This concerns a topic about which I've written before, but which is likely to become more important in my ongoing House of Worms Empire of the Petal Throne campaign, namely, the death of the emperor of Tsolyánu and the choosing of his successor. There is no primogeniture in Tsolyánu. Instead, all the children of the emperor, who are given "the Gold" (a specially engraved circular plaque) upon their births, are eligible to compete for the right to ascend the Petal Throne as his successor. To provide some additional context, here's what the Tékumel Source Book has to say about this competition:
As soon as an old monarch has died and the great sarcophagus sealed away in the black vaults below Avanthár all of those who possess the Gold (plus any remaining undeclared heirs or heiresses who must be hurriedly produced by their patrons) are summoned to Béy Sü for the Choosing of the Emperors. There they undergo a traditional roster of tests which cover every facet of character thought by the Tsolyáni to be needful for a ruler: bravery, endurance, cunning, physical prowess, judgment, knowledge of history and the arts, competence in "magic," and a dozen other fields. A candidate has the right to name champions to represent him or her in any three of these categories but must compete in person in all the others. Each event is carefully judged, and the strongest contenders are taken at last within the sacred precincts of the Temple of Hná'lla where the Holy Adepts of all the temples and the High Princeps of the Omnipotent Azure Legion make the final selection according to ancient and secret ritual methods. The winner is then declared and conveyed to Avanthár. The losers are given over to the Temple of Karakán for sacrifice.
I've decided that I'd like to play out the Choosing of the Emperors in in my campaign, with each of my eight players taking the role of one of the candidates for the throne. The problem I am having – and the reason why I'm turning to my readers for ideas – is that there is very little information about the competition in any published Tékumel materials. The section I've quoted above is close to all we know about the competition and its trials and, as you can see, it's quite vague.
In the original Space Gamer article linked to at the start of this post, there is a lengthy description of how one referee (Robert L. Large, Jr.) handled the Choosing in his campaign. He made use of only three tests – a series of arena battles, a series of magical duels, and a puzzle chamber. The account is very interesting, because Large made use of other games, like FGU's Gladiator, TSR's War of Wizards, as adjuncts to Empire of the Petal Throne itself. I'm very open to this sort of approach, but the bigger issue for me is: what sorts of contests are employed?
The Tékumel Source Book references "a traditional roster of tests" that includes more than a dozen areas of competence, not merely the three that Large used for his EPT campaign back in 1976. I suppose it could be argued that he was simplifying the Choosing of the Emperors for the sake of play. Certainly, I don't want the process of choosing a new emperor in my campaign to take up months of weekly play, especially if the roster of candidates is large. But what to do? What's the best – and most fun – way to pit the various heirs against one another so that the end result is unpredictable, even by me?
One of my players long ago suggested that the Choosing of the Emperors was probably akin to a competitive dungeoncrawl. This is an intriguing notion, if only because one of the features of Tékumel as a setting is that most cities have an "underworld" beneath it, representing the ruins of earlier settlements upon which they've been built. Avanthár, the ancient citadel of the emperors, is very ancient place, with all manner of passages and tunnels and ancient technology hidden beneath it, so I can easily imagine trials being conducted in such an environment. When discussing this with my players at our last session, we half-joked that a trap and puzzle filled maze like The Tomb of Horrors would be ideal for this purpose, if most of us weren't already intimately familiar with it.
So, that's where things stand at the moment. I very much want to play out the Choosing of the Emperors, but I have only a few ideas of how best to simulate them. I'd like the experience to be memorable and fun, as well as unique, but I must confess to having few ideas how best to achieve this without going to the trouble of creating an entirely new game for this purpose. Ideally, I'd be able to use Empire of the Petal Throne as the foundation, statting up all the heirs as characters and then subjecting them all to various trials. However, I'm not sure that's necessarily the best approach, which is why I'd love to hear the thoughts of others. If you have any ideas, thoughts, or suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Thanks in advance!
Interestingly, the Empire of Lemasa, in the Perilous Lands setting designed by Richard Snider, has a similar tradition for Imperial Succession:
ReplyDelete"When an Emperor dies, his sons are walled into the Sacred Caves (an ancient labyrinth near Sscavhi). Twenty-four hours later the exit is opened.
The first one to find this exit is the new Emperor. Immediately after his exit the cave is re-sealed. Any other son who is seen after this is killed. (It is considered to be a great omen when the new Emperor is the only survivor.)"
I wonder how much experience Snider has directly with Tekumel, and if this was inspired by that experience.
I think it's quite possible Snider knew about Tékumel, since he was based in the Twin Cities, wasn't he?
DeleteIf you're going with arena battles for one segment of the tests, you could use Steve Jackson's Melee (which I'm sure you know: the combat component of the Fantasy Trip). It's free on DriveThruRPG or Wargames Vault.
ReplyDeleteIt gives a much more tactical game than most RPG combat system, and things like the placement of columns or walls become highly significant. And it would cope very well with eight players; The Fantasy Trip is one of the few RPGs that handles multi-player combat very smoothly while keeping it interesting.
You could set things up by having the candidates draw lots (or roll dice or whatever) to determine who chooses which 'archetype' to fight as. So, just as the Romans had 'Thracians' and 'Samnites' and 'Gauls' in the arena, the Tsolyani might have a range of stylised equipment rig-outs for ritual combat. Some might be quite exotic: for example, you could have a Shen archetype equipped with very heavy armour to simulate scales and a flail to act as the creature's lashing tail. Or two fighters lashed together back to back (occupying the same hex in Melee and facing in opposite directions) as an Ahoggya.
As you probably know, armour and weapon choices are very significant in Melee (unrealistically so, but it makes for a good game): armour makes you clumsy but provides a lot of protection, so there's a real retiarius/secutor trade-off. And thrown weapons and other missiles have risk/reward calculations of their own, especially in an arena with lots of obstacles and narrow stretches.
Also, if you're translating EPT stats into Melee's ST and DX, you might end up with characters that are best suited to one of the rig-outs or the other. A high-DX character would be great with missile weapons while a low-DX character would, ideally, want to end up in heavy armour. There are ST minima for certain weapons, so you'd perhaps give each archetype a choice to select from; certain characters would end up having to choose sub-optimal combos if they drew badly, which could add to the fun.
So you could have an all-combat arena session that would be quite distinctive and absorbing. And you can assume that all casualties are fixed up with Ineluctable Eyes of Healing afterwards.
You may want to check out “The Garhound Festival”, set in Glorantha. It details a 7-day harvest festival, which numerous competitors looking to be named the harvest champion. Each day is a different event. Some are humorous, such as the “knowledge test” having over the years degenerated into a drinking contest.
ReplyDeleteYou can find it in Avalon Hill’s RQ3 product “Sun County”. Might give you a few ideas? It also describes some side plots that go on during the festival, the general air of the town during the competition, etc.
That's a very good suggestion. Thank you.
DeleteMy initial thought is to look at the tests and requirements involved in choosing civil servants in old China and Japan.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking Legend of the Five Ring's "Topaz Champion."
DeleteI would assume a significant number of the trials would be resolved through political (or other) influence on the judges -- which itself sort of makes sense given the qualities you might want in an Emperor :-) The Choosing *begins* with the struggle to make sure the right judges sit on the panels, and is fought by the backers of the candidates rather than the candidates themselves.
ReplyDeleteHaving never heard of this element of EPT, I’m surprised to find it was similar to an event in my home campaign called “The Contest”. Essentially, the heir to the throne had died tragically, and so heirs from the four regions were selected and made to compete against each other in a great adventuring competition. One of the players was the potential heir, and everyone else made assistants and retainers to him (one was his traveling secretary). The way it was executed was that the players did their normal campaign, but they would occasionally cross paths with the other heirs, who they could hinder or outright murder if they chose. Eventually, the player became the new ruler, and his PC was retired to NPC-dom, where he still rules to this day.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very cool idea. Effectively, there may be 20 candidates all of whom must go deep to recover some artefact. Some will turn back, some might work cooperatively together for awhile others go it solo. In the end their may be a few parties competing. This gives the out to some of the PCs who may decline the candidacy but join the party fold old times sake.
DeleteI'd run it as a party dungeon crawl with private individual objectives. Collectively the players must try to survive and need the entire team intact to be able to put up a fight in order to do so. However each player has secret victory conditions that the other players do not know for certian. Examples: Defeat a particular enemy and take a trophy, obtain a specific treasure item, translate hieroglyphics from a specific wall, etc. The players may reveal their objectives or bluff as to the specific. But only the player with the most satisfied victory conditions shall be crowned emperor.
ReplyDeleteThe Grinding Gear frome Lotfp?
ReplyDeleteI'm spit-balling here. I think:
ReplyDeleteDungeon crawling and arena combat could be part of it, perhaps even revealing state secrets to the victor - secret temples, elite organizations, items of power held in the collections of Avanthar that would test the will or stamina of participants.
But surely it would also be an expression of the virtues found in a leader, which would be the virtues extolled by the Gods of Pavar.
I'd think there would certainly be a secret test that breaks frame and happens outside the apparent test, the secret test regarding political and social maneuvering.
And then there are things like the ability to deal with the greatest social and/or physical threat in a party or social situation (spotting poisoning attempts, assassins, and sussing out the motives of the most conniving Servants of a conniving nobility.)
And there should definitely be tests of extreme etiquette -- having to recall the correct forms of "you" to address assembled dignitaries.
And perhaps a test of strategy - a war game or chess like game of pure strategic thinking.
Hope that helps, James!
Sounds like fun!
DISCLAIMER: I am not, nor have I ever been, a GM/DM, and do not think I have the qualifications to ever be one.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I think I would at least try not to deviate from the game mechanics (and would definitely not, as you put it: "creating an entirely new game for this purpose"). For me this implies that you 'have' to 'strip down' the contests as described in your quote from the Tékumel Source Book. Perhaps you could do it as a sort of dungeon crawl, where each 'room' represents a different type of challenge for the contestants, like: a room where you need magic to get through it, a room that needs physical strength to get through it, a room that needs historical knowledge (perhaps a 'puzzle' of sorts) to get through it, etc. And then rank the contestants based on who had the most 'solutions' to (the problems of) each of the rooms.
Sorry I cannot be of more help.
Weird suggestion here, but I think there should be one trial that is completely random, a game of chance like bingo, but appropriately re-flavored, of course. However, you could let contestants "buy" advantages by taking penalties in other upcoming trials. It would be interesting to see how much contestants are willing to risk from their stronger areas to shore up their chances in this one.
ReplyDeleteHrm. Not sure about the 'random game like bingo' aspect, but the game mechanic you came up with where contestants have a fixed amount of 'points' to spend on areas where they presumably won't perform well, while making the assumption that they could compensate that with the area's on which they presumably will perform well, actually sounds like a really good game mechanic that you could probably use alongside whatever other approach one could come up with.
DeleteJust a thought, but what if the contestants where tested on all facets all at once? Kind a hunger games thing where you're thrown in a hole with other hopefuls and you have to be brave, cunning and magical all at once to survive instead of discret tests. For picking champions you could have each contestant pick three henchmen for help, so the wizard could bring in a stout fighter, a clever thief, and a charming negotiator. You could surprise your group with them thinking they were going in as every man for himself, to it becoming two to three up for the throne but then they have to "pick teams" form your remaining players before going in. It's like third grade kick ball but with death!
ReplyDeleteEver read The Blue Adept books by Piers Anthony? Part of it is The Game, where (if memory serves) the events are chosen on a decision tree with players taking turns choosing branches, trying to settle on an event at which they excel. I can also imagine the events being chosen by spins of a wheel.
ReplyDeleteEvents range from combat (with robots of each competitor's weight class as the opponents, so a huge contestant doesn't have an advantage) to the luge to flute playing to I don't remember what else. I'd make use of all the stats in your game.
I also like the idea of using mini-games like Melee, but I'd make use of all kinds of little games. Mastermind? Don't Break the Ice? Ants in the Pants? Hnefatafl?
I have no idea how this could apply, but might be interesting: a 360 evaluation of some aspect of each character. Say, diplomacy - every character is given 3 white tokens (good), 2 black tokens (bad) [adjust numbers as you see fit, positive always outnumbers
ReplyDeletenegative, perhaps one less than total number of players]. They can drop as many or as few of each in others' "piggy banks" anonymously in a voting booth/other room (no, one cannot vote for one's self). Whites are added, blacks subtracted, and if there is a tie, drop the lowest and repeat.
Are you at all familiar with the BBC TV programme "The Adventure Game"? It ran for two or three series in the early 1980s and there were similar TV games shows "The Crystal Maze" and "Fort Boyard" (the latter was originally French I think). These were all challenge games with physical, mental, and skill games. You should be able to find these on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteFrom your list of challenge types "cunning" seems the most difficult to play out. The only board game I can think of which has a degree of cunning is "The really nasty horse racing game" where players take the role of horse owners, select a horse for the race and then make a series of bets. You can bet on other players to win and then play to effect that outcome.
Gronda gronda!
Enjoyed this post and responses. My $0.02 would be that in my 5e game I'd want The Test to select the most well-rounded individual, capable of meeting most of the tasks facing a ruler. So maybe six skill challenges, one for each of the ability scores. Each competitor gets a score for each challenge, highest final score wins. Depending on the number or entrants perhaps a negative score results in total elimination.
ReplyDeleteI fear that this idea of a competition can degenerate to a 'Games of Hunger' situation, with a competition in a hostile zone with strategic alliances and merciless decissions
ReplyDeleteExactly JJ ..... just like a supreme leader would face
DeleteJames—
ReplyDeleteIf you’re looking for some excellent fantasy serial fiction structured around the idea of a bunch of people thrown together as part of a trial/test (including nobles), you could far worse than to check out _Pale Lights_, at https://palelights.com/.
Allan.
Why not use "a trap and puzzle filled maze" that your players aren't already intimately familiar with (such as Labyrinth of Madness or the tomb of the nine gods in Tomb of Annihilation)?
ReplyDeleteI'd get wild and crazy with this and go off the map thinking the contestants would THINK it is a dungeon crawl or gladiator type event, but since the whole tradition is behind closed doors I would use the element of secrecy and have the players visit the sarcophagus of the newly deceased emperor and have a portal inside of the sarcophagus leading to another plane outside of Bethorm......Then the real competition begins.
ReplyDeleteI would have the contestants be led to the newly deceased Emperor's sarcophagus with it opened by someone from the Azure Legion which leads to a plane off Bethorm where the real fun begins of the contest.....
ReplyDelete