Some months ago I bought the original **Empire of the Petal Throne (HOG reproduction)** for $24.95 from Tita’s House of Games. I read through it, and had no group ready to start playing it – I’d probably just use Swords & Wizardry or Labyrinth Lord limiting character species to humans. So I left it in my bookshelf. Then I started following Planet Algol. That campaign uses a strange mix of Carcosa, Mutant Future, and Tékumel with heavily house-ruled AD&D 1st ed. rules, if I remember correctly.
So now I’m thinking about Tékumel again. And buying more background material for inspiration. It’s weird. I want to buy settings and all that, but at the same time I hardly read the books I buy if I’m not playing them. So I seem to be buying books because I’d like to play. This is dumb.
Anyway, I was browsing Tita’s House of Games pricelist 🙁 and reading the reviews making up the The Tekumel Special Collection. And I sent Carl Brodt an email, asking for a quote.
The Tekumel Special Collection
+--------------------------------+---------+ | Tékumel: The Empire of the | $39.95 | | Petal Throne (Tri-Stat RPG by | | | Guardians of Order) | | +--------------------------------+---------+ | Swords and Glory Vol. 1, | $39.95 | | Books 1-3 (reproduction of | | | Gamescience World Sourcebook) | | | Book of Ebon Bindings | $9.95 | | Flamesong (very well read) | $5.95 | | Man of Gold (very well read) | $3.95 | | Shipping | $45.00 | | Total | $144.95 | +--------------------------------+---------+
Argh! Any comments? Stuff I don’t need?
Heh. I know the answer myself: I don’t need any of it!
But I want to play it… and that makes me want to buy it… This is hopeless!
#RPG #Old School
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Man of gold is entertaining, and probably gives a good view of how it feels like to play in the Barker campaign. I’d skip the {GoO Guardians of Order} rules if I were you. They are overly complex and if you are buying the other stuff you will get the world info, will you not?
– Andreas Davour 2009-10-13 14:31 UTC
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Good point! Thanks.
– Alex Schroeder 2009-10-13 14:50 UTC
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I have tried playing in Tekumel a few times but without much success. It really is quite alien, though mostly in a good way. As you are not using the system, I would aim for sourcebooks over game books but I do not know the line well enough to recommend any specifically.
– Sean Holland 2009-10-13 16:47 UTC
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I guess I’m looking for source books to inspire a Planet Algol-like blend of weird. Getting Swords and Glory Vol. 1 seems to be my best bet based on a review I read: “As a reference work, the Sourcebook remains without peer. Even though S&G is a dead system, the Sourcebook remains current, because it contains no rules information whatsoever. As such, it is a useful adjunct to any Tekumel game—or for any fan of the world, whether they play or not.”
– Alex Schroeder 2009-10-13 16:52 UTC
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I really really dig the Empire of the Petal Throne reprint for the monsters (best dungeon monsters ever) and magic/technological items, easily usable with most old-school D&D incarnations pretty much as is. The bestiary is good for more monster info, illustrations, and you can calculate some sort of monster attack/damage info from it.
I haven’t really read anything aside from EOTPT, the Tekumel Bestiary and the Book of Eibon Bindigs, all three are great.
– Blair 2009-10-13 23:04 UTC
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Je vais mettre du temps à ne plus voir inconsciemment Tékumel souillé par cette vie parallèle de Barker, même s’il a au moins eu la politesse de “compartimentaliser” son hétéronyme nazi et sa fantasy. – Chusúni-kh & Svastika : le créateur et son ombre
Chusúni-kh & Svastika : le créateur et son ombre
Ugh, to re-read all that Nazi Baker shit, laboriously, in beautiful French, really drives the nail into my heart. Some days I really wonder about old men. I really do. 🤢
– Alex 2022-03-22 17:26 UTC
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Before the public acknowledgment of this by the Tékumel Foundation, there’d been rumors that Barker had pseudonymously written a pro-Nazi novel. When I first heard them, I had no direct evidence of their truth and, honestly, I had no interest in looking into the matter, as it would have required my engaging with websites and ideas I find abhorrent. So I let all thought of it go, assuming that, if it were provably true, the truth would eventually come out – and so it has, along with much worse. Indeed, I now dread the possibility that even more might yet be revealed in the future. – Shock and Betrayal
James writes after having run a Tékumel campaign for seven years and publishing a Tékumel zine.
– Alex 2022-03-23 08:55 UTC
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The question for me therefore is not whether I feel shocked and betrayed by the creator of Tekumel. It is whether I could possibly ever take that setting seriously again. It has gone from beautiful, mysterious and inspiring to outright sniggerfest in one fell swoop - not because of its own content, but because of the profound ludicrousness of the person who made it. – On the Sullying of Legacies
– Alex 2022-04-01 21:18 UTC