Choice of the Petal Throne

This game is based on the world of Tekumel, a world setting almost as complex (or more) than Middle Earth and created starting in the 40's by M. A. R. Barker.

This game uses this setting well, but relies on prior knowledge of it or the desire to read several pages of backstory in the stats screen. I had that desire, so it was okay.

It's a lush world that incentivizes you to act violent, proud, sensual, etc. It's very interesting, and it leads to an exciting underground adventure.

And then, it stops. I thought I'd have quite a bit left to play, but it ends at what I thought would be the midpoint of the game. There are several pages of epilogue, but I felt like the overall narrative arc wasn't satisfying. It doesn't have to be longer, but the plot threads that are given prominence should, I feel, occupy more time.

I enjoyed it, regardless, and would recommend it to people who want to see if Tekumel and its novels and RPG settings are worth reading. It's made me think about reading them.

I first played Choice of the Petal Throne when it was first entered into Introcomp. It did fairly well there, winning third place. I did enjoy what little there was, since there was a severe shortage of good choicescript games at that time.

Now, I’ve returned to revisit the game. Unfortunately, those experiences haven’t aged well. The worldbuilding feels very heavy, and it’s not very well explained to the reader in general. I found myself losing track of the setting pretty quickly. The plot and characters, on the other hand, have little in the way of depth and also end up being uninteresting in their own way.

There is one romance interest which started out fairly interesting, but started to feel flat as the story went on. I ended the game by asking for marriage, but it also felt pretty forgettable.

The game feels fairly long for the wordcount. Unfortunately, the problems lie elsewhere.

I have little knowledge of the Tekumel setting, and if that describes you as well, you might be hard-pressed to enjoy this game. The writing is solid for the most part, but it’s nothing which can save the weak plotting and characters.