03-17-2010, 09:47 AM
Thanks for your questions; again, please feel free to edit this into an easier to read format! Thanks!
We played our Tekumel selves, as they were. We arrived in the bay, Gertie showed up, and I made instant contact with her as Chirine is a magic users descended from the ancient Dragon Lords of Tekumel's past. It was pretty smooth sailing with the locals after that, aside from the language problem. I'll go back to my notes and get the rest of the details for you; I kept a log book of all our games, starting in 1976.
A: Chirine was one of the last player-characters rolled up out at Phil's under EPT rules; the folks who came in after me were part of the playtest of "Swords and Glory"; Jim Danielson and Rick Bjugen were 'gradfathered in' with EPT characters they had created in a parallel EPT game run by the artist, Craig Smith.
He's a military sorcerer-priest of the Temple of Vimuhla, the 'change' deity of war, and got to about as high as one could go in that rarefied specialty; he's also the only such person who was ever such in Phil's games, as it's way too specialized a field for players to use effectively in a 'normal' RPG setting. He can blow stuff up, burn stuff down, and that's about it; he's a very limited character, in game terms, but in the right circumstances the best solution to nasty problems.
He spent most of his time as either a staff officer in various legions or as a sort of roving trouble-shooter for the Seal Imperium, and you can find traces of his adventures in the Tekumel novels. His full titles, earned the hard way in something like twelve years of gaming with Phil *every* Thursday night at 7:00 pm (and yes, Phil did take attendence), are:
Lord Chirine ba Kal
of the Clan of the Iron Helm and of the Clan of the Eye of Flame,
Governor of the City and Provence of Hekellu and of the Chaigari Protectorate,
Holder of the Gold of Imperial Victory and of the Gold of Imperial Glory,
Tenth Circle Military Priest of the Temple of Vimuhla,
Kasi of the Legion of The Searing Flame and of the Legion of Mnashu of Thri'il,
Benefactor of the Legion of The Searing Flame and of the Legion of the Translucent Emerald,
Beloved of the Petal Throne.
(Which, I admit, sounds better when cried forth by the heralds.)
Chirine, being a military magic user, could cast military spells while wearing his enchanted steel armor, but couldn't cast either ritual or psychic spells while wearing all the ironmongery; that's when his nasty flanged mace or the big two-handed sword came into play. (There's a picture of Himself in his armor on my blog, by the way.) He survived by thinking faster in his feet then anyone else could, really. It helped that he spoke Nlyssa, the ancient tongue of the Dragon Lords, as well as several other languages.
A: As I recall, she lives in the rocky island out in the bay opposite Blackmoor castle, and serves as a handy Menace to Navigation that keeps people from casually invading Blackmoor by sea; you either get along with Gertie or you're dead, and the locals will have great fun laughing their heads off as they rob your scorched and mangled corpse when it washes up on the beach in front of town. We popped out of our inter-planar nexus point right into the bay just in front of her unwelcome mat, and Dave positively shrieked with delight and glee as he lovingly described to us what our immediate future was most likely going to be as he rolled to see if Gertie was in. You could tell he'd been just waiting for this for weeks, and had it all thought out.
(Gertie wasn't always 'in' by the way, as she had an active social life and a busy schedule of appointments to keep in the way of terrifying the surrounding countryside. Anyway...)
So Gertie is in, the players are doing the usual running around the decks preparing to go down fighting, and the ***biggest*** ***damn*** ***dragon*** you can possibly imagine starts coming out of the cave. Fear stalks the decks of the ship we're on with Capt. Harchar, and panic is pretty much the order of the day. Dave played up the drama for as long as he could, and then Chirine addressed said damn biggest dragon you can imagine in Ancient Nlyssa; the tongue of the Dragon Lords, remember?
Dave, who was expecting one of my M-10 level Doomkills and having to figure out how many dozen hit dice Gertie really had (He'd seen me cast one of those before, and was seriously concerned for Gertie's continued good health) was completely flummoxed, and rolled to see what Gertie's reaction was. She and Chirine took to each other instantly, and for the rest of the time we spent in Blackmoor the two of them hobnobbed together and exchanged Secret Dragon Lore (read "gossiped like two little old ladies") with each other. (Luckily, Chirine does not get airsick.) It was not what either Dave or Phil had expected me to do, and it sort of left them standing there with their mouths hanging open.
(I should say, though, that unless you have the same stats and history as Chirine, don't try this yourself. And if you ever happen to see a guy in funny-looking armor on Gertie's back, well, say hello as we fly overhead.)
Dave's 'old' group were a lot of the Napoleonics guys that he was gaming with; his newer players were more receptive to fantasy then some of the old guys like Greg Scott, who was frankly hostile to the whole notion. Dave Wesley was one of the historicals guys who wasn't, and who ran very fun games of his own, the 'Brownsteins'.
I knew some of the guys from the U of MN group where they played; I'm responsible for the "No Cannibalism" rule in "Source of the Nile"; I did some historical gaming, mostly WWII and medievals, so I didn't play a lot with them; they were always happy to play in my large games like the Star Wars series, though, and had a lot of fun.
A: They were hysterically good fun; very fast on their feet, very smart, and very, very good at what ever roles they took on. When I did the Great Mos Eisley Spaceport Raid, they played Jabba the Hutt's henchmen and along with Dave's wonderful Jabba (think Al Capone with a blaster) took over the place with great gusto and panache. By the end of the game, they'd wiped out the Imperial Secret Police's spies, bribed the Imperial Stormtroopers in the local garrison to work for Jabba's mob, and were hot on Han Solo's trail, shooting up Darth Vader's personal unit of stormtroopers so they could nail Han themselves. Oh, and they robbed the bank of Mos Eisley along the way, and sold Princess Leia her own Rebel Alliance Treasury back to her (after they stole it) for a small 'finders' fee'. And they all looked so ***innocent***, too, like demented elves or something.
No problem; sorry about the bad formatting; please feel free to fix it!
yours, Chirine
Edited by Havard for clarity
We played our Tekumel selves, as they were. We arrived in the bay, Gertie showed up, and I made instant contact with her as Chirine is a magic users descended from the ancient Dragon Lords of Tekumel's past. It was pretty smooth sailing with the locals after that, aside from the language problem. I'll go back to my notes and get the rest of the details for you; I kept a log book of all our games, starting in 1976.
Havard Wrote:Q: What else can you tell us about Chirine? I am really interested in those details from the game! Wow that would be amazing to see.
A: Chirine was one of the last player-characters rolled up out at Phil's under EPT rules; the folks who came in after me were part of the playtest of "Swords and Glory"; Jim Danielson and Rick Bjugen were 'gradfathered in' with EPT characters they had created in a parallel EPT game run by the artist, Craig Smith.
He's a military sorcerer-priest of the Temple of Vimuhla, the 'change' deity of war, and got to about as high as one could go in that rarefied specialty; he's also the only such person who was ever such in Phil's games, as it's way too specialized a field for players to use effectively in a 'normal' RPG setting. He can blow stuff up, burn stuff down, and that's about it; he's a very limited character, in game terms, but in the right circumstances the best solution to nasty problems.
He spent most of his time as either a staff officer in various legions or as a sort of roving trouble-shooter for the Seal Imperium, and you can find traces of his adventures in the Tekumel novels. His full titles, earned the hard way in something like twelve years of gaming with Phil *every* Thursday night at 7:00 pm (and yes, Phil did take attendence), are:
Lord Chirine ba Kal
of the Clan of the Iron Helm and of the Clan of the Eye of Flame,
Governor of the City and Provence of Hekellu and of the Chaigari Protectorate,
Holder of the Gold of Imperial Victory and of the Gold of Imperial Glory,
Tenth Circle Military Priest of the Temple of Vimuhla,
Kasi of the Legion of The Searing Flame and of the Legion of Mnashu of Thri'il,
Benefactor of the Legion of The Searing Flame and of the Legion of the Translucent Emerald,
Beloved of the Petal Throne.
(Which, I admit, sounds better when cried forth by the heralds.)
Chirine, being a military magic user, could cast military spells while wearing his enchanted steel armor, but couldn't cast either ritual or psychic spells while wearing all the ironmongery; that's when his nasty flanged mace or the big two-handed sword came into play. (There's a picture of Himself in his armor on my blog, by the way.) He survived by thinking faster in his feet then anyone else could, really. It helped that he spoke Nlyssa, the ancient tongue of the Dragon Lords, as well as several other languages.
Quote:Q: Do you remember anything more about Gertie?
A: As I recall, she lives in the rocky island out in the bay opposite Blackmoor castle, and serves as a handy Menace to Navigation that keeps people from casually invading Blackmoor by sea; you either get along with Gertie or you're dead, and the locals will have great fun laughing their heads off as they rob your scorched and mangled corpse when it washes up on the beach in front of town. We popped out of our inter-planar nexus point right into the bay just in front of her unwelcome mat, and Dave positively shrieked with delight and glee as he lovingly described to us what our immediate future was most likely going to be as he rolled to see if Gertie was in. You could tell he'd been just waiting for this for weeks, and had it all thought out.
(Gertie wasn't always 'in' by the way, as she had an active social life and a busy schedule of appointments to keep in the way of terrifying the surrounding countryside. Anyway...)
So Gertie is in, the players are doing the usual running around the decks preparing to go down fighting, and the ***biggest*** ***damn*** ***dragon*** you can possibly imagine starts coming out of the cave. Fear stalks the decks of the ship we're on with Capt. Harchar, and panic is pretty much the order of the day. Dave played up the drama for as long as he could, and then Chirine addressed said damn biggest dragon you can imagine in Ancient Nlyssa; the tongue of the Dragon Lords, remember?
Dave, who was expecting one of my M-10 level Doomkills and having to figure out how many dozen hit dice Gertie really had (He'd seen me cast one of those before, and was seriously concerned for Gertie's continued good health) was completely flummoxed, and rolled to see what Gertie's reaction was. She and Chirine took to each other instantly, and for the rest of the time we spent in Blackmoor the two of them hobnobbed together and exchanged Secret Dragon Lore (read "gossiped like two little old ladies") with each other. (Luckily, Chirine does not get airsick.) It was not what either Dave or Phil had expected me to do, and it sort of left them standing there with their mouths hanging open.
(I should say, though, that unless you have the same stats and history as Chirine, don't try this yourself. And if you ever happen to see a guy in funny-looking armor on Gertie's back, well, say hello as we fly overhead.)
Dave's 'old' group were a lot of the Napoleonics guys that he was gaming with; his newer players were more receptive to fantasy then some of the old guys like Greg Scott, who was frankly hostile to the whole notion. Dave Wesley was one of the historicals guys who wasn't, and who ran very fun games of his own, the 'Brownsteins'.
I knew some of the guys from the U of MN group where they played; I'm responsible for the "No Cannibalism" rule in "Source of the Nile"; I did some historical gaming, mostly WWII and medievals, so I didn't play a lot with them; they were always happy to play in my large games like the Star Wars series, though, and had a lot of fun.
Quote:Q: What else can you tell us about Maker and Wesely? What were they like in roleplaying situations? Do you remember any specific episodes?
A: They were hysterically good fun; very fast on their feet, very smart, and very, very good at what ever roles they took on. When I did the Great Mos Eisley Spaceport Raid, they played Jabba the Hutt's henchmen and along with Dave's wonderful Jabba (think Al Capone with a blaster) took over the place with great gusto and panache. By the end of the game, they'd wiped out the Imperial Secret Police's spies, bribed the Imperial Stormtroopers in the local garrison to work for Jabba's mob, and were hot on Han Solo's trail, shooting up Darth Vader's personal unit of stormtroopers so they could nail Han themselves. Oh, and they robbed the bank of Mos Eisley along the way, and sold Princess Leia her own Rebel Alliance Treasury back to her (after they stole it) for a small 'finders' fee'. And they all looked so ***innocent***, too, like demented elves or something.
Quote:Sorry it took me a few days to get back to this thread Chirine, I really appreciate you taking time to answer our questions
Havard
No problem; sorry about the bad formatting; please feel free to fix it!
yours, Chirine
Edited by Havard for clarity