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Post by bigjackbrass on Jan 14, 2010 10:27:05 GMT -6
The delvers find a circlet of finely woven rare metals. When worn on the head it makes the wearer unable to feel pain.
It also shrinks gradually when wet, such as when soaked in sweat during combat, and will continue to contract until it is the size of a wedding ring. The wearer, of course, won't feel a thing.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Jan 11, 2010 15:15:57 GMT -6
Curse my lack of willpower! Sold!
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Post by bigjackbrass on Jan 10, 2010 10:37:02 GMT -6
Here's one I didn't submit to Grimtooth's, back when I used a lot of traps (you need to accept a certain level of anachronism and silliness to be comfortable with it, but that's what you get from a Tunnels and Trolls player):
A crusader-style full helm, covering the whole face except for eyeslits and breathing holes. It is quite plain but of excellent quality. Very close examination reveals a thin, transparent film inside. Anyone putting the helmet on hears a soft click and quickly discovers difficulty breathing. The helmet contains a plastic bag with a rubber band around the opening which is released when the inside of the top is pressed, snapping closed around the neck. If you want to make it potentially deadly instead of annoying then have the helmet remain attached to the bag, or worse make the bag glue itself to the face of the victim.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Oct 27, 2009 11:06:20 GMT -6
I was helped by some fairly poor wording in the item description. The seller called it a "Vintage 1976 Roll Play Game" which probably let it slip under the radar for some buyers.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Oct 27, 2009 10:48:05 GMT -6
... and I've just come from eBay where I placed the winning bid on a near mint, unpunched copy for about $12! Fingers crossed it arrives in one piece The trouble with you lot is that you keep bringing these games to my attention!
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Post by bigjackbrass on Oct 8, 2009 9:37:48 GMT -6
Where can one find the articles Korgoth referred to about the Underworld by Pettigrew? The easiest way to get the Underworlds article is in a copy of The Best of the Journal: The Pettigrew Selections from Tita's House of Games. It's a reprint, but well worth the money.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Jun 1, 2009 14:31:32 GMT -6
They have a good side??? ;D Presumably yes, to another Ahoggyá
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Post by bigjackbrass on Jun 1, 2009 9:38:25 GMT -6
There's a topless woman waiting to be sacrificed by a priest of Durritlámish, although in Tékumel terms the odd thing is that she's blonde Queen Nayári of the Silken Thighs is also semi-nude in her illustration. None of the pictures are particularly graphic, nor are the battle and fight scenes gory. There are some naked non-humans, but thankfully the artists seem to have caught the Ahoggyá on their good side.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Apr 9, 2009 8:21:53 GMT -6
Farewell, Captain Harchar. My condolences to his family and friends.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Mar 6, 2009 11:28:44 GMT -6
Really? Precisely what did your group deem unsatisfactory in GOO's T:EPT that led you into deciding not to use it? I actually quite like several of the Tri-Stat games, but somehow T:EPT feels like added complication for little return. It's really just down to my changing gaming style, I suspect. In the past I happily played Chivalry & Sorcery and all sorts of games I'd probably struggle with now!
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Post by bigjackbrass on Mar 5, 2009 11:19:32 GMT -6
I would like to listen to the whole thing. I went to RPGMP3.com but can't find it? Is it still available somewhere? It should still be there. On the forum look in the section for "Whartson Hall." You can also still get it by subscribing (free of charge, of course) to the RPGMP3 Community Podcast, linked on the front page of the site or easily found on iTunes by searching for RPGMP3. I wouldn't bother with the final episode (part five, if I recall) as it simply became a conversion of characters from EPT to the Guardians of Order system, but in the end we scrapped that and will either continue to use EPT or else switch to Fudge.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Mar 3, 2009 9:14:34 GMT -6
If I recall correctly you based the PCs culture in some real-life Polynesian cults or something in that vein, right? It was partly inspired by the Prince Philip Movement, which sounds rather like an eighties pop band but is actually based on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. For slightly fuzzy and complicated reasons they believe that Prince Philip, husband of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, is a god.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Mar 2, 2009 11:36:49 GMT -6
If "just off the boat" just begs the question, whaddaya do? In the last game I ran (recorded for RPGMP3.com) the PCs were from a largely forgotten island where a ship from Tsolyánu had run aground a generation earlier. They were sent by their chief to take a tribute to the God-Emperor, knowing little more than that the Empire was "over in that direction." It went surprisingly well, although there is growing tension between the party members as one of them (the chief's son, indeed) has suddenly decided that what he wants most in the world is to be a champion in the Hirilakté arena!
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Post by bigjackbrass on Feb 4, 2009 11:24:00 GMT -6
I've no interest in bidding myself and the auction ends in just a few hours, but I spotted a copy of Lankhmar for sale on eBay, which may be of interest to some. Not cheap, by the looks of it.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Jan 31, 2009 9:29:46 GMT -6
Ken St. Andre has a dungeon for T&T like that. Was that his personal dungeon or a published module? That would be Gristlegrim, his personal dungeon (and what a kill-fest of legendarily epic proportions it is!), a floating cube a mile across. One of my characters had to serve some time in it as a Wandering Monster, after pleading rather pathetically for his life with the eponymous god who built the place. Outlaw press have released a version of it: Scroll down a bit...
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Post by bigjackbrass on Jan 31, 2009 5:18:36 GMT -6
I have a vague memory that the band released a song or two as giveaway floppy singles with White Dwarf many years ago... Might have to check.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Jan 19, 2009 4:59:19 GMT -6
A wonderful list, there! Space Gamer #71 is the main reason I found Tékumel in the first place, so I have a great fondness for it (and Space Gamer remains my favourite gaming magazine, even a couple of decades after its effective demise). You can see details of the cover and contents for that issue on this Acaeum page and it looks as though Noble Knight have one copy in stock.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Jan 16, 2009 6:29:33 GMT -6
Issue 71 of Space Gamer (well worth tracking down through eBay or Noble Knight) was a Tékumel special issue and featured an interview with Professor Barker in which he was asked about this. Aside from his general interest in Egyptian and Mayan culture he mentions "...other budding writers (Lin Carter was one of my best and strongest critics)..." and the "pulp" magazines of the time. "I read copiously, as I said. I was thus influenced by almost any and every writer you can name: Howard, Merritt, E.R. Eddison, Clark Ashton Smith, Lovecraft, etc. Vance's Dying Earth came along, I think, only in 1951, and I loved it. Thereafter, Tékumel veered a little towards Vance's type of universe... Tékumel probably also gained some visual color from the movies: Thief of Baghdad, Sign of the Cross and many others. I loved the old Jon Hall/Maria Montez/Sabu/Turhan Bey potboilers."All in all, I think that the professor created his world the way most of us do, drawing upon those histories and fictions that fascinate us and adding in (often without deliberate effort) elements from the world and popular entertainments around us. He's just particularly good at it
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Post by bigjackbrass on Nov 22, 2008 4:19:19 GMT -6
Yeah, I think that people tend to forget how early EPT was in the release cycle of RPGs, and how different it was from anything that anyone had ever seen before. I've often wondered whether we would ever have seen EPT if that early window had been missed. Would a publisher have taken a chance on it in, say, 1984? TSR certainly wouldn't, I'm sure, as by that point they were concentrating heavily on the "family-friendly" side of the hobby, which Tékumel really isn't. When you look at some of the pre-1980 games (and even pre-1977) they were a surprisingly wild bunch, as if the sheer range of possibilities was exciting and entirely accepted, rather than the endless D&D clones that many seem to assume was the case.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Oct 28, 2008 15:40:45 GMT -6
In the UK Phil Masters keeps a pretty good page of convention information, albeit of little use if you're on the other side of the pond: British RPG-related ConventionsThere must surely be someone doing something similar in North America... I'll start checking...
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Post by bigjackbrass on Oct 20, 2008 11:02:33 GMT -6
You've all seen Raiders, right? Aye, but it wasn't too effective a ploy in the film!
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Post by bigjackbrass on Oct 19, 2008 13:56:53 GMT -6
I wouldn't call it standard, but I once considered having my character build a small weighted wheelbarrow at the end of a long pole (which could be taken apart if needed), designed to trigger pit traps and pressure plates. Common sense eventually prevailed. On the other hand, a rudimentary spirit level, tape measure and a plumb bob are quite handy if your character needs to check for suspicious slopes and hidden areas. More engineering than heroics, though
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Post by bigjackbrass on Oct 17, 2008 8:13:09 GMT -6
It would certainly be nice to see all of the short stories and the novel gathered together. The Compleat Boinger, perhaps?
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Post by bigjackbrass on Oct 15, 2008 10:30:31 GMT -6
A thousand thanks to Tavis for getting the copies of The Maze of Peril to me, arriving in this green and pleasant land this morning. Can't wait to read it The book design is a real oddity: pale blue art and writing on an off-white background (possibly whiter when it was printed). It's practically designed not to stand out on a shelf!
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Post by bigjackbrass on Oct 8, 2008 14:03:17 GMT -6
Ah, looks like my information is a bit out of date, greyharp. EDIT to add: Have you seen this Acaeum thread about a Holmes bibliography? Annoyingly, the bibliography it links to lacks the A&E issue number info you're after, although it does mention the name of the stories, but if you look to the bottom of the page there's a post from February saying that "zhowar" has the issue numbers and will post an update... Obviously a bit overdue Might be a lead for you to follow if you can contact zhowar.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Oct 8, 2008 10:34:43 GMT -6
I was interested to read in the back of the book that Boinger/Zereth stories appeared in Alarums & Excursions, which I think shall prove to be a harder treasure to obtain. Not necessarily. Lee Gold still produces A&E and I've heard that she will provide photocopies of articles from previous issues, for a fee. Might be worth getting in touch.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Sept 13, 2008 2:18:11 GMT -6
Perhaps you just need to ask yourself in which direction you want your version to lean. If you want a miniatures encounter game then go with first; an RPG should be more like third.
Since the differences are fairly pronounced I don't know that a "best" version is possible (blending the editions together will more likely produce a disappointing "middle way") so you would be better served by deciding what you want to play with your game. Or of course you could make two versions!
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Post by bigjackbrass on Sept 9, 2008 12:23:05 GMT -6
Thanks Dan, lovely to finally read the article. I've a copy of Dr. Holmes' Fantasy Role Playing Games on the shelf next to me, written around the same time as this piece, and it's interesting to compare the style and content of the two, produced as they were for slilghtly different audiences.
It also reminded me of something I always wanted: a table painted with blackboard paint! *sigh* Not sure the missus would approve... Hmm, thinking about it, do they even still use blackboards in schools these days?
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Post by bigjackbrass on Sept 7, 2008 2:17:22 GMT -6
The trouble with huge creatures in dungeons is the inevitable "How did that get there?" question. We've probably all seen adventures where a huge nasty is just sitting in a room it can't possibly leave.
Big rooms offer a great opportunity for surrounding the PCs, since they'll find it harder to put their backs to the wall, and changing the tactical nature of the fight rather than necessarily putting in something with loads of HP. I'd tend to go for very small creatures, personally, but absolutely thousands of them, boiling up from a tunnel leading even deeper. Stick a few boulders or other features around the room so it isn't just an empty space - a pool might be good - and you've created areas of deep shadow, hiding spots for the enemy etc.
Alternatively, if you do really want to go big, maybe something really elemental and ancient. The room could be the furthest it has ever reached towards the surface; and the dungeon builders had to abandon their digging when they encountered it, so the nature of the dungeon will change at that point. Something along the lines of the Balrog.
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Post by bigjackbrass on Sept 6, 2008 9:17:57 GMT -6
I'd love to read the article. Searching for it on-line brings up an enormous number of references, but they're very often anti-gaming religious groups citing it, and other articles, rather selectively. I was a little surprised that such an old piece, particularly one that does receive comment even now, is not more easily available on the Internet.
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