From: utzoo!decvax!duke!unc!tim
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Title: Re: frp opinions
Article-I.D.: unc.4779
Posted: Tue Mar 15 14:16:23 1983
Received: Tue Mar 22 08:57:40 1983
References: hou2a.6

TSR stinks! Avoid it entirely! Their games are written
without the least concern for organization, modularity,
realism, ease of learning, or consistency of worldview.
The only reason for their edge on the market is a few
years' head start.

The best examples are the rotten AD&D and Top Secret games.
AD&D is topheavy beyond belief. Instead of modifying the
rules of D&D to support the new system, Gygax just added
page upon page of arbitrary rules and tables
to the ad hoc rules of D&D, creating a vast, lumbering, and
unpleasant game. (To be fair, it should be mentioned that
the spells available to magic-users in AD&D are much more
powerful than those available in other systems, and many
people feel that this is a great advantage of the system.)
Top Secret has an interesting framework, but the unarmed
combat rules are unplayable, and you can survive a shotgun
blast to the head at short range. It, like Star Frontiers,
is a good example of a game with great potential ruined
by an incompetent design staff.

I strongly suspect the person who said that D&D was the
best FRP game on the market has never tried The Fantasy Trip
or Runequest. Play these first; I've known people whose
attitudes towards FRP were ruined forever by D&D and AD&D.
Remember, the games are about ROLE-PLAYING, and are not
like war games!

Tim