Into the Mother Lands: A Sci-fi RPG by PoC Designers

When Eugenio Vargas spoke to us on our podcast back in November about this Afrofuturist RPG, it was still months away. Now the game has hit Kickstarter, and has made over $100K in the first couple of days!

Into the Mother Lands - An Original Afrofuturist TTRPG

Setting book for Into the Mother Lands RPG!!!

www.kickstarter.com

Imagine if African explorers had set sail for the New World long before Europeans did... but got transported to a new planet instead! This planet is developed by a civilisation of African descent.

Choose from five cultures and several professions such as the Bio Priest or the Spine Ripper.

The team behind Into the Mother Lands is a group RPG designers, all people of colour, led by Tanya DePass, the founder of the non-profit group I Need Diverse Games.

You can pick up the PDF for $25 or the hardcover for $50, plus an array of dice, screens, maps, sheets and more.

Podcast #127 Into the Mother Lands with Eugenio Vargas

This week, Morrus and Peter are joined by Eugenio Vargas to talk about Into the Motherlands. In the news, Gale Force 9 sues Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything released, Comic Relief Plays D&D Part 2, and more plus a brand new sketch about the...

www.enworld.org

 

[Aldarc]

Because a futurist setting does not need to carry everything f r om our present time or past.

Most European cultures still use Latin alphabet but do not call it the Latin alphabet. And even though many too are inspired by the Italian Renaissance, but do not call themselves Italians except those in modern day Italy or with roots thee.

Similarly, the Coriolis RPG imagines a far future that assumed the Golden Age of Islam never ended and its influences continued into the future changing and evolving and every n thought Islam is no longer the religion of the future, its cultural influence remains.

The Icons are important, because during The Golden Age of Islam both science and religion were in harmony. Something we see in Coriolis with both technology and prayers

I lived in such a culture. So Coriolis speaks to me intensely. Different from Western European views on science and religion.

I just tried to correct the person who tried to wrongly correct me that Arab was the foundation because of "Arabian Nights", and I said no, because " One Thousand and One Nights" stories as told are more likely Persian, not Arab.

This is a bit of a gish gallop of issues that don't entirely speak to the point that I'm trying to make.

 

[imagineGod]

I will say that it's a bit off-putting that an Islamic futurist setting would have a complete absence of Islam as if the culture and religion could be so neatly separated and removed from each other. The Icons are probably my least favorite part of the setting.

Because a futurist setting does not need to carry everything f r om our present time or past.

Most European cultures still use Latin alphabet but do not call it the Latin alphabet. And inspired by the I tali n Renaissance but do not call themselves Italians except those in modern day Italy or with roots there.

Similarly, the Coriolis RPG imagines a far future that assumed the Golden Age of Islam never ended and its influences continued into the future changing and evolving and every n thought Islam is no longer the religion of the future, its cultural influence remains.

I just tried to correct the person who tried to wrongly correct me that Arab was the foundation because of "Arabian Nights", and I said no, because " One Thousand and One Nights" stories aa told are more likely Persian, not Arab

This is a bit of a gish gallop of issues that don't entirely speak to the point that I'm trying to make.

Probably tired of people mis-representing The Golden Age of Islam as Arab when it was so much more diverse revolving around Islam the uniting culture not Arabia.

 

[Aldarc]

Probably tired of people mis-representing The Golden Age of Islam as Arab when it was so much more diverse revolving around Islam the uniting culture not Arabia.

That's a fair point but not what I'm talking about.

Edit: But as this conversation appears to be going nowhere productive anytime soon, I will drop this conversation so that the thread can resume talking about Into the Motherlands.

 

[Morrus]

Let's steer back to Into the Mother Lands please, folks.

 

[MGibster]

A game like Into the Mother Lands would have had a much more difficult time finding an audience in previous decades. Even if you could have published it, I have a hard time imagining it on the shelf at my local gaming store next to AD&D, Rifts, and Vampire. And this is just a reminder of one of the ways gaming is better today than it was in my youth. Maybe I'm just weird, but I love that there is a veritable cornucopia of games out there even if I'm not personally interested in all of them. We tend to use diversity as a shorthand for race, gender, and sexual orientation, but what comes with it are new ways of seeing the situation and new ideas for how to handle things. This just strikes me as something beneficial to the the hobby as a whole.

And I'm not going to lie, I really want a Bertrand plushie.

 

[Morrus]

One person has left this community permanently after responding to moderation by PMing me with a lengthy screed about white genocide. Let me be clear: zero tolerance for racists.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

One person has left this community permanently after responding to moderation by PMing me with a lengthy screed about white genocide. Let me be clear: zero tolerance for racists.

Yikes. Good riddance!

 

[CubicsRube]

I'd love to see more cultures used for inspiration in RPGs, as there's so much I don't know.

As a white Australian, I've grown up knowing very little about African cultures. An RPG based on some of these has the real potential to be new and exciting exciting me.

I do sit in the camp however of needing to know what system they'll use before backing it. I wonder how many others are in that space also?

 

[imagineGod]

I'd love to see more cultures used for inspiration in RPGs, as there's so much I don't know.

As a white Australian, I've grown up knowing very little about African cultures. An RPG based on some of these has the real potential to be new and exciting exciting me.

I do sit in the camp however of needing to know what system they'll use before backing it. I wonder how many others are in that space also?

If you want an RPG more directly influenced by real African cultures, look out for The Wagadu Chronicles for DnD5e. Sadly, it is funded on Kickstarter as a computer game, but the RPG books were added in one of the goals, so may become available via DriveThruRPG Print-on-Demand.

Also, Jerry D. Grayson, has some interesting Afro-Futurism using the Open d6 System.

 

[Lefi2017]

So is tghis another swordfall?