Tekumel isn’t for everybody, but if you’re willing to stretch your imagination a bit then it will never be bettered. He constructed imaginary languages that work, rather than just having random apostrophes through the middle of words! And he travelled widely throughout the Middle East and South-East Asia, so he could draw on convincing models of how a non-modern, non-Western society functions. What made Tekumel unique is that Barker was an anthropologist and linguist.
Lots of other people since have tried revisiting the idea of a civilization far in the future where culture has reverted to the level of the ancient world and technological devices are regarded as magical. Barker created for Empire of the Petal Throne. JH: What's your favourite game? What games that are out there at the moment float your boat?ĭM: As far as setting goes, nothing can beat Tekumel for me. I certainly spend more time working on my characters' finances, and with more enthusiasm, than I ever would on my tax return. Often they matter more to us than real life. You’re creating a group mythology, and we talk about events in our games as if they really happened. I don’t know any other way you can get participatory storytelling like that. No single person drives the plot and the best events are completely unexpected and on-the-fly. JH: What is it about the tabletop RPG hobby that attracts you? What do you enjoy most when playing a game?ĭM: It’s the way that the story emerges from all the characters we’re playing. On the train coming home, we looked in the box and I remember my friend Nick saying, “You know, I’m not even sure if this is a boardgame…” And so our role-playing days began. We had to club together to buy that very lavish boxed set – it was about forty pounds in today’s money. I and a bunch of school friends came across TSR’s Empire of the Petal Throne and we’d never seen anything like it.
FABLED LANDS JAMIE THOMPSON FULL
JH: Tell us about your RPG history - what got you into the wonderful world of tabletop roleplaying?ĭM: It all started in a little shop down Hanway Street which was so full of games and gamers that there was hardly room to turn round.
Our Dirk Lloyd books, written by Jamie, have been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Prize, and our interactive take on Frankenstein, written by me and published by Profile Books, has been getting some great reviews from people like the Independent, the Literary Platform, and a coveted star review from Kirkus – not places you normally expect to see interactive fiction reviewed! My recent work has been for Fabled Lands LLP, the company I set up a couple of years ago with my lifelong friend and fellow gamer Jamie Thomson. My 1980s role-playing game Dragon Warriors was recently republished and I am about to re-release many of my gamebooks such as Heart of Ice in print and ebook formats with Osprey Books. I’ve been an author of gamebooks, novels and comics and a designer of videogames and role-playing games for a good many years now. Jonathan Hicks: Welcome! Perhaps you'd like to tell us a little bit about yourself?ĭave Morris: Thanks for inviting me. Thompson proved too busy, but Morris answered a bit on his behalf. It was originally intended to be an interview with both Dave Morris & Jamie Thompson. The RPGnet Interview This is the fourth of Jonathan Hicks' roleplaying interviews.
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