- Older Than They Think: Barker started developing his fantasy/sci-fi world of Tekumel in 1939, long before works, similar in terms of scope, meticulous Worldbuilding and mythological/historical motifs like Dune, Star Wars and Warhammer saw the light of day; yet his universe is overshadowed by the success of the franchises based on them. His work has often been explicitly compared with J. R. R. Tolkien's, although the only similarity is that they were both created for the same reason: the creator was a linguist and wanted to have a world to play with languages in.
- Once Original, Now Common: Back when it came out, it was innovative for introducing the idea for skills checks and a roleplaying game coming with a premade setting, especially one as unique as Tékumel. However, both of these have become commonplace and are nowadays considered the barest minimum of what a tabletop RPG has to contain, even if it's an Universal System.
- Overshadowed by Controversy: The tabletop RPG and its setting has been retroactively tainted by the discovery in 2022 that creator M. A. R. Barker was a member of the Journal of Historical Review'snote Editorial Advisory Committee, and the author of Serpent's Walk, a neo-Nazi novel written under a pseudonym and published in 1991.
- Scrappy Mechanic: Given that the game was made when tabletop role playing games were in their infancy, it's not surprising a few pop up.
- Upon leveling up, magicians must roll to see if they get any new spells (whereas in Dungeons & Dragons you automatically get new spells). This makes it possible (and, at the lower levels, probable) that you won't get any new spells. Keep in mind, magic is the main reason to play a magician.
- Certain skills require you get all the skills listed above it before you can get it. This can lead to weird situations where learning the light spell requires you to learn four languages.
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