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Post by pulpherb on Jun 21, 2020 20:34:27 GMT -6
I put up an add for players to start an EPT game next month and got my first response. A total RPG newbie they asked, "Any initial things I need to do? As I've said I'm an entire newbie to this but I'm trying to jump on the pool to learn how to swim." More than send them to the game, I'd like to send some fiction, preferably easy to obtain and relatively short (so Man of Gold and Flame Song are not optimal) to give them the feel of the world, especially from the point of view of a barbarian from the south continent. Given I'm only willing to try from finding badger2305's thread "You, too, CAN run Empire of the Petal Throne", so I lack an off the top of my head list. Does anyone have some suggestions? I know the second part of Feist's Magician is set in a Tekumel analog given Feist's gaming group went through a portal to EPT in the campaign that inspired the early books. Beyond that I'm at a loss. |
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Baron
Level 4 Theurgist
Invincible Overlord
Posts: 119
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Post by Baron on Jun 21, 2020 20:39:06 GMT -6
I would check early issues of Dragon magazine (I know there was at least one short story set in Tekumel), and look through Tekumel.com, where there are the contents of several zines that include Tekumel fiction. Read through and pick the ones that evoke a sense of what you plan YOUR Tekumel to be like.
For a non-Tekumel RPG newbie I would normally suggest a short Fafhrd and Mouser tale.
Good luck!
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Post by bigjackbrass on Jun 22, 2020 1:28:51 GMT -6
In terms of easily available and short, the Tékumel Tales section of Tékumel.com should be your first stop. Several pieces of fiction to choose from there. An alternative approach would be to try Choice of the Petal Throne, a solo adventure available on Android and iOS, which gives a more interactive and immersive experience. |
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Post by greentongue on Jun 22, 2020 16:12:24 GMT -6
Having them have to study before you can even play as a barbarian is what I thinks keeps people from wanting to play.
Jump in. make mistakes, learn from them.
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Post by pulpherb on Jun 22, 2020 21:28:11 GMT -6
Having them have to study before you can even play as a barbarian is what I thinks keeps people from wanting to play. Jump in. make mistakes, learn from them. In general I agree, but I was specifically asked "what can I do to get ready" so I figured if I can find a short story or two, maybe 15-30 minutes reading and say, "This is a lot different from most fantasy, so if you haven't read this you could if you want to get a feel. It's not required, but since you asked that's my best suggestion." |
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Baron
Level 4 Theurgist
Invincible Overlord
Posts: 119
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Post by Baron on Jun 22, 2020 21:33:15 GMT -6
Yes. I normally tell my players that no prep, purchase or study is required. In fact I ask that it be avoided. I prepare handouts that interested players can read if they like, tailored to my own campaign. But in the course of a one-on-one character generation session I share bits of what they might know. Then during the game, the players will learn about the world as their characters do. I'm not going to kill a character because a player doesn't know things that I chose to keep from him!
But if a player asks for something they're comfortable with, like a story, I would forward one. Just as you are trying to do. Everyone has different learning styles, there's nothing wrong with catering to that.
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Post by greentongue on Jun 23, 2020 11:24:05 GMT -6
The providing of material from "someone else's game/world" sets you up for running "someone else's Tekumel".
It's certainly an option. May not be the most comfortable fit.
I'm sure you will decide.
Hope it works out and everyone has Fun.
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Post by badger2305 on Apr 1, 2021 5:36:49 GMT -6
One of the great advantages of the "fresh off the boat" scenario is that it recognizes that everyone is starting off ignorant about Tekumel - characters, players, referee. You can take advantage of that and later explain any "mistakes" as the perspective of Southern Barbarians unused to Tsolyani society. But a key element here is that everybody's trying to get acculturated - start off with weird names that can get exchanged later for proper Tsolyani ones, find a temple to join, and eventually join a clan, and lose that accent. Also, in the beginning, the PCs are the hirelings - that's what Sec. 1110 is all about. That section is precisely analogous to the Patron table in Classic Traveller: give them someone who can assist them, eventually becoming an ally, if they don't screw things up.
You could listen to the Hall of Blue Illumination podcast, where James Maliszewski and I talk about this stuff. But starting with a careful read of EPT and taking notes is a great way to begin a campaign.
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Post by badger2305 on Apr 1, 2021 5:41:50 GMT -6
Having them have to study before you can even play as a barbarian is what I thinks keeps people from wanting to play. Jump in. make mistakes, learn from them. In general I agree, but I was specifically asked "what can I do to get ready" so I figured if I can find a short story or two, maybe 15-30 minutes reading and say, "This is a lot different from most fantasy, so if you haven't read this you could if you want to get a feel. It's not required, but since you asked that's my best suggestion." Given what you asked for, if I were you, I *might* provide them with the first four chapters of The Man of Gold, right up to the nighttime discussion between the Prior and Kurrune, the messenger. But stop at the end of that chapter. It's very much a "scene-setter" for the rest of the book, and it evokes the feel of Tekumel pretty well. (Edited to be specific about how much of Man of Gold to provide to players) |
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Baron
Level 4 Theurgist
Invincible Overlord
Posts: 119
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Post by Baron on Apr 1, 2021 10:57:38 GMT -6
It's not just Tekumel, you know. Normally I prefer players to be a tabula rasa for my campaign settings, and I specifically ask them to refrain from "looking things up." In addition to Tekumel I'm currently running a Dragonlance game. I specifically asked for players who knew nothing about the setting. One player wanted to play a gnome, so I agreed. Next day we pop online to do character generation, and he starts to tell me how he was reading up on gnomes and learned all about the gnomes of the Dragonlance campaign. My jaw hit the floor. His explanation was something like "But I wanted to know how to play it right."
Many players appear to think that they can't play make-believe without studying in advance. You can't just tell them, "Gnomes are a little fairy-tale race that's in tune with friendly burrowing mammals, with just a touch of magic about them," and expect them to run with it. They just won't.
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Post by geoffrey on Apr 1, 2021 18:42:54 GMT -6
Most of my favorite sword & sorcery stories are rather anarchic, in contrast to the stratified, settled empires of Tekumel. Perhaps the primordial lost civilizations of A. Merritt would provide a parallel feel. I suggest:
The Face in the Abyss
The Moon Pool
Dwellers in the Mirage
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yesmar
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Fool, my spell book is written in Erlang!
Posts: 217
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Post by yesmar on Apr 1, 2021 19:48:06 GMT -6
The Man of Gold is amazing. Read it, set it aside for a time, and then read it again. It always gets better for me. As a matter of fact, I’m going to reread it after I finish this CAS collection.
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Post by xerxez on Nov 17, 2021 23:01:24 GMT -6
This post is certainly not new but I just saw it.
I own all but one of the Tekumel novels, but if you're looking for something more readily available that is similar in flavor to Barker, I recommend Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg.
It is set on a world called Majipoor which, while very different from Tekumel because it's not a trapped dimension, has many similarities.
It's a backwater planet only vaguely aware it belongs to a galaxy of interstellar travel, with alien races from home-worlds they have largely forgotten, and littered with abandoned and lost technologies and cloning processes which came to carry a somewhat magical aura.
It lacks the complex religious elements of Tekumel but in reading it I did feel some kinship between Majipoor and Tekumel.
Tekumel remains for me the most elusive and hard to run setting I ever did, but also the one with the most wonder and possibilities and by far the most fascinating aliens and religious concepts.
Hail Professor Barker!
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Post by Falconer on Nov 19, 2021 18:15:33 GMT -6
Magician is a good recommendation, or just jumping right in with Daughter of the Empire.
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Post by greentongue on Nov 20, 2021 6:31:46 GMT -6
Magician is a good recommendation, or just jumping right in with Daughter of the Empire. That should light a fire. I think the "Daughter" series is very good but there is bad blood involved and it "is a different world". |
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Post by Falconer on Nov 20, 2021 10:52:03 GMT -6
I think the "Daughter" series is very good but there is bad blood involved and it "is a different world". Meh, it seems strange to me that an EPT player in 2021 should have to buy into some ill-conceived 40-year-old grudge. |
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Post by badger2305 on Nov 23, 2021 12:09:03 GMT -6
I think the "Daughter" series is very good but there is bad blood involved and it "is a different world". Meh, it seems strange to me that an EPT player in 2021 should have to buy into some ill-conceived 40-year-old grudge. For what it's worth, It's pretty clear that Ray Feist was "inspired" by Tekumel. I do not know if he was familiar with Empire of the Petal Throne or not, but I also know that Prof. Barker didn't appreciate Feist's use of Tekumel without any sort of attribution or acknowledgment. I wasn't there for how it all escalated, and - knowing now what I do about IP law - I can see why it's been left largely unsettled. It's a bad case of something where we'll probably never know the truth - but "Kelewan" and "Tekumel" should probably get separated in people's minds, to the benefit of both. (Just my personal opinion, not the opinion or official stance of the Tekumel Foundation.) |
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Post by badger2305 on Nov 23, 2021 12:11:00 GMT -6
...if you're looking for something more readily available that is similar in flavor to Barker, I recommend Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg. It is set on a world called Majipoor which, while very different from Tekumel because it's not a trapped dimension, has many similarities. It's a backwater planet only vaguely aware it belongs to a galaxy of interstellar travel, with alien races from home-worlds they have largely forgotten, and littered with abandoned and lost technologies and cloning processes which came to carry a somewhat magical aura. It lacks the complex religious elements of Tekumel but in reading it I did feel some kinship between Majipoor and Tekumel. I think this is an excellent recommendation. Add to that some Clark Ashton Smith, and some Jack Vance, and you would have a decent range of Tekumel-adjacent fiction. |
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Post by greentongue on Nov 23, 2021 12:26:31 GMT -6
I see you don't get to lay in your "Sandbox of Doom" much lately (2015). |
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Post by badger2305 on Nov 23, 2021 12:53:24 GMT -6
I see you don't get to lay in your "Sandbox of Doom" much lately (2015). I need to fix that. Thanks for the reminder! |
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