Quote from: Big Andy;1041954I get this for when you guys were the Tekumel publishers, but the Foundation guys are not young folks starting out in life, they are all older folks with careers, one of whom is a college professor. Maybe not a department head like Professor Barker but still a college professor, and one that should know what a department head makes. How does a group like that come to believe that the Professor had a dump truck filled with money from Tekumel unloading on his lawn regularly? That is what I have a hard time believing.

Because they grew up in that mode, and they still have all those reflexes. They spent a lot of time in the late 1980s and all through the 1990s convincing themselves of their view of reality, and they just can't let go of it because - they told me in as many words - it would have meant that whey they had done in those days had been wrong. And they simply cannot bear to be seen as being wrong in any way, which is a major factor in their inability to make any substantial decisions. As several of them told me, "Better not to make any decision then one we'll be blamed for."

The year I had in close contact with them was the most surreal mix of denial, dismissal, self-delusion, insecurity, and sheer inability to accept the possibility that their world-view had been mistaken.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;1041453Victor rarely does anything besides schmoozing at conventions; he's there for the prestige of being an important person. I think it's great; it helps him a lot with his insecurities.

He was nice to me and brought some give-a-ways for the table (EPT and the two S&G books and a nice copy of Man of Gold). He wrote the PC's names in Tsolanyu on their sheets for them and was pretty supportive of my game so I felt very good about running. He had chats with Jeff Richard  (RQ_G) and Ian Cooper (HQ-G lead) about things so smoozing was definitely on the cards.

The premise for my game was clan cousins from the country new to the city clanhouse and being given a recovery task that they viewed as a sort of test of their ability to think on their feet before being allocated their positions in the clan structure and taught what they needed to know. Went down very well with the six players all but one of whom had a little Tekumel experience knowledge. The only totally new player was the 14 yo son of one of the others and took to it like a duck to water doing extremely well throughout the adventure so I hope it gave him a little boost.

I use Petal Hack and had them roll up characters at the start so I could do a small amount of background flavour stuff without boring them. They all had a copy of the rulebook to take away afterwards so that gave them (and Victor who requested two copies) something to immediately play with at home.

Quote from: Hermes Serpent;1041984He was nice to me and brought some give-a-ways for the table (EPT and the two S&G books and a nice copy of Man of Gold). He wrote the PC's names in Tsolanyu on their sheets for them and was pretty supportive of my game so I felt very good about running. He had chats with Jeff Richard  (RQ_G) and Ian Cooper (HQ-G lead) about things so smoozing was definitely on the cards.

Agreed - he really is good at this mode of operation, and really should be in a PR / marketing role as he's very personable. The problem for the Foundation is that he - as well as the other directors - are not suited for the executive / management role. They would all make very, very good department heads / middle level managers in a organization, as they are quite good in that kind of role. Tey are not at all suited or trained to be the top dogs, though, which may be why Mrs. Barker offered me the role of chief executive after Phil passed away, telling me that if I was in charge of the Foundation it would not have any problems. Maybe.

What they're suffering from is basically 'command and control paralysis'. As Gronan and others have noted, they are so terrified of making a wrong decision, they don;t make any decisions unless the blame can be spread across the entire board.

Quote from: Hermes Serpent;1041986The premise for my game was clan cousins from the country new to the city clanhouse and being given a recovery task that they viewed as a sort of test of their ability to think on their feet before being allocated their positions in the clan structure and taught what they needed to know. Went down very well with the six players all but one of whom had a little Tekumel experience knowledge. The only totally new player was the 14 yo son of one of the others and took to it like a duck to water doing extremely well throughout the adventure so I hope it gave him a little boost.

I use Petal Hack and had them roll up characters at the start so I could do a small amount of background flavour stuff without boring them. They all had a copy of the rulebook to take away afterwards so that gave them (and Victor who requested two copies) something to immediately play with at home.

Exactly!!! This is how I get people into the world, and it seems to work just fine. Great job!

It's funny that he wanted two copies of Petal Hack; Brett is local here, Victor sees him at Con of the North, but doesn't talk to him. I had the same thing happen; Victor wanted to know what kind of boxes I use to store miniatures, and asked a friend of mine - the friend suggested that he just ask me, and maybe get some from me, but "Oh, no! I couldn't do that!"

Ah. me. I had a good weekend, too.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;1042015Exactly!!! This is how I get people into the world, and it seems to work just fine. Great job!

It's funny that he wanted two copies of Petal Hack; Brett is local here, Victor sees him at Con of the North, but doesn't talk to him. I had the same thing happen; Victor wanted to know what kind of boxes I use to store miniatures, and asked a friend of mine - the friend suggested that he just ask me, and maybe get some from me, but "Oh, no! I couldn't do that!"

Ah. me. I had a good weekend, too.

He sounds to me like a decisive gentleman that grabs the bull by the horns:)!

Glad your week-end was a good one, Uncle. Any details on what happened during the game?
Other than people having to lift their jaws from the floor upon seeing your idea of "miniatures game", I mean;).

Quote from: chirine ba kal;1042012Agreed - he really is good at this mode of operation, and really should be in a PR / marketing role as he's very personable. The problem for the Foundation is that he - as well as the other directors - are not suited for the executive / management role. They would all make very, very good department heads / middle level managers in a organization, as they are quite good in that kind of role. Tey are not at all suited or trained to be the top dogs, though, which may be why Mrs. Barker offered me the role of chief executive after Phil passed away, telling me that if I was in charge of the Foundation it would not have any problems. Maybe.

What they're suffering from is basically 'command and control paralysis'. As Gronan and others have noted, they are so terrified of making a wrong decision, they don;t make any decisions unless the blame can be spread across the entire board.

Chirine,

These are the types of people that have been the bane of my corporate/career existence. It was because of this mind set that I switched careers even though I was on the fast-track to the big desk, corner office, and all associated perks. Better to walk away with my sanity than deal with these types of mediocre individuals promoted beyond their capabilities.

Shemek.

Quote from: AsenRG;1042059He sounds to me like a decisive gentleman that grabs the bull by the horns:)!

Glad your week-end was a good one, Uncle. Any details on what happened during the game?
Other than people having to lift their jaws from the floor upon seeing your idea of "miniatures game", I mean;).

I dunno. He used to be a lot better, but like his fellow directors seems to have lost his way after Phil passed away.

The players were supposedly on vacation after their last adventure, but made the mistake of booking one of those cheap package tours that landed them in this pirate's lair of a town. After checking into their rooms, they started to do a little shopping - I had set up the table so that they could either take the long way around or use boats for short cuts - and got ambushed by pirates. The ambush went badly for the pirates, and the players continued on to do more shopping and will - in the next session - wind up at the local tiki bar where more encounters are likely to happen. They've been hired by another 'honest seafaring merchant' to go on a quest, but that will come later.

Yeah, I think they were all pretty surprised. This is an 'off-the-shelf' game for me, as nothing had to be built for it; everything is from stock, and all I had to do was pull it from the bins and get it into the car. Set up was very easy; the GMs had done all the merchants and encounters, so all I had to do was set the table up to give the players excuses to adventure. (My thought was if they couldn't get into trouble on this table, they weren't hardly trying.) The sequence of islands was the key to this, with inn-market-temple-market-housing-village to lure them in. Worked quite well, I thought, and people seemed to have fun.

I don't think I'd call this a 'miniatures game' not nearly enough figures on the table, and not part of a campaign; this is what I'd call a 'role-playing game', as this is what was happening on the table. The players really got into the local sights and NPCs, and seemed pretty 'immersed' in the game. I think we're back on again the second weekend in July, but don't quote me on that - I'm just the stagehand...

Quote from: Shemek hiTankolel;1042104Chirine,

These are the types of people that have been the bane of my corporate/career existence. It was because of this mind set that I switched careers even though I was on the fast-track to the big desk, corner office, and all associated perks. Better to walk away with my sanity than deal with these types of mediocre individuals promoted beyond their capabilities.

Shemek.

I hear you. I've turned down a few jobs because of this, and it's why I didn't renew my contract with them. The brain bleed from all the stress was a factor, of course...

If I may, I'd like to mention that we are now at some 283 pages in this second installment of The Thread. Should we be thinking about starting a Part Three, if there's interest?

We now have a Part III, which I hope will help the forum on the technical side. Thank you all, once again, and I'll still be over in the corner booth. Please feel free to join us, and I'll continue to try to answer any and all questions as best and as honestly as I can.