Tagline: The world of Tékumel is an exciting, interesting, richly detailed setting almost without equal in the realms of fiction (roleplaying or otherwise). It has been plagued with a bad publication history, but nonetheless has become legendary in the RPG community for its positive aspects.

This is the first review in a series of reviews designed to cover the Tékumel setting in a great deal of depth. Although there’s no strict schedule on which these reviews will be turned out, by the time I’m done I hope to have been able to cover all of the major Tékumel products which have been published over the past two and half decades since it first appeared in print, along with a good sampling of the minor ones. This review, therefore, is a little bit different than most – it will be a protracted look at the history of the Tékumel setting (an overview of the Tékumel setting, publishing history, and other miscellaneous information), serving as a general introduction to the product-specific reviews which will follow.

THE SETTING

The world of Tékumel was first settled by humans exploring the galaxy about 60,000 years in the future, along with several other alien species. They did massive terraforming of the inhospitable environment, disrupting the local ecology and banishing most of the local fauna (including some intelligent species) to reservations on the corners of their new world. This was a golden age of technology and prosperity, even on one of Mother Earth’s colony worlds.

Then the world got dropped into a dimensional pocket. Don’t you hate it when life rains on your parade?

In any case, Tékumel was severed from the interplanetary trade routes and went through a massive gravitic upheaval which threw civilization into chaos. The native species broke loose from their reservations and civil war seized the planet. Several other significant changes took place due to the crisis – mankind discovered it could now tap into magical forces, the stars were gone from the sky, dimensional nexi were uncovered and pacts with “demons” (dimensional travelers) were made, a complex pantheon of gods was discovered, and science began to stagnate and the belief that the universe was understandable slowly faded. A Time of Darkness descended over the planet.

Which brings us to a much later time period and the world of Tékumel as it has been revealed to us through the writings of Professor M.A.R. Barker – specifically the area of the Five Empires on Tékumel’s northern continent.

The Professor (as he is affectionately referred to by people who don’t like typing out “M.A.R. Barker”) developed Tékumel in much the same way that J.R.R. Tolkien developed the much more popularly known Middle Earth (setting for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings). His interest in myth and languages lead him to develop his own fantasy languages based upon fantasy cultures in a fantasy world influenced heavily by his studies in myth. The difference is that where Tolkien drew largely on the northern European myth structures, the Professor’s interests lay largely in the languages and myth structures of India and Southern Asia.

What distinguishes Tékumel even more from Tolkien is the media in which it was presented to others. Tolkien, after years of dabbling in his fictional world, eventually wrote two major novels and a series of other works set there. M.A.R. Barker, on the other hand, was a professor at the University of Minnesota at the same time that Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax, and a handful of others were developing the first “roleplaying games”. This was the tradition which the Professor would tap into to explore and develop his own games. His “Thursday Night Groups” were some of the first roleplaying sessions anywhere, and quite possibly the first non-D&D ones ever. This unique, week-by-week, thirty year development of the world on a very personal level is unknown to any other detailed fantasy world of this calibre.

First, you have the hyper-detailed languages. Tsolyáni, one of those languages, has had grammatical guides, dictionaries, and even a language course developed for it (Tolkien’s languages and Star Trek’s Klingon are the only serious parallels to this type of development). In order for these languages to have that type of deep accuracy, the Professor developed wholistic cultures, histories, dress fashions, architectural styles, weapons, armor, tactical styles, legal codes, demographics, and much else.

Second, you have the religions of Tékumel. There are a (relatively) small number of true gods and goddesses in Tékumel; but they are far beyond our comprehension. Instead each religion worship specific aspects of these gods and goddesses in different forms – with different degrees of specificity (Lesser and Greater Aspects) and spheres of influence. It is heavily inspired by the mythologies of India and Southern Asia (as is the rest of the world’s background), and utterly unlike anything else I’ve seen published in the fantasy genre in terms of depth, understanding, consistency, and originality.

Third, the cultures which have been created (which, as noted above, grew out of the myth and language Barker was developing) are rich, alien things. They are extremely baroque, being based along the classical lines of the Indian, Chinese, and Japanese cultures. They envisioned on a grand, epic scale and are possessed of breathtaking qualities.

Finally, the day-to-day development of the world has resulted in all of these intricately details being put into a constant motion which have resulted in unique developments and depth. This is a world of intricacy and complexity almost unmatched.

Tékumel is one of the most intricately detailed and believable fantasy worlds ever created – one of the “Big Three” in my mind (a list made up of Middle Earth and Tékumel, with Harn coming in at a slightly distant third place).

THE PUBLISHING HISTORY

There are some who theorize that the extremely alien qualities of Tékumel as a setting are what have resulted in its disappointing history – one of limited commercial success, despite a fervent and committed following. Personally I think we are putting the cart before the wheel somewhat here; the publishing history of Tékumel has been one marked with troubles. I think these troubles are the cause of Tékumel’s limited commercial success, not its result.

Tékumel first burst upon the scene in 1975, when TSR (still known as Tactical Studies Rules) published it as a standalone game under the title of The Empire of the Petal Throne (“Empire of the Petal Throne” being a euphemism for the Tsolyánu Empire). Despite some of the moral and ethical warping of the world brought about Gygax pasting on an AD&D-style alignment system, Empire of the Petal Throne met with a great deal of critical and financial success. It brought a level of detail and quality to the world in which a game was set which had previously been unknown in the RPG industry (this was still several years before the first major concordance of Greyhawk would appear). It was a turning point away from the tactical roots of RPGs and towards the unique possibilities this new medium was capable of providing.

The game was loosely supported in Dragon magazine for awhile, but eventually it died from lack of major support by TSR (which was already beginning to focus exclusively on the D&D franchise, with the new AD&D game being just around the corner). The setting was supported for several years by its adherents (including the participants in the Professor’s own games) in various forms, including several sets of miniature rules.

The next major landmark in the history of Tékumel publishing is when the company Gamescience published a Sourcebook and a Player’s Handbook in 1983 – essentially a two volume set of background and rules (the latter being completely different from the earlier rules in Empire of the Petal Throne). This system remained entirely unsupported (Gamescience went out of business among other things), although the setting continued to be — most notably with the Armies of Tékumel series (which, self-obviously, detailed the various armies of the various empires) and The Tsolyáni Language (which, self-obviously, detailed the Tsolyáni language in detail for the first time).

In 1987 a company known as Different Worlds proceeded to reprint the Gamescience manuals – but in the process managed to confuse everyone thoroughly by breaking up the Sourcebook into multiple volumes (Books 1-3, each published in a separate volume) and then going out of business before publishing Book 3 of the Sourcebook or any of the Player’s Handbook.

Then, in 1992, a company known as Theatre of the Mind (TOME) started publishing a series known as The Adventures of Tékumel — which was, yet again, completely different from any previous ruleset. If you thought Different Worlds made things confusing with their books, TOME was even worse. First, Adventures of Tékumel: Part One was published as a single book. Then Adventures of Tékumel: Part Two was published in three different volumes. Finally, TOME published Gardásiyal: Deeds of Glory as a stand-alone set of rules. This was confusing because, first, “Deeds of Glory” was the name for an old set of Tékumel miniature rules, and, second, because Gardásiyal wasn’t really a complete game – you needed the character creation rules from Adventures of Tékumel: Part One (but nothing from any of the Adventures of Tékumel: Part Two volumes). On top of it all, Gardásiyal isn’t particularly good at describing the world of Tékumel – so the old Gamescience sourcebook is still heavily recommended.

Nonetheless, TOME represents the most continuous and in-depth publishing history for Tékumel yet (with the exception of auxiliary publications by Tékumel Games, which is directly connected to the Professor) – they have produced a Tékumel Bestiary and will, hopefully, be publishing Mitlanyál (a guide to Tékumel’s gods and religious structures) in the near future.

One of the interesting things to note (in a sort of macabre fashion) is that as the roleplaying industry moves towards simpler and more intuitive systems, the systems published for use with Tékumel have become more and more complicated, archaic, and non-intuitive. This is ironic, because the Professor himself uses an almost diceless homebrew.

There’s some other miscellaneous stuff that should be mentioned. The Blue Room FTP site (dealt with in more detail below) has offered some shareware manuals. Tirikelu is a set of shareware roleplaying rules produced by a fan. Conversions for Tékumel exist for GURPS, AD&D, RuneQuest, TORG, and quite probably others as well that I am forgetting of. And I have not even delved into the miniature rules, the vast majority of the supplements, the maps, or the miniatures… not to mention the novels (which is where the next review will be taking us).

As you can see its a bit of a tortured history. That is one of the reasons why I’m producing this series of reviews – so that you know what each product contains and can figure out for yourself what would be the best way to get into Tékumel.

OTHER INFORMATION

For those of you interested in discussing in Tékumel there are two major ‘net-based discussion groups: The Tékumel newsgroup (alt.games.frp.tekumel) and the Blue Room mailing list. To subscribe to the mailing list (which the Professor participates on) send e-mail to Chris Davis (the list’s moderator) at blueroom@prin.edu.

Those of you interested in tracking down Tékumel material may find it difficult. However, Tita’s House of Games (run by Carl Brodt) has become a one-stop source for the material (both in print, OOP, and reprint material). His catalog is routinely posted to the alt.games.frp.tekumel newsgroup. You can also get a catalog with the following contact information:

E-mail: CarlBrodt@aol.com
Snail Mail: 1608 Bancroft Way; Berkeley, CA 94703
Phone: (510) 848-3260

There are also a number of web-based resources for the setting:

Brett Slocum’s Tékumel Page
http://www.skypoint.com/~slocum/tekumel
Mr. Slocum’s page, while not the most visually smashing thing you will ever see, is professionally put together in a format where it is easy to find exactly what you’re looking for (something which I wish could be said of all web designers). The site is packed full of useful information – including the Tékumel FAQ, Publishing History, a setting overview, maps, timeline, a GURPS conversion, and links to many of the sites found on this list as well as links to other resources (including other conversions and freebie rule sets). If you can only go to one Tékumel website, this is the one it should be.

Tékumel: The World of the Petal Throne
http://www.tekumel.com
Designed by Peter Gifford this site is visually dazzling, while not falling prey to bad web design as a result. It is showing great potential with its own content, and has links to much of the on-line content it doesn’t possess. Highly recommended.

The Blue Room FTP Site
ftp://nexus.prin.edu
As noted above, Professor Barker participates on the Blue Room Mailing List. Chris Davis (the Room’s moderator) has also established this FTP site – which contains some Tékumel-related documents authored by Barker and others. I hope to eventually review several of these web-only products eventually, but in the meantime you should take a look for yourself.

The Jade Arch
http://www.interlog.com/~maliszew/jade.html
The Jade Arch gets mandatory mentioning here because its designer, James Maliszewski is one of the columnists here at RPGNet. Plus it has an interesting game-related focus (rather than the world-related focus of most other sites).

Empire of the Petal Throne Products
http://www.halcyon.com/www2/bwr/ept_list.html
This product listing is one of the best available, listing everything (to my knowledge) that has ever been published for Tékumel in any format.

There many other sites out there, but this is a good sampling of most of it. Since between the first three sites on the list you should be able to find links to everything else, this is a good jumping off point for you.

CONCLUSION

Tékumel is a world almost without equal. Its publication history has made it difficult to track down serious material for it, though. Knowing which books to buy, and in which order to buy them, is not particularly easy. Fortunately, Tita’s House of Games (described above) has made actually getting the material much easier.

Although I know some who have given up on this rich gaming environment because of these difficulties, I hope that this series of reviews will serve to guide you back into it. And for those of you who have not yet experienced this piece of gaming history, I hope to light a passion in it for you. It’s well worth the effort.

For those of you reading this after it has been placed in the archive and interested in reading the series in sequence, the next review will be of the novel Man of Gold.

Style: 4
Substance: 5

Author: Professor M.A.R. Barker
Company/Publisher: Various
Cost: n/a
Page count: n/a
ISBN: n/a

Originally Posted: 1999/07/19

I never actually completed the intended series of Tékumel reviews. The series ground to a halt after hitting the first two novels (Man of Gold and Flamesong). The publication history related in this review is now incomplete, of course, but Empire of the Petal Throne unfortunately remains a blighted intellectual property. Its next major publication was Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne, a Tri-Stat game published by Guardians of Order… just in time for Guardians of Order to go bankrupt and close its doors. A company called Zottola eventually managed to get Mitlanyál and a couple new novels into print, but they went out of business in 2011. Tita’s House of Games is supposedly still around, but the site hasn’t been updated since 2010.

M.A.R. Barker himself died just over a year ago. Before he died, he founded the Tékumel Foundation to preserve the legacy of his work… but they also haven’t updated their website in years.

The lengthy (and, to date, futile) struggle to have Tékumel published in a coherent, unified format for any significant period of time remains a source of great sadness for me, particularly as I reflect on both the travails of Legends & Labyrinths and my ongoing work to preserve and promote the literary legacy of my mother.

Maybe someday….

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

[ The material being reviewed here were provided by the publisher directly to myself with the understanding that I would post a review of the material to RPGNet and the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.frp.misc. The content and conclusions of the review have not been influenced by this arrangement – the opinions contained within are the honest impressions I have of the product.

The First Book of Worlds is sold in a bundled back with the main Multiverser rulebook for a combined price of $50. I have arrived at an individual price for the two products – which I have reviewed separately – by simply dividing that price in half. As noted in my review of the rulebook I am still encouraging Valdron, Inc. to allow people to buy the products separately. ]

Tagline: Valdron claimed that they had produced a unique game setting. Their critics ridiculed them for it. Their critics were wrong.

I still find it quaint now to think about how much angst and furor was generated by a company pricing their RPG core rulebook at $50. I do recommend checking out my review of Multiverser for the full context of where these reviews came from and the tempest-in-a-teacup which provoked them.

First off, I want to explain where this review is coming from. In, I believe, late 1997 Mark J. Young began posting messages to the rec.games.frp.misc newsgroup about a new game which was going to be coming out: Multiverser. Claims of this being “the new best thing in gaming” and “something unlike anything you’ve ever seen before” were made. The response to these self-laudatory messages was a massive backlash. In my opinion this backlash was never truly deserved, but people had just recovered from similar mailings from the creators of SenZar and The World of Synnibar (two games which did deserve it). Plus, Multiverser was advertised as a $50 product and it wasn’t, initially, well communicated that this was for two books, not one. All in all, people thought they were being hit again by a bunch of clueless morons.

The Multiverser threads dragged on and popped up again and again until, finally, in late 1998, I, and several other people, stepped forward and offered to review the game. Up to that point the people who were attacking Multiverser weren’t about to actually lay down the “outrageous” amount of money required to actually analyze the product they were critiquing – they were quite content to simply attack. You had a situation with very few facts and some very big egos.

To make a long story short I posted my review of the Multiverser rulebook to RPGNet and the newsgroup in late-1998, promising to review The First Book of Worlds separately in the near future. As should now be obvious at the time of this writing (early May of 1999), this did not happen in as timely a fashion as I would have liked. Several other projects came up which gobbled up my time for roleplaying-related activities, I moved, and The First Book of Worlds ended up in a stack of unread roleplaying books a mile high. Plus, I had sort of expended my two-cents on the Multiverser issue in my first review and, honestly, thought that whatever The First Book of Worlds might contain, it probably wasn’t going to add that much to the debate. My review of the Multiverser rulebook concluded that, whatever faults the product might have, it was, in fact, what the Mark J. Young had claimed it was: Something utterly different from what had come before. It was my opinion, sight unseen, that The First Book of Worlds was simply not going to further that basic point at all.

This was my hubris and my mistake.

Indeed, The First Book of Worlds, even moreso than the main rulebook, is something unique. While, obviously, containing familiar elements, it takes those elements and does something fresh and original with them. In the end I was surprised, given all the things about this product I should have hated, that I was left with an overall favorable opinion of it.

WHAT IS THIS PRODUCT?

When first approaching the Multiverser game I was thrown off at first because I was expecting a generic gaming engine and instead got a dimension-hopping game. (This is discussed in my review of the rulebook.) I was thrown off-balance in a similar manner by The First Book of Worlds.

The title, and the premise of the game itself, lead me to believe that the book would be similar in temperament to GURPS Alternate Earths: Several alternate dimensions would be described, based largely on “what ifs” of established history. While there is some of that, The First Book of Worlds defies expectation.

You are are presented with a number of alternate worlds – but many of these are completely alien in their make-up (in ways which will be discussed before). But each world description also serves as the basis for discussing adventuring possibilities. In the same way that old AD&D modules spent as much time detailing location as they did detailing what happened there, each chapter of The First Book of the Worlds describes not just a new dimension, but also a story (or series of stories) which takes place there.

What struck me even more about this, however, was the wide variety of ways in which the stories were presented and told. For example, you had some scenarios which were “tightly” plotted, others which had many different branches, several which were detailed world simulations, and in some cases merely a seemingly exhaustive study of the multitude of ways a specific setting could be used. The authors have demonstrated an amazing aptitude and grasp of a wide variety of storytelling techniques.

THE WORLDS THEMSELVES

NagaWorld. The first world in the book is also the most detailed world provided. The book says, “All verser player characters begin by being carried into NagaWorld.” Those of you who have read my review of the rulebook know that there were several times when the designer made things “requirements” which didn’t really need to be – this is another one of those times. Indeed, the reasons they state for this being the case (NagaWorld was designed to be as alien as possible to leave “no doubt” in the mind of the PCs that they have traveled to another world, among others) are good ones – but why make it an absolute? (This mistake is repeated at other places in the book. In all of these cases the “requirement” is easily ignored.)

Upon arriving in NagaWorld the PCs will wake up lying on their backs in the Orange Plains. These plains are covered in three-inch long “orange grass” which is vaguely reminiscent of astroturf. The world itself is a flat disc. In the center is the “Glass City” – in actuality a massive psionic engine being controlled by the Nash Far Kraal (more on that later). The world is inhabited primarily by the nagas – essentially nerf balls (although the illustrations make them look a lot like the “slimes” which fans of Japanese animation may be familiar with). There are several colors of naga, each with its own unique properties. The nagas are accompanied by a few others interesting, and very unearthly, creatures. The other major inhabitants of NagaWorld are the Dar Koni and the Kreelak – two alien species from another universe waging war against each other.

NagaWorld is actually an artificial construct built in the scriff by the Kraal as an intermediary point for their invasions of other worlds. The Kraal and their technology are all psionically based. The Glass City is the largest of their psionic engines, used to propel them through the scriff and into other worlds. Unfortunately the Glass City is far too huge for any Kraal to operate, so the Kraal created the Nash Far Kraal – a psionic brain which lives beneath the surface of NagaWorld in a sedimentary layer of material which looks vaguely like tapioca.

Now, here comes a Big Design Flaw(TM): You’ve set up interdimensional travelers bent on the subjugation and destruction of everyone else in the multiverse. These are the perfect recurring villains for this type of game – every so often the GM has them pop up to harass the PCs, the PCs get to play freedom fighters until they get killed, and so it goes. Heck, given the way Multiverser works you could even have PCs fighting on different fronts of the same war in different dimensions at the same time. Very Cool.

At this point the guys down at Valdron decide that they should exterminate the interdimensional menace before the PCs ever show up on the scene: The Nash Far Kraal is more than slightly insane and, through a series of events, ends up killing his creators. The author even goes so far as to explicitly deny the GM “permission” to have a Kraal ever show up.

Huh?

Anyway, that would be the first thing I’d change before using this.

The other cool thing about NagaWorld, however, is that the authors have taken advantage of the fact that NagaWorld has appeared in their own decade-long campaign. Because the world is a small place and humans aren’t native it is easy to see the impact they have had. As a result you end up with several elements on NagaWorld left by other versers: It has much the same effect as the lamppost in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe — a human anachronism in an alien place which creates mystery by begging explanation. The creators have also detailed the pristine version of the world, so that that version can be used if the GM so desires.

The primary focus of NagaWorld is very much one of exploration and survival – as the PCs experiment with the alien ecology to see how they can reconstruct the basic elements of life necessary for survival, while trapped between two warring species in a world ruled over by a psychotic, psionic artificial intelligence.

Tristan’s Labyrinth. “What do you do with a player who just wants to kill monsters? Sometimes you accommodate him. That’s the theory behind Tristan’s Labyrinth, a meaningless morass of corridors and connected spaces populated by unrecognized creatures all having malicious intent.” The authors actually do themselves a disservice in this quote, since they do provide a “meaning” to it – although it’s a little thin (what explanation for a dungeon isn’t?). The labyrinth is an elaborate prison constructed beneath the surface of a nuclear-wasted world. Below the labyrinth, deep within the earth, is the utopian paradise which has been built by the survivors of the nuclear holocaust above.

I initially thought this was going to be a big disappointment on the heels of NagaWorld. Much to my surprise, however, there were a quite a few things to like here. First, the idea of a utopia surviving a nuclear holocaust was interesting. The “dungeon as prison” is an explanation which has been used before, but is a nice touch. Finally, the dungeon map is designed in a rather ingenious non-standard tile formation such that you can create an infinite labyrinth from a simple design which will, if all goes well, keep the players in the dark about the actual layout of the place – even if they conclude that there are repetitious patterns. On top of all this they detail a large number of monsters for the setting, none of which are going to do much more than casually remind you of D&D beasties.

The big design flaw here: Although they tell us that the labyrinth is used as a criminal punishment they expressly say that the PCs will never encounter a prisoner. Again: Huh?

The Dancing Princess. A fairly full world with survivalist adventuring elements and a dungeon crawl with a couple of twists. What’s next? The Dancing Princess is a fairly linear story based on the fairy tale of the same name: The PC answers the challenge of a fantasy king to stop his daughters from escaping from their rooms at night. The PC goes on an interdimensional quest and, in the end, (hopefully) rescues the princesses from demon princes and ends up marrying one of them. This is a very short section of the book, but also includes a brief description of a provincial, traditional fantasy setting of small, isolated kingdoms.

Mary Piper Twin Scenarios. This is an interesting pair of settings. Essentially the PCs appear on the trading ship Mary Piper in mid-voyage. They are, of course, suspected of being stowaways, but eventually join the crew on their adventures. The catch is that there are two Mary Pipers: One plying the waves of a medieval world, another sailing in the void between the stars. The similarity doesn’t end there – crew names and personalities are similar, place names and characteristics are at times identical and at others reminiscent, even the situations and challenges which will be faced by the PCs will be of an eerily parallel nature.

All in all this is a fairly clever idea carried out with a good deal of aplomb and quality. What I would have liked to see, however, was for the primitive Mary Piper to be set in a 20th century setting – one such that the physical appearance of the two ships would be close enough (from the inside) to at least temporarily confuse the PC as to which Mary Piper they were on. Imagine either having the PCs split up, but believing they were on the same ship – or warping the PCs off one Mary Piper and dropping them onto the other, having them believe that they haven’t actually gone anywhere (at least for awhile).

Sherwood Forest. As the name for this world should clearly imply, this is the world of Robin Hood. Once again I prepped myself for disappointment – the rest of the book had always demonstrated either original material or a unique twist on familiar material, but Robin Hood has been done before… many times. What else could you do with him? As you have probably already guessed, the section did not disappoint – largely because of three factors.

First, the authors again demonstrate their care for research, detail, and accuracy through the wealth of historical data presented along with discussions of different historical possibilities. Robin Hood may be a legendary figure, but they highlight that legend with historical fact from the 12th century.

Second, they do not cringe from the possibility of breaking the mold of expectation. One of the two adventures presented in the section (as different “common pursuits” the PCs might go after) deals with the PCs deciding to go after Prince John directly. The authors quickly point out that while the PCs might be able to convince of the Merry Men to follow them, Robin never will – Prince John, after all, is royalty, and you don’t kill royalty. Further, if the PCs are successful, then when King Richard returns they will not be lauded as heroes, but rather condemned and hunted down like the criminals they are. In the other scenario (going off to rescue King Richard), the authors make a couple of interesting historical points – first, if the PCs are already identified as being Merry Men, they will be pursued by Prince John’s forces all the way to the border of his control… which is not the coast as they might expect, but rather the edge of Normandy in France (because at this time in history the Norman royalty of England still had connections to Norman France). Second, that King Richard isn’t going to want to be rescued – it’s against the code of honor he would have subscribed to.

Finally, you actually get two worlds in one. The authors take a great deal of space to consider the possibility that – against all odds – the PCs actually do manage to kill Prince John. They theorize that with his death King Richard will still eventually have his ransom paid and return to England. Richard will still appoint a regent to the throne (a cousin, someone the PCs have never heard of before), and will still turn around and get himself killed in the Crusades. But after this all of English history is changed because Prince John never become King John. They theorize that without the inept bungling of John’s reign, the lords will never rise up and never force anyone to sign the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta, of course, was the document specifying the rights of the king’s subjects – the lords thought they were protecting themselves, but, much to their surprise, they also found that they were protecting their subjects. Whoops. Long story short, the Magna Carta is the direct precursor of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights – without it all of English society and, consequently, history would be fundamentally altered. Long story short again, the authors present a future setting in which America is still controlled largely by the English throne, which is fighting for control of the territory with France. (They suggest that the PCs warp into this setting shortly after leaving the Sherwood Forest setting.)

Unfortunately, as unique as this setting is, this is also where the Big Design Flaw for this section pops up: The authors theorize that without the emphasis on the individual in the Magna Carta, the Protestant Revolution would never have taken place and the Catholic Church still reigns supreme in the western world. Well, it’s likely that Cromwell never would have had his Revolution, to say that Protestantism would be effected by the Magna Carta is straining credulity – considering it dates to Wycliffe and Martin Luther… neither of whom were English. So, while the Church of England may or may not exist (since Henry VIII would never be king), Protestantism definitely would.

All in all, though, a very interesting section of the book which I enjoyed reading quite a bit.

The Most Dangerous Game. Most of the sections in the book are mostly world with varying amounts of adventure mixed in. This section reverses that trend by having mostly adventure and very little world. Essentially this is a fairly faithful recreation of the short story by Richard Connell. You may have (as the authors point out) read this story in high school English class. Even if you haven’t you have probably seen some adaptation or rip-off of the basic concept: It is widely believed that the short story holds the record for being adapted the most times, either directly or indirectly.

Essentially the plot goes like this: A shipwreck leaves a single man alive, who is pulled to shore and saved by a rich recluse. After nursing the man back to health the recluse informs him that he is the greatest hunter the world has ever known, but he has grown bored with it because he has perfected the sport – no animal is capable of presenting him with a challenge. So (have you guessed it yet?) the recluse now hunts the only prey left capable of challenging him – other humans. Since he saved the man’s life, the recluse claims, it belongs to him. He will give the man a head start of 24 hours and, if the man is still alive at the end of three days, he will be free to go. If I recall correctly, the original story ends when the man turns the tables on the recluse and kills him instead. The version found here is a fairly faithful adaptation (except that the main character verses in rather than being shipwrecked). It is, in my opinion, well done.

The Zygote Experience. This, undoubtedly in my mind, is something that no one else has ever had the guts to try before: An roleplaying scenario about the character being born. I dunno if it really works all that well, but I think the authors deserve kudos for trying something so radically different and unexpected.

Basically there is a tradition among Multiverser players “that once in a great while a character has gone through so much that the referee chooses to start him over as a baby”. The basic rules integrate this into the injury rules in the main book, but I didn’t really give it much thought while glancing over that section before. I mean, sure, yeah, you can have the character reborn, put together a new character sheet, and then start up again “twenty years later”… it never crossed my mind that you would attempt to roleplay through the whole experience.

All in all it’s difficult for me to describe this section in great detail without cheapening it. Let me just say this: First, it is well researched and information is given to you in great wealth. Second, I think it would be a highly playable interlude in a longer Multiverser campaign. Third, it confirms my basic opinion of the overall Multiverser product…

CONCLUSION

…And what is that opinion?

That when Mark J. Young came on the newsgroups and said that Multiverser was something unlike anything we had seen before – and was ridiculed for it – his critics were wrong in saying that it was impossible. Although paper and ink may still have been used in the production of this game, there is no doubt left in my mind now that there are dozens of things which these designers have audaciously attempted (successfully or no) that does does make their product unique, interesting, and inspiring.

On the other hand, there are some problems. First, their writing style can at times be more than annoying – meaningless “mandates” of GM and player behavior; spending too much time telling us how and why they’re telling us something rather than just telling it to us; etc. Second, there are times when their product suffers massive flaws. Third, at times I feel that their very ambition sets them up for failure at a more basic level. Fourth, I think that their complicated, hyper-detailed, world-over-story (sometimes) approach is tragically out of place in an industry which is currently enthralled with simple, broadstroked, story-over-world games. Tragically, I say, because the creators of Multiverser have a lot going for them.

So what’s my final verdict on Multiverser? I have to say that I think the package is worth the $50 they’re asking for it. I think that if you approach these products as something which you need to fiddle with and adjust in order to make it your own, then you will find a wealth of material with which to work. The game may not be for everybody, but I think everybody will find in these massive twin volumes dozens of things which they can use in games of their own.

I also think that if Valdron ever releases the promised Second Book of Worlds (to include Bah Ke’gehn, a world where the demons look like men and the men look like demons; the Prisoner of Zenda; an automated world where the indigs have become primitives in a world which takes care of their every need; western worlds; B-Movie World; the Cask of Amontillado and many more) that I’ll quickly lay out the cash to see what they’ve got brewing.

Style: 3
Substance: 5

Author: E.R. Jones and M. Joseph Young
Company/Publisher: Valdron, Inc.
Cost: $25.00
Page count: 160
ISBN: n/a

Originally Posted: 1999/05/28

In the interests of full disclosure, the Second Book of Worlds was eventually published, but I never laid out my cash to purchase it. Having just converted this review, however, I’ve just added it to my Amazon shopping cart. The First Book of Worlds really is brimming with creativity, cleverness, and a healthy dollop of originality. Even if you skip the Multiverser rulebook, I’d recommend taking the time to check it out.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Tagline: A visually stunning, clever game… which is also overly complicated and of questionable purpose.

I was of two minds over reviewing Video Fighter. It is a product which is long out of print – dating back five years to a time when Dream Pod 9 was still just a design studio at Ianus Publications. On the other hand I did just pick it up (new) yesterday, so I have firsthand experience that it’s still sitting on game shelves in some places.

But what really sealed this review’s existence was when I got an e-mail today accusing me of being (and I quote) “a corporate shill” for Dream Pod 9 because of my recent reviews laced with superlatives for the Heavy Gear game. You see, I was honestly disappointed with this product, despite its many positive qualities. The e-mail, combined with the fact that I had previously jested that I was on a “quest” of sorts to find a bad Dream Pod 9 product (see my review of the Heavy Gear Character Compendium), meant that I felt this review had to be done.

Video Fighter 1: Dragons of Fury is the second Card Fighter game (the first was Heavy Gear Fighter, based on the same basic system concepts and also defunct). It attempts to simulate video games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. As Jean Carrieres describes in his introduction to the 32 page instruction book, it was designed by people with a fix for these types of games… who also happen to get their chronometers cleaned at the local arcades by young kids willing and capable of “spending their last quarter” squeaking out every possible method of annihilating the competition.

Which is, of course, the first problem with this game. It’s a card game attempting to model a video game. It doesn’t try to be a fighter card game. It doesn’t take characters from your favorite video game and do something else with them. It doesn’t try to be abstract, nor does it attempt to model reality. Instead it attempts to model the gameplay of a video game.

Maybe I’m off base here, but what’s the point? I could see creating a card game which is similar to a typical video fighter game – you’d have one-on-one fights, flamboyant characters, etc. But the mechanics would be a model of actual fights. In the case of Video Fighter, on the other hand, you have a card game modeling video games which, in turn, model actual fights. It’s weird.

About the only possible utility a game like this would have is that it would allow you to play these games with a greater reliance on the strategy of combining various moves, rather than having your plans ruined because the other guy can punch buttons faster than you.

I guess if you’re into that type of thing. I, personally, think that this is about as worthwhile as a Monopoly: The Roleplaying Game which attempted to model the mechanics of the boardgame in a format which would allow you to explore the character potentials of being a shoe.

Basically if I wanted to pay a video fighter game I’d turn on the N64 or the Sony Playstation.

Back to Video Fighter. It comes packaged in a video amray (the plastic cases that rental places put the tapes in) with a beautifully illustrated insert. Inside is the aforementioned 32 page rulebook, eight fighter character cards, 108 playing cards, a reference sheet, and counters. The fine print on the back claims that these are all in “full color”, but the rulebook isn’t. Everything is beautifully illustrated by Ghislain Barbe (Dream Pod 9 is so lucky to have him).

This is a really beautiful game. Really fantastic.

Basically the game works like this:

1. All the players pick one of the fighter character cards. Each card has a name and is rated for his hits, action points, stun points, and toughness (for high, torso, and low attacks). Each character also has a selection of “moves” which they can perform.

2. Each player gets a hand of 10 action cards.

3. Play is broken into turns.

4. Whoever has the most action points is the Attacker and the other person is the Defender. So at the beginning of the turn the person with the most action points goes first and continues taking actions until his action point total has become lower than the other player’s, at which point he becomes the Attacker.

5. Attacks are initiated by playing an action card. The attack action cards each an action point cost, damage done, stun, a color, and also a symbol which identifies it as a specific type of attack (such as a punch or a kick). Okay? Now you need to match the symbol and the color to one of the moves printed on your character card. The moves will, themselves, modify the action point cost, damage done, and stun of the action card. There are also tricks which can be played with each move. The colors also determine whether the attack is aiming high, at the torso, or low.

6. You can defend against an attack by playing a blue card. Defense action cards block against either high, torso, low, or all attacks – obviously your defense card has to defend against the appropriate location from which the attack is originating.

7. If an attack hits, you subtract the toughness (from the appropriate location) from the damage done. If you lose all your hits you lose. If you lose all your stun points you can’t take any more actions for the rest of the turn.

8. A turn ends when all of the action points for both characters have been expended. New cards are dealt to bring each hand back up to 10 cards and play continues until someone is defeated.

Phew. That gameplay, in my opinion, is about as complicated as I want to get. Unfortunately there’s far more to this game. There are Trumps. The Tricks take up an entire section of the rulebook by themselves. The possible combinations between moves and action cards and defense options (only one of the many defense options is listed above) are dizzying. Then there are the optional range rules. Heck, there are even exceptions and clarifications to the initiative rules. Plus the rulebook, defying Dream Pod 9’s subsequent record, isn’t organized effectively. Nor are the concepts clearly explained.

Argh!

This is one of those games, I realized, that you get together with a group of your friends and spend about six hours playing (with the rulebook always close at hand) until you’ve finally gotten a fairly firm grasp of the rules… and then you never play it again because by the next morning you’ve forgotten how to play the damn thing and who wants to go through the hassle of learning it again?

Here’s the catch though: It’s fun. I found the gameplay to be fairly snappy once we finally got over the steep learning curve; the initiative system was fun and very effective; even the strategies you could build once you began to get a feel for the various combinations of moves and cards were interesting.

Okay, the sum up: It’s fun. It’s also more complicated than it needs to be (my friends and I both agreed that if we ever play it again we’ll cut a lot of the needless complication and write up a cheat sheet to help us get over the poor quality of the instruction manual). Plus my friends and I still think that the general purpose of this game (to model video fighter games) is questionable – quite a bit of the excess baggage we plan to trim comes in the form of rules attempting to get the card game to behave more like its video equivalents.

Personally I’d suggest picking up Heavy Gear Fighter over this game. It has similar mechanics, but doesn’t share all of the same flaws.

So there you have it: Dream Pod 9 was capable of producing a product I was less than happy with. Of course, it was five years ago. And it’s still visually pretty cool. And the gameplay is quite good once you get through the complicated learning curve. Sure, it’s still above average. Sure, you’ll probably still find me pulling it out from time to time to play. It just wasn’t up to the Pod’s normal quality level. I’ll still be buying their stuff sight unseen – assured of their quality before the book ever leaves the shelf.

(Okay, so maybe this won’t entirely satisfy that anonymous e-mail writer. Tough.)

[ Video Fighter 1: Dragons of Fury was originally, as the numeral in the title might suggest, supposed to be the first in a series of Video Fighter products. This was called the “Wolf” deck (Wolf being one the characters in the game), with decks specialized to the other characters coming later. These sequels never appeared and Dream Pod 9 has now abandoned both Video Fighter and the entire Card Fighter line. ]

Style: 5
Substance: 3

Author: Jean “Mr. Chun Li” Carrieres with Alexandre Racine
Company/Publisher: Dream Pod 9
Cost: $29.95
ISBN: 2-921-573-20-2

Originally Posted: 1999/05/28

I knew the word “amray” because I was working at Hollywood Video when I wrote this review. As the defunct nature of that particular business might suggest — along with the references to the N64 and Sony Playstation-sans-numeral — it’s been a long, long time since I wrote these things. Since then I’ve found quite a few Dream Pod 9 products I’ve been unhappy with, but my opinion of Video Fighter hasn’t changed: It spends too much time aping one medium within the constrictions of another. Shortly after this, Cheapass Games would release the superb Brawl card game which similarly approached the “fighter” genre. But whereas Video Fighter spent its time trying to model a video game, James Ernest’s Brawl instead captured the furious intensity of a fighting game using mechanics which are uniquely suited for the tabletop.

If you ever want to be a game designer, I recommend comparing Video Fighter and Brawl side-by-side until you fully, completely, and utterly grok the difference.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Tagline: A valuable resource for serious Magic players or those of us who just like the art.

Let me start by explaining why I own this book.

I first encountered the phenomenon which is known as Magic the Gathering later than many of the other diehards in this industry. It was late 1993 when I first heard about the game and bought my first starter decks. I had missed the wonderful financial investment those early Alpha and Beta decks would have been (we had already entered the Unlimited Edition, which wasn’t). I had even missed the first expansion deck, Arabian Nights. Thus it was that I had my first exposure to the feeding frenzy of collectorism with the arrival of the second expansion deck, Antiquities.

It is important, I think, to remind people that this was back when the industry had lost its mind over these cards. Wizards of the Coast had proven themselves incompetent at printing to the actual demand (whether intentionally or not) and so stores were routinely ordering far more copies than they actually thought they could possibly sell (which would eventually bite everybody in the ass when Fallen Empires finally did manage to print themselves to fill all the orders from distributors). This was back when people when people were putting themselves on reserve lists for dozens of cases of cards.

Now, I liked Magic, too. Not so much for the gameplay (although it was very original and intriguing) or for the potential of deckbuilding (which didn’t appeal to me at all), but because I thought the cards were really cool. I found it interesting to look at the strange creatures and locations and spells described by these cards and have my imagination stirred by these brief glimpses and descriptions.

I did a little mathematical analysis and discovered that to get a complete set of Antiquities cards it would require the purchase of a single case. (Actually I took a random guess.) So I laid out the $70 necessary to buy the case (gah!) and, after tearing open dozens upon dozens of booster packs, finally put together my “complete set”.

And then I decided it just wasn’t worth it. I still liked the cards, I still liked the art, I still liked these little windows into the world of Dominia. I just couldn’t afford to drop $70 every couple of months (or $140+ considering that the next expansion set, IIRC, had twice as many cards). I’d rather buy, say, half a dozen roleplaying manuals with that money. Or twenty-eight paperback books.

Since that time I’ve always wished that Wizards of the Coast would publish the cards in some non-collectible, non-playable form which would let me collect the cards without going bankrupt at the same time. The Collector’s Editions they released a couple years ago were close, but ironically they were priced higher than they should have been (because they were a “special edition”), so they were still too expensive for my tastes.

Now we fast-forward five years to about six months ago when I first spotted the Official Encyclopedia on the shelf. Flipping through it I saw they had finally produced what I wanted. All of the cards produced up until 7/96 are reproduced at slightly smaller than original size, along with version notes, and some analytical text.

The book also includes a forward by Richard Garfield, an historical look at Magic, errata for the cards, misprints and oddities, promotional cards, an index for deckbuilder’s, and an index for the entire book.

So I own it because its really nice having all these cards gathered together at an affordable price. It would have been nice if the artwork had been reproduced at full size, but I won’t be too picky on that point.

It is also an interesting (if brief read) for it’s non-fiction coverage of the history of Magic.

Finally, it has a set of useful tools for deckbuilders (“professional” or otherwise).

All around this is a very nice book which fulfills a number of different roles for a number of different people. I hope it gets an update in a few years to make it more current.

Style: 4
Substance: 4

Author: Editors of Duelist
Company/Publisher: Carlton Books
Cost: n/a
Page count: 225
ISBN: 1-85868-240-1

Originally Posted: 1999/05/28

In the years since I reviewed it, this encyclopedia has, in fact, been expanded with a half dozen additional volumes and at least one new edition listing more than 7,200 cards. In recent years, of course, the internet has rendered efforts like this utterly obsolete: A quick Google search will turn up multiple sites indexing every MtG card in existence. Back in 1999, I would have salivated at the thought of it. (And, in fact, I probably did.)

I think this review also provides an excellent example of how a reviewer can bring a peculiarly idiosyncratic point of view to their treatment of a product: Most people picking up this encyclopedia would have probably been using it for deckbuilding, not lore-delving. But this is why the reviewer’s first duty to their audience is to clearly communicate their point of view while also supplying enough information about the product that those with different view points can (hopefully) intuit what their own opinions of the product might be.

MtG cards remain a wonderful goldmine of creativity that can easily be stripmined for your next D&D adventure. I’ve done it at least a half dozen times and I’ll almost certainly do it again. (As inspiration goes, it’s hard to beat a dollop of evocative text combined with lavish illustration.)

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Tagline: The hit of GenCon ’98. The hit of your gaming table.

I know I used this word just last week, but I’m afraid I need to use it again: Unique.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a unique, high quality product. In twenty-four pages James Wallis – excuse me, Baron Munchausen has created one of the most memorable game manuals I’ve ever read. Hell, I’ll even go so far as to say it was one of the most memorable experiences I’ve ever had, period.

(Allow me to slip into the idiom of the game itself.)

The game was designed by the famous Baron Munchausen himself in the year 1798 while staying with a friend of his, the publisher John Wallis, in London. After receiving the manuscript – one of the most expensive he had ever paid for (the Baron had a habit of going through the best liquor in anyone’s house) – Mr. Wallis realized that the manuscript was simply unacceptable for its time period. Instead he sealed the manuscript until such time as one of his descendants thought the time was finally right to release it. His descendent James Wallis, the current director of Hogshead Publishing, has finally decided that such a time has come and has released the game on its 200th anniversary.

(Yeah, right.)

The game basically breaks down like this: You get together with a number of other compatriots (making sure to keep the number of commoners down to a minimum) and gather around a table at your favorite bar. Make sure you bring your purses and a good supply of coins because wagering will be involved (the Baron points out that all the coins should be of the same value in order to keep arguments to a minimum). The game begins when one of you turns to another and says, “So, Baron, tell us of the occasion when you gave birth to an elephant.” (Or some other outrageous circumstance.)

At this point the person may either say, “Ah yes, of course…” And begin to tell his tale. Otherwise he may say, “No, I’m afraid my throat is dry…” At which point he must buy a round of drinks for everyone else in his party and ask the person next to him tell a tale of his own.

During the telling of the tale others may interrupt the storyteller with objections such as, “But, Baron de Neuvillette, it is well known that the fire-breathing llamas on the moon are strict vegetarians.” (The key here is that these are potentially amusing complications, not serious nit-picks.) When doing this the objector pushes forward a coin from their purse. The storyteller may then accept the objection (“Ah, yes, but this llama was merely fetching food for the young wolf cub she had taken under the fold of her wing…”) and take the wagered coin. Otherwise the storyteller must put forth a coin of his own and decline the objection (“You must be thinking of the goats to be found upon the moons of Venus, for it is well known that the llamas of the moon are of no such character…”). The objector may either take both coins on the table, or he may add a third coin and renew his objection.

That is the basic mechanic of the game. There is also dueling, companions, methods of finishing a story, various drinking rituals, and (finally) the wrap-up of each round of storytelling. The book itself also includes an appendix with over two hundred suggestions for stories and another appendix which sums up the rules on a single page (which is useful since the Baron does tend to ramble in a thoroughly enjoyable manner).

(Okay, so why should you buy it?)

First off, the game is just plain fun to play. Swapping the outrageous stories which form the centerpiece of the game is great. Add on the ritualized drinking which is incorporated into the game (plus the elaborate wagering system which – in the end – makes no one and everyone a winner) and you’ve got an irresistible night’s entertainment.

Second, the book is a treat to read. It is written in the voice of the inestimable Baron himself. He is constantly wandering off the main track of the narrative in order to recount various snippets of his own outrageous tales (although none should doubt the honesty of his own stories, for he would take offense at this insult to his honor). The illustrations are by Gustave Dore, the “greatest illustrator of the nineteenth century”, who died in 1883 (I really hope I can trust this section of the book).

(Coincidentally the Baron himself died in 1797, which is revealed in his biography in the back of the book. Leave it to the Baron to write a game about himself the year after he died.)

Finally, the title of the game is no joke: This is truly a “Role-Playing Game in a New Style”. Wait a minute, you say, nothing that you’ve described sounds like the roleplaying games I know.

Well, duh. It’s in a new style!

Let’s break it down. First, it definitely involves roleplaying: Namely you assume a character who is inspired by the Baron Munchausen himself. You may find this limiting at first, but then I realized that the only important thing here is the element of your character which involves being the type of person who goes on outrageous adventures and then tells stories about them. Beyond that things are pretty wide open. I don’t consider that any more restricting than being told to “design a character who will go on fantasy adventures” or “design a character who happens to be a vampire”. Plus you get to play the character at two levels simultaneously (something “traditional” roleplaying games don’t let you do) – both at the immediate level of “telling the story” and in the events of the story being told.

Second, it’s definitely a game. What makes this unique is that inherits a different tradition than other roleplaying games do. Most RPGs stem from the traditions of wargames and boardgames. The game elements of Baron Munchausen are derived more from card games – involving bidding and wagering.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen is definitely a game you should buy. It was the hit of GenCon ’98, and it’ll be a hit at your game table… or, heck, the bar you go out to have a drink at afterwards.

[ Make sure you read the disclaimer on the title page. The quotes on the back are good, too. Save the “Table of Contents” for last, as some of the comments foreshadow pleasant jokes in the text; but definitely make time for it after finishing the book. Be warned that “you will require pencil, paper, imagination, a manservant, money, a selection of fine wines, noble blood, a sense of flamboyance, and at least one attractive member of the opposite sex (optional).” ]

[ I have been informed that the game was actually conceived in 1792 or 1793, with the explanation of its existence being written in 1798. Which is, of course, unfortunate because it ruins the perfectly good joke found above. In the interests of absolute accuracy I have, of course, attached this note to clarify my earlier mistake. ]

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Author: Baron Munchausen (James Willis)
Company/Publisher: Hogshead Publishing
Cost: $5.95
Page count: 24
ISBN: 1-899749-18-7

Originally Posted: 1999/05/28

At the time this review appeared, there was a massive debate raging at RPGNet concerning whether or not The Extraorindary Adventures of Baron Munchausen qualified as a roleplaying game or not. You can see my thoughts on the matter, circa-1999, above.

Today, my opinion on the matter would be quite different.

The discussions surrounding Baron Munchausen in 1999 caused me to formulate my definition of an RPG as “a game which involves roleplaying”. Applying the definition gave a clear-cut verdict in favor of Baron Munchausen, case closed.

But not really. Because when I found myself applying that definition beyond the confines of that narrow debate, it quickly became apparent that its semi-circular nature was only part of the problem: It also created far too many false positive, reporting that everything from Risk to Super Mario Bros. was a roleplaying game.

It took several more years before I evolved a better definition of “roleplaying game” that accurately encapsulated the history of the medium without simultaneously including a bunch of other games that clearly weren’t RPGs. You can read more about that in Roleplaying Games vs. Storytelling Games. (The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, for the record, is an STG, not an RPG.)

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.