M.A.R. Barker, author of Tekumel, also author of Neo-Nazi book?

[Willie the Duck]

With the announcement, whatever uncritical ignorance, or even willful blindness, there may have been is gone. Now, marketing Tekumel would be more difficult, and the Foundation's payday even further minimized.

IMO that ship has sailedsunk.

 

[Staffan]

The Foundation either doesn't know how to turn their data into profit, or wants to find a game designer or author who will work on the cheap to develop and market Tekumel. It could be a big seller, but it would take significant marketing effort to entice people to game in a realm with a decidedly non-Euro culture. I don't think the Foundation wants to pay for that.

With the announcement, whatever uncritical ignorance, or even willful blindness, there may have been is gone. Now, marketing Tekumel would be more difficult, and the Foundation's payday even further minimized.

I figure it's one of those properties that a good designer could do something really cool with, but most designers of that caliber are busy doing their own stuff or at least stuff that pays significantly better than they could do off Tekumel.

 

[S'mon]

That's kind of the problem Tekumel has, I think. People go back and forth about Lovecraft's legacy, but tentacle monsters from outside the universe, things so horrible you go nuts if you see them, and the idea of humanity being as insignificant to the true masters of the universe as bugs are to us...are all high-concept ideas that are pretty generic and portable. Tekumel has a complicated mythology and social structure that mixes multiple non-Western (and thus less familiar) sources. It's hard to describe in a few sentences.

Also, Lovecraft was racist, and apparently REH chided him for his pro-Hitler views, but he didn't join Der Bund or otherwise take part in organised attempts to advance Nazism. Barker did - after the Holocaust was well known. For me, Barker's activity was way beyond any common or garden racism. He was involved in organised Neo-Nazism. I'm not big into cancel culture, but I really think this is an exception.

 

[Baron Opal II]

IMO that ship has sailedsunk.

In another ten years, I think an encyclopedic product like the Guide to Glorantha would be possible. Defintitly a prestige product, and a limited market. No or minimal rules*, just data, photos, drawings, and the like. A couple of commentaries and an acknowledgment concerning the author. I and many others would love a product, but I don't think the Foundation would go for it. I'll pitch it if I ever have a lot of money to throw away.

* Thinking along Role-Aids lines. Characters could be rank 1-10, magic power 1-10, and you interpret that data for your favorite rules engine.

 

[Some Dude]

Chirine Ka Bal acknowledged that this was known to the Tekumel Foundation in Barker's lifetime by some of his peers, and after his death by even more. While I can understand not knowing how to deal with something like this, the fact is that an attempt was not even made.

That having been said, I bought some Tekumel stuff after their announcement because I didn't have any, I wasn't sure if it would continue to be available, and they had pledged to contribute to organizations working to oppose and correct attitudes and misinformation like Barker's.

I appreciate Tekumel, while having no respect for its creator or his views. Tekumel has always been a niche product with a pretty high buy-in for the player. These days, I prefer more width than depth, so Talislanta wins over Tekumel. But there's no denying that Tekumel is awe-inspiring and unique among RPGs.

Still, as a commercial concern, I think Barker's anti-Semitism, and the Foundation's cover-up of same, have put the nail in Tekumel's coffin as anything more than a sad footnote in gaming history (not that it was doing big sales numbers anyway). To be honest, I'm not sure that this could have been avoided even if they had been proactive in acknowledging and denouncing Barker's ideology. There would have been questions about who knew what, and when. There's really no coming back from this. That would be like OJ Simpson or Phil Spector getting their reputations back. It's just not gonna happen.

Some will separate the art from the artist. Some will be unable or unwilling to do so, and will leave Tekumel behind forever. I know my regular group, ranging in age from mid-twenties to mid-fifties, would absolutely not play this if I proposed it, due to Barker's views. I bought it, I'm certainly in no position to judge anyone, and I'm not. I just think that this scandal has effectively killed Tekumel, at least insofar as attracting new players. It's a shame, but these things happen.

 

[Hussar]

Honestly @Some Dude I think this is the healthiest way. Everyone needs to decide for themselves. And either decision should be respected.

Of course it’s never quite that simple. There’s all sorts of “adjacent” bits - awards for example - where things get messy. But I’m general it should be a private decision made with as much information as possible.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

Honestly @Some Dude I think this is the healthiest way. Everyone needs to decide for themselves. And either decision should be respected.

Of course it’s never quite that simple. There’s all sorts of “adjacent” bits - awards for example - where things get messy. But I’m general it should be a private decision made with as much information as possible.

I don’t begrudge anyone playing it. I played for a short while in a campaign run by one of the Foundation leaders who had played in Barker’s game and I detected zero of such crap in either the game or the banter around it. I just feel that the guy that wrote it was a practicing Nazi and it was not like he was German and it was something from the times and the society, he chose it as a well educated American. I personally do not need more.