Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Photos from Con of the North are now up on my blog for your amusement and bemusement...

Originally Posted by Hrugga

So cool. I am seriously thinking of going to next year's Con of the North and/or a visit to the Workbench!!! I have no extra obligations besides normal work schedule...I have played EPT at a local con, but last year sadly no Tekumel. So no con.


H:0)

It's a very good, very solid track of programming, and I highly suggest it - in the fall, I can equally suggest U-Con in Ann Arbor.

Visits to the Workbench are always in order; I very rarely have a weekend booking, these days. It was suggested, by several of the out-of-towners at the convention, that I have Brett build a group visit to the house into the programming schedule - Sunday mornings are particularly quiet at the convention, and 'Breakfast at Chirine's' sounds like a good way to start the day. We'd have to get a large passenger van, to carry everyone to and fro, but that's already in hand...

Originally Posted by Greentongue

In the dark corners of the (under)world, how much of the original mold, fungus and other such life thrives?

Was it something often encountered and if so, was it all hazardous?
=

The deeper, older, and less frequented you get, the more of this kind of thing you'll encounter. The 'vermin' are also usually smaller and a little less hostile, as the ecosystem down in the deepest parts of underworlds seems to be less active then higher up, where food is more plentiful. (Hekellu's underworld was much like this on all levels, due to the high water table and generally soggy nature of the place.) We'd run into this kind of thing all the time; unless an area is being actively maintained by somebody, this stuff creeps right back in and takes over. Generally, it was more annoying then deadly, but there are pockets of really lethal stuff mixed in with the more ordinary kinds of things. One issue is when the stuff gets on your clothes and gear, and starts to grow and take it over. A good cleaning occasionally helps, once you're back to the surface, but if you let it go you often loose all your gear that's organic - including anything made of chlen hide, like your armor.

So, we got careful, and generally stayed out of any patches of this kind of thing we found. May have missed a few treasures that way, but stayed alive and kept our gear intact.

Yes, playing in the slums of Jakalla was boring as hell. I never had a taste for playing "den of thieves" type games, and at best that's what it was. Mugging other beggars for coppers, or fighting to avoid being mugged yourself, is not my idea of fun.

You could not leave the Foreigner's Quarters without escort until you were third level, and Phil enforced that vigorously. It's why I joined the army as soon as I hit third level.

It also pissed me off royally when Phil started Mirusiya's "New Men" out as citizens and nobles; my character was still Nakome, and they treated me, both in and out of character, like shit. And meanwhile as a non-citizen, clanless barbarian, I had to eat all the shit I was dished.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

The deeper, older, and less frequented you get, the more of this kind of thing you'll encounter. The 'vermin' are also usually smaller and a little less hostile, as the ecosystem down in the deepest parts of underworlds seems to be less active then higher up, where food is more plentiful. (Hekellu's underworld was much like this on all levels, due to the high water table and generally soggy nature of the place.) We'd run into this kind of thing all the time; unless an area is being actively maintained by somebody, this stuff creeps right back in and takes over. Generally, it was more annoying then deadly, but there are pockets of really lethal stuff mixed in with the more ordinary kinds of things. One issue is when the stuff gets on your clothes and gear, and starts to grow and take it over. A good cleaning occasionally helps, once you're back to the surface, but if you let it go you often loose all your gear that's organic - including anything made of chlen hide, like your armor.

So, we got careful, and generally stayed out of any patches of this kind of thing we found. May have missed a few treasures that way, but stayed alive and kept our gear intact.

If Phil wanted to make sure PCs'd pay at least as much attention to cleanliness as real-world Indians of high caste, there are worse ways to achieve that than a hazard that destroys their equipment!

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Yes, playing in the slums of Jakalla was boring as hell. I never had a taste for playing "den of thieves" type games, and at best that's what it was. Mugging other beggars for coppers, or fighting to avoid being mugged yourself, is not my idea of fun.

You could not leave the Foreigner's Quarters without escort until you were third level, and Phil enforced that vigorously. It's why I joined the army as soon as I hit third level.

Couldn't you join the army on the return from a "job"?

It also pissed me off royally when Phil started Mirusiya's "New Men" out as citizens and nobles; my character was still Nakome, and they treated me, both in and out of character, like shit. And meanwhile as a non-citizen, clanless barbarian, I had to eat all the shit I was dished.

I'm sure you didn't take the OOC treatment without objections?

Originally Posted by Baron

Well, it's too bad that the FQ was presented in a less-than-interesting fashion in the Professor's campaign. But it can certainly work with the right people involved. My own players and I are still having fun there, and Thieves World's Sanctuary, as an example, has been very popular over the years.

Yeah, but doesn't mean Sanctuary would be equally popular among everyone!

I mean, what's more popular than dungeon crawling?
And yet, the way Gronan sees "mugging other beggars for coppers" is more or less how I view crawling in most dungeons I'd encountered: I can do it just fine, it's boring. Which is why I* prefer not playing a dungeoncrawling game unless I trust the Referee to make it fun. Give me a world to explore, though, and things change quite** a bit.

*Assuming you care about my preferences, but I'm using them as an example. Sorry if I'm rambling in the thread...I'm not even drunk, yet. Maybe I'll start in a while, and hopefully that should help!
Yeah, this night sucks, though the evening was just fine.

**Like "manipulating and commanding people outranking me by up to 10 levels", in settings similar*** to Tekumel. Yes, there are IC means to determine their level in WHoOG, and no, I don't care about their personal power: there's stuff I can do for them, so there better be stuff they can do for me, too!

***Fantasy Ancient China should count.