> On Sep 18, 2021, at 4:15 PM, Kurt Feltenberger - kurt at thepaw.org (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:
>
> On 9/18/2021 7:06 PM, Rupert Boleyn - rupert.boleyn at gmail.com (via tml list) wrote:
>>
>> On 19Sep2021 1103, Kurt Feltenberger - kurt at thepaw.org (via tml list) wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> While I liked the potential of the FFS rules (Both TNE and T4), I found them too difficult to use without computer assistance, overly complex, too detailed in some areas but lacking detail in others, among others.  It was, IMO, a noble effort, but the actual impact it had on the game was to give it an air of "too complex" without really adding anything.  CT and MT allowed good modeling without diving into complexity that pretty much demanded some form of spreadsheet or dedicated development application.
>> Aside from having a limited range of pre-built weapons (thus requiring you to design your own for big military ships), FF&S1 was about as complex as MT. OF course, compared to CT (even Striker) they were both rather more fiddly.
>
> I would seriously disagree; neither CT or MT had anything close to the complex formulas or steps that FFS had.  In the end, it's a matter of personal opinion; I found them complex for complexities sake and felt like the people involved were trying to show the world how smart they were.  For a small percentage of the players, this was a great supplement; for the majority (based on those I've talked to), it was overkill.  It's like buying a car; most people just want one that does what they want it to do and don't want to get down to the nittygritty and custom design the engine, transmission, body characteristics, etc.
>
> YMMV and that's cool.
>

I really liked some of the concepts that FFS v1 brought to the table. I also enjoyed some of the crunchy bits back then. Today, probably not so much. It’s a time thing.

For an example of the bits that it brought - I loved reaction based engines as the standard in Traveller, with CG being used to lift off/land. Forcing PC’s to think about things like “we want to go there, but it’s a long ways and it will take a long time because we are going to have to burn, coast, and then flip and burn” added a lot to the story IMHO. And fuel hits became a little more panicy IMHO.

I’ve played around with swapping PP fuel for reaction mass in CT but I never came up with something that was “good enough” and did not require almost a total rebuild of all of the ships in the game.