WI: Tékumel reaches worldwide fame while The Lord of the Rings fades into obscurity?

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Honestly this probably butterflies D&D entirely, but it probably does mean an earlier expansion of the tabletop RPG genre. However it must be noted that D&D itself was kinda the lucky survivor of a glut of RPGs back in the '70s; there was Gamma World (postapocalyptic), Boot Hill (Western), and Empire of the Petal Throne itself too. Plus, TSR itself nearly died due to the CCG boom in the '90s. With this alternate hyper-popular setting, they might avoid the setting glut and accidental devaluing of their own product that happened in the D&D 2e era OTL...

OK, just spitballing here, but this is probably going to lead to a more multipolar RPG scene developing earlier, maybe in the '80s. (the early non-D&D RPGs tended to be transparent adaptations of the D&D rules, later stuff like Vampire: The Masquerade dended to be a sort of a reaction to D&D's dominance, at least in part) TSR's bad business decisions are basically guaranteed butterflied but it's likely that those idiots will find some new and creative way to kill their cash cow.

Now, the biggest obstacle to Tekumel becoming super popular is simply that it looks very dense and hard to comprehend to the average bystander. It's so rich, so detailed, and such a passion project that it's not super easy to get into. D&D at least has always had a very simple presentation with very simple and easy-to-comprehend options. Tekumel likely would be a series of novels first and an RPG a distant second.

Just my thoughts on this anyway.
 
I think for me the greatest question is how the interplay between politics and literature would work to make this possible?
Looking at the wiki, the RPG of Tekumel first arrived in 1975, and the first book was published in 1984. To me it seems like too late to avoid the political issues that would prevent more widespread popularity. Especially the Tehran hostage crisis.
The late sixties would have to go way differently (other than LotR doesn't rise to popularity). 1968 election? Beatles goes to Persia instead of India?
 
If Tolkien is obscure, and people want more Euro-centric fantasy, do we see a greater emphasis on the Arthurian tales (there is certainly plenty of material there) and plenty has already been done with that anyhow?

This doesn't contribute to the WI, but I'd just like to mention that I've always very much admired RuneScape (at least the 2007 version) for taking after high medieval Arthurian, rather than early medieval Tolkienesque, mythology and aesthetics.

But I do wonder how viable it is for the mass-market phenomenon that we saw with Tolkien, at least in the way that RuneScape does it. Maybe the cosiness and silliness of "little old England" that the cultural memory of Arthurian romance implies isn't suited for the huge fantasy audience that was growing up in the '60s and '70s. On the other hand - maybe Arthurian romance wasn't associated with cosiness and silliness prior to Monty Python? I actually have no idea!
 
Looking at the wiki, the RPG of Tekumel first arrived in 1975, and the first book was published in 1984. To me it seems like too late to avoid the political issues that would prevent more widespread popularity. Especially the Tehran hostage crisis.

Should note, it didn't stop _Dune_ from being made into a major big budget film with the Fremen as the heroic freedom fighters, or _Aladdin_ from Disney a few years later

It's problem, was it just wasn't known about.
Maybe getting some vignettes over Tekumel published somewhere. Hell, maybe in _Playboy_ they used to do shorts from famous(and yet to be famous) authors.
 
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