Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Congratulations! Glad you're here.

Originally Posted by Bren

Exactly. Battle of wits was our original style. Sadly, in our group, the "battle of wits" DMs tended to also be known as Death & Despair DMs. Getting to any level above 2nd or 3rd tended to be a rare accomplishment.

Personally I got tired of running that style sometime in the 1970s.

"All NPCs are out to shaft you" was, frankly, the thing I liked least about Gary's reffing style. But I very much enjoyed the "hard mode" of play. I don't mind the dungeon being an enormous fucking deathtrap.

And as referee, I deliberately under power most set up monsters so that I can play as hard as I can against the players.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Today marks the third anniversary of my brain bleed, on September 15th, 2012. I am still alive; my blood pressure has been 'human normal' now for the better part of two and a half years. I am doing well, aside from not being able to tolerate extreme temperatures (and fools, Gronan says) and being tired most of the time, so I won't complain.

The whacking big scar on the back of my head where they drilled into my skull and vacuumed it out - it made the oddest noise, from where I was sitting at the time - still itches, and I have to wear a fancy hat when it's cold to keep my head warm.

Life is good; I'm still here.

Ain't it, though? Many, many congratulations.

And neither one of us has ever had any time for fools, frankly.

Thank you, everybody - just happy to be here!

The rotary saw made the weirdest noise; it was very close to the resonant frequency of my skull, and I thought my fillings were going to fly out. And yes, it was a local, not a general; the brain feels no pain, and they needed to make sure that they weren't taking out anything important with the wet vac.

Dialog from what we refer to as 'The Incident':

Paramedic One: "This guy's 220 over 110!"
Paramedic Two: "Shut up. That's his wife and daughter next to you."
Pramedics Three through Six: "Here we go!", as Firefighters One through Eight hauled me out the door.

Moral of the story - get your blood pressure checked regularly. And avoid as much stress in tour life as you can, too.

(PS - From the Missus: "And he made us clean up the office while we were waiting for the Fire Department to arrive, too. Like we had nothing else to do, and like he had nothing else to worry about. Some people's children. His dad was that way, too." Yes, dear. Thank you, dear.)

Holy cupcakes, your propensity for narrow escapes hasn't diminished over the years.

My cholesterol is higher than it should be but I'm pleased to say my BP was 127/71 a week ago. I loved living in NY, but it's no coincidence my BP got to 161/106 while I was living there.

And I'm glad the wet vac operator was paying attention. ("Hey, Charlie, where does this wobbly green bit go?")

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

No; I didn't get the chance.

The Overlord was actually pretty reasonable. Don't wreck the place, and he was cool.

Too bad, but sometimes it's not meant to be.
And I envy his mental stability!

No, no Kickstarter. The biggest mistake I ever made in my life, and the only one that I truly regret, was getting involved with the business side of Tekumel. The only reason why I am alive today, three years after the brain bleed, is because I pulled the plug on that whole sordid mess and did not renew my contract with the Tekumel Foundation. Let somebody else try; I did it for over thirty years, and I think I've paid my dues.

Sounds like you paid your dues, indeed. And I can see why you're not interested in this kind of things being part of your life again.

No, sorry. Just three of her in armour at various points in her career, and the one of her in her party dress that Phil designed for her. Wouldn't be too hard to do, though; hmmm...

I definitely smell the paint, though.
It's either that, or there's a bad smell around here!

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Today marks the third anniversary of my brain bleed, on September 15th, 2012. I am still alive; my blood pressure has been 'human normal' now for the better part of two and a half years. I am doing well, aside from not being able to tolerate extreme temperatures (and fools, Gronan says) and being tired most of the time, so I won't complain.

The whacking big scar on the back of my head where they drilled into my skull and vacuumed it out - it made the oddest noise, from where I was sitting at the time - still itches, and I have to wear a fancy hat when it's cold to keep my head warm.

Life is good; I'm still here.

A bit late to the party, but congratulations for surviving it with almost no damage!

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Thank you, everybody - just happy to be here!

The rotary saw made the weirdest noise; it was very close to the resonant frequency of my skull, and I thought my fillings were going to fly out. And yes, it was a local, not a general; the brain feels no pain, and they needed to make sure that they weren't taking out anything important with the wet vac.

Dialog from what we refer to as 'The Incident':

Paramedic One: "This guy's 220 over 110!"
Paramedic Two: "Shut up. That's his wife and daughter next to you."
Pramedics Three through Six: "Here we go!", as Firefighters One through Eight hauled me out the door.

Moral of the story - get your blood pressure checked regularly. And avoid as much stress in tour life as you can, too.

(PS - From the Missus: "And he made us clean up the office while we were waiting for the Fire Department to arrive, too. Like we had nothing else to do, and like he had nothing else to worry about. Some people's children. His dad was that way, too." Yes, dear. Thank you, dear.)

I'm not sure I understood all the nuances in the dialogue...but that's fine, no need to explain.
And let me second Gronan, I'm glad the wet vac operator was paying attention, too!

Somewhere back a while ago, Chirine was wondering how I thought things had changed since the early 80s.

Well, of course, now we have the Internet. But that's tricky because it's hard to tell sometimes if an opinion popular on the Internet is really popular, or if there's a small number of really noisy people who think that way. I call this the "Bandar-Log Syndrome," for those of you up on your Kipling.

However, the greatest difference I've noticed has literary roots. Briefly put... Sword & Sorcery is dead. Oh, sure, the books are still out there, but Arnie's two CONAN movies of the 80s were the last gasp of S&S in popular culture. "Epic Quest Fantasy" -- what Will Shetterly dubbed "The Magical Doohickey and the Sharp Pointy Thing" -- has won. Big time. And that's pretty much all that people know.

This has had a huge effect on gaming in my observation, in real life, with actual gaming groups. Briefly... nobody knows how to find adventures any more. The notion of Fafhrd and the Mouser hearing about a cursed tower and going off to explore it just because it's cursed is totally beyond them. I have observed this in several groups that do not know each other. They are used to adventures being served up on a platter. Even when I print out and give them Gary's instructions from OD&D --

"Obtaining such news is usually merely a matter of making the rounds of the local taverns and inns, buying a round of drinks (10-60 Gold Pieces), slipping the barman a few coins (1-10 Gold Pieces) and learning what is going on."

... actually finding adventure is utterly beyond them. They have been trained to expect a story to drop into their laps, and expecting them to find their own excitement has proven to be frustrating and boring for all concerned.

"Let's fight pirates."
"Okay, there's a river port here... let's go talk to people."

It doesn't seem that hard. But it's utterly alien to a lot of players these days.

So I have observed.