Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Another thing to consider is that Dave Wesley, Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax, Phil Barker, and many of us original players, were wargamers first.

Wargames ARE PVP. That's what they ARE. And a lot of those expectations carried through. Not that they always should have, but they did. Wargame referees absolutely do not intervene except in questions of rules interpretation.

"The past is a different place."

It is - or at least, it was - a very different style of PvP then what we saw. At least it was in our crowd; we may have been spoiled.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

I think it is; I still run my games the way I did year ago, jjst with better technology. When people play in them, they love the play style - because it's like nothing that they've ever seen before. Never had to deal with any of the things you mentioned, either; I think I've been lucky.

I've never had anything but positive feedback either. And one young man who grew up on D&D 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder has tossed it over and bought the reprint PTFs of original D&D after playing in my game. As he put it, "I like the way that if I want to sneak up behind somebody and knock them out, I just say that, you roll dice, it either happens or it doesn't, and we get on with the damn game." Direct quote.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Getting people to show up on time for games, though...

Gamers seem particularly sloppy about that in general as a community. My model railroad friends don't tolerate that; if the trains start running at 7:30 PM they start running at 7:30 PM. If you arrive late you may not get a train at all, and if you arrive late too many times without advance notice you will likely get taken off the invitation list.

As one modeler says, "The way to start on time is to start on time."

The weather here is fine, and I got out into the game supplies shed in the back yard for the first time, this year. Cleaned out a bunch of stuff, got some projects restarted, and visited some old friends in their storage tubs. It's where I store dreams...

my gaming period was 1978-1984. Later than some, earlier than most. And I was a teenaged boy playing in what, despite the participation of some girls, was basically teenaged boy culture. We were all wargamers previously, and yeah it was pretty competitive. After the first 3 years or so we were playing the domain game, so a campaign in the Tony Bath sense. The DM was no longer even the antagonist really, we were fighting each other (through proxy allies and armies, not actually swinging swords at each other) and he just managed the chaos. Sure, we could do some brutal stuff, "all in good fun" of course. But I am pretty confident that using the "game" to play out overt, ongoing sexual aggression, if it had ever happened (which it didn't) would have been uncomfortable for everyone. First awkward, second uncool, third go away you are creeping everyone out. Even if the sexual aggression were directed against NPCs it would be awkward. But directed against the girl (or boy) sitting next to you at the table? I honestly cannot imagine that. Not even in that ancient time, not even at our immature age. Never mind the times or the age of the participants, something went very very wrong there in the TNG. Gronan, I think your first gut reaction was the right one.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

May I commend to you this excellent blog, and an even more excellent work by the author:

http://dualdais.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the shout-out!

Originally Posted by Zirunel

Thanks for the shout-out!

You're very welcome! What you're doing is exactly the kind of thing we loved, and Phil would have adopted for his own campaign. Great stuff, and it took me back nearly forty years...

By the way, saw the old movie "Helen of Troy" today, and there was a galley very much like one of yours - wonderful to see, and I thought of you instantly!

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

You're very welcome! What you're doing is exactly the kind of thing we loved, and Phil would have adopted for his own campaign. Great stuff, and it took me back nearly forty years...

By the way, saw the old movie "Helen of Troy" today, and there was a galley very much like one of yours - wonderful to see, and I thought of you instantly!

The 1956 version? I don't remember it, but I will definitely keep an eye out for it.... I do remember that one time way back you mentioned the Claudette Colbert version of Cleopatra once as something that influenced the Professor ... perhaps as the basis for his drawing of Nayari having her husband hauled off to be hurled into the sealed temple of the Goddess of the Pale Bone? Maybe I'm wrong about how exactly it inspired him, but I kept an eye out for it, and coincidentally, not long after you mentioned it, it was shown on TCM and I recorded it but sadly my wife accidentally deleted it before I could watch. Doh. I hope to have another chance. Unfortunately, its not a version you see shown very often. More often its Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.


In any case, genre movies from the silent era to the 50s are always good Tekumel inspiration. "Thief of Baghdad" genre in particular....

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Gamers seem particularly sloppy about that in general as a community. My model railroad friends don't tolerate that; if the trains start running at 7:30 PM they start running at 7:30 PM. If you arrive late you may not get a train at all, and if you arrive late too many times without advance notice you will likely get taken off the invitation list.

As one modeler says, "The way to start on time is to start on time."

So you are saying the folks who run the trains start on time? Who'd have guessed.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

By the way, saw the old movie "Helen of Troy" today, and there was a galley very much like one of yours - wonderful to see, and I thought of you instantly!

I just recorded that. I'll have to watch for the galley.

Originally Posted by Zirunel

The 1956 version? I don't remember it, but I will definitely keep an eye out for it.... I do remember that one time way back you mentioned the Claudette Colbert version of Cleopatra once as something that influenced the Professor ... perhaps as the basis for his drawing of Nayari having her husband hauled off to be hurled into the sealed temple of the Goddess of the Pale Bone? Maybe I'm wrong about how exactly it inspired him, but I kept an eye out for it, and coincidentally, not long after you mentioned it, it was shown on TCM and I recorded it but sadly my wife accidentally deleted it before I could watch. Doh. I hope to have another chance. Unfortunately, its not a version you see shown very often. More often its Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.


In any case, genre movies from the silent era to the 50s are always good Tekumel inspiration. "Thief of Baghdad" genre in particular....

That's the one. It's the ship that appears in the first part of the film, where Paris of Troy gets shipwrecked.

Ms Colbert in her costume looks just like Nayari. The face is even the same. Princess Ma'in is the actress from the color version of "Thief of Baghdad", even to the hair. He also suggested "Sign of the Cross", as well as the silent "Thief of Baghdad".

Phil actually liked the Taylor-Burton version; the sea battle, in both this and the "Ben-Hur" movies (silent and sound) where what he thought that sea battles on Tekumel should look like. Dave Arneson's love of pirate swashbucklers was An Unfortunate Influence on Phil. Dramamine is indicated.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Dave Arneson's love of pirate swashbucklers was An Unfortunate Influence on Phil. Dramamine is indicated.

"Are you alright, Glorious General?"

"BLURRRRRGCHHH!!"

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

"Are you alright, Glorious General?"

"BLURRRRRGCHHH!!"

Ships, carts, aircars, spacecraft, palanquins. It was all the same to Phil; "Roll percentile dice, please..."

And people wondered why I preferred to walk...:hmm: