Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Personally, I'll always prefer EPT, with S&G's spells; again, this is what "bethorm" does a good job with.

That's good to know. Thanks for the mini review.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

I don;t know if there's any interest, or even if this is the right place to mention it, but I'll be running a 'micro-Braunstein' for the game group on October 10th. It's our usual game day, and I was asked to run a little something special for the Usual Suspects...

Sounds interesting, though maybe a bit long for a weekend drive for me.

Originally Posted by Bren

That's good to know. Thanks for the mini review.

Sounds interesting, though maybe a bit long for a weekend drive for me.

Happy to help!

And, yes, you'd have a bit of a drive...

Originally Posted by Greentongue

There is a video on game rules for just about every board game out there these days. I think it may be helping to bring back board gaming.

Like the old saw about getting a job ...

How do you get someone to explain the rules, if no one has played before.

It would be great to have "How to" videos related to Tekumel.
Things like ...
How to talk your way past the guards of an opposing faith.
How to talk the local magistrate into approving construction of a new shrine.
How to talk a high noble into sponsoring you in the arena.
...

This assumes that they were not done by the "Tekumel Elite".
In which case it is probably better they don't exist.
=

I'd agree with that; easy video and YouTube have really changed the way information flows.

I like your "How To" suggestions! I wonder if my going back to my short (no more then 30 minute, due to the size of the Sony Bloggie's memory) video 'blog' might work for this? These are all subjects that I could talk about pretty easily, and the game room is already set up for this kind of production work. Sure, it'd be single-camera / fixed position, but the kind of thing you have suggested is more of the 'talking head' kind of thing anyway.

I really enjoyed my little series of 'tableside chats' that I did that are up on YouTube; I think I could do them again, if you thought that it would be useful.

Thoughts? Comments?

And I agree about the viewpoint, too. I am a 'populist', not an 'elitist', and I have no commercial interests to have to support; my goal has been to simply tell people what Phil's Tekumel was like when we played in it with him. I've never been able to get my head around the 'Official", 'Authorized', 'Approved for use with' approach to gaming, which may be why I never got interested in GW's various game products. (I do have some of their miniatures, but only because they make good Tekumel figures.) Their way of doing things might really help their bottom line, but it does nothing for me as a game player or runner. And it was also one of the things that moved the RPG hobby away from the DIY roots of the thing back in the 1970s - head count that needed to be paid drove a lot of financial decisions, and those in turn drove a lot of publication / creative decisions.

'Selling' people on a world setting involves answering their questions, being polite about it, and being communicative and enthusiastic. See also Gronan's comments on how I do things; he's been there, done that, and gotten the t-shirt.

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Shucks...too bad I live so far away!!! Sounds cool. Maybe one day I can make it up north!!! Have fun.

H :0)

Understood!

I'll report back, and let everyone know how it all came out.

Originally Posted by Greentongue

There is only one sure way to determine if they are useful and that is try it.

It is not uncommon for people to draw a blank when in an unfamiliar setting.
Having some easy to relate to videos would go a long way towards showing "How things are done here."
Makes aligning expectations much easier.
From those seeds great things could grow.

Maybe others that follow this thread could make suggestions of things that "seeing it done" would help with.
(or just written examples)
=

Good points! Would you think that a fifteen-minute 'short take' would be better?

Boring Technical Stuff: The little Bloggie we used to use let us upload live as we shot, but Qik was shut down after Skype was bought by Microsoft. It had a 30 minute memory, which gave us the limits for my first videos what are up on YouTube, but I'm thinking we shoot and record to the DVR, which gives us about 45 minutes per disk - the internal memory is much bigger, but dumping the video to DVD gives us more options for uploading to YouTube over time.

Shooting to the DVR allows for some 'added production value', as well, and makes for a nicer end product. We'd shoot this in the game room, using the Panasonic remote control camera (pan/tilt/zoom/etc) for the POV of my talking head, and have the titler in line for top and tail cards. It'd be quick, fast, and easy to do this, as the game room already has the lighting and other stuff for this kind of work.

Yeah, this is doable. Suggestions for topics will be needed; I can talk about anyti hing you like, but getting suggestions will be vital...

Originally Posted by Greentongue

Well, if it was just me ...
I'd like to see "Clan Life".
How to ask your clan for an "adventure".
How to request information from a temple / Imperial Official.
How to request assistance from a temple / Imperial Official.
How to pay off an accidental (or intentional) insult.
How to reserve a room at a distant clan house.

In other words, every day things that can give flavor to the setting without being such an ordeal that players quit.
=

Well, "I'm bored and I want an adventure!" is likely to get you scraping out the clan's Chlen stables....

If you request information or assistance, the official is going to ask by what right you make that request. Depending on your visible signs of status, the request will be more or less polite.

You would notify your clan-cousins in a distant city that you will be visiting on such and such a date and would love to see them. As you get closer you update your arrival times. When you arrive it is polite to bring presents. This is your extended family, not Motel Six.