The Tekumel Track was a huge success

This weekend at Con of the North the Tekumel Track was a huge success. There were six roleplaying sessions and two board games. At least 8 players were completely unfamiliar with Tekumel, and several wanted more information after the game.

The only event didn't happen was the Tekumel Trivia contest that was scheduled to run from 6-8pm on Sunday. Most of the con-goers leave at 6pm, and all of the regular Tekumel players were just too tired to continue.

Friday started with a Welcome to Tekumel session, a meet and greet for players and referees. I was really worried no one would show up for the weekend. When over 15 people showed up for the first session of the con, including a few Tekumel-virgins, I knew things were going to be just fine. Several people came in from Sioux Falls, SD, and later that evening, two arrived from Duluth, MN. Next time I'll have some refreshments.

The first game session was Stephen Vossler's Get Off the Boat in Zhaigriyal scenario. Stephen has been developing his town of Zhaigriyal for his home group for almost two decades. His beautiful maps of the city detail every building using AutoCAD. This adventure was essentially a city-crawl, where everyone could explore the city's delights, while on a two day layover on the way to Bey Su. We got into a little trouble, but not too much.

Next was a Hirilakte arena gladiator card game that Stephen created. Each player was an owner of gladiators betting on the bouts. The mechanics were fun, and the game was well-thought out.

The last game of the night was my Where in Sarku's Cold Wormy Hell Are We?, a Tekumel hexcrawl that takes place after the characters are forced to take a tubeway car to an unknown destination. Fun was had by all, and they returned mostly intact to Mrelu.

Saturday was jam-packed with 18 hours of games. Don Kaiser ran his The Jade Box, an introduction to travelling by tubeway car (seemed to be the theme of the weekend again). We went to eight of the ten locations on a tubeway car disk, and we retrieved a jade box from Queen Nayari's palace and tomb in ancient Purdanim. Then Charlotte Kegley ran Qadarni Boat Battles, a board game of boat battles that take place in Zhaigriyal during the summer festivals. The object of the game is to dump the other boat's captain into the water. This was a nice tactical game. Stephen ran his Prisoner Exchange scenario, also set in Zhaigriyal. My character kept the party moving through the underworld to make a prisoner exchange with the temple of Vimuhla. We all survived. I ended the night by running Krista Donnelly's Lost in the Library scenario. A group of Thumis priests get locked in the Library in the Temple of Thumis in Sokatis, and must survive and solve a mystery.

Sunday was the second part of Don Kaiser's The Jade Box, where the same party must take the Jade Box, which the Imperium has determined is too dangerous to keep, to the treasure vault in the city of Malcháiran in N'lǘss.

Everyone had a great time. We're already making plans for next year.