Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Hello,

Would you please tell us what you learned about the planning and running of adventures from your time at the Professor's table?

Also if you could talk a bit about how the Professor kept his game orginized or not? I've read that the Professor kept track of NPCs on index cards, do you have an example of one by chance?

Thanks,

H :0)

Phil kept his campaign very organized - he used Tony Bath's book on how to run a campaign. He did lots and lots of little maps and notes, which I always made copies of so we had them for the archives. Read the Bath book for the details; it's still in print.

Phil did everyone on 3x5 index cards. We updated our cards regularly over the years, and Phil would update the NPCs. The cards were kept in 'regional' boxes, and all the dividers were for locations; as people moved around, so did their cards so Phil knew instantly knew who was who in any particular location. Very easy to run and maintain, and very handy.

I made a copy of all 1,800 cards in 1987, and I also have a copy of the 1992 computerized version. They provide a fascinating look into the campaign. I also have a copy of Dave Arneson's 'sub-routine' for the meta-game, for merchant captains and their ships - it provides for cargo, as well.

This material has been specifically forbidden to be published in any way, by order of the Tekumel Foundation. You'll have to ask them. Sorry.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

I also have a copy of Dave Arneson's 'sub-routine' for the meta-game, for merchant captains and their ships - it provides for cargo, as well.

This material has been specifically forbidden to be published in any way, by order of the Tekumel Foundation. You'll have to ask them. Sorry.

How sad that the Foundation is busily making information not available. A subroutine for trade and cargo is something that would be useful to have available. But it's not necessarily something I want to create myself.

Originally Posted by Hrugga

The Tekumel Foundation...I hope they have an exigency plan for the just in case. It would be a shame for the Professor's hard work to be for naught. I'm sure he would have wanted people to enjoy his work just as you and the General did.

Thank you,

H :0)

PS I really wish they would move a bit quicker. I'm growing old as I wait...Hope the OAL don't find out my idenity. I wouldn't want to be forbidden to buy any Tekumel stuff out there...or worse, take the high road!!!

Yep. I tried, and it nearly killed me. Let's move on, and have hope for the future; over the past thirty-odd years, I've seen this kind of thing come and go. Patience...

Originally Posted by Greentongue

It is funny how things change from a scribbled notes to "Treasure" over time as others show interest.
"TREASURE" to be guarded even.

Sad actually. Like baseball cards.
A lot of the old "valuable ones" can barely be given away now.
If you hide it away until nobody knows or cares any more, it goes from Treasure to Trash without being enjoyed in between.
=

Yep. My dad used to have a proverb for me: "Son, money is like manure; it has to be spread around for it to do any good."

Sigh.

Originally Posted by Bren

How sad that the Foundation is busily making information not available. A subroutine for trade and cargo is something that would be useful to have available. But it's not necessarily something I want to create myself.

And you don't have to, either. This may go back to a conversation I had with Phil in the middle 1980s, when he was asking me why Gronan and I were wasting our time playing with trains. He wanted to know what we saw in it; after you put the track down on the floor, and ran the train around the circle a few times, what was left? I told him about what we call 'operations', where we simulated the operations of a real railroad on our miniature version. I told him that it was a lot like what we did when we played with our little lead soldiers - we were simulating warfare with them just as we were simulating the transport business with our models. Phil was astonished - he had no idea, the last time he'd run a toy train was back in the Lionel days.

One of the most popular operating simulation systems - the set of rules, if you will - is called the 'card order' or 'waybill' system. Here's a link to the book that I first read about it in (I hope!); you can also do a Google search to get lots of references to it:

https://books.google.com/books?id=or...system&f=false

The basic premise of the system is that every freight car on the railroad is represented by a card; every possible cargo that the industries on the railroad ships via rail is also represented by a card. At the beginning of the simulation session - the game, if you will - the cargo cards are either at the industries, waiting to be picked up, or on the cars already loaded from the previous session. (You can see where this is going, I'm sure!) The train is sent out, with loads and empties, and drops off and picks up the various cargos. (There's lots more on this in the book, of course.) I used to use paper clips and such in my early days, but there is now some very good computer software that does all of this.

What Dave did was substitute ships and their captains for the freight cars, and create all the various cargos that one would find all along the coasts of the Five Empires. A ship would arrive in Jakalla from Bey Sy, unload the cargo it was delivering, and then the ship would be free to load another cargo; the ships were all given with what they could carry, and so it was very easy to match everything up. The cargoes also indicated how long the voyage might take, so the time element was also factored in to the system. So, players in Jakalla can go down to the waterfront, and be told by the GM that there are ships going to where ever, and with whatever cargo aboard.

Adventures ensue.

It's brilliant. The system pretty much runs itself once you get it going, and it runs alongside Phil's larger meta-game that uses Tony Bath's book. It would work in any setting, and really provide a lot of stuff for players to get involved with.

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Also if you could talk a bit about how the Professor kept his game orginized or not? I've read that the Professor kept track of NPCs on index cards, do you have an example of one by chance?

Thanks,

H :0)

Let me see if I can't give you some sort of useful answer...

Phil used 3 x 5 index cards, in the stock five colors that you can get in packs. The color code was:

White: Hnalla, Hru'u, and their cohorts;
Blue: Thumis, Ksarul, and their cohorts;
Green: Avanthe, Dlamelish, and their cohorts;
Red: Karakan, Vimuhla, and their cohorts
Yellow: Belkhanu, Sarku, and their cohorts.

Non-Twenty deities were approximated.

On the obverse of the card, the stats were listed in a column on the left, under the name and clan of the person; skills and spells were listed on the right. The reverse of the card had all the possessions and such, normally on the left; any family or relations were on the right.

It's a very simple and easy to use system; if one lives in Jakalla, and then gets sent to Bey Sy, one's card moves from the Jakalla section to the Bey Sy section, making it very east for the GM to find people as needed in game sessions. As per Tony Bath's book, once a month dice are rolled or cards cut, and the table consulted to see who's moving around - usually, people don't get transferred or moved unless they're being promoted or something, and the tables in the book account for all that. It's a very easy system to use, and a lot of fun - read Tony's book to see what I mean...

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

And you don't have to, either. This may go back to a conversation I had with Phil in the middle 1980s, when he was asking me why Gronan and I were wasting our time playing with trains. He wanted to know what we saw in it; after you put the track down on the floor, and ran the train around the circle a few times, what was left? I told him about what we call 'operations', where we simulated the operations of a real railroad on our miniature version. I told him that it was a lot like what we did when we played with our little lead soldiers - we were simulating warfare with them just as we were simulating the transport business with our models. Phil was astonished - he had no idea, the last time he'd run a toy train was back in the Lionel days.

One of the most popular operating simulation systems - the set of rules, if you will - is called the 'card order' or 'waybill' system. Here's a link to the book that I first read about it in (I hope!); you can also do a Google search to get lots of references to it:

https://books.google.com/books?id=or...system&f=false

The basic premise of the system is that every freight car on the railroad is represented by a card; every possible cargo that the industries on the railroad ships via rail is also represented by a card. At the beginning of the simulation session - the game, if you will - the cargo cards are either at the industries, waiting to be picked up, or on the cars already loaded from the previous session. (You can see where this is going, I'm sure!) The train is sent out, with loads and empties, and drops off and picks up the various cargos. (There's lots more on this in the book, of course.) I used to use paper clips and such in my early days, but there is now some very good computer software that does all of this.

What Dave did was substitute ships and their captains for the freight cars, and create all the various cargos that one would find all along the coasts of the Five Empires. A ship would arrive in Jakalla from Bey Sy, unload the cargo it was delivering, and then the ship would be free to load another cargo; the ships were all given with what they could carry, and so it was very easy to match everything up. The cargoes also indicated how long the voyage might take, so the time element was also factored in to the system. So, players in Jakalla can go down to the waterfront, and be told by the GM that there are ships going to where ever, and with whatever cargo aboard.

Adventures ensue.

It's brilliant. The system pretty much runs itself once you get it going, and it runs alongside Phil's larger meta-game that uses Tony Bath's book. It would work in any setting, and really provide a lot of stuff for players to get involved with.

I remember that conversation!

And using the car card and waybill system is brilliant. Add in Tony Bath's random tables, or, when PCs are present, the OD&D random monster checks at sea, and the adventures, they write themselves.

Where there is sea commerce and rival nations, you WILL have privateers, pirates, smugglers, the Coast Patrol, customs agents honest and dis-, ...