Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Sounds like a great time was had by all. I'm envious.

Shemek.

It was. I haven't had a day like this in literally decades. The only thing that compares with it was my wedding day and the EPT game I ran last year at Gary Con with Gronan as a player. That game was right up there with the Great Mos Eisley Spaceport Raid and the more recent When Darkness Fell.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Was this ReCon, by any chance? Attendance had dropped rather badly a couple of years ago, I'd be delighted if it were healthy again.

It was. The Minnesota Miniature Gaming Society folks had moved the event to the Geek Partnership Society rooms (the same people who run Convergence) a while back - maybe at the time you mention - and from what I can tell stopped doing a lot of advertising and promotion of the event. They also went to a quarterly schedule.

The venue, I have to say, is not ideal. The building is the same one we looked at about five years ago for our gaming, back when the Geek Partnership was getting started, as a way to support both them and us. (Sadly, our relationship with the group was ruined when one of the 'senior' people in my group went to the building and made a total pest of herself; she objected to the place on religious grounds, and got herself thrown out for being rude to the other tenants.) We had a rock band next to us for part of the morning; the sheet-rock walls didn't stop the noise at all.

However, there are plenty of good things; the place is clean, well-lit, and plenty of tables and chairs. The event is very informally run, and there are some truly wonderful games on offer. The MMGS is also interested in running 'family games'; the WWII game in back of us has an eight-year old who would turn cartwheels when not moving her Shermans. The kids playing the Star Wars X-wing game were also having a lot of fun.

I was asked if I was still doing miniatures, and when I allowed that I was, was invited to run a little something at future events. This was very strongly seconded by Maj. Wesely and others, who remember my games with a lot of fondness (and trepidation!) and would love to see what I've managed to come up with after thirty years of practice. We'll have to see; this is not the only invitation I've gotten; several other venues have asked me to run games in their establishments. I'll have to think about it; I'm just not in very good shape, these days.

The French and Indian Wars game with the 54 mm figures and the dense forest was a joy to behold. And it also points out that for some of us, there is no 'gap' between 'wargaming' and 'rpgs'...

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Three beers, dammit.

OK. It's on my radar. I'm not certain where I'll be next March, but I'll try to get there. Hopefully you will talk it up again when signups for the event is closer.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

For what it would cost me to go down to Lake Geneva for the weekend, I could pay you to come to Minneapolis and kick my balls down my throat for a week.

Which just proves that there certainly is no accounting for taste.

Allow me to share an idea you might enjoy. For my 50th birthday my wife hosted Mark-Con: a weekend roleplaying game event where we invited a bunch of friends including my surviving gaming buddies from the 1970s to come stay at our house and play. We even arranged airport pickups and drop-offs for the out of state folks. My wife went around to some local game stores and they donated stuff for some goody prize bags and rather than expecting gifts for my birthday (other than people coming) we gave out black polo-shirts with the Mark-Con dragon logo in a shiny red. It was great fun, I got to see some friends I hadn't seen in years, we played some great games, and it probably didn't cost me more than going to a con.

Chirine-Con 2017!

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

So, anyway, yesterday was a exquisite day. Right up there with July 22nd, 1990, the day I married the Missus.

I had been feeling pretty cranky, as I had a very bad flare-up of the current attack of gout mid-week; I woke up at five in the morning in agony, and had to crawl down the stairs from our bedroom on the second floor to the medicine cabinet on the first - doing on my hands and knees was no treat, but I managed. Couldn't go into work that night, but that is what paid sick leave is for.

Got an invite from a local gent who runs the naval game "Close Action" to play in his game at the local miniature game club's quarterly micro-convention, which was seconded by none other then the redoubtable Dave Wesely - yes, that Dave Wesely. The good Major applied all of his forceful personality to persuade me to come and play, so I did. Had to get up at a silly hour to make the nine a. m. opening, but we got to playing on time.

The basic scenario was that the two of us French players had to get a captured ship back from the British player and his ship. Set in the mouth of Boston harbor during the American Revolution, it would be a challenge to play out, especially as we had two 32-gun frigates, and he had a 50-gun ship; it was like two destroyers going up against a heavy cruiser. The only good news was that we had a 50-gunner of our own, that the British had badly shot up but that was available as support.

I'd never played this game before, so my experienced colleague was our senior captain, and ran both his frigate and the 50. I had my frigate, and the Major had both the British 50 and the prize ship that we were supposed to recapture. (Oh, yeah, right, Your French Majesty, and what other miracles do you want us to come up with today?) We got out our packs of Galoises, bottles of Pernod, bags of baguettes, and prepared to die like men.

We waded in, and managed to get the weather gauge on the British; since he had to get to the open seas with the prize, and we were blocking the channel, we had him cold. A very tight little battle ensued, with my commander getting stuck in at close quarters and me using my faster and more nimble ship to dart in and out of the British guns' range and get in some nasty hits. My commander lost his frigate to the British 50, but his 50 recaptured the prize. My frigate was still in good shape, and I got a lot of praise for my ability to handle my ship: "Are you sure you've never played this game?"

At the end of the game, the GM asked me why I hadn't closed in to the melee; most players would have. The Major interrupted, and told the GM that as far as the Royal Navy was concerned, I had won the game for the French; yes, he'd lost the prize ship, and captured one of our frigates, but as I was still blocking the channel and had the weather gauge, it would be impossible for him to keep the new prize and it'd be very tough for him to get his 50 out to open sea.

It was a great game; well run, lots of fun, and a wonderful chance to talk with the Major - my fellow captain said he'd learned more about the Age of Sail in this one game then he'd ever been able to before.

Lots of other cool games running; I took lots of photos and I'll have them on the blog. One guy was running a game using 54mm figures!!!

The best part of the day came when I gave my commander a ride, and got invited in for water and a sandwich.I was there for the next six hours, as a lot of my old gaming friends were there, and I got to tell all sorts of stories. It was simply wonderful. I felt like I'd gone back in time some thirty years, to all those Saturday game sessions and the dinners afterwards.

It was glorious. And amazing.

That's a great day, Uncle! Glad you had so much fun, and taught the new guard a few things.

Also, Bren's idea deserves attention, IMO.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

The French and Indian Wars game with the 54 mm figures and the dense forest was a joy to behold. And it also points out that for some of us, there is no 'gap' between 'wargaming' and 'rpgs'...

Wow. That's an amazing game board. I'd love to do something like that, but set in Tekumel. Some Ssu creeping through a forest...

Shemek.

Not sure if this is the right place to post this. I recently came across this in another thread on this forum. After having read Chirine's account of his most excellent weekend of gaming I thought I would share it here.

"That's why I don't play with gamers anymore. I've got my good friends that I played D&D with in school...and I've got whatever nongamers I recruit. If I can't pull a group together, then I just don'tplay. No gaming is better than bad gaming in my book."

The quote was in reference to 3rd ed being, essentially, the game of choice for assholes. Now I have no opinion about 3rd ed.D&D, have never played or even looked at the books, but I like the sentiment expressed about gaming in general. This is exactly where I'm at these days, and unless I'm mistaken so are a lot of other people. Anybody else feel this way?

Shemek.

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Not sure if this is the right place to post this. I recently came across this in another thread on this forum. After having read Chirine's account of his most excellent weekend of gaming I thought I would share it here.

"That's why I don't play with gamers anymore. I've got my good friends that I played D&D with in school...and I've got whatever nongamers I recruit. If I can't pull a group together, then I just don'tplay. No gaming is better than bad gaming in my book."

The quote was in reference to 3rd ed being, essentially, the game of choice for assholes. Now I have no opinion about 3rd ed.D&D, have never played or even looked at the books, but I like the sentiment expressed about gaming in general. This is exactly where I'm at these days, and unless I'm mistaken so are a lot of other people. Anybody else feel this way?

Shemek.

That's more or less what I do, too. Though I've also got non-gamers* that I introduced to RPGs and still like to play with, on top of the complete non-gamers and the gamers I've known for a while.
*Using "Gamer" as a personality type, here.

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Not sure if this is the right place to post this. I recently came across this in another thread on this forum. After having read Chirine's account of his most excellent weekend of gaming I thought I would share it here.

"That's why I don't play with gamers anymore. I've got my good friends that I played D&D with in school...and I've got whatever nongamers I recruit. If I can't pull a group together, then I just don'tplay. No gaming is better than bad gaming in my book."

The quote was in reference to 3rd ed being, essentially, the game of choice for assholes. Now I have no opinion about 3rd ed.D&D, have never played or even looked at the books, but I like the sentiment expressed about gaming in general. This is exactly where I'm at these days, and unless I'm mistaken so are a lot of other people. Anybody else feel this way?

Shemek.

Well, Chirine and I have LONG been advocates of "don't play with assholes."

Some gamers are assholes, some nongamers are assholes. GaryCon is loaded with old grognard gamers, which is why it's fun.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

It was. I haven't had a day like this in literally decades. The only thing that compares with it was my wedding day and the EPT game I ran last year at Gary Con with Gronan as a player. That game was right up there with the Great Mos Eisley Spaceport Raid and the more recent When Darkness Fell.

I'm truly glad to hear that. Have they gotten more space? Last time I went there they only had four games going and it was still a bit crowded.

I really, really hope one day (soon, neither one of us is getting any younger) you can just come to GaryCon and PLAY. To hell with running anything. Play TRACTICS with Mike Reese, author and retired USA treadhead. Play "Cavaliers and Roundheads" with Jeff Perren, author and unabashed Royalist. Play "Don't Give Up The Ship" with Mike Carr, co-author and all around good guy. And if we're lucky we can get Bill Hoyt and Dave Wesley playing DGUTS too!

As my brother Tim said some years ago, "If Tim's not getting rich and Tim's not having fun, Tim's not going to do it!"

I just wanted to ask, since I noticed that Phil has mentioned not only Tekumel is inhabitable, and planets are associated with gods...
What are the odds of the "paradises" of the gods being physical places that can be located via, say, space travel? What are the odds of (some of ) them being in the same dimension?