Pyramid Review
Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne
Published by Guardians of Order
Written by Patrick Brady, Joe Saul & Edwin Voskamp with Bob Alberti, M.A.R. Barker, Barbara Kennedy, Lisa Leutheuser, Jeff Mackintosh, & Victor Raymond
Cover by Raven Mimura
Illustrated by Llyn Hunter, Eric Lofgren, Jennifer Myer, Chris Miscik, Jesse Mohn, Torstein Nordstrand, Andrew Trabbold, & Ursula Vernon
242-page b&w hardcover; $39.95
It is turning into quite the year for old games coming back as new -- Werewolf: The Forsaken, Mage: The Awakening, and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. But the oldest and strangest game to return is Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne. The second RPG to be published and the first to come complete with its own background and setting, it was released by TSR in 1975. Finding a following, it has since rightfully acquired cult status. Bar no mistake, Empire of the Petal Throne is the niche gamer's niche game and the culture gamer's culture game. Yet it has never received the kind of support it so richly deserves, and when official rules were available, they were either heavy in setting with poor mechanics, or heavy on mechanics, but with little setting material. Which only raised expectations for Guardians Of Order's long awaited version. It has to satisfy the demands of the Tékumali (the fans), provide a starting point for the uninitiated, and it has to have both rules and setting. The question is: Can Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne achieve all that?
Actually, the first question . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: November 18, 2005
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