Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by d(sqrt(-1))

This is all sadly very true. I was lucky enough to be working in California for a bit shortly after Tita's first started up (mid to late 1990's) so I ordered everything I could from them then while I had the chance.

I do wonder what proportion of the Professor's notes are out there with as yet unknown stuff in them.

Best thing you could have done, really.

Well, we think we have about 28,000 page-equivalents of his files; about a third of that has never been published. Only about a quarter of it was material that I had never seen before. This is all raw text and artwork, of course.

Originally Posted by AsenRG

But, here's something for your use in your games, people. I mean, everyone can google the swords typology of straight swords.
Here's something for Tekumeli blades.

Attachment 84

Have fun with it!

Agreed with you about the 'meta-plot' issue.

The picture is great - Phil had about half of these in his dining room. You would have loved to see Gronan nd I trying to figure out how to use them!

Originally Posted by Greentongue

Welp, my game is still going so you certainly haven't hurt it.
=

That's kind of a relief, actually...

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Its clarified a tonne of stuff for me. I think it's a great resource, as I mentioned earlier.

Shemek.

It's what I'm here for, and why I've stayed with Tekumel for all these years despite the negative things. Happy to help!

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Speaking of wealth we couldn't carry, I remember Kadarsha wetting his pants over a sheet of "red gold" about 5 x 10 feet by a couple of inches thick. It was some sort of relic, covered with sigils and other etcetera. And do you know how much that much gold WEIGHS?

Oh, yeah - the Temple of Vimhula slab done in Chakan red gold. Gods, we wasted about a month of game time while he tried to work out how to move the damn thing. Something like three tons worth, and it had to go around several hairpin turns to get it out of the Underworld where he'd found it.

All caught up, again - or, at least I think so.

Migrating over to the MacBook laptop for the next few days, so blog posts may not have any photos. The giant 'billboard' I've been using for most of the last decade is having over-heating issues in the new hot weather, to the Missus will be doing the full back up thing and then moving both e-mail, browser, and "To Serve The Petal Throne"over here. The screen is smallr, but I can take it with me and it's faster all around. Very happy with it!

And we're back. The Mac book is now the primary computer here in the home office. All the Missus has to do is move The One True Manuscript over, as well as the e-mail address book, and we're in business.

Glad to hear your computer issues seem to be resolving themselves, Uncle!

Originally Posted by Hrugga

It makes me crazy. I must admit. I have paid a pretty price for some books that I "needed"...And have lost many a bidding war on items that were available on ebay(turning out to be a big name company on the net). As a personal rule, I will not pay let's say within $20 the asking price on books available there. I have even tried contacting some seller's to see if I could make a deal on multiple books to no avail. Hence, those same books have been there for years...Silly if you ask me. Oh well...Make my own Tekumel!!! 😉

H;0)

And that reaction, ladies and gentlemen?
That's what you get when you try to withhold information. Whether it's for metaplot or setting, and regardless of your own motives. And frankly, that's part of why I love RPGs so much...

Information wants to be free.
The street finds its own use for things.
Stuff that cannot be found, is replaced.

Yes, I am saying we're living in a cyberpunk world already. Been saying that for years, I have...

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

From AsenR:
Sounds like a good plan to me. Supplement it with social media and forums...

Exactly. It's a variation on what we did in the pre-Internet days, but it plays to Tekumel's strengths and avoids a lot of the pitfalls. We also now have what used to be called 'desk-top publishing', so a lot of barriers to getting a strong publication base up and running are no longer the issue that they were for us.

That's my point, yes.

You lived at a very different place from me.
Very true. AGI paid me nothing on a daily basis; I got a per diem of $35 a day on convention trips, and that was it. I worked my 'regular job' to pay the bills, and all of my spare cash went to fund the Tekumel stuff. Most of the expenses for the first five years, when it was me and my little DBA, came out of my pocket. The miniatures paid for themselves, as our costs were absurdly low, but the paper products were always done at a loss. The AGI edition of "Deeds of the Ever-Glorious", for example, took thirty years to sell off the print run of 250 copies. The paper goods were a huge drain, as they required a lot more in the way of 'overhead' then the miniatures production did.

Oh, I simply meant that "working for an editing house and not having health insurance" would be outright illegal here (and in the 70ies, it would have been impossible even if you weren't working, period...I wasn't around back then, but I've studied the Bulgarian laws of the time).
The fact that paper products sold less is a waste, really...

I heard once that someone involved with Glorantha said to a fan "I don't want to hear about your Glorantha", though it's an unconfirmed event. But despite not being sure that it has happened, I'd say that it is an attitude that might have helped Phil.
There are many parallel Tekumels, and many parallel Gloranthas, and many parallel Creations, and...you get the idea.

It would have, and he should have, but he had some real issues over the perception that he was going to 'lose control' over the world. The Foundation still has that, and a number of proposed projects that I knew about died as a result.

Yeah, my point is that he wouldn't have. His group would still be the only one he has to care about in his books...

I will; got the tharks, thoats, and the new Helium troopers done today. Very, very pleased, as I also chaged out the bases from the old browish texture to a nice Barsoomian fine red clay. makes them look a whole lot better!!!

Keep up the good work!

You, Uncle? Just keep doing what you're doing!

Thank you! I shall try!

Good. We have a deal.

(That was a comment to Gronan; while I agree with his favourite thesis that we do all of it for fun, I think it important to emphasize that "fun" can be increased by doing the research. Many people seem to miss that part when they hear his message. And from what I hear, he himself (and all of you) were doing some research into the things that amused you - cue Gronan fighting with swords, and testing armours, and Gygax having had fun with polearms, and that's just the wargaming part of it!
Like many things, this part seem to have remained unexplained, or the fans might have missed the memo. Cue also Gronan's explanation of what "scale sheer walls" means, as opposed to some DMs interpretation of "only Thieves can climb in D&D").

Yeah! What you said! We had a lot of fun doing stuff like this, back in the day, and that seems to have gotten a little lost over the years. I see a lot of people looking at 'secondary' and 'tertiary' sources, these days, but a lot of the 'primary' sources we used - along with Gary, Dave, et al - seem to have been forgotten about or lost. Payne-Gallway's "The Crossbow" is, for me, a good example of this.

Yes. That's why I make it a point to add "but research helps, too", whenever Gronan says "it's all about the fun". Not that I disagree, quite the contrary...

Well, I guess we could run a KS to pay off the Foundation to let us release the text-only file Chirine has as a free downloads for the fans, maybe with free artwork. The cost of the KS would be scanning his document (at standard rates for scanning), making a PDF out of it (or two PDFs-one with pictures of the original documents, another with the text compiled).

Could be. The Missus is the one who did the side-by-side version of the original play-test edition of EPT (the 'mimeo' version with the green cover) for the Foundation, so the technology and procedure is well-established . As I said in a previous reply, we already have everything in digital format, so the work is pretty much done.

Well, that would make it even easier.

Everything else that doesn't go to Kickstarter, would go to the Tekumel foundation, basically paying it off to autorize the release of the document to the public domain for free reading and creation of derivative works, that is, games.

That's a business decision, not an archival one.

And here's the kicker: do you fancy running a KS according to the above?

No. Absolutely not. I have had thirty years of abuse, my wife twenty-five, my daughters five, and my friends another twenty-five for our efforts to publicize and promote Tekumel. I'm happy to be the archive, but I want nothing to do with the business side of the house. I want to paint my figures, write my account of our adventures, run some games, and tell people about Phil's creation. Anything else, you'll have to find somebody else.

Yeah, Uncle...you've paid your dues. The question was for other new fans. Myself included, for that matter, though I'm at a real disadvantage...
Because it won't happen unless someone does something like this. Or at least, it won't happen in time to not get caught in the "hidden setting info/metaplot issue"

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Most of the work needed has already been done, mostly by my Missus, who donated her time. So, most of the expense is already taken care of, as well.

You are tempting me to try and negotiate a deal with the Foundation...

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Agreed with you about the 'meta-plot' issue.

The picture is great - Phil had about half of these in his dining room. You would have loved to see Gronan nd I trying to figure out how to use them!

About half of those? Well, now we do know these are used on Tekumel!
And well...about half of those are blades I can imagine how to use. The other half, I'd need more experimenting for, though.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Speaking of wealth we couldn't carry, I remember Kadarsha wetting his pants over a sheet of "red gold" about 5 x 10 feet by a couple of inches thick. It was some sort of relic, covered with sigils and other etcetera. And do you know how much that much gold WEIGHS?

Less than 10,000 pounds. How much less would depend on how much copper was added create the alloy.