Well to its credit there IS something about EPT/Tekumel that draws some folk in to want to know more about this world, the language and all that since the elements were being laid out and sure enough its going to attract people who get into languages and script. Pretty much everyone I met who knew of or played it raved about the rich alien setting, language and script.

Unfortunately you get the weirdos with the fans. But what else is now. Every franchise has those.

Quote from: Omega;920148Unfortunately you get the weirdos with the fans. But what else is now. Every franchise has those.

Not to the same degree.

Everything I've ever read about Barker makes him sound like a really cool and fascinating dude.

Quote from: yosemitemike;920158Not to the same degree.

Star Trek Klingons

I've only recently taken the plunge as a "Tekumel GM", with naive players too. Some had vaguely heard of the world. Some not at all. As a result no one was there to tell me or them that we were "doing it wrong". And we had a lot of fun the handful of times we played.

The adventures are not ground-breaking in any way shape or form: go seek/sell/steal this thing, kill/rescue/find that person, etc. But because they take place on Tekumel, and because I work hard at visualizing the world before any session (the crowds, the alien bits of vegetation, the awe inspiring ruins, the utterly incomprehensible traps, the Alien-like deadly creatures, etc), the games take on a unique feel, a mix of wonder, weirdness, and potentially immense danger, with bits of Tsolyany social mores for the laughs and the awkward moments. And it works. The players and I really enjoy it and want more.

We're not weirdos either. We have loads of experience when it comes to RPGs (we're in our late 30s, early 40s), yet playing a handful of adventures turned us on for more. It does require us a bit more work though. A desire to try something new perhaps. A desire to not game in a Manichean world. A desire to take a chance really. A willingness to think outside the box too ... which does my head in from time to time. But it's worth it, as it makes my enjoyment of the hobby fresh again.

Quote from: Neshm hiKumala;920240I've only recently taken the plunge as a "Tekumel GM", with naive players too. Some had vaguely heard of the world. Some not at all. As a result no one was there to tell me or them that we were "doing it wrong". And we had a lot of fun the handful of times we played.

The adventures are not ground-breaking in any way shape or form: go seek/sell/steal this thing, kill/rescue/find that person, etc. But because they take place on Tekumel, and because I work hard at visualizing the world before any session (the crowds, the alien bits of vegetation, the awe inspiring ruins, the utterly incomprehensible traps, the Alien-like deadly creatures, etc), the games take on a unique feel, a mix of wonder, weirdness, and potentially immense danger, with bits of Tsolyany social mores for the laughs and the awkward moments. And it works. The players and I really enjoy it and want more.

We're not weirdos either. We have loads of experience when it comes to RPGs (we're in our late 30s, early 40s), yet playing a handful of adventures turned us on for more. It does require us a bit more work though. A desire to try something new perhaps. A desire to not game in a Manichean world. A desire to take a chance really. A willingness to think outside the box too ... which does my head in from time to time. But it's worth it, as it makes my enjoyment of the hobby fresh again.

This exactly how it was for me and my group when we started adventuring on Tekumel 30+ years ago. The novelty was a welcome break from the dwarves, elves, orcs and dragons which dominated the world of RPGs. I had the Blue Sourcebook, and the EPT rules from Different Worlds and that was it. We really weren't worried if we were playing it "correctly" because we didn't know anyone else who was playing on Tekumel. We didn't care at the time and still don't. The only thing I've tried to maintain from the so called canon was to keep everything related to the general background story as it was presented in the rules, Sourcebook, and novels (no orcs running around in Tsolyanu, Hirkane is emperor, and no Yan Koryani occupation of Tsolyanu). To be honest this about as close to "official Tekumel" as I care to go. This is why very early on the game was moved to Pechano which had very little "official" background published thus providing a lot more flexibility to me as a DM when it came to creating a module or adventure arc for the party.  My two cents worth on what you wrote.

Shemek.

Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;920176Everything I've ever read about Barker makes him sound like a really cool and fascinating dude.

He was. He could drive us crazy at times, but he was a lot of fun most of the time. I learned a lot about history and other cultures, and all in all I think the time I've spent with him and his creation was worth it.

Quote from: Omega;920185Star Trek Klingons

That's not the same flavor of weirdo at all.  An analogous group would be the canon fanatics showing up to a Trek RPG.

Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;919155NON-INTIMIDATING TEKUMEL

or

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW TO PLAY 1975 EotPT IN ONE BRIEF HAND-OUT:

You live on Tekumel, a steamy-hot jungle world with two moons, no white people, no horses, very little metal, and no stars in the sky. Humans are the main sentient race but there are many others, all very alien. There are "Monsters" in the wilderness and The Underworld (The planet-wide linked web of "Dungeons"- the whole crust is a mega-dungeon, basically) and they are the stuff of H.R. Geiger's worst bad acid trip. Your characters don't know it (And pretty have no chance of ever knowing it) but Tekumel is a lost colony of a human star-faring empire 100,000+ years in our future. There are no more Caucasians because the Americas (Except rural Guatemala), Europe, and all of Asia except rural Sri Lanka and the Yemeni deep desert got wiped in a nuclear war long before recorded history.

You are barbarians from some obscure podunk nation. Probably buck naked, maybe in a grass skirt. Your shitty boat has just washed up on the shores of Tsolyanu, "The Empire of the Petal Throne". It's a very, very old, regimented, bigoted, densely populated, socially complex, and massive authoritarian empire that's sorta like a cross between the Aztecs and Ancient China. Sorta. Kinda. If you squint hard. Tsolyanu is where the action is. Everything in the EotPT revolves around clans... you underworld-crawl so that you can buy, weasel, or marry yourself into a clan. You are a murder-hobo, but you're a wannabe-bourgeoisie murder-hobo and there is sort of a point to it. Like Feudal Japan, "Face" and showing proper respect is really important. All crimes have only one punishment in the Empire: Being publicly impaled on a sharp pole stuck up your ass. However, only the worst cases actually reach Imperial justice, usually things get settled clan-to-clan with blood money, gifts, concessions, poisonings, etc.

Slavery, nudity, human sacrifice and drugs are all the culturally accepted day-to-day norm (Except for the weird heroin-analog drug that's sold by the scorpion-men pirates that have stone boats and rape you with their tails). Tsolyani culture is crazy-ass "Callous" by the standards of Modern Western morality. There are "Gods" (Awesome Lovecraftian alien energy beings), and their temples have a near-monopoly on magic. The gods fall into two factions: The Gods of Stability and The Gods of Change. You might think that they would hate each other but they seem to have more-or-less reached an understanding and can't fight each other openly. Your weapons and armor are made out of alchemically-treated dinosaur hide about as hard as bronze and can be in whatever outlandish color or shapes that you can afford (i.e. spiky zig-zag hook swords that make Klingon melee weapons look sensible).

OK, anything I forgot? Anything you would have worded differently?

If Kevin Crawford's rules don't ever appear, I'll just copy this and re-write it for future players (incorporating my own changes to the Tekumeli canon).

Quote from: ArrozConLeche;919285This little bit reminds me of Skyrealms of Jorune, which ultimate goal was for you to gain citizenship, if I remember correctly. It's nice to have a purpose beyond loot.

Much the same as Flashing Blades, then, where you aim to improve your Social Rank, or much like many Runequest games where you want to improve your standing in the temple's hierarchy...

Quote from: Luca;919349Tekumel needs only one thing to flourish: whoever is pulling the strings on it greenlighting Kevin Crawford's take on the setting.
Unfortunately it looks like there was no agreement, so it's a moot point.

As for the obscure canon, personally I wouldn't care less about my campaign being "faithful" to Barker's original one. Hell it's pretty much guaranteed mine would diverge from the very first session. Just give me the general outlook and the tools to further develop the setting, I'll do the job from there tailoring it to my table; don't need someone else to teach me how to play, thank you very much.

That's too bad. Is there any confirmation that an agreement wasn't reached?

Totally agreeing with your "don't need an Official Authority to teach me how to play, and need authorization even less" sentiment, though;).

Kevin posted over on RPG.net that no agreement was reached and he was no  longer working on this ruleset.

Quote from: Hermes Serpent;920629Kevin posted over on RPG.net that no agreement was reached and he was no  longer working on this ruleset.

Well, that's too bad.

Quote from: Hermes Serpent;920629Kevin posted over on RPG.net that no agreement was reached and he was no  longer working on this ruleset.

Once again, the Foundation shoots itself in the foot. Unless if course they mean to keep Tékumel obscure.

I hope that at some point maybe K.C. decides to do something like EPT with the serial numbers filed off.

Quote from: The Butcher;920720Once again, the Foundation shoots itself in the foot. Unless if course they mean to keep Tékumel obscure.

Honestly, I think it's more that they believe that the intellectual property of Tekumel is worth way more than it actually is.

Quote from: ArrozConLeche;920721I hope that at some point maybe K.C. decides to do something like EPT with the serial numbers filed off.

Pundit already did that.