11-17-2013, 07:46 AM
Havard Wrote:Okay, here are a few questions:
1) I'd love to hear more about your experiences with Dave Arneson's Company Adventure Games. Did Arneson hold shares in Flying Buffalo Games as well?
2) Any more you can tell us about Captain Harchar, his strategies or his ship(s)?
3) You ran a few Dave Arneson memorial games set in Tekumel. Could you tell us more about how these events went? Any highlights from in-game?
-Havard
I'm sorry - I didn't get this until this morning, so I'll do my first December podcast on these questions - will that be all right?
1) Dave thought that the profusion of 'Presidents' at TSR was stupid, so he titled all of as 'Vice Presidents' and himself as 'Vice President In Charge of Vice Presidents' and issued everyone with T-shirts with their titles - I still have mine, I think. I was the 'Vice President For Tekumel Affairs', which pretty much summed up my position. The company was staffed mostly by Dave's friends from the First Minnesota, who in turn were mostly historical gamers specializing in the black powder period, and they were some of the smartest people I ever met.
I'll talk a lot more about this in the December 14th podcast; I have lots of stories, like the one about The Night We Spent Prolonging The Trailer and The Day We Played Aztec Baseball.
2) Harchar was Blackbeard, Al Capone, Henry Avery, Don Vito Corleone, and Mohammed al-Raisuli ("the last of the Barbary Pirates", according to the US Secretary of State, John Hay) all rolled into one. His strategy can be summarized as "Get the loot, and don't get caught!".
Dave's ships included:
a) The "Thousand Falcons" ("She'll do point nine knots past Ngastu head!") - a large 'Tn'ek' or galleon, lost in a shipwreck on the Southern Continent (it was a long swim home);
b) The "Malia (one)" - a large merchant galley based off Venetian designs - lost by stranding near Sunraya in the Milumaniyani desert (it was a long walk home);
c) The "Malia's Revenge" - another Tn'ek, built to replace the first one - still in service and in use as his long-haul cargo-carrier, usually found along the Tsolyani coasts to the east and west of Jakalla, and purpose-built with a myriad of secret compartments for smuggling purposes;
d) The "Malia (two)" - another merchant galley, built to replace the first one - still in service in the Jakalla area and for runs up the Missuma ("death", in Tsolyani) to the capital, Bey Su; noted for the ability to execute very fast get-aways from the river police.
I should also note that the latter two ships are armed to the teeth; there's a 'pop-up' disappearing mount for a large stone-thrower on the second Tn'ek, for example. Harchar was always getting into trouble, and a lot of folks found out the hard way that he could both sail his way and shoot his way out again. I have the plans for all these; I drew them for Phil and Dave.
3) The David L. Arneson Memorial Maritime Miniatures Mayhem Games are hard to describe; they are basically 'Braunsteins' in form, and with a lot of boats, ships, and water. I have photos of a nu,ber of them up on my Photobucket site, as well as videos from a recent one on the video page.
I can talk a lot more about these, but think all those 1950s and 1960s 'swashbuckler' pirate epics - Dave loved these, and I run what amount to miniature versions of these movies on the game table. I have lots of stories - I'll do a specific 'cast on them - and we have a lot of fun dong them. That's the idea - Dave was a lot of fun as both a player and as a host, and we laugh a lot thinking about him. So, me bucko, shiver me timbers and lay us alongside! Arrr!
yours, chirine