

Efficiency
The original basic components; Melee, Wizard, Deathtest together make the most remarkably efficient role playing game system. People who study efficiency in any form would do well to compare these with the larger, expensive, and better known game systems.

This efficiency makes the system much easier to learn and use as well as lowering the cost. People have played spontaneously using found items as dice and game pieces. The rules were so simple and clear that an experienced player can remember them all.

If you have access to them, I would strongly recommend them for players getting started in fantasy role playing.

Nils K. Hammer


 * I'm not sure that "efficiency" is the right word for what you're describing. Efficiency is a relative thing.  Version 3.5 of D&D is more efficient than AD&D (1st edition D&D), both of which are complex systems, but 3.5 is also more efficient than the Open Source Dragonquest Revised Second Edition, which is a much simpler system with a rather awkward multi-die-roll combat system.  Certainly, TFT is an efficient system, but it doesn't attempt to do as much as a complex system like D&D and can't.  A well-designed complex system can be efficient in doing what it does every bit as much as a simple system can efficiently do what it does.  I think what you're trying to describe is "elegant simplicity", and TFT has that in spades.  It is so simple it can be learned in fifteen minutes, and due to its simplicity it is endlessly customizable and extendable.  Indeed, there are a dozen sites featuring house rules that significantly move the game in new directions.  But simplicity isn't for everybody.  Some people prefer the depth and richness of a complex rules system (handling greater ranges of character advancement, allowing a wider range of variations in combat and magic, more fully developed campaign settings and game aids, etc.).  As a basic hack-and-slash RPG, TFT is far better than most and will always have its devotees.  Now if only there was a way to get the complete rules... Canonblack 19:32, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Plus, TFT is currently "alive and well" on the web.
One wishing to check out The Fantasy Trip's continued (unofficial) development must check out the TFT mailing list archive available at http://tft.brainiac.com/cgi-bin/wilma/tft and the online TFT Codex available at http://www.loran.karoo.net/tft/
 * — White Wolf
 * ''Aka Tim Sireno
 * Gamemaster of the long running "World Of Cendri" Campaign.''

Jackson's attempt to buy TFT
After a recent edit, curiosity led me to skim the "Where We're Going" columns in The Space Gamer for details of Steve Jackson's attempt to buy TFT from Howard M. Thompson after Metagaming Concepts went belly-up. Here's what I found: I've edited the article accordingly.
 * In TSG #56 (Oct 1982), SJ mentioned "beginning to work on a new RPG system".
 * In The Fanstasy Gamer #1 (Aug/Sep 1983), SJ reported that Metagaming owned "all rights to the trademarks TFT and The Fantasy Trip [as well as] the copyrights to the existing rules system" and that the asking price was "well into six figures". He also wrote that he had "not given up on the idea of a new RPG. But it takes a long time to finish one".
 * In TSG #65 (Sep/Oct 1983), SJ reported that he had given up on purchasing TFT because "a quarter of a million dollars" was too high a price, and that he would try to work on a new RPG instead (which eventually resulted in GURPS).

I also removed the following because it seemed too speculative:
 * Why, as the game designer, didn't Jackson take TFT with him? Some have speculated that Jackson attempted to secure ownership of TFT, but was deterred by Thompson's pricetag of $250,000.  It is more likely that Jackson's contract with Metagaming allowed him to retain intellectual property rights to Ogre and GEV, but not TFT  (Jackson's comments on TFT inception and rights).  By mid 1983, Metagaming's owner Howard M. Thompson had sold much of Metagaming's assets, but not The Fantasy Trip, and ended business operations.  Some will wonder if Thompson retained TFT rights intentionally or was simply left holding the bag when no one agreed to his asking price.

(BTW, Thompson sued Jackson over Ogre and GEV, but they reached a settlement in November 1980 which gave SJG the rights to those games. See TSG #47. However, SJ had sold all his TFT copyrights in May 1980. So it is true that SJ retained some rights to Ogre & GEV but none to TFT.) People have been asking why Thompson wanted such an exorbitant amount for TFT since 1983, but I've never seen an answer.

Cheers, CWC (talk) 11:57, 13 November 2006 (UTC)


 * I've edited the preceding comment to link to Internet Archive's copy of www.reese.org/tft/designnt.htm, which is a copy of the article "Designer's Notes and Errata for The Fantasy Trip" by Steve Jackson from The Space Gamer number 29 (July 1980). CWC 10:08, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Dragons of Underearth
An anonymous editor, added the following recently:
 * Before Metagaming ceased operations, Howard M. Thompson released Dragons of Underearth. Some observers believe this was an attempt to release a simplified version of TFT.  Yet other's have speculated the release was designed to "keep the game but get rid of Steve Jackson's imprint; [because] the two did not part as friends."  It is more likely that the Dragons of Underearth release, as well as Jackson's relationship with Thompson when he left, was motivated by business decisions.

I've moved it here for review, because it strikes me as marginally off-topic. Anyone who disagrees is free to move it back. Cheers, CWC (talk) 11:57, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Melee, Wizard, and In the Labyrinth
At the suggestion of one of the editors here, I will be taking Melee and Wizard pages that I created and putting them in as sections of the The Fantasy Trip article. An In the Labyrinth section should probably also be added.Gilbertine goldmark (talk) 17:22, 16 February 2008 (UTC) Added the In the Labyrinth section. Any editors with better knowledge of the game than I should definitely feel free to tweak these sections.Gilbertine goldmark (talk) 18:39, 19 February 2008 (UTC)