Eberron = Tekumel?

[Jehosephat]

Guardians of Order recently published a Tekumel RPG based on their Tri Stat system. I believe it's out now. This project had been going on for some time, and my understanding was that it was supposed to include conversions to d20. If this is the case, I don't think there would have been any contract between Barker and WotC.

Also, from what I little know about Professor Barker and his world Tekumel, he strikes me as the type of person who would rather see his world taken off the market, period, than to have it balkanized for another D&D setting.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Mr. Baker,

I have anonymous sources who cite secret references that Eberron kidnapped Elvis, stole the secret of making velcro from the aliens, and used the captial gains from that product to clone a new Elvis in order to encode secret messages when you play "Love Me Tender" backwards.

Can you deny this?

 

[JPL]

This is great!

First, I'm *RICHARD* Baker. Now I'm Dr. BARKER. What will folks think of next?


-Keith Baker

I think "Dr. Barker" is the college professor who created Tekumel, long long ago.

Tekumel d20 is supposed to be out shortly from Guardians of Order. Unless they are part of WotC's web of lies. I'm sure they really appreciate this sort of rumor.

 

[rogueattorney]

You know, I've read some really silly stuff on the Internet before, but this "rumor" has positively got to take the cake. Maybe it comes from the vague similarity in names between the authors of the two settings in question - Baker/Barker.

I think Mr. Baker has set things pretty well straight. Anyone interested in Tekumel and its original game, Empire of the Petal Throne, here's a nice write up: http://rdushay.home.mindspring.com/Museum/Fantasy/EPTreview.html

Anyone who's read anything about Ebarron will note there are few, if any, similarities between the two settings.

R.A.

 

[Greatwyrm]

I hope nobody tells Guardians of Order that no Tekumel can ever be released because of Eberron. They're planning on their Tekumel game being out in August. I wonder if it will be at GenCon. Or, should that be, if it won't be at GenCon?

http://www.guardiansorder.com/schedule.php

 

[mattcolville]

This is great!

First, I'm *RICHARD* Baker. Now I'm Dr. BARKER. What will folks think of next?

First off, I have never read any Tekumel material whatsoever. So For all I know there are similarities between the worlds. Could someone give me a specific example as opposed to a vague "it's overpowered" (or for that matter, just say which part *is* overpowered and discuss that)? What's with the "alien languages"? And how do kalashtar, shifters, and warforged qualify as "xenophobic"?

But for the record, this is not only untrue, it's just plain silly. So, what this theory says is:
* WotC decided to hold a setting search.
* They received 11,000 ideas and spent untold hours (using salaried employees) sorting these down to one idea.
* They paid the finalists a total of $160,000 for these ideas.
* Then they threw them out, paid someone else for his idea, pretended they hadn't done it (thus losing any value of purchasing a licensed property), didn't make him sign an NDA, and on top of it, allowed him to sell his idea to Guardians of Order.

I like a good conspiracy theory as much as anyone, but the emphasis is on "good"!

-Keith Baker

This is something that could only fool people who have never seen one of the two settings, or both. Anyone even passingly familiar with both would see this as absurd.

 

[WayneLigon]

Just when you think things can't get any sillier. I can't believe anyone took that seriously.

 

[trancejeremy]

From what I've seen of Tekumel (which is basically two books I used to own, then sold as they gave me an icky feeling, like reading a Piers Anthony novel), it's not even remotely like Eberron.

IMHO, Tekumel reminds me of Gor (or the Playboy mansion), with lots of scantily clad subservient women running around. But Tekumel's also insanely detailed, with "realistic" cultures and languages and such, which is its main draw (besides the scantily clad women).

 

[DonaldRumsfeldsTofu]

I'm so confused.

 

[Terath Ninir]

This is something that could only fool people who have never seen one of the two settings, or both. Anyone even passingly familiar with both would see this as absurd.

Well, since the group of people who know about either setting (much less both) is VASTLY smaller than group who don't know anything about either, it was rather easy to believe, actually.

JPL -- IF that is your real name, which I highly doubt -- my friend sotmh told me about this thread after he cross-posted here. You see, there is more than one person in Denver. Indeed, there is even more than one gamer in Denver! What a concept. :\ But I'm sure you're enjoying feeling all self-righteous over spotting a "troll", so you don't care about the facts...