Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal - part II

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Does this help?

Very much so! Fascinating. Hope that the unpublished pictures you mention surface some time. It's too bad that Phil was insecure about his art; it was unpolished but there is something really vital about it in the same way that there was with someone like Erol Otus.

Originally Posted by The_Shadow

Very much so! Fascinating. Hope that the unpublished pictures you mention surface some time.

Agreed; it'd be nice. I suggested doing an art book with all of Phil's original artwork from first to last - 1948 to 2008, roughly - but nothing ever came of it.

Which, if I may be allowed a personal opinion, is a real pity; I think people would have a very different view of the Tekumel world-setting if they had the chance to look at the whole body of Phil's work as well as the world he moved in, as Gronan and I were fortunate enough to do. The Phil we gamed with, and the world he took us to, was something very special.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Oh! Good question! We never really discussed it, and I think Gronan in his reply to you has a good point. I look at it this way: three million of the little gold coins, each with 3 grams of gold in it, will buy all of the equipment needed to raise four full legions of Imperial infantry - 32,000 troopers - in full steel heavy infantry armor, and pay and feed them for five years.

If we look at the pay rates in EPT, I think it's possible to say that a kaitar might be equivalent to USD$5 or so, and that's a very rough approximation.

I think Gronan does have it though; since very few transactions are paid for in coin, and normally in writs, it's more likely to be a handy unit of accounting. Phil very, very rarely used the 'small change', unless we were out in rural areas where a silver coin was a village's net worth. We had to specifically carry coppers around to be able to pay for things; see also the old UKP 'fiver', which was very hard to break into change during the time it was in circulation.

Does any of this help?

Thank you (both) for the clarification. It helps a great deal as my campaign is currently on a more mundane track, as the party has been tasked with getting an old Vriddi hunting lodge ready, for Lady Elara no less (circa 2340 AS), and now that they have defeated the baddy they have to continue with the less glamorous aspects of readying: making sure the roof is fixed, replacing the floor in the NE corner of one room, making sure the little things are done right. Given the fact that they are in the Chaigarri backwoods about two days travel on foot and a boat ride from Hekellu, and that the locals want to deal with hard currency, not promissory notes, it's nice to know just how much they can buy with their cash on hand. Not glamorous, but it's the kind of things that have fleshed out the characters, and have brought the game to life and elevated it above a series of endless dungeon crawls and disjointed adventures -both of which are fine in their own right but do not appeal to me or my group for any sustained period.

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Thank you (both) for the clarification. It helps a great deal as my campaign is currently on a more mundane track, as the party has been tasked with getting an old Vriddi hunting lodge ready, for Lady Elara no less (circa 2340 AS), and now that they have defeated the baddy they have to continue with the less glamorous aspects of readying: making sure the roof is fixed, replacing the floor in the NE corner of one room, making sure the little things are done right. Given the fact that they are in the Chaigarri backwoods about two days travel on foot and a boat ride from Hekellu, and that the locals want to deal with hard currency, not promissory notes, it's nice to know just how much they can buy with their cash on hand. Not glamorous, but it's the kind of things that have fleshed out the characters, and have brought the game to life and elevated it above a series of endless dungeon crawls and disjointed adventures -both of which are fine in their own right but do not appeal to me or my group for any sustained period.

Oh, this is going to be just screamingly funny!!! some of our very best nights with Phil were 'dealing with the locals', as Phil could do the authentic Mummerset accents required as well as the South Asian ones. It was always a joy to watch people try to escape their D&D roots and get into the social swing.

Gods, I wish I could see this!!!

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Oh, this is going to be just screamingly funny!!! some of our very best nights with Phil were 'dealing with the locals', as Phil could do the authentic Mummerset accents required as well as the South Asian ones. It was always a joy to watch people try to escape their D&D roots and get into the social swing.

Gods, I wish I could see this!!!

What's even funnier is that they are Vriddi, all from "better" lineages (rolled up before the game started), the expedition is being "led" by Churisan hiVriddi (of the Vriddi) a lush, an idiot, a fop and a womaniser too high up to dispose of but too "dangerous" to be given any really power (I see him as a Fredo Corleone type of character), with Horu hiFa'asu hiVriddi -former Molkar of the 10th Legion, and blood uncle to two of the characters, "commanding" the expedition who everyone, including Churisan, is terrified of. "Uncle is looking for you." has become a sentence that instantly incites worry in my game!
To compound the above mentioned, the characters have somehow gotten a reputation of being "fuck-ups" within clan circles and Uncle Horu has told them to personally see to the lodge and that they "better not mess this up..." To paraphrase you Chirine: much mayhem will ensue.
I also do a tonne of accents from Eastern European, to South Asian, to southern US, to whatever... These are usually good for a laugh or two especially after I've had a few drinks in me
I will certainly keep you posted.

Chirine,

When you get a sec, can you check your notifications. I PM'd you something.

Shemek.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

DING! DING! DING! We have a winner!!! You, gentle reader of this massive thread, are literally the very first person to ask me this question in forty years. Consider yourself given the big prize!

A long, long time ago, I set myself the primary objective of being Phil's archivist, documenting the creative process that engendered Tekumel. My primary goal was to get a complete copy of all his work, and catalog and index it for future fans. Nothing more, nothing less. I made copies, I made notes, I collected artifacts, and now - all these years later - I've done it. I have everything; not the originals, as I'm not a 'collector' , but all the data. It's all in digital format, and we keep it all very, very safe.

As I got into gaming Tekumel, I set myself the goal of having all the miniature figures we'd need for any particular scenario or adventure; this is why there are over 5,000 miniatures in my basement, only about 200 of which are not intended primarily for use in game set in Tekumel. I've done that, too; I have anything and everything I need to run my games, and to do so in the kind of 'grand manner' that Phil and I dreamed and talked about for years. No masking tape on bare tables, here; I've brought my years of railway modeling experience to bear, and I'm told I do pretty cool-looking tables.

I set myself the goal to do the best I could do at anything I did, after some advice by a senior NCO; I think I've managed that, too. My wife has a roof over her head, plenty to eat, and health care for her many ills. I've had five young people become my daughters, and they've brought into our extended family a goodly number of other young people to be sons and daughters. I'd call that one a success, too.

I have set myself the goal of telling you our story as our alter-egos in Tekumel, and that's moving along; 128,000 words, and still being written.

My goals, all those years ago, were - and still are - to paint my figures, run my games, and tell my stories. Nothing more, and nothing less. looking back on it over the past forty years, I think it's been a success. Sure, there have been some bad patches, but I did get my Missus of some 27 years, and five really cool kids out of it all.

So, there we are. I win. Hands down.

And now Chirine, you confirmed my doubts - you're indeed a Twilight and a high-essence one at that...

In other words, congratulations, Uncle!

(And in regard to the game...you always play for strategic advantage, not for tactical advantage, right?)

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Yes, very much so; they tended to accumulate the signatures of the people who held them for a while, if I recall.

Yes, sometimes it freaks new players when they get gold coins and I start enumerating signatures scratched onto the surface...

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

What's even funnier is that they are Vriddi, all from "better" lineages (rolled up before the game started), the expedition is being "led" by Churisan hiVriddi (of the Vriddi) a lush, an idiot, a fop and a womaniser too high up to dispose of but too "dangerous" to be given any really power (I see him as a Fredo Corleone type of character), with Horu hiFa'asu hiVriddi -former Molkar of the 10th Legion, and blood uncle to two of the characters, "commanding" the expedition who everyone, including Churisan, is terrified of. "Uncle is looking for you." has become a sentence that instantly incites worry in my game!
To compound the above mentioned, the characters have somehow gotten a reputation of being "fuck-ups" within clan circles and Uncle Horu has told them to personally see to the lodge and that they "better not mess this up..." To paraphrase you Chirine: much mayhem will ensue.
I also do a tonne of accents from Eastern European, to South Asian, to southern US, to whatever... These are usually good for a laugh or two especially after I've had a few drinks in me
I will certainly keep you posted.

I like your sense of humour, as represented in the NPCs created.