Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal - part II

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Yes; Fine was a player in Phil's campaign right as we split up. I and the other founders of the Thursday Night Group had had a lot of abuse and conflict with the original group of players, who were very much into power gaming and player vs. player conflict. It made them very unpleasant people to game with, and - to be frank - several of them were just as obnoxious outside of Phil's basement. Same people, same issues, which is why Gronan came over to our new group pretty shortly. It got worse after our group became the center of writing, artwork, and publishing; they fought every step of the way, and this attitude continued for years. There was no point to it, from an outside standpoint; it was all about internal gamer / fannish politics. I wasted a lot of time, money, energy, and years of my life trying to counteract their 'elitist' viewpoint, and I don't think we ever really managed it.

Pity. Phil's creation deserved better, in my biased opinion.

Perhaps I should re-read Fine's book. Now after all these years, I might even be able to recognize individual players in the Professor's group.

My feeling at the time was that the writer was a sociologist trying to be an anthropologist but not quite well-trained enough for the task. He didn't seem to "get" the participant observer role or get enough out of it. But if he was already a player/insider, perhaps he was too close to his subjects from the get-go. Which would explain a lot.

This is not the first time I've heard you talk about the power-gamer/non-power-gamer conflict in the group. Were there other examples?

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

A number of people said them same thing, at the time.

Good points!

That was the big one that caused the split. Another factor was emphasis on what we wanted to do; we wanted to explore the world, and they didn't want to all that much. We accepted the rules and world-setting as it was; they, like quite a few gamers back then, were really interested in breaking the thing just to see what happened. We were into cooperative play, they were not. Stuff like that. We were much more interested in fitting into the societies of Phil's world, too, and being responsible members of those societies. It just got old, and so we split off from them. Things got much better very quickly, and we stayed. Otherwise, we would have all quit, with fascinating results for the future for Tekumel.

Well, the results might have been fascinating , or possibly not. Seeing as how one track seems to have led to a bunch of Tekumel publications, and the other track....perhaps not so much. I have to admit I am kind of guessing there, I am not certain what publications came out of the power-gamer track. Possibly some?

But regardless, it sounds like in that instance, the Professor resolved the problem of new-gamers vs. the old-timers, not by hounding out the old group but by splitting the groups. So more-or-less everyone found a place?

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Otherwise, we would have all quit, with fascinating results for the future for Tekumel.

Is the current Tekumel Foundation a mixture of these two groups, mainly one of them or later arrivals?


Is there a shortage of loose coin, what with most transactions being done with credit and it being basically a low metal world?
=

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

There's a huge body of work that was done in and about the world-setting, over the years. I am supposedly the 'greatest living authority' on the setting, and people seem to like asking me questions.

And the writing still goes on; I'm 127,000 words into an account of our adventures over the decade plus we had with Phil. If I may offer a small sample, from the Preface to Book One of "To Serve The Petal Throne":

Since before the beginnings of recorded time, humankind had looked up into the night sky at the myriad points of light and wondered. Eventually, in the fullness of that time, the first steps were taken out into that starry night. Humankind went, in a single bound, from being alone on their homeworld to being part of a galaxy-spanning community of beings of diverse shapes and sizes. Some were friendly, some were hostile, and some plainly disinterested in the doings of humans and neutral to them.

Humankind spread across the stars, and established their own empire; the Lords of Humanspace assimilated many technologies and sciences, and eventually became masters of matter and energy. This mastery brought them in to alliances and conflicts, and in one particular case brought them a contract with another of the galaxy�s races; they wanted to have an entire planet adapted for their use, and this the Lords of Humanspace could do.

One of five worlds orbiting a bright, hot star, the chosen planet was at the juncture of several important trade routes between the more densely-populated areas of space; the world was wanted as a trading center and a place where the rulers of the galaxy could rest from their labors.

It was of little matter that the world was already inhabited; the Lords of Humanspace did not consider such minor things as being worthy of their notice. Mighty weapons were deployed, even mightier engines of change and transformation were brought into play, and the new world became a place where humankind and their allies could call home. The inhabitants were allowed to survive; to survive, and nurse their hatred of the alien beings who had transformed their planet and confined them to the more remote regions of it.

The Lords of Humanspace, and their allies, for all their power and mastery were not the most highly endowed races in the universe. Others, older and more alien yet, held that position, and they too had their rivalries and conflicts. To these older races, the all-powerful Lords of Humanspace were as toys to a child.

There came a time when these older races had a mighty conflict, and employed powers unimaginable to Humankind. The newly-transformed world was cast out of space and time, and the trapped peoples of the new world looked up into a sky without stars.

The high civilization that the Lords of Humanspace had brought to the new world collapsed - here, suddenly; there, slowly. Humankind is, however, nothing if not adaptable and resilient; civilization began a long, slow climb back into the light and out of the utter darkness that had befallen it. New technologies of the mind, which became known as �sorcery�, replaced the lost technology of the Ancients � as the Lords of Humanspace had become known � and empires and kingdoms rose and fell as the centuries passed into dust.

Humans and their alien allies built and strove, and created new civilizations out of the ashes of the old. Heroes and villians abounded, and new legends were born out of the tales of their battles and quests. In every generation, new heroes and heroines were born, and their legends added to the mythology and history of their world. Gods and goddesses, some based on the memories of the old races that has cast the world into darkness and some created by the mnds of their worshippers, abounded and made their presence in the world known to their worshippers and their competitors.

Some traces of the old technology survived, and became highly sought-after and coveted treasures. Some of what was left of the old world was beneficial and useful; other devices could kill at a touch. All of the inhabitants of the world understood this, and the quest for these wonders was left to a new breed of �adventurers�, who took the most horrific risks in order to obtain the most generous of rewards.

And so it begins; tales of wonder, and of people not yet born, and of lands not yet known�
Come with us; our journey is just begun�

Uncle,

We wait patiently. Must you torment us with snippets...so?!?!

H;0)