Professor M.A.R. Barker 1929-2012
Mar. 17th, 2012 08:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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vae_editor
Professor M.A.R. Barker, fantasy author and creator of Empire of the Petal Throne (1974), a D&D spinoff which was arguably the earliest RPG to include a really detailed background world, history and culture, has died.
http://www.tekumel.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._A._R._Barker
I never really got into EPT, perhaps because of the level of detail (and because I rarely played in long-term RPG campaigns, and it was very difficult to get into in a one-off game), but it stood head and shoulders over other RPGs at the time, and later games derived from the setting are still models of complex world-building. He also wrote five fantasy novels set in the game world, Tekumel. He'll be missed.
Later - Jo Walton's obituary of Barker: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/03/mar-barker-1929-2012#
vae_editorProfessor M.A.R. Barker, fantasy author and creator of Empire of the Petal Throne (1974), a D&D spinoff which was arguably the earliest RPG to include a really detailed background world, history and culture, has died.
http://www.tekumel.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._A._R._Barker
I never really got into EPT, perhaps because of the level of detail (and because I rarely played in long-term RPG campaigns, and it was very difficult to get into in a one-off game), but it stood head and shoulders over other RPGs at the time, and later games derived from the setting are still models of complex world-building. He also wrote five fantasy novels set in the game world, Tekumel. He'll be missed.
Later - Jo Walton's obituary of Barker: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/03/mar-barker-1929-2012#
