Find a game at your local convention, or buy a source-book and run a session for your friends. This lets me play the female general, governor, or bad-ass scholar-priestess, while showcasing the more rigid gender roles in historical societies.įor all these reasons, and because any game with a table discussing regional variations in architecture is just awesome, take time this year, on the 40th anniversary of its publication to play some Tékumel. The role of women, is in my opinion, portrayed brilliantly, with women pressured into traditional family roles, but legally allowed to declare themselves the equals of men. Homosexuality and bisexuality are discussed openly in the books and accepted within the cultures, as is polyamory.
EMPIRE OF THE PETAL THRONE NAMES SKIN
Not just that the PCs all have black hair and brown skin and don’t live in Ye Olde Europe. What I love most, though, is that this game, the first published RPG setting, has so much of what I see people calling for in modern games. The alien races are truly alien, not just humans with some features changed. The morality springs from an honest exploration of what it would be like for humans to live in a world where incomprehensible omnipotent gods interfered in daily life.
EMPIRE OF THE PETAL THRONE NAMES PC
The human society, drawn from India and South America, eschews the standard rugged-individualism of most adventuring parties for a world in which every PC is caught in a web of obligations between their family, their clan, their temple, and their career. Because of this, it lies at the intersection of both the Old School Renaissance movement, and the call for more diversity in gaming. Published in 1975, it blends sword and sorcery, dungeon crawls, war gaming, and meticulous detail with a non-Eurocentric setting, alternative sexuality, and a role for women that manages to be empowering while not blithely ignoring historical reality. Tékumel is an amazing setting that encapsulates both the history and the future of table-top gaming. For additional information, please visit. Barker and are used with permission of the Tékumel Foundation. (Tékumel™ and Empire of the Petal Throne™ are trademarks of M.A.R. The princes and princesses of the Tsolyáni empire vie for their father’s mystical Petal Throne, tearing the nation apart with civil war and political intrigues.Īs a captain in one of their armies, will you play as male or female, gay straight or bi? A brave and forthright soldier, a hedonistic intriguer with a heart of gold, or scheming double agent? Barker’s world of Tékumel™ is a fantasy universe like no other, where South American, Middle Eastern, and Indian cultures collide. It’s entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination. “Choice of the Petal Throne” is a 124,000-word interactive fantasy novel by Danielle Goudeau, where your choices control the story. In the Empire of the Petal Throne™, will you find glory, or a knife in your back? We’re proud to announce that Choice of the Petal Throne, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire.