Look what I found

I saw this box last month at Half-Price Books, but I passed on it at the time since it's missing the rulebook. But when I was back in that store this week, it was still there, so I grabbed it.

"It" being the Empire of the Petal Throne boxed set from TSR. It contains three maps: one of the city of Jakalla, and two parts that cover the land of Tékumel itself. The material for the maps is high-quality, almost vinyl, substance. Like I said, the box was missing the rulebook and record sheets that came with it originally, but I'm enjoying the art.

My day at GuadaComaCon

As I mentioned over the weekend, turnout for the convention was better than ever.  I got to play in a couple of games and ran a session of the game I co-wrote, 5150: Star Navy.  And there was plenty going on all day.  I hope to come back with some more detailed posts regarding the games I participated in or ran, but for now here's my overview of GuadaComaCon:

The morning started out with a couple of roleplaying games.  Game designer Dennis Sustare ran a game of Swords & Wizardry, a retroclone of the original D&D rules.

Meanwhile, author/illustrator Jeff Dee refereed Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel, an RPG based on the setting from the famous Empire of the Petal Throne.

At the same time, Chip was conducting a game of Axles & Alloys, a vehicle combat game using mechanics from Full Thrust.  I played in the first round, getting my driver killed at the end of the game.

In addition, Kerstan and Tom, a couple of New Braunfels locals, put on a 2000-point game of Warhammer 40,0000--Tyranids versus Space Marines.  Several other NB gamers stopped by to watch and chat.

For the afternoon session, my game of 5150: Star Navy drew a half-dozen players.  I think one person had played it before; but the rest of the group easily picked up the rules.

Blake had brought enough armies (repurposed Warhammer figures) and terrain to host an entire Hordes of the Things tournament for 12 players, but unfortunately he ended up just having three or four gamers actually play some HotT.

In addition that afternoon, Joe put on a Flames of War scenario.  The battle was Germans against Soviets in Budapest, 1945.

Also during this time slot Jeff's wife, Talzhemir, ran Cavemaster, the role-playing game that cavemen played.

After that, only one evening game took place: the Battle of Hoth using FUBAR rules.  Coach K and his son drove an hour-and-a-half, bringing their large, illuminated setup that drew onlookers from a charity event in the convention center's ballroom.  I'm glad I got to play this scenario, as they're retiring it in favor of Helm's Deep for the next convention.

I was a little disappointed that we didn't have more evening games; I guess everyone was tired after two sessions of rolling dice and moving miniatures.  Still, my thanks to everyone who ran a game, as well as those who came out to play.  See you next August!

Games at South Texas Mini-Con

The events for our local do-it-yourself game convention are starting to materialize.  Here's a tentative list of games: 

I, of course, plan on running Starfleet Wars.

It looks like Brad from Skull Crushing for Great Justice will run an AD&D game at the con, and he's talking about a one-off where the players take the role of monsters. 

Chris of the Hill Cantons said he wants to run a Tekumel game of some sort. 

It's also looking like we'll have someone running Villians & Vigilantes. 

I need to confirm that Don M of the Brazos Evil Empire will run When the Navy Walked.

If anyone else would like to run a game, let us know soon!

Tékumel and star travel

I'm not very familiar with the world of Tékumel, the setting for the role-playing game Empire of the Petal Throne, but some of the followers of this blog are (I'm talking to you, Chris).  It's for these readers that I mention a new blog called Ix.

Although very new and focused primarily on roleplaying, I thought it interesting that the blog's author, The Drune, has dedicated a couple of posts to Tékumel's sci-fi background.  Although EPT is a fantasy game, the world of Tékumel was settled by interstellar travellers, including Terrans.  The Drune examines Humanspace Empires in one post, and applies that knowledge to map Humanspace (pictured above) in another post.

The setting of Tékumel has some 60,000(!) years of backstory.  Although starship combat isn't something you usually see while playing Empire of the Petal Throne, with sixty millennia of history, I bet there's room in there somewhere for space battles between the Five Powers ....