Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by AsenRG

Glad to hear, here and in the other thread, that people are learning the basics of formation. Next time, Uncle, you should totally introduce them to scouting ahead and preparing an ambush!

Sounds like a great NPC!

We're taking it slowly. They are 'modern' players, and introducing them to Ye Olde Style of Ye Gaming by Ye Ancient Adventurer is a gentle process; I do not want to dominate the group, not be the leader; this is their group, in a friend's campaign. I am a guest, and I'd like to stay an honored one. I am very happy that they are learning very, very quickly, and applying my anecdotes to game play. I am hugely enjoying myself, in a way that I have not in literally decades.

He is, and a delight to watch Phil play him.

Originally Posted by Dulahan

I agree with AsenRG! That does sound like a great NPC, I can see why you listed him.

Now for group related stuff. If a group were to be all from a single clan, is there any advice on what clan level works best?

Well, it depends on the job to be undertaken / the quest to be followed / the adventure to be had. I'd suggest about lowish in the clan, so that they are junior enough to want the commission but high enough so that they have a little status and experience so that they can get some respect from the people that they meet.

Could you be more specific, if possible?

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Cool!!! Poor Chirine...I hope all turns out good!!!

H;0)

First-level Chirine is doing just fine, despite being not on his proper timeline, but he and Lord Chirine had a great time discussion the worlds and where their timelines diverged. He may come back to the palace for a visit; the GM made sure that the 'get home box' was properly charged and calibrated.

It was a very fun game session, and the players enjoyed their side trip to my neck of the woods...

From Dulahan:Today's questions:

What more can you tell us about the Naqsai? Apparently the coastal people on the Southern Continent? The Ucon books mention the Red Hats might've been starting to try and conquer them too.

Book Two of "To Serve The Petal Throne", which covers our journey along their coasts. That was our first trip to the Southern Continent, out to the west; our second (Book Four) was off to the east. Nice people, not a hugely organized place, but we didn't have any problems with them on our trip. O' course, we also didn't act like jerks, either, and paid our way as we went.

Part of our mission down there was to see what the Four Palaces might be up to; they were reacting to the Livyani adventure in the Tsolei Isles, which was one of the dumber ideas anyone has had on Tekumel. Nobody's ever managed to support and maintain a sea-borne invasion against a hostile shore in recorded history - see also "Deeds" for more on this. The logistics are lousy, and while initial attacks make a big noise they usually fade out like the Livyani did. The Red-hat's moves were probes, mostly, to see what trouble they could cause the Livyani and diverting resources in advance of their long-planned invasion many years later. So, lots of skirmishes and raids, but not a lot of staying power. We arrived on the scene, and the Red-hats had to play nice while we were around; we did do a little unauthorized thumping of heads to help out the locals, but you didn't hear that from me and there's nothing about it in my reports to the Petal Throne.

In general, they are lots of little coastal city-states that do a lot of trading with each other and occasionally with the Shen; the latter established a colony there, away off in the far south-east corner of Map One.

Speaking of the Red Hats, any more details on the regions to the West of their empire. I'm especially curious about anything west of the Plain of Towers, and of Lost Bayarsha.

Well, Tane, of course; that was covered in the first Tekumel Journal, and I think Alva Hardison did a nice map of the area. I think that's up on the Yahoo group. You get a big area of temperate / northern forests, then Tane proper.

Ah, Lost Bayarsha. Telepaths, with no body hair. Sound familiar? From what we gathered in our thankfully rare visits, these are the nasty telepaths who are descended from the starship communicators of the Lords of Humanspace. Chirine's Senior Wife is one of the opposite telepaths of the Temple of Mretten, the nice telepaths. I think that there's dispatch about the place in one of the two early Couriers, too.

(One thing about asking me questions, by the way. In general, if there is a published text on the subject, I will refer you to that so that you can get Phil's original materials unfiltered. If I don;t know, I'll say so, but it's usually best to ask me more specific questions about something; more general questions will get a more general answer, as I don't type very quickly, and I don't want to retype a lot of things...)

Finally, I love maps. Gamer Porn, as the joke goes. Is there any place we can see maps of 'more' of Tekumel? Southern Continent, Other side, West of the Mu'uglavyani, etc? Even if just continental layouts or even the borders of continents. And did the Professor really have a "Globe" done up?

The flip answer is: Yes, in my basement. I have all of the published maps, all of the unpublished maps that Phil and we gamers did, all of the maps that used to be up in www.tekumel.com, and quite a few of the maps done by other people over the years. I've made sure to add all the maps I could to my archives, and made sure that they have all been preserved. I have everything in digital format, which is why when I referee Tekumel I can just project stuff up on the wall or onto the monitor at the side of the game table.

I'd try the Yahoo group files, or the tekumel.com site for maps that you can see without a trip down here to my little 'museum'.

Yes, he did. We did a complete photo survey of it, both in 1987 and again in 2011. I think some of our photos are up on the web...

Ah! A Google seach for "Tekumel" globe will get you to the 1987 photo that my Missus took for Phil. Phil had bought a blank globe, and drew in the landmass we live on; he drew in the adjoining coastlines, as well.

Originally Posted by Dulahan

Yeah, I guess I was more meaning to imply Level of the Clan - like a Medium clan, would that be a good balance of not too important, room to advance, but not so lowly as to be a difficult social challenge?

Yes, I think it would. Too low, and nobody would take them seriously; too high, and they would not have much reason to go on the adventure. Medium sounds very good.

Originally Posted by Dulahan

-snip-

Are those formations shown somewhere? Or were they just based on Real Life ones you two were both quite familiar with to the point you could do a Tekumel sounding proper noun in it and make it work?

Take a look at Dragon 7, they are completely detailed in there, and The Eye of All Seeing Wonder, Issue 4, Spring 1995 (on Tekumel.com) has a nice little article on the Qadarni.

Shemek.