A decision, for the short term

After all, is any decision final. This blog will be my only blog for the time being. I am way behind on it, so starting another will only divert my attention. It will cover all things Gamey in my world.. So, this will be a start to bring things up to date..

First, on the Glorious precipice of the Empire of the Petal Throne, my players are all done with school. We will meet again in on Monday, mostly for book keeping and planning the way forward, because over the next month or so, we will all be off on vacations, in sequential order, meaning we will not all be available at the same time for a bit. Hate to jump into a campaign arc and then have a one month lapse. They are a bit ahead of the narrative on this blog, and I will begin in earnest to correct that tomorrow. I am going to draft that post, then bring it to the group meet, to see if I left out any juicy bits. It should be up mid week.

Geo and I got together and puttered around with a game mechanic called Microscope.., which I learned about from Risus Monkeys' blog. We decided to undertake a Tekumel pre-event history. The game begins with the players setting an opening and closing event for a timeline. We started with discovery of Tekumel, and ended with the stars going out. Then you take a couple turns putting in some broad time phases, and start zooming in on events within those phases. .

The game looks like it would work better with a group, larger than two. Still, we muddled through a S'su attack on an terraforming operation that led to a new mythical location refered to as the "City in Amber". I could see this being taken out at a con like U-con, by Tekumelani and used to fill in possible histories of the vast periods of history that are only hinted at in the game. (oooh.. just noticed they have established the dates for U-con this year. Can't say I am thrilled about the drive in Nov, but it looks doable right now... wonder how it lines up for Aethervox activities..) Risus also suggested this game might work well with a website called corkboard.. And we may take what we have done so far there, and invite others to join..

And the last Tekumel based report for this post is the acquisition of some old EPT figs from Ebay. There was a guy selling a pack of figs, which led me to look at his other auctions. In some random lots I found a nice set of Vimuhla worshippers. Not an expert, but I think think they are from the Legion of Red Devastation, a few swordsmen, and a pair of priests.. I have seen the priest figure often before, as it is the same one used to represent Chirine... On his blog he has been prepping some figs for a game event in North Texas, that looks really interesting.. and appears to be full.. Oh, and a few old shen missing the tails.. but that seems fixable.. I also acquired a few random figures that are proxy-able.


On the 40fnordk front, I have been puttering on painting myImperial Guard army. So I will share a bit of bling here.. I think.

This is the Commander, for the time being. Don't really love this figure. Skull mask, and dancing pose.. but, twill serve..
next down here are a couple of my Sentinels. Hope to eventually complete three squads, two scout one armoured..

These are the mounts I will use for Rough riders. They turned out really well, I think. The one in the back, with the black saddle came to me with a paint scheme completed. I used approximation to achieve the same on the other six. These were fun to paint, as I could try a lot of experimentation with the colors, and didn't have to stay "in the lines.."

And the next two are samples of troops. 40fnordK is a pretty figure intense game, and IG perhaps more than most armies. My earlier post explained how I initially acquired these Steel legion figures in the upper picture. But, despite their high value, they don't add up to a hill of beans when building a 40fnordK army. It gave me the mandatory HQ unit and infantry Platoons, which adds up to one to one and a half of the mandatory troop choices.

Steel legion figs are spensive, so when someone posted the Pig Iron figures in the lower pic for sale on TMP, I decided they could make a nice second infantry platoon troop choice. And the price was pretty good.. though I don't recall what it was. And some came painted. That buy inspired the color scheme.

Problem is, they didn't have figures for Sgts (who carry hand guns and swords and such.. stupid 40fnordk rules sets..) or the Platoon Command Squad. I got twenty figs like these, half painted, which really only accounts for the troop figs. I purchased some NCO's from Pig Iron (well, technically The WarStore.. who will be the Sgts for both the infantry plts and the Platoon Command Squad PCS) leader. Then I realized that I needed four more infantry for the PCS and it wouldn't hurt to have some heavy weapons in the mix.. So now I have some of those on order. All of which adds up..

Then came Tax time.. and it appears my tax situation changed a lot last year, cause now I am broke.. so mini purchases are on hold for a bit. going to have to figure out a way to fund new purchases, though I probably have enough for a decent 40fnordk army, I see the Tekumel Project is putting out oodles of tempting products..

At the moment, those are my two major gaming fronts.. I have some odd projects on the back burners. A host of terrain making materials cluttering up my geek space.. and a currently dormant Mage Knight Hordes of the Things Project. It would be much easier to get caught up if only I could put caffeine back on the menu..

Wither, Hence?*

It has been, arguably, more than a day or two. I apologize. The Tekumel Campaign has been on hiatus as players were being swamped with their college commitments. This was good, as I needed to recharge a bit as well. I am not, by nature, good at maintaining focus, as many things tend to take my interest. Ooooooh.. shiny.... Unfortunately, it also led me to feel no pressure to get campaign to pixel. We were not planning to meet again until mid may, or so, which should leave plenty of time to post a couple sessions worth and bring everything up to date. I work well under pressure. Without pressure.. well.. I drift. Does that make me a follower, rather than a leader? Don't know.

I have also been toying with the affections of a another game universe. She means nothing to me, but, she is popular, and has some attractive qualities. Her most attractive quality, unfortunately, is that she is popular. We are talking, of course, of that trollop of a game universe, 40Fnordk. I have been painting and building an IG army, because I see the opportunities to bring Tekumel to the table locally as being limited. Don't get me wrong, I love the RPG, but, sometimes I just want a little fling on a table.

Anyway, This has led me to reconsider the nature of this Blog. Most of my followers are here for the Tekumel, and don't give a hoot about the GW, I suspect. The blog was originally supposed to record all my gaming, but, all my gaming has tended toward Tekumel, in large part because last year was devoted to that. But as you can see by the side bar, the year before I had declared several different interests. So.. followers.. dear readers.. if you are still with me... should I stay on Tekumel track here, or just blog on anything Gamey that suits me at the moment... The latter may lead to more posts.. and more bling.. but.. if you are primarily interested in the Empire, that may not be a plus.. But my non miniatures focused RPG leaves me with almost no bling....

Another alternative might be to start an second Blog, devoted to Tekumel. I had considered this before, and then considered making it a team blog, for any person running a campaign. That might prove confusing, or it might prove cool... or both... I suppose they aren't exclusive.. At any rate, The Superior Force is not a very Tekumalani sorta name..

In other news, Chirine and the Aethervox Gamers did the Dave Arneson Memorial again, and I missed it. There are a pile of new Tekumel blogs out and about, but if you are here for tekumel, you have probably already seen them, as this is a very tardy posting.. (if not, I will try to make a list...or at least point to a blogger who has done so..).

I really need to spend time trying to find sources for bling on these posts as well.

Oh, and Hot Elf Chick..

* A pun.. is that bling?

Playing catch up

Well, last month I failed to make a post. For unexplained reasons, the month blew by. We did play, and I will try to bring this up to date. This first post is several weeks overdue and will be sparse on details, I am afraid.

With the midnight ritual droning on, the party began to explore again. They returned to the halls near the library, and found the ranking priests offices, and quarters. They entered and found another copy of the book, an older copy, which they pilfered. And eventually found another exit but it led down, not to the sewers, but to the Tsu'urum. It was locked, and chained. They left Suni to pick the lock, and went back into hiding, and awaited a report of success. She was successful, though it took a while, but she made did not alarm anyone in the process. She made a furtive effort to explore below on her own, but she had no lighting. She returned for the group, and they escaped to the level of the red hat Ditlána of Xkcd. They emptied into a chamber of Thúmis, with, apparently, only one exit. And, to their surprise, it appeared to be guarded, or at least light could be seen, and footsteps heard. (Here I will say that I was unprepared for this eventuality. I had not expected them to go this way, so I went to Dave's Mapper, and started mapping randomly. They knew they needed to find a way up to the sewers, or perhaps to underworld temples to one of their Gods, preferably Hriháyal or Grokking.. And these were both Northish. Trapped in this room, they searched for secrets, and found a hidden exit North. Ksárul must be favoring them.

They then wandered aimlessly, finding old clan houses, and clan house temples. They managed, by pure luck, to avoid a number of hastily justified encounters, simply by choosing the right exit from areas. They nearly stumbled on some items that had surprised me. But, it was surprisingly uneventful until they found a Clan House for a Clan that follow Sárku. There they disturbed the Mrúr Guards. Here they used a wedge like object to jam a door, and fled. This led them to a ladder, which led them to the surface, in the slave pits of a slaver clan, just north of the north wall. Here they found an Ahoggyá slave keeper, who found their predicament amusing. And took a liking to them. So, he made a deal with them to ransom the group in exchange for slaves, and Sanjesh went to purchase some while the rest remained hostage. The Ahoggyá held up his bargain, and when the slaves were delivered, the party was released.

They took the books to Mriga's clan, paper-makers, and scribes, and set the resources of the clan to work copying and comparing them. That was the end of the game session, and the next week was largely book keeping, as the players waited for the copies, and did research.

They were notified by the temple of Hriháyal that the purchase agreement for the land was being contested by the Ito Clan, who had unearthed a 1000 year old flaw in the title paperwork. Ito's had dispatched a messenger to Avanthár as well. They learned that the current owners of the land, the Plume of White, had purchased it from the Tangled Root Eaters at that time, and they had received it as a land grant at their formation, approximately 1400 years ago. They also learned that, the bureaucrat who had made the error was believed to still be roaming about, having earned the prestigious status of Jájgi. It was suggested that they try to find him, and clear up the error.

They heard rumors of Mu'ugalavyá scouts and small skirmishes being fought in Do Cháka, up near Tumíssa. The Bulk of the Legion of Tangled Root eaters, a Páchi Lei legion, was currently up in Tumíssa, operating the defenses against said Mu'ugalavian incursions. As players are wont to do, they took an end run around my Jájgi plot line, and decided to approach the Legion, to sort simply replicated the original purchase agreement, or make a deal to purchase the land directly, if the courts should determine that they still owned it.

More in a day or two...

Jan Project update

Well, the ref screen has not moved much. I have printed a few charts, still collecting others. Trying to decide what data I want at my fingertips and what I can live with looking up. Titles, Clans, an abbreviated History. But how abbreviated. It would be nice if my clan chart showed temple affiliations, and it would be nice to have a temple chart with clan affiliations. Andw the two are not redundant, really. We played last night (campaign update in the works) and the group was in the underworld, and managed to get themselves into the lower levels, which I was mapping as we wet using Dave's Mapper.. And I found myself saying, " The space you've entered it an excavated Clan house of one of the clans that follows Thumis.. " It would have been nice to look at a chart and pick a clan. I know the data is in the Mitlanyal, but, looking it up takes time, and I havent' got the memory anymore to get it all in my head at once.

Daves Mapper is nice, and I quickly had the party going in circles. I was using it via an Ipod touch, which was interesting, but left me no good way to record the spaces they went into for possible future reference. I saved most of the individual tiles they travelled through, and they weren't mapping, relying on dust footprints to back track, should they find the need. Everytime I rolled an encounter, they skipped a few doors and made a bee line for their destination.. I probably could have been better prepared..

But we ate well, as Mriga, and Suni cooked some very tekumeliani fare.. We are going to add occasional dinners to the regular routine... So there goes any serious plan to lose weight, I suspect..


I have found a bit of time to paint, or, at least do what passes for painting in my world. I am painting some Romans to proxy as Tomb Guard.

The colors are washed out in real life as well. Not sure how to fix that, except possibly spend money on quality paints. Not sure what color to paint the plumes. Currently, the chest armor is brown for Sarku, and the kilt and shoulders red for Vimuhla, being soldiers and all. The shin guard will be copper,as will the breast plate or perhaps just the plate trim. The Plums I haven't decided yet, though Blue for the Empire seems likely. Still need to come up with some awesome shields. Opinions welcome.. Be kind... but honest..

addenda

Well, I didn't have access to a printer, so I didn't make any progress on the screen, but I did have my paints, and I worked on the tomb guard a bit.. improved. still hack quality, but, improved. Had purchased a brighter red, so the kilt pops a bit more. Added copper and touched up some things. Plumes in Red and Blue..

Stuck in a box

Backing up a moment, Our heroes convinced the Swamp Folk to assist them to get into the sewers inside the walls again. The Swamp Folk agreed to take them down into the restricted level of the Tsu'urum to lead them under the walls. They knew of an old Clan house there of the Great Stone Clan, which contained a labyrinth, which led, among other places, to a passage. The party would have to travel in darkness, so as not to attract what might reside in the labyrinth. But the Swamp folk, who are sensitive to “wrongness”, knew a way through the labyrinth, and would guide them.

So, hand in hand, they all made their way, quickly and silently as possible, through the maze, with their non human guides leading and taking the rear. Suni toyed with the idea of detecting foes, but, decided not to risk attracting attention with a spell, even a psychic one. The came out, and were given directions to a room that would lead back up into the sewer levels, and were left to their task. They were advised not to try to take this way back out.

Once back in the sewers, they moved downstream until they found a junction, just above the SW gates, leading to the river. They split into groups, to try to avoid looking conspicuous, but, somehow, they managed to attract the guards notice. Still, the guards let them pass without question – there was nothing technically illegal about being in the sewers, even if their arrival from that direction seemed odd. Technically, the guards were there to keep people out, not interfere with people who were already inside. So the party moved back upstream to the north, and eventually found the sewers that should put them below the Temple of Avánthe from the Red Hat Ditlána of the mid 1700s. And with much searching, they found the trigger to open a wall, and go in.

They found themselves in a supply room, off two converging halls, with the sound of chanting coming from each hallway. The halls were empty, and they knew it was getting on in the day. They assumed that rituals were in session and they decided to take advantage of this to look around. Down the right hallway they found three doors, two apparently private quarters, one a communal quarters, and a dead end, leading to UN-excavated space. Down the left they found Lavatories, and an office. Both directions seemed to flank the main ritual hall with doors that probably led inside.

Further left they found the smell of cooking, and, accidentally ran into slaves carrying Hot water to ritual baths, but the slaves were too busy to take notice of which priests were in the hall way. They found a side passage that led to administrative rooms and, in that section found the library. It took a little time to figure out the organization, but they did locate the book “A history of the flood of 643 and the appearance and disappearance of the Irriguous Dead”. They purloined it, and a few random others, and beat back to the storage room. Unfortunately, they still had not found the mechanism to open the door from the inside. And the ritual ended, so they hid back in the stair well. Slaves brought ritual paraphernalia into storage, and left and the halls outside became much more active. Another thorough search of the room, and still no mechanism. It was late, and eventually, the halls quieted down again. The midnight ritual to bring back the light began, with a skeleton crew of junior priests and priestesses, and the ranking members retired. A quick journey into the hallways found “Silence, I slumber”, Méshqu plaques on various doors. And time ran out for the session...

More from the desk,

Though we played last week, this post is not a campaign post. My apologies. I had the latest update mostly written, but I can't find it, so I will start again tomorrow. I had planned this post for after that, but, due to the delay in that, I decided to write and post this.. which is my January Project plan.

I debated what to do first, and my first inclination was to do something with my growing pile of lead. The mass is becoming a gravitational force in my geek room. But, my campaign is not focused, as yet, on minis. Probably won't be. Occasionally I hope to break out the 28s for a skirmish, and eventually maybe the 6mm for a campaign. But, Essentially, we are meeting round the table for improvisational readers theater. So, my focus for January is to get my campaign info in better order, and first up is a Ref screen with charts. The idea is not new. Most game mechanics have some kind of Ref screen available. I bought the one SJG produces for GURPS in PDF, but it needs work to customize it for my campaign. And it, obviously, only addresses game mechanics.

Honestly, I tend to run on a slightly crunchier version of the roll a die system that the Professor uses. The official game math only comes out occasionally. Roll 3d6, low is good, works 90% of the time. But the combat portion of the screen is complete now.

What I really need, however, is a Tekumel cheats screen. I find that I am still often forced to stop play while I research part of the Timeline, or the name of a Legion. The world is rich, and detailed, and my mind is not so supple anymore. So I am working on a screen that shows Temples, and Clans, and History timelines, and such.. I hope to post pictures when done.

I did not go down to the New Years Games in the cities, and I regret that. I was scheduled to work NY day, and the weather was not great, with rain leading to ice. Sounds like a good time was had by those braver than I. No guts, no Glory, as they say.

I found a blog with a very different Tekumel slant. The author is working on some very ancient Tekumel History. Pre history.. pre bethorm (pocket plane). Humanspace.. Well, look for yourselves. It is a very intriguing concept. Geo, you were thinking of running something?

Tis the Season

Well, last year I managed 24 posts. On average 2 per month, though some months had more and some less. It is up from the year before, and more focused, as is appropriate for my Year of Tekumel. So with the first of the year it is the season for making plans and resolutions for the new year.

Tekumel activities will continue. The campaign has had a number of canceled games of late, but that is not due to lack of interest. Work and school schedules have conspired against us at times. That probably can't be helped, after all, none of us has the luxury of a high school life anymore. But Mriga and Suni have found employment locally, which was a concern.

I hope to bump the blog posts up, shooting for 36 for this year. That seems doable, if I simply keep up on the campaign, and trivial if I also record other game activities. For example, I don't think I have mentioned here my recent ACW game with Chip and friends. Forgot to bring a camera, so there wasn't much to report. I have also not blogged about recent mins purchases, and I could certainly have said more about UCON. I will also try to add some more Bling. I have plenty of figs to paint, and terrain to build, so that should help.. And there may be a top secret project about which I can leak some info.....

This year will still focus on Tekumel, but will include other gaming. However, I, like many gamers, am easily distracted. So this rule will apply. Each month I will set a goal for myself, and I can't do non-Tekumel projects until the month's tekumel project is done. This will probably involve completing a few projects that I have half done right now.. and breaking down some unpainted figures into project groups.

I think better with Pen and Paper than keyboard, so details will probably come after some time away from the screen. I need to think about the Butrus underworld as well. More later..