Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Am I heading in the right direction? Is what's meant by 'immersion' the fascination with the game play? Can anyone clarify this for me, as I am sincerely curious!

Feeling as if you are actually there as the character in the setting.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

(Later on, somebody can tell me what 'b/x' is. Yes, I really am that old.)

B/X = the edition of D&D published after the Holmes Basic D&D edition. Consists of two books, the Basic Rulebook by Moldavy, and the Expert Book by Cook.

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Any ideas as to why the Professor sent you guys over there?

Because it was there?

Originally Posted by Greentongue

From what you say, it sounds like the Glorious General (Gronan of Simmerya) had a more typical beginning and that you started after the game had been going a while.
That you were started at a higher level than the original rules proposed.
If that is the case, to get a feel for what a starting player should expect, the Glorious General would be the best to ask?

Are there the collected reminisces of the early days by the Glorious General?
(Tekumel specific)
Do we need a Questioning The Glorious General thread?
=

Probably not a bad idea, if that's what you are looking for. Phil did the first generation of players as first level, and never did it after I got rolled up. He felt that it was just easier for players to start off as second or third level in order to make them more survivable. And to fit in with the rest of the group, too.

Personally, I have never started a player out as a first level one in any of my games, including convention 'one-offs'. I normally start new people out as second or third myself; it just seems to work better and the game sessions are more fun. I also do not dice for clans, temples, or lineages; I discuss it with the player, and we look over the lists to see what they think would be interesting. I am much more interested in the way a game group 'works' and how play 'flows', I think.

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Could be that simple...But from what I understand the Professor was not so. I think he had reasons that the players chose not to explore too much. They liked their skins... ;0)

I'm curious as to what the P/B Empire was like. And what plans they might have had for themselves and Tekumel(if any).

H :0)

Well, we went there by tubeway car, which as a mode of travel is a little limited for exploration purposes; there was a very strong tendency for us to stay close to the car, and to make sure to always leave a 'placeholder' with the thing to keep it from going back into the system and stranding us.

We were like three-days on the trip, which told us that it was on the other side of Tekumel. Me being handy with an astrolabe, I could tell we were on the 'northern hemisphere' of Tekumel, which would put us over on the 'upper' 'opposite' side. We came up out of the tubeway, and the coast seemed to be clear, so we popped the hatch and took a look around. Normally, anybody with a tubeway station handy keeps a very tight guard on the damn thing, to keep all sorts of unwelcome guests from dropping in. (Like Ssu, for example.)

There wasn't anybody around, so we got out and looked around for a bit. The locals did show up after a half-day or so, and we made sure to get them to understand that we were not going to causally go off for a stroll with them. They were some sort of military style unit, with brown Chlen-hide armor, and purple tunics and some metallic trim. Totally unfamiliar style of armor and weapons, so we stayed around to get more information.

They are very well organized, and are at about the same technological level as the Five Empires. Metal weapons are rare, as you'd expect, and they do have all the usual stuff like 'Eyes'. They were just as interested in us as we were in them, which made us a little worried. They did know about the Hokun, which really got us worried, and seemed to be on good terms with them - which was pretty much the signal for us to be on our way.

The local religion was polytheistic, from what little we could gather, and the government pretty monolithic. We did not learn much beyond this, on our first visit, and we didn't get much else later on when we were dealing with Lord Fu Shi; he seemed to be very familiar with this empire, which told us a lot more then we really wanted to know. They seem to be 'expansionist', if I can use that term, and interested in our side of the planet as a possible 'new frontier'. We speculated a lot that they were behind some of the more unpleasant events in our recent history, as a lot us stuff happened to the Five Empires that would have been to these folks' advantage.

So, bottom line, little hard data, and lots of informed speculation. So far, the parties sent to explore their portion of the world have yet to come back. Draw your own conclusions about that...

Does this help?

Today's Second Saturday Game:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_r9yepPeiY...0/DSC00029.JPG

The players visit The Pyramid of Death. On the edge of The Forest of Death. Nestled in The Ruins of Death.

There's a theme to this game, I suppose...

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Today's Second Saturday Game:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_r9yepPeiY...0/DSC00029.JPG

The players visit The Pyramid of Death. On the edge of The Forest of Death. Nestled in The Ruins of Death.

There's a theme to this game, I suppose...

"The operative word, Mister Spock, is d-d-d-Death!" -- Harry Mudd