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

 

[Bagpuss]

Perhaps part of the the funding goal involves paying for an official license for Cortex Prime. That might be expensive.

Then they should have mentioned that if it is part of the funding goal.

If it is a stretch goal it also should have been mentioned there.

All they have said is the final amount will decide if they license a system or write their own, with no indication of which systems they are after. If they are after a particular system surely they could have investigated how much that costs prior to the kickstarter and added it to the goal. If they are writing their own system I think they should have it a bit more developed before they go to a kickstarter.

I’m excited about the setting first and the system second.

I'd be excited if we knew a bit more about it. At the moment there is no indication of who the antagonists might be, is it tied to one planet or are they spacefaring? What threats exist, how much of an influence is Islam on the culture considering the expedition was sponsored by Mansa Musa?

What does "decolonizing" mean when they literally go and colonize another planet (heck they even rename it Musalia after their ruler)? Of course the expedition wouldn't be a colony in the traditional sense as it wouldn't be in contact with it's home empire, and since the setting seems to be set now or near future a thousand years after they arrived I guess they have integrated. Still for a "decolonized, none imperialist" setting, it seems to have a lot of the old tropes of traditional RPGs. Culture and Race seem tied together so Hyneanole are all scholars and lore masters, Musalian are all outsiders, Misajai are Healers and Law Keepers, though RPGs were getting away from that?

So many unanswered questions that are sort of key to the setting.

 

[imagineGod]

I think it uses the Cortex Prime rules.

That was the big miss in the sales pitch, not signaling the game engine.

Many would first think D&D. I supported a fantasy African MMORPG last year, The Wagadu Chronicles, with 5th Edition books included.

 

[imagineGod]

I think we have a winner. That sounds very much like a real-life reason to not yet declare the system. I wonder how much a Cortex Prime license costs...

Honestly, it cannot be that expensive. Else new settings will all end up using the D&D OGL like The Wagadu Chronicles of African fantasy did last year.

Though if this project is truly ace, like Connor Alexander's Coyote and Crow Native American Futurism, the game engine should have been developed early on this journey to Kickstarter. Connor explained brilliantly why he chose a d12 dice system.

 

[Ixal]

I'd be excited if we knew a bit more about it. At the moment there is no indication of who the antagonists might be, is it tied to one planet or are they spacefaring? What threats exist, how much of an influence is Islam on the culture considering the expedition was sponsored by Mansa Musa?

What does "decolonizing" mean when they literally go and colonize another planet? Of course the expedition wouldn't be a colony in the traditional sense as it wouldn't be in contact with it's home empire, and since the setting seems to be set now or near future a thousand years after they arrived I guess they have integrated. Still for a "decolonized, none imperialist" setting, it seems to have a lot of the old tropes of traditional RPGs. Culture and Race seem tied together so Hyneanole are all scholars and lore masters, Musalian are all outsiders, Misajai are Healers and Law Keepers, though RPGs were getting away from that?

So many unanswered questions that are sort of key to the setting.

I find that conflict to be actually rather interesting. There is often the danger of falling into a "noble savage" trap (there is probably a better word for it but I can't think of any) when you tell "decolonizing" stories (is this game even intended to be about decolonizing?) and have the people all act good just because of who they are to contrast the "evil colonizers". And yes, in such games, at least from the outside, its often very hard to see who the actual antagonists are as, by design, everyone is always describes as harmonious and peace loveing, again just as a contrast to the colonizers.
But imo if the balance of power in history had been different I have little doubt that Africans or also Native Americans would have acted not all that differently from Europeans.

I, too want to know how much influence Islam plays in the setting, after all you do not see islamic influences often in RPGs so it would be a nice change. And because of the futuristic setting and the longs split from earth there is enough opportunity to have the religion in this game to have morphed enough over time to avoid any real world issues about religion.
But seeing terms like "android priest" in the class description they put up I think they intended to do completely fictional religions. Although I do get a bit of a Ka'ba from their Malisuuna picture. Although if I am honest, thats just because the Theater in the picture is black and has a geometric shape.

But you are right about the stereotyping and tying culture/race to class now that you mention it. But its hard to say for sure with the little information we have.

 

[Bagpuss]

Trying to find out a bit more about it, so started watching their streamed gaming seasons.

But here it is all linked to Cortex, if that isn't the system they are going with seems they have a mountain of work to do.

 

[imagineGod]

I find that conflict to be actually rather interesting. There is often the danger of falling into a "noble savage" trap (there is probably a better word for it but I can't think of any) when you tell "decolonizing" stories (is this game even intended to be about decolonizing?) and have the people all act good just because of who they are to contrast the "evil colonizers". And yes, in such games, at least from the outside, its often very hard to see who the actual antagonists are as, by design, everyone is always describes as harmonious and peace loveing, again just as a contrast to the colonizers.
But imo if the balance of power in history had been different I have little doubt that Africans or also Native Americans would have acted not all that differently from Europeans.

I, too want to know how much influence Islam plays in the setting, after all you do not see islamic influences often in RPGs so it would be a nice change. And because of the futuristic setting and the longs split from earth there is enough opportunity to have the religion in this game to have morphed enough over time to avoid any real world issues about religion.
But seeing terms like "android priest" in the class description they put up I think they intended to do completely fictional religions. Although I do get a bit of a Ka'ba from their Malisuuna picture. Although if I am honest, thats just because the Theater in the picture is black and has a geometric shape.

But you are right about the stereotyping and tying culture/race to class now that you mention it. But its hard to say for sure with the little information we have.

A classic example is how The Emperor of China united all. Orv the Mongolian Expansion. Or even The Golden Age of Islam and the inroads into Europe. Or even Mesoanerican empires pre-European conquest.

The driving philosophy is key. Any doctrine of expansionism inevitably encourages Colonies on new worlds. When the Europeans set off for the Americas, the tag line The New World was in play once it was discovered it was not the East Asian route.

 

[imagineGod]

By the way, Coriolis The Third Horizon RPG from Free League is one of the best Islamic inspired cultural futurist settings I have seen.

 

[Bagpuss]

For those not wanting to trawl through the mechanics (because as we can see from the kickstarter they don't know what they are yet), but are more interested in the setting.


This starts where he describes how they got to the planet over a thousand years ago.

Rewind to the beginning if you want to get a bit of an idea about the modified Cortex system they used, although having watched it, it wasn't particularly helpful as they didn't show any examples of actual characters or even how rolls really work.

I noticed on the subtitle text to speech system they are using the Musalians is translated as "Moose Aliens"...

 

[Bagpuss]

Weird, reading what I can find online about the history of the Mali Empire, it seems Mansa Munsa wasn't the one sending an expedition across the Atlantic, but his predecessor (Abubakari Keita II) sent two and departed with the second one himself (which consisted of more than 2000 ships) never to be seen again. Maybe he did but wasn't as famous for it or maybe this expedition is completely fictional?

Watching the AP they do keep going on about the setting not having the "baggage of western colonisation and slavery" seeming to ignore the fact that when Mansa Munsa went on his pilgrimage to Mecca he took with him 12,000 slaves. So you can bet any ships that went on an Atlantic expedition took with them a culture of slavery and probably a lot of slaves.

 

[Ixal]

For those not wanting to trawl through the mechanics (because as we can see from the kickstarter they don't know what they are yet), but are more interested in the setting.


This starts where he describes how they got to the planet over a thousand years ago.

Rewind to the beginning if you want to get a bit of an idea about the modified Cortex system they used, although having watched it, it wasn't particularly helpful as they didn't show any examples of actual characters or even how rolls really work.

I noticed on the subtitle text to speech system they are using the Musalians is translated as "Moose Aliens"...

Origin Story: Its ok, the main feature is of course the ties to real world. Still nothing too unusual. Ships find strange, gigantic cave, seek shelter from a storm, emerge somewhere else (a place with two moons). Yes, Musa was rich, we get it. I played Civilization and watched documentaries, etc. Its not that much of a news.
To get to play "without having to deal with any of that earth baggage", meaning western slavery is technically correct, but the Arabic and African Muslims were big slavers themselves and have practiced slavery in Africa for centuries. So "that baggage" would actually be there. Not that there was much chance to enslave anyone when you are a tiny group of survivors landing on a huge, populated continent with vastly more technologically advanced cultures. So its easy to explain why that practice dies out very fast.
Considering that the Musalian and all the related cultures come from these tiny group of survivors I wonder if the setting will account for them being a very tiny minority on the planet. In most games humans are always the majority (even when they are not, I am looking at you Starfinder) which gets tiresome.

The Planet is said to be peaceful which makes me wonder what there is to do considering nearly all the classes shown are either combat classes or healers.

Character: So Bio Priests are basically Neo from Matrix (toned down of course), seeing reality and life as code. And despite the kickstarter saying its an android class it is open to others than Mansagene.

The skill list is fairly generic which, combined with the class descriptions leads me to believe that it will be a fairly combat heavy setting.
The values you can choose for your character: Balance, Duty, Exploration, Glory, Knowledge and Power, also sound very adventury in a D&D sense.

The Solanci sound like there will be variants within a race as there are Solanci living in a Oasis in a desert which have "adapted in a unique way". Obviously they are the druid/one with nature guys.
Mansagene: That they are not biological is played up in the stream and their culture also is against repairing their bodies (scars are also a form of beauty). That makes me wonder how combat and healing will work for them. Otherwise its the artistic/beauty culture.
That they have different faces to plug in and out depending on their mood etc. sounds like a interesting concept.

Hyenale: Basic loremaster from the sound of it who collect and share lore. Not sure how anthropomorphic they really are. The pictures show them as full bipedal animals while in the stream it is said that they have hyena looking parts (And it can be interpreted that those parts vary by individual, apart from some which are always hyena like like their face. But I might also just over interpret things).
Hathare(?): Another native culture which looks like anthropomorphic animals (that seems to be the theme for aliens they are going for. A bit outdated but not uncommon for SciFi). They are said to be rather large and as one of the stretch goals is a elephant plush, so its elephant people with a engineer culture apparently.

@Bagpuss You beat me to it with the "Baggage" comment.
It never occured to me that the exploration fleet was also a historic event.

In the comments of the video they also said that religion is not a factor in the game or the development (at least at the point the video was made).