"Yes, thank youOriginally Posted by Neshm hiKumala
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"Yes, thank you
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward." - Rocky
Yes, please, yes. I really enjoy this style of game illustration.
(And speaking in my Gloranthan persuasions, the user-name of the artist of course fills me with confidence and joy
To start from the top; "use" and "relevance" to whom, for what? I think the sheer length of this thread and its predecessor answer, "varied people" and "serious interest". If you mean, do your games, stories, and miniatures contribute to helping other people start to play the way you do? I really don't think so. Why should that matter to whether it's "worth" the bandwidth?I have, as has been mentioned a few times in the course of this thread and the one before it, a pretty 'ancient' outlook and style of gaming. Has this any use or relevance in today's gaming hobby? Or, am I wasting everyone's time and bandwidth by carrying on and on and on about how we used to do things back in the day?
This has also come up in conversations with game designers who e-mail me and want me to push their products on my blog. I've never played any of their games, nor are they the kind of thing that I'm interested in playing. None of them seem to have read anything on the blog, nor do they seem to care; it feels like they got my e-mail address off the blog, and are 'cold calling', and gotten the blog's URL off of some list that they saw on some Internet 'list of websites" or something. I've tried to explain who I am and where I come from, and I keep getting blank looks - they know who Mike Mearls is, for example, but not Dave Arenson or Gary Gygax.
Friday's conversation kind of left me cold, and did nothing to enhance my interest in the modern or local gaming scene. I was having the conversation with one of the people I used to know at CSA back in the day, and I got the very real impression that I'm both obsolete and useless to the modern gamer.
Am I wasting your time with my games, my stories, and my miniatures? Inquiring minds want to know...
Take me: I have no more interest in gaming the way you do, or learning "how to", than I would ever expect you to want to learn to do it my my way. That's crazy talk. And a completely separate issue from being interested, curious, and enriched by _hearing_ about it. And your blog and this thread and all the other stuff you take the time to share is interesting, cat-murderous, and fulfilling, IMO.
I'd like to think that what "we" have in common is that, however content we are with our own way of doing things, we can appreciate hearing from each other -- while certainly there _are_ a lot of gamers, and more to the point, game writers and producers and developers, who can't tolerate any such equilibrium. Because they've got things to sell and bases to grow.
Totally laying aside your specific Tekumel history and knowledge base -- abstractly speaking here; not pretending I actually can do that -- I still feel that I've greatly benefited from hearing about your "way" of gaming, and no matter how remote it stays from my own experiences, I'd enjoy keeping hearing more about it. Understanding other ways of life in their own terms? Come on, guys, it's Anthro 101!
I understand M.A.R. Barker got his undergraduate degree in anthropology and so was (I think?) a +2 generation student of Papa Franz. So let me introduce you to Dr. F. Boas -- father of American ethnology; also grandfather of Tekumel?
Franz_Boas_-_posing_for_figure_in_USNM_exhibit_entitled_-_Hamats'a_coming_out_of_secret_room_-_1.jpg
(FTR, our underwear is better nowadays, but not our coolness)
Agreed, on all points!Please do, Uncle! Also, I have one taker already. I might need to call some GMs on this forum and others, if there are more takers than I could handle.
I'm also striving to "listen to those who suffered, not those who are merely old", as the proverb says.
...And don't stay for the counterattack, unless you have obtained superior position. Right, Uncle
I used to drive people ,ad with my habit of taking up an offensive position in a campaign, and they'd move to the attack only to find that it was a superb defensive position. I fought a lot of battles that way, and had a fair bit of success doing so.
Very true!!!
Very, very cool! Thank you!!!
I'm breaking this into two replies, if I may...
I really agree with this! I am not - I hope! - out there claiming that there's One True Way To Play; we all have different gaming interest and play styles, and I think the hobby is a big enough tent to hold all of us. What I'm hoping is that my meanderings and anecdotes provide a window into how some people were playing games back in the dawn of time, and that some of them were The Floundering Fathers of what we call 'gaming' today. If people can take anything away from this thread of my little blog for use in their games, then I'm a happy camper - and I'll continue to make the investments in time, energy, and resources to bring folks what I do and enjoy.
So, everyone, ask away! It's why I'm here...
Phil did indeed get his two-year degree in anthropology (in 18 months), and he told me once that he'd intended to become a specialist in Meso-American anthropology. I am sure he was familiar with Dr. Boas' work.I understand M.A.R. Barker got his undergraduate degree in anthropology and so was (I think?) a +2 generation student of Papa Franz. So let me introduce you to Dr. F. Boas -- father of American ethnology; also grandfather of Tekumel?
Franz_Boas_-_posing_for_figure_in_USNM_exhibit_entitled_-_Hamats'a_coming_out_of_secret_room_-_1.jpg
(FTR, our underwear is better nowadays, but not our coolness
Love the picture, too - it reeks of Phil's sense of the absurd!
Great pic! Too many drawings don't do the Ssu justice, IMHO. Instead of the terrifying image of a multi-limbed alien/cthulhu-esqu being covered in tattered, dead flesh mummy wrappings, too often the look like they are covered in melting wax or butter. And there is a great deal of nice art floating around for Tekumel, wish it could get rounded up in one place. I know, I know, its not Official Art, engraved on Stone Tablets by Prof Barker's Diadochi.
For that matter, I wish I could put how I see them on paper but I draw fat stickmen.
Did you ever drop any of your m class spells Underground? I figure some of them would turn a hallway filled with foes into lasagna.
Agreed. Although the artist admits himself that he's not quite sure of his handling of the Ssu shape, it's an excellent first take. Wish there was more like it out there.
The Foundation is supposed to be working on art guidelines. We'll see how helpful they are, whenever they appear.
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