Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Thanks Chirine! This was extremely helpful. My group will be embarking on some naval adventures soon and I am doing some background prep before the fun actually starts, or the mayhem ensues. I haven't done naval adventures for a very long time and want to "get things right".
Any chance of posting some pics of the trireme? This sounds like it will be a sight to behold.

Shemek

Happy to help! I love nautical adventures; I still have all the models and plans that we used in Phil's games, and I still use them. Feel free to ask more questions as things develop, too!

I'll be doing a long post on the trireme build on my blog, but hopefully this will load...

DSC00201.jpg

The thing is huge, about two feet long...

Hey Chirine (and Gronan),

Does gunpowder work on Tekumel? Do the components even exist for it?

(I would imagine the Humanspace Empire would have been far far in advance of it with terraforming and ray-guns, but has anyone tried to recreate it? Or is it just a case of "nothing preventing it from working, but no one has re-invented it?")

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Big Andy

That is awesome! Can you do a run down on the personalities?

This was when I was on the way from Meku to Fasiltum; we'd just finished the Affair Of The Malchiran Emerald, and I was getting the goodies that Prince Mirusiya had promised me in Sunraya. We had been in Bey Su, where Vrisa and I parted company for the nonce, and had gone to Meku where I was inducted into the Clan of the Iron Helm and made a Lord. (Si N'te became Her Ladyship, of course. She didn't start marrying me off to her friends until Hekellu.) The rest of the party broke off to do other things, and we all met back up in Fasiltum to begin the march to Hekellu. This all coincided with one of the periodical shuffles of the original Thursday Night Groupl as old players dropped out for one reason or another and were replaced with new ones; we gamed for something like a dozen years, and people did come and go every few years as they had the time to play.

I hired the bearers on contract, as well as the two carts (with drivers; one was saving up to get married, and brought his fiancee - with the approval of her clan I might add). They came with a couple of guys who acted as guards, and there was a baggage master to run the whole circus. The local guide was hired as we went, and this usually changed every few days as we moved from one clan's 'territory' to the next. (The three urchins in front watching the procession are locals, and this changed everyday as we went along the road.)

Aside from me, they were all NPCs, and Phil (as was his usual custom) had me roll them all up - in S&G, which we were sort of using at the time - and I still have all of them in the files. Generally, NPCs didn't get 'real' names unless they were important to the plot line that Phil was following, or the person rolling them up wanted to do so - hence Dave Arneson's 'Staffswinger', 'Swordswinger', 'Fishface', and 'Hardtack' for his ship's officers. I tended to more 'period' names, out of Phil's database of people. In this case, I'd have to go back and look to see if we ever got past names 'Third Bearer'; we were generally just too busy to do a lot of this kind of book-keeping, as we were both Phil's players and his publishers. it was a hectic time. I did do little 'backstories' for them, based on their stats.

Do you want something more detailed then this?

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Now imagine the hoohah involved in marching with a legion of 8,000 troops.

Oh, for sure! This is what a single lower-ranked officer's baggage train would look like; the Glorious General's would be three or four times this big, and each cohort of 400 troops would have a similar train attached to them. The whole column would be several miles long, and we'd normally be on the ground next to the Sakbe road to keep the road clear for regular traffic.

Originally Posted by Atsuku Nare

Hey Chirine (and Gronan),

Does gunpowder work on Tekumel? Do the components even exist for it?

(I would imagine the Humanspace Empire would have been far far in advance of it with terraforming and ray-guns, but has anyone tried to recreate it? Or is it just a case of "nothing preventing it from working, but no one has re-invented it?")

Thanks!

Yes, it does, and it works just fine. You can get funny little noise-makers that make a crack when you pull the string, and all sorts of fun novelty items that do things when you light the touch-paper. The Temples of Hnalla, Thumis, Hry'y, and Ksarul will put on fun displays of this kind of thing for holidays and festivals; this kind of chemical know-how is something that they know about. I'd expect that the Tinaliya do as well, but they're not talking. The Temples of Karakan and Vimuhla eschew such vulgar displays, and have sorcerers put on shows for the big holidays.

It's been asked quite a lot over the years why the Tekumelyani don't use gunpowder in warfare, and the answer that Phil always gave is people like me; I am much, much more powerful and tactically mobile that any sort of black powder artillery could be; the next step up the escalation ladder from Yours Truly is a Lighting-Bringer. Phil always said that in his Tekumel it was a cultural thing, stemming as you posit from the weaponry of the Ancients; black powder weapons are long-forgotten, on a dead planet half a galaxy away.

Phil didn't like the black-powder era, and refused to game in it. Period. His contention was that it would stink up the house and leave dark stains on the carpet on his game table.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Happy to help! I love nautical adventures; I still have all the models and plans that we used in Phil's games, and I still use them. Feel free to ask more questions as things develop, too!

I'll be doing a long post on the trireme build on my blog, but hopefully this will load...

DSC00201.jpg

The thing is huge, about two feet long...

Wow, that looks impressive. Are you going to be painting and rigging it, all shipshape in Bristol fashion? Although I must say even unpainted it still looks very good.
I used to do a heck of a lot more ocean adventures back in "Myne Olden Days" but for one reason or another I haven't had one in my game for decades. I was looking at some of my old notes, and when I saw your posts on the blog and I was sold on the idea. I used to use simple deck plans which I would draw and colour by hand, no internet back then . I think I might have to pick up one of these triremes, especially if the group goes on an extended nautical trip. On that note, I think I'll go watch Master and Commander on what is currently a cold and rainy night in my neck of the woods.

Shemek

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Happy to help! I love nautical adventures; I still have all the models and plans that we used in Phil's games, and I still use them. Feel free to ask more questions as things develop, too!

I'll be doing a long post on the trireme build on my blog, but hopefully this will load...

DSC00201.jpg

The thing is huge, about two feet long...

Son of a BITCH! I need a new hobby like I need a hole drilled crosswise through my pecker, but damn, that is SO tempting!

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Oh, for sure! This is what a single lower-ranked officer's baggage train would look like; the Glorious General's would be three or four times this big, and each cohort of 400 troops would have a similar train attached to them. The whole column would be several miles long, and we'd normally be on the ground next to the Sakbe road to keep the road clear for regular traffic.

And three months later in the middle of Milumaniya we're reduced to boiling and eating the leather cloaks of the desert tribesmen we killed when they tried to ambush us...

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Yes, it does, and it works just fine. You can get funny little noise-makers that make a crack when you pull the string, and all sorts of fun novelty items that do things when you light the touch-paper. The Temples of Hnalla, Thumis, Hry'y, and Ksarul will put on fun displays of this kind of thing for holidays and festivals; this kind of chemical know-how is something that they know about. I'd expect that the Tinaliya do as well, but they're not talking. The Temples of Karakan and Vimuhla eschew such vulgar displays, and have sorcerers put on shows for the big holidays.

It's been asked quite a lot over the years why the Tekumelyani don't use gunpowder in warfare, and the answer that Phil always gave is people like me; I am much, much more powerful and tactically mobile that any sort of black powder artillery could be; the next step up the escalation ladder from Yours Truly is a Lighting-Bringer. Phil always said that in his Tekumel it was a cultural thing, stemming as you posit from the weaponry of the Ancients; black powder weapons are long-forgotten, on a dead planet half a galaxy away.

Phil didn't like the black-powder era, and refused to game in it. Period. His contention was that it would stink up the house and leave dark stains on the carpet on his game table.

Again, he's not kidding, folks. Phil had a total aversion to anything after about 1300 AD.

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Wow, that looks impressive. Are you going to be painting and rigging it, all shipshape in Bristol fashion? Although I must say even unpainted it still looks very good.
I used to do a heck of a lot more ocean adventures back in "Myne Olden Days" but for one reason or another I haven't had one in my game for decades. I was looking at some of my old notes, and when I saw your posts on the blog and I was sold on the idea. I used to use simple deck plans which I would draw and colour by hand, no internet back then . I think I might have to pick up one of these triremes, especially if the group goes on an extended nautical trip. On that note, I think I'll go watch Master and Commander on what is currently a cold and rainy night in my neck of the woods.

Shemek

Thank you! She'll get some rigging, but I tend not to put a lot of rigging onto game models as it gets damaged and in the way. So, detachable links and stout cord, and just enough to give the idea to players. The ship will get a coat of varnish and painted details; I'm using the Hellenic Navy's "Olympias" as my reference here. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympias_(trireme)

I drew up the plans for all our ships, back in the day, and we also used "Sea Steeds and Wave Riders" (Judges' Guild) and the plans from "Bireme and Galley" (Fantasy Games Unlimited). I laminated the plans onto foam core board, and I still have and use the ships' plans to this day. I also got a bunch of the 1/900 and 1/1200 ships from Valiant and C-in-C to use for larger actions; you've seen some of the photos of my little fleet of 28mm ships.

Nautical adventures are a lot of fun; they offer decent food and housing, and the adventures tend to come to you...