Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;922207Also, we were actively at war with our nearest neighbor.  There was PLENTY to do for a young lad with a fair head for tactics and a willingness to follow orders.  At a guess I probably resembled a modern US Army general less than a WW2 battalion commander during an active phase of the war.  I was close enough to the front to get dead.

Your character was a front line commander during wartime.  That makes much more sense.  I was picturing a guy riding around the capital in a Palanquin or something.

Gronan, you have said that the "Barbarian from a boat" style of gaming quickly faded.
Was this due to few people starting play or was it made so difficult that few could actually survive?

If because of being difficult, what made it so hard?
Was it fun even if hard?
Would it have been fun if it had not been hard?
=

Quote from: Greentongue;922243Gronan, you have said that the "Barbarian from a boat" style of gaming quickly faded.
Was this due to few people starting play or was it made so difficult that few could actually survive?

The Glorious General was a barbarian from a boat:D!

(I'd venture a guess and say that it wasn't because they stopped playing barbarians, but because all the characters, whether initially barbarians or no, had become integrated in the setting. But I wasn't there, so it's just a guess until confirmed or denied;)).

Quote from: Greentongue;922243Gronan, you have said that the "Barbarian from a boat" style of gaming quickly faded.
Was this due to few people starting play or was it made so difficult that few could actually survive?

If because of being difficult, what made it so hard?
Was it fun even if hard?
Would it have been fun if it had not been hard?
=

It originally happened, I think, so the PCs could be "outsider" characters who gradually get introduced into Tekumel, just like the Doctor's companion is there to give him an excuse to explain things to the audience.

After 4 years or so Phil figured out that it was simply more fun to assume people were part of the society and not be afraid to tell them 'Your character would know...'

And he was right.  The whole "you must huddle fearfully in the Foreigner's Quarter until you're third level" got old fast.  That's why I joined the army.  Tsolyani society is all about "where do you belong," and in the uniform of a cohort commander in the Legion of Serqu, Sword of the Empire, it was instantly obvious to one and all exactly where I belonged.

For those of you who have run/played L5R and EPT, how similar are the social issues in the games?

For those not familiar, Legends of the Five Rings has the Empire, the Clans, the Families and the pseudo-Bushido trappings of honor and the separation of the low and high classes in society.

Quote from: Spinachcat;922414For those of you who have run/played L5R and EPT, how similar are the social issues in the games?

I hate to say "as similar as you want them to be" but, the original rule printing give very little detail on such things.
You have to extrapolate how you think things should be.
Obviously this means you can make Your Tekumel as similar as you want.

As for the highly detailed later version, you may be better off Questioning chirine ba kal.
=

Quote from: Spinachcat;922414For those of you who have run/played L5R and EPT, how similar are the social issues in the games?

For those not familiar, Legends of the Five Rings has the Empire, the Clans, the Families and the pseudo-Bushido trappings of honor and the separation of the low and high classes in society.

Adventures seemed to indicate that you can marry into positions. Or at least your kids can be born into a better status thus. It seemed as if house positions were somewhat mercurial and might rise or fall as fortune shines on one or the other.

Having kept a Play by Post running for a year, I can say that slavishly following established canon is not a requirement for players to enjoy a game.

So, I'd say that you can bend things however your play group prefers.
=

Quote from: yosemitemike;922234Your character was a front line commander during wartime.  That makes much more sense.  I was picturing a guy riding around the capital in a Palanquin or something.

I did some of that too, although I usually walked to appear more "military." Tsolyani armies are more like ancient Greek or some medieval armies; the state supplies only very basic equipment if any.  If I wanted to equip my legion with steel corslets it would be out of my pocket (or actually my clan's pocket.)  So that puts one into the whole roleplaying aspect of maneuvering through the clan society, which Chirine has already written about in his thread.

Quote from: Spinachcat;922414For those of you who have run/played L5R and EPT, how similar are the social issues in the games?

Similar. The family is more important than the individual. And, this extended family (clan) will help you out when you need it, but you'll be hit up for favors too. That's the #1 thing that was hard for players to grasp in either setting. There are social obligations and demonstrations of respect that you can't just ignore if you don't feel like it. Well, you can, but there will be consequences.

I've found that as long as you don't sandbag the players, they adjust.

If you're playing a person visiting the court of Henry VIII or Catherine the Great or Harald Fairhair or Caligula or a Yakuza Oyabun, you're expected to do the right thing as well, and opening your piehole at the wrong time might end up with you missing a head, missing a finger, finding yourself in a duel to the death or being crucified.  Granted Fairhair's court might not be as subtle, but at the same time, chances are your players know next to nothing about it.  How far you sit from the king at the table in his meadhall can be every bit as dangerous as sitting on the wrong dais, not bowing the correct number of inches, or how many fingers to hold out and whether the palm is up or down.

That's why Baby Jesus invented Culture and Knowledge skills.  Or GM's figured out they should say "Your character knows that wouldn't be a good idea."

Quote from: CRKrueger;923312Or GM's figured out they should say "Your character knows that wouldn't be a good idea."

This.

Now, of course, there are those who will say "I do it anyway," but what the fuck, the rules can't fix stupid.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;923383Now, of course, there are those who will say "I do it anyway," but what the fuck, the rules can't fix stupid.

Nope, but Critical Hit Tables can do wonders.

One played a game where we were characters on an exploration-embassy mission up the coast of a continent, going from a pseudo-european to pseudo-asian area. We were brought before a god-king and told to prostrate ourselves. We refused. "I'll drop on one knee as I do with my own king, but I'm not face-planting." We knew this was dangerous, but felt it was well within the bounds of reasonable roleplaying, since historically this was a point of contention with european visitors to oriental courts. For example, as I recall it part of the treaty settling the Opium War said that foreign ambassadors would no longer have to prostrate themselves before the Chinese emperor (I think he just refused to see them after that).

The GM said, "The guards attack. You die."
"Don't we even get a roll?"
"No. Odds are overwhelming."
"At least let us have a roll, maybe we could fight our way back to the ship, or -"
"And everyone on the ship is killed, too."
"No roll for them?"
"No."

My view is: do what you like, and you'll always at least get a roll.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;923576My view is: do what you like, and you'll always at least get a roll.

Does seem a bit extreme.
A Reaction Roll would be reasonable. Who knows, they be in a good mood that day and just amputate your legs.

But seriously, "They all die" is not very entertaining. Why play at all if it is not entertaining?
=