Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal - part II

Originally Posted by AsenRG

I've been known to asking people that try to tell me how to live in my own house whether they want to leave or would they prefer me to throw them out head first - and we're talking a relative, here.
Other than that, you really have the patience of a saint, Uncle.

No, the sad thing is that I used to know such people - but in their defence, they stopped being like that after growing out of high school.

I try to be patient, but it's been getting harder and harder over the past five years. Sigh.

Agreed; some of these people never seem to have gotten that far - or have regressed to their childhoods...

Originally Posted by bconsidine

This "collector" brings to mind the bit in This is Spinal Tap where Nigel Tufnel is showing his prize guitar to Marty DiBergi: "Don't touch it." "I was just pointing at it." "Don't even point at it."..."Playing it would be like unvirgining a virgin." (Apologies if I've gotten the dialog wrong.)

Blaise

Agreed, and funny as well. I don't mind the gamers who are also collectors of materials for the games that they play and enjoy - I do that myself, I'd say - but I've gotten very sick and tired of the 'professional collectors' who are in it purely and simply for the money. Speculators, if you will. I've been chewed out for opening games and destroying the shrink wrap, thus ruining the value of the item for 'serious collectors'; never mind that I was the one who put the shrink wrap on in the first place, some thirty-five years ago in Dave Arneson's garage at 1278 Selby, and I bought the item several years later.

It's like in model railway terms; I am an 'operator' who runs trains, and not a 'serious collector' who puts the stuff on the shelf so it'll increase in value over time and recoup my investment. I don't care; I need a Siphon G for the early morning down milk express, otherwise my branch line is going to miss out on some traffic. So, away with the shrink wrap, and the wagon goes on the rails so the pannier tank can collect it.

I don't mind these people doing their thing; what I mind is them coming into my house as my guests and telling me that I've done them the dirty by playing with my toys...

I mentioned once to a "serious collector" that I still had my first printing OD&D from when I used to play with Gary.

And he started boasting about "I have THIS GUY's OD&D first printing from when he played with Gary, and THAT GUY's first printing OD&D from when he played with Gary, " etc etc etc.

After he wound down, I said "That's like saying you have the rubber Joe DiMaggio used when he fucked Marilyn Monroe, and the rubber JFK used when he fucked Marilyn Monroe.

I have the rubber I used when I fucked Marilyn Monroe!"

Game, set, and match.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

I mentioned once to a "serious collector" that I still had my first printing OD&D from when I used to play with Gary.

And he started boasting about "I have THIS GUY's OD&D first printing from when he played with Gary, and THAT GUY's first printing OD&D from when he played with Gary, " etc etc etc.

After he wound down, I said "That's like saying you have the rubber Joe DiMaggio used when he fucked Marilyn Monroe, and the rubber JFK used when he fucked Marilyn Monroe.

I have the rubber I used when I fucked Marilyn Monroe!"

Game, set, and match.

Now that was a good one.

Originally Posted by Greentongue

They should be happy. You are making their un-played stuff more valuable.

If your's could tell stories ... wait! They can!

Do you have more details on how the whole slave revolt was put down?
Including how the table reacted when their 20th Century mentality didn't go over well in the setting.
=

Agreed; I would have thought that my destruction of so much Valuable and Collectable stuff would help preserve the Full Market Value of everything, but they still seem to get cranky. I've often toyed with the notion of putting all of my collection up for sale at one time, flooding the market with merchandise and bringing the whole inflated pricing structure down.

Why, yes... Yes they can...

The basic story:

Well, Gary Rudolph thought it would be a fine thing to have his own private army, but being 'thrifty' he bought and armed slaves instead of hiring mercenaries - which is what everybody else does. Being a white guy from the Upper Midwest and heir to generations of abolitionist fervor, he expected the slaves to be good little NPCs and do his bidding like any minions are supposed to do. Phil rolled, got a spectacularly bad result, and Stanley Kubrick was hired to direct the movie. The revolt was quick, nasty, brutal, and bloody as the slaves settled a lot of old scores, but it was also pretty localized - Ferenara is one of those nice little towns out in the boondocks and kinda isolated; yes, it's on the Sakbe road, but that simply meant the troops could get there faster - and once the Imperial legions in Fasilitum and Sokatis got the news, they marched in and stamped the revolt right out in a quick, nasty, brutal, and bloody bit of repression. The Legions simply marched in, split up by cohorts, fanned out, and rounded up / killed anybody and everybody who couldn't prove that they weren't a slave. Not a lot of impalements; the slaves were usually simply killed on the spot, and any who gave up were shipped off to very distant locales to work in the mines or pull an oar. Pretty basic stuff, really; see also the movie.

Gary, as I recall, sat there with his mouth hanging open; he didn't know a lot about the historical precedents that Phil was working from, and got caught with his kilt down. The rest of the table loved it, as it gave them a chance to kill, loot, maim, rape, slaughter, and indulge in all those things that they really loved to do in their group. (Gary Fine may have been right, after all.)

Well, I though that it was fun. Photos up on my blog.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Well, I though that it was fun. Photos up on my blog.

It was quite fun.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

It was quite fun.

Agreed!

The first session, the Ancient Egyptian one, was pretty delightful as the players really got into their roles very early on, and really got into the culture of the place. I think the spate of movies set in the period like "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns" really helped, as they both have a lot of juicy period stuff that people can relate to. I really enjoyed it, especially with the younger players picking up on the idea of RPGs and running with it. Heaps of fun.

The second session, the Barsoom one, was really 'old home week' for me, with a lot of old friends wading right in and running with the ERB and 'pulp' vibe. Again, the "John Carter" movie may have helped, but the real joy was the shameless mugging to the camera by all of the players who nailed their roles and the action on the first take.

In between games, there was a lot of wonderful discussion of gaming and gamers, and how what we used to do can be applied today. Fascinating stuff!!!

It was a very good day, if you asked me.