Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

I'd like to be wrong. I'd like to just have some friends in for an afternoon and push some little toy soldiers around in the painted sawdust, without a lot of seriousness and angst.

Or am I being just a nostalgic old fart, longing for the supposed golden days of my youth?

It need not be an exclusive either or choice.

Originally Posted by Bren

It need not be an exclusive either or choice.

True; I'm just tired of getting my percentile dice rammed up my ass by the 'serious artists'. Sorry to be rude; I'm just tired of what I get in my PMs and e-mails.

Next year at GaryCon you need to not over-schedule yourself (again, as usual) and leave yourself time to play in some of the historical miniatures games.

Not only are there the old standbys, but you can even play LITTLE WARS complete with authentic, antique, Britians "4.7 Inch Naval Rifles," for Vimuhla's sake. You can play the game just like Herbert George did!

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

True; I'm just tired of getting my percentile dice rammed up my ass by the 'serious artists'. Sorry to be rude; I'm just tired of what I get in my PMs and e-mails.

No worries. We're good. I don't get RPGs as serious art.

I don't like wacky, gonzo settings with surf board sized swords and kids anime named power moves. I like a game that is more down to earth and a campaign that takes the setting seriously. I like treating the in game events with the same degree of seriousness that characters in the setting might have. I also assume that most characters in the setting have a sense of humor so some in game stuff will be funny to the characters and hence to their players. In addition, the players aren't their characters so sometimes there is a lot of humor for the players in the crazy antics of the characters at the table. As a player watching OG 'romance' the clan good clan girl by accident would be funny. Quite a few of PCs, would also have found that pretty damn funny.

As an example of in game humor, I recall the time my PC in Star Wars (named Bren) had access to an armory full of off duty storm trooper helmets. He painted the eye pieces black on the inside, disabled the coms, and coated the inside of their helmets with contact activated crazy glue. :rotfl:

Originally Posted by Old Geezer

Next year at GaryCon you need to not over-schedule yourself (again, as usual) and leave yourself time to play in some of the historical miniatures games.

Not only are there the old standbys, but you can even play LITTLE WARS complete with authentic, antique, Britians "4.7 Inch Naval Rifles," for Vimuhla's sake. You can play the game just like Herbert George did!

Agreed. I looked in on some of these games, and they really looked like fun!

Originally Posted by Bren

No worries. We're good. I don't get RPGs as serious art.

I don't like wacky, gonzo settings with surf board sized swords and kids anime named power moves. I like a game that is more down to earth and a campaign that takes the setting seriously. I like treating the in game events with the same degree of seriousness that characters in the setting might have. I also assume that most characters in the setting have a sense of humor so some in game stuff will be funny to the characters and hence to their players. In addition, the players aren't their characters so sometimes there is a lot of humor for the players in the crazy antics of the characters at the table. As a player watching OG 'romance' the clan good clan girl by accident would be funny. Quite a few of PCs, would also have found that pretty damn funny.

As an example of in game humor, I recall the time my PC in Star Wars (named Bren) had access to an armory full of off duty storm trooper helmets. He painted the eye pieces black on the inside, disabled the coms, and coated the inside of their helmets with contact activated crazy glue. :rotfl:

Very cool, and thank you! Loved the story, too; it's just like what OG - or Dave Arneson! - would have done.

Originally Posted by Greentongue

A special Thanks for that.

When we first got the book in our hands that is the type of thing I recall being done.

I remember a character arranging a parade after a successful visit to a local underworld.
He hired a band and dancers. He threw handfuls of coppers to the people that gathered along the street. Instant reputation boost.
While it may not have been "authentic" Tekumel, it was great fun had by all.
=

It would be quite 'authentic Tekumel'; see also the fabled "10,000 Kaitar Entrance", when we got back to Khirgar after we stormed the palace of Bassa, king of the Black Ssu.

It's why I employ fanbearers and musicians at the palace; it adds gravity and dignity to the proceedings. Incense bearers and flower-flingers for the big entrances, of course. We even had drum panniers on Chlen beasts for the big parades.

This was Phil's idea of such things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNjrfXOgZkM

He loved this movie, and quoted it all the time.

Originally Posted by Greentongue

How much has language and customs changed over time?

Say a character was transported from over a hundred years in the past to the present, would they be up to speed with everything or would they be like being "fresh off the boat from the Isles"?

It was an idea I had for starting new characters and wounder how well it would "fit".
=

Not a whole lot; Phil took a much longer view of time's passage; 'Classical Tsolyani' is a thousand years older then what we speak today. (And Phil himself was like that; his Tsolyani language texts from the early 1950's are the same as the ones from the 1970s; there's no 'drift'.)

Your time traveller would usually be instantly assumed to be a mighty and powerful noble or somebody really important, as this kind of archaic speech pattern is a common affectation of the high clans - Sea Blue, for example - to show how ancient and noble they are. See also the speech affectations of Victorian England - Lord Brabazon had a notable habit (like many other well-born cavalry officers of the time) of dropping his 'h's, as in "Lord Bwabazon", of "Then bwing me another!" (to a station-master when told the train to London had already departed.

The person would be cosseted and feted, and taken to their clans' nearest clanhouse, where the 'finders' would get a nice reward; the clan would then try to sort the whole thing out. An Adventure would result.