Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Which, of course, gets us back to the adventures - guarding the baggage and supply train was always the absolute fastest way to get into trouble there ever was in Phil's campaign. Second fastest way was going out with a foraging party to see where the nearest well was.

I'm taking notes again.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Which, of course, gets us back to the adventures - guarding the baggage and supply train was always the absolute fastest way to get into trouble there ever was in Phil's campaign. Second fastest way was going out with a foraging party to see where the nearest well was.

Do tell.... Please! Any yarns that you can share with us?

Shemek

Ah, keeping the Legion fed. What a joy. On the Sakbe roads have your marching orders ready and sign for everything in the Legion's name. And that's a good reason to start the day's march early, first legion to the campsite gets the dry places to sleep and the best grub.

Milumanaya? Gods. A nightmare.

Originally Posted by AsenRG

I'm taking notes again.

Excellent! Adventures can happen right outside the front door, and start with the most simple things. Phil's wonderful gift to us is a world fully stocked with people, places, and things that almost demand that you go and have a look. He came out of a time when 'Action! Adventure! Romance!' was a commonplace, and adventurers set out on epic and not-so-epic journeys in their worlds. I've often heard the word 'epic' used in describing RPG campaigns, and these seem to be sprawling, universe-spanning, 'wide-screen' campaigns; I don't mind that concept at all - if it fits your play style, then more power to you - but I've had a whole lot of fun for multiple game sessions by simply going out into the marketplace in search of a name-day gift. From small seeds, great deeds can grow, and Phil did that in bucket-loads. I simply emulate his style, with a dash of Arneson and Gygax thrown in for seasoning.

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Do tell.... Please! Any yarns that you can share with us?

Shemek

(Yes, and I'm writing them up.)

Well, in general, having player-characters in the trains was always good for laughs and the Glorious General pulling his hair out. They'd scamper off to investigate anything along the way, and any of the scout parties we'd send out would get tangled up in the mayhem. We'd send a squad-equivalent out to look for a well - or a good place to dig a latrine - and the PCs would find some trouble to get into. Local tribes, for whom the PCs represented unheard of wealth as well as a good meal - cannibalism is common, in Milumaniya; Mysterious ruins, just chock full of nameless horrors from beyond time and space or simply a collapsing floor; Other PCs, dropping in for an unannounced visit; you name it. Locals trying to raid the baggage train, opposing forces trying to do the same, our 'loyal allies' doing it, other legions trying to get away with 'midnight requisitions'.

May I suggest George Macdonald Frasier's "Private McAuslan" series, or his autobiographical "Quartered All Safe Out Here" for sources of adventures?

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Ah, keeping the Legion fed. What a joy. On the Sakbe roads have your marching orders ready and sign for everything in the Legion's name. And that's a good reason to start the day's march early, first legion to the campsite gets the dry places to sleep and the best grub.

Milumanaya? Gods. A nightmare.

Yep. Remember the night Phil attacked, and we pulled the Arsuf formation on him? You'd have thought that he'd remember what happened to Saladin, but noooo...

We never lost a chlen or a cart, or ever went hungry or thirsty. I am still pretty dang proud of that, my General.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

We never lost a chlen or a cart, or ever went hungry or thirsty. I am still pretty dang proud of that, my General.

As well you should be. In that aspect, Phil had met his match.

Originally Posted by rawma

Sometimes, from typo, truth. The epic needs some not-so-epic concerns and events in the game world, or it's likely to be just an empty special effects blockbuster.

Whoops! Thanks for pointing this out!

I guess I'm not sure what 'epic' is supposed to be like; Phil's campaign went into a very 'epic' style - as I think the word is being used - in the 1990s where a lot of the world-setting got pushed into the background in favor of the personal advancement of the power-players of the day. Hearing the accounts of the game sessions of that time was a little odd, as the play reminded me of a lot of the gaming that had gone on in the very early days of D&D, with 300th level mages and such. It wasn't what I had liked about his campaign, the nitty-gritty of the world-setting and the ongoing background of his meta-game, and I have stayed away from that style of game-play ever since.

Early Blackmoor, in comparison, wasn't very 'epic' either. The campaign, at least into the late 1980s, was all about the adventures and mis-adventures of a bunch of people trying to keep the lid on the various perils that confronted the little seacoast town. I read the later d20 Blackmoor book, and put it back on the FLGS shelf; too much battles-with-the-gods and that kind of thing, and really far from what I'd played with Dave. Not saying right or wrong, or good or bad; just not the play style and settings that I had been playing in.

You do make a good point, I think...

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Ah, keeping the Legion fed. What a joy. On the Sakbe roads have your marching orders ready and sign for everything in the Legion's name. And that's a good reason to start the day's march early, first legion to the campsite gets the dry places to sleep and the best grub.

Milumanaya? Gods. A nightmare.

Well, as Napoleon or Frederick the Great said (depending on whom you believe): an army marches on its stomach.
I can tell you from personal experience when I was in the army, if you want to quickly piss off a bunch of Troopies either don't feed them, or bring them cold chow after promising them a hot meal, or withhold their rum rations when they are out in the field on extended ex in the middle of winter ( the good old days). Funny how things suddenly start slowing down, and all the radios suddenly don't work...

"Two this is One. Over"
"Say again. Over".
"Two this One. Over!"
"Say Again. Over" followed by a squelch....

Shemek.