Sample "Picture Map" - Penom and Pan Chaka

Map by Mark Allan.

This was an early attempt to make a series of maps done in the fashion of the original Empire of the Petal Thrones game box. Rather than a "proper" map, the end result would be as much picture as map. I have since decided that this version is not quite what I'm looking for. What I want is even more busy - with more figures and scenes of life, symbols and non-mappy stuff, if you get my drift. It is possible that it will be less "accurate" and more representation, with more geographic distortion as accompanied RW maps from earlier eras. Also, I might "zoom in" a notch and cover smaller areas in greater detail.

The original concept was that this map would be on the left facing page of a book, with the eastern part of the Southern Coast on the right hand facing page. Could still happen, as I am toying with the idea of going with some sort of large landscape style book for the final product.

The Band of Joyous Heroes

I've started a new series of posts on my "Heroes of the Age" blog, describing A Band of Joyous Heroes - it's mechanisms and it's intent.

"Slurping" with Blurb.com

My "Yearbook"

Some of you already know I've been looking into using Blurb.com to publish "A Band of Joyous Heroes", "Kerdu" and a background book (or books) for Tékumel. Blurb offers full colour publishing in soft-cover, hard cover with a dust jacket and hard cover with image wrapped cover. I can't speak to whether they are the cheapest but I found them to be very user friendly. For the record, I also looked into Lulu but when I had questions I didn't get answers but requests to "upgrade" my account. So I went with the guys who gave me answers: Blurb.

I wanted to find out how Blurb's quality was so as a test I used a feature that might interest those of you with blogs of your own. I decided to make a "yearbook" for The Tékumel Project. Blurb allows you to "slurp" your blog into one of their layouts automatically. The links are turned into footnotes and the pictures show up as margin thumbnails. The latter you can move around and manipulate afterwards as you like or you can keep them as thumbnails. There is probably going to need to be some adjustment to make sure the picture is aligned properly even so as the process tries to "fit" the photo as best it can and automatic processes only work so well.

As my first two years as a blogger were pretty pathetic, the book covers everything up until the end of December 2010. I reformatted some of the pictures, making them a good size on the page and fixed some of the thumbnails, but I was eager to see the results so I didn't spend as much time doing that as perhaps I could or should have. To me, the content is mediocre but the final physical product was worth the test.

I am very impressed by the result. It cost me about $44CDN give or take and rolls in at 115 pages, hard cover with a dust jacket. Not bad, methinks. Imagine if the content were more worthy or the pictures full colour...

Note that the picture on the cover is blurry b/c of my crappy photography skills, not in actual fact!

Zaz - Je Veux

My Current Favourite Song! (And I can barely speak French!)

EDIT: And here are the lyrics translated!

On a more Tekumel related note I took receipt yesterday of my first "book" published using Blurb.com - that is a sort of "yearbook" of the Tekumel Project Blog from 2008 until the end of 2010. Not much content-wise but I am impressed by the quality of the hardcover book that Blurb produced. This is how I intend to produce A Band of Joyous Heroes so this was a bit of a trial run. I think it took about two weeks from the date ordered to get the finished product.

Gánga Tourists

Gánga Tourists

Éngsvan hlá Gánga: “the Kingdom of the Gods.”

Nowadays, when the weather is fine, enterprising guides take wealthy patrons on tours of the underwater ruins of the city of the Priestkings.

Just some more art for A Band of Joyous Heroes.

A Band of Joyous Heroes - Rules Preview 2

Last time I posted a rather long-winded bit that happened to include a combat example from the rules. Here I jump straight in with more parts of the combat system. It is based upon Two Hour Wargames free CR3-Swordplay rules, but I have tweaked it a bit.

I have added a number of "Combat Effects" - the Swordplay rules just have knocked down, but I found that overly simplified. I have added Headlong Attacks and Impaling Weapons; and the Combat Effects: Knock Down, Push Back, Maneuver, Fall Back, Disarm, Counterstrike and Break Weapon or Shield.

Headlong Attack

Certain creatures or individuals are prone to making headlong attacks heedless of possible injury to self. Such creatures gain bonus dice when they melee due to the ferocity of their attack. In addition, if they win the combat they receive a +1 result on the Melee Combat Results table.

Impaling Weapons

Some weapons are capable of impaling, causing severe wounds in the process, particularly when used against a foe making a Headlong Charge. Impaling weapons are indicated on the Weapons Table. If the impaling weapon wins the combat they receive a +1 result on the Melee Combat Results table.

Combat Effects:

Any time the wound level is reduced to Evenly Matched, either by an armor save or through Star Power, a Combat Effect is said to occur as well. A Combat Effect is an additional result such as a knock down, a disarm or push back. Some Combat Effects require a pre-requisite skill or weapon type.

Knock Down – Requires that the attacker have a two-handed weapon or be two Size categories larger than his foe. The foe who saved against the damage is knocked down instead by the force of the blow. It takes an activation to regain ones feet, with no attack that turn.

Push Back – The attacker may force his foe back up to 2”, immediately following up. If the foe cannot move backwards because of an obstacle then the attacker gains the equivalent of a Reach Advantage in the next turn. If the foe is backed into a hazard of some kind, such as the edge of a rooftop, an Agility Challenge must be taken to avoid the hazard (i.e. falling.)

Maneuver – The attacker may maneuver around the foe. The foe spins on the spot and continues to face the attacker.

Fall Back – The attacker may fall back up to 2” while fighting. The foe automatically follows up and remains in contact.

Disarm – If the attacker possesses the appropriate skill and weapon, he may attempt to disarm his foe. This is accomplished through a Challenge Test – but with only one attempt permitted (per attack.)

Counterstrike – The attacker with a buckler or dagger in his off hand, and possessing the skill, may attempt a counterstrike. Both combatants roll 2D6 each, counting successes as a normal attack, but only rolling once. If the attacker rolls more successes than his foe then apply that result – the normal armor save applies.

Break Shield or Weapon – An attacker with a weapon rated Impact 4 or higher, may attempt to shatter his opponent’s shield, or weapon, if the foe has no shield. Roll 1D6 and add the Impact value. If the result is “10” or higher, then the shield is splintered or the weapon broken. Steel weapons and shields need a total of “12” or more to break them; those that are magical cannot be harmed in this manner.

It should be noted that the BoJH Melee Results table differs from Swordplay as well:

Melee Combat Results Table

# SUCCESSES RESULT
3+ Obviously Dead - NS
2 Obviously Dead
1 Out of the Fight
0 Evenly Matched


NS = No Armour Save possible.

A Band of Joyous Heroes

It's been a while since I posted anything about A Band of Joyous Heroes, the set of tabletop adventure rules I've been working on. I have been puttering away on the rules, pretty slowly really - and with long gaps of inaction. This is not because I have lost interest or anything like that; it is because I have been focusing on the stuff in the book that comes before the rules.

I want the background material to prepare the player for Tékumel and for playing a Tsolyáni character. I don't want there to be characters named "Bob" or Ono-Mato-Pe'a or any of the other silly names players come up with for their characters in D&D games. Not that this is a role-playing game - it's not really. It's a "Tabletop Adventure Game". That's what I call it - a wargame (a "skirmish" game, if you like) played out with figures on a tabletop. Two Hour Wargames used to call their games "RPG-Lite", but now I see they are referring to them as "Immersion Games". That is, games that allow you to "be" the character. If the game is about WW2 squad level combat the rules allow you to be the squad leader without the "200-foot General" syndrome - and hopefully without the mini-maxing rules-lawyers that spoil so many games for others! Rattrap Production's series of Pulp, Weird World War 2, Retro-Sci/Fi and Swashbuckling games are a similar thing. They are wargames played out on the table.

When I say that they are wargames, I am referring to the fighting and the use of figures. Most of these games emphasize "characters" over "units". That is, the players normally take on the role of the heroes and either the referee or another player runs the villain and his goons.

That is what A Band of Joyous Heroes is intended to be. By default the players will be Tsolyáni and human, but allowances are made for foreigners and non-humans. There is nothing to stop one transplanting the game to some other part of Tékumel but I am having enough trouble doing the background for Tsolyánu as it is - I can't do the same for everywhere else as well. At least, not right away.

So what is the problem? Well for one I don't simply want to re-hash the same old history that is described in every other Tékumel publication. For another, I want the background part of the book to prepare the players to play Tsolyáni and I want them to only know what a Tsolyáni would reasonably know.

I want them to see things from a Tsolyáni point-of-view. And I don't want to do it with pages of text descriptions. I want illustrations - lots of them! I want an illustration on every page, and where there isn't I want two on the next page! :-)

Let's face it, the cultures on Tékumel take a bit of getting used to. What I am trying to produce is something similar to those many books out there from the "Eyewitness" series , or "Everyday Life in ... insert culture here" - and so on. You know the ones I mean. They are often considered children's books I think, but who cares.

Anyway, that is where I am at. Work is progressing slowly on both the background and the main rules. I am hopeful that even those who are sick to death of "another set of damn rules" for Tékumel will still find the background part attractive - maybe even useful.

Enough rambling! I had intended to just post a combat example from the rules, but I seem to have got off on a tangent a bit. Count yourself lucky we're not in conversation - I am assured it's much worse! ;-)

So here it is, my combat example - fresh from the pages of BOJH:

Example – Two Warriors (Rep 4), clad in medium armor and armed with sword and medium shield, attack Kómek (Rep 5) who is in heavy armor and armed with a two-hand sword.

• Kómek will roll 5d6 for his Rep, and 1d6 for the reach advantage, for a total of 6d6.
• Both Warriors roll 4d6 for their Rep, plus 1d6 for each friend attacking the same enemy, for a total of 5d6 each.
• All the dice are rolled, keeping each warriors dice carefully separated.
• Kómek scores 5 successes.
• Warrior A scores 3 successes and will continue to melee. Warrior B scores 2 successes and will continue as well.
• All the failures are discarded and all combatants re-roll their remaining dice for a second round of melee.
• Kómek scores 2 successes.
• Warrior A scores 2 successes and will continue to melee.
• Warrior B scores zero successes. As Kómek has scored 2+ successes against Warrior B, he gets an Obviously Dead result.
• However, as Warrior B is armored and has a shield, the Protection Table must be consulted. Kómek has a two-handed weapon with an Impact value of 4. Warrior B has medium armor but the shield provides a column shift to the right, giving the same protection as heavy armor. This gives a one die saving roll against injury. Warrior B rolls a ‘2’ which is a success and reduces the wound from Obviously Dead to Out of the Fight.
• Though not slain, Warrior B still goes down.
• Warrior A must still take a Man Down test. If he passes, the melee will continue with both combatants rerolling their remaining dice.
• Kómek scores 1 success.
• Warrior A scores zero successes. Kómek has scored 1 success against Warrior A, so he is Out of the Fight, but for his armor.
• Warrior A is also armored and has a shield, so the Protection Table must be consulted again. Kómek has a two-handed weapon with an Impact value of 4. Again this yields a one die saving roll against injury. Warrior A rolls a ‘5’ which is a failure so his protection availed him not.
• Had the roll been successful, his protection would have reduced the result from Out of the Fight to Evenly Matched.
• In that instance, Warrior A would still be subject to the combat effect: knocked down, having being struck a solid blow from a two-handed sword.

The rules are based upon the free "CR3-Swordplay" rules available from the 2HW site. I did have to make a few changes as the original rules don't allow for three levels of armour (L, M & H) that have been standard pretty much since the days of Empire of the Petal Throne, if I am not mistaken. So I added a little table to account for the armour, but as you can see armour - unless it is steel or magical - still won't offer much hope if you roll badly. I also added the "combat effects" such as knocked down. Maybe I'll describe them in another post.

What is also missing from the above example is Star Power, which is basically a way of getting a second chance. It is only available to certain characters - the player characters primarily, but occasionally the NPCs. Kómek in the above example would have Star Power dice which he would roll if he suffered an OD (Obviously Dead) result. These would give him a pretty good chance of avoiding that fate - at least early on in the adventure. They can become depleted though and by the end of a hard-fighting game even the heroes are living on the knifes-edge like the lowly NPCs. They have other advantages over NPCs, of course, but I won't go into those here.

One thing you may notice is that there are no "hit points". Characters are either OK, OOF (Out of the Fight) or OD - Obviously Dead. Basically the assumption is that if someone sticks a sword in your gut and doesn't kill you, you are still somewhat discomfited - hence the OOF result. This takes into account shock, pain, etc.

After the encounter there is a check to see whether you can come back to the fight. That is, it really wasn't so bad after all - the wound was bloody and hurt like hell but with some bandages and maybe some magical healing you are ready to carry on. Or, on a bad roll, maybe not so much...

"Not the Bore Worms!"

Not the Bore Worms!

Readers of M.A.R. Barker's The Man of Gold will no doubt recognize this scene. The quote is, of course, from Flash Gordon - appropriate I thought, but otherwise unrelated...

Are the holiday's over yet? I am keen for the New Year to begin! :-)

Cold Wars - and a short progress report

We are heading down to Cold Wars in Lancaster PA this week - leaving Wednesday.

Rod is going to have the Hlutrgu on display at his stand in the dealer's hall (Highlander Studios) and may be working on some stuff at the same time. Which I think is really cool: to see the things "in progress". I'll try and take some good pictures though I know from experience that my hand isn't steady enough for these new high-pixel cameras!

I know there is going to be at least one Tekumel game there and I'm looking forward to checking that out, even if I don't play. We are planning on doing a "pick up" game or two as well, if we can manage it.

Work is continuing - make that "creeping forward" - on a Band of Joyous Heroes. I have divided the book into two sections: the background and the actual rules and work on each section is progressing. This division is not physical as such - it will still be one book - but just an attempt to organize things - the bits that are already decided and just need to be re-written (i.e. the background) and those that I have to write (i.e. the magic rules, encounter rules, etc.)

Mark Allen has been providing a steady flow of art for both sections. At present we are working on the Gazetteer for the background section and he is producing some really nice illustrated maps. As I cannot create background information - it is all already written - all I can hope to do is organize and present it in a pleasing fashion that will get those people unfamiliar with Tekumel interested in the World. To this end I have decided to make the book image heavy - and that's where Mark comes in! :-)

As far as the rules themselves are going the broad sections are pretty much decided upon, though the magic section is still giving me trouble. I've made great progress on what you could call "party creation" or "force creation" or "army list" - remember this isn't [technically] a set of role-playing rules though it has definite scope for role-playing elements as players begin to identify with their characters. There are no "Adventurers" in the traditional D&D sense on Tekumel; everyone has a job. And if they don't have a job as such, then they have obligations. Basically the players will have a "Patron" who may be an organization (government, temple or a secret society), or their clan, or an individual. The adventures will be missions they are sent on by their patron.

Hlutrgú

By Mark Allen

How's that for a face only a mother could love? Scratch that - I seriously doubt that the Hlutrgú are capable of love, even with their own kind. Art for A Band of Joyous Heroes by Mark Allen.

Blogs Blogs Blogs

Feeling quite a bit better today (and better now than this AM) - so I thought I'd try a real post!

I'd like to highlight some of the "Blogs of Interest" in the sidebar to the right, and say why they're there.

First Up is Mark Allen who today is showing some of the art he did a Band of Joyous Heroes. (Warning: Nudity! :-0) These sketches are for the armour section of the rules and attempt to show the diversity of styles. I also wanted to emphasize that Tekumel ain't Middle Earth, or Kansas, and that there are no nudity taboos on Tekumel!

Next Up: The Helgraumite Empire - Donald is a fan of our figures and he sure does paint them nice!

Next we have: El Grego's Pewter-Pixel Wars - Also a fan of our figures. I think you'll find he has some nice ideas about basing.

There is, of course, Chirine's Workbench - a hotbed of Tekumel-related activity. (Check out the 28mm Sakbe Road in his older posts!)

Timeshadows has always been supportive. Check out The Grand Tapestry here.

Lastly today I want to mention the Big Red Bat. A fellow Gloranthan fan, he is currently deep into "Project Zama", a huge 28mm Battle of Zama game intended for one of the upcoming UK conventions. Now THAT is what I call dedication and perseverance! Gotta Love those big units! That is how I want my Tekumel armies to look! :-)

They're going to be using modified Command-and-Colors BTW - an excellent choice, and one of my own favourite rules sets.

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.

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

Band of Joyous Heroes Update

Work is continuing, slowed slightly by the upcoming releases, the pending holidays, and my dog taking sick. I have sent out a newly updated version of the Human reaction tests. I've also started on a Gazetteer section for the book. I hope to do some work on the non-combat challenges tomorrow and Bill Acheson has spurred me to do something about the missing "Unarmed Combat" section...

I plan on returning to the Battle of Ry serialization tomorrow as well.

A Band of Joyous Heroes Teaser

I've put together a little teaser PDF for a Band of Joyous Heroes featuring the artwork of Mark Allen. He has done a pretty cool montage piece to accompany the prologue for the book.

You can find the teaser here:

BoJH-Teaser

Fall In!

Had the pleasure of attending "Fall In!", one of the Historical Miniature Gaming Society(HMGS)-East's conventions, over the weekend. This was only the third time I've attended this convention, but it is always fun. It is held in Gettysburg and it's great to see the battlefield again every year. Of course, it's a seven (plus) hour drive down from Kingston - and at conventions one never gets enough sleep - so I am still recovering.

While there I managed to pick up numerous Tekumel-related items: some cool terrain from the bring-and-buy, and some suitable figures, including a big box-o-lead containing Ral Partha Aztecs and a Sarku Warrior Priest. The latter was from Viking Forge (one of the old Asgard figures, I believe). The Aztecs are true-25s, and so are small compared with our range, but I reckon they will represent skirmishing youths. The box also had bits for numerous palaquins: a few complete and a lot of partials. The best thing is all the seated palaquin riders - these I hope to use as seated Elders. I picked up several sprues of Aztec back-banners or feathers in an different seller's bits box, and I will use those to give each Elder a unique staff or rod.

I love having civilians in my games - they are often essential parts of the scenery. This find will go a long way to providing suitable crowds for town and city scenes, or those on the Sakbe Road.

In addition, I was able to get two playtests of a Joyous Band of Heroes in. It's shaping up slowly. My friend managed to "break" (ie. mini-max) the character generation system - I think that is fixed now. More testing needed...

Will try to get back to the Battle of Ry serialization tomorrow - apologises for the break.

Zrné - “the Barbed One”

This vicious, six-legged hunter is one of the most dangerous animals of Tékumel. It is found in deep forests, jungles and mountainous foothills. A slightly larger subspecies is also found in the highlands of Jánnu and Kilalámmu.

Instinctual; Aggressive; Very Dangerous (4D6); Moderate Size (+0) to Large (+1); Very Fast (+2); Move: 16”; Ambush; Poisonous Bite (Spd 1, Tox 3, Incap).

Reputation: 6 (7, if Large)

I would really like to get one of these made...but in the meantime I am making do with this plastic D&D Figure, called a "Warbound Impaler":



It's not bad, really. It's certainly "barbed". And it already exists - that is a plus. Not quite like the artist's concept, however. YMMV, as they say.

Hyahyú’u - “the Whooper”

A pack hunter, this 6-legged wolf-like creature it gets its name from the weird “hyaa-hyuu” cry it makes as the pack corners their prey. They generally only attack humans if they significantly outnumber the party, otherwise they tend to avoid contact. It is said they will flee if the party has a Páchi Léi in it; they seem to have a special dread of that nonhuman species.

Instinctual; Aggressive; Dangerous (3D6); Moderate size (+0); Fast (+1); Move: 12”; Wary.

Reputation: 4

Reaper Miniatures makes a good proxy figure: the Bloodwolf.

Note: The picture shown above is from their website, painted by Anne Foerster, and is copyrighted by them. The beast is #02754: Blood Wolf ($5.99), and is sculpted by Sandra Garrity.

A Band of Joyous Heroes

A slight delay in getting the 60% draft out. I can't type fast enough it seems. On the plus side, there will be more to the Magic Section as that "brainwave" I mentioned was basically a system for assigning a Rep to the Spells based on their traits.

A Spell has a Reputation (Rep) indicating how difficult it is to cast and control. The traits describe the spell: it's duration, range, area of effect, etc. The Rep is a sum of all the trait values. An example is Range: Self (0 points), Touch (1 point), Close = 5 x Caster Rep in inches on the tabletop (2 points), etc.

I was at something of a loss on handling spells as, while I had a method for casting, I didn't have a method for rating the spells. This system, which derives from a system I used to use in the late '80s, provides just that method.

Then there are the space considerations and I was despairing about the sheer number of spells, and how many to include and which to exclude. This system will allow us to describe a few spells, offer hints about others and let the players and GM's come up with their own specifics.

Or so I hope! :-)

A Band of Joyous Heroes

Work on the game is ongoing. With luck I hope to have the 60% draft version out tomorrow or Tuesday. This may have the bare bones of my proposed Encounter system. It will have a pretty-much finalized combat system (Yes, I have made some amendments). I have yet to type up the Unarmed Combat section, however.

It will also include the proper reaction charts this time, though these are still a work in progress. I am trying to incorporate Noble Action into them...

The non-human intelligent races should also have something in there.

What will probably be missing is any in-depth expansion to the magic section, though I did have a bit of a brainwave while walking the dawg just now.

And the section on backgrounds and force creation may or not be there. I have composed it over and over again in my head, but nothing has been typed in yet.

I've made progress with the Talents and Flaws, though some are still either un-defined or ill-defined.

The Challenge System might be better fleshed out. I've decided to go with the basic system 2HW uses in All Things Zombie and actually define [typical] mods for special situations.

Artwork: still trying to line up one or more artists. Bill Acheson, who is doing some great work on Fauna for the game, reminded me today about an artist who is already into Tekumel. (Remember Hapless?) I'll have to try and get in touch...

Gotta Go,

Howard