Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal - part II

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Uncle,

Your game, your rules, and your turf!!! I agree with the others. If they want Tekumel with 5e...let them get the material and run their own thing. It seems like they want a guide, but will go their own way anyhow. Your distant relative I'm sure would do things his way. So what if their feathers get scorched a bit. This is Tekumel...!!!

H;0)

Good points, Mighty Hrugga of the Epics.

Shemek

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

It's his campaign, his venue, his table, and his players. The party had a good time on their previous visit to Lord Chirine and his eclectic family, and want to go back.

Not at all offended; I wasn't unhappy with any but one of the players or the GM, just with the 5e rules.

I've offered to run games in my game room, and had no takers at the FLGS. The situation locally seems to be that one either games there or at the local game conventions or does not game at all. I had the pair of game sessions back at the end of May, beginning of June, and that's been it here at the house for the past two years. I'd love to run some games; the the model that I used at Free RPG Day, of simply setting up shop at the FLGS and running an open table, seems to be the only thing that actually works.

I have been running Tekumel for some forty years, now, but I am going into this game session with a very low degree of confidence and frankly not really looking forward to it. I feel I'm doing it out of a sense of obligation, more then anything else.

Chirine,

As I said in response to Gronan's post, I wasn't sure what you were talking about before, but now it's clear. At the end of the day do what you like, and not what you feel that you have to. After all, this is supposed to be a hobby, isn't it? I personally equate a hobby with fun, not unpleasantness. You have provided a compromise, which was met with silence. What more should you do, and why should you do it at all? My two Qirgal's worth.

Shemek.

Originally Posted by estar

There is nothing about any particular RPGs that forces a referee to play that way. The problem is people not rules or the complexity of the rules.

When dealing with people who are obsessed with optimization it not rocket science. You knock them out of treating their character as a game piece.

This exactly.

Shemek.

Originally Posted by bconsidine

If I were still living in the Twin Cities, I suspect you and the Missus would be taking out a restraining order to keep me out of the game room. So, there's that.

Blaise

If you ever get the chance to stop by, please feel free to ring the bell. We'll be here; I'll just put the kettle on, shall I?

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Not so much Theater of the Mind as simplified rules that don't try to cover every case.

Chirine and I are both well familiar with the "More Rules Are Better" movement; we just never bought into it. Way back in the days of AD&D first edition Chirine coined the phrase "your mathematical construct versus my mathematical construct." That has only increased over the years.

The best way for us to think of it, Chirine, is to think of the players assembling combat robots out of the components in the rules and sending them out to fight. The trend started with AD&D but really skyrocketed with 3rd edition, where it became all about the "build." I actually saw a forum post where somebody said "I don't want to solve a situation, just have my character make an intelligence check."

I died a bit inside.

Yeah, that's what I was seeing. Didn't like it, don't want to play it. I'll run this thing the way I usually do, and hope for the best. 'Montrose's Toast", as I noted in the other thread.

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Uncle,

Your game, your rules, and your turf!!! I agree with the others. If they want Tekumel with 5e...let them get the material and run their own thing. It seems like they want a guide, but will go their own way anyhow. Your distant relative I'm sure would do things his way. So what if their feathers get scorched a bit. This is Tekumel...!!!

H;0)

Um, not really. Not my game, not my players, not my table, not my rules. So I have to be polite. I'll run this thing as best I can, and hope for the best.

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Chirine,

As I said in response to Gronan's post, I wasn't sure what you were talking about before, but now it's clear. At the end of the day do what you like, and not what you feel that you have to. After all, this is supposed to be a hobby, isn't it? I personally equate a hobby with fun, not unpleasantness. You have provided a compromise, which was met with silence. What more should you do, and why should you do it at all? My two Qirgal's worth.

Shemek.

Agreed, and thank you. I'll muddle through as best I can, and hope that the players enjoy themselves.

Originally Posted by Zirunel

Apparently his original players felt the same way, and clearly they did persuade the Professor to resume his game. So how did things move on from there? It sounds like any actual return home for Tekumel must have been walked back, reversed, or side-stepped somehow...

Btw surely nobody was talking about actual Traveller as an alternative? I didn't think Traveller was around in 75.

Phil just 'rewound the tape', and they restarted the campaign from before they went to the Temple of the Egg of the World.

No, they weren't; they were using "Traveller" as the noun most easily understood by gamers in later years when they were telling the tale. I would suggest Gary Fine's book, "Shared Fantasy", as a reference to this period in Phil's gaming.