Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Greentongue

Wonderful.
I can use a "Chop" to be the official stamp that makes it authentic. Can even have different ones for levels of authorization.

I assume these 'writs' are "Payable to the Bearer" and not written for a specific person?
If diverted to a person that they were not originally intended for they are still honored, correct?

"having to ship specie around" is not a bad thing as far as adventurers are concerned. Many bad things can happen to such shipments intentionally or otherwise.
Same with a "Chop" which would be guarded carefully.

Say you marry into a new clan, how loyal are you still to your birth clan?

Are there issues with very old clan members holding onto power?
What about dead ones that are still hanging around thanks to Sarku?
=

Yep; all true. And you do get 'pay to the bearer' as well as specific people, which does suggest impersonations... All sorts of adventures are possible, which is the idea, I suspect.

When you marry into a new clan, you still keep close ties to your old one. Everybody is careful not to step on any toes - real secrets are not divulged - but marrying is a form of alliance. You'd still make donations to your old clan, as this is a 'noble thing' to do.

Yes, and there's been a few conflicts between generations. Dead ones are kept way in the background, due to the societal mores, but the elders tend to leave the the more active 'younger generation' to the day to day affairs and concentrate on the more long-term and strategic issues.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

...they would sell you TEN IRON SPIKES for ONE Khiatar?

* cries *

Yes, it was a delight to see the looks on Phil's and Dave's faces when they finally figured out what I was up to. It was very tough to surprise them, but I managed...

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

"Don't call me SIR, Private, I work for a living!" -- every sergeant ever



Khirgar was a great place to be a soldier; it's lovely to have a secure base to come back to after fighting the perfidious Yan Koryani where you can either celebrate your triumphs or lick your wounds. Or perhaps just dump the stones out of your boots and get some sleep. They know how to handle the press of troops, the logistics of keeping them housed and fed, and how to keep that many soldiers entertained with only a few friendly brawls between rival legions now and then.

The only bad part is that as the troops get tried, tempered, and hardened in campaign, they tend to get "rewarded" by being sent to more demanding places -- hence several years spent tramping around Milumaniya picking sand out of our kilts.

Castle Tilketl, anyone? *shudders*

By the way, I found Phil's original map from your battle at Third Mar, Glorious General, in the files. My, he really had it in for us, didn't he...

Originally Posted by Greentongue

When not on "official business and with the proper permits" what is the reaction of people and city guards to characters wearing armor?

Are carried weapons acceptable if not drawn? How about daggers?

When you first started, how often did you end up in combat or were your opponents able to be communicated with?
I'm guessing that many starts were short and bloody?
What replaced that when the new characters joined later?
=

Well, it depends on who's wearing the armor. Priests and Priestess of the four war gods normally wear light, pretty much 'ceremonial' armor all the time when out in public; they also have more 'informal' outfits, but it's considered 'noble' to be seen wearing your 'good suit'. Same thing for anybody with a connection to the military; when the war with Yan Kor started, it became very fashionable for the same sort of light armor - a thin chlen-hide breast-and-back with ornate shoulder defenses and a light open-faced burgonet - to be worn everywhere. Likewise for temple and clan guards; there are a lot of people out on the street in armor, and nobody really takes much notice - except to jack up the prices, if the armor looks like the person might have money.

About the only reaction you might get is when the locals see that the people in armor are wearing 'practical' armor, and with obviously 'we-mean-business' weapons. This usually gets a polite inquiry from the city guards - "Please, Noble Sir, may I ask what's going on?" - and any sort of reasonable and polite answer - accompanied by a suitable donation, of course - will satisfy their curiosity. The rest of the local population usually assumes that one has business being in armor and under arms, and will generally ignore it unless a fight starts; then, they tend to join in on what looks like the side of who's got the most cash, and take that side in hopes of a suitable 'reward' for helping out.

So, generally, unless one starts trouble, one usually will be politely overlooked if one if in armor. Having worn my own steel suit, I can say that one does not wear full armor all the time; given Tekumel's torrid heat and humidity, one of course wears it when it's really needed, but one will wear much more 'normal clothes' most of the time.

Carried weapons are certainly acceptable. Anyone with any pretension to class and rank will have a sword (mace, for some priests like me) at their side to show that they are a 'noble' person. Low class people usually don't, simply because they have no need for them and no money to buy them. Being able to afford a weapon is a handy status marker, and will usually get you higher prices from merchants who you don't know.

Really rich folks have a servant to carry their weapons around for them. I can think of one player who's servant had a sort of 'golf bag' of his weapons that he carried around for him; which led to much golfing humor around the table - "This is a par three Ssu, Lord. Would you like the sword or the mace?"- and we often yelled "FORE!" whenever he went into a melee. He gave it up, after about the fifth or sixth time., right after the servant handed him a five-iron by mistake...

Basically, as long as one doesn't make threats or pull the thing out, you're fine.

Daggers are all over the place. People use them for all sorts of things, as you'd expect. Rich folks don't wear them, unless as a status symbol indicating that they are associated with the military or the war temples.

Hmm. When we first started, the biggest threat was from the older players; they really liked to pick fights within the game group - 'PvP' was their big thing. We spent more time fighting them then we did anything else, and it got old pretty quickly. Actual opponents? It depended on who or what they were. other humans could be communicated with, as were the 'friendly' races, but usually everything else had to be fought with so we could stay alive. It's the nature of the business; if you are going to be an 'adventurer', you are going to have 'adventures' and a lot of the folks you meet are going to be both hostile and not interested in negotiation.

After the Big Split, things dod get quieter. We went on just as many adventures, but we spent less and less time getting into situations where we had to fight and more and more into situations where we could do a little negotiation with possible foes. It may have helped that we developed a reputation as a bunch of really tough killers; picking a fight with us was considered a really messy way to get really dead really quickly. Possible opponents tended to look with palpable relief on any attempts by ourselves to negotiate with them; we always tried to make sure that everyone got something nice out of the situation, and it seemed to work pretty well.

Now, on occasion, we did kill opponents, but it was generally because they were being unreasonable and were bound to have a fight. Hostile non-humans and opponents like Undead were always to be fought, as they were not interested in any sort of negotiation.

I'm sorry; what are "starts"?

If we're talking about fights and melees, then we made very sure that they were very short and very bloody - we tended to kill anything that picked a fight with us, as we were very 'tactically minded' and always made sure that we had all possible advantages. And we got a reputation for it, and people tended to not want to pick fights with us, after a while.

Older players always made sure to protect 'younger' and 'weaker' players; that's simply (to us) part of playing as 'a party'. Mutual defense was always very important; we always had the armored people in a 'crust' around the unarmored ones. These, in turn, were usually the magic-users, who could provide 'fire support' from inside our little moving citadel. Think Arsuf, here.

"Hit 'em hard, and hit 'em fast; they won't stand!" - Chirine ba Kal, at the Battle of Anch'ke.

We kept on fighting literally until we stopped playing; melees and fights were something that we didn't normally start, but when they happened we always finished them.

Here's me steel suit, by the way:

[IMG][/IMG]

38 pounds all up; there are 15,800 1/4" steel rings in the mail hauberk.

Originally Posted by Greentongue

Sorry for not being clear enough.
Besides the one long game you played in, I assume you "started" players in other games that you ran?
That was what I was talking about. Other EPT games where characters are just starting out.

Nice armor!
=

Oh! Right! Duh - I should have realized...

Yes, we started a lot of new people in our games, both mine and Phil's. Normally, a person played just one PC while they gamed with us; we all played very 'long term' games and PCs. Some of us had one main PC, and an 'alternate' for when Phil wanted to do something a little different, but we normally played the same PC for years.

'Starts' - and I do like that term, by the way! - were always protected to some degree by the more advanced / experienced players. Playing in our campaigns was as much a social thing as a gaming thing, and so we tended to invite / select on the basis of compatibility with the group more then anything else. Until players 'learned the ropes', they would be carefully 'shielded; from anything that would kill them off; we wanted them to survive and stay with the group.

Now, having said that, we did allow people to get killed through their own stupidity. We looked at that as a learning experience for them. Normally, the new players would pay attention and ask intelligent questions, and they'd survive. Fighting was very carefully managed by the party to let the new players participate - and run real risks! - but nothing that they could not handle. Maybe with a little help, but they'd be able to deal with it.

We'd loan them armor, weapons, Eyes, etc. to help them; it was very much 'party play', as the planet is quite enough of a threat already!

Does this help? We'd do a lot of 'Cousin Woofle', I think you could say...

Tnank you; I'm very proud of the suit; you can thank Gronan for the wonderful molded breast and back - he was the man with the hammer. All I did was planish it and paint it....

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Hello,

What is your armor made of? I have seen the pictures of the other costumes. Really cool. Any advice for constructing/making our own? I was thinking of showing up to the NYC ComicCon dressed up(I could just imagine the who or what are you...).

Another question. Concerning the creatures of Tekumel. Someone told me that there were two creatures(monsters) included in the original EPT that did not make it into the later edition. Which ones?

Also did you encounter creatures not listed in the rules or sourcebooks during your adventures? Oh and what kinds of Saturday Night Specials did the Professor throw at you guys?

Thanks,
H

PS I found an article about Khirgar right under my nose. In the Seal of the Imperium, Vol.1 Issue 1. Thanks again :0)

Glad you found the article!

We're talking about costuming on theRPGsite? I hope the server doesn't explode!

My armor is steel and brass for the metal parts - the convention was that things that should be gold were done in brass to give the right metallic effect. The plates - breast and back, pauldrons, grieves, and helmet are all metal. I am wearing a linen undertunic, padded cotton over-tunic, and then a leather jerkin to protect the cloth from the mail. The mail hauberk is steel, with brass accent rings along the edges, and small brass shoulder plates attached by steel rings. Lappets, short cloak at the back, and the aventail are all satin with trim. Belts and pouches are all leather. The buckler is wood with a copper face, and the big sword is actually made of pine that I carved to shape. The assorted daggers and knives are all steel, however.

The mail is real. 1/4" rings, 16 gauge steel wire, which are normal for Western mail and a little large for South Asian, and all run off on my hand lathe. The resulting coils all got cut up, and then it's linking every ring to every four others; repeat 15,800 times. This is simple butted mail, by the way. My neck guard is six-on-one mail, and quite impervious to pointed things.

The suit is very accurate to the drawings; I was working at the Guthrie Theater here in the Twin Cities at the time, and we had a rule that costumes had to look good at three feet. We went a little further then that, as we were into historical re-enactment and so if you look in my belt pouch, you'll find all the stuff I'd normally be carrying on Tekumel. Flint and steel, Kevuk dice, a little money, the usual.

Tekumel costumes are actually pretty easy to make; you break down the ornate costumes into their component parts, and it's a lot simpler. We did about twenty costumes for our groups, back in the day, and we had a lot of fun making and wearing them.

If you'd like more - we have patterns, and such! - please feel free to e-mail me directly: [email protected]

I could go on and on and on and on and on about costumes; I used to do them professionally as well as for fun...

I think that two of the non-human races in EPT didn't get included in T:EPT for reasons of space; Swamp Folk were one, and I'd have to look it up to see which the other was.

Oh, yes, we found all sorts of creatures in our adventures, some of them sentient and quite deadly. There's a race of reptilians under Tu'umnra, for example; I'll dig out the drawing.

Phil threw everything up to and including the kitchen sink at us. I mentioned some of the SNS items and creatures in a previous post; I can list a lot more, if you like. He had one heck of an imagination, I tell you!!!

I really should do a list, but for GMs; wouldn't want to spoil the surprises for the players...