I've been a fan of the setting and EPT for about 20 years or so. I got lucky because a vendor of those books lived in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and he popped up at all of the local conventions with very reasonably priced books. I've ran a play by post campaign, and a series of one-shots at Cons. The convention games were mostly about adherents of Lord Sarku. In the end the characters became intelligent undead (Jajgi) as a "reward." Hehe.
I've never even heard of this world and I've been playing RPGs for 40 years. Thanks for introducing it to me, your channel is fantastic and insightful.
I first heard about the setting from Mark Barrowcliffe's The Elfish Gene, and thought that it sounded very interesting. I've read Barker's first two books and very much enjoyed them, and really enjoy the setting. I watched your video on the revelation of Barker's anti-semitic campaigns on the same day I decided I wanted to dig into the source material to study the setting, admiring it as an accomplishment of world building. Now I'm asking myself questions, like where there might be allegories to his harmful political views in the world of Tékumel, which, from my perspective, it seems like there is hardly anything within the setting that shouldn't be seen as problematic by modern standards--but that's actually one of the things that attracted me to the setting, in contrast to an idealic world like Middle Earth where there is a clear delineation between good and evil. I became attracted to the Empire of the Petal Throne because of its attention to ancient human paradigms, to its attention to geography, economics--everything that makes history tick. That's a nuanced conversation that I don't think that I can meaningfully contribute to with my understanding, but I do believe you when you say that you can begin to draw those comparisons to his harmful beliefs. My feeling is that my interest in Tékumel isn't going away, and that I won't shy away from examining Barker's life and his works in an objective way. I hope that my understanding of the impact of his transgressions will only improve, and that Tékumel will continue to belong to the people who have adopted the setting and that it would be defined by the content of our hearts, and not by the harmful beliefs of the author. I'd love to hear from you.
Yeah, I've had to close the covers on Tekumel. I was very disappointed that the Tekumel foundation never decided to do any mitigating actions (like a new special edition of the old game, with profits going to a Holocaust cause would have been a perfect idea). I'm currently musing on creating a setting that might have some of the good aspects of Tekumel without the weird head-canon shifts that were needed to make play comfortable (the human sacrifice aspects, and the readiness of characters in his novels to slaughter slaves as sacrifices to demons were pretty disturbing). I'm heading off to Thailand, Indonesia and Malaya soon, wandering ruins, studying traditional dance and exploring historical sies. As a gradiuate of Aztec and Mesoamerican history, I'm pretty well placed to cook up something inteesting.
@@LaceandSteelchannel oh, very cool! I read Fifth Sun by Camilla Townsend, and I have a book by Inga Clendinnen among other books, some source material. I'd like to learn Nahuatl eventually, but I'm studying Spanish for now. I was interested in the idea of learning more about Tékumel when I learned of the news that broke this year. I actually really enjoyed The Man of Gold and Flamesong.
@@Azihayya Aaah, Inga was my tutor in Aztec history, and we had many a great argument and lesson. We stayed in touch after I graduated - I thought she was a riot!
@@LaceandSteelchannel From what little I've heard, I've gotta admire your academic career! I haven't made it all the way through Penguin's History of the World yet, and I haven't made it very far into Quigley's Tragedy and Hope, either. I'm trying to make a living out of writing and designing games right now.
@@Azihayya I keep studying! One of my main expertises is Japanese history. So I've been doing a lot of design work for miniatures games and RPGs on that theme lately for some publishers. Currently combing through a lot of Thai, Malayan, Indonesian and Borneo history. Fascinating stuff!
Had a roomate who got into RPGs way, way back in the day (late 76): brown box of D&D, EnGarde, and Empire of the Petal Throne. I remember reading through the books and thinking it seemed much more comprehensive than the booklets for D&D. But there was something "off" about it compared to either D&D or EnGarde, and it neve appealed to any of our group enough to even attempt a session of it while we did play the others. Now we know.
I keep telling people, this is the best RPG world setting ever created! Getting people to try it, not so easy. Well, now I can tweet your review and say: Pauli says this is the greatest RPG setting ever! Nice collection. Your Arneson copy is very interesting.
And don't forget the fiction he wrote set in the world of Tekumel: Man of Gold, and Flamesong (DAW), and Lords of Tsámra, Prince of Skulls, and A Death of Kings (Zottala).
I've been fascinated by Empire of the Petal Throne for so long. Considering I've never played it, it's odd that I can still point to it as one of the inspirations for one of my own settings, which I've written in extensively. I've had a few versions over the years, but I'm contemplating grabbing Bethorm (and maybe the Petal Hack), and then maybe trying to actually dive in and give it a try.
I bumped into it with our group in 1977. I was perhaps a little young to get it then, but yes artwork was fascinating. I have a small collection of the old books on my shelf, but after the switch to Traveller, no one ever ran it locally again.
I always loved the baroque beauty of the setting. Ooooh - I have my eye on the 'Travveler 5th ed" hardcover set at the moment. It's going to be $200 USD with postage and so on added. Arrrrgh....
Just found this channel ,,, excellent content , ive always wanted to wargame this genre in particular . Thanks for this review , looking forward to watching other episodes .
Great, now I have an idea for a "lost empire" type of boardgame, a la History of the World but with more colour and artifacts. Build empires, each with their own cultures, languages and unique structures. Watch them implode, wither away or get overrun, before all of its temples, monuments, roads and infrastructure degrade or disappear. Have notes on the bottom of each token so players have to try and work out 10 turns later where the hell they came from, then end the campaign at some point and use it as the basis of an RPG. Yeah I can see this being a thing., time to drag out my custom geomorphic world map tiles...
Yes. This game lit up my younger life - and Barker corresponded with me when I was a teenager, encouraging me to become a games desiner and author. So this is just appalling. I did a video on the subject
