Tuesday 26 January 2010

The Tekumel Club - Memberships

Hi All,

In response to enquiries: Yes - one can send in a membership now.
I should probably have added a bit on how to apply. (My Bad.)

I think an email to us (at the green27 address) stating one's particulars - name, address and the desired membership rank - followed by the PayPal payment - in US Dollars. Unless I am mistaken, PayPal sends both parties email receipts.

Regarding the Hlutrgu, I would hold off on orders until I can confirm more about the coracles. This shouldn't take too long, and once I have news of their size and have determined how they are to be molded, I will post the final pricing. The intent is to take pre-orders for a limited time - with pre-orders (paid in full) getting an additional 10% off.

Postage will be extra - at cost.

Canadian residents are subject to taxes as required by Law.

Howard Fielding
The Tekumel Project

Monday 25 January 2010

The Tekumel Club - Details

I believe that we have ironed out all the details regarding the Tekumel Club. The way it will work is as follows:

Intent:

The Tekumel Club is intended to offer members discounts on a range of figures to be offered direct from the Tekumel Project. The membership fees will be used to help pay sculptors to make additional Tekumel figures, and artists to prepare art for Tekumel publications. The range of figures will be called "The World of Tekumel" and will offer a variety of figures covering a wide spectrum of subjects, from creatures of the Underworld, to civilians, to the priesthoods of the Temples. The purely military range: "The Armies and Enemies of the Petal Throne" - manufactured and sold by Eureka Miniatures of Australia, will continue to expand. That range is not, however, covered by the Tekumel Club in any way.

Membership:

Membership will last for 1 year from the date of purchase.

Membership will be on a graduated scale, with each level given a descriptive name and a specific discount percentage to be applied to the regular figures for sale.

In addition to the regular range, we will from time-to-time offer "Reward" figures. These figures will be available to all, but priced at a premium rate. Members will receive substantial discounts on this rate in accordance with their membership level.

Memberships are purchased by making a PayPal donation in US Dollars - for "Services" - to the Tekumel Project. The email address to be used is:
green27@sympatico.ca

This is also the address to direct any questions that you might have.

The graduated membership scale will be as follows:

Nakome = non-member = 0% discount;
Tirikamu = $20 member = 10% discount;
Hereksa = $30 member = 20% discount;
Kasi = $40 member = 30% discount;
Molkar = $50 member = 40% discount;
Kerdu = +? member = 50% discount + negotiated;

Note: All amounts are US Dollars

The names are all ranks in the Tsolyani military, except Nakome which means "clanless". Kasi = captain, Molkar = Major and Kerdu translates as General.

Note that to qualify for Kerdu the donation must be significant. We already have an individual who wants to sponsor a legion! Our first Kerdudalikoi (Kerdudali = "Great General", "-koi" = a noble suffix) has offered to sponsor the Aridani Legion of Lady Mrissa and we have offered a suitable compensation in return.

The World of Tekumel - First Release

Our first release will be the Hlutrgu mentioned in my previous post. As stated, I have requested that the greens be ready by Cold Wars, with molding and casting to follow afterwards, hopefully in short order. I cannot, however, give a firm release date at this time. We are still working out the pricing on the coracles (as it really depends upon whether they will both fit on a mold), but I can give you our proposed pricing for the foot figures:

Note: All amounts are US Dollars

Nakome -
Individual Figure Price = $4.00;
Warband Price = $40.00;
Horde Builder Price = $30.00

Tirikamu -
Individual Figure Price = $3.60;
Warband Price = $36.00;
Horde Builder Price = $27.00

Hereksa -
Individual Figure Price = $3.20;
Warband Price = $32.00;
Horde Builder Price = $24.00

Kasi -
Individual Figure Price = $2.80;
Warband Price = $28.00;
Horde Builder Price = $21.00

Molkar -
Individual Figure Price = $2.40;
Warband Price = $24.00;
Horde Builder Price = $18.00

Kerdu* -
Individual Figure Price = $2.00;
Warband Price = $20.00;
Horde Builder Price = $15.00

* Plus negotiated bonus based upon amount donated on a case-by-case basis.

First Reward Figure: Princess Vrisa, Warrior-Princess of Saa Allaqi

Nakome -
Reward Figure Price = $12.00;

Tirikamu -
Reward Figure Price = $6.00;

Hereksa -
Reward Figure Price = $4.00;

Kasi -
Reward Figure Price = $3.00;

Molkar -
Reward Figure Price = $2.00;

Kerdu* -
Reward Figure Price = $1.00;


The concept art for the figure has been shown in previous blog posts. The figure is being sculpted by John Winter, of Tinman Miniatures, and will become available sometime around the same time as our first World of Tekumel release.

Sunday 24 January 2010

The Tekumel Club: First Figures

A Hlutrgu

OK - Here's the scoop:

We're still deliberating what form the proposed Tekumel Club will take. I've passed on all my ideas to my business partner as he's an accountant - and a Federale to boot! Once he's sorted out any issues that I may have missed and given the OK, then it's a GO.

Hopefully he'll let me know today. In the meantime I thought I'd spill the beans on the first release:

The Hlutrgu - "Swamp Frogs"

The release will consist of two coracles, one with three beasties, the other five; the figures for the boats will consist of left and right paddlers, Hlutrgu with javelins and a leader/priest type.

For foot figures there will be a Leader/Priest, a drummer, a Hlutrgu w. severed head, a Hlutrgu w. captive and two with javelins.

They will be available singly; as a Warband with all four command figures and 10 with javelins; and as a Horde Builder set of 10 with javelins.

For those of you who don't know what these beasties are, suffice it to say that they are ferocious creatures that infest the coastal swamps between Tsolyanu and Salarvya. Besides raiding the settlements nearby, they periodically venture out to sea in a vast fleet of coracles in a lemming-like migration.

The Blue Room archive is a good source of information, like this story.

The figures are being sculpted by Rod Campbell of Highlander Studios. I have asked that the greens be done by Cold Wars with the intent to have them on display at his stand - with luck he might even be working at some figures from the following - secret - release as well.

Poll Closed

I have closed the poll over at the TekumelMinis-War yahoogroup. Here are the results:

POLL QUESTION:
At the Tekumel Project we are planning to start a "Tekumel Club". Members would pay a yearly fee (the monies from which would go straight into production costs) and in return would be able to purchase selected figures at a reduced rate and also some exclusive "Members Only" figures.

The figures would only be those available directly from us and not the military figures that Eureka sells.

We currently have two such mini-ranges in the works, both involving creatures that have never been produced before. I hope that both will be well received. I don't want to say too much but one of the Enemies of Man will be covered, while the other range focuses on one Temple.

The first "Members Only" figure would be the Saa Allaqani Princess Vrisa.

Are you interested in such a venture and what would be you level of interest?

CHOICES AND RESULTS

- Not Interested., 0 votes, 0.00%
- Yes - $20 yearly membership, 7 votes, 20.00%
- Yes - $30 yearly membership, 6 votes, 17.14%
- Yes - $40 yearly membership, 6 votes, 17.14%
- Yes - $50 yearly membership, 12 votes, 34.29%
- Yes - Would Donate more, 2 votes, 5.71%
- Yes - I think the discount should match amount paid, 2 votes, 5.71%


I will post how the final scheme will look later today.

Friday 22 January 2010

Have you voted yet?

Princess Vrisa of Saa Allaqi

Just a quick note to say that I will keep the poll (see previous blog post) open until sometime Sunday morning (here in Canada) - I will probably have a description of how it will work on Sunday evening.

Comments welcome - as always.

Best Regards,

Howard

Tuesday 19 January 2010

The Tekumel Club

Princess Vrisa of Saa Allaqi

At the Tekumel Project we are planning to start a "Tekumel Club".

Members would pay a yearly fee (the monies from which would go straight into production costs) and in return would be able to purchase selected figures at a reduced rate and also some exclusive "Members Only" figures.

The figures would only be those available directly from us and not the military figures that Eureka sells. We currently have two such mini-ranges in the works, both involving creatures that have never been produced before. I hope that both will be well received.

I don't want to say too much but one of the Enemies of Man will be covered, while the other range focuses on one Temple. The first "Members Only" figure would be the Saa Allaqani Princess Vrisa.

Are you interested in such a venture and what would be your level of interest?

I have started a poll over at the TekumelMinis-War Yahoo group to gauge the level of interest.

All contributions via the Club would go directly into the payment of sculptors for ongoing figure production. Note that each sculpt - on average - costs somewhere between $150-$350 (up to $500). The exact cost depends upon whether it is a conversion, made from a blank or a very complex (or simple) figure.

Comments welcome - as always.

Best Regards,

Howard

Sunday 17 January 2010

Kérdu

...or "General" in Tsolyáni.

IIRC, it also means "plan, strategy".

What is it?

It's the large battle wargames rules we are developing in cooperation with Two Hour Wargames, and based upon the "Warrior Heroes" wargames rules of old.

Not much more to tell, except we will be taking Ed's Reaction System and adding all the Tekumeli elements required: Qadarni vs Qadardali, battlefield stratagems, the pre-battle duels, the distinctive non-human races, and, of course, the offensive and defensive magic contingents.

I hope to profile some of the legions involved in the Yan Kor war and offer scenarios based upon those campaigns.

I've already started commissioning art for the book from Mark Allen, the artist doing A Band of Joyous Heroes.

Regards,

Howard Fielding

Thursday 14 January 2010

The Stirge - Wait! That's Not Tekumel!

We did some more playtesting of "A Band of Joyous Heroes" last night, sending a party down into some sewers to search for a missing priest. The scenario derived from some D&D terrain tiles Bruce owns, one of which had a body floating in it (the priest - but I didn't tell him that!)

We took our time starting as I had to fill him in on the updates to the rules. The talents and flaws are almost completely done, and he made some suggestions on how to fill in the missing descriptions. I have been playing around with a points system, though I loathe such systems in general. And we discussed the creature creation system from the rules, in particular the Zrne stats, as they seem a bit too deadly.

After that we started the game proper - just something simple to test spell use and new reaction tables.

I introduced the Stirge into My Tekumel, working up some quick stats and throwing what ended up being three swarms at the party. Why bother - you ask? Doesn't Tekumel have enough beasties of its own? Well yes, it does, but I like the D&D Stirge figures quite a bit - with the double set of wings, I think they look the part - and couldn't resist trying them out. Besides it let me try out swarms as well.

Here are the stats I came up with:

Stirge
Dangerous = base 3d6;
Size = technically, each Stirge should count as small, or very small, but as they attack in swarms they get: large +1 or huge +2;
Speed = Fast +1

Total = large swarm: 5d6, huge swarm: 6d6.

One thing we also determined was that the creature's Rep is it's Base Dice, in this case 3.

Vitality = large swarm: 2, huge swarm: 3

Vitality is basically extra hits a creature has. Essentially to kill a Vitality 3 creature, you have to get 3 Obviously Dead (OD) or Out of the Fight (OOF) results.

Bite Impact: 2 - something I'd been forgetting from previous creature stats.

Thursday 7 January 2010

The Current Range

Hi Guys,

In an effort to get more functionality out of this blog I've tried adding links to picture catalog pages of our existing range. See the upper right sidebar section.

Let me know if this is working for you.

Thanks,

Howard

Friday 1 January 2010

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

HAPPY NEWS YEARS to all you Tékumel fans out there!

(And the rest of you as well, for that matter!) :-)

Besides the Shén and Hláka that were previewed a ways back - we have a bit more up our sleeve for the upcoming year!

Our New Years Resolutions:

1) Release the Shén and Hláka - this should happen early Spring.

2) Release the Ahoggyá - I have asked Alan Marsh, one of our UK sculptors, to develop a multi-part Ahoggyá "kit" that should allow one to make armoured and unarmoured variants with a plethora of arm choices. He was hoping to get to that between the Holidays, but no word yet. I also asked him to make some blanks to allow us to do Dháru and Vánu troops for Yán Kór, in their distinctive armour. Lastly I requested some girl slingers to finish off the Gurek of the Silver Worm. I hope to see these soon as well.

3) Release three more Gureks for Yán Kór: Rüllá, Defense Against Evil and Silver Worm - these have actually been more-or-less done for some time, only I wanted to break up all the Yán Kór stuff.

(Mind you, I hadn't really intended to go a year or more with no release but "things happen." Entirely my fault: a combination of "morale failure" and "analysis paralysis".)

4) I hope to see some individual figures from our other UK sculptor, though I have heard nothing from him in some time...

5) Rodrick Campbell, of Highlander Studios, one of our US sculptors, will be working on several projects: a "weapons and plumes" conversion set, some "Joyous Heroes" and two super-secret releases that I hope will cause a stir. :-)

6) Another US sculptor is poised to start another scheme I have which, when it comes to fruition, will see the Tsolyáni battalia substantially increased! :-)

7) Publish our skirmish rules: "A Band of Joyous Heroes". This will be done in cooperation with Two Hour Wargames. Work continues apace, though the holidays have necessitated a slight delay.

8) Publish our Big Battle rules, tentatively called "Kérdu" - or "General" - again, in cooperation with Two Hour Wargames.

And thats it!

Whew - it's going to be a busy year! :-)

Best Regards,

Howard Fielding
The Tekumel Project