Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Hrugga

There is a NOVA special on the cracking of the Mayan code. Fantastic stuff!!! Not to mention A Forest of Kings.

H:0)

Yep! I have a copy, and it reads like one of Phil's descriptions of someone or some place...

Chirine,

I have a question about magic weapons. In EPT there is a section on rolling up magical weapons, with special abilities, ego, intelligence, alignment, special characteristics, etc. Did Phil have any of these weapons in the game? They seem more D&D, than EPT, IMO ()

Shemek

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

I'd like to say that I'm both astounded and pleased at how this thread has been going; I'm very happy to be able to answer your questions. I guess that I'm a little surprised that our antics, all those years ago, still amaze and amuse; we didn't think we were creating history, or doing some sort of recondite artform - we were sitting around a Ping-Pong ball table, exploring an amazing world and having a lot of fun doing it...

Thank you all, once again, for your participation in this thread - you, and your interest in Phil's Tekumel, are what's keeping it and his memory alive.

For me personally this thread sometimes feels like I'm at the above mentioned ping-pong table. It's a pleasure to be a part of. Thank you for taking the time to answer all the questions. I wholeheartedly agree that it's forums like this that keep Tekumel alive, and I'd like to think that were Phil alive he might even be an active member.

Shemek.

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Chirine,

I have a question about magic weapons. In EPT there is a section on rolling up magical weapons, with special abilities, ego, intelligence, alignment, special characteristics, etc. Did Phil have any of these weapons in the game? They seem more D&D, than EPT, IMO ()

Shemek

Yes, he did. Karim Missum had one, as I recall - no surprise, there - and Princess Vrisa'a nasty sword was one of these; it was created in S&G, rather then EPT, but it worked the same way. The thing was a sentient being - we never did figure out if it was an AI or a formerly biological entity - and the weapon wasn't actually steel; it was made up of one of the exotic alloys of the ancients. If you looked really, really carefully at the 'edge', you'd see a shimmery grey flicker; the actual edge was an energy weapon in linear form. She could cut through anything with it, and often did.

It did have an attitude; it liked killing, and we thought that it was because it was powered by absorbing the life energy of beings that Vrisa used it on. It worked anywhere, even in 'dead zones'. It was also very, very ancient, and seemed to date back to the Time of Darkeness when a lot of wizards did a lot of very risky things.

You are correct about this being a 'D&D thing', rather then an 'EPT thing'. This is one of the Gygax-Arneson artifacts in the game, as both of these worthy gentlemen insisted that such things needed to be in a fantasy role-playing game. It's been very interesting comparing "Beyond This Point Be Dragons" with EPT, as a result. Personally, I like having the option of making this kind of artifact; you do get (all too many) of the Undying (gonzo) Wizards who love to try their hands at this sort of thing to impress people at parties. (Have I mentioned how hard I try to avoid the Undying Wizards?)

You can also get 'magical' armor; my battle suit is one such, as it's actually a magical artifact that helps focus my innate abilities into something pretty powerful. (The Livyani do nice work. Expensive, but nice work.) Got a nasty mace, too; +5 +5, and it did come in handy when I had to get up close and personal. No ego or intelligence; just something to bash the foe with.

Part of the whole "gonzo wizards making weird magic shit" comes, of course, from Dying Earth, where the "wizards" considered themselves savants who were forever experimenting and trying to regain the lost knowledge of the ancients (sound familiar?)

"Cursed" weapons and nasty magic items were the result of oopsies in the lab. Get a syllable wrong, your sword is -1 instead of +1.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Ain't that the truth!

(As an aside, I've been offered an option on Pete Galylord's Ancients. I'm pretty heartbroken over it; I don't think I can make a decent offer, but I'd love to see these figures get used again. They've been sitting in a box for ages, I guess. Scrubys, too, and I think 40mm; the infamous elephant isn't there; Pete seems to have disposed of it about twenty years ago. Advice?)

It depends on if anybody else is interested. But yeah, cash is hard to come by.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Well, you're very welcome; it's one of the books that Phil would use as his own inspiration and references. At the risk of more muttering, may I also suggest the Taschen 'Icons' editions of Piranesi and Napoleon's "Description of Egypt", and Tatiana Proskuriakoff's "An Album of Maya Architecture"? Phil knew the lady, who was one of the people who finally translated the Mayan glyphs...

These books are some of the 'Ur-books' that Phil was inspired by - he owned a number of them - and which he showed to us to illustrate how he viewed his creation. (There's a lot of the Pharaohs and the Maya in Tekumel; I'd like to think they'd be pleased.)

I shall certainly check those out, the Catherwood book just arrived about 10 minutes ago BTW, along with Jonathan Sumption's Vol 4 of the history of the Hundred Years' War, so I have some serious reading to get on with.

EDIT: Found the Piranesi Taschen on Amazon UK for 1p + P&P. The Album of Maya Architecture is a bit more expensive but looks pretty good...