R.I.P. M.A.R. Barker

[Joseph]

Very sad news: M.A.R. Barker, creator of Tekumel, the setting of the Empire of the Petal Throne RPG, has passed away.

http://www.tekumelfoundation.org/Pres...

Tekumel was always one of my favorite fictional worlds -- a planet of deserts and jungles, alien races, ancient ruins and an intricately detailed human culture that was as far removed from standard fantasy tropes as you could get. The Man Of Gold (the first of five novels he published in the setting) is excellent both as an introduction to the world and as a novel in its own right. There was also hefty cross-pollination between Empire of the Petal Throne and the original version of Dungeons & Dragons -- EPT was published by TSR shortly after the initial D&D.

[Jlawrence, S&L Moderator]

That is sad. I had the Empire of the Petal Throne box for awhile and never played it, but it was pretty fascinating to just read through the source book material. I still have a battered paperback of The Man of Gold, I'll try to read that this year.

[Joseph]

I'm hopeful that at some point in the near future the Tekumel Foundation (established a few years back to manage his creations) will be able to make the novels available electronically. I also never played the game but I also loved reading the various sourcebooks and I sometimes dream about a movie or a good single-player computer RPG.