Did You Every Play Empire of the Petal Throne?

[Yellow Sign]

I just was wondering how many people have every played in the old Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne setting.

I ran in a campaign run by a friend over 20 years ago. I really liked the setting with it's strange alien creatures, unique cultural points of view, and the mixture of sci-fi/fantasy.

 

[diaglo]

i'm using part of it currently for the OD&D(1974) campaign i'm refereeing.

 

[Yellow Sign]

i'm using part of it currently for the OD&D(1974) campaign i'm refereeing.

What part are you using?

 

[sjmiller]

OKay, time to play the geek card. I have played several times with Prof. Barker as the DM. It's great playing a game where you do not really need any books, the DM really knows the setting, and you come away as part of the history of the setting.

 

[diaglo]

What part are you using?

well the cleric in the group asked to include the book of ebon bindings.

so i dug out some of the other stuff to insert into the campaign to complement it.

 

[Glyfair]

I ran in a campaign run by a friend over 20 years ago. I really liked the setting with it's strange alien creatures, unique cultural points of view, and the mixture of sci-fi/fantasy.

No, and this is exactly why.

I knew it was a unique and thoroughly developed setting almost from when I first saw it (which was late 70's). However, skimming through the book it was clear I had no point of familiarity with which to hook into the setting. It was based on cultures I had little information on, and certainly didn't have a feel for.

 

[Melan]

Regrettably, no, and there is little chance of it ever happening. I am sure I would enjoy EPT as a dungeon crawling game (like in the original rulebook), but the culture simulation doesn't interest me as a gamer. Most of Tékumel's fans are the opposite. I did, however, steal some of the monsters, deities, spells and magic items for my campaign, as well as the game's small, portable and very usable mass combat system.

 

[dougmander]

I still have my boxed set with the beautiful vinyl maps. Sadly, I was never able to DM it successfully, because my players were put off by the unfamiliarity of the setting, and I couldn't keep all those races, cultures, and monsters straight in my mind. Maybe if MAR Barker had come with every boxed set to run the game for you...

EPT was a strong influence on Northern Crown as a paragon of an immersive, internally coherent game world, but it also showed me that it's wise to give players at least some familiar elements to cling to before plunging them into that new world.