I'm hoping it will be closer to our kind of thing than 3E or 4E.
It definitely, definitely will be. If I were to do a list of "inspirational game reading", I'd say it'd be the following: AD&D 1e B/E D&D Majestic Wilderlands LotFP ACKS EPT (though some of this as "cautionary reading" on how to avoid being too unapproachable)
I would imagine the tumult of indignation coming from Indians/Hindus over the 'trivialisation' of their religion would dwarf the Satanic Panic and the sabre-rattling of the Religious Right of the early 1980s in the Midwest and Deep South. It would be best to let that subject-matter alone. Greco-Roman mythology, Norse mythology, or even Celtic mythology are no longer practiced and therefore would not net the vehemence that a living religion would, IMHO.
Well, Pagans generally seem to like D&D even though what it does with religion is both a travesty of either classical paganism or modern neo-paganism.
I'll note that the game in NO way attempts to be a primer on either the traditional Vedic religion or modern Hinduism, it makes no claims of accuracy or authenticity in that regard and is meant for entertainment purposes only.
If any Hindus do get outraged, I plan to let CNN and Fox News know about it; hopefully it'll cause an entire generation of Indian teenagers to play it in order to piss off their parents.
I would imagine the tumult of indignation coming from Indians/Hindus over the 'trivialisation' of their religion would dwarf the Satanic Panic and the sabre-rattling of the Religious Right of the early 1980s in the Midwest and Deep South. It would be best to let that subject-matter alone. Greco-Roman mythology, Norse mythology, or even Celtic mythology are no longer practiced and therefore would not net the vehemence that a living religion would, IMHO.
I don't know that that's true, generally speaking. Mythology-as-common-story, told and retold in a multitude of ways, is a deep part of much Hindu culture, both in and outside of India. Now, if it were mocking Hindu religious practice or belief, that might be different, though again, in Hinduism as a whole, there's no such thing as orthodox belief, like there is in Christianity or Islam, frex.
I guess I'm trying to say, in my experience, Hindus are rather unique in being able to view their gods mythically as well as religiously, even at the same time.
Not that it would hurt to ask a few Hindus about it...
I've heard that the guy writing the game is a religious historian fairly fluent in Sanskrit who's at least a little bit of an expert on the Bhagavad Gita.
Though again, not that this will in any way be a religious or scholarly work. Its main goal is to be an enjoyable and playable game with an interesting setting; where elements of culture, history or myth coincide with that, they'll be used. Where they don't, they'll be changed or ignored.
I've seen at least one person on a forum (possibly this one; just can't remember) who would take issue with your assertion that Norse "mythology" was no longer practiced. In the mainstream, no, but there are always a few...
Getting back to the subject of the OP, it is best, when dealing with entertainment lit (as what RPGs arguably are), to avoid referencing RL religions altogether. EGG and TSR would have been much wiser to avoid having published DDG/LL, and frankly I have yet to encounter any gamers who regard it as a core reference in their campaigns. Why do we need stats of deities anyway?
Deities won't have any stats in Arrows of Indra; but aside from that I have to say I respectfully disagree with your statement. There is a richness in historical mythology that is very difficult to reproduce from scratch in a way that will be as powerful or significant. Its the sort of thing that makes for good and identifiable game settings.
And I think that even people who've never read a single Indian myth (which you certainly won't have to do to play the game) will still be able to quickly connect to the mythos of the setting, because these same stories end up being paralleled in many ways in the west; the Vedic deities are in many ways the prototypes for the European pantheons (Zeus owes a lot to Indra, for example) and even the heroic myths will feel very recognizable to western readers.
Joined: Jan 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 2,327 Location: New Hope, MN Karma: 93
Re: Arrows of Indra: RPGPundit and Bedrock Games « Reply #20 on May 16, 2012, 9:28am »
Thanks, rpgp! I was hoping you'd stop by and disambiguate!
Quote:
I've heard that the guy writing the game is a religious historian fairly fluent in Sanskrit who's at least a little bit of an expert on the Bhagavad Gita.
Even awesomer. I'm an amateur comparative religionist, who has a complicated relationship with Sanskrit, and has read an abridged version of the Mahabarata and several versions of the Gita.
In other words, I'm really excited about this game!
It was lot of fun working on this. Not only was a new and interesting locale it was my first project involving using real landscape as the base. The first map was also the first full blown test of a new greyscale mapping style I am trying by using fills and textures for vegetation and mountains so I can overlap the two seamlessly and clearly.
Enjoy! And Thanks to the Pundit and Brendan for being part of this project.
Joined: Jan 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 2,327 Location: New Hope, MN Karma: 93
Re: Arrows of Indra: RPGPundit and Bedrock Games « Reply #25 on Mar 12, 2013, 12:54pm »
This game has finally been released! I just bought the pdf, and it looks awesome. I'm pretty sure I'll buy the print version too, when it's released in a few weeks. The character sheet is particularly inspired...
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