In this link are a series of images related to Tekumel and its history as a game setting, found in the online version of the german magazine Spiegel, of all things.

I wonder if Tekumel was more popular in Germany than in North America? Or was the article more of a curiosity piece of some sort?

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They are doing a series of articles about the history of RPGs.

The article about Tekumel is very interesting, but the topic surprised us, too.

Really? Articles about RPGs in Spiegel? I'd love to see it. Googling

Very cool. And can't get more mainstream than that in Germany.

Gorsh!

Where DID the Germans find all those LARP pictures? I've never seen anything like that before...

Quote from: Melan;336837Very cool. And can't get more mainstream than that in Germany.

Well, it is Spiegel Online. More mainstream would be the print edition...

I wonder how many readers this series has - as it seems, it is a pet project of the author or editor.

One information that is missing from the article is that it was Tékumel (and not D&D) which inspired the first German RPG, Midgard. (Not that this shows in the product - Midgard is a very down-to-earth, almost BRP/Hârn-like, game.)

The Tekumel-people even cosplay weird, for fuck's sake.

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Did anyone of you know, that Boy F. Peterson wrote Der Spiegel into BattleTech canon in the Star League handbook?

In fact, Der Spiegel is supposed to be one of THE major magzines of the Star League!

Does kinda look like some Spiegel staffer using it as his personal Flickr page.

Good to put some faces to the names I've been seeing on Tekumel publications and message boards over the years though.

On the weird dressing we should just be profoundly thankful that nobody opted to come those sessions as a polymorphously perverse priestess of Dlamelish or a Hrihayal dominatrix.

Given the average age, gender balance and limited social skills of RPGers in general I am increasingly of the view that Tekumel LARPing  really should not catch on for that very reason.

Quote from: Edsan;336842Gorsh!

Where DID the Germans find all those LARP pictures? I've never seen anything like that before...

The photos of our costumes come from the Aethervox Gamers' collection of Tekumel documents, miniatures, and costumes. I have a blog at:

http://chirinesworkbench.blogspot.com/

with links to more photos.

Quote from: RPGPundit;336885The Tekumel-people even cosplay weird, for fuck's sake.

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Yes, we do, don't we?

Quote from: Hubert Farnsworth;336894Does kinda look like some Spiegel staffer using it as his personal Flickr page.

Good to put some faces to the names I've been seeing on Tekumel publications and message boards over the years though.

On the weird dressing we should just be profoundly thankful that nobody opted to come those sessions as a polymorphously perverse priestess of Dlamelish or a Hrihayal dominatrix.

Given the average age, gender balance and limited social skills of RPGers in general I am increasingly of the view that Tekumel LARPing  really should not catch on for that very reason.

Hate to disagree, but those photos are from a convention in 1987; the current crop of twenty-somethings in the group actually look pretty good in their outfits...

I do agree with you about the vast majority of RPGers, though, but they never seem to 'get' Tekumel in the first place so it's never been a problem.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;336959Yes, we do, don't we?

Which one were you? Come on, I dare you.

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Quote from: RPGPundit;337010Which one were you? Come on, I dare you.

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I'm Jeff Berry, the old fart in picture 19 with the 20 sider; I've also been Chirine ba Kal, the guy in the red and gold armor with blue trim, since 1976. The armor was originally built in 1982 as a sales gimmick for conventions to go with Prof. Barker's 25mm Temple of Vimuhla when I was working for Dave Arneson, and the response from gamers was so positive that a lot of the people in my two Tekumel groups started doing their own costumes based on the PCs they were playing. My current RPG group members are making noises about doing more costumes, and we'll see what happens.

No idea why costumes are popular with Tekumel gamers, either. I think it's because there's a lot more emphasis on the social interactions in our games; of course, it could just be that it's fun...

There's other photos linked to my little blog, mostly of miniatures:

http://chirinesworkbench.blogspot.com/

Hee hee.

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