Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by CRKrueger

Well, there is one consideration without getting crazy about it...if someone wanted to spend money at this point buying Tekumel stuff, it would be nice to know what is being sold by the decent people and what is being sold by the shitlords. Last thing I want to do is contribute to the people destroying the place. A PM will do.

I understand your feelings, but I'm not going to do that for my own philosophical reasons. I hold that "any Tekumel is better then no Tekumel"; since Phil passed away, all of our old publications went from being effectively worthless to being "A great investment value, sure to increase in value over time!"and largely taken away from players by the 'serious collectors' due to absurd increases in purchase costs. The new publications, some of which are very good, are subject to the "no Tekumel if it isn't our Tekumel" philosophy. As I've stated before, I'm a populist not an elitist, and I'd rather see people out there discovering Tekumel for themselves. Anything beyond that, a little research will provide you with the information you need to make your own decisions.

Originally Posted by AsenRG

I've taken that advice to heart, Uncle, thank you!

Also, anyone who has ever published a book about a setting is explicitly giving me permission to game in said setting. This remains true even if don't I own the book, but loaned it from a friend, or just read a review of it and am using its core concepts.
I'm sorry that people who don't understand that simple fact have caused you such grief, but I believe that your answer has been an excellent one, and probably made them freak out even more!

Well, yes. Even in our time, Tekumel had the joy of being a 'living world' campaign, where people from all over would send in their campaign reports to us and we'd publish them. Phil would often include these reports in his own games, as he liked the unpredictability and randomness that it introduced into his meta-campaign. There was no sense of 'authorized' and / or 'official' Tekumel; it's what we did in all of our campaigns - Phil's two groups and my two groups operated in parallel, for example. What made all this work so well was that there was a kind of unspoken agreement that all of the groups would try to stay out of each other's way - although we all made 'cameos' in campaigns - and we'd all try to stay out of the 'central plots' that Phil was spinning for his novels. Although we made cameos there, too.

The notion of centralized control - which one observer has described as 'Stalinist' - came in in the 1990s, and didn;t help to establish Tekumel gaming as a welcoming place - as also has been observed.

Me, I just believe in getting out there and playing. Whatever it is.

Originally Posted by Zirunel

Speaking of which, the Howard Hawks epic "Land of the Pharaohs" was on TCM earlier in the week. Kinda hokey, with some weird ahistorical elements and wooden "epic-style" dialogue and acting, but fun.

I don't know for certain but I'm guessing it was one of the many Hollywood genre films that helped shape Tekumel back in the 50s.

Yes, it was; it was what Phil-the-historian called a "guilty pleasure" for all the reasons that you mention, but one which Phil-the-world-creator used for some truly memorable things - he loved the tomb traps, for example, and I prevented another PC from activating it just in time in a game session only because I'd see the movie.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Well, yes. Even in our time, Tekumel had the joy of being a 'living world' campaign, where people from all over would send in their campaign reports to us and we'd publish them. Phil would often include these reports in his own games, as he liked the unpredictability and randomness that it introduced into his meta-campaign. There was no sense of 'authorized' and / or 'official' Tekumel; it's what we did in all of our campaigns - Phil's two groups and my two groups operated in parallel, for example. What made all this work so well was that there was a kind of unspoken agreement that all of the groups would try to stay out of each other's way - although we all made 'cameos' in campaigns - and we'd all try to stay out of the 'central plots' that Phil was spinning for his novels. Although we made cameos there, too.

The notion of centralized control - which one observer has described as 'Stalinist' - came in in the 1990s, and didn;t help to establish Tekumel gaming as a welcoming place - as also has been observed.

Me, I just believe in getting out there and playing. Whatever it is.

We all agree, so that's settled, obviously.

And now I have to prepare for tomorrow's attack on the Ssu. Speaking of which, what do you think their reaction would be to the "native vegetation", growing in the swamps around their fortress, being lit from all sides at once?

Perhaps the overheated pods will explode like pustules of corrosive juices, turning the swamp into a highly-acidic toxic moat and limiting the approaches to their fortress? In which case, the Ssu might just take the good with the bad.

Well, the current plan would be to use spells to traverse the moat, along with a very small group of specially trained assassins.

Complications are good, I just don't want to introduce them unless they make sense. I leave the logic of "introduce complications so there's enough challenge" to other Referees.
OTOH, I also don't want to skip complications that would make sense, so by all means, keep them coming!

BTW, the fire itself is a distraction, and we're going to try and negotiate a legion staying relatively nearby. This way, the Ssu would know who is responsible. With some luck, they wouldn't look for the attackers under their own frontal orifices until it's too late. In the best case scenario, they would be out before the alarms has been sounded.

Did I mention it's a rescue mission, and that there might be Shunned Ones inside that no PC knows anything about?

Originally Posted by Zirunel

I grew up on those genre flicks. As a kid in the 60s, they were my Saturday morning TV fare (on a very small B&W TV unfortunately). I have had a soft spot for them ever since and even though I could now roll my eyes at their inaccuracies, I generally don't. They have their own merits and I don't think the professor, or anyone else, should feel the least bit of guilt about appreciating their quirky charms.

They are fun; I grew up on them on Saturday 'matinee movies'; they were cheap for stations to buy, and filled the air time until the locals went back on the network. 'Peplums'. 'sword and sandal epics'. the old Republic serials, the the 'big-budget' flicks when they came on in prime time. I got to watch a few with Phil, and his obvious delight in them was quite apparent.

And just chock-full of material for GMs; too. Has it been mentioned that Dave Arneson loved those Japanese rubber monster movies?

Originally Posted by AsenRG

We all agree, so that's settled, obviously.

And now I have to prepare for tomorrow's attack on the Ssu. Speaking of which, what do you think their reaction would be to the "native vegetation", growing in the swamps around their fortress, being lit from all sides at once?

I think they'd be really, really upset.

I mean, they use it for both food and as an obstacle, so I think they'd react pretty violently.