Tekumel: Resources (I Tekumeled and So Can You II)(Updated)

Empire of the Petal Throne

 Since I wrote this, new information has come to light about M.A.R. Barker, he was a Nazi. I no longer support playing Tekumel. I will keep these posts up, because I believe in preserving the past, even when it is ugly. There may be a time when sufficient time has passed that Tekumel has been examined and can be played in the right context (like Lovecraft), but that time is probably very far in the future. Due to the intricate interconnections between the setting, the religious themes in it, and the non-western derivations of its societies, I believe that a thorough examination by people far smarter than me will be required before I am comfortable that I understand which parts of it might be harmful. Like many, I was drawn to Tekumel because it seemed more open than other fantasy worlds, with greater representation of the diversity of humanity. Obviously, it is horrifying to learn this. I encourage others to seek out other fantasy worlds that have involved people of color in their creation.  

 

In my last post on getting started in Tekumel (I Tekumeled and So Can You), I made the claim that it is far easier to get started running Tekumel than people convince themselves it is. I also walked through how you could use the Introduction to Tekumel booklet and the rule set of your choice to get started. 

But, rules matter. You can use almost any fantasy rule set to run Tekumel, and the more popular ones will certainly get you pretty close. That said, they do not accurately reflect the way magic and some other things work on Tekumel, and you might be better off choosing a different rule set if you have the time and money. So which rule set should you chose? I am going to be upfront and say that I do not think that any of the official Tekumel rule sets actually do a good job reflecting the kind of game that the lore presented seems to imply. I also think that several of them are either not very strong mechanically (Swords and Glory), or are so weak in the way they are presented (Garasiyal)  that I cannot recommend them. There are a few, like Bethorm and The Petal Hack, that I have not tried.

Despite its age, if you are going to play an official Tekumel rule set, I suggest going with the original, Empire of the Petal Throne (EPT). I do so for the following reasons:

1) Reflection of Tekumel: Just a few lines ago, I said that I did not think that any of the official rules actually enable the kind of play that the lore implies. By that, I meant that Tekumel is very lore dense with lots of political intrigue and complicated social interactions... on paper. The rules tend to either not focus on those kinds of things, or do a poor job handling them. That said, EPT does reflect the kind of situations found in the Tekumel novels, pulp action. EPT is basically a version of Original Dungeons & Dragons (OD&D). If you know how to play OD&D, you are well on your way to learning EPT. EPT injects plenty of Tekumel flavor into OD&D by adding skills, percentile attributes, lots of races, and revamping the magic system. 

2) Well Written: EPT is a well written rule set for the time. You can read EPT and come away understanding how to play the game. Remember in #1 when I said, "If you know how to play OD&D, you are well on your way to learning EPT."? Well, if you don't know how to play OD&D, I suggest learning EPT first and then reading the OD&D books, because EPT does a much better job teaching you how to play the game. There are some old game wrinkles here though. "Hit dice" is often used in an ambiguous way and it is not exactly clear how you are supposed to use the skills you get. Like any old rule set, you are going to have to make more interpretations than you would with a more modern game. But, that can be a lot of the fun. I'll have some suggested house rules at the end of the post.

3) Self Contained: EPT has everything you need to play the game for a very long time. It comes with an explanation of Tekumel that is enough to enable you to run a game in the setting (although the Introduction to Tekumel booklet is easier to use). It comes with all the monsters and magic items you need. It also comes with all the rules you need to play the game. You would think that all of that was a given, but it is not. There have been situations where the lore was in one book and the rules were in another. There have also been situations where the rules were spread out amongst some books in a box set, the character creation rules were in a choose-your-own-adventure book, and the lore was all in a different rule set. EPT is the best bang for your buck of the Tekumel games, and is probably one of the best RPG deals ever.

4) Easy to House Rule: Since it is OD&D with percentile attributes, you can house rule EPT and be confident that you understand the second order effects of your changes. It is also easy to incorporate popular house rules from OSR sources like Shields Shall Be Splintered.

If you don't already have a rule set in mind that you think will fit your group's needs, I suggest going with EPT. I have been using it for a few years at cons and for 7 months in my weekly game. It took a little TLC to get going, but it works well. 

I use the following house rules in my game:

Skill Rolls: I have a stat called Skill Roll, it is the average of Intelligence, Psychic Ability, and Dexterity. Since most of the skills do not give a mechanical description, I use it whenever the characters want to do something not covered by the rules. Sometimes, if what they are doing is clear enough, I let them just roll against the most applicable attribute. I have run in to several other EPT GMs that do similar things.

Spell Points: Characters have Spell Points equal to the Psychic Ability. Whenever they try to cast a spell, they roll (Spell Group +1)d6 and burn that many points. Eight hours of rest lets them regain Spell points equal to 1d6 per character level. This generally allows for more spells to be cast in a day, but with attrition over long periods of activity. I ignore the spell text dealing with how many times a spell can be cast. I was inspired to make this change after playing in Victor Raymond's 2019 GaryCon game. 

Attribute Increase: As written, Basic Talent (attributes) Increases (page 14) are unlikely to happen and unimpressive if they do. One weakness to generating attributes by rolling percentile dice is the flat distribution means the scores are going to be all over the place. Because of this, I give players a choice if they are lucky enough to roll a Basic Talent Increase, they can add 5/10 or they can preroll the skill and keep the higher result.

Injury Table: I have an injury table that I roll on whenever a character reaches 0 hit points, instead of just having them die. These injuries can inflict penalties that can take days to months to heal. 

Next time I am going to discuss two books that will make you feel much better about running wacky D&D adventures in Professor Barker's carefully detailed masterpiece, and three books that I am probably not supposed to mention.