Quote from: chirine ba kal;842755True; I'm just tired of getting my percentile dice rammed up my ass by the 'serious artists'. Sorry to be rude; I'm just tired of what I get in my PMs and e-mails.

No worries. We're good. I don't get RPGs as serious art.

I don't like wacky, gonzo settings with surf board sized swords and kids anime named power moves. I like a game that is more down to earth and a campaign that takes the setting seriously. I like treating the in game events with the same degree of seriousness that characters in the setting might have. I also assume that most characters in the setting have a sense of humor so some in game stuff will be funny to the characters and hence to their players. In addition, the players aren't their characters so sometimes there is a lot of humor for the players in the crazy antics of the characters at the table. As a player watching OG 'romance' the clan good clan girl by accident would be funny. Quite a few of PCs, would also have found that pretty damn funny.

As an example of in game humor, I recall the time my PC in Star Wars (named Bren) had access to an armory full of off duty storm trooper helmets. He painted the eye pieces black on the inside, disabled the coms, and coated the inside of their helmets with contact activated crazy glue. :rotfl:

Quote from: Old Geezer;842760Next year at GaryCon you need to not over-schedule yourself (again, as usual) and leave yourself time to play in some of the historical miniatures games.

Not only are there the old standbys, but you can even play LITTLE WARS complete with authentic, antique, Britians "4.7 Inch Naval Rifles," for Vimuhla's sake.  You can play the game just like Herbert George did!

Agreed. I looked in on some of these games, and they really looked like fun!

Quote from: Bren;842761No worries. We're good. I don't get RPGs as serious art.

I don't like wacky, gonzo settings with surf board sized swords and kids anime named power moves. I like a game that is more down to earth and a campaign that takes the setting seriously. I like treating the in game events with the same degree of seriousness that characters in the setting might have. I also assume that most characters in the setting have a sense of humor so some in game stuff will be funny to the characters and hence to their players. In addition, the players aren't their characters so sometimes there is a lot of humor for the players in the crazy antics of the characters at the table. As a player watching OG 'romance' the clan good clan girl by accident would be funny. Quite a few of PCs, would also have found that pretty damn funny.

As an example of in game humor, I recall the time my PC in Star Wars (named Bren) had access to an armory full of off duty storm trooper helmets. He painted the eye pieces black on the inside, disabled the coms, and coated the inside of their helmets with contact activated crazy glue. :rotfl:

Very cool, and thank you! Loved the story, too; it's just like what OG - or Dave Arneson! - would have done.

Quote from: Old Geezer;842705As far as Korunme's career...
...
In such ways are foreigners assimilated into the Tsolyani Empire.

A special Thanks for that.

When we first got the book in our hands that is the type of thing I recall being done.

I remember a character arranging a parade after a successful visit to a local underworld.
He hired a band and dancers. He threw handfuls of coppers to the people that gathered along the street. Instant reputation boost.
While it may not have been "authentic" Tekumel, it was great fun had by all.
=

How much has language and customs changed over time?

Say a character was transported from over a hundred years in the past to the present, would they be up to speed with everything or would they be like being  "fresh off the boat from the Isles"?

It was an idea I had for starting new characters and wounder how well it would "fit".
=

Quote from: Greentongue;842794A special Thanks for that.

When we first got the book in our hands that is the type of thing I recall being done.

I remember a character arranging a parade after a successful visit to a local underworld.
He hired a band and dancers. He threw handfuls of coppers to the people that gathered along the street. Instant reputation boost.
While it may not have been "authentic" Tekumel, it was great fun had by all.
=

It would be quite 'authentic Tekumel'; see also the fabled "10,000 Kaitar Entrance", when we got back to Khirgar after we stormed the palace of Bassa, king of the Black Ssu.

It's why I employ fanbearers and musicians at the palace; it adds gravity and dignity to the proceedings. Incense bearers and flower-flingers for the big entrances, of course. We even had drum panniers on Chlen beasts for the big parades.

This was Phil's idea of such things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNjrfXOgZkM

He loved this movie, and quoted it all the time.

Quote from: Greentongue;842796How much has language and customs changed over time?

Say a character was transported from over a hundred years in the past to the present, would they be up to speed with everything or would they be like being  "fresh off the boat from the Isles"?

It was an idea I had for starting new characters and wounder how well it would "fit".
=

Not a whole lot; Phil took a much longer view of time's passage; 'Classical Tsolyani' is a thousand years older then what we speak today. (And Phil himself was like that; his Tsolyani language texts from the early 1950's are the same as the ones from the 1970s; there's no 'drift'.)

Your time traveller would usually be instantly assumed to be a mighty and powerful noble or somebody really important, as this kind of archaic speech pattern is a common affectation of the high clans - Sea Blue, for example - to show how ancient and noble they are. See also the speech affectations of Victorian England - Lord Brabazon had a notable habit (like many other well-born cavalry officers of the time) of dropping his 'h's, as in "Lord Bwabazon", of "Then bwing me another!" (to a station-master when told the train to London had already departed.

The person would be cosseted and feted, and taken to their clans' nearest clanhouse, where the 'finders' would get a nice reward; the clan would then try to sort the whole thing out. An Adventure would result.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;842798This was Phil's idea of such things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNjrfXOgZkM

He loved this movie, and quoted it all the time.

1) I'm reminded of "Asterix and Cleopatra".

2) "Hi, honey, I'm home."

3)  In 1963 I'm surprised they got away with some of the outfits some of the female dancers were wearing.

Quote from: Old Geezer;8428053)  In 1963 I'm surprised they got away with some of the outfits some of the female dancers were wearing.

Check out the belly dancers at the beginning of the 1965 version of She. One of the dancers is prominently displayed wearing a similar outfit.

Quote from: Old Geezer;842739Actually...
I remember the day Phil got his hardcover autographed copy of Cugel's Saga right off the press.  He was positively giddy.

How did that come about? Was he a personal friend or correspondent of Jack Vance?

By the way, Vance was far from inaccessible to fans, he seems to have had a wafer-thin gruff exterior but was a great gentleman and became friends with many fans. I heard that a fan phoned him out of the blue as recently as 2010 and chatted with him for two hours.

Quote from: The_Shadow;842813How did that come about? Was he a personal friend or correspondent of Jack Vance?

By the way, Vance was far from inaccessible to fans, he seems to have had a wafer-thin gruff exterior but was a great gentleman and became friends with many fans. I heard that a fan phoned him out of the blue as recently as 2010 and chatted with him for two hours.

I believe a correspondent.  Phil was quite active in SF fandom as a young man.

Quote from: Old Geezer;8428051) I'm reminded of "Asterix and Cleopatra".

2) "Hi, honey, I'm home."

3)  In 1963 I'm surprised they got away with some of the outfits some of the female dancers were wearing.

Not really; this was when burlesque was still going; remember the half-time entertainer at the World Con in '76?

Quote from: The_Shadow;842813How did that come about? Was he a personal friend or correspondent of Jack Vance?

By the way, Vance was far from inaccessible to fans, he seems to have had a wafer-thin gruff exterior but was a great gentleman and became friends with many fans. I heard that a fan phoned him out of the blue as recently as 2010 and chatted with him for two hours.

Yes, to both. Phil - he was still 'Phillip Barker' at the time - drew the first maps of the Dying Earth for Jack Vance as part of his fan activites. As OG says, they wrote back and forth over the years that Phil was in fandom.

Kinda makes an interesting sidelight on all those discussions of 'Vancian magic in D&D' you see go by on the Internet, don't it? Phil was very familiar with the concept - would anyone like to consider the 'Eyes' and their 'spells in storage' in light of this?

Ooo! ooo! Whole new Internet mythology gets started right here on The RPG Site!!!

Quote from: Old Geezer;8428051) I'm reminded of "Asterix and Cleopatra".

2) "Hi, honey, I'm home."

3)  In 1963 I'm surprised they got away with some of the outfits some of the female dancers were wearing.

I'd post the drawing from "Asterix", but I don't know how, in my internet illiteracy...

TAAATAAATAARRAAAA!

And remember the statue of Horus on the giant palanquin that Phil would always trot out with great ceremony when his beloved Egyptians were getting chased off the table again?

It got to the point where you wanted to fight his 25mm Egyptian army just to make him bring out the whole parade of flower-flingers, dancing girls, priests, trumpeters, drummers, more priests, standard-bearers, the palanquin on the shoulders of 36 shaven High Priests, fan-bearers, more priests, and so on, and so on, and so on. The whole procession took up about three feet on the table when in full cry; the best part was phil reading the invocations to the God off of Horus' throne - in the original...

Oh, those were the days! When men were men, miniatures were cheap, and sheep were careful! (Paraphrased from Firesign Theater's hilarious performance of "Gonad the Barbarian!" at the Kansas City World Con...)

"Gonad didn't have enough brains to be afraid!"

"No not me, no not....!"