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Author Topic: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (Pe Choi raw materials)  (Read 11157 times)

Offline swiftnick

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Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (more Qol kitbashes)
« Reply #30 on: June 28, 2020, 03:35:18 AM »
I must say I do like Howards figures. I have some Yan kor troops that will one day find their way to Mythological Aegyptus to cause havoc.

Offline Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye

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    • The Tekumel Project
Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (more Qol kitbashes)
« Reply #31 on: June 28, 2020, 05:22:09 PM »
re. Qol. The text from both Empire of the Petal Throne and the later bestiary only mention the snakelike neck and heads. However, all the art shows the tentacle arms, including this early piece by Professor Barker himself. This was on the border of the "War of Wizards" game board, published by TSR around the same time as EPT.



Also, it is well to remember the Professor's own advice on Tekumel Gaming:

Quote
“There is no need for ‘your’ Tékumel to be identical with ‘my’ Tékumel. Introduce other characters, different animals, further races — after all, my terrain maps show only a portion of the planet’s northern hemisphere, and there is lots of room around the other side! Change the social structures, throw out or ignore features which do not appeal to you. Use your own imagination to bring in features which you and your players will enjoy. The game can function as a springboard into your own fantasy mythos, and if you go on to develop this, we shall all be the richer. If you have a campaign which uses some other set of rules, you may still wish to utilize these background materials either directly or as a stimulus to enhance your World. Even were we to issue a monthly newsletter or exchange data by telephone, there is no real way to prevent your history from diverging from mine. I can indeed provide further material — and some are already available from the publisher of this book — but we cannot keep your Tékumel from drifting away from mine. This is as it should be. You have just bought MY Tékumel. Now make it YOUR Tékumel.”

And, as I always say: "Canon" is a four-letter word!  :D

Thanks, Howard!

If the current project takes off, I'm sure I'll be looking to acquire some of your Hlutrgu before long.

I've got a couple of questions on Tekumel races:

1. Is there any textual source for the Qol's tail/tentacle arms, or is it just the illustrations? I'm going to attempt a tentacled kitbash tomorrow in any case.

2. Did Professor Barker ever describe the skin colour of the Shunned Ones? I have some conversions underway and was going to go with a pallid, off-white colour, but I saw that they're a reddish colour on the cover of the Excellent Travelling Volume zine.

Thanks in advance for any insights!
« Last Edit: June 28, 2020, 05:24:55 PM by Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye »

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (more Qol kitbashes)
« Reply #32 on: June 28, 2020, 10:56:48 PM »
Many thanks for that - very much appreciated! I've got some spare Skaven tails that will be doing service as tentacle arms shortly (though I'll keep most of mine with hands, I think).

And, as I always say: "Canon" is a four-letter word!  :D

Ha! Quite!

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (more Qol kitbashes)
« Reply #33 on: June 29, 2020, 07:44:05 PM »
I've taken some very basic steps towards constructing an Ahoggya:

Offline Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye

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    • The Tekumel Project
Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (A potential Ahoggya)
« Reply #34 on: June 30, 2020, 02:33:04 AM »
In 54mm, I am thinking of using Reaper Rockmaws. They are 3-legged things with 3 arms, but I think I could get 3 Ahoggya legs sets from every 4 Rockmaws.

Unfortunately, Reaper appears to be out of stock of the Bones variety ATM.  :(

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (A potential Ahoggya)
« Reply #35 on: June 30, 2020, 08:00:19 AM »
That's the not-Xorn? Oddly enough, it was the very first thing I looked at - but then realised it would be a bit big for 28mm.

Here's my first Hra (a Reaper Bones undead ogre). I've got the smaller "Barker's Hra" underway too, in the form of the Ral Partha troll/trill. I've also ordered some Mantic dwarves to use as the squatter variety of Hra mentioned in the Bestiary.

I suspect the gaping wounds and bare bones on this fellow aren't quite right, but they'll help to remind the players that this relentless monster is a dead thing.

Offline Severian

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 440
Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (the first of the Hra)
« Reply #36 on: July 01, 2020, 09:32:19 AM »
Lots of great ideas here and some fine conversion and painting work as ever.

Re Qol arms, I came across this in chapter 37 of The Man of Gold: "Something else came with her, a threshing, hissing whirlwind of black cloth and sinuous limbs. The arms terminated in bluish-white tentacles rather than hands." It's on p.300 of the recent-ish Tekumel Foundation edition. Not that this means you can't have Qol with hands as well, of course, for all the excellent reasons already mentioned.

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (the first of the Hra)
« Reply #37 on: July 01, 2020, 10:17:03 AM »
Lots of great ideas here and some fine conversion and painting work as ever.

Thanks!

Re Qol arms, I came across this in chapter 37 of The Man of Gold: "Something else came with her, a threshing, hissing whirlwind of black cloth and sinuous limbs. The arms terminated in bluish-white tentacles rather than hands." It's on p.300 of the recent-ish Tekumel Foundation edition. Not that this means you can't have Qol with hands as well, of course, for all the excellent reasons already mentioned.

Aha - well, that's as canonical as it gets - many thanks! I'm reading The Man of Gold at the moment (on Kindle), but I'm still less than half-way through. I've got some bits for some tentacled fellows lined up, so I'll make a few of those to go with the more conventional serpent-men.

I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised by the novel so far. I'd heard that it wasn't great, but I've been gripped so far. Have you read Flamesong or any of the others?

Offline Severian

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 440
Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (the first of the Hra)
« Reply #38 on: July 01, 2020, 10:42:49 AM »
No, just Man of Gold so far. Though I do have Flamesong on order, in fact, second hand from somewhere in America.

The other three novels seem to be unavailable except for silly money. With any luck, though, the Foundation will turn them into e-books at some point.

Interested to hear your thoughts when you finish Man of Gold. Won't say anything else for now...

Offline Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye

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    • The Tekumel Project
Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (the first of the Hra)
« Reply #39 on: July 01, 2020, 01:18:15 PM »
I liked Man of Gold and Flamesong as much as I like any novels; there are always bits one likes more than others. (Tom Bombadil springs to mind!)

The later novels don't flow as well, being more of a series of loosely connected vignettes. A professional editor might have got him to tighten it up and make the connections less loose. That is, of course, just my opinion. YMMV.  ;)

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (the first of the Hra)
« Reply #40 on: July 01, 2020, 09:39:39 PM »
I liked Man of Gold and Flamesong as much as I like any novels; there are always bits one likes more than others. (Tom Bombadil springs to mind!)

I think it was JG Ballard who said that there are no perfect novels but many perfect short stories.

I did detect a little bit of the classic SF "As you know, Dave ..." trope at the start (especially in the conversations on the road to Bey Su), but that's almost a bonus when you're trying to absorb as much setting background as possible rather than simply enjoy the story!

Meanwhile, in Proxyville, I'm wondering whether this Reaper Bones dracolisk might make a cheap Serudla with the removal of wings and addition of small, weapon-equipped arms. Or one of the myriad other six-leggity beasties ...


Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (the first of the Hra)
« Reply #41 on: July 01, 2020, 09:59:24 PM »
Or a Gachaya without conversion.

Offline Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye

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Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (the first of the Hra)
« Reply #42 on: July 01, 2020, 10:01:37 PM »
I've been wondering about that Dracolisk as well! What about chopping off the head and sticking a dragon arms and head on it. There are a bunch of Reaper dragons that are small enough I think, but many of the scale patterns are different so that might be an issue.

Perhaps one of the Hatchlings?

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (the first of the Hra)
« Reply #43 on: July 01, 2020, 10:13:58 PM »
Yes, that might work - although the hatchlings are tiny. I've just ordered a dracolisk, so I'll see how big it is when it arrives.

The one thing I quite like about it as is is the weird head - it's got a bit of a 'sword and planet' look about it already, I think. And the wing 'shoulders' could be used to attach the weapon-wielding arms - perhaps from Mantic salamanders. I don't really mind if it doesn't match up well with the official Tekumel illustrations so long as it broadly fits the description.

Offline NickNascati

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2187
Re: Cheap or readily available Tekumel proxies? (the first of the Hra)
« Reply #44 on: July 02, 2020, 12:38:22 AM »
If you are looking for proxie troops, take a look at the Reaper minis Anhurians.  They are nice, generic Dark Age type figures, good detail, and the bones versions are pretty inexpensive.

https://www.reapermini.com/search/Anhurian

 

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