Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Hrugga

We have been here before in our dauntless thirst for greater knowledge of Tekumel to bring it from the backstage to the forefront...Thanks again for the reminder. I've been outbid lately on EBay for some great deals on some pulp history(I wasn't about to spend more than $20. My time will come).

Oh, since Chirine has been a tad disappointed...What the heck is The Pink Tree of Death????

1. Stuff ebay; Uncle Hugo's SF Bookstore is on-line, and will ship. Buy there; you won't be sorry.

2. Well, finally; thank you.

The Pink Tree Of Death was a stock fixture in all of our games for a very long time. Back in those far-off days of yesteryear, nobody made wargame scenery worth discussing. So, seeing as Woodcraft Hobby was right across the street (and later on, right next door) to The Little Tin Soldier Shoppe, we raided their stocks of model railroad suppiles. A company called 'Life-Like' made sets of 'train set' trees that weren't very good, but were cheap and practically indestructable - the two biggest and most important factors in gaming, at that time. One of the sets was supposed to be "Spring Trees", and featured a shockingly pink tree in the set. Being cheap, we put it on the table.

We had a player who, in every single game where the pink tree was on the table, would put his most powerful and deadly thing under that tree. He did this no matter the period, the rules, the genre, whatever; he always put his best unit/PC/whatever under the pink tree. Every single game. Period.

So, we not being entirely stupid, on the very first turn/move/combat round of the game, would cut loose with everything and anything we had. Arrows, energy bolts, cannon shells, spitwads, you name it - the Pink Tree took it. The tree would be instantly destroyed, of course, being only a tree, and this guy's very bestest Thing Of Doom would be revealed to all of the players - who would then cut loose on the next possible moment, and eradicate the Thing of Doom. After about a year of this - the tree became known as The Pink Tree Of Death, and anything put underneath it was instantly wiped out.

And the guy kept on doing it for years; he never could figure out why we were all laughing so hard every time we had this tree on the table...

Originally Posted by Bren

His heart is pure and his quest for parody remains undaunted.

And I can get transparent tableware, too. Just saying.

Originally Posted by Bren

Indeed oh wise one, tell us of the sartorial, arboreal, funereal Pink Tree of Death.

To hear is to obey.

And I think you can still get these trees in the cheaper sorts of toy stores, too, so as to be able to have that 'period' feel to your game table. A real Tekumel gamer would light those horrible Swisher Sweets mini-cigars, so as to get that authentic 'Barker's basement stench'; a really devoted Tekumel gamer would also get an elderly Black Labridor, get him all wet, and then set him down in front of the electric space heater alongside some used socks for that really authentic fug. There were some nights where we could not see the ceiling in the game room, and the single 100 watt bulb was hard put to light the action.

Oxygen? What? You're kidding, right?

And you wonder where Phil got the "Creeping Fog Of Doom" spell? Wait until you find out what the elderly Black Labridor had for his dinner. (Honestly, poor old Anubis ate better then we did. Guess how he got his name?)

Originally Posted by Bren

Indeed oh wise one, tell us of the sartorial, arboreal, funereal Pink Tree of Death.

And being a nasty, nasty, nasty man, I would never, ever put anything under that same tree, and would let the opposition blast away to their hearts' content - and then drop the rock on their thusly revealed heroes, 'cause all the blasting away would reveal their positions.

"Think tactically", we always said, even at parties and in the Garden of the Weeping Snows...

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

A real Tekumel gamer would light those horrible Swisher Sweets mini-cigars, so as to get that authentic 'Barker's basement stench'; a really devoted Tekumel gamer would also get an elderly Black Labridor, get him all wet, and then set him down in front of the electric space heater alongside some used socks for that really authentic fug.

Gives a different connotation to "increasing in rank" doesn't it?

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

And I can get transparent tableware, too. Just saying.

I don't fear your transparent tableware. I hold the Spork of Doom.

Originally Posted by Bren

Gives a different connotation to "increasing in rank" doesn't it?


I don't fear your transparent tableware. I hold the Spork of Doom.

Well, it sure wasn't 'going up a level'; if you stood up and took a breath there was a pretty good chance you would pass out. Most of us crawled across the floor to get to the bathroom. It was safer.

Pfui. I am to be laugh, Soft One. Your Spork of Doom holds no fear for me; I have the Four Bowls of the Apocalypse (which I got at the local IKEA along with the Four Plates of Holding and the Four Spoons of the Elements; they all came in a nice bamboo holder that goes nicely into a backpack) and I know how to use them!

Pity stayed his hand. ("It's a pity I've run out of bullets/ bad jokes...")

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Pfui. I am to be laugh, Soft One. Your Spork of Doom holds no fear for me; I have the Four Bowls of the Apocalypse (which I got at the local IKEA along with the Four Plates of Holding and the Four Spoons of the Elements; they all came in a nice bamboo holder that goes nicely into a backpack) and I know how to use them!

Pity stayed his hand. ("It's a pity I've run out of bullets/ bad jokes...")

Running out of bad jokes (or bullets) is a portent of evil to come.

The earth splits and the entrails of a goat were found tied in square knots. The face of the sun blackens and the skies have rained down soggy potato chips.

Originally Posted by Bren

Running out of bad jokes (or bullets) is a portent of evil to come.

The earth splits and the entrails of a goat were found tied in square knots. The face of the sun blackens and the skies have rained down soggy potato chips.

"Wazoo, wazoo! Alas, alackaday!"

Originally Posted by Hrugga

I checked Hugo's. You mentioned them before...My Dauntless search continues. Alas, they are not to be found there. :0(

As far as Pink Trees of Death go, funny how we are creatures of habit and don't even realize it!!! Good stuff. Isn't The Food of The Suu pink too...

H :0)

Phooey! I would have thought Hugo's would have had lots of pulp stuff. I'll see what I can dig up, for you.

Agreed. The Food of the Ssu is usually purple, in the most tasteless colors that phil could find. Luckily for us, the "Life-Like" brand also used to have boxes of dyed lichen that we used in a lot of games, and one of the sets has a fist full of dire purple stuff that got used all the time for Food of the Ssu. I think I may yet have some; the stuff tends to dry out and get brittle over time, and I think my hoard may have crumbled away...

And, of course, if one is doing the Garden of the Weeping Snows, where everything is white on white on white, this is the perfect time of year for picking up the required scenery; it does get cheaper at the after-Christmas sales, of course.