[Arrows of Indra] The Author's Q&A Thread

[Bedrockbrendan]

I received this set of replies over at EnWorld, and I thought it would be good to get your perspective on answering this before I posted a reply.

Pundit is moving so probably won't be able to give feedback till at least next week. I am stuck on my ipad on the moment, which makes it hard to post more than one or two links. So I will post this page from Pundit's blog where he touches on the concerns raised in the second comment: http://rpgpundit.xanga.com/772311929/item/

I will leave it to Pundit to answer those two comments himself but here is my opinion. It is an OSR game, so the goal wasn't to construct something that was unfamiliar. It uses a recognizeable core structure but does a good job supporting epic India within that framework. I think the book does an excellent job providing important cultural information and bringing the myth into the mechanics. But people need to judge for themselves.  2 GMs 1 Mic talks about the game's strengths in their latest episode. It's worth checking out (I think they mention Indra at about the halfway marks: http://2gms1mic.com/2013/04/02/episode-3-layout/). There are also plenty of reviews up on the RPGNow sales page ad elsewhere.

[RPGPundit]

My question is similar to Hezrou's.

Why India? What is it about that country and its mythology really let you know that this would be a good source and setting for a fantasy role-playing game?

A: Sorry for the delay in replying, I'm not connected to the internet at the Abbey yet.
As to "why India", there are several reasons:
1. Due to my personal studies and other factors I spent a lot of time immersed in study of Indian history, religion, and culture; so I had the means to be able to make an RPG in this setting.

2. There was an opportunity to make it, in that no one had ever actually done an Indian RPG setting for D&D before; there was EPT which was a little bit indian-inspired (which is a bit like saying that Lord of the Rings was a bit inspired by Viking Sagas... its a very distant and altered inspiration), and there were a couple of micro-settings (one for D20, a region of the Hollow World in Mystara, a realm in Ravenloft), all of the latter of which had been pretty awfully inaccurate and stereotypical.

3. A lot of our own concepts of heroic myth, a lot of the monsters and legends we have in western civilization, even a lot of the philosophical ideas, come out of India if you go back far enough: everything from Giants and succubi to chess and nondualism. It is a foreign culture and yet one that is very far from alien to western culture; it has many of the same foundation. And I was actually surprised, as I went along writing the book, with just how easily the archetypal ideas of D&D could be modified to fit the world of the Bharata Kingdoms, just how immediately familiar (and yet different) things were going to be for people playing it. That makes it awesome.

4. The Mahabharata is one of the greatest epic histories ever; on par with the Arthurian legend or the Romance of the Three Kingdoms; and you see in the Mahabharata something that suggests there was history there, but at the same time the aforementioned foundations of myth. And, profound religious concepts.   So it has everything; and any gamer who looks at the collection of city states, crumbling ancient empires, aggressive rising empires, feuding royal families, high-magic island kingdoms, deserts, jungles, monsters, legendary magic items, etc that are in the Mahabharata will immediately think "game world". It even has what is arguably the origin of the Underdark; the world's oldest megadungeon with levels and everything.  Its a perfect milieu for gaming, and it was there for the taking, unused, until now.

RPGPundit

[RPGPundit]

I received this set of replies over at EnWorld, and I thought it would be good to get your perspective on answering this before I posted a reply.

Regarding Obryn's query: "From what I understand it's more "Do you like OD&D? Here's a way to play it in India!" than "Do you like Hindu myths and legends? Here's an RPG for that!""

A: Its kind of in between the two, actually. You have to want to play D&D.  It is a D&D-based game. But its not just D&D with a vaguely indian-esque setting, or an Oriental-Adventures-style pastiche of bad asian stereotypes.  I would say that if you like hindu myths and legends, and you like D&D, you'll LOVE Arrows of Indra.  It is true, that the first priority is that it:
a) be a GAME, and not an academic treatise
b) be a game that is easily playable and recognizable to old-school D&D gamers; however it is not just 1e with indian drag; its had changes made in a big way to skills and magic and even some combat mechanics to reflect the setting; its also had a complete overhaul of the alignment system to fit the Vedic religious concepts; its also got a big social emphasis on things like caste and clan, taboo, and social and religious laws.

Let's put it this way: while the goal is to play an enjoyable D&D experience; it is light-years closer to an authentic emulation of Vedic Epic-India than most D&D settings are to emulating medieval europe, or than any D&D setting before it has been to emulating a non-european setting.  This is NOT "oriental adventures: Indian Edition".

RPGPundit

[Killfuck Soulshitter]

Are there (historically accurate nekked) tits in the art? If not, why not?

[RPGPundit]

Are there (historically accurate nekked) tits in the art? If not, why not?

A: I don't really get where you think that naked tits would be "historically accurate".  Its certainly not accurate to the context of the Mahabharata, where its clear that female modesty was a big deal.  Consider the incident with the shaming of Draupadi, where the Kauravas try to publicly strip her of her sari and expose her, but she's saved by Divine Intervention (typically these days the claim is that it was Krishna who saved her, but in the text itself it was the god Dharma, divine father of her first husband Yudhisthira).

RPGPundit

[Killfuck Soulshitter]

A: I don't really get where you think that naked tits would be "historically accurate".  Its certainly not accurate to the context of the Mahabharata, where its clear that female modesty was a big deal.  

This site has an overview of ancient Indian dress in different periods, and would seem to indicate that female nudity above the waist was acceptable throughout most historical periods. That's certainly the impression gained by any visitor to a Hindu temple who observes the art. Perhaps the text of the Mahabharata records a different standard of modesty in the even more distant past?

At any rate, the well-known semi-nudity of ancient Indian art (and indeed in everyday life as the above site attests) would give carte blanche to the RPG author who sought to include topless chicks in his game. Clearly, that's not you, so consider my question answered.

[jeff37923]

A: Sorry for the delay in replying, I'm not connected to the internet at the Abbey yet.
As to "why India", there are several reasons:
1. Due to my personal studies and other factors I spent a lot of time immersed in study of Indian history, religion, and culture; so I had the means to be able to make an RPG in this setting.

2. There was an opportunity to make it, in that no one had ever actually done an Indian RPG setting for D&D before; there was EPT which was a little bit indian-inspired (which is a bit like saying that Lord of the Rings was a bit inspired by Viking Sagas... its a very distant and altered inspiration), and there were a couple of micro-settings (one for D20, a region of the Hollow World in Mystara, a realm in Ravenloft), all of the latter of which had been pretty awfully inaccurate and stereotypical.

3. A lot of our own concepts of heroic myth, a lot of the monsters and legends we have in western civilization, even a lot of the philosophical ideas, come out of India if you go back far enough: everything from Giants and succubi to chess and nondualism. It is a foreign culture and yet one that is very far from alien to western culture; it has many of the same foundation. And I was actually surprised, as I went along writing the book, with just how easily the archetypal ideas of D&D could be modified to fit the world of the Bharata Kingdoms, just how immediately familiar (and yet different) things were going to be for people playing it. That makes it awesome.

4. The Mahabharata is one of the greatest epic histories ever; on par with the Arthurian legend or the Romance of the Three Kingdoms; and you see in the Mahabharata something that suggests there was history there, but at the same time the aforementioned foundations of myth. And, profound religious concepts.   So it has everything; and any gamer who looks at the collection of city states, crumbling ancient empires, aggressive rising empires, feuding royal families, high-magic island kingdoms, deserts, jungles, monsters, legendary magic items, etc that are in the Mahabharata will immediately think "game world". It even has what is arguably the origin of the Underdark; the world's oldest megadungeon with levels and everything.  Its a perfect milieu for gaming, and it was there for the taking, unused, until now.

RPGPundit

Thank you.

I really wanted to see what could inspire enough passion to write the game and now I am very interested in picking up Arrows of Indra where I was not before.

[RPGPundit]

Thank you.

I really wanted to see what could inspire enough passion to write the game and now I am very interested in picking up Arrows of Indra where I was not before.

That's great!

[RPGPundit]

This site has an overview of ancient Indian dress in different periods, and would seem to indicate that female nudity above the waist was acceptable throughout most historical periods. That's certainly the impression gained by any visitor to a Hindu temple who observes the art. Perhaps the text of the Mahabharata records a different standard of modesty in the even more distant past?

At any rate, the well-known semi-nudity of ancient Indian art (and indeed in everyday life as the above site attests) would give carte blanche to the RPG author who sought to include topless chicks in his game. Clearly, that's not you, so consider my question answered.

There would certainly be great variation in historical periods, as such.  However, in the Mahabharata as text (keeping in mind it was written quite a long time after its supposed events in indian Pre-history), you did not see toplessness in women.

However, I'll note that in most periods and areas of indian history, women did not go around topless.  this notion has been somewhat exaggerated by a movement that tries to argue that toplessness was the status quo until the British (or sometimes the Muslims) came along with their prudish ways.  But its pretty clear from the text of the Vedas and the mahabharata that the ancient Indians were themselves pretty prudish.  

The Sari was in use since very ancient times; earlier described as "sati" (a strip of cloth).  There were periods and places where the strictures were more lax, particularly in south india, or in the period roughly between the 8th and 14th centuries when the Kaula movements were at their height.

Anyways, no, there's no art of topless women in the book; and no descriptions of such either; though of course there's nothing stopping a GM from deciding that this would be the norm in some parts of the Bharata Kingdoms.

RPGPundit

[RPGPundit]

I've now posted the latest update of the Q&A thread.

RPGPundit

[RPGPundit]

No new questions for this week?