Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

BWAAAHAHAHA!

I remember that. Phil damn near swallowed his horrid little cigar, clenched his teeth, and said "Very funny."

Personally, I think it was your guileless, innocent, and utterly sincere expression and your blinking your steely blue eyes at him with child-like adoration for his genius as a GM that did it...

Gods, did we all laugh when the sandstorm hit - which only made the old coot madder...

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

You know, it was interesting in sort of a grim way to remember how things went when we got shifted from the western front near Khirgar to the eastern front in Milumanaya -- shifting the game, in my mind, from "You're In The Army Now" to "The Thin Blue Line." (Tsolyanu's national color is blue.)

Milumanaya is a freakin' desert filled with small nomadic tribes and tiny villages. All they have in common is approximately the same language. The "King" of Milumanaya was perfectly content to get rich presents from both Yan Kor and Tsolyanu for "permission" for troops to pass through "his land." The truth of the matter was that the tribes didn't give a rancid lump of Chlen shit for what that clown in the one big city in the desert said, they hated everybody who wasn't them.

"We hate you. We hate the Yan Koryani too, but you're here today and they're not."

We saw it as the locals accepting our coin for supplies and "guides" and betraying us.

The locals saw it as guerrilla warfare against hated outsiders.

It reached the point where I was on the verge of

"Excuse me, Glorious General, our scouts located a village three tsan in that direction."

"Kill everyone in it and burn it to the ground."

Not because I wanted to be "evil" or even "harsh" or "oppressive"... it was just that the ONLY way to secure the flanks of the Legion was to make sure that we were the only living creatures within two days' march.

It never QUITE reached that point because we actually talked about it, and decided it was time to shift the emphasis of the game.

Can you tell that Phil spent time in Afghanistan?

Yeah, I'd agree with this. I never really understood Phil until I learned about the Afghans, and I never really understood the Afghans until I learned about Phil. It's a very, very different culture, and a very different way to look at life then what we Westerners have.

Originally Posted by Greentongue

Did creatures like Chnelh "Ape Mutant" co-exist with humans and other creatures in the underworld?

Was the ecology of the Underworld a concern?
Did it all make sense once it was explored?
=

Yes.

No. We figured that it was mostly an artificial construct that was being updated and restocked by the locals. All we did, as licensed looters, was to cull the slow and stupid.

No. Again, what went on in the Underworld was part of the meta-game of the living, breathing Tekumel that Phil had going. We didn't worry about the ecology much, as we were just too busy trying to survive our adventures.

As players, we accepted what was going on as our world, and we didn't worry all that much about the 'deep thoughts' or 'complex issues'. There's a massive discussion going on over at the Tekumel yahoo group about the Ssu atmosphere, which I simply can't even begin to follow in all it's complexity and learned discussion.

We generally looked at something, said "Oh! That's cool, Phil!" and then ran like hell before it killed us - or the owners of this most recent marvel caught up with us. We just were not very deep thinkers, I guess.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

We generally looked at something, said "Oh! That's cool, Phil!" and then ran like hell before it killed us - or the owners of this most recent marvel caught up with us. We just were not very deep thinkers, I guess.

That is one thing I think has changed for most gamers today. "Runaway! Run like hell!" is not nearly as popular as a statement of intent as it used to be.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

As players, we accepted what was going on as our world, and we didn't worry all that much about the 'deep thoughts' or 'complex issues'.

It's like people these days that don't just "enjoy the ride" of old movies. They have to point out the wires and painted scenery.
It doesn't increase their enjoyment as far as I can tell but it does ruin it for others.
=

Originally Posted by Bren

That is one thing I think has changed for most gamers today. "Runaway! Run like hell!" is not nearly as popular as a statement of intent as it used to be.

Interesting! I wonder if that's because of a shift in play style, or maybe a perception that PCs are 'disposable'? I've noticed that at the local FLGS, RPG gamers seem to like the process / mechanics of rolling up PCs more then they do running them; I wonder if this is due to there being fewer 'long-term' campaigns and more 'one-shot' games?

Back in our day, we were very 'invested' in PC survival, as we hated the mechanics of rolling up PCs, and tried very hard not to get the ones we had killed for no good reason. After a while, we got sorta attached to them, and kept on playing them...

Hmmm. Lots to think about, here...

Originally Posted by Greentongue

It's like people these days that don't just "enjoy the ride" of old movies. They have to point out the wires and painted scenery.
It doesn't increase their enjoyment as far as I can tell but it does ruin it for others.
=

Yes, I'd agree with that. One of the things I used to like to do is show the classic movies to people that Phil said had inspired him to create the world of the Petal Throne:

The Thief of Baghdad - 1924 and 1940

One batch of F/Sf fans I showed these to complained that the 1924 version wasn't in color, and didn't have any dialog; they complained that the 194 one had really crummy special effects.

Then I told them when the two films had been made. It did shut them up, but I didn't do it again.