The Eye of All-Seeing Wonder
Issue Four | Spring 1995
Different Strokes
Converting Adventures on Tékumel to TIRIKELU
Adventures on Tékumel Part One provides very detailed and comprehensive rules for generating characters of high status. This article explains how to use those rules with the TIRIKELU system.
First roll your character’s attributes as explained in TIRIKELU pages 1-3. Next use Adventures on Tékumel pages 7 through 19 to determine date of birth, family background, etc.
As an aristocrat, you automatically receive 12 skill-levels in Tsolyáni (spoken), High Society and Etiquette. Derive your other skills as explained below. (Players should first read the narratives by Horu and Nalai, which show the early lifestyle of high clan characters.)
Elementary school
Roll 1D6 and add your Reasoning score. This is the number of "credits" you get with which to buy skills from the list here. The cost of each skill-level is given in brackets. You can buy a maximum of two levels in each skill at this time. You must buy one level of literacy:
Artist (1), Calligrapher (1), Etiquette (1), Historian (2), Literacy (1), Mathematician (2), Musician (1), Physician (2), Psychic Sorcery (2), Ritual Sorcery (1), Strategist (2), Theologian (2), Tsolyáni (1) and Warrior (2).
Outdoor skills
You get a number of "credits" equal to your Cleverness score. Use these to buy skills from the following list. As before, you cannot buy more than two levels in any skill:
Acrobat (1), Archery (2), Botanist (1), City Lore (1), Falconry (1), Fishing (1), Fisticuffs ((2), Hunting (2), Interpreter (2), Mineralogist (1), Sailing (1), Swimming (1), Survival (2) and Wrestling (2).
The specific regional Survival skills (see TIRIKELU page 23) can also be taken at a cost of 1 "credit" per level if the character lives in an appropriate locale.
Artisan skills
It is rare for nobles to learn these skills. Roll 1D10 minus 1D6, giving a range of 0 to 9 "credits" for buying skills from this list. You can buy a maximum of four levels in any skill:
Administrator (2), Apothecary (2), Architect (2), Armourer (2), Astrologer (2), Carpenter (1), Entertainer (1), Glassblower (1), Interpreter (2), Jeweller (1), Lawyer (2), Merchant (1), Mineralogist (1), Official (2), Paramour (2), Physician (2), Shipbuilder (2) and Tracker (1).
Women’s skills
I am Assuming that female player-characters will choose to be Aridani and are never likely to use the traditional women’s stay-at-home skills. You are free to take 1D6 levels in each of these if you wish!
Upper school
Add your Reasoning and Cleverness and subtract 2D10. This is the number of "credits" you have for purchasing the following advanced subjects while at temple academy. You cannot buy more than one level of each skill at this time—though you can of course add to a skill that you learned earlier in elementary school or elsewhere:
Administrator (2), Alchemist (2), Archer (2), Architect (2), Astrologer (2), Astronomer-Navigator (2), Calligrapher (1), Crossbow (1), Dedaratl (2), Engineer (2), Geographer (2), Historian (2), Hlepurdal (2), Hu’on (2), Interpreter (2), Intrigue (2), Lawyer (2), Linguist (2), Literacy (1), Longsword (2), Magical Lore (1), Mathematician (2), Mineralogist (2), Musician (1), Official (2), Philosopher (2), Physician (2), Poet (2), Psychic Sorcery (2), Ritual Sorcery (2), Scholar (2), Shortsword (2), Soldier (1), Strategist (2), Two-handed Sword (2), Theologian (2).
Linguist and Interpreter are generic terms covering, respectively, ancient and modern languages. (Each language counts as a separate skill, so you can buy two levels in each of several languages if you so wish.) Hlepurdal is the style of fighting with sword and dagger together (see TIRIKELU Section 480). Dedaratl is the unarmed martial art of the temples of Thúmis and Ketengku, which can be combined with any levels of Fisticuffs you bought under "outdoor" skills. Hu’on is kick-boxing, taught to the adherents of Ksarul and Gruganu. See TIRIKELU Section 472 for details of these skills.
Coming of age
After going through the steps listed above, your character is fifteen years old. You have the option to leave home now and seek your fortune in the army, priesthood, etc. Alternatively you can stay at the temple academy for up to five years more. At the end of five years you must leave the academy and start your "adventuring" life. If you decide to stay at the academy in the meantime, repeat the procedure for upper school education once for each year. You are limited to one level in a skill each time.
You can also acquire hobbies at this time. Add your Reasoning, Cleverness and Psychic Reservoir and divide by 4. This gives the number of "credits" you can use for buying hobby skills. You cannot buy more than two levels in any one hobby in a year.
Hobby skills are useful because they serve to flesh out a character. On a practical level, hobbies can be used to supplement your "real" skills at a 3-for-1 conversion rate. For example, if you have 6 levels in love poetry then you can use it for a bonus of 2 levels to either your Paramour or Poet skill.
The hobby skills are not listed here for reasons of space. Refer to Adventures on Tékumel Part One, pages 41-43.
Another option
The procedure can also be used to generate RuneQuest characters. Roll your RQ character, then follow the steps given here, using POW in place of Psychic Reservoir and INT as both Reasoning and Cleverness. Afterwards, convert skill-levels into percentages by multiplying by 2Ω. (So a skill-level of 8 translates into 20%, and so on.)
