In fact, thanks to you I fell into an internet hole and only just crawled out. Guess what, turns out there is a Sanskrit word "Jna" "to know or perceive" and at least one person on the internet explicitly argues it is a cognate of znajne. Since I know nothing about Sanskrit, or Serbian, I can't evaluate any of this, but maybe it's a thing.

I think you called it.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;960940Agreed! I've got everything set up for transport by cart - I have a fleet of them - and can get in and out of a facility with a full van load (64 cubic feet of game stuff) in pretty short order. But, that's all I can do; I can't do the logistics and run the games, not without help, and I simply don't get that. So, while I've spent a good chunk of change on plastic tubs, they stay here at the house and make my gaming life a whole lot easier by allowing me to move in and out of the game room in about fifteen minutes for each game set-up.

It's all about organization; I get the most out of my limited resources by really using it.

And I do get razzed and poked at for being so organized, too. This lasts right up until I ask people for help, whereupon they simply evaporate. :rolleyes:

You've always been impressively organized, I have to admit.

I've never been that organized, folks, I always had to make up for it by being fairly bright and quick on my feet.

I do remember times at Coffman getting four or five volunteers to help trog stuff around.  Sadly, that seems a lot harder these days; a lot more people seem to want to be passively entertained.

Quote from: Greentongue;960949It would be really wonderful if she could do that with one(or more) epic scenes from your book.
Since it sounds like you have everything needed to recreate one(them).

The right 360 from the middle of a big battle would be amazing.

All for the book of course, nothing to promote the Tekumel IP specifically...
=

Wonderful idea!!! She could, actually; we have the figures for this, as well as the technology, so it'd be a weekend's worth of work for each clip. For that matter, I could do videos explaining the battles we fought in, as I've got both the table space and the miniature resources to put something like this on.

I understand your point. My position is that just about anything that encourages games played is a good thing, and if I can interest people in the fun we had then so much the better. It's like today, when I was at the local FLGS - it's Free Comics Day, and 5th Daughter went shopping - and got asked to run some game sessions for them in June, at the RPG Day they are putting on. I'll put on my usual show, and run some Lord Meren and some Barsoom for people; John Till will be there with his FATE for Tekumel game, so that's already covered. We'll see what happens; I'm kind of looking forward to this, one of my very rare public outings...

Quote from: Neshm hiKumala;960952If they're not getting what they (very naively) expected, I wouldn't be surprised if they sold the Tekumel name eventually.

That would be a rational approach, and they are anything but. This is all about their prestige and standing, not about commercial success or profitability.

Quote from: Neshm hiKumala;960953Chirine, I'm reading the Pé Chói article found in one of the Seal of the Imperium journals. It mentions a detail which I never thought about before: there's probably Pé Chói technology going back to Humanspace on Tékumel. The Pé Chói themselves don't seem to be interested in it, at all. But this suggests, of course, that there is alien tech from other non-human species scattered around too; tech from the Shén, or the Hlutrgú, etc.

In your adventures, did you ever come across technology that was specifically alien or non-human?

Oh, yes, many times! We had no idea what it was, or even how to hold it, so every 'find' was an adventure in and of itself. This is where dear old Origo would come in, as he'd be all eager and hot to try the thing, and we'd get to stand back and (usually, when we weren't diving for cover) laugh our fool heads off at the results.

Quote from: Shemek hiTankolel;960979Yes you're right, I do remember that conversation between Alex and the professor. I concur it probably is merely coincidence, but who can say? As Phil states in another Blue Room thread (I believe, or perhaps in a response on the yahoo group?) that he had forgotten where the inspiration for many of his ideas originally came from.
One thing though, there are a surprisingly large number of Slavic words which are derived from Sanskrit and I have to think that Phil would have known some Sanskrit. Perhaps that is where the derivation unintentionally comes from?
I wholeheartedly agree with you looking at the bare bones of his world building process is/would be great. I love this type of analysis and speculation.

Yes, Phil knew Sanskrit. I think you're onto something, here.

Quote from: Shemek hiTankolel;960984Got to love people with this mentality. I had to deal with these types for years until I finally had enough and switched jobs/careers. They are incorrigible and are best avoided for the sake of one's blood pressure and continued liberty.

Exactly; it's why I didn't renew my dollar-a-year contract with them. I consider myself lucky in that I got them to pay up on their tab that they owed me for stuff they wanted.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;961040You've always been impressively organized, I have to admit.

I've never been that organized, folks, I always had to make up for it by being fairly bright and quick on my feet.

I do remember times at Coffman getting four or five volunteers to help trog stuff around.  Sadly, that seems a lot harder these days; a lot more people seem to want to be passively entertained.

He's being modest, folks. For "Tractics" games, he'd have each unit all ready to go in an individual tray or box so all we had to do was deploy and go at it.

Agreed about the vanishing help. The tradition, back in the day, was that if you played in the game, you helped carry the game back out to the car for the GM / referee.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;960939They don't; this came out during the grilling at Con of the North. There's simply not the revenue stream that they were expecting - not the (quote) "$5,000 per year per license" that they wanted, nor the money to give each of them the (quote) "$50,000 a year salary" that they wanted.

Holy shit.  What drugs were they taking, and where can I get some?

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;961069Holy shit.  What drugs were they taking, and where can I get some?

I don't know, but whatever the stuff is, they could make their fortunes selling it instead of being in the RPG trade.

This came up at the first strategic planning meeting the June after Phil passed away, where they were telling Ambeeen (Mrs. Barker) all about their future plans on how they were going to "grow the brand" and turn Tekumel into a real prestige-enhancing money-generator. They assumed that they could all get the fifty grand each for just being directors of the Foundation; the five grand per year is what I was quoted by them for a license for my book, with a ten percent of gross sales and all of their expenses (for their having to "edit and correct" my text, at $250 an hour) on top of that. (They still can't get their heads around the notion that I'll be just as happy to have the book up on the web as a free-to-read/download thing, as all I'm interested in is telling people about Phil and his creation.) This all may be a reason why game authors and publishers are not flocking to their doorstep, but what do I know, eh?

This is the point at which I rapidly shake my head with a "wooga wooga wooga" noise.

It kind of reminds me in a way of Phil and Don Wollheim talking about movie rights for Man of Gold, but that was over 30 years ago when I was much younger and more naive.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;961073I don't know, but whatever the stuff is, they could make their fortunes selling it instead of being in the RPG trade.

This came up at the first strategic planning meeting the June after Phil passed away, where they were telling Ambeeen (Mrs. Barker) all about their future plans on how they were going to "grow the brand" and turn Tekumel into a real prestige-enhancing money-generator. They assumed that they could all get the fifty grand each for just being directors of the Foundation; the five grand per year is what I was quoted by them for a license for my book, with a ten percent of gross sales and all of their expenses (for their having to "edit and correct" my text, at $250 an hour) on top of that. (They still can't get their heads around the notion that I'll be just as happy to have the book up on the web as a free-to-read/download thing, as all I'm interested in is telling people about Phil and his creation.) This all may be a reason why game authors and publishers are not flocking to their doorstep, but what do I know, eh?

I know of at least one other person who rejected those terms, for obvious reasons. The open-ended (not fixed-price) consultancy fees are a particular roadblock.  I can't speak re the people who did agree to licenses, but I would be astounded if the Foundation has ever successfully negotiated a license on those terms.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;961078This is the point at which I rapidly shake my head with a "wooga wooga wooga" noise.

It kind of reminds me in a way of Phil and Don Wollheim talking about movie rights for Man of Gold, but that was over 30 years ago when I was much younger and more naive.

Agreed. I had to point out to Phil that his contract with Don specifically gave on those rights, and they had to renegotiate that clause in the contract.

And yes, I do the same thing when I think about it, which is one of the reasons why I try not to think about it.

Quote from: Zirunel;961080I know of at least one other person who rejected those terms, for obvious reasons. The open-ended (not fixed-price) consultancy fees are a particular roadblock.  I can't speak re the people who did agree to licenses, but I would be astounded if the Foundation has ever successfully negotiated a license on those terms.

Agreed. As far as I know (everybody seems to feel the need to talk to me, it seems) the only licenses - sub-licenses actually, the TF working from their having a licence from the Barker Estate - that have been granted are on very favorable terms to the applicant, as the applicants are what the TF feels are The Big Names in the OSR; the TF wants very badly to be associated with these people as a way to enhance their own prestige so they get really good deals. Otherwise, not; I'm an example of the opposite extreme, where the TF has sworn on a stack of their mothers' graves that they will never allow the book to be published - which is why I got the quotes that I was given. I don't particularly think that this is a particularly viable approach to 'enhancing the brand identity' in the longer term, as a lot of very interesting projects that I have been asked to comment on never seem to get any traction.

From my personal standpoint, having looked over what's been published, I think the materials stand on their own as good, solid Tekumel products; I have them, and I like them. We've been very lucky; what's been done has been by good authors, who have done some very good work in the setting, and - readers of this thread will note - I've mentioned them here with positivity. Regardless of what I think about the TF and their policies, I like good work and I'll be happy to spend my money on it.

(See also the little Successor army that I bought today, under the urging of Karim Missum, Ace Shopkeeper and Persuader Of Cheap Gamers To Spend Their Money. Well, okay, so I was in there anyway so 5th Daughter could buy some comics, but he was very persuasive...)

Quote from: chirine ba kal;961085Agreed. As far as I know (everybody seems to feel the need to talk to me, it seems) the only licenses - sub-licenses actually, the TF working from their having a licence from the Barker Estate - that have been granted are on very favorable terms to the applicant, as the applicants are what the TF feels are The Big Names in the OSR; the TF wants very badly to be associated with these people as a way to enhance their own prestige so they get really good deals. Otherwise, not; I'm an example of the opposite extreme, where the TF has sworn on a stack of their mothers' graves that they will never allow the book to be published - which is why I got the quotes that I was given. I don't particularly think that this is a particularly viable approach to 'enhancing the brand identity' in the longer term, as a lot of very interesting projects that I have been asked to comment on never seem to get any traction.

From my personal standpoint, having looked over what's been published, I think the materials stand on their own as good, solid Tekumel products; I have them, and I like them. We've been very lucky; what's been done has been by good authors, who have done some very good work in the setting, and - readers of this thread will note - I've mentioned them here with positively. Regardless of what I think about the TF and their policies, I like good work and I'll be happy to spend my money on it.

(See also the little Successor army that I bought today, under the urging of Karim Missum, Ace Shopkeeper and Persuader Of Cheap Gamers To Spend Their Money. Well, okay, so I was in there anyway so 5th Daughter could buy some comics, but he was very persuasive...)

well nice! in the tradition of Tony Bath who, I seem to recall, was a fervent Macedonian chauvinist, and insisted his Macedonians could defeat any army from any (ancient) time period hands-down. Or maybe he just liked elephants. One of my favourite time periods too. Have you ever read Peters' Harvest of Hellenism?