Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal - part II

Originally Posted by Zirunel

I'd like to know. It would be nice to see the last Seal come out, but it would also be nice to see the earlier issues back in print. The reason for pulling the license may give us a hint about how likely it is that that will ever happen.

It was mostly about the TF's control issues, and a dispute over royalties. They could not believe that there were about $750 a year in sales of all Carl's Tekumel products; they firmly believed (and may still believe, for all I know) that this is the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the Tekumel rainbow. So, they got his license pulled, and then were absolutely shocked that the game industry didn't come knocking with huge piles of money for them.

I told them what things were really like, as I have been doing for literally decades. I printed 250 copies of Deeds when I was at AGI, and the last of those copies finally sold out in 2009 or so. Basically, it took almost four decades to sell the 150 copies I had left over from my time at AGI, where I managed to sell 100 copies in three years.

I think that says a lot about the various approaches to the market, as well as the size of that market.

Originally Posted by bconsidine

First time poster, 619 page lurker. This thread has been instrumental in rekindling my love of Tekumel, which started when EPT first came out and was forever cemented when I saw the Temple of Vimuhla at an early GenCon (either last at the Playboy Club or first at UW Parkside).

Keep it up, folks. I'm along for the entire ride.

Blaise

Welcome! This is your thread; please free to ask anything you want, and please ask for clarification of the more obscure references!

And selling those 100 copies in three years? Sisyphus had it easy in comparison.

I think I am most sad about the utter heartbreak of it all.

Originally Posted by Zirunel

Cool. I envy you that, I've never seen the temple in the flesh, just pictures. I do remember the buzz around it, seemed like it was quite the sensation at the time.

and welcome!

It's pretty impressive. It's 40" in a side, and about three foot tall when fully assembled. I refurbished the storage / transport box with new casters and hardware in the summer of 2012, and it's been in there since. I originally built the box so we could take it wo conventions to promote Tekumel, and Groan and I did that for some years; hence the investment in very heavy-duty casters.

We have all of the known photos of the thing - taken in 1974, 1987, 2011, and 2012 - in the files. If I had some spare cash, about $10,000, I'd take these to a local props house and turn them loose on the project.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

And selling those 100 copies in three years? Sisyphus had it easy in comparison.

I think I am most sad about the utter heartbreak of it all.

Agreed, on both counts. We worked our butts off, flogging the merchandise.

Sigh. I know what you mean, my General. One does wonder at what Phil would have said about the current situation.

Out of our hands, lad.

Originally Posted by Zirunel

Okay wait now, that makes it sound like you're recommending a re-build. Or do you mean working up a 1:1?

Either way, should we be concerned about the conservation status of the original?

Oh, my. Well, I did promise to answer all questions as honestly as I can, so here goes...

When I left Phil's orbit back in 1988, I had followed his instructions and put the box with the Temple inside out in his garage. I made sure that the box was closed - I had made it so it could be bolted tightly shut. Sometime in the middling 2000's, two of the then-TNG took the box out of the garage to show the Temple to a visiting Big Name Tekumel Fan. This video is up on the web someplace, and I also have copies of all the photos that were taken at the time. When they put the box back into the garage, they damaged several of the casters and left the lid of the box askew and thus open. The box was removed from the garage in 2011, as part of the removal of all Phil's Tekumel collections to the TF's storage bay.

In the decade leading up to this point, mice had gotten into the Temple, and were living and dying in there. I did a complete photo survey of all the damage, and did - at the TF's request - a compete survey of the damage and suggested repairs. I was then told by the TF to bring the Temple to the memorial event for Phil, despite my advisory that it was in no shape to be viewed; I was told to make it happen anyway, as it was very important for the TF's prestige to have the Temple on display. So, with the TF's approval, I vacuumed out the six dead mice and five cubic gallons of shredded mouse bedding, fecal matter, and other by-products of the mice living in the building. I also used distilled water and a human-grade surgical disinfectant to clean the mouse urine out of the building, and I used the special collection bag that we use for abatement work and made sure that all the small detail parts that the mice had knocked loose were collected - I also had the complete photo surveys for getting everything back into place. The Temple was displayed at the event, and many photos and at least one video of it at that time have been posted to the Internet.

After the event, the Temple lived In my basement until I got the box all fixed up, including lining the box with carpeting to help protect the thing from bumps and such, and then the entire thing went off to the TF's new office. As far as I know, it's still there; at least, the box is there.

The pathetic little postscript to this story is that after I did all this work, the TF made a lot of noise about showing the thing off at conventions like Gary Co, and expected me to do this traveling road show for them. I said fine, and bought all sorts of trade show gear - securable booth, lighting, etc. - but then said let's talk budget, and they instantly dropped the idea. Since then, several Tekumel fans have been told by the TF when visiting their office that I destroyed the Temple before the memorial event. in a fit of spite and from my hatred of Phil. Which is why the Temple can't be shown to the public, as it's been totally ruined by Yours Truly. (The fans had, of course, had been at the memorial event and had seen the work I'd done to fix the poor old thing up for the event.) This is much in the same vein as their story that they can't publish any of Phil's files, because these were destroyed by my third daughter and so can't be shown to anyone.

When I expressed my concerns about the Temple's conservation, I was told that the TF has "the top people, top people, working on it." That was over four years ago, I think.

If it were me, I'd restore the temple to a stable state, then commission a new version that could go to conventions as the original is now over forty years old and showing it's age. It'd be easy for me to do, with today's technology - I offered to do it for free, originally - and a props house could do it in a month; for a fee, of course.)

That's the story. And may provide some insight as to why I get upset at times...