I have just returned from North Texas RPG Con 2025, where I was a Special Guest again this year. I had a fantastic time, running two Tékumel adventures using Empire of the Petal Throne rules. I also had a chance to see the two Legions of Tekumel miniatures battles, run by Rob Smith and Scott McKinlay (see above!). I talked with a LOT of people about Tékumel, and saw many friends, including Jeff Dee and Manda. I thought I had gotten a picture of Jeff, but I’m terrible at this, so I only have the picture of Manda (see below).

My own Empire of the Petal Throne events went quite well. The first one, which involved investigating a recently-discovered ruined temple in the Underworld, went really well. The players took advantage of it being convention events, and really leaned into exploration and discovery. One highlight: one of the characters made an offering at a shrine dedicated to Lord Sárku, and received a clay coin as a divine benediction. Alas, he had no idea of what to do with it, save a general hint to “give it to his enemies.”

The second EPT event went quite well, with the party of adventurers attempting to sneak into an underground shrine of Lord Durritlámish. They were doing pretty well, even though one of the characters got turned into a Shédra after having been killed by a Shédra. But in the end, they ran out of time. Even so, they had a lot of fun.

Jon Hershberger and Allan Grohe, Jr. from Black Blade Publishing were very helpful, carrying a wide range of Tékumel products, including copies of all thirteen issues of The Excellent Traveling Volume produced by James Maliszewski. I had talked with James about this, and he graciously agreed to having them at NTRPG Con.

So if you weren’t at the convention, there were four Tékumel events – we arranged them so there was no scheduling conflict or overlap – and Tékumel products available in the Dealers Room and out in the convention exhibit area near the registration table. Rob and Scott and I had a chance to talk about how things went on Saturday night:

• The schedule arrangement worked; if people wanted to play in all four Tékumel events, they could do that. That covered sixteen hours of the convention, which ran Thursday through Sunday, so there’s room for more activity.
• Having a wide array of Tékumel products available worked very well. With Black Blade acting as our vendor, it was possible to focus on running events.
• Jeff Dee and Manda had their Tékumel products available for sale, including Béthorm, which was very good to see.
• We decided we wanted to recruit 2-3 more Tékumel GMs to run more games and create a Tékumel track for North Texas RPG Con 2026.

One thing worth noting is that conventions are a LOT of work, if you are running events as a small publisher. It is one of the reasons why I currently go to just three conventions: North Texas RPG Con, Gary Con, and Gamehole Con. The latter are quite close to me here in Wisconsin, and North Texas RPG Con is easy to get to (well, when I fly).

If you are interested in having more Tékumel at your convention, leave me a note in the comments. I’ll be happy to see what can be done to help make that happen.