Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Actually, "the adventures, they write themselves" applies to a lot of stuff with a bit of thought. Like the many questions on clans. Clans are, at their root, an extended family. Simply think "Is this a sensible thing for an extended family to do?" and proceed from there. Humans have many odd customs and mores, but on the other hand, at the core we're all more alike than not. We treat the "in group" different from the "out group." The major difference in many societies is mostly who is "in" and who is "out".

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.
=

Best summary of how this works that I've seen in a while.

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.

They're about preserving something they see as a legacy.
They're just forgetting that preserving without growing is dooming.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

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'm likely to order Tony Bath's book in the end. At least they've got reasonable shipping rates!

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Actually, "the adventures, they write themselves" applies to a lot of stuff with a bit of thought. Like the many questions on clans. Clans are, at their root, an extended family. Simply think "Is this a sensible thing for an extended family to do?" and proceed from there. Humans have many odd customs and mores, but on the other hand, at the core we're all more alike than not. We treat the "in group" different from the "out group." The major difference in many societies is mostly who is "in" and who is "out".

Oh yes, that much is true.
Also, applying a Relationship Map is the fastest way to get the same effect. Then you just pre-generate some NPCs and whatever the PCs do, you see who would oppose them and with what resources.
In effect, it's like Arneson/Bath's system, except for Refereeing games, IME.

Also, Chirine, I apologise if you've answered that and I didn't see it...but was Gordon Dickson an RPG player and/or Referee?

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

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-, ...

Thank you. In the short time I've been here I've learned so much. You make it seem so simple!!! I guess it is!!! Thanks for sharing. I'm glad I decided to start pestering you guys!!!

H :0)

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Excellent!!! Thank you. As far as Tony Bath goes, you mean Ancient Wargamming?

Thanks,

H :0)

PS More questions to come...

I'm sorry - should have been more clear:

http://www.amazon.com/Setting-Wargam.../dp/B0016KHKJC

I think it's also available as a PDF, but you'd have to look...

Originally Posted by AsenRG

Also, Chirine, I apologise if you've answered that and I didn't see it...but was Gordon Dickson an RPG player and/or Referee?

Thank you for the reminder - no, he was not. He did have an interest in wargaming; he and Gronan worked on a set of SF miniatures rules, but his publisher had a fit over the idea and wanted heaps of money for a license. Which was too bad; Gronan's rules were great, and provided us with hours of fun.

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Thank you. In the short time I've been here I've learned so much. You make it seem so simple!!! I guess it is!!! Thanks for sharing. I'm glad I decided to start pestering you guys!!!

H :0)

You're welcome! And, yes, running a campaign can be very simple. Back in the day, we had no idea how to do it, so we used all the tricks and tips that we'd learned from running wargame campaigns. I think it'd be even easier these days, what with personal computers - back in my youth, the IBM 360 / 370 series was what we were working on...

Ask away; it's what we're here for...

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

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.

Chirine, thanks a lot. I looked at the link and then spent some time flipping through presentations from SIG and Mr. Trains to get a better understanding of Card and Waybill operations. This may be the most useful RPG idea I've seen this year.

I have some questions and thoughts, but I wonder if this should be a separate thread since it is (a) only tangentially related to Tekumel and (b) of general utility for modeling cargo transport e.g. ships an dcargo for Fantasy, Sci-Fi, or real world.

1. Am I the only person interested in working any of this stuff out?

2. Does a separate thread seem like it would be of interest?