Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by AsenRG

That much I've gathered. But EPT really doesn't go into much detail on those differences!


I know.

No, because it was published in 1976 in rural Wisconsin, where even mentioning sex was a big no-no, and Gary had very real worried about the backlash it would get. EPT, when it came out back then, was considered a very naughty and risque game for all the casual nudity, homosexual stuff, rampant nipples, and casual sex. People had major-league fits over the thing, back in the day, and these days most of what's in EPT wouldn't cause any raised eyebrows.

Heck, back then the word 'lesbian' was considered very naughty and daring!

Originally Posted by Greentongue

With multiple parents in a family, pedigree must be a minor thing.
Are people so similar that there is little variation between individuals?

"Filling the Need" instead of "Born to it".

Accomplishment of the The Clan is the distinguishing factor and not accomplishment of the Lineage or the individual?

Socialism at the Clan level with Clans valued by their use-value to the Imperium?

I assume a HERO is a welcome bonus to a Clan that any Clan would try to win away from another?
=

Very good questions!

Pedigrees are important when property is involved. Most of the time, the clan does keep records of who has been born to who, to avoid in-breeding, and there is usually a prohibition on things like incest. However, since most property is held in common by the clan as a whole, pedigrees are not all that big a deal.

Well, everybody in the Five Empires has pretty much the same skin color and hair color; there are none of the 'racial types' we currently have on this planet, as in Tekumel's far-future setting, it's pretty not there. Individuals do look different, and you get all sorts of variations-on-the-theme.

Yes; generally clan comes first, then lineage, then individual.

Um, sort of; the Imperium isn't all that worried about 'using' a particular clan, as there's always somebody to take their place. The Tlakotani are a different story, of course! Wealth and nobility tend to determine a clan's status. Did i understand your question, though?

Oh, yes, very much so! See also the Glorious General's or my career; we heroes are a hot commodity on the market, I tell you. Humble and non-noble origins get overlooked very quickly for a real hero...

Migawd! We're up to 53 pages! We need an index or something ...

Originally Posted by AsenRG

Well, now it makes sense!
I think I've been influenced too much by the Chinese campaigns I had run in the last few years.

And that point of view is totally familiar. It also makes sense in the context.


Would you care to elaborate?
Were the characters as envisioned by MAR Barker closer to "Renaissence Men", knowing a bit of fighting, a bit of spellcasting from their temple, and so on, with everyone possibly having a favoured area?


Note to self: Wisconsin didn't have nearly enough hippies in the 60ies...
And yes, EPT didn't cause me to raise my brows. I figured it was probably risque for the 70ies, but by my standards, it's just "not too strongly sanitized".

BTW, there's nothing naughty and daring about living on Lesbos island, in and of itself, or at least not any more than living elsewhere in Greece!

Happy to help!

Well, Gary strongly favored 'classes' for PC types; Dave strongly favored skills that you bought with points. EPT reflects both approaches, due to the two of them working with Phil - nobody else, in Phil's circle, had any idea of how to write an RPG at that time so...

Oddly enough, what you describe is what Phil himself preferred, and what he used in the now -lost "Skein of Destiny" RPG and the later S&G. His idea was that one had an occupation, with a career path, and one learned what one needed to learn to be able to do that job. We certainly played that way in his games after about 1981, and it did make a lot of sense. We were all 'generalists', with a fair bit of special knowledge that was appropriate to our place in life.

Most Americans are quite unaware of the island in the Aegean...

Originally Posted by AsenRG

Suddenly, the actual design of EPT makes sense!
For the first time, might I add.
It just makes sense to include what the people advising you are recommending.


I'm afraid I've never heard of the "Skein of Destiny" RPG. But yeah, many games have been doing it this way - and by now, it's been decades since the first such appeared.
It's just that neither of those games is D&D, and they weren't written by Gary Gygax.


Well, it's in a neighbouring country for me, so I should be expected to know a bit more.

Yep; I'd agree.

"Skein" existed only in manuscript form. Phil started it about 1979, and abandoned it after it simply got too bid and unwieldy. It was S&G, but with everything all in one volume. It would have been over 1,200 pages in manuscript.

Agreed about the Gygax reference, too. Who remembers Dave Arneson, anymore?

Originally Posted by Greentongue

chirine ba kal:

I assume that when playing, a character succeeds at something that is their Original Skills or Professional Skills unless something specifically says a roll is required.
Is this correct? Someone once said that the "likelihood of a spell working" should be used for Skills as well.
This seems not fun to me but, is it the way you use the rules?

The EPT rules say spells, some Eyes, and other magical devices attacks
are "automatic hits" and the only defensive possible against them is a successful saving throw.

I always assumed that if there was a serious question of a Skill being successful then a Saving Throw could be used.
=

Yes. Phil would have you roll, but if you had the skill for that action it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that you'd succeed. He wanted to have the option of something like a fumble happening, but if you were any good at something it never came up. He never used the spell working roll for a skill-related test.

Yes. That's pretty much the way Phil did it; the object of your actions would roll a simple saving throw. It was quicker that way, and often funnier.