T&T to Empire of the Petal Throne

[pahessel]

Duh-oh! After all these years, I finally "get" T&T!

All those complex variants intended to let closely-matched blokes with gobs of dice and doubled armor finish a fight without having to send out for pizza several times along the way ...

... and all along, the key was freewheeling SRs!

It's definitely worth another look. In fact, I'm considering the admittedly odd combo of T&T rules and the "Empire of the Petal Throne" setting. Quick and bloody is certainly in keeping with EPT's (the original's) spirit, and simple rules seem fitting when the setting is complex and alien (and prone to pedantic overseriousness).

I considered RISUS, but the slope of odds is way too steep for my taste.

More generally, the discussion highlights the value of shifting the focus in fight scenes (in particular) away from "stats" and toward player decisions.
The contrast with D&D's aesthetic reminds me that tallying penalties for daring tends to discourage the very sorts of derring-do that good adventure fiction uses to entertaining effect.

Thanks for the inspiration!

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

And welcome to the Forge!

Very quick note - 'round here, one of the conventions is to post to recent threads only, in order to preserve (as best we can) a chronology of discussions through the back pages. But don't sweat it, what matters is that you've posted in the first place, so I've split this post off into a new thread of its own.

The Empire of the Petal Throne seems long overdue for a system re-haul of some kind. I'm interested in what people might think about its "spirit," which has always eluded me. From Barker's two novels, I get a sense of Barsoom-like exoticism, with strong doses of violence and erotics; from the game books, I get a very old-school sense of killin' many monsters. The one overlap seems to be the game-world politics and power-plays.

But all of the above is only an impression. How about it, EPT fanatics? I know there are some of you on the Forge. What's actual play like in this setting?

tallying penalties for daring tends to discourage the very sorts of derring-do that good adventure fiction uses to entertaining effect.

Precisely. This principle has finally begun to enter game design more consistently, that one gains more points, more dice, or more whatever for inserting material (actions, comments, whatever) that contributes to further enjoyment and engagement by everyone.

Welcome again, and let me know what you think.

Best,
Ron

[Simon W]

This is an excellent site for Tekumel stuff, if you haven't seen it before.

http://www.tekumel.com/newsframeset2.html

and I believe there is a new rpg coming out too

http://www.guardiansorder.com/tekumel/

Simon
http://www.geocities.com/simonwashbourne/Beyond_Belief.html