Yaeh, I'd say that this is often the case. No matter how many times I say it, I used to get blank looks from the players when I'd ask the question, "What do you want to do today?", followed by "I am not going to run this adventure for you - this is not 'directed play'."Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya
One of the myriad joys of Tekumel is that there's always Something To Do, if only the players will look around them.
It's a thin line to walk, between not nice for the platers and not nice for characters. And there's no universal metric, at all.
I've had PCs sold in slavery before, captured and made slaves, and worse. But all my players know that nothing is off the table, so there are fewer complaints.
I do it by example. We either play with another GM, with me as a player, or I invite a player who's used to that to join, at least for a few sessions.
Either way, they see how a PCs goes and finds adventures, and gets rich and influential as a result.
"There's no such skill in my game, you roleplay it out".Part of it I blame on the "Gather Information" skill roll. I've seen PLENTY of players roll dice and say "I got a (whatever,) what do I learn." The notion that when I say "you have to visit bars and taverns and buy drinks and ask for rumors" they actually have to DO so, and listen, and sort things out themselves, doesn't even occur to them.
There's always "or ignore them", unless they've expressed interest in nautical adventures.Nor, it seems, does simple logic: "Look, there's a waterfront, with ships, and warehouses. Therefore, goods are being shipped by water. Therefore, there ARE pirates. And smugglers. Do we want to fight them or join them?"
From AsenRG:
You know we'll ask for pictures from said game, right
And you'll get them. This is going to be good.That really puts into perspective all the ranting against unified resolution mechanics from OSR guysWasn't that what he was doing with fights, too? And with negotiations?
Yep. That was his standard way of doing things.!
Thank you, I'm doing my best to learn. This thread has been really helpfulVery good points about game play, too.
That's why I make the write goals on their character sheets!
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward." - Rocky
Chirine,
I was wondering if you ever made it over to Mu'ugalavya. It seems to me that of the Five Empires this nation is the least detailed. Each of the others got some attention in Phil's novels. Had he planned on doing something with Mu'ugalavya in a future work? Also I seem to recall that this is one of the earliest nations developed for Tekumel by Phil. Didn't his childhood friend create it in counter to Tsolyanu?
Shemek.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
Was this "intentionally left blank" for other people to use in their games maybe?
=
That's a good point. I never thought of that. Just enough to get someone started, but with a lot of freedom left over to customise.:hmm:
Shemek.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
Shemek,
I private messaged you the link(s) to my game.
It not a secret but I didn't want to make it look like I was recruiting by posting again here.
=
Cool. I'll check it out.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
Gentlemen,
Just a fyi, The Excellent Travelling Volume number 5 is available...
H:0)
Oh. Well, what Phil used to do in most situations we simply tell us to roll percentile dice, and he'd roll against us. This was the foundation of his:That really puts into perspective all the ranting against unified resolution mechanics from OSR guys
Thank you, I'm doing my best to learn. This thread has been really helpful
Each of us rolls percentile dice.
If you role high, your view of reality prevails.
If I role high, my view of reality prevails.
If we're close, we negotiate.
It seemed to work for us.
And you're welcome; I'm just happy to be able to be helpful!
Yes, we did, many times over the years. We got out as far as Gaschine, with is right up there with Penom in the running for the armpit of the planet. Penom is wet, Gaschine is dry; the latter has the Churstalli, and the creatures that eat them.
The action of Phil's novels never went there, mostly because neither of his protagonists had a good reason to be there. The place is actually pretty well developed in game terms in the Sourcebook, as well as some posts and articles. Phil just never particularly liked like the place.
It was one of the original Five Empires, and appears on both his high school map of Tekumel and his college ones when he played with the other four in his circle. I have the list of their names, and one of my favorite guessing games over the years has been to try and match up who which player ran which empire in the original map campaign that they played in the early 1950s. Beyond that, all I have are the childhood photos and fragments of texts in my collection.
I don;t know if he ever planned to do more; the thirteen chapters of the draft of his unfinished last novel, "Beside The Dark Pool Of Memory", don't seem to have the clear plot arc that the earlier novels do. One of these days, when I get some spare time, I'll look at it in more detail.
I don't know if that helps, at all...
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