Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

This is definitely getting to be Ye Olde Farts thread :-)

Is there anyone regularly posting here that's under 50? I'm sixty-four this year and still gaming like it was 1974 although the miniatures gaming has passed me by (not done any since 2008 as my eyesight no longer holds up to painting stuff).

Originally Posted by Xanther

No those days live on. I started doing tabletop RPGs again consistently in 2006 to present after a brief span from 1990-1996, but nothing from 1984-1990; and the golden years of 1978-1984. For those of us who started in the late 70's, and like minded younger folk, imagination is key, we use broad stroke rule sets so something just "made up" can be "mechanically" implemented in a heart beat, even the most out there stuff is easy to fit in well after some mature and good nature discussion (and inevitable jokes and ribbing).

Broad stroke rules that can fit anything is the whole reason I like unified resolution systems.

Originally Posted by Hermes Serpent

This is definitely getting to be Ye Olde Farts thread :-)

Is there anyone regularly posting here that's under 50? I'm sixty-four this year and still gaming like it was 1974 although the miniatures gaming has passed me by (not done any since 2008 as my eyesight no longer holds up to painting stuff).

I'm 36, man, and the oldest in my group by at least a few years. The whole Olde Farts stuff is something that people that hate old school games want others to buy.

From AsenRG:
He was a scholar, a gentleman, and a man with a good taste in classes he played, evidently!

I'd agree with that; I think he would have done well as a Caliph or Rajah, myself.

And it's a good way to set yourself apart from the masses.

Agreed, but it does get lonely when I talk about books that we all had read and considered the basic texts of the hobby - both what's become the 'RPG niche' and the 'wargame niche'. I feel, a lot of the time, that I simply do not speak the same language or share in the same culture as the people that I meet.

No sanctioned play here, either. I still find the idea baffling.

I've never liked 'tournament play' even way back when the 'national wargaming championships' were being mooted about by a lot of East Coast gamers. (Historical miniatures, to be more precise.) The thing became a marketing ploy to sell more stuff to the masses, especially with the era of GW's big and much-ballyhooed events - which seem to have died out, locally - designed to get new players into the 'GW Hobby' with massive buy-ins of product a requirement. Thank you, no thank you; the hobby has always been - for me, anyway - all about friends having a good time.

I haven't got the memo, though, so I'm going to stick to my old ways.

Agreed!!!

...I'm afraid you're right.

Which does kind of scare me...

Great news, Uncle! Keep us informed!
But that's what I kept thinking you should be doing in order to start a group and teach those people the ways of the old masters...

Well, I don't mind running games; it's getting people to play in them. There seems to be a very real bias against 'in-home' game groups; one ash to be at the local con, or the FLGS, or not at all. We'll see; I am appearing at the local game con as part of an exhibit next weekend, and I may chum the waters a little bit and see what bites.

Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead, into the boiling oil? Or maybe you can just stash the vintage stuff away while doing the "paint-and-take" sessions?
It might not be a bad idea, really - not that I would know much about this business, I've just got my gut feeling!

I have lots and lots of vintage lead I'm willing to part with - I've been at this for some forty years, and there are figures I bought back in 1978 that have yet to get a lick of paint. The issue is that these are Herself's figures, and I have been warned in the bloodiest possible terms what will happen to me if any of them turn up missing. I had to go to quite extreme lengths to convince her that I was not raiding her stock of 'N' gauge locomotives and rolling stock to build my 'OO' scale narrow gauge equipment...

Originally Posted by Xanther

No those days live on. I started doing tabletop RPGs again consistently in 2006 to present after a brief span from 1990-1996, but nothing from 1984-1990; and the golden years of 1978-1984. For those of us who started in the late 70's, and like minded younger folk, imagination is key, we use broad stroke rule sets so something just "made up" can be "mechanically" implemented in a heart beat, even the most out there stuff is easy to fit in well after some mature and good nature discussion (and inevitable jokes and ribbing).

I am, if I may say, delighted to hear this!!! Hurrah!!!

Originally Posted by Hermes Serpent

This is definitely getting to be Ye Olde Farts thread :-)

Is there anyone regularly posting here that's under 50? I'm sixty-four this year and still gaming like it was 1974 although the miniatures gaming has passed me by (not done any since 2008 as my eyesight no longer holds up to painting stuff).

I'm sorry; I am being a Grumpy Old Man - at the young age of sixty - mostly because I have a bad head cold at the moment and I'm going to be spending all of next weekend sitting in a hotel lobby at the local game convention watching the crowds go by. I'm providing one of my Skyline displays for an exhibit, and I'm going to have to be there mostly to make sure that the laptop I'm having to provide doesn't walk off.

The good news, as far as I am concerned, is that this is the very last time I will ever have to go to a convention - of any kind- while working for someone; any future conventions will be working with someone. (There's a huge difference, as Gronan can tell you all about.) While I am not talking about resurrecting our old 'Akbar and Jeff's Traveling Tekumel Road Show' - the Gods forfend!!! - I have an 'Events Guide' now that spells out in excruciating detail what I can and can not do - and what I will and will not do - for events organizers. One thing that I simply will not do is organize events - been there, done that, still have the left-over T-shirts sitting around.

Originally Posted by Dulahan

34 here. Still been a gamer since I was 10. But obviously a young'un relatively.

And on to Uncle Chirine, any luck on Mrelu sources? Still got a week to prepare, so not a real hurry, but curious now that I'm emerging from the fugue of being sick as a dog due to my evil sinuses (seriously, I think the single most depressing thing about Tekumel was that even the Lords of Humanspace never cured the common cold!)

No, not really; I'm suffering from a massive head cold - I had to take a sick day, the middle of this week - and am simply happy to be home this afternoon.

I'd advise calling me this weekend; I'll be home, and working in the game room all weekend, and I can simply pull stuff off the shelf for you. (Am I correct in that you are not coming down here next weekend for the convention?) That way, I can get a first-hand idea of what you're looking for.

For that matter, if you run into questions during your game, I will be sitting in the hotel lobby (bored out of my skull) and would love to be the disembodied Voice Of The Oracle...

Unfortunately no on the convention. Work intervened in... an oddly good and bad way. Bad in that I don't get to go to the Con. Good in that I get to go to Orlando. In February. And will have 40 hours in by Wednesday, and because I can save the company $100 by staying until Sunday get to have 4 extra days in Florida in February without having to pay my plane ticket OR use any Vacation time...

Yeah, not a bad trade off. A couple friends are meeting me down here and we're gonna have a good time of it. So no Con of the North this year. But I'll take this trade any year.

I'll see about a call on this Sunday though, got a nice long drive to go through. Biggest question will be who the Governor is due to the importance of said governor for the group, and any fun ideas for the rest to boot.

EDIT: And I totally understand on the headcold. Given I just missed two days of work, and suffered through two more I probably shouldn't have, due to the same thing. Miserable things. See comment about Tekumel not curing them! That's dark stuff for the bane of human existence!