petal throne, now!
tékumel: empire of the petal throne by the guardians of order & seal of the imperium by various.
oh, tékumel, you make me pitter-patter. i'd been looking for the guardians of order book for some time-- i'd seen it at compleat strategist once before, which piqued my interest, but it wasn't until after i'd read the novels that i decided i wanted it...& when i went back, it was gone. i got it for the last m-mas, along with a copy of the fan magazine, which pretty much rules. the tékumel book its all tri-stat rules, which don't make a lick of sense to me. i've played big eyes, small mouth i think a grand total of once, years ago at a con. also, flashfact, i always want to call tri-stat "three by three eyes," because of, you know, the name, & big eyes..., & the cartoon off the same name. so! the tékumel book is pretty rules heavy, & you know what else? pretty sci-fi heavy, too! now, i haven't read any of the old gaming supplies, but for my money it isn't important to explain the sci-fi pre-history of tékumel. i mean, it is all tens of thousands of years ago; it would seem more important to focus on the dragon warriors of n'lüss or livyánu or whatever. i'm more interested in it as an evolved setting, i guess is what i'm saying. the magazine is pretty awesome, too: the interview with m.a.r. barker is hilarious for showing his roots as a dick dungeon master...exiling players to the mexican civil war, the plane of stampeding brontosauruses, whatever. i think we've all been there. pretty funny. then there is an article, which might be my favorite article ever, on why the pictures of swords in tékumel are all crazy & improbable looking. it goes into the mechanics of forging iron compared to the cut-&-dry methods of making clén hide swords, & a whole thing on...like, ginsu specialty edges & what not. it was pretty great.