Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Baron

I've got a question for you, Chirine. I'm implementing some rules for my existing gaming group (teenagers) involving resource management. I'd been glossing over supplies and encumbrance up til now. So, I'm figuring the temperature in Jakalla is normally well over 90 degrees F, which is going to require someone engaged in strenuous adventuring to consume two gallons of water per day. (Maybe 1.25 gallons per day between 50-70 degrees, as in the sewers, tombs or Underworld.) And going with a one-gallon waterskin per player, in a world without mules, we're talking bearers with water kegs for extended forays. All this begs the question of where fresh water comes from. The waterways are awfully polluted, adventuring in the sewers precludes the possibility of fresh water being available, the dead don't need water in their tombs. But, where does the city populace get their water? Upstream? Wells dug in what I assume is soft, shifting ground (estuary) can't be very reliable sources of fresh water, can they? Also, those Underworld complexes that have all those living guards and living high priests, and the monsters wandering about, will need fresh water too. Just assume underground rivers and streams for that? Are there fountains, pools and wells scattered about for ease of access down there? Did any of this ever come up with the Professor? Thanks!

Some things are just too obvious, when they stare me in the face - I was typing away on my book when you're question came back into mind.

I should also have said that there's rainwater, as well; many buildings have gutters and cisterns for this. Which I should have remembered, as my own palace has them for the winter monsoon rains. You'd think I'd be able to remember my own plumbing - which Phil described, from his time in India - but I must be getting old. Or distracted. Or something.

Chirine,

An interesting question came up in my campaign the other day. I kind of know how I'm going to play it, but was curious if you had ever encountered something similar.
The main party, which has been involved in much "mayhem" over the last year, is finally in a position where they have been noticed by the right person/people. In the last game session they were able to "acquire" enough so that not only are they able to provide frequent and correct inducements, but their deeds have made them a good source of positive PR. They will be offered membership, into a low clan as they are "barbarians," next game session, but they will be out of the game for a few weeks and possibly up to 2 months as they train, study, and learn.
The group has agreed to start a second party as a sort of B Team to supplement the first group and provide ready character replacements should they be needed. The plan is that we will adventure with these new characters until the "old guys" finish their training, and go back to them every so often.
One of the players wants to play a warrior who will be a clan enforcer, someone who discretely acts as the clan's muscle, internal and external, and does the dirty work. Breaking kneecaps was one of the examples he provided.
Have you ever encountered or heard of such an individual during your travels in Tsolyanu?

Shemek.

"And a more general call out to the thread, I'm totally game for trouble ideas to land these fine young Tsolyani into."

Let's see.
We recently found this in the clan archives. It seems grandpa Serqu acquired the rights to some land about 50 years ago. Cousin Trinesh is getting married next month and the clan would like to give him a present. Go and check out the property, and give our regards to the Governor while you're there.

We recently acquired certain items, and would like them delivered to our temple in Mrelu. Accompany the caravans and make sure they arrive safely. Oh, BTW, others are interested in preventing them from arriving safely in Mrelu.

Does this help?

Shemek.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Yes, indeed; inquiring minds want to know...

Great suggestion!!!

Do tell....

Any thing is possible on Tekumel.

Shemek.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Either this, or I do a rummage sale in the back yard. What with the Missus getting the entire archive, including all the printed materials, scanned and onto disc, there's not a lot of reason why I need to keep multiple paper copies of everything. I have several 'working copies' of the archive, one at my desk and one in the game room, and the digital media take up a tiny fraction of the paper archive's occupancy.

Of course, the miniatures collection is what it is; luckily for me, I did plan for expansion space for this when I built the furniture for the game room over a decade ago. (As Gronan can tell you, I like to have back-up plans for my back-up plans.) All of the figures live in the game room, with the large/bulky/rarely used items in the game shed. Books that I think important to gaming live in the game room as well.

It turns out that the Resident Daughter does not need the little dorm room fridge that used to be in the game lounge, so my task for today is to get it back into the basement and running again. I'm also moving the two Sakbe road sets out into their new crates and homes, as well as moving the crate with Castle Tilketl to the same storage. So, busy day ahead!

Chirine, please check your PM.

Shemek

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Well, I think it should be; that's why we used to call them 'adventures', and the hobby 'adventure gaming'.

Indeed, Uncle!
That's also the reason why I keep saying that I don't see a difference between an adventure and a slice of life* book. Well, there isn't if we're following the right of a good character, anyway.
And the above is why I think that half the issues of RPGs are due to people playing boring characters.

*Of course, a slice of life on Tekumel is probably enough of an adventure to last someone from our time a whole lifetime!

Like watching "John Carter"; lots of adventure to be had, and I could have done without the heaps of existential angst that seemed to have been added to make the film more 'relevant'. Sill had lots of fun, through!

There was existential angst in the movie, Uncle?
I mean, yeah, when I was watching it, I was kinda feeling an existential anger. But it was due to "damned Disney didn't follow the novel, and everything they changed was to the movie's detriment, even the dresscode!"
I might have uttered the above phrase once or twice while watching the movie, I suspect!

Originally Posted by Hermes Serpent

This type of water catchment system is in use in the Caribbean and I well remember the concrete catchments on Bermuda as well as the whitewashed roofs which fed water to the cistern under the house. If you ran out of water you had to pay the government to ship you a tanker of water from those reservoirs under the concrete catchments.

Yes! There was a recent story on the BBC website about this, if I recall correctly.

There was a somewhat similar set-up at the fortress of Masada, where now-destroyed aqueducts fed rainwater from the surrounding wadis to a series of huge cisterns below the fortress proper. I think - and you'd have to check for the exact numbers - the excavators figured that the place had enough water in the cisterns for years' worth of siege. Rain that fell on the plateau proper was used to irrigate the crops being grown there, as well as for the bathhouse in the north palace.

"Our ancestors," as Phil used to say, "were a lot smarter then we usually give them credit for."