Rejoice, indeed!!! "Man of Gold" had about 15,000 copies printed; "Flamesong" only had about 5,000. You can read about our trip to Lake Parunal - that's us, in Harchar / Dave Arneson's ship; we went to Blackmoor right after Mihallu...Originally Posted by Bren
Don't apologize. It's what I'm here for.
The Livyani are big on tatoos - the 'Aomuz'. These are magical glyphs, from the ancient Sunuz language. The rest of the Five Empires don't really go in much for tatoos; one exception are ranking Dlamelish clergy, who often have lines of text in praise of the Emerald Lady running along their arms and legs.
Body paint is very fashionable for parties and other social occasions - it's a mark of your status that you can pay somebody to do it.
Yes, to all three. Broad straw hats are very common amongst the lower classes, with parasols and umbrella being a high-status thing. Turbans are very common the further east you go; they are all the rage in the Nyemsel Islands amongst the upper classes. Parasols, ala Jakalla's fashions, are a recent introduction by my Senior Wife.
Sadly, highly unlikely. Print runs were in the 25 to 50 range, as they were POD, with total printings of something like 250 to 300 per book.
I am genuinely surprised that they have not been re-issued as PDFs, at least; they all exist in electronic format.
Oh, yes, so very, very much so.[Added:] And Phil's idea of lovely tourist spots made Arneson and Blackmoor look really good. We couldn't be too upset with Phil, though, as he'd tell us hair-raising stories of all the places he'd been and survived...
Some of his stories were quite shocking to a college kid from a small farming town in the Midwest. Wow. Never mind fantasy... this world is a strange and scary place.
I don't care if you respect me, just buy my fucking book.
Formerly known as Old Geezer
I don't need an Ignore List, I need a Tongue My Pee Hole list.
The rules can't cure stupid, and the rules can't cure asshole.
Agreed; our eyes bulged out and our mouths hung open on more then one occasion, didn't they?
Like his getting lost in the catacombs of the Red Fort in Delhi, or what happened after his passport was stolen in Hong Kong, or his adventures at the 1950 World Con?
"Oh, my!" as Youngest Daughter Kerry would say...
Can you share a Tekumelyani recipe that we can find the ingredients of? I'd like to try something like thatFood! Glorious food!!!
Actually, good question! You can be all over the social spectrum on this. I get grain porridge three times a day when I am on campaign with the legion as part of my daily rations; we add to this whatever we can carry up in the baggage train or can forage from the locals. (A good stew is considered A Very Big Deal, on campaign!) Back in garrison, or in the clanhouse, the food is usually much more varied - and hot, too!
This varies a lot - urban poor are lucky to get the tea (there are various varieties, with a Yan Koryani version very highly regarded and highly priced - I think it tastes like turpentine, myself), while a low status farmer will have a pretty good diet as he or she is right at the source. So, I guess the best way to answer you is to say that the good stuff starts pretty low on the ladder, especially out in the country, but pretty high in the Foreigners' Quarters of cities. Same thing out in the 'sticks'; most people eat pretty well, at about the same level as you'd find in Ancient Rome or South Asia, but the supply chain is pretty shaky.
I hope this helps; I can get really detailed, and drive you quite mad - Tekumelyani cooking is a really strong interest of mine, and we do experiment every now and then. Try 'Naan', if you can get it....
No need to apologize, I think. You're asking questions that might be helpful to other people, and some of them are stuff I haven't thought to ask.
Ah, the "negative ninja" trick!
Can you describe one of Phil's ideas of lovely tourist spots?Why, yes. Glorious General; will you have your boot with sand on the side or sand as a garnish?
Yeah, funny thing about that. It might help that the locals are cannibals, too.
[Added:] And Phil's idea of lovely tourist spots made Arneson and Blackmoor look really good. We couldn't be too upset with Phil, though, as he'd tell us hair-raising stories of all the places he'd been and survived...
Why aren't they released, then?
Indeed it is, Gronan. Care to share a story that impressed you
What happened when Phil's passport was stolen in Hong KongAgreed; our eyes bulged out and our mouths hung open on more then one occasion, didn't they?
Like his getting lost in the catacombs of the Red Fort in Delhi, or what happened after his passport was stolen in Hong Kong, or his adventures at the 1950 World Con?
"Oh, my!" as Youngest Daughter Kerry would say...?
I'm using finger and toe nail paint as status indicators for that very reason.
It shows you can afford to have someone do them for you and often.
Same with hair cuts and styling.
I guess I was not far off the mark.
With limited space in cities and high population density, are there what we might call "Self Storage" locations for the things that clans have accumulated over the centuries?
Are they always adjacent or within the clan compound or are some in the Underworld? Can the locations be shared between clans?
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Well, here we go:Can you share a Tekumelyani recipe that we can find the ingredients of? I'd like to try something like that
Can you describe one of Phil's ideas of lovely tourist spots?
Why aren't they released, then?
What happened when Phil's passport was stolen in Hong Kong
May I suggest the wonderful blog by a good friend? Kim also has done the wonderful "Butrus Gazetteer", one of the very best things that's ever been done for Tekumel, too. Here are the links:
https://ssaingkan.wordpress.com/
http://http://home.earthlink.net/~panchakahq/main.html
She's a linguist by trade, and a cook by inclination. Interestingly, she took some of her language classes from some of Phil's early (1950's) Tekumel players...
I am not a fussy eater, much to the amusement of my legion's cooks. If I may quote the Chief Cook (head of the Department of Catering and Provisions - we got a department for everything, in true Tsolyani style):
"His Lordship likes food, but is not overly fussy about what he eats; he's very happy with the same rations as the rest of the Legion, and it makes him a little hard to cook for - he does not like 'fancy' dishes, just decent fare. He does love his little honey cakes, but then, we all do. We've had great success with taking a freshly-baked portion of the flat-bread I think you call 'naan', and covering it with chopped - 'diced', I think you call it - meat; cover with a lightly - very lightly, His Lordship is not fond of highly-spiced foods, except on special occasions - spiced sauce made of mashed peas or perhaps some rice, and serve warm. The rice, by the way, is always good to serve him; he likes the several varieties, such as what I think you'd call 'sticky rice', with a bit of spiced sauce over the top. As a variation, we also take a good hard cheese, shred it, and sprinkle that over the meat and warm until the cheese melts. This is a fine winter dish, especially when the wind is coming off the bay and it's a little chilly."
"If you'd like to try more of our food, may I suggest one of the places in your world that serves what the learned Firu ba Yeker, the noted scholar and traveller, calls 'South Asian' cuisine. This is very close to what we Tsolyani like to cook and eat, and is a good 'simulation' of our foodstuffs."
The City of Bayarsha - a 'lost' city out to the west of Mu'uglavya, and north of Livyanu. You get there by tubeway car. The locals are a colony of natural telepaths, left over from the days of the Ancients - the Lords of Humanspace used them as communications units - and will welcome any visitors - especially women. They will kill any males in the group, and keep the women as enforced breeding stock to keep up their population numbers; in this branch of the telepaths, the ability gene is a male-transmitted one. (In the Nyemesel Islands, it's a female-transmitted one.) The recognition marker is no body hair on the telepath.
The locals are not fun people. Once you get there, and out of the tubeway car, they will hunt you down through their telepathic abilities and kill you in various interesting and painful ways for the fun of it - they are kind of like dear old Nyelmu, in that respect. The city itself is interesting, as it's got some nice bits of ancient technology stashed away, but you really have to fight for your life when trying to get it. Best not to even get out of the tubeway car, if you asked me.
No idea why the Tekumel Foundation hasn't moved on getting the later novels back out. It's taken them the better part of five years to get "Man of Gold" reissued, and I don't know what the delays might be; I stopped working for them in November of 2013, after they tried to make me the 'general manager' of the operation. (All I ever wanted to be was an archivist, not a 'business person'... Sigh.)
He would tell the story as an example of how to work in a culture. He had his passport lifted in the hotel, and when he reported it missing to the US Consulate they told him it would take a week to get him a new one. As his money had also been stolen, they gave him USD$100 to live on for the week, which even back then didn't stretch very far - certainly not to room and board for a week. So, he told us, he stepped outside and asked a taxi driver to take him to a respectable brothel. He assumed that the brothel would tip the driver for bringing in business.
He was duly delivered, and 'checked in' for a week's stay. He said that the food was excellent, the room had a great view and was very comfortable, and the only difficulty was that he had to have one of the girls in the room at all times so that the place would not get in trouble with the police - if he was just staying there, they would have been able to fine the brothel for running an unlicensed hotel; with the girl in the room, it was all perfectly legal and very respectable. It cost him about USD$50 for the week; he loved the food, got a lot of sleep, the girls got a week off (in rotation; he paid for their time), and he learned Mandarin and Cantonese. Everyone was happy, as everybody got what they wanted.
He had a million of these stories; he'd been pretty much everywhere and done everything, in that part of the world, and it showed when we gamed in his Tekumel...
No, you are not at all far off the mark. You have it really down, I think.
Yes; there are clans who specialize in 'discreet storage facilities', and which are very well-established and quite trustworthy. While clans do have their own storage spaces, both in their clan-houses and in their Underworld areas, they also do have stuff that might be just too valuable to risk to casual looters. This was another 'plot hook' for Phil; being hired as guards, or being hired to 'retrieve' items for clans. And yes, the allied clans do share this kind of thing, too. It's what scribes and guards are for, to keep track of everything.
Just how pervasive is this bureaucratic paperwork?
How much can be glossed over to avoid gaming boredom and how much should be front and center as an aspect of the setting?
Is it wise to hire a scribe with your first Katiar to handle all the boring but required paperwork?
Is this an important talent for one of your wifes?
There is a lot of talk about citizens not using cash but having "clan credit cards".
How does this work exactly and are there those that provide this service for non-citizens?
I'm sure there are "Payday Loans" even for citizens but how do these work and why would they be used?
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