(Yes, I know I said I wasn't getting to this until next week, but I had some time this week, so here you go.)
So, Tekumel popped into a pocket universe millennia ago and the highly technological culture slid into barbarism. But what about that incredibly advanced culture that discovered Tekumel, defeated the Ssu and the Hluss, terraformed the planet, moved its orbit, and installed huge gravity engines in the planet's core? What would it be like to adventure in the time before the Time of Darkness?
This question is answered in a new game called Humanspace Empires by The Drune. This game is part of the Old School Renaissance characterized by Pathfinder and Labyrinth Lord, as well as similar games evocative of the early years of RPGs. Humanspace Empires is very much designed to have the feel of EPT, but translated into the ultra-high technology level of the pulpy source material that Professor Barker was inspired by. The Drune has done an excellent job of injecting material that will be familiar to Tekumel fans, such as the Health and Pleasure Yeleth and Sunuz being the Galactic Standard language. The descriptions of the non-human races are also superb.
You'll find blast pistols, shield belts, ansibles, and interfogulators. Characters learn PSY powers such as Control of Self and Mind Bar, all very familiar.
So, if you're interested in pre-Cataclysm Humanspace, take a look at Humanspace Empires.
To find more out about this game, I've joined the Spacewords and Glory play-by-blog game. So, as an introduction to this new game, here is my character for the campaign:
Name: Krútai Málakal, Executive Officer on Deeds of Glory
Class/Level: Astronaut/3
Species/Homeworld: Human male from Tau Ceti
Age: 26
STR: 9
DEX: 16
CON: 8
INT: 12
PSY: 11
CHA: 7
Background skills:
Driver
Air Pilot
Spacer
Astronaut Skills/Powers:
Space swordsman
Energy Pistol
Navigator
Pilot +3
PSY Powers:
PSY Luck
Empathy
Control of Self
Bio PK-II
Sleep
Mind Bar
Credits: 2610 CR
Gear:
Space sword
X-Ray pistol
Z-Ray pistol
Skin suit with Shield Belt Mk II
Scan goggles
10 air tablets
Communicator
Magnetic clamps
Utility belt
Backpack
Contra-Grav belt
Perimetric orbs
Concubine (level I)
History:
Múruset Málakal was a brilliant administrator on the Tau Ceti system governor's staff, as well being a member of the governor’s prestigious Dhuón Tuptláng Két. Tlayésha Vríddu was an up-and-coming Imperial Naval officer from one of the great Houses of the empire, the Vríddu. Her career was meteoric, pushed by her whip-smart tactical mind and intense ambition. Múruset was her first husband, the perfect storm of an important political marriage and a love match. They met when Tlayésha was posted to Tau Ceti during a miner’s revolt. Their relationship was instantaneous and passionate. By the time they were married four months later, she was pregnant. Soon, her fleet was reposted to another system.
When she was five months pregnant with Krútai, as the executive officer of the frigate The Sérqu, she led the marine attack on a Hlutrgú corvette. They captured the ship and used it as a decoy to capture several other ships. Her ploy turned the tide in a key part of the Hlutrgú incursions. She then returned to Tau Ceti to be with her husband and deliver her son.
Her career took her all over the empire and beyond, while Múruset raised the boy. She returned as often as duty allowed. Her successes meant promotions to bigger ships. She also married another husband, her chief medical officer, who moved with her from assignment to assignment.
Seven years ago, when Krútai was just starting in the Academy, his mother got her commission as Captain of the dreadnought Red Devastation in one of the empire’s elite fleets. She was always in the lead, always taking the fight to the enemy, always first to shoot, first to board. Four years ago in a Mihálli raid, her ship was destroyed by a completely unknown weapon that obliterated half the fleet in an instant, turning the ships and the crew members inside out. Imperial investigators believe that the ship this terrible weapon was deployed on was also destroyed at the same time -- a suicide ship. His father became the governor’s chief of staff a year later.
From the moment he was born, Krútai moved. His Két-aunts said he never crawled nor walked, but went straight to running. At the age of five, he stole the keycodes to a mining inspection vehicle, and by ten he was learning to fly small inter-asteroid flitters. His father kept trying to get him interested in business or administration, but Krútai wanted to fly a starship. He got good marks in school, and his father finally acquiesced and let him sign up for the Imperial Naval Academy.
When his mother died, Krútai’s resolve stiffened and he finished the Academy with honors. With the solid political backing of his father, and the fiery passion and brilliance of his mother, he did extremely well in his assignments, rising through the ranks deftly with impeccable skills and subtle politics. One outcome of this tragedy was that Krútai became hardened and cruel, which distanced him from his crew. They respect and fear him, but few are his friends. His posting to The Deeds of Glory is his first as executive officer.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Back to back
I'm in the midst of back-to-back weekend getaways, so you'll just have to wait for the next installment of Joyful Sitting. But I'll come back refreshed and energized.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
My History with Tekumel - Part One
I've been playing role playing games since the very beginning. At the tender age of 15, I bought the white box edition of D&D in the fall of 1975 from a local game store called The Little Tin Soldier Shoppe, which, as the name suggested, catered to the lead miniatures market. I had walked in, because I was looking for Avalon Hill boardgames. I had been hooked on Blitzkreig and Afrika Korps by my older brother, and The Little Tin was the closest store that was listed under 'Games' in the Yellow Pages.
I dove right in, but I had trouble getting traction on playing it. I got a copy of Chainmail to try to assist, but that was even harder and I abandoned it. When Blackmoor came out, I was finally able to play a little bit. Then The Palace of the Vampire Queen came out. Now, I had something that I could play with my friends. I enlisted my buddies Bruce and Scott. I can't even remember if we finished the game, because down at the Little Tin Soldier, of which I was now a regular customer, a campaign of another game started -- Empire of the Petal Throne.
That first campaign was refereed by Tim Cox (who played the priest Dutlor in the Professor's campaign, who fired that fateful Eye of Change at Princess Ma'in) and Craig Smith (who drew much of the artwork in later Tekumel publications (The Tekumel Journals and Swords and Glory, specifically). Here was a fully realized world with history and culture and cool ancient technology and spells! Craig and Tim were players in the Professor's campaign, and the store game was an official offshoot of Barker's game.
We started in the typical "Fresh Off the Boat" scenario in Penom, the delightful unkempt armpit of the Empire. In the first session, one of the characters got dragged off to the impalement stake for asking a nobleman directions. As I have said many times, I never looked back¹.
We did everything. We had city adventures, we delved into the underworld, we had military adventures in Milumanaya, we adventured in the wilderness, we took a tube car, we fought our way out of a Hlüss hive-ship, we had an orgy with followers of Lady Hrihayal, we got spat on by Ahoggya, we got kidnapped by robots (sentient Ru'un), we called for divine intervention (a lot). In other words, we had a blast.
In the culmination of nearly two years of adventuring, our ship sailed into Tsamra harbor. We were 'hosted' by the Vru'uneb secret police. They let us 'donate' our best magic items to the State. Then as a gesture of their thankfulness, they 'escorted' us to the tenth level of the underworld beneath Tsamra. While there, we 'made friends' with the many, many denizens of those environs. Of our original party of ten PCs and numerous NPCs and slaves, the last five survivors were 'housed' in a room that was quickly filling with a substance the consistency of Karo syrup. My character, Tolekh hiDraskalu, a priest of Vimuhla, asked my Lord to save us. I got him at a bad time, as I visualized Vimuhla dressed in a bath towel (the mind places its own understandable framework around things it can't cope with). "Please take my party to the surface of Tsamra!" I pled. I blinding flash of light filled my field of vision.
I know that there were more party members than just the three of us, but myself and two others were the only followers of Vimuhla or Chiteng that remained. We found ourselves in the market plaza of a Tsolyani city. We appeared in a huge flash of light and the crack of thunder. The shopkeepers and customers panicked and ran away from us, screaming "Demons! Demons!". The city guard came, armed for Ahoggya. When they saw us, two priests obviously of Vimuhla and a warrior of Chiteng, they put their swords away and talked to us. We were in Tumissa. Apparently, Vimuhla misunderstood me when I said 'Tsamra' and thought I said 'somewhere'. Must have been my foreign accent. We were debriefed by the OAL, escorted back to our temples and clan houses. Then the campaign came to a close.
Our exploits were later immortalized in The Imperial Military Journal in an Imperial Dispatch that I wrote.
That campaign strongly influenced every other campaign I ran and several I played in. It shaped me as a player and a GM. It also was the start of several friendships that have lasted until today (Hi John! Hi Victor! Hi Tom!). Some of the players in that game became the core of my gaming group through high school and college. And we kept coming back to Tekumel for years to come. I feel very lucky.
¹ - I did play AD&D 1st Ed. for about 2 months in the fall of 1980 in order to reserve my place in a friend's The Fantasy Trip campaign that he was going to start once they finished the Narnia-inspired AD&D campaign he was co-DMing. It was rather unintentionally silly, and confusing, even though I had played white box D&D before. My character was a druid who had a trained rhinoceros with a +2 magic horn that he rode into battle. That character was the inspiration for another player's TFT character, an Elvish animal trainer.
I dove right in, but I had trouble getting traction on playing it. I got a copy of Chainmail to try to assist, but that was even harder and I abandoned it. When Blackmoor came out, I was finally able to play a little bit. Then The Palace of the Vampire Queen came out. Now, I had something that I could play with my friends. I enlisted my buddies Bruce and Scott. I can't even remember if we finished the game, because down at the Little Tin Soldier, of which I was now a regular customer, a campaign of another game started -- Empire of the Petal Throne.
That first campaign was refereed by Tim Cox (who played the priest Dutlor in the Professor's campaign, who fired that fateful Eye of Change at Princess Ma'in) and Craig Smith (who drew much of the artwork in later Tekumel publications (The Tekumel Journals and Swords and Glory, specifically). Here was a fully realized world with history and culture and cool ancient technology and spells! Craig and Tim were players in the Professor's campaign, and the store game was an official offshoot of Barker's game.
We started in the typical "Fresh Off the Boat" scenario in Penom, the delightful unkempt armpit of the Empire. In the first session, one of the characters got dragged off to the impalement stake for asking a nobleman directions. As I have said many times, I never looked back¹.
We did everything. We had city adventures, we delved into the underworld, we had military adventures in Milumanaya, we adventured in the wilderness, we took a tube car, we fought our way out of a Hlüss hive-ship, we had an orgy with followers of Lady Hrihayal, we got spat on by Ahoggya, we got kidnapped by robots (sentient Ru'un), we called for divine intervention (a lot). In other words, we had a blast.
In the culmination of nearly two years of adventuring, our ship sailed into Tsamra harbor. We were 'hosted' by the Vru'uneb secret police. They let us 'donate' our best magic items to the State. Then as a gesture of their thankfulness, they 'escorted' us to the tenth level of the underworld beneath Tsamra. While there, we 'made friends' with the many, many denizens of those environs. Of our original party of ten PCs and numerous NPCs and slaves, the last five survivors were 'housed' in a room that was quickly filling with a substance the consistency of Karo syrup. My character, Tolekh hiDraskalu, a priest of Vimuhla, asked my Lord to save us. I got him at a bad time, as I visualized Vimuhla dressed in a bath towel (the mind places its own understandable framework around things it can't cope with). "Please take my party to the surface of Tsamra!" I pled. I blinding flash of light filled my field of vision.
I know that there were more party members than just the three of us, but myself and two others were the only followers of Vimuhla or Chiteng that remained. We found ourselves in the market plaza of a Tsolyani city. We appeared in a huge flash of light and the crack of thunder. The shopkeepers and customers panicked and ran away from us, screaming "Demons! Demons!". The city guard came, armed for Ahoggya. When they saw us, two priests obviously of Vimuhla and a warrior of Chiteng, they put their swords away and talked to us. We were in Tumissa. Apparently, Vimuhla misunderstood me when I said 'Tsamra' and thought I said 'somewhere'. Must have been my foreign accent. We were debriefed by the OAL, escorted back to our temples and clan houses. Then the campaign came to a close.
Our exploits were later immortalized in The Imperial Military Journal in an Imperial Dispatch that I wrote.
That campaign strongly influenced every other campaign I ran and several I played in. It shaped me as a player and a GM. It also was the start of several friendships that have lasted until today (Hi John! Hi Victor! Hi Tom!). Some of the players in that game became the core of my gaming group through high school and college. And we kept coming back to Tekumel for years to come. I feel very lucky.
¹ - I did play AD&D 1st Ed. for about 2 months in the fall of 1980 in order to reserve my place in a friend's The Fantasy Trip campaign that he was going to start once they finished the Narnia-inspired AD&D campaign he was co-DMing. It was rather unintentionally silly, and confusing, even though I had played white box D&D before. My character was a druid who had a trained rhinoceros with a +2 magic horn that he rode into battle. That character was the inspiration for another player's TFT character, an Elvish animal trainer.
Monday, April 18, 2011
New rules? Systemless books?
A recent discussion on the Tekumel email list was about what the next step for Tekumel should be. Some of the goals stated during this debate were (1) bring more people into the Tekumel tent, (2) have a steady set of rules and source materials professionally published in print and electronically, and (3) there is no goal #3.
Some people advocate creating a new set of rules based on Pathfinder or Savage Worlds or some other existing rule set. Some people think that system-less source materials should be published. Others think that one of the previous incarnations should be revamped into a modern form.
My take on this question goes this way. There are about 1000 Tekumel fans worldwide that are connected enough to know about Tita's House of Games. The Tekumel mailing list has about 700. Tita's customer list is about 1000. This number needs to at least double to sell enough books to make publishing commercially viable.
I also personally think we have enough rules for Tekumel. With four commercial systems (EPT, S&G, Gardasiyal, and T:EPT) and numerous fan systems, enough different styles of play are covered to appeal to most everyone. I've written several system conversions, as well as translations from one system to another. Why should we reinvent the wheel for yet another time? How many wheels do we really need? Also, the rules in all of these systems are not what keeps people in the Tekumel tent, it's the world. I've personally played using about a dozen different rule sets.
So, my proposal, and my challenge to you, is that the only way we are going to double the number of Tekumel players in the world is for us to play in Tekumel. If you are a Tekumel enthusiast, pick a set of rules that people you play with will play, read a novel or two and some beginning adventures, cajole, bribe, or shanghai your players into playing, and see what happens. Or start a game at your local game store (they still run games in local game stores, don't they?) If 20 percent of the 1000 each started a new game with 5 new players, we'd be very close to doubling our current numbers.
Now, to help facilitate this surge of new games, I'd like to see some of the old rules made available in electronic form. The only system in electronic form right now is Empire of the Petal Throne. The other official rules are available in print from Tita's, but stocks are low for T:EPT (if any are left at all -- Tita's site hasn't been updated since 2009). I'm not sure what happened to the electronic version of T:EPT that sold for awhile. I know that work is being done on a PDF of the Swords and Glory sourcebook, but that work has been ongoing for over a year, and that isn't the rules. I don't know if Gardasiyal can ever be made available electronically.
Or you might go with other unofficial rules. I wrote a set of GURPS Tekumel character rules. Sandy Peterson wrote RuneQuest/BRP rules. Dave Morris wrote Tirikelu, a custom set of rules. There are FUDGE, Torg, AD&D, D&D 3E, Talislanta, D6, Savage Worlds, and Fantasy Craft rules. If you want to look them over, you can go to The World of Tekumel Unofficial Rules page or my own RPG Rules for Tékumel page. Something should appeal to you.
So, let's get more campaigns going out there. Then we can worry about publishing something new.
Some people advocate creating a new set of rules based on Pathfinder or Savage Worlds or some other existing rule set. Some people think that system-less source materials should be published. Others think that one of the previous incarnations should be revamped into a modern form.
My take on this question goes this way. There are about 1000 Tekumel fans worldwide that are connected enough to know about Tita's House of Games. The Tekumel mailing list has about 700. Tita's customer list is about 1000. This number needs to at least double to sell enough books to make publishing commercially viable.
I also personally think we have enough rules for Tekumel. With four commercial systems (EPT, S&G, Gardasiyal, and T:EPT) and numerous fan systems, enough different styles of play are covered to appeal to most everyone. I've written several system conversions, as well as translations from one system to another. Why should we reinvent the wheel for yet another time? How many wheels do we really need? Also, the rules in all of these systems are not what keeps people in the Tekumel tent, it's the world. I've personally played using about a dozen different rule sets.
So, my proposal, and my challenge to you, is that the only way we are going to double the number of Tekumel players in the world is for us to play in Tekumel. If you are a Tekumel enthusiast, pick a set of rules that people you play with will play, read a novel or two and some beginning adventures, cajole, bribe, or shanghai your players into playing, and see what happens. Or start a game at your local game store (they still run games in local game stores, don't they?) If 20 percent of the 1000 each started a new game with 5 new players, we'd be very close to doubling our current numbers.
Now, to help facilitate this surge of new games, I'd like to see some of the old rules made available in electronic form. The only system in electronic form right now is Empire of the Petal Throne. The other official rules are available in print from Tita's, but stocks are low for T:EPT (if any are left at all -- Tita's site hasn't been updated since 2009). I'm not sure what happened to the electronic version of T:EPT that sold for awhile. I know that work is being done on a PDF of the Swords and Glory sourcebook, but that work has been ongoing for over a year, and that isn't the rules. I don't know if Gardasiyal can ever be made available electronically.
Or you might go with other unofficial rules. I wrote a set of GURPS Tekumel character rules. Sandy Peterson wrote RuneQuest/BRP rules. Dave Morris wrote Tirikelu, a custom set of rules. There are FUDGE, Torg, AD&D, D&D 3E, Talislanta, D6, Savage Worlds, and Fantasy Craft rules. If you want to look them over, you can go to The World of Tekumel Unofficial Rules page or my own RPG Rules for Tékumel page. Something should appeal to you.
So, let's get more campaigns going out there. Then we can worry about publishing something new.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Why
The first question would be "Why would anyone write a blog about Tekumel?" It's an old setting that has had a checkered publishing history. It's never reached the audience that something like RuneQuest or Traveller has.
The answer to that is that in spite of difficulties, Tekumel presents one of the most creative settings around. It's depth and scope approaches Middle Earth, but with a heavy dose of the strange and exotic. Whereas Tolkien drew from the familiar themes of northern Europe, Barker used the less well-known motifs of Indian, the Middle East, and Meso-America. He combines them with the pulpy sci-fi of the 40s and 50s in a way that makes you believe this place exists on some plane.
The second question would be "Why would I write a blog about Tekumel?" I've been around role-playing games since the beginning, as a player, a GM, and a writer, and Tekumel was the first campaign I ever played in. It ruined me for D&D. I've been around Tekumel ever since. After 35 years, it's still my favorite RPG setting.
So, that answers those questions. Perhaps you have some questions as well. Ask in the comments, if you like.
The answer to that is that in spite of difficulties, Tekumel presents one of the most creative settings around. It's depth and scope approaches Middle Earth, but with a heavy dose of the strange and exotic. Whereas Tolkien drew from the familiar themes of northern Europe, Barker used the less well-known motifs of Indian, the Middle East, and Meso-America. He combines them with the pulpy sci-fi of the 40s and 50s in a way that makes you believe this place exists on some plane.
The second question would be "Why would I write a blog about Tekumel?" I've been around role-playing games since the beginning, as a player, a GM, and a writer, and Tekumel was the first campaign I ever played in. It ruined me for D&D. I've been around Tekumel ever since. After 35 years, it's still my favorite RPG setting.
So, that answers those questions. Perhaps you have some questions as well. Ask in the comments, if you like.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Introduction
The Eye of Joyful Sitting Amongst Friends is a powerful techno-magical item in the Tekumel universe. Eyes are small, handheld devices that use intraplanar power to create magical effects. They are called Eyes, because they are about the size and shape of a human eyeball. They have a small stud on the back to fire the device, and they hold up to 100 charges. The Eye of Joyful Sitting Amongst Friends causes a group of targets to be friendly to the user of the eye. I named this blog after this device, because I hope people will come here and discuss Tekumel as friends.
Tekumel is a fantasy world created by M.A.R. Barker, and described in several role-playing games, including Empire of the Petal Throne. For more information about Tekumel, visit the official Tekumel website or my own Tekumel site.
I have been involved with Tekumel since it was published in 1975. The first role-playing campaign I ever played in was set in Tekumel, and I never looked back. It ruined me, as far as D&D was concerned, forever.
In this blog, I want to discuss the current state of Tekumel, what products are available, what products have come before, and other musings on the topic of this great fantasy universe.
Welcome, Friend!
Tekumel is a fantasy world created by M.A.R. Barker, and described in several role-playing games, including Empire of the Petal Throne. For more information about Tekumel, visit the official Tekumel website or my own Tekumel site.
I have been involved with Tekumel since it was published in 1975. The first role-playing campaign I ever played in was set in Tekumel, and I never looked back. It ruined me, as far as D&D was concerned, forever.
In this blog, I want to discuss the current state of Tekumel, what products are available, what products have come before, and other musings on the topic of this great fantasy universe.
Welcome, Friend!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)