Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Greentongue

Anything you can offer is useful.
While I'm sure people have their standard practices, which may be different for each, are there Tekumel specific things that you did, or missed?
Tipping the bartender for rumors seems out of place for example.
=

Well, where are you, what are you trying to accomplish, how close are you to home, and what is your clan's status? Because the answer will change.

Originally Posted by Greentongue

Anything you can offer is useful.
While I'm sure people have their standard practices, which may be different for each, are there Tekumel specific things that you did, or missed?
Tipping the bartender for rumors seems out of place for example.
=

Right, then; let me have a run at this...

First off, when we played in Phil's Tekumel we were very, very aware that we were people who part of a larger society. We were not what I think has been called 'murderhobos'; we had our place in the world, and we very carefully studied what our society was like and expected of us. Not doing this had very real and very dire consequences - the nasty little civil conflict in Tu'umnra, or the even nastier slave revolt in Ferenara, for example. Once you've faced your first angry mob, you never ever want to do it again.

So, we made sure to ask people about the local situation. We kept a bucket of coppers (20 copper = 1 silver, 20 silver = 1 gold, or something like that) to hand for tipping anyone who we talked to - not bribery, but as a gift to thank them for their time and information. Social lubrication, as it were.

Let me give some examples of how we 'did the drill', if I may:

On the road: Send a runner with some cash up to the next Sakbe road tower to let the guards know we were coming. By the time we got there, our places for the night had been reserved for us, decent food would be offered, and maybe even some hot water. We'd make sure to invite the guard officer to dinner, along with the local village headman and any elders he deemed worthy of the honor. We'd share some of our nice vintages, and in the course of the evening we'd get to hear all the local gossip, road conditions, and interesting rumors. The latter, as you might guess, led to more adventures.

In the local village: Again, we'd be polite and send a runner ahead. Some cash 'for putting you to such trouble' would be included, and again by the time we'd get there the locals would have gathered all the worthies and clan elders together for an evening of feasting and entertainment. In the course of the fun, we'd politely ask about local sights and sites, and more often then not they'd have an interesting adventure waiting.

This, I think, comes from Phil's real-world travels. May I also suggest a wonderful adventure book, "The Road to Ubar", where a team of modern explorers is looking for a lost city. They happen to be in a village in Arabia, and they ask the local chief over dinner if he knows of any such things. he lights up, and is happy to tell them that his village is right next to such a place - and it is, too, and yes, it's the lost city that they're looking for. "Oh! go out the back door, up the street past the camel pen, turn left, and there you are - the lost city of Ubar..."

Larger city: no real need to send a runner ahead, but if you have a clan or temple in the town then it's polite to do so. A little largess for the gate / city guards never hurts, and again by the time you arrive everything is in readiness. The gate guards will be happy to provide 'local guides', who just happen to be their relatives or something, and you get settled in to your guest quarters. We always tried to go shopping in the marketplace; you ask around in the course of the conversations about local matters, and the merchants, market urchins, city guards, and anyone else will be happy to bend your ears off in the hope of a small tip for their tips...

And yes, you are right; there are no 'bartenders' to tip. But there are door porters, temple guards, city watchmen, major-domos, courtesans, merchants, low-level officials, market urchins, soldiers on leave, traveling entertainers and gladiators, clan elders, and other people who have information that may be of use to you and your party.

The way Phil played, we did this a lot; the 'script' varied from place to place and situation to situation, but the main thing was that we made sure to keep the high-status people happy, the medium-status people feel important, and the low-status people in largess.

I think it might need to be said again that we played for over a dozen years, and we got very 'immersed' in our fictional society. Every Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. sharp (Phil took attendance) we were off and into our characters, like actors in a rep company doing another performance. Phil really enjoyed playing all the NPCs, and we had a lot of fun dealing with these people. They were very real to him, and to us; and we tried very hard to respond in kind.

'Asking around' was seen to be 'polite'; spreading a little largess around was seen as 'noble'. And we got into more trouble and had more adventures that way; Phil had loads of plots waiting in the wings for us to play out, but it was up to us to ask the right questions of the right people to find them out. All this time later, I'm still finding fun little adventures that he left us in his works - the Gary Con game, this past March, was one such.

I'm not at all sure how you could run this in a game, though. It almost seems like it's a 'too immersive' form of game play, and certainly not very well suited to quick one-off games or very short campaigns.

Comments? Thoughts? Would it help to pose specific instances, and maybe some stories about some incidents?

I think Phil enjoyed playing through the various levels of social interaction at least partially because some of the early players were mostly interested in their own greed, and in going out of their way to flout social convention as much as possible.

To once again quote Bill Hoyt, "Don't play with psychopaths."

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

I think Phil enjoyed playing through the various levels of social interaction at least partially because some of the early players were mostly interested in their own greed, and in going out of their way to flout social convention as much as possible.

To once again quote Bill Hoyt, "Don't play with psychopaths."

Oh, yes; very, very much so! See also Fine's "Shared Fantasy" for examples of their play. These were the guys responsible for both the Ferenara and Tu'umnra incidents, which really affected play in Phil's campaign for years. Or Tim Cox, "the priest Dutlor", zapping Princess Ma'in hi Tlakotani with the Eye of Changing Alignment; Phil never really got over that incident, I think. (And the Eye in question was deleted from the EPT manuscript before it went to TSR.) 'Breaking the world / campaign' was a signature feature of some of these guys' game play; they did it at the Fifth Precinct group as well.

I've talked to some of them about this a few years ago, and some of them are still pretty proud of what they did in those early years. And we're still 'the geeks', too...

Test Your Alignment:

A small child is making a sand castle on a beach. Do you

a) help them (Lawful)
b) sit down and watch and applaud (Neutral)
c) knock it down (Chaotic)

Or, as Michael Caine said in one movie playing Batman's butler Alfred, "Some men just want to watch the world burn."

Also, here's a question for Chirine: Are you familiar with the card game "Magic: The Gathering"?

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Also, here's a question for Chirine: Are you familiar with the card game "Magic: The Gathering"?

Not really. I've seen it; Eldest Daughter's fiance is a big fan and player, to the point where I do wonder where First Grandson came from. I know it's really big at The Source; I've had them cancel several of my Braunsteins in order to have big promotional tournaments for the game.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Test Your Alignment:

A small child is making a sand castle on a beach. Do you

a) help them (Lawful)
b) sit down and watch and applaud (Neutral)
c) knock it down (Chaotic)

Or, as Michael Caine said in one movie playing Batman's butler Alfred, "Some men just want to watch the world burn."

No. I: d) Tell them that they are doing it wrong, that they are using the wrong sand, then go on the Internet to denounce them for their crimes against the hobby.

My! Isn't Chirine being a nasty old man, today?

Nonsense! The sand was better back then and we didn't have all these fancy plastic forms we had to use broken bottles and rusty tin cans, sticks and our own imagination. If we wanted crenellations we poked them in with a stick damnit! And the bullies were worse because they'd kick us in instead of the sand castle and we had to walk ten miles to the beach, uphill both ways in a raging dust storm. Sometimes I think the bullies just tripped over us and were trying to get back up. And they'd cry about how sand is course and gets into everything and then the girls would be all over them.