Quote from: Kyle Aaron;923576One 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.

And this is a great example how some people manage to make fantasy games less interested and varied than real life;).

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;923576One 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.

Yeah, that's a terrible response on the GM's part.

Has anyone tried a game of EPT using the concept of Metamorphosis Alpha?

Where, the players are newly awaken and deep in the Underworld.
Nearby are the suspended animation chambers that, some of, have just dumped their contents, the players.
There are more mostly featureless boxes that have yet to open.
Nobody remembers why there are there or even where There is.
(Pick a rule system but if they ever reach the surface, they are on Tekumel.)
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Well, it seems that the Old Style play is still a valid method.

My Play by Post plods along and those things usually die off faster than a Mayfly.

Anyone else been able to get their EPT on (in the old fashion way even)?
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Quote from: Greentongue;928491Well, it seems that the Old Style play is still a valid method.

You're saying that on a forum full of OSR guys, many of which run their own groups. I'd say there's a decent chance for you to be correct:).

Of course, I'd like to add to that that old school isn't about the rules you're using, but the attitude;).

If Swords of the Petal Throne had been the original rules, would the setting still have been considered too dense?

Would the rule presentation really have made the difference?

I'm assuming that the initial price for the box set was the major roadblock. I know it certainly hurt my pocket at the time.
Luckily, I had the disposable income from being in the Navy.
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Quote from: Greentongue;928887If Swords of the Petal Throne had been the original rules, would the setting still have been considered too dense?

Would the rule presentation really have made the difference?

I'm assuming that the initial price for the box set was the major roadblock. I know it certainly hurt my pocket at the time.
Luckily, I had the disposable income from being in the Navy.
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Probably not; this was forty years ago, remember. The dense setting was a big part of the appeal; nobody had seen anything like it before, and I'd suggest that they would not do so again for decades.

Yes; Part of EPT's appeal, TSR said, was the 'deluxe' presentation.

Not for almost 11,000 people, according to TSR. They did an initial print run of 1,000 copies, which they expected would last for years based on the sales at the time of D&D; instead, it sold out in two months, and TSR had to run two additional 5,000 copy print runs to keep up with demand. Zocchi got about 250 copies when he bought the left-overs, so there were a lot of sales. In his letter to Prof. Barker announcing the larger print runs, Kevin Blume of TSR said that on a monthly basis, EPT was out-selling D&D by a factor of two to three.

How many copies actually got used in games? The only numbers we have are from TSR, which thought about 250 campaigns were running in the late 1970s. My gut feeling is that if Phil and the Blumes hadn't had their disagreements, things would have been a lot different.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;928900My gut feeling is that if Phil and the Blumes hadn't had their disagreements, things would have been a lot different.

"Thief TSR!  We hates it forever, Precious!" is about all I ever got out of Phil.

A TSR where Tekumel had been more influential as a setting would certainly have been more interesting.

Quote from: RPGPundit;930343A TSR where Tekumel had been more influential as a setting would certainly have been more interesting.

Agreed. Things would have been much more open-minded and a lot less parochial.

In the back of the original rules the example of play was entering the underworld.
What could easily be an extension to a huge complex.

QuoteGood to see new content for Tekumel, and Dyson does good work.
Here are some links:
Main link https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/maps/my-private-jakalla/

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DysonLogos/posts/XzxUKfYTWmf?sfc=true
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DysonLogos/posts/1gdUw7LV5rW?sfc=true

Is this all we need to return to our gaming past?
Not sure about everyone else but I could easily spend many fun hours/days exploring.
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Quote from: Greentongue;932332In the back of the original rules the example of play was entering the underworld.
What could easily be an extension to a huge complex.



Is this all we need to return to our gaming past?
Not sure about everyone else but I could easily spend many fun hours/days exploring.
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Could very well be; the original Thursday night group out at Phil's was specifically founded with the mandate of exploration, and not just random killing and looting. If that's our gaming past, I'm all for it...

Quote from: chirine ba kal;932360Could very well be; the original Thursday night group out at Phil's was specifically founded with the mandate of exploration, and not just random killing and looting. If that's our gaming past, I'm all for it...

I'm all for exploration being even better represented in my gaming future, for that matter;).

Quote from: AsenRG;932372I'm all for exploration being even better represented in my gaming future, for that matter;).

Agreed! I don't mind a little swordplay along the way, but exploration was always our big emphasis.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;932394Agreed! I don't mind a little swordplay along the way, but exploration was always our big emphasis.

I'll sign up for exploration over endless hack and slash any day. This is what I have been doing in my games for years.

Shemek.