Mythic India?

[shilsen]

well, multiple arms and faces tend to be limited to gods and really high ranking demons, and Elephant people should actually be person, since there is only one...

Well, we are talking mythic high fantasy India here, so stretching the boundaries a bit isn't that bad an idea. At least nobody mentioned Mandeville's Travels and the potential for people with heads of dogs or those with one giant foot or faces growing out of their armpits. Oops, I guess someone just did

 

[Psion]

No kidding . . . I didn't realize that. I don't have my copy of Green Ronin's Testament handy, but wasn't that done under the d20 license?

Indeed it was, but it might have been before the (hotly debated) changes to the d20 stystem tradmark license came down the pipe.

Edit: Now that I think about it, it doesn't depict portrayal of current religious groups, but forbids depicting them as inferior. Testament takes pains to make sure that whether you are a Hebrew, an Egyptian, or a Canaanite, that all are viable choices and none are depicted as objectively evil, so it could probably safely exist under the current trademark licence.

 

[Arani Korden]

Mindshadows and Mahasarpa (two books i'm not particularly fond of)

Mind if I ask why? I have a few issues with Mindshadows, but I'm certainly no expert on Indian culture; I just watch a lot of Bollywood.

 

[Scribble]

Hey I just wanted to mention a while back in the 2e days of Dragon there was an issue dedicated to India.

It was a 2e source, but the lists of weapons and cultural info in rhe articles might be usefull to you.

 

[tarchon]

Well, we are talking mythic high fantasy India here, so stretching the boundaries a bit isn't that bad an idea. At least nobody mentioned Mandeville's Travels and the potential for people with heads of dogs or those with one giant foot or faces growing out of their armpits. Oops, I guess someone just did

Mandeville's Travels is an example of something that should be done because it's obviously fictional and no one would get upset about pillaging it for ideas, like it's not considered to be a holy scripture by hundreds of millions of people. What people are leery of is something like multiarmed, elephant-headed people whupping ass and shooting death rays from their third eyes; it would be a lot like having a race of jesi who go around shooting thorns from their crowns and squirting enemies with acid blood from their stigmata, or saints who use their halos like Xena's chakram :\ (which is, BTW, one of India's national emblems).
This is why doing d20 [some real extant culture] is a tricky proposition. It's much safer calling it d20 [something thematic] and realizing your inspiration somewhat indirectly, the same way standard D&D does medieval Europe but completely dodges the problem of referring to Medieval Christianity by dropping an utterly fictional system of religions into it.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

While the other faux suggestions seem tacky and tasteless, I am so stealing this once.

saints who use their halos like Xena's chakram :\ (which is, BTW, one of India's national emblems).

 

[talinthas]

Mind if I ask why? I have a few issues with Mindshadows, but I'm certainly no expert on Indian culture; I just watch a lot of Bollywood.

Mahasarpa and Mindshadows just didnt feel right, if thats proper to say. Mindshadows had this quasi buddhist revolution going on, with the Hindus portrayed as the tyrannical rulers, as it were (serial numbers filed off, of course, but if you knew what you were looking at, it was plain to see). Similarly, i wasnt sure how well psionics was a fit for India. It _kinda_ worked, but i think the problem was more with 3.0 psionics than the mindshadows book itself. Overall, i was less than impressed.

Mahasarpa, on the other hand, was really too out there for me. It tried too hard to use everything in OA and ended up being a weird blend of stuff that just didnt call out to me. I've met James Wyatt a few times, talked to him about Hinduism and stuff, and i really like him. He's a great guy. (heck, he even gave me his personal copy of OA off his desk). But i just couldnt hang with Mahasarpa.

 

[Samothdm]

There are also sections on weapons, armor, and clothing (along with a few "cultural" notes) on various eras in India history in Monkey God Enterprises' Stone & Steel book. I believe it was recently updated to v3.5 although I only have the 3.0 one.

I found it helpful for adding some elements to the India-type continent in my campaign world (where the PCs in my world currently are).

 

[David Howery]

hmm.. from what little I know about Indian mythology, rakshashas are the main big bad guys. A Dragon article waaaaaaay back in early 2E days presented different kinds of rakshashas and their leader (comparable to a demon prince). That'd be a good place to start if you can find it....

 

[talinthas]

yeah. which is why i was highly perturbed when i discovered that the D&D idea of a rakshasa was some wierd cat thing with backwards hands....