Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Zirunel

I am with you, I really believe in H&S culture, even when it sometimes goes over the top, because I remember when it didn't exist at all.

That said, as long as it is virtual, it would be sad if PCs started each dungeon crawl with a last-minute risk assessment, a toolbox meeting, and a refusal to do unsafe work!

I remember those days as well. This is why I also tend err on the side of caution, and make those who report to me do the same.

Not every dungeon crawl. This for me would be in the realm of what Phil referred to as "Saturday Night Specials." Funny thing is my old gaming group used to be almost paranoid when doing dungeon crawls. It was actually kind of funny to watch. It got to the point where they literally would do, essentially, a safety huddle before going into a room. The good old days

Shemek

Originally Posted by Baron

Hmm, hair falling out...

Yes, and:
"Man, your skin is really red and hot. Kind of feels like a sunburn."
As I told a party member once when they were poking around Ssuganar and found, and started playing around with, some strange devices manufactured by the Ssu.

Shemek

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Yes, and:
"Man, your skin is really red and hot. Kind of feels like a sunburn."
As I told a party member once when they were poking around Ssuganar and found, and started playing around with, some strange devices manufactured by the Ssu.

Shemek

Ah! The symptoms of the 'city sickness', as Phil used to call it. Which is why we were very cautious around ancient technology.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

From AsenRG:
No, if games stop being fun, you stop playing them, because they suck.
And you move to better games.

Agreed. Gaming hasn't been fun for a long while, so I stopped. Haven't found anything better yet, so I just keep on building my models. Which is what I like, anyway.

Maybe - but with RPGs, you always have an option to run a better game yourself. Which, last I heard, you had decided to do, right?

Yeah, that's why I said "classical". I've known such women, myself, and there's a couple NPCs I modeled after them over the years...

Yep. It's probably why I find such people tiresome and irrelevant.

That they are...

Yeah, but I find it increasingly funny that the things I care about align better with the Tsolyani POV than the "modern American"...at least in this case.

True; so do I. As Phil once said, "Chirine. you've gone native."

Well, I don't think I'm that different from people around me. Then again, maybe I am. I don't really know, nor care.

Oh, they know the style better than me, I suspect. What they might not be expecting is me using it.

That will be a surprise! I wonder how they'll handle it?

I'll let you know once I run the next session.

Well, in a way, Tekumel is "inversed serious SF".
Serious SF deals with the question how scientific progress will impact us.
Tekumel is a matter of how scientific regress and lack of raw materials might impact us.

Interesting observation; I usually describe Tekumel as classic '40s and '50s F/SF, but I do think you're right here.

Well, my way of describing it has one, and only one, advantage over yours.
It sounds self-important enough to appeal to some segments of the gamers. And it's clear enough for the others!

I have some magical words for theses cases that he was probably too well-educated to use to their full effect: "Get lost!"

In most cases, once he'd had enough they got his standard form letter that said, in effect: "You do what you want in your Tekumel and I'll do what I want in mine" and usually they'd drift off into the aether. I do the same thing myself, these days, with people who insist that I need to change my views, opinions, or games to fit into what they insist is what they need to see in their lives.

Yeah - same thing, Uncle, with the same meaning. I'm just going for brevity!

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

I remember those days as well. This is why I also tend err on the side of caution, and make those who report to me do the same.

Not every dungeon crawl. This for me would be in the realm of what Phil referred to as "Saturday Night Specials." Funny thing is my old gaming group used to be almost paranoid when doing dungeon crawls. It was actually kind of funny to watch. It got to the point where they literally would do, essentially, a safety huddle before going into a room. The good old days

Shemek

Dammit, if they aren't doing a quick tactical review before going into a room, your dungeon is too easy.

If they have time to do a huddle you're not putting enough pressure on them.

Originally Posted by AsenRG

Maybe - but with RPGs, you always have an option to run a better game yourself. Which, last I heard, you had decided to do, right?

I have indeed; my mantra is to let potential players set up their own game group, and schedule time with me. I run what I like, and I do let people know that up front - I suggest that they watch my videos, for example. To date, I've had one inquiry about a game over the past year, so I am following Gronan's advice of 'no gaming rather then bad gaming'. I find it's made for a much less stressful year, and I've had the time to do what interests me: my writing and my model-building.

Will I run games in the future? Maybe; that's up to potential players. I have neither the time or the energy to 'stomp the hustings' and do the marketing at local conventions and the various FLGS game rooms that is such a requirement of gaming here in the Twin Cities; people feel that they only gaming that they are willing to participate in happens at those locations, and this in turn is subject to the perfectly understandable need of the retail outlets to move product. I am not 'marketable', as I simply don't play anything currently on the shelves and have the additional handicap of a play style that is woefully obsolete.

Does this bother me? Not really. it's a whole lot less work for me, and a whole lot easier on me all around. Not to mention the vast reduction in repairs and lost items that went with public gaming.

ReCon, the quarterly one-day con, used to have more space but the venue is no longer available, sadly. For a few years it really was "come in, set up a game, somebody will drift over and play." But I believe the building has been demolished and the new space, though nice, just isn't as big.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

ReCon, the quarterly one-day con, used to have more space but the venue is no longer available, sadly. For a few years it really was "come in, set up a game, somebody will drift over and play." But I believe the building has been demolished and the new space, though nice, just isn't as big.

They first were in rented hotel function space, then for a while in the VFW up in Anoka. They are now in the rented large meeting room of the Geek Partnership Society space, which is why ReCon charges $5 a head to game. The GPS people also sell snacks and sodas, and have a deal with a local fast-food place for deliveries; for all I know, they get a percentage on that as well. GPS pays for it's own office / meeting space by renting out this room, and as a result everyone and their dog Rover is asked to meet there. Originally, the space was being run by the same people who run the huge local SF convention, Convergence, but I've been told that this parent body spun off the 'clubhouse' as a separate organization - hence the heavy push for sales, donations, fees. etc.

The numbers are also kinda small; the Centurions historical guys are there, as it's theoretically their event, but that's maybe a dozen players, and you see maybe another ten people if it's a really successful event. They don't do any marketing or advertising, which probably isn't helping.

This is the rend in the Twin Cities; every small special-interest group is having their own tiny convention. It's the result of the Great Purge, back in the middle 1990s; after being kicked out of Minicon, people discovered that hotels loved to sigh contracts and rent out their space to anyone with the money to pay for it. There are, by last count, a good dozen tiny to large conventions here that cater to every imaginable gamer/fannish interest; they come and go very rapidly, lasting as long as the organizers' money holds out. The market here is so utterly fragmented, with everyone fighting for a tiny sliver of the pie, that nobody manages to make any money and often goes belly-up before the convention is even over; see also Kakkoi-Con, from a few years back, where the locals assumed that they had the backing of a corporate sponsor - who turned out to be a couple of anime fans from rural Minnesota who had no money with which to back anything, let alone a two-thousand person convention.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Dammit, if they aren't doing a quick tactical review before going into a room, your dungeon is too easy.

Back then it was often hit and miss for me, as I was still figuring out the whole "being a DM" thing. Anyway, we all had fun and eventually I learnt how to create a challenging dungeon.

Shemek