Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;864602The "horny" part was ME, not the character.

The more things change...

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;864426A lot of truth to that.  Brutal, and the added danger of the society itself killing you if the monsters didn't.  I have a longer post on "Game Versus World" forming itself.

So, if I'm understanding you right, being put in an unforgiving structure made your PC look for his place in society:)?

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;864602He was a barbarian from the southern continent who washed up in Jakalla.  Just like in the original EPT book.

He had no other background.

The "horny" part was ME, not the character.

I played a temple guard of a moderate level in the temple of Karakan for about six months, accompanying some priests out to the Chakas.

He washed up from Haida Pakalla, which is where most of the other PCs washed up from - it's a great place to be from, frankly.

Gronan played his PC wonderfully well - we'd all seen "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum", and he played his PC like Miles Gloriosus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN-ttCBHyx8

It was wonderful. We did the soldiers' chorus, and he did the operatic commander. Phil just sat there in astonishment, with his eyes bulging out through his glasses - he nearly swallowed his cigar. It was a glorious time, I tell you.

Quote from: AsenRG;864621So, if I'm understanding you right, being put in an unforgiving structure made your PC look for his place in society:)?

That's a good way to put it.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;864641He washed up from Haida Pakalla, which is where most of the other PCs washed up from - it's a great place to be from, frankly.

Gronan played his PC wonderfully well - we'd all seen "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum", and he played his PC like Miles Gloriosus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN-ttCBHyx8

It was wonderful. We did the soldiers' chorus, and he did the operatic commander. Phil just sat there in astonishment, with his eyes bulging out through his glasses - he nearly swallowed his cigar. It was a glorious time, I tell you.

Once Chirine came along, playing the Mighty Molkar/Glorious General became LOTS more fun!  Because by then the player lineups had shifted several times, so you had two strong personalities who both wanted to "play soldier."  We also did a LOT of wargaming and general socializing together, so we knew how to mutually support on the battlefield and we watched many of the same movies (sometimes even in our respective domiciles.)  The other players were perfectly willing to be trogged along with the Legion.  Once I realized that it was my job to lead my legion heroically, die gloriously, and look good doing it to reflect well on my clan, my legion, and my temple, life got much easier.

"Then let us go and be killed as we are ordered.  Is life worth so many questions?"


The ONLY really bad thing was Phil's insistence that a week of Tekumel time equalled a week of real time.  Marching through Milumanaya took for freaking EVER.  There were, alas, too many sessions where at the beginning of the evening I'd say, "Good morning, Chrine, my compliments to the Molkars and it would please me for the legion to march" and at the end of the evening I'd say "Good evening, Chirine, my compliments to the Molkars and it would please me for the legion to encamp for the night."  Since I had an efficient aide de camp, the Sakbe tower guards had been given a message and our scouts had already cleared an area.

Because I had been ordered to take my Legion on campaign, and by Karakan I wasn't going to disobey the Emperor by gallivanting off through all these ruins and suchlike that these civilians (the other PCs) were farbling around with.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;864647Because I had been ordered to take my Legion on campaign, and by Karakan I wasn't going to disobey the Emperor by gallivanting off through all these ruins and suchlike that these civilians (the other PCs) were farbling around with.

Could you have run a secondary character to share in the gallivanting?

Quote from: Bren;864650Could you have run a secondary character to share in the gallivanting?

Sure, we could have - sorry if I'm jumping your lines, here, sir - but we always acted as the 'backstops' for when the PCs came screaming down out of the hills with The Dire Peril chasing them.

And in terms of the game group, by staying in camp and 'doing army things' we gave the other players 'face time' with Phil; we normally had eight to ten long-time regulars in the group, and guests could push this to ten to twelve. Phil's game room was dominated by the Ping-pong table he used for gaming, and there just wasn't a lot of room for people to sit. We had the corner on either side of the pillar that held up the north-west corner of the house, and that was our 'military encampment'. I had the north-west chair on the west side of the table, and Gronan was normally in the north-west chair on the north side of the table. The rest of the north side were the long-term regulars; I had a regular next to me, and everybody else was on the south side. The 'custom of the house' was to put guests in the chairs closest to Phil, as a courtesy to them; gamin with Phil was going to be a pretty rare event for most people, so we tried to make them as welcome as possible. (And that side of the table was a lot more accessible, too.)

Most of the time, we military types sat in our little neck of the woods and had a grand time watching the mayhem and chaos unfold. We laughed our fool heads off, most of the time...

I could have played a secondary character, I suppose, but I WANTED to play Molkar/Kerdu Korunme.  I wanted to prosecute the war and smite the perfidious Yan Koryani hip and thigh.

And though there were some dull nights when I didn't do much (like when the other PCs wanted to do politics while we picked sand out of our kilts) there was an AWFUL lot of Chirine and I sitting in the corner rather like Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show, snacking away, razzing the other PCs with humorous asides, and in general having a whee of a time.  Because THEY are down THERE being chased around by various horrible nasties while we were up above placidly marching along the Sakbe road until the PCs came popping up out of some other hole in the ground in a manner not unlike a champagne cork.

"It appears that Origo and his companions have distrubed yet another Nameless Horror of the Ancients, Glorious General."

"So it does, Chirine, so it does.  My compliments to the Kasis of the second and third crossbow cohorts and request they take care of the matter, would you be so kind?"

The "supplies expended" reports Chirine used to come up with for me to sign were pretty choice too.

"75 bolts, crossbow, used for extermination of menace, unnamed, large, crawling, slimy, legless, five headed, pale tan-grey color, one each."

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;864663I could have played a secondary character, I suppose, but I WANTED to play Molkar/Kerdu Korunme.  I wanted to prosecute the war and smite the perfidious Yan Koryani hip and thigh.

And though there were some dull nights when I didn't do much (like when the other PCs wanted to do politics while we picked sand out of our kilts) there was an AWFUL lot of Chirine and I sitting in the corner rather like Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show, snacking away, razzing the other PCs with humorous asides, and in general having a whee of a time.  Because THEY are down THERE being chased around by various horrible nasties while we were up above placidly marching along the Sakbe road until the PCs came popping up out of some other hole in the ground in a manner not unlike a champagne cork.

"It appears that Origo and his companions have distrubed yet another Nameless Horror of the Ancients, Glorious General."

"So it does, Chirine, so it does.  My compliments to the Kasis of the second and third crossbow cohorts and request they take care of the matter, would you be so kind?"

The "supplies expended" reports Chirine used to come up with for me to sign were pretty choice too.

"75 bolts, crossbow, used for extermination of menace, unnamed, large, crawling, slimy, legless, five headed, pale tan-grey color, one each."

That sounds appropriately bureaucratic. Exactly the way I picture official records being kept in Tsolyánu.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;864663And though there were some dull nights when I didn't do much (like when the other PCs wanted to do politics while we picked sand out of our kilts) there was an AWFUL lot of Chirine and I sitting in the corner rather like Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show, snacking away, razzing the other PCs with humorous asides, and in general having a whee of a time.  Because THEY are down THERE being chased around by various horrible nasties while we were up above placidly marching along the Sakbe road until the PCs came popping up out of some other hole in the ground in a manner not unlike a champagne cork.

Or like the night where the player at the other end of the table wanted to do his Imperial tax returns, and it took all night as he was an accountant in real life. We were all bored out of our brains, so I ran the 'Breakfast on the Bastion" scene from "Four Musketeers" down at our end of the table as we were at the Siege of Sunraya and felt the need to contribute to the war effort. (We'd just gotten back from Blackmoor, and had to discuss our options in privacy. Sooo...) We had a great time (in whispers of course, so as not to be rude) and Phil wanted to be playing down at our end of the table so badly it hurt to see...

Quote from: Bren;864670 That sounds appropriately bureaucratic. Exactly the way I picture official records being kept in Tsolyánu.

Precisely! We used to have great fun doing up forms like this, and handing them in, just to see the look on Phil's face. He tried so hard to keep from laughing, but it never worked...

"Oi! You!, Yes, I mean you, trooper Kagesh! Those crossbow bolts cost the Glorious General 1 Kaitar, 3 Quirgal, and 4 Hlash (1 GP, 3 SP, & 4 CP, in today's money; we only bought the good stuff) each; don't waste ammunition, soldier."

Oh, the exciting life of the staff officer...

I get the feeling that the current imagining of Playing in Tekumel is like a game of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" in an alien setting.
Am I wrong or is this what all the focus on clan is to facilitate?

I assume that you sometimes run games. When you start characters how do you do it? A barbarian off the boat like you started or...?
=

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;864646That's a good way to put it.

Thanks.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;864663I could have played a secondary character, I suppose, but I WANTED to play Molkar/Kerdu Korunme.  I wanted to prosecute the war and smite the perfidious Yan Koryani hip and thigh.

And though there were some dull nights when I didn't do much (like when the other PCs wanted to do politics while we picked sand out of our kilts) there was an AWFUL lot of Chirine and I sitting in the corner rather like Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show, snacking away, razzing the other PCs with humorous asides, and in general having a whee of a time.  Because THEY are down THERE being chased around by various horrible nasties while we were up above placidly marching along the Sakbe road until the PCs came popping up out of some other hole in the ground in a manner not unlike a champagne cork.

"It appears that Origo and his companions have distrubed yet another Nameless Horror of the Ancients, Glorious General."

"So it does, Chirine, so it does.  My compliments to the Kasis of the second and third crossbow cohorts and request they take care of the matter, would you be so kind?"

The "supplies expended" reports Chirine used to come up with for me to sign were pretty choice too.

"75 bolts, crossbow, used for extermination of menace, unnamed, large, crawling, slimy, legless, five headed, pale tan-grey color, one each."

OK, that made me laugh, too.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;864675Or like the night where the player at the other end of the table wanted to do his Imperial tax returns, and it took all night as he was an accountant in real life. We were all bored out of our brains, so I ran the 'Breakfast on the Bastion" scene from "Four Musketeers" down at our end of the table as we were at the Siege of Sunraya and felt the need to contribute to the war effort. (We'd just gotten back from Blackmoor, and had to discuss our options in privacy. Sooo...) We had a great time (in whispers of course, so as not to be rude) and Phil wanted to be playing down at our end of the table so badly it hurt to see...

Just a semi random thought, but did that happen before or after you got your clans?

Quote from: chirine ba kal;864676Precisely! We used to have great fun doing up forms like this, and handing them in, just to see the look on Phil's face. He tried so hard to keep from laughing, but it never worked...

"Oi! You!, Yes, I mean you, trooper Kagesh! Those crossbow bolts cost the Glorious General 1 Kaitar, 3 Quirgal, and 4 Hlash (1 GP, 3 SP, & 4 CP, in today's money; we only bought the good stuff) each; don't waste ammunition, soldier."

Oh, the exciting life of the staff officer...

A kaitar for a single bolt?!?
Why didn't you shoot gold?
Or that's what I imagine a Tsolyani bureaucrat saying, at least.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;864663I could have played a secondary character, I suppose, but I WANTED to play Molkar/Kerdu Korunme.  I wanted to prosecute the war and smite the perfidious Yan Koryani hip and thigh.

And though there were some dull nights when I didn't do much (like when the other PCs wanted to do politics while we picked sand out of our kilts) there was an AWFUL lot of Chirine and I sitting in the corner rather like Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show, snacking away, razzing the other PCs with humorous asides, and in general having a whee of a time.  Because THEY are down THERE being chased around by various horrible nasties while we were up above placidly marching along the Sakbe road until the PCs came popping up out of some other hole in the ground in a manner not unlike a champagne cork.

"It appears that Origo and his companions have distrubed yet another Nameless Horror of the Ancients, Glorious General."

"So it does, Chirine, so it does.  My compliments to the Kasis of the second and third crossbow cohorts and request they take care of the matter, would you be so kind?"

The "supplies expended" reports Chirine used to come up with for me to sign were pretty choice too.

"75 bolts, crossbow, used for extermination of menace, unnamed, large, crawling, slimy, legless, five headed, pale tan-grey color, one each."

You really crack me up!!! I could just imagine you two...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B0neB1b29l8

Hilarious!!!

H :0)