Arrows of Indra Q&A

I've decided to start up a new Q&A for Arrows of Indra, after a year of not having one.  So if YOU have any questions about Arrows of Indra, please feel free to go to this thread, where you will get an answer from me.   I'll also provide a digest of questions and answers here on this blog as needed, to a maximum of once in a week.

So, let's get started!

Q:Are there any further products in the line planned? Adventures, etc? 




A:At the present time there isn't any material being actively worked on, however there is a very good possibility that sometime down the line there will be a setting book that will detail at least one region (probably the Bahlika Kingdoms) in more detail.

Furthermore, as the game is "open" there's always the opportunity for someone other than myself to produce adventures or source material for it, if they wanted to.



Q: Any plans to use a similar set of rules for a different setting? There's no shortage of other mythologies that haven't been covered. 

A: These rules were, on the whole, created for this specific setting. If I did some other pseudo-historical setting (say, fantasy epic china, or aztecs, or something like that), I might use the some similar rules in terms of the very basic core mechanics, but I would not (for example) use the same magic system, monsters, magic items, races, etc. because so much of this additional material is directly driven from the Indian mythological concept.



Q:  What method of going open did you pick for the game? How much of the rules stuff is open? How much of the setting? What parts are not able to be used by another author without getting your permission first?

A:I think for the specific of this answer you'd need to ask Bedrock Games (Bedrock Brendan on here). As I understand it, all the rules are open; what you can't do is just cut-and-paste the setting material into your book, nor can you use the art or the maps. Aside from that, anything goes.
Note that its not quite right to say the setting "isn't open"; because of course most of the setting is just directly taken from the Epic Indian milieu itself. For me to say that you can't use that would be like if Greg Stafford claimed you couldn't use Camelot or Silchester or the Welsh in an RPG because those are in Pendragon.
So really, as long as you aren't doing a cut-and-paste of the specific way I wrote up the setting stuff, and as long as you don't use the maps or art, you can do anything else with it.
And I'm sure that if you talk about it with Bedrock games, they'd be glad to consider endorsing it; and if you talk about it with me, and I found it interesting enough, I'd be glad to endorse it too and maybe help out a bit with it. I'd be tickled pink if old-schoolers wanted to write adventures or sourcebook material for Arrows of Indra.




Q: When I meant the rules, I didn't so much mean the India specific stuff, but the basic stuff, like the skill system, which is really one of the better ones I've seen in an OSR style game.


A: Not a question, but thanks! The skill system is definitely something I'd use (again, not the exact same tables, but the same structure) if I were ever to do another OSR rulebook; and that I'd be glad to see other people doing too. I think its one of the most innovative parts of the game.


Remember, if you have a question about Arrow of Indra, go ask!

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Oversize + H&H's Beverwyck

Forget the Cthulhu Mythos...

If you really want to know terror and madness, try dealing with the state-owned Uruguayan electric company.  I’ve been trying to get electricity at the Abbey so that the architect’s crew can get started on the renovations for two fucking weeks now, and every time one thinks that we’re approaching a solution, some fucking public employee comes up with some new reason not to do anything.
At this point it looks like the power will, in the best of all possible worlds, only be installed in mid-february, meaning work will only start in late-mid-february, on a project that was supposed to be done at the end of the month!

My absolute favorite of all the electric company’s moments of sub-reality were when I was assured, after waiting at the Abbey (sans light, plumbing, food, or so much as a place to sit) an entire morning for an “inspection” that never came, where I had been verbally assured that for sure the inspector would be there “sometime between 8-12″, I angrily call the company only to have it explained to me that when they say that they “absolutely guarantee” that the inspector will be there by no later than 12, they ACTUALLY mean that “he could get there as late as 1pm”. And then, when I ask if its assured he’d be there before 1pm, I’m told “no, its possible he’s just decided not to go”.  So apparently, they’re allowed to do that, to assure you that they’re going to be there by noon and then just not show up at all in the entire fucking day!  And of course, in that eventuality, it is the responsibility of the client (the one who’s been sitting there like a fucking rube all day) to call to make another appointment for the next day because the poor inspector couldn’t be bothered to actually come and do his job.

Fuck it. I’m off to solve this with drastic fucking measures.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Masonic Meerschaum + Image Perique


(originally posted February 6, 2013; on the old blog)

RPGPundit Reviews: The Shrine of St. Aleena

This is a review of "The Shrine of St. Aleena", an adventure module for low-level characters (ostensibly for Labyrinth Lord but usable in any OSR game), published by SNG games, written by Peter C. Spahn. The module softcover, about 20 pages long, with B&W art.

Most gamers of a certain age will know who Aleena is, if they wrack their memory.  In the introductory adventure of the Mentzer "Basic D&D" box set (possibly the most-sold D&D product of all time), Aleena was the NPC cleric who accompanied your fighter on your very first (solo) adventure to learn the D&D rules; only to suffer a terrible death at the hands of the evil wizard Bargle.

Remember her?

No wonder she had such a powerful effect on the infancy of so many gamers.

Apparently Peter Spahn was no exception because he wrote an entire adventure in homage to his prepubescent fantasies about her.   Don't worry, there's no actual dirty parts involved, its all pure and innocent and an adventure very much in the fashion of the good old days of early-80s four-colour adventuring, when evil wizards were evil (not misunderstood), goblins were evil (not culturally oppressed), undead were evil (and not sparkly), and brave, attractive, but G-rated cleric girls were friendly to you just because.

So while it is a low-level adventure (for 3-6 characters of level 1-3), and decent enough as it is at that, its also a big in-joke. The background story is that the death of Aleena made such an impression that she was turned into a saint, and the site of her death at the hands of Bargle (who's never called that, but instead is referred to as the "Infamous One"; I'm not sure why the author felt they could use the name "Aleena" but not "Bargle") has become a holy temple. The "infamous one" is still alive and has sent out goblins to desecrate the shrine (pissed off at the celebration of one of his early failures).  There are quite a few other references to the Mentzer Red Box and its initial adventure in the module; including a place called "Zerment's Bluff" named after the "renowned sage Zerment the Red" (get it?).  You also see (based on my own recollection at least) pretty well all of the monsters that featured in that early adventure: the aforementioned goblins, a rust monster, a medusa, skeletons, etc.

As usual with modules I don't want to go into too much detail to avoid spoilers, but what I'll say is that what you get here is:
a) a nostalgia trip IF the Mentzer Red Box was a big deal to you
and
b) a decent though not astounding dungeon-crawling and surrounding-environs adventure either way.

The adventure itself is fun without being in any particular way groundbreaking, but for 20 pages or so you get a pretty decent and very classic kind of adventure for low-level D&D characters.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Solitario Horn + Gawith's Navy Flake

Lords of Olympus: Now Cheaper!

Yes, that's right, Lords of Olympus is now cheaper, in both PDF and Print!  If you had been on the fence about it you should buy it now!

No word on just how long it will remain at this price, so make sure you don't miss your chance.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Ben Wade Rhodesian + Image Latakia

DCC Campaign Update

The last adventure was a bit shorter than usual, as our youngest gamer was starting his school year the next morning.  But anyways, here are, very briefly, the things we learned, with varying degrees of surprise or the lack thereof, that:

-Astrology based on following the path of the floating islands in the sky is about as unreliable as most other methods of fortune telling.

-Some halfings have a vested interest in being nicknamed "binky".

-Indoor plumbing is one sophisticated comfort of living in Arkhome; or would be if it wasn't for the tentacles in the sink.

-The Halconlords appear to be planning to become the next major power in Arkhome on the basis of graffiti alone.

-Evil nightingales are total assholes.

-Nobles who post rewards for the rescue of their kidnapped child get flooded with annoying treasure-seekers.

-Bourgeois secretaries have little patience with absurd claims of allegedly psychic halflings.

-The Halconlords appear to actually be planning to become the next major power in Arkhome on the basis of kidnapping the children of the aristocracy.

-"Never split up the party" is apparently an ancient axiom, but one that this particular group of PCs has decided is just superstition.

-Most locally produced meat products, milk, and ink in Arkhome comes from the giant snail farms of the Tower of Snails.

-"Never split up the party even further to include various groups of one" is not actually an axiom, but if it was this particular PC group would shit all over that one too.

-While most young gender-fluid 3rd level wizards would consider it suicide to go into a dungeon totally by themselves, apparently at least one does not.

-The Halconlords are in fact planning to become the next major power in Arkhome by assaulting the turf of the feral halfling tribegang.  Queen Boo-boo does not look kindly on this, and halflings everywhere are going apeshit with paranoia.

-Slathering a tied-up halfling in honey and threatening to unleash a half-starved dog at him is probably an effective way to get him to talk, but Charm Person might be easier.

-While most young gender-fluid 3rd level wizards would probably die horribly at the hands of a giant Toadgator, 14 brain-eaten slaves, and a vicious brain-eaten axe-wielding maniac; apparently at least one will end up miraculously kicking all their asses instead.

-Aside from everything else, the Halconlords apparently also plan on becoming the next major power in Arkhome by being incredibly well-dressed total bad-ass fighter-assassins with scary halcon-masks.

-That Evil Nightingale really is a complete asshole.




RPGPundit


Currently Smoking: Ben Wade Canadian + Image Latakia

Uncracked Monday: True Detective Tears

(I don't normally care about spoiler alerts but I guess I'll post one here: there are spoilers to the final episode of True Detective ahead. Do NOT read this if you haven't yet seen the last episode of the show; or indeed, if you haven't watched the show at all, you shouldn't even be fucking here at all, you should be downloading all 8 episodes and watching them, motherfucker!)

Today will be an unusual "Un/cracked Monday" because I won't actually be posting a link; there'd be little point.  Since today's entry is dedicated to the "true detective" thread on RPG.net, which someone suggested I take a look at.  Why? Because it is full of the delicious tears of nihilists, secular relativists, and general pretentious fuckwits disappointed with what 95+% of viewers thought was the utterly magnificent finale of True Detective.

Why again? Various reasons, including that they were reading into the show all kinds of feminist messages that led them to hope would have some big payoff in the end with some really heavy-handed message to the viewers about how awful men are (rather than the heroic example of fraternity and masculine heroism we actually see); but the biggest and my favorite is because in the end the show "betrayed" the propagandist message all the fashionable atheist-nihilists were getting wood about from Det. Cohle. 

They all wanted meaninglessness. They wanted Cohle to see nothingness; they wanted Carcosa to be their vision of the utter meaninglessness of existence and wanted other people to come away from the show feeling hopeless.

Instead, the creators provided the most amazing twist they could have done: instead of making the supernatural real, instead of making one of the detectives un-heroic (or even the 'real killer'), instead of revealing some other hokey spin of plot or character; in the end, they had Cohle discover fullness and meaning, existing even in the dark.

They wanted Carcossa and instead they got Nuit, the body of the stars. The luminous emptiness of Vajrayana. Nothingness, with twinkles. The Great Work.

So yeah, fuck them. I wasn't hoping for such a result, and it was the best surprise ever when it came to pass; when the end message was something other than pointlessness, and they really graduated up from "freshman philosophy" into something profound.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Mastro de Paja Bent Apple + Gawith's Squadron Leader

RPGPundit Reviews: Ghoul Keep and the Ghoul Lands

This is a review of the sourcebook “Ghoul Keep and the Ghoul Lands”, written by Peter Spahn as a Labyrinth Lord compatible product, published by Small Niche Games.

This is a review of the printed edition, which is about 128 pages long, softcover with a colour cover (though not very colourful, as it depicts the ominously dark Ghoul Keep aforementioned in the title, I presume), and black and white interior. The interior has some nice maps and dungeon blueprints and relatively few actual art pieces.

The setting material is nominally for a small and isolated kingdom found in the world of Amherth (see my previous review of the Amherth book), but in fact due to its isolation the Ghoul Lands could easily be transported to any isolated region of any other fantasy setting; at least, any fantasy setting that would find it within tolerable parameters of weirdness to have a kingdom governed by Ghouls.

The concept is quite interesting: from the outsider’s perspective, its assumed that past Ghoul Keep there is nothing but Ghouls-all-over as far as the peoples to the south of the Ghoul Lands know. But in truth, anyone who somehow gets past Ghoul Keep will find that north of the mountains there is a small feudal kingdom of humans; albeit a very weird and dark kingdom, where the King himself is  an intelligent Ghoul, as are many of his court, the only church allowed is the cult of the death god, and the people live to serve the ghouls (and eventually have the “eternal reward” of becoming one).  In other words, a strange and dark lawful evil kingdom, where nevertheless the people themselves are not necessarily evil, just trapped.

The Ghoul Lands are a smallish kingdom, with five major regions; each is described in decent detail, along with information about the (human) nobility that rule them and the major settlements (including a few nice town/city maps).  The interesting thing about the Ghoul Lands is that we’re not talking about something like the old D20 “Midnight” setting; the Ghoul Lands aren’t even quite like many of the Ravenloft domains.  There’s no question that the people are oppressed and live in some terror of the ghouls (they are forced to securely lock themselves in at night when hordes of ghouls come out and walk the surface world) but like people in crappy horrifying societies everywhere, they have mostly learned to adjust to terrible situations and daily life as portrayed in the book seems mostly quite normal. “Normal”, that is, for a kingdom where your King is an immortal Ghoul-wizard, your princes are his half-ghoul children, the human nobility are bound to his service, the only religion allowed is the cult of undeath, the priests of the aforementioned cult are obtained by taking the firstborn child of every family away forever to be raised in the priesthood, where hordes of undead roam the night and no one will ever do anything to stop them, and where you will almost certainly be turned into a ghoul when you die.

But you get a lot of information in the book about people’s lives, their work, dress, festivals, and what is perhaps quite successful about the setting is how this seeming normality gets intermingled with the insanity of what’s happening in the Ghoul Lands in just the right way. Its quite well done; in some ways much creepier than if it was just despair and terror all the time.

There’s also one very interesting choice on the part of the author, something that I don’t think was in any way required by the setting itself, which is that the Ghoul Lands have no system of monetary commerce. Everything is done by simple or advanced barter of trade goods.  Coins found in treasure hordes from ancient dungeons can be of use only as a kind of trinket for nobles, who indeed collect them, but you can’t use them to buy yourself a horse or a sword (though since normal citizens aren’t allowed to manufacture or trade weapons, you couldn’t get a buy a sword regardless).There are guidelines for the barter system and haggling provided in the chapter on the “Commoner’s hall” (a sample starting area for native PCs); this chapter also provides an excellent viewpoint of what normal life is for people in the Ghoul Lands, while set up as a “village of homlet”-style “home base”, with a map, stats for shopkeepers, a rumour table, and adventure ideas; it is followed by a short starting adventure set in the city where the hall is located which involves examining some ancient ruins and fighting some undead rat-monsters that are part of a rival (unsanctioned) undeath cult.

Where exactly do adventurers fit into the Ghoul Lands? One option is of course if they’re foreigners, where they will find themselves in a very creepy and hostile place (particularly if they’re wizards, who are strongly regulated and must serve the ghoul king, or clerics who are outlaws if they worship any cult other than the “cult of rebirth”). The other option is to make a party of natives; adventurers are not outlawed in the Ghoul Lands; rather they must be sponsored by a nobleman and be officially registered. This allows them to carry weapons and the like, and to go out and fight monsters of different kinds (though of course, they cannot go to kill ghouls; in fact, adventurers must go through a fairly terrifying ritual that will keep the hordes of ghouls that roam the night from attacking them, though the ritual effect will be broken should they ever slay a ghoul).

In addition to the location material (both regions, cities, and geography), there are character descriptions (with full LL stats) of the major nobles, the Ghoul King Lorrgan Makaar and his half-ghoul children (who are some of Makaar’s major lieutenants, though some of them plot against him), the high priests of the Cult of Rebirth, a lengthy list of adventuring companies of the ghoul lands, and some of the monstrous rivals to Makaar’s rule (including a blue dragon and a vampire, both of whom hate Makaar and have tried to destroy him in the past; as well as the elves and dwarves who live in the outlying regions, and halfling gypsies(!)).  What Makaar is most worried about is an ancient prophecy;he was almost destroyed by an ancient hero named Valen (who actually cut him into pieces, most of which are still lost to this day, so that Makaar is really just a head that gets attached to some poor human host body each year… recovering other lost parts of his body is one of the major reasons the Ghoul King sponsors adventurers).  Valen also created a magical barrier which keeps all the ghouls inside the Ghoul Lands, preventing them from being able to sweep out southward to other kingdoms.  Makaar is obsessed with re-building his body, breaking that magical ward, and watching out for rumours that one of Valen’s descendents will come back and complete the prophecy by finishing the job of killing him.

I should note that in following with the balance concepts laid out in his Amherth setting, Spahn has kept the character levels of NPCs on the low side. The Ghoul King himself, the most fearsome creature in the book, is an 18th-level ghoul wizard; but most of the other NPCs in the book are far lower in level (even the Dragon and the Vampire are both just 9HD creatures), and many of the priests and nobles are only 0-level NPCs. None of the 20 or so “famous adventurers” listed in the NPC section are higher than level 5.  This is a setting quite apt for low-level play and where mid-level characters will be fairly kick-ass.

The setting also introduces a couple of dozen new items, quite a few of which (but not all!) being somehow undead-themed (be it undead-creating, undead control, undead warding, etc).  The most interesting non-undead-related item is a magical ink that is used to put a tatoo on a person; when it is used in this manner a random permanent magical effect is bestowed on the subject (in true old-school fashion, some of these random effects are more powerful than others, and some of them are in fact negative).

The book also has a number of new flora (of interesting varied medicinal or quasi-magical uses) and of course fauna. You get a number of specific subsets of Ghouls, of course; but you also get a half-dozen or so monsters that aren’t ghouls; quite a few aren’t even undead, though most are quite scary in some form or another.

As for the eponymous Ghoul Keep itself, this is a fortress in the southernmost end of the Ghoul Lands, in the mountains, blocking off the only mountain path to and from the Ghoul Lands.  It is just a bit north of the great ward that ghouls cannot pass.  People who come from foreign kingdoms to the south often mistakenly believe that Ghoul Keep is the epicenter of the Ghoul Lands, and that this is a kingdom composed entirely of ghouls (rather than the keep being just the frontier post of a larger human kingdom ruled by ghouls). They also often mistake the commander of ghoul keep (one of the Ghoul King’s half-ghoul sons) for the Ghoul King himself.  I could see this being a great campaign switcheroo: a group of brave and mighty PCs go to the “ghoul lands” to slay the “ghoul king” of the keep, and after the job is done find out that they’ve only killed the REAL Ghoul King’s son, and that the real kingdom is much larger and scarier (and weirder!) than they could have imagined.

In the book, Ghoul Keep is presented as a classic dungeon, complete with graph-paper dungeon maps and numbered locations. Its quite well done, too.

I would classify the Ghoul Keep dungeon as a very large dungeon (while still shy of a full-blown megadungeon); you have three surface levels of the keep itself, and three cavern/dungeon levels, each with a map that covers an entire page of the book.  That should give you some idea the size you’re dealing with.  Most groups would get several sessions of play out of the keep alone. 
The book is split about 60 pages of setting material to about 65 pages of adventure material.

So how do we conclude this review? If it is what you’re looking for; that is, if a really great dungeon and an unusual micro-setting is what you’re looking for (as I doubt many people woke up this morning thinking “I would love to play in a setting where a Ghoul King rules over a human society”), then you will find this a very worthwhile product.

The good points are undoubtedly the dungeon of Ghoul Keep, the interesting and thoughtful way Spahn has presented the society, and that its still recognizable and gives adventurers a clear set of roles in spite of its uniqueness as a setting.

The bad? Only that its a very unusual setting; the Ghoul Keep itself could probably be ported into just about any fantasy setting (I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t use it in my Albion game) but the Ghoul Lands would be quite unusual and might not fit even as a “microclimate” in every fantasy world. So it is a bit limited in scope. But if its range fits your aims, then you have a surefire winner here.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Castello 4k Collection Canadian + Image latakia

(originally posted January 26, 2013; on the old blog)