Fantastic Writer
I’ve always been intrigued by Tekumel and really never had the chance to play the game
This is short but rich. Feels like Barker’s vibe.
Wish she would write a whole book
This is short but rich. Feels like Barker’s vibe.
Wish she would write a whole book
It is Exactly what it claims to be.
I’m giving this five stars because it’s very well written and the devs clearly did their homework on a very obscure pen and paper classic. This game is an excellent recreation of M.A.R Barker’s world of Tekumel. While the writing is excellent and the lore is rich, it’s fair to say newcomers to this world may find this particular game difficult to jump right into. I would suggest that the devs provide a slight intro in the beginning that explains (in a basic sense) the point of clans, or perhaps a brief description of current events to set the scene and the tone of the world. That said, thank you for the story, it was a blast!
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Promising but ultimately flawed
So I have mixed thoughts about this game.
First the Pros:
The writing is solid all the way around (not a guarantee at all in CoG games) and the world building is quite unique and interesting and I kept wanting to know more about it. Also there’s some nice degree of choice and how the plot moves forward can very much alter with your failures and/or successes.
Some of the encounters or events are quite imaginative. I was particularly taken with a sequence in which you encounter a “whimpered” which I think is one of the more chilling types of monsters I’ve ever encountered in a game like this.
The cons:
The game is short. Way too short. I felt like I was about getting to the halfway point when the game suddenly ends with barely a resolution, and that’s on a “good” ending. This to was it’s ultimate crime. I felt at the end, regardless of what choices I made, that I barely impacted the overall resolution of the story, and that’s because at the end of the day, your character IS tangential to the larger narrative (The game of the Petal Thrones). I mean sure, you get to side with one royal or the other in who gets a particular maguffin (whose importance is never explained) but you’re left to your own imagination how that pans out.
I recognize that writing these branching stories is an arduous and time consuming process but I really felt short changed, especially when there are so many other CoG games that feel truly developed and are easy to invest in. The same goes for the relationships you have in the story. Completely underdeveloped and while your two relationships have great baring on the ending of the game, it doesn’t seem to matter how well or badly you’ve treated them, they’re going to make the same choices, and you spent such little time with them that they feel fairly personality-less.
One other thing: I appreciate the thought that went into the world building. It’s great. But EVERYTHING has a weird name in a made up language, and I can’t tell you how often I had to consult the glossary, which itself was filled with MORE weird terms in the made up language. If the game had been longer and I felt like it was important to know this stuff to make smart decisions, I think I would have happily looked past it, but for as slight as the story winds up being, it seems like an awfully big ask to require your readers to learn a made up language for the purposes of what is essentially a short and uninvolving story.
I know that all sounds harsh, but again the writing is good and the world is interesting, but I don’t think that’s enough. Especially when there are so many other much better CoG out there.
First the Pros:
The writing is solid all the way around (not a guarantee at all in CoG games) and the world building is quite unique and interesting and I kept wanting to know more about it. Also there’s some nice degree of choice and how the plot moves forward can very much alter with your failures and/or successes.
Some of the encounters or events are quite imaginative. I was particularly taken with a sequence in which you encounter a “whimpered” which I think is one of the more chilling types of monsters I’ve ever encountered in a game like this.
The cons:
The game is short. Way too short. I felt like I was about getting to the halfway point when the game suddenly ends with barely a resolution, and that’s on a “good” ending. This to was it’s ultimate crime. I felt at the end, regardless of what choices I made, that I barely impacted the overall resolution of the story, and that’s because at the end of the day, your character IS tangential to the larger narrative (The game of the Petal Thrones). I mean sure, you get to side with one royal or the other in who gets a particular maguffin (whose importance is never explained) but you’re left to your own imagination how that pans out.
I recognize that writing these branching stories is an arduous and time consuming process but I really felt short changed, especially when there are so many other CoG games that feel truly developed and are easy to invest in. The same goes for the relationships you have in the story. Completely underdeveloped and while your two relationships have great baring on the ending of the game, it doesn’t seem to matter how well or badly you’ve treated them, they’re going to make the same choices, and you spent such little time with them that they feel fairly personality-less.
One other thing: I appreciate the thought that went into the world building. It’s great. But EVERYTHING has a weird name in a made up language, and I can’t tell you how often I had to consult the glossary, which itself was filled with MORE weird terms in the made up language. If the game had been longer and I felt like it was important to know this stuff to make smart decisions, I think I would have happily looked past it, but for as slight as the story winds up being, it seems like an awfully big ask to require your readers to learn a made up language for the purposes of what is essentially a short and uninvolving story.
I know that all sounds harsh, but again the writing is good and the world is interesting, but I don’t think that’s enough. Especially when there are so many other much better CoG out there.
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Embrace the unfamiliarity and be rewarded
This novel was a pleasantly unique experience. While it took some time to immerse myself in a world with such rich language, history, lore, and characters the commitment was well worth it. The story makes no apologies for its complexity and unfamiliarity and this is largely why it succeeds. While the tale itself borrows from familiar enough fantasy tropes (a solid choice given the unfamiliarity) the setting and larger events are quite fresh. All in all I can recommend this quite comfortably. Don’t shy away from the strangeness and difficulty; it’s what makes this so enjoyable.
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Excellent adventure!
This game is one the better introductions to M.A.R. Barker's famed, science-fantasy world of Tékumel. It is a world of (male and female) warriors and sorcerers, psionic powers, weird, millennia-old technology, interdimensional travel, and strange alien gods and creatures.
If you are tired of Tolkien-like fantasy clones, give this a shot. The world was inspired by medieval India, Imperial China, and Mesoamerican cultures, not Anglo-Saxon and Judeo-Christian societies and mores (Tékumel was LGBQ-friendly before the word even existed). And all of it is peppered with Golden Age science-fiction bits and bobs: weird (at times terrifying) aliens, and potent futuristic technology that sometimes looks like magic.
So leave your expectations of what Fantasy should be behind, and embrace the non-Western cultural norms, the Urdu and Nahuatl sounding words (Barker, just like Tolkien, was a University-level linguist, as well as an artist and writer), and the cool sword and sorcery-like adventures full of bizarre monsters, vast treasures, weird cults, and, yes, deep dungeons.
The game, which is well written, offers numerous options and choices that bring the world of Tékumel to life.
I personally would love to see a follow up to The Choice of the Petal Throne.
If you are tired of Tolkien-like fantasy clones, give this a shot. The world was inspired by medieval India, Imperial China, and Mesoamerican cultures, not Anglo-Saxon and Judeo-Christian societies and mores (Tékumel was LGBQ-friendly before the word even existed). And all of it is peppered with Golden Age science-fiction bits and bobs: weird (at times terrifying) aliens, and potent futuristic technology that sometimes looks like magic.
So leave your expectations of what Fantasy should be behind, and embrace the non-Western cultural norms, the Urdu and Nahuatl sounding words (Barker, just like Tolkien, was a University-level linguist, as well as an artist and writer), and the cool sword and sorcery-like adventures full of bizarre monsters, vast treasures, weird cults, and, yes, deep dungeons.
The game, which is well written, offers numerous options and choices that bring the world of Tékumel to life.
I personally would love to see a follow up to The Choice of the Petal Throne.
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