Over the subsequent thirty years, several new games were published based on the Tékumel setting; however, to date, none have met with commercial success.

[1] Barker first self-published 50 copies of his own role-playing game, Empire of the Petal Throne in 1974, the same year that Dungeons & Dragons was published.

[2] Barker made his commercial game-design debut at TSR, Inc., the publishers of Dungeons & Dragons, with Empire of the Petal Throne boxed set in 1975.

[4] The game brought a level of detail and quality to the concept of a campaign setting which had previously been unknown in the nascent RPG industry's publications.

The game was the subject of articles in early issues of Dragon magazine, but factors such as inconsistent support from TSR led to its decline in popularity.

In 1981, Judges Guild acquired the license to publish an EPT adventure,[5]: 296  The Nightmare Maze of Jigrésh,[6] a 16-page booklet written by Michael E. Mayeau, with illustrations by Ken Simpson.

[citation needed] Using these rules a player who rolls a 20 on a 20-sided die does double the normal damage, and a 20 followed by a 19 or 20 counts as a killing blow.

He also warned "Empire of the Petal Throne is not for beginners, and even experienced referees may have trouble negotiating Professor Barker's dense, scholarly text."

Swan concluded by giving this game a rating of 3 out of 4, saying, "The role-playing rules don't amount to much, but the sourcebook material ranks among the hobby's best.