TheRPGSite

https://wordpress.com/post/wmusswtwbf.wordpress.com/35

Post the text! Also, I couldn't get the link to open.

Sorry, I don't know what you mean by post the text... you mean, dump all 2000 words of the blog post in this thread?

I just hit the link and it worked fine... sorry.  Can you access my blog at all?

https://wmusswtwbf.wordpress.com/2016/02/07/garycon-2015-part-3/


Better?

Thank you!! Great post! Looking forward to hearing more from Chirine!

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;877349https://wmusswtwbf.wordpress.com/2016/02/07/garycon-2015-part-3/

Better?

Yes, indeed. The first link took me to the Wordpress login page, where I logged in; I also have a link to your blog on mine, and that worked as well - it took me straight to the blog post. Ditto on the new link; works just fine.

Great post, too. You told the story of the game in fine style, and really hit on what I thought were the important points.

If you want a great display, the 42" is still in search of a home. The 40" is now in my game room, and the 32" went to replace the 36" CRT in the living room. Computer, straight video, and digital video inputs. Free, and you can pick it up on your way through.

Quote from: Spinachcat;877352Thank you!! Great post! Looking forward to hearing more from Chirine!

(There are also posts on my blog about this event, and lots of photos as well.)

Yep, I made sure that I would be able to surprise the Glorious General, and at the same time ensure a great game for the players. I 'rigged' the thing with an additional two very, very 'old Tekumel hands', Bill Hoyt and Mark Eggert, so that the players would have somebody besides me to ask questions of; what I wanted to have was a fast, enjoyable game, and I got that in bucket-loads - they gave me the fight of my life, honest.

My thought with the projection of the map was to avoid any issues with mapping; I've seen a lot of parties get into trouble over this, and I thought that simply using The Missus' work on digitizing the Jakalla Underworld would help get the game rolling along. I have a lot of AV gear around the place, and so I brought two computers, two sound systems, and four (!) LCD projectors. The one issue I had with this was that I could not control the lighting (or ambient noise!) in the room, and I really wanted to have active LCD displays for the game - I tried to rent one, but finding one on a Saturday night in the time I had available just wasn't possible. (So, I got three LCD screens - 32", 40", and a 42" - for this year's events.)

I had brought both the excellent paper miniatures from the Dees and the original player-character figures from our games out at Phil's; and people seemed to like having them in play in our old style of 'tactical display', and it was a joy to see them flow across the table like quicksilver in response to the changing tactical situation.

Gronan is right about the PC packets; I had done the basic rolling of the PC stats, but set up the sheets so that the players could choose their own skills, spells, and weapons from EPT - I provided half a dozen copies for the table from my archives. The only thing that they saw on the envelope was some artwor of the PC, their name, and their occupation; everything else was on the sheets, and they had to pick blindly. I enclosed a color name tag for every player, a notepad, and a miniature figure, all of which the players got to keep. Seemed to make for some happy players - and the look on Gronan's face, when he saw his custom packet, was truly priceless! Dave Wesely (yes, that Dave Wesely!!!) dropping by to say hello was just as good - he does not play fantasy, and was just too late to get into my game - he had an interview with the New York Times to do, which is why he was late.

I had a great time.

And now for the bad news.

As has been mentioned elsewhere, I will not be at Gary Con this year, or for the foreseeable future, due to the activities of the Chairman-President of the Tekumel Foundation, Dr. Victor Raymond. After I contacted him, inviting him and the Foundation to be a part of what Luke Gygax had wanted to do for Tekumel this year, Dr. Raymond contacted Luke and insisted that only he and the Tekumel Foundation have the legal right to run Tekumel-based programming and gaming at conventions.

Once Dr. Raymond got his fingers in the pie, all of the people helping me to make this event happen quit, and we had to cancel the event.

What this is all about is that Dr. Raymond has a lot of insecurities and fears where I'm concerned, and he's been having these issues for the past thirty-some years. I was, and am, still genuinely surprised that he choose to take his personal feud with me public, and ruin what promised to be something special for Tekumel and the people who love it and for all the folks at Gary Con who gave me one of the very best games I've ever had.

I will not be at Gary Con, and I will not be at other conventions; I will not put my convention-running friends through the kind of threats and abuse that Dr. Raymond put Luke Gygax through, nor will I ask my friends to suffer because of his issues; too many of them have already done so, over the decades.

I've gone out with a bang, and I am both pleased and proud of that - and a very big thank you to all the people who played in this game and helped make it happen!

So, we're done. I've been having to deal with this crap for over thirty-five years, and I'd much rather be pushing little lead people around the table. I will still be happy to answer your questions, and share my thoughts and observations, either here or on my blog; as for gaming, well, the basement is open on weekends when I don't have to work. Drop me a line; I'll be here.

I are sad barbarian.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;877362I are sad barbarian.

And I agree; we had a great time this past March, and we were - in some small way - able to show a bunch of people what we used to have here in the Twin Cities when we played with people like Dave Arneson and Phil Barker. Luke wanted, very specifically, to have that happen again and a lot of people here in town and across the country worked really had to put an event together that would showcase Phil's creation through his books and games; we had RPGs, miniatures, board games, and even some 'live-action' stuff on the board. We put together a show package that had a lot of cool stuff in it - like the slide show of the Temple of Vimuhla model - as well as being able to do the Dave Sutherland display for Paul Stormberg.

It's a pity, I think; Dr. Raymond could have had it all, and lost it through his own insecurities.

Sigh.:banghead:

Quote from: chirine ba kal;877360Dr. Raymond contacted Luke and insisted that only he and the Tekumel Foundation have the legal right to run Tekumel-based programming and gaming at conventions.

What
the
fuck?

That's not a real thing.

Once a game is published, everyone gets to play it in public. There is no "you don't have the right to play Game ABC at Event XYZ"

AKA, Hasbro - the biggest, baddest game company on the planet - can't stop you from playing Monopoly where you want to play. Maybe not official sanctioned events, but you could host a pay to play tourney anytime, anywhere.

Hell, Blizzard can't stop you from hosting a Diablo Day at your store. You can even charge to play and have prizes. Happens all the damn time.

And this Dr. Dickless of the Tekumel Foundation? If Blizzard, the billion dollar WoW gods, can't stop anybody, I'm sure Dr. Dickless can't either.

Seriously, Luke Gygax fell for that shit?

Your game sounded AWESOME.

Gronan, go bite off someone's head at GaryCon and get Chirine back on the game menu.

I can't believe this petty bullshit is happening.

There would be no winners, only dead inner children.

When multiple people involved in multiple sides in a conflict are all people I consider friends, sometimes the only recourse is to plead to recuse oneself.

Quote from: Spinachcat;877371What
the
fuck?

That's not a real thing.

Once a game is published, everyone gets to play it in public. There is no "you don't have the right to play Game ABC at Event XYZ"

AKA, Hasbro - the biggest, baddest game company on the planet - can't stop you from playing Monopoly where you want to play. Maybe not official sanctioned events, but you could host a pay to play tourney anytime, anywhere.

Hell, Blizzard can't stop you from hosting a Diablo Day at your store. You can even charge to play and have prizes. Happens all the damn time.

And this Dr. Dickless of the Tekumel Foundation? If Blizzard, the billion dollar WoW gods, can't stop anybody, I'm sure Dr. Dickless can't either.

Seriously, Luke Gygax fell for that shit?

Your game sounded AWESOME.

Gronan, go bite off someone's head at GaryCon and get Chirine back on the game menu.

I can't believe this petty bullshit is happening.

One note; this was coming down the pike at the same time that Luke and Ernie were having legal issues with their stepmother; as a result, they have to be very careful. I really want to emphasize that Luke and Ernie, and all the other folks who work so hard to put on Gary Con, are not at fault here; Dr. Raymond has made a lot of enemies over the years, and when he got involved people just said "Enough!" and walked away. This sort of thing has been going on behind the scenes for decades, and people just got tired of it this past year.

I can't believe he's doing this, either; I thought he was smarter then this.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;877375There would be no winners, only dead inner children.

When multiple people involved in multiple sides in a conflict are all people I consider friends, sometimes the only recourse is to plead to recuse oneself.

Exactly. There is no point to all of this, despite what's being bandied about on Facebook. When this whole thing blew up, I walked away from this like I did with Mn-Stf and Minicon, back in the middle 1990s, and I don't regret it. My blood pressure is down from 150 over 80 normally, when dealing with these people and their politics, and I am at 108 over 65 these days - despite the stress at work. Walking away has been literally a life-saver.

Quote from: Spinachcat;877371What
the
fuck?

That's not a real thing.

Once a game is published, everyone gets to play it in public. There is no "you don't have the right to play Game ABC at Event XYZ"

I can't believe this petty bullshit is happening.

It is a real thing. Game companies do this all the time. TSR did it. They said exactly that about my 0D&D events in 1981 at Ghengis Con. The Ghengis Con staff refused to let me register and run 0D&D, and insisted I run AD&D 1e events instead at Ghengis Con II.

I can play Mutants & Masterminds, however if I run a sponsored event at any convention I can't use my custom designed Freedom City locales and characters, because Mutants & Masterminds is not truly open source, even though it is using the OGL.

There is plenty of other examples, these are just two that immediately come to mind. It's a shame about Tekumel, I don't believe M.A.R. Barker would have wanted this.

I'm going to turn this back to GaryCon.

As I said in the blog, I was pleased with the way the disparate group of players "got" the mission-based adventure.  Did I seem overly harsh towards "Player A," because I didn't mean to; I like the "if it moves kill it, if it doesn't move loot it" style of play just fine.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;877609I'm going to turn this back to GaryCon.

As I said in the blog, I was pleased with the way the disparate group of players "got" the mission-based adventure.  Did I seem overly harsh towards "Player A," because I didn't mean to; I like the "if it moves kill it, if it doesn't move loot it" style of play just fine.

Agreed; Let's concentrate on the good stuff, shall we?

I'd agree with you - it was amazing, if terrifying as the GM, to have these people just mesh perfectly as a team. As I said in my blog posts on this game, they gave me nothing to work with as a GM, and stayed right up close-ranks and tight the whole time. Normally, I can usually stay ahead of a game group by at least a half-hour to an hour, but with this bunch I felt that I was - at best! - maybe thirty seconds to a minute ahead of them. They were that good as a team, and really fast and tight in their game play.

The room was far too noisy, which made me be pretty loud in order to he heard, but this party actually used the ambient noise as a screen to conceal what they were plotting. Normally, I can listen to the party's 'table talk' and get a feel for what they're up to, but not with this group; they'd put their heads together and whisper, and then send a runner (!) up to the top of the table to whisper to Gronan. I'd get to hear what they were saying only when they wanted me to hear them.

Bunch of sneaks. Beautifully played, and I enjoyed myself hugely. Worked up a sweat, and was totally exhausted, but it was one of the top five or so RPG sessions I'd ever had. And that's in comparison to games with The Big Three, too.

No, you weren't too harsh on player 'A'; I reviewed the videotapes I did of this game, and you were simply having to be loud in order to be heard. 'A' was asking both in 'party mode' and in 'informational mode', and you sounded more like a squad leader letting the guy with the thumper what was going on. I think it went fine - the nest time this kind of thing came up, 'A' and the rest of these players whipped out sheets of paper, and chorused "WE HAVE A WRIT!" to the NPCs challenging them. As I say, this lot gave me nothing to work with.

And I dangled ever bit of bait that Phil used to nail us with, all those years ago; this lot smiled, and simply kept on going. It was amazing, simply amazing.

Quote from: GameDaddy;877510It is a real thing. Game companies do this all the time. TSR did it. They said exactly that about my 0D&D events in 1981 at Ghengis Con. The Ghengis Con staff refused to let me register and run 0D&D, and insisted I run AD&D 1e events instead at Ghengis Con II.

I can play Mutants & Masterminds, however if I run a sponsored event at any convention I can't use my custom designed Freedom City locales and characters, because Mutants & Masterminds is not truly open source, even though it is using the OGL.

There is plenty of other examples, these are just two that immediately come to mind. It's a shame about Tekumel, I don't believe M.A.R. Barker would have wanted this.

Yep; agreed. it's why GAMA was originally founded. Phil strongly defended his IP, and I supported him in that for years; this current fracas is about personality, and let's leave it at that.

Let's get back to the gaming! :)

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;877609I'm going to turn this back to GaryCon.

As I said in the blog, I was pleased with the way the disparate group of players "got" the mission-based adventure.  Did I seem overly harsh towards "Player A," because I didn't mean to; I like the "if it moves kill it, if it doesn't move loot it" style of play just fine.

Agreed about the kill/loot style; it's fine, for some adventures - we certainly did a bit of that ourselves, over the years.

What I had wanted to do for this game was to emphasize that in Tekumel, mission is quite often more important then personal gain, and I think this party got that just fine. They looked past the immediate, and took a long term view - just like what we did, all those years ago when Phil began to trot out the more 'social' concepts that he had.

No, I think that these people 'got it', and really came together as a group to play a really good game. I thought it went well, and I had a good time - it was a lot of work, as you mentioned both at the time and in your excellent post, but that's what is needed to make a truly extraordinary game happen in the first place.