The Fantasy Trip Legacy Edition now available for direct purchase!

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Moonglum

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If you are interested in SJGames' re-launch of The Fantasy Trip but missed out on the kickstarter, you have a window of opportunity to jump on a truly great opportunity. They just started offering the big boxed set for sale direct through Warehouse 23. I don't really know anything about supplies and the timing of the next wave of printings, but this has been quite popular and I imagine might go fast. And it is a spectacularly good gaming experience: A huge beautifully put together box packed with little boxed games, solo dungeons, the full roleplaying game, a 6 level dungeon, all the toys you need to fill your table top with the system's distinctive hex-tile-and-chit playing pieces, and more. It isn't cheap, but it's more game in one box than you've seen in a long time - or ever.
 
Jesus. My kickstarted box has not shown up yet. Come on SJG.

And yeah, buy The Fantasy Trip. It is a neat game.
 
It does. The book, In The Labyrinth, is the complete roleplaying game and includes all the information found in Melee and Wizard. If you have a hex map (or a printer) and something to use as markers or figures, then that book is all you need to play.
 
Got mine on Thursday. The whole family played a game of Melee today for Easter even Dad who isn't into board games etc. Good laugh.
 
Moonglum said:
It does. The book, In The Labyrinth, is the complete roleplaying game and includes all the information found in Melee and Wizard. If you have a hex map (or a printer) and something to use as markers or figures, then that book is all you need to play.
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Are you sure? I was under the impression that you still needed Melee and Wizard to use that book.
 
goblinslayer said:
Are you sure? I was under the impression that you still needed Melee and Wizard to use that book.
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Nope. Those games come with hexmaps and counters which make things easier, but the In The Labyrinth book is a complete game in itself. It now incorporates what used to be two separate books, Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard, which have all the combat and magic rules.
 
goblinslayer said:
Are you sure? I was under the impression that you still needed Melee and Wizard to use that book.
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The original came in three books: Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard, and Into the Labyrinth. The new version has all three combined into a single book.

Separate are two wargames Melee and Wizard. One about dueling warriors, and the other dueling Wizards. They all use the same mechanics and material can be interchanged between the three of them. You are not missing out by not getting Melee or Wizard.
 
I keep looking at this and wondering what it would give me that isn’t covered already by GURPS. Anyone care to comment?
 
raniE said:
Nope. Those games come with hexmaps and counters which make things easier, but the In The Labyrinth book is a complete game in itself. It now incorporates what used to be two separate books, Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard, which have all the combat and magic rules.
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They should really make that more clear on their product page then. A lot of old timers like me remember it as not being a complete game. This statement is not very clearly worded-

This book covers roleplaying, character creation and experience, and advanced magic and combat rules for players who already have Melee and Wizard.
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The Fantasy Trip: In the Labyrinth

thefantasytrip.game thefantasytrip.game
 
I was in a game store over the weekend and saw one of those Legacy boxed sets of TFT. My wife bought it for me as a birthday present. I haven't had a chance to peek inside yet, but I'm so excited. :grin:
 
dbm said:
I keep looking at this and wondering what it would give me that isn’t covered already by GURPS. Anyone care to comment?
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The point would be how this isn’t GURPS. TFT is a lighter and more focused game with some unique ideas and flavour distinct from GURPS.
 
What kind of ideas? Would you give an example?
 
dbm said:
What kind of ideas? Would you give an example?
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Magic works by using up strength points so while it can be quite powerful it has some hard limits as use puts the caster's life in danger. The death spell can backfire and kill the caster as well as the target.
 
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TFT and GURPS share a lot of DNA, but the former is 1) more focused on fantasy or historical fantasy settings; 2) much lighter when it comes to character creation (usually a process that takes a minute or so for an experienced player); 3) has a combat system that shares many basic qualities with GURPS, but is much closer to a board game or miniatures skirmish game - significantly faster playing and 'orderly' in the way things happen during the turn. Also very different in tone, default setting and a variety of other things - it has an overall vibe that makes me think of Diskworld for some reason.
 
The boxed set is one of the most impressive gaming sets I've bought in a long time. I think it was packaged with air imported from 1980.


dbm said:
I keep looking at this and wondering what it would give me that isn’t covered already by GURPS. Anyone care to comment?
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Less is what it gets you, TFT is young Jean Claude Vandamme, GURPS is present day Steven Segal. They will both kick your ass, but one will do it while eating a jelly donut. :hehe:
 
dbm said:
I keep looking at this and wondering what it would give me that isn’t covered already by GURPS. Anyone care to comment?
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As others said it is a lighter and more concise RPG than GURPS. An important difference is the speed of character generation. Another it is far more ready to run out of the box than GURPS due to having ready to use elements that most fantasy RPGs have. I.e. monsters, treasure, character, spells, etc.

A downside compared to GURPS is that combat is a more abstract and doesn't quite have the same one to one
relationship of in-game action and mechanic that GURPS has. But TFT combat is a well designed straight forward system in its own right.

Things that character can be better at outside of combat and magic are found in the talent system which operate as a combination of advantage and skill. Where GURPS is far more straight forward with separated skills and advantage. However there are fewer talents and taking one is often more meaningful than taking a point of skill or picking up an advantage in GURPS.

In TFT there are less moving parts and thus more amicable to house ruling. However GURPS has a lot of long played elements that can be combined to make a mechanic for most anything in a campaign.
 
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About TFT versus GURPS, one of the big differences is in the combat engine, where armor protects you, but also slows you down AND lowers your chance to hit.Is this super-realistic? No. Does it model real historical combat? As far as I know, no. But what it does do is model stuff like Conan stories or the first Conan Arnold movie, where the same fighter can be effective both in and out of armor, depending on the situation. It is a system that balances warriors against wizards, as no longer will an ambush at a dinner or during the night be a minor inconvenience to the wizard and a major hassle for the warrior. I have found no other system that is a s good at this as The Fantasy Trip.

Minor aside: Seriously, you don't need anything except In The Labyrinth, some six-siders, pencils, paper, hex-paper and your imagination to play. One possible reason this is not clearer on the product page is because only the Legacy Edition box, which includes Melee, Wizard and In The Labyrinth is actually up for sale at this time. You can't buy In The Labyrinth separately yet.
 
Rob, thanks for the ToC--I hadn't been able to find it.
 
raniE said:
About TFT versus GURPS, one of the big differences is in the combat engine, where armor protects you, but also slows you down AND lowers your chance to hit.Is this super-realistic? No. Does it model real historical combat? As far as I know, no. But what it does do is model stuff like Conan stories or the first Conan Arnold movie, where the same fighter can be effective both in and out of armor, depending on the situation. It is a system that balances warriors against wizards, as no longer will an ambush at a dinner or during the night be a minor inconvenience to the wizard and a major hassle for the warrior. I have found no other system that is a s good at this as The Fantasy Trip.

Minor aside: Seriously, you don't need anything except In The Labyrinth, some six-siders, pencils, paper, hex-paper and your imagination to play. One possible reason this is not clearer on the product page is because only the Legacy Edition box, which includes Melee, Wizard and In The Labyrinth is actually up for sale at this time. You can't buy In The Labyrinth separately yet.
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Thanks for this. I backed the "I want it all level" and we've only played Wizard and Melee. We like the game a lot but I didn't realize In the Labrynith is all we really needed to buy. I thought it was just campaign rules.
 
Just want to say I hate the lot of you who've been able to buy their TFT copy in a shop(:hehe:)......

Overseas distribution from the kick-starter still hasn't been able to deliver all of the copies yet. I know this because mine is meant to arrive tomorrow (delivery time updated today - I thought that I was going to get it Friday). At least I think it is - all I know is that a package is coming tomorrow from a company that apparently is a major distributor in Australia of kickstarter physical rewards. As TFT is the only physical copy that I've backed recently I'm assuming that its this.
 
burbles said:
Just want to say I hate the lot of you who've been able to buy their TFT copy in a shop(:hehe:)......

Overseas distribution from the kick-starter still hasn't been able to deliver all of the copies yet. I know this because mine is meant to arrive tomorrow (delivery time updated today - I thought that I was going to get it Friday). At least I think it is - all I know is that a package is coming tomorrow from a company that apparently is a major distributor in Australia of kickstarter physical rewards. As TFT is the only physical copy that I've backed recently I'm assuming that its this.
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Well, that still puts you ahead of me. I've not received any notice of anything as of yet. Since the UK is still in the EU, there shouldn't be extra delays getting my box here, yet nothing.
 
raniE said:
Well, that still puts you ahead of me. I've not received any notice of anything as of yet. Since the UK is still in the EU, there shouldn't be extra delays getting my box here, yet nothing.
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Yep. That sucks. I always assumed that Australia would be one of the last places to be done. Hope some notification comes to you soon.
 
burbles said:
Yep. That sucks. I always assumed that Australia would be one of the last places to be done. Hope some notification comes to you soon.
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Hope you get your box okay!
 
Mine that I pre-ordered from Miniature Market arrived today. I should be able to look over it tonight.

Over 30 years later, and I finally get to see what The Fantasy Trip actually IS rather that the strange perception I was given of it via the old game shop.
 
My memories of it are being beaten by a friend at school one lunch time, we played seven 1v1 games and I was beaten every single time.
 
If at first you don't succeed...

Next time you play, do some 2 on 2 (or more) fights, preferably with some fun terrain. The game's approach to movement and position really opens up when things get just a bit more complex.

Also, dying constantly is part of the appeal. Once you get used to playing TFT, all other fantasy roleplaying games feel condescending.
 
burbles said:
Yep. That sucks. I always assumed that Australia would be one of the last places to be done. Hope some notification comes to you soon.
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No word in Canada yet either. Unless it is the package waitingat the Post Office tomorrow.
 
Postage must have been hefty on that!
 
dbm said:
Postage must have been hefty on that!
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Quite. Couldn't get all the little extras I wanted as every bit added on just as much or more in postage as it actually cost. Still, now that it is here, it was worth it.
 
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Someone might already have asked, but will the PDFs be going up for public consumption?
 
Stevethulhu said:
Someone might already have asked, but will the PDFs be going up for public consumption?
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Yes. Next chance to get them will probably be in the next "Decks of Destiny" Kickstarter campaign as an add-on (which I think you could add one while not actually getting Decks of Destiny), and I think they'll eventually make it something you can just buy off their Warehouse 23 store page.

There is a thread about this question on the SJG forums.
 
Read and played some Melee last night. The sample character cards were mega handy, and reduced all barriers to getting started. I'm looking forward to playing some more and getting the rules nailed down in my head. Hopefully I'll be able to do a couple of 4 vs 4 battles before the weekend. Then on the weekend I hope to be able to dip my toes into Wizard.

I definitely would have liked Melee had I been exposed to it back in 81 or 82. For me, I think it might have been a better introduction to fantasy gaming than D&D B/X.

I think I'm gonna try to make my 4 man team consist of two armored dudes with hammers, one halberd dude, and one bow dude.
 
Sounds legit. Everyone has their favorite recipes for combat teams, but a couple of durable guys, a pole arm and a missile weapon is a solid choice.
 
I don't think this has been mentioned, but the First Printing has "extras" that it seems won't be in future printings.
 
My copy should arrive today but I won't get to pick it up until next week. :sad:
 
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