02-15-2016, 01:47 PM
finarvyn Wrote:I'm really sad to hear about this whole thing. I bought and played the TSR version of EPT back in the 1970's and think it's a wonderful world. Although a bit strange for me to run as a GM, I read all of the articles in Dragon magazine and still own my boxed set of EPT to this day. I like EPT enough that I set aside a portion of my OD&D Discussion board for the game and I think that Phil Barker's campaign was a huge part of the development of RPGs and support ways to expose newcomers to that setting.
In that way I was really happy to see that the Tekumel Foundation was gaining traction as a national group, and that lots of folks were gaining exposure to EPT. How nice to hear that this world would be supported and that gamers could experience the thing. This news that the Tekumel Foundation has been acting poorly reflects in a negative way upon our entire hobby-industry and I'm sad that they would crush an event that sounded like a really fun and amazing experience at GaryCon. The Tekumel Foundation may be doing some great things for EPT, but based on this story I will not be buying any of their products and will not attend any of their events. That's just a crappy way to treat people.
One of the biggest problems that our hobby-industry has nowadays is that folks don't show enough respect for the "I was there" crowd. Folks who played in Dave's game and Gary's game and Phil's game and Jim Ward's game (and so on) are a resource to be treasured. Folks like chirine ba kal spend hours of their own time to spread the word about a product (in this case Tekumel) and some suit decides that it's "not official enough" unless he can have his hand in the pot. Rubbish. :evil:
Well, I was, and still am a big supporter of the idea of a foundation to manage Phil's IP; what the real issue here is the relationship between myself and Dr. Victor Raymond, the President of the Tekumel Foundation. He's had personal insecurity issues with me for over thirty years, and an on-going feud - entirely on his part - over just who is Prof. Barker's 'special friend'. I once asked him why he was continually bad-mouthing myself and my family, and my efforts to promote Tekumel, and his honest reply was "Everything you do, you do so well, and that makes me look bad"; as for the continual bad-mouthing, it was "well, that what I would do if I was in your position." It did not help that Prof. Barker's widow wanted me to run the Tekumel Foundation, saying "The Foundation wouldn't have these problems if you were in charge!" and offering to "get rid" of Dr. Raymond. She told him so, which I thought was a mistake.
I think that one of the things that people either forget or don't know is that I started working on the 'business side of the house' for Tekumel in the late 1970s, for Dave Arneson at Adventure Games. That's never been what I like to do; all I wanted, when I first started out with Phil back in 1976, was to paint miniatures and be an informal archivist for Tekumel - I had a front row seat for Phil's creative process, and I saved everything. That's it; I'm not interested in being a 'power behind the throne', worrying about my personal 'prestige', or anything like that. I really enjoyed and still enjoy Tekumel, and talking about it and Prof. Barker to people. That's it; nothing more or less. No Secret Plan for World Domination, no nothing. I guess that the best reason for all of this comes from somebody who has known us both for decades: "You make his pee-pee wilt."
I am genuinely sorry that Dr. Raymond chose to take his personal feud with me public, and make so much trouble for Luke and Ernie; they certainly didn't need it, this past summer. But then, this is the same person who killed a proposed Tekumel convention here in the Twin Cities in the middle 1990s because, Dr. Raymond told me, "I was afraid that you would show up with all your really cool miniatures and really cool costumes and steal the limelight from me." I had hoped, and thought that, he'd grown out of this. I was, I guess, wrong, and I am very sorry for that.
Speaking as a very long time fan of Tekumel, I would like to appeal to you; don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Please continue to enjoy Tekumel, and ignore the antics of one person. Do what you feel to be the right thing, but don't lose Phil's creation because of one person's insecurities.