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

  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 the first part of this series, I talked about how to get started running Tekumel games quickly. In that post I discussed how, with a single guide pamphlet, you could start running Tekumel with any game system you wanted. In the second part, I discussed using Empire of the Petal Throne to run Tekumel, and why I thought it was still a great choice in rule systems.

So now, having given yourself permission to dive right in, you have been running expeditions to the Jakallan underworld for a few weeks, and you are starting to get the itch to expand the types of adventures you have in your campaign. You are asking yourself, "Self, other than these dungeon runs, what kind of adventures can I run on Tekumel?"

You see, you have started to let that FEAR OF GETTING IT WRONG creep back in again. You are flipping through the background section in EPT and feeling like Tekumel is not a world designed for exploring its sewers. No, you think, I need to be writing adventures about clan intrigue and temples harboring secret heirs to the Petal Throne. That is where the fear comes in, you don't know enough about Tsolyani culture to run complicated diplomatic adventures. YOU ARE ALREADY GETTING IT WRONG!

First, don't forget to flip through the rule section of EPT. It is clearly a game designed around adventuring in the underworld, fighting in the arena, and exploring trackless wilderness. You certainly can use it to do other things, but it was built for exactly the kinds of adventures you are running. If you keep doing that until your group tires of it, you are doing it right. Second, Tekumel is a D&D adventure style world. Don't believe me? Here are some books full of D&D style adventures set on Tekumel:

1) Man of Gold by M.A.R. Barker: This one is pure pulp adventure with dungeon exploring, a young protagonist with a secret past, golem fights, and even "meanwhile on the other side of Eternia in Snake Mountain" style cut-aways. It does have secret heirs and political machinations, but it also has an adventure that would work as a Forgotten Realms novel. It is also a great way to get a feel for the setting from the ground level.

2) Flamesong by M.A.R. Barker: In many ways, this one is even more over the top. Crazy, underground subway rides to TERROR, pre-teens getting into dimension-hopping hijinks with a cat-person companion, yet another secret heir to the throne, and plenty of political machinations as well.

Both books share the idea that the main characters, who are going on D&D adventures (often literally in dungeons), are the unwitting subjects of political machinations by others. Eventually, they learn what they come to understand the web they are caught up in.

This is a perfect recipe for your own Tekumel adventures. Go ahead and fool around with dungeon and wilderness adventures until you are comfortable enough with the setting to start running in-depth city games. You can then peel back the curtain and reveal the larger context of all those dungeon runs they have been doing. You don't have to have this all figured out ahead of time either. Just leave yourself little hooks. The nakome, foreign, scum you have in your party don't deserve an explanation as to why they are being hired to grab that idol anyway.

I have never read, or even seen in person, the later Tekumel books by M.A.R. Barker. I'll be honest, based on the lukewarm recommendations, I have never sought them out. So where can you look for an example of what a more in depth, lower-key, political game might look like once you shift over to that?

First, I will again recommend the various adventures by Krista Donnelly that can be found in fanzines. She does an excellent job creating interpersonal conflict in her games. I probably learned more about how the Tsolyani people interact with each other from her modules than from any other source.

Second, there are some forbidden tomes. Tomes better left unmentioned. Tomes that arguably infringe copyright. I am talking about the world of Kelewan.

You may be familiar with Raymond E. Feist and his Riftwar books. In those books, the inhabitants of Kelewan invade the heroes' home world of Midkemia. There is no way around it, Kelewan is a Tekumel knockoff. These books, starting with Magician, were staples of '80s fantasy. They are on par with D&D novels in quality and style. They are fine, but I don't suggest them.

After the Riftwar books came out, people noticed that Kelewan was basically Tekumel and pointed it out. Feist had an explanation as to how it was inadvertent, you can research and decide for yourself whether you believe it. The books were very popular though, so in the wake of all this, there was an attempt to rehabilitate Kelewan.

Janny Wurts was brought in to write a series set on Kelewan that would flesh the world out in a way that moved it away from Tekumel, and she did about the best job you could under the circumstances. She brought in more East Asian influences, and downplayed some of the more overt Tekumel references from the Riftwar books. I would say that Janny Wurt's Kelewan is to Tekumel what your Midkemia is to Middle Earth. It is different from Tekumel, but heavily inspired by it.

I do recommend the three books she wrote, The Empire Trilogy. These books focus on a young woman using all the means at her disposal to protect her clan and better her world. I think that there is a lot that can be pulled from these for inspiration for political adventures on Tekumel. I think the adventures in these books are, unsurprisingly considering their history, very much in the style of Tekumel adventures.

OK, enough about all that. You have some good examples of the types of adventures that can be found on Tekumel, and an idea of how they are not that different from the kinds of adventures you are used to running in RPGs.

Next time we will look at a fanzine that is literally overflowing with material that you can use at your table tonight, The Excellent Traveling Volume.